The Benefits of Learning Martial Arts for Leaders

 Leaders must possess a variety of qualities and skills in order to be successful. Many of these qualities, such as self-discipline, focus, and decision-making, can be developed through the practice of martial arts. Martial arts can be an invaluable tool for leaders as they provide a physical and mental workout that can help to hone and sharpen the skills necessary to be a great leader. Here are some of the ways in which martial arts can benefit leaders:

1. Self-defense: One of the main benefits of learning martial arts for leaders is that it can give them the skills necessary to protect themselves in the event of danger. In an unpredictable world, it is important to be able to protect yourself from potential threats. Martial arts can provide the knowledge and confidence needed to do this.

2. Improved physical fitness: Martial arts require physical strength and agility in order to perform the necessary movements. As such, regular practice can help to improve overall physical fitness. This can benefit leaders in a variety of ways, including improved energy levels, better mental focus and clarity, reduced stress, and more.

3. Improved mental focus: Martial arts require practitioners to stay focused and present in each moment. Through the practice of martial arts, leaders can learn to focus their attention on the task at hand and stay in the moment. This can help to improve their decision-making capabilities and ability to stay calm under pressure.

4. Improved decision making: Martial arts require practitioners to think on their feet and make decisions quickly. Leaders who practice martial arts can improve their ability to think strategically and make decisions based on a variety of factors. This can be a valuable asset in the business world.

5. Improved self-confidence: Martial arts can help to build self-confidence by providing a sense of accomplishment. As practitioners become better at their martial art, they will gain a greater sense of self-assurance and poise. This can be beneficial in a variety of areas, from interpersonal relationships to public speaking.

6. Improved discipline: Martial arts require practitioners to follow strict rules and guidelines. This can help to instill a sense of discipline in leaders, which can be beneficial in terms of improving their work ethic and commitment to their team. 

Overall, learning martial arts can be a great way for leaders to hone their skills and improve their self-discipline, focus, and decision-making capabilities. It can also increase their self-confidence and provide them with the necessary skills to protect themselves in the event of danger. By practicing martial arts, leaders can become more effective in the workplace and be better prepared to lead their team to success.

Cultivating Strength and Humility Through Martial Arts

 

In martial arts, we are better equipped to face life’s challenges if we develop strength and humility. We become more confident and resilient, and our minds become calmer therefore sharper and more focused. We gain the ability to assess fast changes, conflicts and take action in a measured and responsible way. Mastering these skills, help us to become more successful in our professional and personal lives, and attain greater peace of mind.

When training in martial arts, you must learn to respect the teacher, the environment and your fellow students while responsible learning to use the techniques. This teaches you humility, as the focus is on perfecting the response using the technique and not on trying to use brutal force or to be the strongest. You also learn to invest in loosing so that your partner can learn, to listen to others and take constructive criticism with an open mind. Learning to be humble instills a sense of discipline and respect for yourself and others.

In addition to learning humility through martial arts training you, become more stable and therefore stronger physically and mentally. Through the practice, you will develop focus, stability, strength, agility, and endurance. You will learn how to use your body properly to be more efficient and effective in your movements, and you will develop a stronger sense of self-confidence. The physical fitness you get from martial arts training can also help you become more resilient, giving you the ability to push past physical and mental limits.

Overall, martial arts offer an excellent way to cultivate strength and humility. By training regularly and pushing your body and mind beyond what you think is possible, you will become more fit, and you will learn the valuable lesson of humility. Not only that, but you will also gain an appreciation for the beauty and simplicity of martial arts, and you will have a newfound respect for your body and mind. And not to mention some good friends.

Achieving Self-Mastery Through Martial Arts

 

Self-mastery is a central conception in leadership and as well in martial arts, where practitioners strive to make improvements to their fighting ability and physical prowess. Hard to see connection between those two?

If martial arts can help those who practice to gain self-esteem and confidence, as well as improving their physical and mental health, why not leaders, too? Through learning how to defend yourself and control your body, you can gain a sense of power and self-empowerment. And yes, martial arts can teach discipline, focus, and control, while also providing an enjoyable form of physical activity.

