Law 26 of 48
Keep Your Hands Clean.
Avoid getting directly involved in morally questionable or unethical activities. By keeping your hands clean, you maintain credibility and integrity, which are essential for long-term success. Delegate tasks that may compromise your values and principles.
Independent commentary on a principle popularised in The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors or their publishers.
What it actually means
Some people arrange things so the unpleasant job is always done by someone else, and the resentment settles on whoever delivered it. The useful half is spotting when a task is handed to you because it needs a name attached that is not theirs. The other half is never doing it to anyone.
Where you would have seen it
Your manager asks you to tell the contractor their hours are being cut, calling it good experience for you. It was their budget and their decision, but from now on the contractor thinks of your face when they think of it.
Try it today
Before delivering bad news on someone else's behalf, ask them to put the decision in writing or to be in the room when you say it.
Where this shows up
Law 26 tends to come up in these parts of life. Follow a path to read the other laws that belong with it:
Laws that go with it
If law 26 landed, these are the entries people usually read next — they cover overlapping ground: law 1, law 7, law 11.
Never Outshine the Master.
Competence is rarely the problem; displaying it in front of someone whose position rests on being the capable one is.
At WorkLeading PeopleLaw 7Get Others to Do the Work, but Always Take the Credit.
Read plainly this is theft, and it is worth understanding mainly because it will be done to you.
At WorkLeading PeopleLaw 11Learn to Keep People Dependent on You.
Being needed is not the same as being valued, and a deliberate bottleneck is the weakest security there is: the moment you are indispensable in one narrow place, you are also unpromotable.
At WorkLeading People