Education, tools and leadership

There are numerous programs, schools and methodologies helping to understand and learn how to manage business and people:  different master of business administration (MBA) schools with their own programs and almost abundant methodologies and tools they teach their students.  Unfortunately no one ever learns whatsoever about e.g.: ecology at an MBA or in their programs. Unethical business and environmental practices of some MBA students are uncovered consistently.

Responsibility across the broadest spectrum of society is vitally important to the future of the global economy. Having said that the key question in today's business environment still remains: do all those programs, methodologies and tools really come out the way we need them to?

The biggest issue to introduce all of the different programs every couple of years or so is mostly based on the matter that companies are entirely dismissing experience if you do not have a degree. This is short sighted and even negligent but attractive  to those that want higher salary, better career opportunities or better consolidated business network. The second matter is that different methodologies and tools get sold to C-level as a silver bullet that is going to fix all of their issues, problems and will bring out the solutions.

But to probe even deeper - it is not the methodologies or the tools that bring solutions or break problems. They are good and they work when they are just frameworks to organize efforts. The important and mostly overlooked aspect of application of methodologies and tools is: they need to be based on the business needs, culture of organization and should be properly trimmed to benefit from using them.

MARSocial copetition: Leadership by Virtue

My book excerpt from “Leadership by Virtue” available on AMAZON.COM (Chapter 6, pages 117-120 of 539 p.) is entered into the Marsocial.com Author of the Year Competition                        Please Click the link and like, shares it. Thank you.

As for Shifu’s words, Tara asks Ben if he has seen a monster

 Culture sophistication of employees pressures on realization of decisions

 Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned. (Harold S. Geneen)

The words “If you do not handle your time, how can you manage the time of the people you lead” from yesterday evening echoed in my ears through the night. And still now I cannot forget them. It is very true, and I feel that I need some guidance about how to overcome these rapidly evolving events that are consuming me and my energy. Drinking tea in my office and shuffling through my e-mail, I just cannot get rid of Shifu’s words. Where is the key that will unlock the doors that will allow all the negative energy accumulated in these two companies to exit? It seems to me that even an exceptional martial artist could not fight through all this piled-up problems.

I don’t even hear it when Gemini enters with the report I asked for about all those subsidiary companies and our ex-employees working in them mostly for FixCom. She starts to explain the background and the concerns she has if we cancelled contracts with companies right now. I agree with her and ask her if she can prepare a plan to pass important services to a new company smoothly and then to pass other less important services that are not our core business and do not bring high value added on to those companies. The plan should include the costs and people involved, and we can have preliminary discussion about it today at the merge meeting. I inform her that we will have this on the agenda of our first directors’ board meeting in two weeks.

Fedor enters with a smile on his face. This should be a good sign. And it is.
“Hi, Ben. I have the papers with me.”
“Make it good news, please.”
“It is. We finally entered all the data yesterday evening and tested them with the new SW module. This morning we cleaned the errors and ran them again through the system and the results are here.”
“That is great, and I should apologize for being rude to you yesterday.” It is a relief to say these words that I truly mean. Finally, a positive effect offering me proof that I’m steering the problems correctly.
“No problem. I understand the pressure on you, and we did not help you much to overcome them. Would you like to see the results?”
“Yes please, but first let us call Dylan too.”
“I already informed him, and he is on his way up here.”
Dylan arrives a few minutes later, and we have a long presentation and Fedor’s explanation of the data. It is half past nine when we are through, and I shock them by saying, “Would you mind if I leave now and you two carry out the meeting?”
“Something more important?”
“In some ways, you could say yes. But please can you inform me about the results afterward?”
“Is she young?” was Fedor’s provocative question.

Interested? READ MORE HERE.

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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.

Consultant - Coach

There is quite a selection of titles for people offering services to businesses such as: adviser, consultant, mentor, coach. In the last two decades in organizations business coaching has become increasingly popular to assist executives, managers, and employees in their personal and professional growth. How and what makes us decide that in particular case if we need a business consultant or a business coach?

As both, coaching and consulting process, are built on trust and confidentiality to differentiate them one can pose the following questions:

• Do they question and listen?
• Do they spend most of the time talking?
• Do they offer alternatives and let you make the choice?
• Do they tell you what to do?
• Do they think they know all of the answers?
• Do they appear to ask the right questions?
• Do you learn from them?
• Do you end up wiser or not?

The above questions help, but to determine which business service you actually need, more description is needed.

Organizational success and failure

An organization exists because of participation of employees who work in it. It is like a living organism: the brains are represented by the board of directors; vital organs are main managerial posts. The rest are employees. However, when one organ fails in a human body it is a problem for the whole body. If it works perfectly, the importance of each and every part goes unnoticed.

