Unlocking the Power of Virtue: A Guide to Leadership by Virtue

Are you struggling to become an effective leader? Do you want to improve your leadership skills but do not know where to start? If yes, then this blog and the book Leadership by Virtue, written by Jaro Berce, are perfect for you.

Leadership by Virtue is an essential read for anyone who aspires to become an effective and ethical leader. It provides a roadmap for developing virtuous leadership skills that will enable you to create a positive work environment, inspire your team, and drive success. With a commitment to virtue and a willingness to learn, you can unlock the power of leadership by virtue and become the leader you were meant to be.

The blog you are reading now is intended as a practical guide with short posts that contain, and emphasize that leadership is a journey of continual growth and development, and that cultivating virtuous qualities and behaviors can help leaders create positive change in their organizations and communities.

1. The importance of Leadership by Virtue: It is emphasized that true leadership is not just about position or power, but also about character and virtue. Leaders who embody qualities such as honesty, integrity, and compassion are more likely to inspire and motivate their teams, and create a culture of trust and respect.

2. The role of self-awareness and reflection: The effective leadership requires a deep understanding of oneself, including strengths, weaknesses, and values. By engaging in regular self-reflection and seeking feedback from others, leaders can identify areas for growth and development.

3. The value of communication: Effective communication is a crucial aspect of leadership. Leaders who are able to articulate their vision, listen actively to others, and provide feedback in a constructive manner are more likely to build strong relationships and achieve their goals.

4. The need for adaptability and resilience: It is noted that leadership often involves navigating complex and unpredictable situations, and that successful leaders are able to adapt to changing circumstances and bounce back from setbacks.

5. The use of different approaches to leadership: In this blog and in the book, Western and Far East principles are merged to demonstrate the wholeness of leadership. In dawn times people were following the strongest and smartest person that knew how to fight to protect their tribe. Therefore, martial arts are seen as the key ingredient from which a wisdom of leadership can be extracted. 

The book Leadership by Virtue is a comprehensive guide to developing virtuous leadership skills. It presents a fresh perspective on leadership that emphasizes character, ethics, and values. The book is an ideal resource for anyone looking to become a successful leader, as it provides a step-by-step process for developing martial arts leadership skills and applying them in the real world. It is an excellent resource for business professionals, entrepreneurs, and martial arts experts alike.

1. Understanding Virtue: Virtue is the foundation of effective leadership. Virtue is defined as a moral excellence that leads to ethical behavior. Virtue comprises of a set of qualities, such as integrity, honesty, courage, empathy, and humility. A virtuous leader understands the importance of these qualities and seeks to embody them in their daily life.

2. The Power of Leadership by Virtue: Leadership by virtue is about leading by example. A leader who embodies virtuous qualities creates a positive work environment and earns the trust and respect of their team. Such a leader inspires others to follow his/hers lead, encourages creativity and innovation, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

3. Virtue in Action: Implementing leadership by virtue requires a deliberate effort. Start by assessing your current leadership style and identifying areas where you can improve. Consider how you can demonstrate more integrity, honesty, courage, empathy, and humility in your interactions with your team. Set clear expectations for ethical behavior and hold yourself and your team accountable for upholding these standards.

4. The Journey to Leadership by Virtue: Developing leadership by virtue skills is a journey that requires dedication and commitment. It is an ongoing process of self-reflection, learning, and growth. Seek feedback from your team, mentors, and peers, and use it to improve your leadership skills. Take courses, read books, attend workshops, and learn from other leaders who embody virtuous leadership.

5. The use of Far East and Western principles: That evolved through millennia of people struggling, fighting, developing, and organizing their life. It is unique approach of merging two different methodologies never used before and wrap them with wisdom and principles of martial arts.

Cross-Culture Will Radically Change Your Leadership

All of you have probably visited places where you sensed that “things” are different than those at your home place?

Paradoxically, we set our knowledge and belief as a reference / universal point when judging other cultures. We compare what we know or believe to new and different views sometimes curiously wondering how wrong they are. You are basically trapped in stability issue of which I have written in Leadership and stability, such stability that you have fallibly perceived as security due familiarity with your ‘not changing’ home place culture.