The skills learned in martial arts can be transferred into everyday life. Practitioners learn how to be assertive in their communication and develop problem-solving skills during practice of fight with opponent or opponents. Martial arts definitively can help people understand the importance of self-control and discipline. Martial arts students learn how to use their minds and bodies to become better versions of themselves.

Those who practice martial arts become more aware of their surroundings. Having an understanding of environment and how to perceive and how to defend yourself can be beneficial in potentially dangerous and changing situations. Being aware of the situation can help practitioners stay safe and make canny decisions.

For those looking to increase their physical fitness, martial arts can be a great way to do so. Martial arts classes can be done solo although they are done mostly in groups, and can include combinations of cardio, strength, and flexibility training. Therefore, martial arts can help (re)build strength, agility, and endurance, making it a great choice for athletes and those hoping to gain a better understanding of their physical potential. And to get better stamina, one have to endure psychical endurance to do it.

For anyone looking to gain a better understanding of themselves and become more in tune with their minds and bodies, martial arts is definitively one of the best choices you can make. Growth is acquired through regular practice and dedication, so in dojo people become better versions of themselves and lead a more fulfilling life. Which all is important in leadership.

Harnessing the Power of Martial Arts for leadership

Harnessing the power of martial arts for better application of leadership can be a great way to build strong and successful teams. It is a skill that can be developed and refined, and can be used to create an environment of trust, respect and support

Could be that leadership is a concept that has been around since the beginning of time. It is a skill that has been highly sought after and valued by many, from the military, kings to the corporate world. However, how can martial arts be used to develop this valuable skill?

Believe it or not, but martial arts provide an excellent way to develop the skills required to become an exceptional leader. In martial arts, the focus is on self-discipline and control. This means that practitioners must learn to control their thoughts, emotions, and physical movements. This self-control requires an excellent level of focus and concentration. When a person can control their own actions and thoughts, they are better able to fight or work as well as to lead and motivate others. It also teaches them to be patient and persistent when dealing with difficult situations.

Martial arts also teaches practitioners how to effectively communicate with their peers. Practitioners learn to be assertive and persuasive in their communication. During the practice, they learn to express themselves in a clear and concise manner and to listen to others with respect. This skill is essential for successful leadership, as it allows leaders to effectively communicate their vision and through it motivate their team.

Leadership, as opposed to management, requires the ability to think strategically and plan far ahead. Martial arts provides an ideal platform to develop these skills. In martial arts, practitioners must think ahead and anticipate their opponent’s moves and actions. This practice can teach leaders to anticipate the needs of their team and develop strategies to meet those needs.

Martial arts also teaches practitioners to be decisive as practitioners must make split-second decisions that can affect the outcome of a drill or a match. This instils them to make quick decisions and stand by them. This skill is essential for leadership, as it allows leaders to make decisions quickly and confidently.

Finally, martial arts teaches practitioners to accept failure and learn from it. Practitioners must accept that failure and use it as a learning opportunity when practicing the art otherwise one cannot see the drawbacks or advantages one has. As well, ups and downs are an inevitable part of life. The same goes with leaders, they have to accept failure, learn from it, and use it as a learning opportunity instead of a setback.

Therefore, martial arts provides an excellent platform to develop the skills required to become an outstanding leader

The “Leadership by Virtue” book is packed with information, techniques, and strategies that can be used to increase leadership capabilities, while also giving readers an in-depth look at the history, philosophy, and teachings of martial arts.

The Art of Leadership: Martial Arts Strategies

 

Are you looking to improve your leadership skills and gain a competitive edge in business and life? Look no further than the principles and practices of martial arts. They offer a unique set of tools and strategies that can help you become a more valuable leader.

One of the key benefits of martial arts is the emphasis on physical training and discipline. Through rigorous training and practice, martial arts can help you develop the focus, concentration, and mental fortitude needed to excel in leadership roles. By learning to prioritize tasks and stay focused under pressure, you can make better decisions and lead your team with greater confidence.

Martial arts also teach emotional discipline, which is essential for leadership. By learning to control your reactions to difficult situations, you can remain calm and composed in the face of challenges, and make rational decisions that benefit your organization. This emotional resilience can also help you navigate the difficulties of business and inspire confidence in your team.

