How Martial Arts Can Help Leaders Handle Stress

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed with stress? If so, you’re not alone. Stress is an inescapable part of everyday life, and it can be difficult to manage. That’s why more and more people are turning to martial arts as a way to manage their stress levels. Martial arts can provide leaders with the tools they need to navigate a stressful environment and create positive results. Whether it’s a traditional martial art like karate, tae kwon do, wing chun, tai chi chuan, judo, or a modern mixed martial art, the discipline and focus required to master a martial art can be incredibly beneficial for you and even more for leaders.

The practice of martial arts starts with basics like stances, blocks, and strikes. The build up of structure, power and mobility is crucial for martial artists. From there, practitioners can move onto more complex techniques like joint locks, throws, and submissions. Every martial artist is different and the journey of learning martial arts is unique to each individual. Some may find that they’re more suited to one style of martial art than another, while others explore many different styles to find the one that suits their personality and goals best.

Regardless of the style of martial art that a leader chooses, there are a host of benefits to be gained from the practice. Martial arts can help leaders develop physical strength and agility, increase their mental focus, and develop a sense of calm and composure in the face of stress and uncertainty. Leaders learn improved posture and balance, as well as increased coordination and fluidity of movement, all of which can help with physical and mental wellbeing.

By mastering the techniques taught in martial arts, leaders can also develop their martial arts mindset, which is all about the importance of being present in the moment and staying in control of oneself and one’s emotions. This can help leaders become aware of their own reactions and how to maintain a healthy level of stress.

In addition to the physical and mental benefits, martial arts also encourage discipline, focus and respect. As leaders learn the techniques, they are also taught the importance of focus, perseverance, and respect for their opponents and themselves. All these qualities can be invaluable in the business world and can help leaders stay composed and confident when faced with a difficult situation.

Finally, martial arts can also help leaders develop a community of like-minded individuals who share the same goals and values. Whether it’s joining a local dojo, or attending tournaments and competitions, martial artists are connected by a shared passion and commitment to the martial arts lifestyle. This can offer leaders a sense of community and camaraderie that can help them stay motivated and on-track with their goals.

Overall, martial arts can offer many benefits to leaders looking to better manage their stress and develop confidence. From developing physical strength and agility, to honing mental focus and discipline, martial arts provide an outlet for leaders to de-stress and gain the skills and knowledge needed to tackle any challenge.

How Tai Chi Can Transform Leadership Qualities

 

The traditional Chinese practice of Tai Chi is renowned the world over for its many martial arts, physical and mental health benefits. High among these benefits is its potential to cultivate leadership qualities in practitioners. From enhanced self-awareness to improved communication skills, here is how Tai Chi can transform leadership qualities.

Balance

In leadership, balance is a key component because it means staying calm and balanced while under pressure. Tai Chi teaches its practitioners the importance of staying centered and focused when faced with unpredicted and difficult situations. This helps leaders stay grounded and make decisions objectively. Practicing Tai Chi also helps cultivate poise, self-control, and a sense of inner peace. This can help make leaders more capable of managing their emotions and making clear decisions without being swayed by panic, fear, or ego.

Concentration

The ability to focus is highly valued in leadership because it requires immense concentration and discipline. Tai Chi helps practitioners improve concentration levels through deep mental and physical exercises. Focused breathing and meditation techniques can help leaders concentrate better and stay on task and track. Additionally, the slow and smooth movements of Tai Chi also helps practitioners stay mindful and connected to their environment. This increases the likelihood of making wise decisions in the face of challenging situations.

Flow

Flow is an important attribute for leaders. It is the ability to move from one task to another, from one issue to another seamlessly without being disrupted by outside disturbances. Tai Chi helps cultivate this skill by teaching practitioners how to physically move in sync with their inner energy and surroundings. This helps leaders stay within parameters of their tasks and vision, on their goals and make timely decisions. Tai Chi also promotes creativity and a sense of ease which are two essential traits for successful leadership.

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is essential for wise decision-making. Tai Chi helps cultivate self-awareness by promoting relaxation and a better understanding of one's body. As practitioners become aware of their inner energy, they also become aware of their weaknesses and strengths. This helps them understand their limitations and empower them to make better choices in difficult situations. And a leader without self-awareness cannot lead others.