Unfortunately, in this you are wrong. There is nothing stable in this Universe. Changes and differences are all around us, also when meeting other people, cultures or leadership styles.
Differences are the outcome of Gerhard Hofstede project when asked to unify IBM corporate culture across the globe. The study was conducted within IBM between 1967 and 1973 and covered more than 70 countries. Hofstede built a methodology of different countries and cultures and how they interact based on six different categories of cultural dimensions:

• Power Distance that expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. 
• Individualism vs. Collectivism which focuses on the questions about whether people prefer a close knit network of people or prefer to be left alone to fend for themselves. 
• Masculinity vs. Femininity where masculinity represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material reward for success; and femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. 
• Uncertainty Avoidance that expresses the degree to which the member of a society feels uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. 
• Long-term vs. Short-term Orientation where Long-term orientation dimension can be interpreted as dealing with society's search for virtue and are careful how they shape today not to distort tomorrow.
• Indulgence vs. Restraint that identifies the extent to which a society allows ‘relatively free gratification of basic and natural human desires related to enjoying life and having fun’.

Commonly used and cited methodology unfortunately is a perfect “Descartes model of dualism” so appreciated in Western hemisphere way of thinking (see: Dualism vs. Yin-Yang). With different dimensions it brings some diversity but does not allow or imply the changes within cultures.

Is there a solution that may contribute and add change to cultural dimensions methodology?

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.

Different views on leadership

There are probably more studies, articles and books on “how to lead a team and building a team” than you can ever read. Therefore, I’m not going to or daring to repeat the same matters. But I would rather post a challenge - “Have you ever been a part of an international /inter-cultural team”?

If yes, what kind of experience did you get? Where there any obstacles to leadership, any misunderstanding because of different perceptions of team members coming from different cultural background? Well, I had had such an opportunity to work in and lead a multicultural environment.

In this post I would like to show and compare western approaches to team leading with eastern ones. They are so different in styles and philosophies that it is interesting to demonstrate and to share them with you.

West mostly always describes “five/seven/ten… keys to leading a team”. You are probably very much accustomed with them and have read about those as well as other instructions dealing with leading, team and expected characteristics of a leader. Most of the time authors offer some of the great (repeated) suggestions and topics shown below which are then further appropriately elaborated into strong rooted believes of properness:

• Keep things in perspective / define the purpose of the team; 
• Establish team objectives / focus on results and productivity; 
• Keep the team focused / align people with the stuff they are good at or passionate about; 
• Get the right people on-and-off the bus / demonstrate your commitment; 
• Be a team player or allow others to shine / a leader must mobilize team members; 
• Leading by example means following rules / leader cannot exempt himself from the rules; 
• Leaders people will follow are accountable and trustworthy / leaders of teams take the responsibility; 
• Characteristics of a successful leadership is to trust your people -- and let them know it;
• Don’t provide all the answers -- make your employees think; 
• etc.

For more please read at: http://peopledevelopmentmagazine.com/leading-with-virtue-not-beliefs/.

Related articles

• Become A Great Leader By Using These Leadership Tips!
• Leadership Tips And Advice Direct From The Pros

Learning Leadership from Martial Arts - II

 The principles I’m sharing today are not rules or steps that most of the times are offered and used separately instead of integrally in Western leadership teaching methodology. The Eastern principle has it usually all interlinked. Therefore, bellow you will see elementary pieces of a whole personality of a martial artist. They are refined and presented separately only for the purpose of a more straightforward understanding:

• Control: The martial arts teach self-control of the body and the mind (ego). Martial art practice starts with hard training, where a student (e.g.: karate, kick boxing, tai chi chuan, wing chun, savate, escrima, aikido, sambo etc.) normally has to endure the threshold of pain from received and given punches. Only when relaxed, one is in control of oneself and of pain, consequently of others too.
• Trust: There is a saying in martial arts: “Trust your friends to beat you so that your enemies cannot!” A martial artist has firstly to trust in himself not to injure others – only then others trust him not to be injured by him.
• Stability: A person cannot fight successfully and master the opponent without stability and balance in place. It means that we should properly adjust our stance: how we ‘shape’ our body to ‘adjust’ our bones that have to support the muscles in a relaxed way. With our stance, gaze and movements we communicate our mental, physical and emotional state to those that are able to read it. Should or not we show what our thoughts are?
• Adjustment: Not only a Chinese proverb says “The grass abates in the direction from which the wind blows!” A martial artist has to keep adjusting to the surrounding and to the opponent. Any hesitance on his part will result in time lost and thusly giving to the opponent an opportunity and the advantage to attack.