In addition to physical and emotional discipline, martial arts promote respect for oneself and others. By showing respect, you can create an atmosphere of trust and cooperation in your organization, which is essential for effective leadership. As a leader, you must be able to inspire and motivate your team to do their best work, and respect is a crucial ingredient in building that relationship.

Developing leadership skills takes time and experience, but incorporating martial arts strategies can set you on the right path to success. By practicing physical and emotional discipline, fostering trust, showing respect, and building self-confidence, you can earn the respect and admiration of your colleagues and build a successful leadership career.

To start integrating martial arts principles into your leadership style, consider attending martial arts classes, joining a martial arts community, or studying martial arts philosophy. By taking action and actively seeking to improve your leadership skills, you can set yourself up for success in both your personal and professional life.

In conclusion, martial arts offer a unique set of tools and strategies that can help you become a more effective and successful leader. By developing physical and emotional discipline, fostering respect, and building self-confidence, you can earn the trust and admiration of your colleagues and build a successful leadership career. So why not take the first step today and explore the world of martial arts? It just might be the key to unlocking your full leadership potential.

Which Martial Art (Leadership) is the best?

It is an important question that each practitioner/non-practitioner asks them selfs. I am frequently asked this question and a long time ago I found my answer.

If you were to climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro would you ask yourself “What is the best way to the top?”

The answer to upper question can vary: 

YES - then you would have to define what is the best route for you.

NO - then you probably already know how you would like to achieve the top.

There are several ways by which you can reach Kibo or Uhuru Peak, which are the highest points of Mount Kilimanjaro (Machame, Marangu, Mweka, Londorossi Lemosho, Shira, Rongai, Umbwe and Northern Circuit). They are all different but all help you reach the same final goal, which is to reach the TOP.

Why are there so many routes that lead to the top? The primary issue lies within each person that wants to reach the peak. Would we like to do it fast, slow or do we want panoramic views (probably this one)?

Personal preferences are different and consequently, each route has different obstacles. It is the same in Martial Arts. Some are based on the ground, some are based on kicks and some are even based on grappling. But all have the same end goal, which is to learn the art and get experience in combat. This is why it depends on each individual.

Over the years I've also found another issue that I’d like to share. It illustrates an even deeper goal like the story above of Kilimanjaro. If we carefully watch great martial arts masters we could definitely see very similar postures, movements and use of the fighting techniques. In majority of martial arts. It actually does not matter which school or style they came from. They present the peak of martial arts’ knowledge – like Uhuru for Kilimanjaro. And the ‘routes’ (style of martial art) they took to master it could have been very different!

Why is this so?

Biggest Relaxation Mistakes and how to avoid them

Long ago sports evolved from martial arts (like: Greek Olympic games) and were transformed into competitive play with rules and winning points. Sports carry in itself some cultural impact on competitors. Martial arts of today, especially Chinese, are mostly later inventions. They have typically risen at the end of 19th century. It was the time when China and other Far East countries understood cultural impact of sports and had nothing else to offer regarding sports. So they began to export martial arts and other techniques.

The core of all – not only Chinese martial arts – is so called ‘natural movement’. It is a way of movement that has originated in Nature and is connected to energy consumption (see: Least of effort in leadership).

Long ago, when physical strength was necessary to fight, ‘natural movement’ was commonplace. All styles of martial arts, breathing techniques (see:  Best Ways to Relax Successfully), meditation, yoga etc. are supposedly methods to regain natural movements. Those are very straight forward and very simple once we know how to do it, but quite a bit hard to (mostly) re-learn (recall) from our childhood years. And when we do, we realize how powerful natural movements are. In the Nature all species depend on them to survive. That is why masterful martial artists when old move so simply, so powerful and are able to subdue much younger competitors.

There are different techniques to learn natural movements! Some of them are very popular today:

• “Meditation allows your body to settle into a state of profound rest and relaxation and your mind to achieve a state of inner peace, without needing to use concentration or effort.”
• “Yoga is a healing system of theory and practice. The purpose of yoga is to create strength, awareness and harmony in both the mind and body.”

