“The Way” of Leadership

Dào – the Way and Confucianism

Although Dào literally means ‘a way’ or one of its synonyms, the meaning was extended to mean ‘the Way.’ And this term, variously used by many Chinese philosophers such as Confucius, Mencius, Mò Zǐ, and Han Fei Zǐ, has a special meaning within the context of Daoism, where it implies the essential, unnamable process of the universe.

Daoism is traditionally traced to the mythical philosopher Lǎo Zǐ , the ‘Old Master’ to whom the text Dào Dé Jīng has been attributed. Dào Dé Jīng is translated as ‘The Classic/Canon of the Way/Path and the Power/Virtue,’ the title was generally used from the Tang dynasty period (618–905).

And the Daoism philosophy owes more to Zhuāng Zǐ (4^th century BE) the author of the core texts of the Chinese way of thinking known as ‘Daoism.’ Zhuāng Zǐ is traditionally credited as the author of at least part of the work, the one bearing his name, the Zhuāng Zǐ.

English: Analects, by Confucius. Östasiatiska Museet, Stockholm. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Confucianism principles are based on the written work The Confucian Analects (Lún Yǔ) ‘found’ by Confucius who lived two thousand and five hundred years ago.  The Chinese language does not use the word Confucianism, instead it is called Rú Jiāo meaning ‘scholar’ and ‘teach.’

External and internal control

“Please contact my secretary to find the time in my schedule, I’m over booked…”  Have you ever heard a similar from an important CEO or other top manager? He/she is obviously under the time pressure, a stress situation or … If this happens frequently it is normally understood that such people don’t have free time.

In my post Cause and consequence / Urgent and important the pressure because of mainly dealing with urgent instead of important issues was already discussed. To further it, concentrate on the next problem, well described by Zhuāng Zǐ proverb: “If you cannot even govern your own self, how can you govern the world”.

How true and how often we do ignore it? When under the stress a basic martial arts skill is to control and not to fight emotions that are piling up. First try to ascertain what you sense or feel. Then do some concealed relaxation breathing to relax the tension.

Nonverbal – body language and Leadership

There are two types of people—those who come into a room and say, “Well, here I am!” and those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.”(Frederick L. Collins)

Communications are verbal but, equally, if not more important, are those that are non-verbal. This accounts to between 50 to 70 percent of all communication – facial expression, eye gaze, gestures, and tone of voice. The way you listen, look, move and react lets other people know whether or not you pay attention, if you are being truthful, and how well you are listening.

Martial arts are based predominately on non-verbal communications. Once I asked my teacher: “Shifu, when two great martial arts masters meet how do they recognize who is better?”

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?

System thinking

Nature itself is a system with all parts entangled. Systems are like a human body: they are consisted of parts, and those same parts affect the performance of the whole. All the parts are interdependent. Just like a team of players during a game. But the team is not alone. They have the counter-party, there are judges, there are physical constraints engaged, and also spectators may be present. All of this forms a system. Times and circumstances may change, but systems tend to endure. If we don’t understanding this, wrong decisions, sometimes disastrous, can happen.

Also an organization is a system – a “living” system that performs by its own “will”. Rather than focusing on organizational goals and values, the management practice, when complying with the bureaucratic processes, sets the latter as the ultimate objective. Systems take on a life of their own and seem immune to common sense. When members of an organization feel as though, by circumventing established rules and procedures, they must constantly fight the system, the result can lead to cynicism, poor ethical climate, or forces them to jump from one urgent matter to another instead of worrying about important ones.