The organizational success or failure is hardly a one man game. The days of a single great decision maker at the top have shifted to strong decision making skills at all levels and across groups. No organization succeeds or fails based on the responsibility of only one individual. Yes, the leader holds the power to make the decisions and has the ultimate (not sole) responsibility. But a leader can only be held responsible within a reason for that which was in his/hers control.

We know today, supported by research, that the capacity to exercise control does enhance results. Also well explored is the fact that a company's culture is pushed down from the top. Companies that have failed, such as ENRON, have had management that abused the trusted power. The employees simply did what they were told to do. This proves to be a rigid culture lacking of transparency game. Another example of a rigid culture and leadership vision deficiency can be perceived in Kodak’s case where leadership somehow didn’t notice the shift coming in the technology related to films used for photographs.

Leadership and responsibility

Responsibility translates into commitment to finish something. People mostly like and tend to hide from responsibility for their deeds, actions, and decisions.

When learning to master martial arts one is encouraged to think about the responsibility and how to use it in all techniques. Depending on energy, force, and power used a martial artist may kill, immobilize or cure a person - the body point to which it is applied is the same. It is a heavy and sole responsibility what and how to use the accumulated martial arts knowledge.

The responsibility is, by all means, one of the most demanding requirements in leadership. “Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It's inevitable, if you're honourable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity” are the words of General Colin Powell on leadership’s responsibility.

Middle manager and leadership

There are many different roles in a work environment, but those that stand out and are most visible are the roles of leaders and managers that represent the company, specially the top ones. Readily available are numerous articles describing their role and their way of leading /managing people. Mostly described as a workforce are those on the hierarchy bottom: they work as they are told to. Here, I’d like to challenge your opinion whether they represent ‘the cost’ or ‘the asset’ of an organization. In between there is a number of intermediate managers being subordinate to the senior management but above the lowest levels of operational staff.

Duties of a middle management typically include carrying out the directives of senior management at the operational level, supervising subordinate managers and employees to ensure functioning of the organization. Middle managers are rarely a prime focus during the changes in the organizations because they are badly needed in order to execute whatever upper management comes up with. Since companies have slimmed down and cut out many organization levels they lack of the career advancement opportunities. In reality they are mostly the physical embodiment of the culture or rather bureaucracy level of an organization.

I Ching

The I Ching or Zhouyi – the Book of Changes is a collection of practical wisdom used as oracular statements and pertaining to every conceivable situation. It is one of the oldest Chinese classical texts.

I Ching is built of linear signs represented by 64 sets composed of two three-line arrangements, namely hexagrams (guà) that represent sixty four main kinds of life situations. The lines of hexagram are, of course, not just lines. Each hexagram has a name and is a physical symbol representing deeply metaphysical or subconscious manifestation. Every line of hexagram can be broken or unbroken. The unbroken or solid line represents yang, the ‘creative’ principle. The broken or open line with a gap in the centre represents yin, the ‘receptive’ principle. These principles are also represented in a common circular symbol or diagram known as Tai Chi Tú but more commonly known in the West as the yin-yang symbol, expressing the idea of wholeness of constantly undergoing change.

Traditionally the I Ching is consulted by throwing 50 yarrow stalks, but today a set of three coins is used more frequently. When a hexagram is cast using one of the traditional processes of divination with I Ching, each yin and yang line will be indicated as either moving (changing), or fixed (unchanging). A second hexagram is created by changing moving lines to their opposite and represents new possibilities and transition that might occur due to someone’s interaction of a free will.

Walk meetings

A while ago I happened to have a meeting while pleasantly walking through the park. Since then I try, whenever possible, to avoid to meet in the office, for coffee or tea in a pub and choose a walk in the nature.

 At the beginning I wondered what the reaction of the people will be. Would they feel comfortable enough and relaxed? My intentions were to improve the energy and mindset of the conversation by changing the environment. The studies show that the physical aspect of walking is beneficial to positive brain functioning. And recent brain and learning theories confirm that activities help in learning. This is also how Aristotle taught his apprentices.
You may say that for a time now GOLF has been doing the same. I know that corporate as well as military forces do different types of meetings all the time: at games, bars, gyms, parties. But my kind of a meeting is costless and beneficial at the same time. We all agree that a meeting should be done with an objective: to discuss business, to develop an idea, to connect with person. As an environment inspires connection among participants, the Nature is a perfect choice. It seems like a perfect setting for a possible win-win situation. And on top of it, there is a kind of a disarming element in Mother Nature that works for all of us.

De – Virtue - Dé

In my blog: Virtue – Morality – Ethics and leadership I wrote that virtue motivates and morals and ethics constrain. To support that statement here I’d like to describe virtue through Chinese  ancient text ‘Dào DéJīng’.