But are the above techniques fairly represented and taught?

Best Practices describe why Punctuality matters

In martial arts “punctuality” is the key. Why?

Why I think so, I’ll explain later, let’s see how punctuality is defined in Wikipedia: the characteristic of being able to complete a required task or fulfill an obligation before or at a previously designated time. "Punctual" is often used synonymously with "on time". It is a common misconception that punctual can also, when talking about grammar, mean "to be accurate".

In business world punctuality means organizing your time effectively; to be more productive as you start or get on time; in some countries to be respectful to your hosts and well, yes – also disrespectful in others; in short, punctuality affects the individual just as much as it affects the workplace to operate more smoothly as a whole. Punctuality reduces stress as well as stress leads to poor workplace performance.

Does then being punctual strengthens and reveals your integrity?

It is said that when George Washington’s secretary arrived late to a meeting and blamed his watch for his tardiness, Washington quietly replied ‘Then you must get another watch, or I another secretary.’

When you make others wait, you rob minutes from those that came early or on time.

I recall leading a project group in a government environment: we had meetings in a place where most of attendants had their offices. The reason was not to spend time of most participants on commuting. I usually arrived few minutes earlier. Once, after several attempts of asking people to be on time, I have written on the big wall table names and numbers. Everybody seemed a bit wary while watching me. When the last person finally arrived I summed up the numbers and multiplied with average hour salary for our group. We lost almost an average monthly salary while waiting.

The importance of being punctual is not universal and varies from country to country, even within country and from culture to culture. In some places like south Europe, Latin America or Pacific Islands, life moves at a different pace than in northern hemisphere and meeting times are meant to be more incoherent.

Does then being punctual build up and reveal the extent of control a leader has?

Things nobody tells you about Soft vs. Hard

“Soft can beat hard” is a saying in martial arts. It is hard to understand that one can be soft in martial arts and still win, isn’t it?

Let me explain a bit further. When talking about martial arts people mostly split them into two main categories:  Yin styles and Yang styles, named by China Yin and Yang concept (see: Dualism vs. Yin-Yang). If we transform this naming to western concepts then Yin styles could be referred to as soft or internal, while Yang as hard or external. Behind this naming and division is basically the way how we perform them. Like in Tai Chi which is predominantly practiced with slow nature and gracious movements and consequently labeled as Soft - Internal. In contrast, Yang as hard and external refers to the development of combative skill, brute strength, power and stimulating workout. For the latter Karate or Wing Chun could be examples.

But, if we, over the years, observe how one practices martial arts we note how everything changes due to experiences. Most Shaolin animal styles like White Crane for example, many Tibetan styles and/or Okinawan Karate are trained especially ‘hard’ early in one's life. Later on those styles soften as the master grows old and at the time knows the ‘ideas’ behind. Finally, at the top level the knowledge of any martial artist starts to resemble more to Tai Chi than e.g. stereotypical Karate. Majority of my older teachers converted their style to softer variation.

Is aging the only reason behind softening of martial arts’ styles? Normally the masters are still very vital, full of power and speed that dominates any novice with even higher speed and more force?

There definitely has to be another reason.

Best Ways to Relax Successfully

Is a stress-free and meaningful life possible today?

We are daily bombarded by requests, actions, interrupts. The media pressure us with what we should possess or buy, how we should look, what to eat ... We are pressed by our surroundings, neighbors, friends to ‘comply’ with standard of living they value. Our bosses tell us when and what to do no matter the hour of a day or day of the week. We are (always) connected – if not, right now we are looking for wifi!

Is this the life we want?

Some adhere to it others aim to different lifestyle. Nevertheless, for many of us the relaxation represents zoning out in front of a TV at the end of a stressful day. Does/could this reduce the accumulated stress?

No.

Known from ancient times to effectively combat stress is that we need to activate the whole body's natural relaxation response.

How we do it?

There are numerous marketing campaigns telling us to try three, seven, eight … ways of relaxing techniques that are readily (commercially) available?

Do those techniques work? Likely not!

What then?