Leadership By Virtue ~ book trailer

Blurb of the book:

Interwoven around the leadership process, corporate challenges and martial arts this book brings the reader along to "listen in" on the day to day developments, struggles and challenges.

The reader is shown from a first-person perspective the internal refinement of a leadership process based on non-Western approach. The main character, brought up in Europe and therefore used to Western "cultural background noise" although practicing Chinese martial arts, has to learn and understand the differences brought by Far East principles if he wants to grasp leadership from a different angle ...

The book has eighteen (18) chapters. Chapters one to five are dedicated to the background setting and the evolution of the story and characters; Chapters six to nine are devoted to open different approaches and mentality that is coming from Far East and Martial arts philosophy and in parallel gradually introducing difficulties in leadership process and (miss)understanding of those Far East concepts; final Chapter eighteen is dedicated to merge those Far East and Martial arts concepts and philosophies with "known" Western ones and thus opening a new entanglement approach proposed with the use of the Leadership by Virtue.

A video review:

Jaro Berce has poured in the “Leadership by Virtue” his passion, knowledge, and wisdom. It is an exceptional view of blending eastern and western thinking and practices; it is thought provoking, an eye opener, challenging and more.

The book “Leadership by Virtue” by Jaro Berce is not just a novel, but a tremendous learning experience (by Pamela Jill Rapley). 

Related articles

• IBP's Trailer: Leadership By Virtue by Author Jaro Berce
• Leadership by Virtue background
• How To Mute The Western "Cultural Background Noise" With Far East Mentality?
• Leadership by Virtue by Jaro Berce - A review
• Lessons on Leadership from the Nonprofit Sector
• IBP's Trailer: Leadership By Virtue by Author Jaro Berce

Qi–energy–leadership

In search for describing the Chinese term Qi (氣) I found: Ki in Japanese, Prana or Shakti in India, Gi in Korea, Ka in ancient Egypt, the ancient Greeks called it Pneum, for native Americans it was the Great Spirit, in Africa it’s known as Ashe and in Hawaii as Ha or Mana and the list is not yet complete.

In all those old philosophies, Qi expresses the life force which animates the forms of the world. It is the vital energy or circulating life force that is thought to be inherent in all things. A living being is filled with it. A dead person has no more Qi - the warmth, the life energy is gone. The Egyptian described the same concept very similarly. A living person has the Ka and in a dead one Ka left the body. They also believed that the Ka was sustained through food and drink. This is then the reason why food and drink offerings were presented to the dead. In traditional Chinese medicine, Qi is believed to regulate a person’s spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance. A healthy individual has more Qi than one who is ill. However, health is more than an abundance of Qi. Health implies that the Qi in our bodies is clear rather than polluted and turbid; it is flowing smoothly like a stream and does not appear to be blocked or stagnant.

In martial arts (or acupuncture) the capacity to perceive the flow of Qi or to actually see or feel it, is something that can be cultivated through Qi Gong training. During the practice one cultivates the capacity to perceive Qi on different levels. It seems like a potential to be yet expressed. One could say it is like fullness and/or emptiness (compared to yin and yang concept) when we perceive ourselves and the world around as fluid and spacious. In those concepts it is not just experiencing our body to be comprised of patterns and flows of Qì, but we also get to understand that ‘emotions’ and ‘thoughts’ are forms of energy. When a person understands this concept, it is possible to control and deviate the opponent’s energy with our own. Posing the question “Have you ever tried to pick up a child or a dog who did not want to be lifted?” Joe Hyams offers the result: “They both seem to be heavier—this is because the mind is truly a source of power, and when a mind and body are coordinated, Qi manifests itself.”