 

So, Tai Chi is a powerful tool used more and more that can help enhance the leadership qualities if it is practiced properly. Through balance, concentration, flow, and self-awareness, individuals can become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses and be better equipped to make wise decisions in challenging situations. Therefore, incorporating Tai Chi into leadership development programmes can have a significant positive impact on individuals.

Tai Chi: A Secret Weapon for Leadership Development

 

It's no secret that leaders need mental fortitude and resilience to succeed. But did you know that Tai Chi could offer a secret weapon in developing these essential skills?

Tai Chi is an ancient Chinese martial art form that uses motion, mental focus and breathing to build physical and mental strength. It is a gentle yet powerful form of exercise and application that can improve cardiovascular health, balance, coordination, and strength. It is also a powerful tool one can use for self-cultivating and focus.

When practiced regularly, Tai Chi can become a potent tool for developing focus, mental clarity and resilience. It can provide leaders with the capacity to focus and remain calm in stressful situations, to stay composed and assertive under pressure, to think clearly and make sound decisions, and to persevere in the face of setbacks and challenges.

These skills can be developed through the practice of the Tai Chi forms, Qi Gong breathing techniques, and the Eight Harmonies meditation exercises. All in one or separate. These exercises help to increase focus, concentration, and awareness of the physical and emotional states and how to manage them.

In addition, Tai Chi can also give leaders greater self-awareness since the movements of the forms help to strengthen the connection between body and mind. This type of self-awareness can be incredibly empowering and can empower leaders to become more mindful and straightforwardly consider proper decisions.

Finally, the slow movement and breathing techniques used in Tai Chi can help to reduce stress and tension, while providing a sense of calm and relaxation. This is especially important in the workplace where leaders are often subjected to high levels of stress and pressure due to decisions they have to take.

In summary, Tai Chi is definitively a powerful tool for developing leadership skills. It helps to cultivate focus, clarity, and resilience, as well as greater self-awareness and relaxation. So if you are a leader looking for a “secret weapon”, consider incorporating Tai Chi into your personal development plan.

Additionally, in the “Leadership by Virtue” book readers will find plenty of tips and advice on how to use martial arts and Tai Chi to their advantage and how to create a successful team. By providing a comprehensive guide to mastering the basics of martial arts and applying them to your leadership style, readers will gain the necessary knowledge and skills to lead their teams to success.

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 and perfectionism

Perfection!

A word that bursts our imagination in all life areas - business, private, leisure, recreational etc.
What is ‘perfection’? Why do we strive for it?

At the beginning of our Universe, the timeline back 13.7 billion years, the expansion begun from ‘Big Bang’. Some 380.000 years later huge clouds of hydrogen and helium atoms were formed but they had no structure. This sort of cosmic mush, as recent studies show, had some imperfection built in. Because of them we are able to measure just tiny differences in cosmic background temperature today. And tiny differences were enough for the Universe to move on to the next stage of building complexity. First, the stars were born …

It seems that it is the imperfection that generates complexity and change as David Christian describes in his TED talk: “And where you have slightly more complex things, you can get slightly more complex things. And in this way, complexity builds stage by stage”.

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.

Lesson of Leadership by Biba

To post on the first day of a new year – a challenge in a way. But what else is a leadership if not that too?

Last year was a great year full of changes, challenges and a big loss too. After eleven years of being with us we lost our dog Biba. We've found her in a shelter and since the first moment she made an inseparable and very significant part of our family accompanying us wherever the path took us. She’s always been a very happy dog ready for any kind of action no matter the time, weather conditions or circumstances.

She taught our kids the responsibility for another living being. Yes, it was her doing to teach and to keep watch of our home and ‘our pack.’ She taught all of us how to be happy each and every day, she taught us what a real compassion means, she was watchful and mindful of all and she took her responsibilities with great care.

Tai chi in the leadership world – 2

In the previous post (Tai chi in the leadership world – 1) I've written about basics and fundamentals of the wide and profound wisdom of Tai Chi. By the end I have indicated some ways to use it in leadership. In this post I would like to expose some essentials of Tai Chi that may be an advantage also in leadership.