Stress is necessary ‘part’ of life. One needs it for creativity, learning and, mostly in ancient times, to survive. Why, then, such a fuss about it?

We are all probably aware that stress is harmful when it becomes overwhelming and interrupts the healthy state of equilibrium of our body chemicals through nervous system. Our body and our nervous system are flooded with chemicals which prepare us for ‘fight or flight’. While stress response in emergency situations when quick action is necessary could be lifesaving, it wears our body down when constantly (daily) activated. Sadly, overwhelming stress has become an increasingly ‘common occurrence’ in our lives.

We should aim to control the impact of stress or to reduce it. And here the relaxation techniques come in. They are kind of brakes on our over heightened state of readiness and bring our body and mind back into a state of equilibrium.

Now, let’s move from ‘what’ to ‘how’.

Fajin Power that radically changes your Leadership

Fajin or fa chin is a term used in some Chinese Martial Arts …

When I first heard the term I didn’t know what to think of it. If your background is natural science you know that MOMENTUM is the product of the mass and velocity of an object and that the net FORCE acting upon an object is equal to the rate at which its momentum changes with time. You’ve also learned that POWER is equivalent to an amount of energy consumed per time unit.

If everything is already explained by physics, what now with this Fajin?

Let’s see what Fajin is and then how a person could practice and achieve this skill in Tai Chi practice.

 

In Chinese, the character ‘Fa’ literally means ‘to issue’, ‘to discharge’, ‘to send out’, whereas ‘Jin’ is a little more difficult to translate. Dictionary term is ‘strength / force’ but does not fully express the correct difference between ‘strength’ in Chinese ‘Li’ and ‘Jin’ in Tai Chi. The best description between ‘Li’ and ‘Jin’ is that the latter is generated by the whole body and is able to permeate the four limbs while the first is bogged down in the shoulder and the back.

Difficult to understand?

For me it was. So let me give you some hints.

In Tai Chi classic The song of Thirteen Postures it is said: “To store the Jin is like pulling open a bow, to issue the Jin (with Fajin) is like letting the arrow fly”. “The root of Fajin lies in the feet and is issued from the feet, controlled by the waist and transmitted to finger tips.”

Still having trouble understanding?

Ideas to Spark Positive Motivation

We recently got a puppy Xia. She entered our hearts immediately although Biba left us not long time ago (see: Lesson of Leadership by Biba).

We rescued Biba from the shelter when she was about one year old. Xia came to us eight weeks old from a breeder. This time we did not hesitate to start educating Xia right away. In the first weeks we tried “old” school techniques according to our previous experiences but they were not working well. So we decided to get an instructor to teach much more us than her. The instructor was very confident in telling us that his principle is a positive motivation that is easy for dogs and hard for owners. And it proved so all over again!

We were awarding Xia (with briquettes) whenever she was doing something that we actually wanted her to do in the way the instructor taught us. Xia was not receiving her food at home but was fed out throughout a day and practically for every single briquette had to do something. In two weeks’ time she was completely clean. As dogs are more inclined to “understand” gesticulation and not words we had to learn right gestures. When she understood them we gradually added words to them. All this time whenever she behaved “properly” she was rewarded with food from our hand. Wrong doings were overlooked but not punished. Until something was done rights, she did not get food. Xia almost immediately learned what brings her food.

The instructor told us that normally the repetition of 10.000 times makes the command stored to dog’s musculature “memory”. How equal to us! (See: How To unify Body, Mind and Spirit). Practically the same goes in practicing martial arts: “If you want to really learn something you have to repeat it 10.000 times!”

How To Unify Body, Mind and Spirit

In the philosophy of all Martial Arts ‘body, mind and spirit’ have to be and work united in order to be successful in any combat situation. In my previous posts you can easily figure out I claim that the same is valid in exceptional leadership.

