Leadership by virtue

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.

Virtue - driven company

What YOU put up with is what YOU have to live with!

Modern corporate culture

Although companies today dispose of all kinds of employee assessment systems, the employees are still managed by managers rather than lead by leaders. Being treated as a cost, even expendable or hopeless, the staff, normally, acts in the same way.

Banks or financial service companies analyze the companies’ performance. For the writing of “the analyst reports” normally young people, freshly out of the school, are used. The report which mostly does not make any significant sense is then solely used by management as a base to steer the staff and processes the way they always wished but were ‘afraid’ to do. So we begin to work to live rather than live to work.

I might also say that in companies “a terrible job” is done when screening and matching people to tasks. Thousands of low level employees are hired but not empowered to actually change anything even in their own field of expertise for which they were hired. Their work is just to do the job (execute higher level decisions). Companies do not dispose of a long term plan to keep best people engaged; they don’t reward them for exceptional actions. No incentive is provided to those that are willing to be innovative. The incentive, if at all, is meant for those that do fewer errors and are willing to compel to the system. The employees are not empowered to solve problems. They are required to rather avoid them (by punished errors). Thusly, companies create a symptom of “someone else's problem”, certainly not my problem, not my responsibility.

In the companies that are not just managed but being lead by true leaders the employees come first and are encouraged to stand up and do it differently.

Social vs. Economical system

If these two systems could or not be compared we should first lay out some definitions.

The social system is represented by people or groups of people. It is a social structure that refers to entities or groups of people that are definitively in relation to each other by having different functions, characteristics, origin or status. A social system is comprised of interdependent set of cultural and structural elements understood as a unit. Sociology is the study of human social behavior and especially the study of the origins, organizations, institutions and development of human society.

The economic system encompasses the production, distribution or trade of goods and services and consumption by different individuals, businesses, organizations, or governments. Economy as a study deals with the production and consumption of goods and the transfer of wealth and explains how people interact within markets to get what they want or how they accomplish certain economical goals.

To understand if the systems are comparable or not we should probably dig even more and try to outline also the basic differences between socialism and capitalism.

Problem solving and Leadership

Broadly perceived “western” trap says: “Problem solving is the essence of why leaders exist to do.”

Why is that false?

Like falling dominoes also the problems tend to accumulate fast? Most managers take short-cuts just to temporarily alleviate the most important tension points - just to be able to move onto the next problem. So, being unable to solve the core of each problem, the managers continuously get caught in the trap of a never-ending cycle thusly making it even more difficult to find any real resolutions. And these actions are draining all their energy and time resources.

To change . . . Why bother?

Heraclitus said: “Change is the only constant in life.” Accordingly, people like to change things or other people but are usually not so willing to change themselves.

Why do people resist to the change? Is it because they mistake inertia or no-change for safety and predictability? Logically, the fear of the unknown frightens us. Leaving a comfort zone and facing uncertainty creates a lot of anxiety thusly paralyzing any activity for a change even if the current situation or process is not functioning well. It is much more difficult to accept the change when we lack confidence. Mostly, we all tend to postpone the difficult or uncomfortable things that need to be changed. Postponing them until the very last minute (known as a “student syndrome”), until something generates an impulse of urgency. Why we believe that there is always enough time to think about a change tomorrow I have already described in Cause and consequence / Urgent and important.

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).

Wing chun in Leadership

Wing Chun (in Mandarin Yong chun) means “eternal spring”. It is a marvelously efficient system of aggressive self-defense that allows immediate adaptation to the size, strength, and fighting style of an attacker.

Yip Man, who introduced wing chun to the west, was from the south of China where Cantonese language is spoken. Additionally, the Chinese pronunciation is very different from the Western pronunciation and that is why people misunderstand it. Consequently, we do not have only Wing Chun, but also Ving Tsun, Ving Chun, and Wing Tsun, as well as some styles that at the end of Wing Chun as a third word add Kuen (Mandarin Quan), meaning “series of fist boxing”.

Wing chun is also based on the Yin and Yang principle, meaning soft and hard or motion and stillness, attack and defense—they all come from each other. Yin and Yang may be the most important theory in China. The concept of Yin and Yang is simple and at the same time vast in nature. The earliest origin of Yin and Yang must have come from the observation of day turning into night and night turning into day. Yin and Yang are interdependent on each other. Yin cannot survive without Yang and vice versa—there cannot be activity without rest and rest without activity. Which is the fundamental tenet in Chinese thought that has been emphasized mostly by the Daoist schools is wu wei. The literal meaning of wu wei is ‘without action’ and is often included in the paradox wei wu wei, ‘action without action’ or ‘effortless doing.’ It means natural action—as planets revolve around the sun, they ‘do’ this revolving, but without ‘doing’ it, or as a tree grows, it ‘does,’ but without ‘doing.’ Wu wei refers to behavior that arises from a sense of oneself as connected to others and to one’s environment. It is not motivated by a sense of separateness. It is action that is spontaneous and effortless. If wu wei is seen purely as inactivity, then indeed it is anachronistic in todays’ times. But wu wei is not just a lack of purposeful action, it involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Therefore, it is a state of alert quietude and watchfulness, it is action only when and where required to restore the balance of universal harmony. In Wing Chun, one utilizes all these principles when fighting.

Tai Chi Quan Leadership

Virtue - driven company

Modern corporate culture

Social vs. Economical system

Problem solving and Leadership

Resistance to change