The Art of Leadership: Martial Arts Strategies

 

Are you looking to improve your leadership skills and gain a competitive edge in business and life? Look no further than the principles and practices of martial arts. They offer a unique set of tools and strategies that can help you become a more valuable leader.

One of the key benefits of martial arts is the emphasis on physical training and discipline. Through rigorous training and practice, martial arts can help you develop the focus, concentration, and mental fortitude needed to excel in leadership roles. By learning to prioritize tasks and stay focused under pressure, you can make better decisions and lead your team with greater confidence.

Martial arts also teach emotional discipline, which is essential for leadership. By learning to control your reactions to difficult situations, you can remain calm and composed in the face of challenges, and make rational decisions that benefit your organization. This emotional resilience can also help you navigate the difficulties of business and inspire confidence in your team.

In addition to physical and emotional discipline, martial arts promote respect for oneself and others. By showing respect, you can create an atmosphere of trust and cooperation in your organization, which is essential for effective leadership. As a leader, you must be able to inspire and motivate your team to do their best work, and respect is a crucial ingredient in building that relationship.

Developing leadership skills takes time and experience, but incorporating martial arts strategies can set you on the right path to success. By practicing physical and emotional discipline, fostering trust, showing respect, and building self-confidence, you can earn the respect and admiration of your colleagues and build a successful leadership career.

To start integrating martial arts principles into your leadership style, consider attending martial arts classes, joining a martial arts community, or studying martial arts philosophy. By taking action and actively seeking to improve your leadership skills, you can set yourself up for success in both your personal and professional life.

In conclusion, martial arts offer a unique set of tools and strategies that can help you become a more effective and successful leader. By developing physical and emotional discipline, fostering respect, and building self-confidence, you can earn the trust and admiration of your colleagues and build a successful leadership career. So why not take the first step today and explore the world of martial arts? It just might be the key to unlocking your full leadership potential.

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.

Leadership and Millenians

Millennials: too many companies you will work for are not built to take care of you. Until that changes, please take care of each other. But are companies of today really companies that do care about you (no matter if you are millenians or not)?

You hear about Millennials, Generation X, and the Baby Boomers all the time, but it’s not always clear who’s a part of these groups. In fact, all of these terms are fairly unofficial social constructs outside of the Boomers. This is what they’ve come up with (source New Guidelines Redefine Birth Years for Millennials, Gen-X, and 'Post-Millennials'):

• The Silent Generation: Born 1928-1945 (73-90 years old)
• Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (54-72 years old)
• Generation X: Born 1965-1980 (38-53 years old)
• Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (22-37 years old)
• Post-Millennials (or generation Z): Born 1997-2010 (8-21 years old)

• Generation Alpha: Born after 2010

I have sons in millenians time range and have to admit that a good example of current situation on millenians question has been given by Simon Sinek in his video: This Is Why You Don't Succeed.

Leadership Paradigm Shift

The challenges we face in the 21st century are often complex, where multiple causes lead non-linearly to multiple effects.

Complex problems are best solved by participatory processes that surface the wisdom of multiple perspectives.

New leadership models foster co-creation and co-ownership.

Which Martial Art (Leadership) is the best?

It is an important question that each practitioner/non-practitioner asks them selfs. I am frequently asked this question and a long time ago I found my answer.

If you were to climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro would you ask yourself “What is the best way to the top?”

The answer to upper question can vary: 

YES - then you would have to define what is the best route for you.

NO - then you probably already know how you would like to achieve the top.

There are several ways by which you can reach Kibo or Uhuru Peak, which are the highest points of Mount Kilimanjaro (Machame, Marangu, Mweka, Londorossi Lemosho, Shira, Rongai, Umbwe and Northern Circuit). They are all different but all help you reach the same final goal, which is to reach the TOP.

Why are there so many routes that lead to the top? The primary issue lies within each person that wants to reach the peak. Would we like to do it fast, slow or do we want panoramic views (probably this one)?

Personal preferences are different and consequently, each route has different obstacles. It is the same in Martial Arts. Some are based on the ground, some are based on kicks and some are even based on grappling. But all have the same end goal, which is to learn the art and get experience in combat. This is why it depends on each individual.

Over the years I've also found another issue that I’d like to share. It illustrates an even deeper goal like the story above of Kilimanjaro. If we carefully watch great martial arts masters we could definitely see very similar postures, movements and use of the fighting techniques. In majority of martial arts. It actually does not matter which school or style they came from. They present the peak of martial arts’ knowledge – like Uhuru for Kilimanjaro. And the ‘routes’ (style of martial art) they took to master it could have been very different!

Why is this so?

Does the answer lay in sustainable development leadership?

I upgraded the classic Einstein quote ‘We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’ by adding ‘with the same people!’ To me it seems particularly relevant to sustainability challenges needed in todays’ world.

Prior to argue it let me first describe what sustainable development is?

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

• the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.

I rationale that we should aim to achieve this necessary different approach to be able to change the devastating path we are currently on and as a contrast to today mostly used economy and leadership.

In my previous posts I have already described my concerns about neo-liberal economy approach, private ownership, different views (names of) current leadership tactics. Now we are just a few weeks past the COP21 in Paris on global climate changes that draw a commitment to ‘pursue efforts’ (not to take actions) to keep the temperature increase to only 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels – admittedly, a formidable technical and political flowery phrase.

Unfortunately, this is not enough anymore! We are in need for a completely different attempt than we see today – like Einstein said.

Why?

As already Al Gore, in his foreword to the book World changing: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century, pointed out that a shift where individuals join together to create a “turning point in human civilization ... that requires great moral leadership and generational responsibility … to build that future, we need a generation of everyday heroes, people who — whatever their walks of life is — have the courage to think in fresh new ways and to act to meet this planetary crisis head-on.”

For this we need very unique and changed leaders than they are today and beside that much more conscious followers!

From the first conference on climate change in Tokyo back in 1987 a lot has changed but not enough has been done. While the international community and the politicians continue the talks on sustainable development and green economy time passes and pollution, poverty, destruction of our planet, depletion of natural resources have gone almost beyond the point of no return.

What we see today is the current leadership, depletion of resources and pollution not slowing but rising. The gap to sustainability is real and urgent, especially because complex problems we face require innovative /different thinking and networked / civilization(s) actions lead by such (new) leaders. And yes, not just those on the top positions but a whole generation needs to be inspired, motivated and engaged to think and act in a way that matches the scale of the challenge.

Things Agility Can Teach Us About Leadership

More and more we hear about ‘agility’ in project management, agility leadership, agility in martial arts and canine agility …

What exactly is agility?

Dog’s agility, easiest to explain, is a competitive sport in which a dog is directed through obstacles in a course that is timed and watched for accuracy. Easy that one!?

Let’s frame what is ‘agile project management’ - it refers to iterative and incremental method of managing the design and to build activities in a project with aim to provide new product or service in a highly flexible and interactive manner. A bit harder?

Further, we find that agility training is fundamental to any (great) martial artist as well. In martial arts it is definitely true that some genetics play an important role in the development of agility; nevertheless, with the adequate practice anybody can improve his/her agility. That’s understandable.

Going even deeper to define agility we meet the use of the word ‘agility’ in leadership, too. What does it mean? Leadership agility is a mastery competency needed for sustained success in today’s complex, fast-paced, business environment. Such a leader has the ability and/or agility to operate in any manner and to think and react in a number of different ways. Does this sound more complicated?

Seeing very different connotations and the use of the same term, let’s pose a question – “How could we suggest a common denominator and explain it?”