Here I’d like to go deeper into the subject by using the knowledge that has been steadily compiling. In the post Wing Chun basics 4Leadership I explained this topic through Wing Chun perception of ‘central line, economy of movement and simultaneous attack and defense’. The first can be used as a reference for body as on the ‘central line’ reside most of the vital points of a human. The mind is the most energy lavishing organ in our body. Therefore, a martial art teaches to store “the muscle knowledge” of all your hits, kicks etc. in your ‘muscle memory’ (will be discussed further below) allowing us to be faster and more explosive than we are within the conscious (mind) way of moving our extremities. In the fight there’s simply no enough time to deliver hits and protect oneself. Therefore ‘a simultaneous attack and defense’ is called for. It is “a spiritual way” to be confident that your whole body and not just your hands will protect you. But, at the same time a person has to have high spirit to combat with the opponent.

Looking at those two different options and issues through the same lens give us the opportunity to appreciate the similarities in them. So I tend to see most of the Asian Martial Arts as trains heading for the same destination – the unification of body, mind and spirit - but on different tracks.

Tai Chi’s (Taiji) main aspect is the yielding: when attacked Tai Chi “turns into water” and yield. The main emphasis of Tai Chi is working internally utilizing the Qi (see: Qi–energy–leadership). The Great Masters of Karate, Judo, Kendo, Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu, Sistema etc. all taught and tried to inculcate different principles to unify the three.

Practicing “Tai Chun”

There is no martial art with the name Tai Chun. I just melted names of two arts to form a new expression:  the first word from Tai Chi (Tai chi in the leadership world -1) and the other from Wing Chun (Wing chun in Leadership; Wing Chun basics 4 Leadership). So, why did I combine those two arts?

For several decades now I have been practicing different martial arts and came to conclusion that at the top level of any martial art there is a very similar if not the same knowledge and performance.

Why is it so?

People like to think we are different. But, what I like to point out is that as people we are all the same. We have almost identical “hardware” (two legs and hands, one body, head …) that moves in the same way. Well, one is taller and the other is heavier etc. but there is no big difference when it comes to how we sit down, walk, eat or fight. We use the same musculatures, joints or/and bones. Our “software” is pretty similar as well (we have fears, we are happy, we are angry …). Our brains work through the ‘same’ neurons and have same regions for processing vision, thoughts, and emotions. Therefore, our thoughts are produced, stored and retrieved in the same manner. And the same goes for our  cerebellum system where our reactions are ‘memorized’ and fired from.

Sun Tzu wisdom and Leadership

In my previous posts I have deliberately omitted any connection to well-known book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. This book is one of the seven fundamental Chinese military books: from general Wei Liao Tzu, then Wu Tzu, The Methods of the Sima, Six Secret Teachings, the Three Strategies of Huang Shi Gong San Lue, and finally Questions and Replies (Wen Dui) between Tang Taizong and Li Wei Gong. These seven important military texts of ancient China are called Wu Jing Qi Shu or The Seven Military Classics. The texts were canonized under this name during the eleventh century, and past the Song Dynasty were included in most military encyclopedias.

The Art of War was created in sixth century before our era and contains the rules of warfare, which are grouped into different aspects and collected in 13 chapters. Each chapter is devoted to one aspect of warfare. Outside of China this book has long been regarded as the book of ‘the ultimate’ military wisdom and as the oldest and the most famous product of military strategy and tactics.

Leadership way: Wing Chun or Karate

In my posts Wing Chun basics 4 Leadership and Wing Chun in Leadership I have already explained about Wing Chun principles. They are very well connected with Chinese thoughts and philosophies. They are based on the Yin and Yang principle, meaning soft and hard or motion and stillness, attack and defense—they all come from each other. This may be the most important theory in China.

What about Karate?

It is well known fact that Karate originates from Okinava, Japan. It was developed under the influence of Chinese martial arts, particularly Fujian White Crane which is thought to be the origin of Wing Chun too. It was brought to Okinava in 14th century. Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan Karate, is generally credited with having introduced and popularized Karate on the main islands of Japan in 20th century. At the time when the martial art named Karatejutsu (the art of ‘Tang/China dynasty hand’) was renamed, by homophone, into ‘way of the empty hand’ and ‘do’ (road, path, route, way) – Karatedo. As Funakoshi had trained two other popular branches of Okinawan Karate at the time, Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu,  influenced by Kendo he assimilated some ideas with regard to distancing and timing into his Shotokan style.