Dé is conventionally translated as ‘virtue’ or ‘power,’ and refers to how the Way or Dào functions, or literally “walks” throughout the visible world. ‘Moral authority’ is probably the closest modern English equivalent to Dé. It was an opening stanza in the oldest version of Dào Dé Jīng, now it is introduced in stanza 38 that describes virtue:

High virtue by obliging not - acquires moral force.

Low virtue obliges always and thus lacks moral force.

High virtue neither strives nor acts for its own ends.

Low virtue does not strive but acts for its own ends.

High kindness does strive but not for its own ends.

High service also strives and does so for its ends.

High ritual not only strives but compliance failing stops at nothing to compel conformance.

Thus the loss of the Way meant the advent of virtue.

The loss of virtue, the advent of kindness.

The loss of kindness, the advent of service.

The loss of service, the advent of ritual rule.

Ritual rule turned loyal trust to deceit, leading to disorder.

All that has been learned adorns the Wayand engenders delusion.

Hence those strong and true keep commitment 

shun deceit, stay with the kernel that’s real and shun flowery adornment, choosing the first, refusing the last. (Moss)

Leadership responsiveness

Every and all things trigger a response: action ~ reaction.

Pretend that, while walking on an icy road, you slip. What is your reaction, your response? Mostly, we are so caught by surprise that we become stiff. That is followed by a fall. Frequently we land on our hands and, if we are lucky, only hurt ourselves and not broke wrists. If we had a knowledge how to “properly” fall, we would have “let go” and yield ourselves to a fall. Most likely, no harm to our body would be done, we would only get wet. Which we get anyway.

“The grasses abate in the direction the wind blows.” says a Chinese proverb.

Leadership by Virtue background

A common conclusion of all studies on our cultures is that we are definitely different. This is not really a great contribution but rather just a common knowledge. And this conclusion is what mostly challenged me. To successfully lead people you need to find what binds the people together and not what separates them.

Within globalization processes people that are now to work together do not come only from the same cultural background but were raised also in different cultures. And leaders are to take into consideration this new dimension, while, due to current perpetuating crisis, at the same time dealing with finding a way, a fresh and new leadership approach. And the stress should be put on the change of leadership practices and not only on a repainting of current ones. To introduce a new approach to leadership, the book “Leadership by Virtue” takes a different venue - a way that brings Far-East concepts into Western approaches and entangles both.

 The “Leadership by Virtue” approach is not about the instruction on how and what to do. It is rather a complex interlinked method to change oneself first. Accordingly, it is not ‘externally oriented’, as the case is in most of the Western culture’s way of management or leadership methodologies. Here the book takes  more Far-East tactic and is dedicated to ‘internal self’.

I Decided to Give My Book Away for Free

With a myriad of cultures in multinational corporations, research into leadership has been endless, yet not very conclusive. An old friend of mine posed me the question on leadership: “Could you please enlighten me in understanding how to lead a multi-cultural team?” So far we were pleasantly talking over a drink on a nice and warm summer morning. At the time I had no idea to offer. It initiated a long period of my research at the end of which I published the book “Leadership by Virtue”.

It was no easy matter. Four decades ago, IBM tried to unify corporate culture in her subsidiaries all over the world. Geert Hofstede carried out a world-wide survey on employee values with a very informative and demonstrative result. Based on his approach, Turner pointed out the problem of international projects and claimed that “when working on international projects we need to understand the approaches of different cultures to be able to work with people and predict behaviors, and not to give and take offence”. More researchers followed the same topic. A common conclusion of all those studies is: “we are definitely different”. And this conclusion is what bothered me the most. It is a common knowledge. To successfully lead people you need to find what binds the people together and not what separates them.

My research goal was to support the idea that, at their core people are similar no matter where they come from. The new leadership approach should follow these principles. This is why I aimed to find at which level we are “the same!”

Dào (Dao, Tao) – the Way

In my blogs I have been using a term Dào (Dao, Tao) and would like to share with you my understanding of the meaning of the concept.

Dào is usually translated as way, road, channel, path, doctrine, or line. Chinese language is a tonal language so we must not confuse Dào with Dǎo, although for us it sounds the same. The latter, Dǎo, has an entirely different meaning: to lead, to transform, to guide, to conduct and or to direct.

There are some who would like to believe that Dào is a sort of ultimate creator, a God? It is not. God interferes with people and things, Dào never does. It is said that he who pursues Dào does less day by day. Less and less is done until nothing is done at all; when nothing is done at all, nothing is left undone. This is the fundamental difference between God and Dào – there is no interference when Dào is in concern. At the same time we should understand that Dào in Daoism can have dual meaning. One is religious and the other philosophical. The understanding and use of Dào in my book Leadership by Virtue is the latter.

