[Vnbiz] Leadership -- What are you looking for in your leader?

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

Dear CACC,

Looks like we have got all the volunteers for short list.  So let me try to
go over everything from everyone so far to construct a short list.

A.  First, let start with the most simple common-sense definition of
"leader."  Leader is (1) the person who leads (2) a group of people (3) to a
destination.

So leadership involves you, your people and the goal.

1.  The goal is what we call "vision," some destination in the future to
arrive, some purpose to achieve.   "Vision" always implies with it
"the method to achieve the vision" (because without a method get to the
vision, the vision is only a daydream).   So the first obvious element of
leadership is the "vision and the way to achieve the vision."  Brother Thien
mentioned this point abut goal (vision) in his message.

Because "vision" always implies "the way to achieve vision," most people
just use one word "vision" to indicate both.

Please note: "The way to achieve vision" is usually very general. Say, Ho
Chi Minh's vision is "Freedom, Independence and Happiness," which during his
life time meant "independence from the French."  His "way" is that the
entire people would fight the French, never stopping, never quitting, until
we win.   This "way" is very general. It is not as detailed and
concrete as the strategies and tactics used daily during the war, which are
of a technical nature and are done by his lieutenants.


2.   Now you and your people.  As a matter of common sense, people follow
you because they believe in you and your vision.

They believe in your vision because, after listening to what you say and
your vision, they agree with your vision and like your vision.

They believe in you because (1) they believe that you are capable of leading
them to your vision.  This is "competence" (or a more general term "wisdom",
or a some more narrow terms-- "Intelligence," "knowledge").  In other
words, They believe that "you know what you are doing."

People also believe in you because they believe that you are honest, that
what you say about your vision and your way is your honest words, that what
you say about you is your honest words, and that they can trust your words.
So, "honesty" is another core element.  Honesty can also be replaced by
other terms, such as integrity, trustworthiness, reliable, dependable, etc.

*So, from the point of view of your followers, your leadership has 3 core
elements:*
**
*1.  Your vision (and they way to the vision)*
*2.  Your competence (you know what you doing--also known as intelligence,
knowledge, wisdom)*
*3.  Your honesty (also known as integrity, trustworthiness, reliable,
dependable)*
**
B.  The above is a look at leadership from the follower's point of view.
Now let's look at leadership from the leader's point of view.

1.  First, of course, you, as a leader, has to have a vision (and the way to
achieve vision).

But, how to have a vision that your people really love?  The answer, you
have to understand your people's heart and mind so well that you can design
a vision that satisfies their heart's yearning.

2.  But how do you understand your people's hearts and minds so well?
Having a PhD in psychology?  Having a crystal ball?  The only answer I know
is that you have to truly love your people.  I don't know of any other way
to understand someone other than you have to really loves them.  You may be
a good communicator or good analyst, but if you don't really love someone,
the most you can do is to understand a very small facet of her, not the
whole of her.  You cannot understand someone so well and so deep without
really loving him/her.

(Note:  Many parents may say that they love their children so much that they
force all they children to be doctors and lawyers to be better in life.
Sorry, that is not loving your children.  That is "loving your future image
of your children" or "loving your own self, loving to be a parent of a bunch
of doctors and lawyers." That is not loving your children.  Same thing with
government that runs after its own idea of how its people should be, instead
of truly understanding and loving the real people who walk the streets, who
have real feelings and real struggles).

Once you really love your people, you should be able to understand them well
enough to come up with a vision that fits their yearning.

So, from the leader's point of view, the second core element is "love your
people"(also known as compassion, grace, caring, social responsibility,
etc.)

>From a true love for your people, you will be able to love properly, like,
as anh Shane said, loving everyone of your people equally, loving the
entirety of "your people" and protecting it against the destruction by a bad
portion of your people, only asking your people to do what you would do
yourself, fair in reward and punishment, etc.  All these forms of loving
measures flow naturally from true love.

3.  And if you really love your people, you will become competent in leading
your people.  Say, if you really love your daughter and she is really sick,
and although you are not a doctor, you would be able to do your own research
to understand a lot about the disease and about available doctors and
hospitals out there, to find the best, the most competent treatment for
her.  Competetence is a matter of learning and if you really love someone
you will know how to learn and to get the professional help to do the best
job for them.

(If you know that you, even with professional technical help, are not
competent to be the leader, and if you truly love your people, then you
wouldn't take the leadership position anyway).

Thus, from the leadership's point of view, competence is a necessity, but a
necessity that would flow naturally from true love.  We don't really need to
mention competence separately.

4.  About honesty, I would also that honesty is the most natural thing that
flows from true love.  When you love someone, you would be honest with
him/her.

*So, from the leadership's point of view, leadership has 2 core elements: *
**
*First, a vision (and the way to the vision)*
*Second, Compassion for your people.*

*If we put the two points of view together* in a list and do not distinguish
follower's view or leader's view, *we have a list with 4 core elements of
leadership:*
**
*1.  Vision *
*2.  Compassion (love, care, understanding, grace)*
*3.  Comptence (wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, effectiveness)*
*4.  Honesty (integrity, trustworthiness, reliability, dependability)*
**
Please feel free to chip in.

In the next message I will go over one important point in anh Shane's list:
Protecting the entirely of your people (by sacrificing a small portion of
it, when necessary).  This is probably what brother Hien calls "toughness"
and other folks call "Making the hard decision."

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Hoanh



On 7/19/07, Hien Nguyen <hnguyen97 at gmail.com> wrote:

> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
> Dear CACE,
>
> It's entertaining to see how social theories can be condensed into one or
> two sentences. Thanks anh Hoanh.
>
> I'd like to volunteer three core elements; but before I list them out, I
> explain the way to build up the concepts.
>
> From a mathematical perspective,  three "core" elements should be
> distinctive, and complement others to make other elements, namely three
> vectors. If we rotate all three vectors by few degrees, they will be another
> three "core" elements.
>
> I select:
>
> LOVE
> WISDOM
> and TOUGHNESS
>
> as core elements.
>
> Have a great day,
> Hien
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
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