Pushing hands

What could pushing hands in Tai Chi and leadership have in common?

‘Pushing hands’ or ‘tui shou’ is a two-person training routines in T'ai Chi Ch'uan, one of Chinese martial arts (described in: Tai chi in the leadership world -1. It is a routine where both partners improve sensitivity, psychical and physical abilities.

The exercise comprises of “cooperative” moves of two practitioners, their arms, waist and legs combined are in a circular pattern. During movements each player attempts to be in light contact with the other practitioner’s arms while at the same time remaining in perfect balance. Practitioners are permitted to use their hands to attempt to unbalance the opponent. A practitioner who is pushed or pulled off balance will usually stumbles out of  stable position and has “to reset” the stance to resume the practice. If a balance is lost and the stability could not be immediately regained, a practitioner may be pushed, pulled, thrown or even hit.

In most cases this kind of practice is only a gentle way to ‘compete’ with one another without risk of injury. This “combat” is typically used by beginners who normally exhibit strong egos which should be curbed.  The advanced practitioners know when they’ve lost and what may occur – they have already pasted the threshold of egoism - so they just keep continuing the circular movements even after recognizing ‘the gain’. Pushing hands practice improves relaxation, flexibility, timing, balance, self-control and numerous other qualities. Although there is also a sportier, a more competitive version with much more force used, but we’ll leave it for another story.

Added value of leadership names or labels

In my previous post Labeled leadership I described some name labeled styles of leadership and argued that there should  always be more than one style used when leading. In this post I’d like to summarize my quest of different names, i.e. labels, given to leadership and my point of view why this is happening.

Let me wrap up my thoughts on the subject of ‘leadership naming/labeling’, i.e. different leadership styles that keep up coming in last couple of decades.

To better understand my points, allow me to present some important “ingredients” that remarkable leaders should possess. In previous posts on the topic I've described some examples of different constituents of leadership: Leadership and Charisma, EGO and Leadership?, Leadership and influence, Leadership and emotions, Inspiring others. All these frame the whole plethora of important views on leadership process. I have separately portrayed different “substances” necessary in leadership.

What then is a good leadership? Is it all about different behavior, different styles, or how to name label in front of leadership? Could it be that a good leadership is just one of those qualities that you recognize when you see it, but is so difficult to describe?

Multicultural environment and leadership

In situations when you have to introduce yourself where do you usually place your family name: in front of a given one or behind it? Do you call other people by their first name? Koreans for example remain largely as ‘people with no given names’. We often say ‘my’ school or ‘my’ office or ‘my’ country; the Japanese people say ‘our’ school or ‘our’ office or ‘our’ country and even ‘our husband’? In Western culture we use ‘Hi,’ ‘Thank you,’ ‘You’re welcome,’ or ‘I’m sorry’. In China the same is preferably expressed by eye contacts or body gestures. When eating with friends do you share dishes or does each of you have your own plate just for yourself?

Above are just some cultural differences that you may see when visiting the countries around the globe. For a short visit some mistakes are not significant but if you are in the position to lead a multicultural team also these mistakes may influence the job outcome.

For me the most important is that you “understand” the differences. Next important issue is that you have to ‘be aware of’ your ‘cultural background noise’ as I’ve talked about in my TEDx talk. A cultural background noise may be blocking your vision on others’ cultural issues. If you surpass it you are prepared to accept and change.

Hundred posts

WOW – when I started to write this blog hundred seemed a long time away. I even haven’t had a clue what topics to write about in first few posts. And now, this one reaches the number one hundred!

It took me a year and a half. It was not an easy time. Sometimes the day of posting was approaching and my mind was still not set on a topic, sometimes I had a topic but the thoughts could not be formulated to my satisfaction. There were “technical” problems, too, when I was spending time in places with no internet connection. How to write and not repeat myself too much? Sometimes other engagements took precedence. Other times the stuffiness of writing was taking over. But in all this time a lot of experience was gathered which helped me to overcome all the obstacles and arrive at this point.

At the beginning I set my mind to follow the path of “being different” in approach to leadership: I structured the blog posts in five categories which  are not arbitrary but rather serve the purpose of the content I was writing about.