To empirically learn so-called internal martial art aspects of Tai Chi one begins with Tui shou or pushing hands (see post: Pushing hands and Virtue). Pushing hands is a distinctive Tai Chi practice very similar to Chi shou (sticking hands) used in Wing Chun (see post: Wing Chun basics and Wing Chun and leadership). The latter is more combative while pushing hands is less aggressive and more oriented to using opponent’s energy. With pushing hands the endurance needed in a contest is developed. The method softens stances, movements, and stiffness of a whole body. You need to be perceptive of your partner. Pushing hands diminish your natural instinct of resisting force with force enabling to correctly respond to the external stimuli: your body simply yields to force and redirects it. It is a Yin and Yang or strong and soft principle that governs pushing hands. With age we tend to become inflexible and our reactions jerky, as often obvious when (if) we slip and plunge to the floor. Kids are still much more natural in the same situations just collapse softly or roll, like usually lucky drunk person.

Pushing hands method is extremely good for a person with a big ego too (see post: Ego and Leadership) as it covers our senses and therefore conceals our reactions. A person should be very relaxed, stable in the proper stance that allows moving back and front, left and right, up and down. All thoughts should be wiped and nothing expected. When opponent’s action comes, you react naturally.

Tai chi in the leadership world -1

In my post Tai Chi Quan Leadership I have given you some historical information and points to be used in leadership process from Tai Chi. In this and the next post I’d like to share with you some of my experiences and knowledge that I have gained by practicing Tai Chi. I will conclude with another set of views on how to transfer them to leadership.

Yoga is known as a still meditation technique as opposed to Tai Chi, which is a moving one. As opposite to India where food and temperatures could allow yoga Tai Chi in China evolved differently but with the deep, profound and meaningful theory.

Many of you think of Tai Chi as an exercise normally practiced by older people. You have probably seen it as such practiced in Chinese parks. It looks so benevolent and an easy practice and is probably a reason why it rarely attracts young people to begin practicing it. Very few people see Tai Chi as a martial art that can be very efficiently used to protect life. Some blame for it can be put on numerous schools where Tai Chi is practiced just as a type of coordinated movements with health improvement in mind. It is a type of Tai Chi learning by practicing form(s) only. Bare hand practice is just one of various aspects of Tai Chi. Still available practice may use sword, saber, spear and staff, up to ball, and ruler. It is also true that some of training with those tools is not worldwide spread as there are very few masters who still know and practice them.

The bare handed Tai Chi is a set of eight hand movements and five leg movements. Hence it is sometimes called the thirteen techniques. The eight fundamental Tai Chi hand movements are: warding off, rolling back, pressing, pushing, spreading, taking, elbowing, and leaning.  The five fundamental leg movements are: moving forward, moving back, moving to the left, moving to the right, and remaining in the center.

Tai Chi and all Chinese martial arts are not something that a person could grab instantaneously. They are meant as a lifelong learning and developing and definitely not something to grasp or understand immediately or even learn in the first hour. It took me more than ten years to do the form alone. I still may need a suggestion or external help.

Learning Leadership from Martial Arts - III

Let me continue this blog miniseries with a leadership methodology.

In one of my previous posts - “The Way” of Leadership I compared two fundamental Chinese philosophies Daoism and Confucianism, the Yin and Yang of Chinese culture. They are well routed in Chinese everyday life, culture, politics and as well in martial arts of which two Wing chun (blog Wing Chun basics 4 Leadership) and Tai Chi (blog Tai Chi Quan Leadership)  I already explained. These philosophies are used as a background to describe ideas on how to use old martial arts wisdom, explained more in previous blog (Learning Leadership from Martial Arts – II), and are now transformed in a leadership.

• Control: We said that only when relaxed a person may possess a self-control. A wise leader, for that matter, creates an atmosphere of clarity, of purpose and a sense of unity. Leader works selflessly and simply allows the team to do what needs be done. Through self-control a leader can influence (control) the outcome and not directly the people.

• Trust: The saying we used in martial arts was about trust in practice. A good leader understands the processes in the team and the fact that leadership does not require the application of force or pressure. There is no room for mistrust either. A remarkable leader trusts his/her people and is consequentially trusted by them. A well led team is not a battlefield of egos, as in teamwork there is no place for individual ‘victories’ or ‘defeats’.
• Stability: Being ‘on the ground’ (well grounded) reflects our terms and our values -- those that a leader expects from subordinates. A respectable leader is focused, firmly and confidently on the ground with his/her decisions and with clear aim in the mind. He does not flip-flop his decisions.
• Adjustment: if you drive yourself too much, this does not produce fruit, if you try to rush into things, this does not lead anywhere. The same is true for leading a team. If the leader is too aggressive, subordinates ‘are suppressed.’ If a manager is too soft, he is not taken seriously. A virtuous leader adjusts correctly to the circumstances and leads by example.