Leadership dilemma

What made Apple so successful and a very good place to work? ”The lack” of bureaucracy within projects, engineer-focused corporate culture, emphasis on passionate and loyal employees, the huge company has maintained the corporate culture from the start-up days, said Bianca Males in ‘8 Management Lessons I Learned Working at Apple.’ Is that all?

John Harvey-Jones claims: “If a company is successful, it is due to the effort of everyone, but if it fails, it is because of the failure of the board. If the board fails, it is the responsibility of the chairman, notwithstanding the collective responsibility of everyone.” This is a better, but still not an all-encompassing answer.

Least of effort in leadership

The Mandarin Chinese word wú wéi could be described: ‘by inaction nothing is left undone.’ It may well be also translated as ‘non-acting makes all action possible.’ Lǎo Zǐ, a philosopher of ancient China and the author of the Dào Dé Jīng, in stanza 38 ‘About Dé of the Dào’ described it as:
High virtue by obliging not acquires moral force.

Low virtue obliges always and thus lacks moral force.

High virtue neither strives nor acts for its own ends.

Low virtue does not strive but acts for its own ends.

Dào is usually translated as way, road, channel, path, doctrine, or line and by Chinese opinion cannot be obtained as virtue cannot be approached. The legendary Chinese sovereign and cultural hero Yellow Emperor (reigned from 2.696–2.598 BE) said that once Dào is lost, virtue arises; once virtue is lost, humaneness arises; once humaneness is lost, righteousness arises; once righteousness is lost, formalism arises. But formalism is the flowery representation of Dào and the beginning of disorder.

Two sides of the same coin

What constitutes to be a superior leader? F. Marcos said: Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And acting alone, accept everything alone (brainyquote). So, is it a head or is it a tail?

My lessons from “the other side of a coin” started when, together with my sons, we decided to go to the Mount Kilimanjaro. My decision had nothing to do with Kilimajaro being the biggest free standing mountain in the world or because it is the tallest mountain of the African continent and not even because it bares my name in it. I joined the idea because it was my long lived dream since the times I lived in Africa.

To climb the summit of 5.895 m in eight days via Lemosho route had to be planned well in advance as we were not physically fit for such a challenge. For months prior to the challenge we have been successful at climbing and trekking to each and every hill or mountain available to us in Slovenia. After Kilimanjaro I realize that it was not the trekking of more than 70 km or freezing temperatures that we have underestimated. It was “the other side of a coin.”

High altitude and lack of oxygen proved to be subjected to our naivety in thinking that climbing such a mountain is only a physical challenge. Slow walk, introduced by our guides from the ANDA African Adventure, at the beginning of our tour seemed ridiculous to us, but each succeeding day on the mountain proved that it was the only compulsory physical possibility for success.

China’s history and culture impacting Leadership - 3

The third example I would like to share with you is the historical novel Three Kingdoms, written in the tradition of the Spring and Autumn Annals which are attributed to Confucius. The historical novel of the Three Kingdoms is so important because it describes China’s tradition of political culture and the struggle to define its political form, transporting the reader from the highest councils of dynastic power to the lowest fringes of society, from the capital and key provinces to the edges of the empire and beyond. The novel offers a startling and unsparing view of how power is wielded, how diplomacy is conducted, and how wars are planned and fought. The novel has in turn influenced the ways that the Chinese think about power, diplomacy, and war. It is a tale of China itself in its infinite variety.

While ‘preserving moral judgment’ in every turn of phrase the novel marks the ‘rise and fall of kingdoms’ in a grand sweep of time. The novel has added to this tradition by reaching the broadest possible public with its message. This challenges a reader to reflect on how his own conduct measures up to the standards of loyalty and filial piety as they are fulfilled or betrayed in the novel. As Jiang Daqi said in the preface to the novel ‘merely to read it but not apply [its lessons] vigorously in one’s own life, is inferior to [real] study.’

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. 

China’s history and culture impacting Leadership - 1

In this and the next two blogs I will try to shed some light on the topic of how one should behave and what one should aim for to be a successful and superior leader. Here I will take it from a non-Western perspective – from China’s history that is quite rich and could be the source of potentially broader viewpoint in today’s (mostly western) leadership methodologies.

I begin with a story Outlaws of the Marsh. The main character Sòng Jiāng, the descendant of a landowner's family, nicknamed Timely Rain, was a clerk of the county magistrate’s court in Yuncheng. He was especially adherent to playing with weapons and adept at many forms of fighting. At the same time he had a reputation for being extremely filial and generous in helping those in needs. He helped anyone who sought his aid, high or low, making things easy for people, solving their difficulties, settling differences, saving lives, even providing his guest with food and lodging in the family manor. And so he was famed through the province of Shandong and Hebei. However, in silence he suffered in the face of the arbitrariness and corruption of the imperial justice system.