But Qi is more than the above. It is also the life energy one senses in Nature, the vibratory nature of any phenomena, the flow and tremor that is happening continuously at molecular, atomic and subatomic levels. The Earth itself is also moving, transforming, breathing, and alive with it.

China’s history and culture impacting Leadership - 2

The second example from China’s history for an outstanding leadership can be taken from the novel: Journey to the West. The main character is Sūn Wùkōng, Brother Monkey or Great Sage. The narrative uses a lot of symbolism and is based on the Daoist philosophy. Brother Monkey represents the heart and resides in fire, which is a fifth Daoist element. He was born from a stone and acquired supernatural powers through Daoist practices on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, which is the source of yīn and yang. The whole settlement and the place represent the Daoist theory of five elements where the other four are: Fruit and Flowers represent wood, Water Curtain where Brother Monkey hides refers to water, Iron-Plated Bridge leading to his camp refers to metal, and Rocky hill refers to earth. 

Cause and consequence / Urgent and important

In psychology cause and consequence refers to the concept of causality. An action or event will produce a certain response to the action in the form of another event. People tend to have first reaction as a doubt. Doubt is defined as a safeguard, as the demarcation of truth and untruth, as well as the delimitation of the credible and incredible.

English: A doctor examines a female patient. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The basic “misunderstanding” of the concept of cause and consequence - two different parts of the same coin - is revealed time and again when visiting a medicine doctor in basically any country of the Western hemisphere. Based on your complaints a physician determines what is “wrong” with you and then prescribes a medicine. Normally, they don’t bother themselves with the cause of your problem. Why? Is it ignored due to insufficient and incomplete knowledge or are there other reasons? In ancient China there was a different practice when dealing with illness and medical doctor earnings. People gave payments to a doctor not when ill but when they were healthy. When sick they were invited by a doctor to live with him and a doctor had to treat them free of charge. And how do our “Western” physicians earn their living?

Martial arts are a value-driven system

In the past, the main objective of martial arts was effective and efficient combat that regularly resulted in mortality or caused some degree of injury, often very severe, while today, martial arts are being used in more than one way. The first would be in the direct usage of martial arts that serves the original purpose. It is only used in extreme situations by military, police, and such organizations.Nowadays, the term is usually associated with various unarmed Asian martial arts, such as Wing Chun, karate do, judo, taekwondo, aikido, and others, and martial arts using mostly cold weaponry, such as kendo, ninjutsu, battojutsu. In reality, it encompasses a whole plethora of martial arts from around the world, like boxing, savate, capoeira, jeet kune do, krav maga, fencing, and much more. But here we need to be aware of the differences in the ways of thinking coming from the environments influenced by Confucianism, Daoism, or Buddhism on one side, and the West on the other. This is all reflected in those martial arts. While the Chinese martial arts are predominantly rhythmic in movement, the Western tend to be more dynamic and tense.

Why this book (West vs. East) ...

There are hundreds of books addressing the yáng of outer leadership, complete with checklists, game plans, and first person accounts of how successful people exercised leadership. But I wanted to write a book about the yīn or an inner leadership.

Connected to those leadership issues, my other different views and thinking came from my martial arts practice and their philosophy toward life and fights.

I've learned that East wants to be in harmony with nature; the Western approach is to control nature also spurred by the Western way of life and religion. Martial arts in the East have a focus on the martial way and the mental culture united with body, while in the West their perspective is sportier and competitive, where winning becomes their main objective. We could say, using the concepts of Eastern is a ‘soft’ approach as in yīn, and Western is ‘hard’ as in yáng. Eastern mentality is like a bamboo tree which is quick to bend with wind, but in its absence becomes stronger. The West is like an oak tree unperturbed by the wind, only to be ‘unfortunately’ pulled out by a hurricane later on. There are other areas where similar contrasts can be made. The West talks about human rights, whereas the Far East understands collective rights or even more profound, rights for all living life-forms. The West is not economical with energy, whereas martial arts including Tai Chi, are good at preserving it and only call on it in an emergency.