My Writing Process

I was invited by Regina Puckett to take part in the Writing Process blog tour. Its purpose is to showcase different author methods all over the world. Charity is an amazing lady and it is wonderful to participate in a chain of it. It was started by Victoria that is an amazing lady and a wonderful author with Ellora's Cave Publishing and Liquid Silver Books.

My tour questions

What am I working on?

Professionally I teach social informatics at University of Ljubljana. On the other hand as an author I’m interested and do research about a different approaches to outstanding leadership.

How does my work differ from others of the same genre?

It is a work that merges Western and Fareast mentality and is based on approach coming from martial arts (Wing Chun, Tai Chi) Philosophy aiming to a personal growth in order to become an exceptional leader.

Why do I write what I do?

Leadership of multicultural teams is today very much subjected to different cultural values, norms, ethics or, what I have named as “the cultural background noise” (the environment we grow up in has a great impact and influence our values, ethics and morals, mentally and subconsciously). With the globalization process the occurrence of multicultural teams are even more frequent and this is why I aimed my research toward the leadership that can bridge this “noise” and connect West and East, Internal and External.

How does your writing process work?

At the beginning mine writing process takes quite a while as I do frame it, I do read a lot about the subject, but when started the words just flew.

Be sure to check out the next two authors next week:

Coleman Weeks’s blog http://howdowefeedtheworldsstarving.com/
Ed Gellock’s blog http://lakesidelivin.wordpress.com/
LaRae Parry’s blog http://laraeparry.wordpress.com

Pushing hands and Virtue

Most people believe that martial arts are violent ego driven systems with intention to injure or kill. Several times in my previous posts I have described that this is not so. Today I will discuss two training concepts used in Tai Chi and Wing Chun. They complement each other and again show the other side of the coin of martial arts.

In Tai Chi it is said that you can’t learn pushing hands ('tui shou') by winning but only by losing. To the beginner it may sound very contradictory, but it is so true.

To learn (empirically) so-called internal martial arts aspects pushing hands are practiced. It is a comparable method of training to Wing Chun sticking hands ('chi shou'), a method that is used for development of automatic reflexes to hit upon contact while all the time sticking to the opponent. Therefore, the sticking hands are more combat oriented, and the pushing hands are less aggressive and more based on using opponent energy. In both one should be perceptive to a partner, as only then ‘listening power’ develops. It is a special feeling of where rival is preparing – not yet in full – to push, pull or hit. And yes, in both martial arts we use the same methods also for legs or combination of all extremities, head and … the whole body.

During this practice the mind should be opened but focused on breathing and on performing slow cyclical movements. It should be wiped out of all other assumptions or expectations. When push, pull, hit or just normal cyclical movement comes, your body knows what and how to react and so it takes control and reacts spontaneously. Therefore, it is important to be very relaxed and in the proper stance that allows to move back and front, left and right and at the same time preserve full stability. Having a strong ego in this practice just does not help because if it intervenes you stop “sensing” what the opponent is coming with.

Tai Chi Quan Leadership

Tai Chi Quan (Tai Chi) is represented through steps by the coordinated actions of the body’s extremities, of the body as a whole including the eyes. The breathing is also coordinated. Thusly,  Tai Chi is a complete system of exercises characterized by the unity and by the cultivation of the internal and external application of power. A very old system, widely known for its healthy and relaxation methods but rarely considered a martial art.

The term Tai Chi Quan translates as “supreme ultimate fist, boundless fist, great extremes boxing or simply the ultimate.” Tai Chi theory is deep and profound. It takes many years of practice, learning, research and pondering to gradually grasp the esence to the art. It is said that Tai Chi Quan was created by San Feng Chang in the Song Hui Zong era (1.082 – 1.135) although techniques and forms with the same basic principles were already in existence almost 600 years earlier that were created from previous one taught in Han Dynasty (206 BE – AE 220). The content of the art has varied from one generation to the next. What we see today in the forms of Tai Chi has been evolving for more than eight hundred years. Various versions of Tai Chi are still practiced around the world: bare hand, sword, saber, spear, stick, ball or ruler. Some are slowly disappearing for there are very few masters around to teach.