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

AD Marshall admarshall at gmail.com
Fri Jul 20 19:50:53 PDT 2007 

Sorry, but some quotes i remember are haunting me, along with some i just
discovered, regarding "honesty" as a criterion for a leader of any
significant number of people.

First, i think i can say that any leader of any group of people must by
definition be a politician, professional or amateur, consciously or not, and
the more people are led, the more of a politician that leader must be.  No?
These aphorisms seem to support as much:

   - ... man is... a political animal - Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, ch.
   2, 1253a, line 1
   - All issues are political issues... - George Orwell, Politics and the
   English Language, 1946

Given that, these quotes seem to preclude consistent honesty in any sort of
leadership that involves significant numbers of people:

   - If you begin by saying, "Thou shalt not lie," there is no longer any
   possibility of political action. - Jean-Paul Sartre, quoted in obituary,
   Time, 28 April 1980
   - ... people of superior refinement and of active disposition identify
   happiness with honour; for this is, roughly speaking, the end of political
   life. - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Bk. 1, ch. 5, 1095b, lines 22-23
   - [the remainder of the quote above from Orwell] ... and politics
   itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

All quotes above are from "The Great Thoughts", compiled by George Seldes,
1985, Ballantine Books, New York.  This one, included mainly for its
amusement value, is from http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_politics.html ::

I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons. - Will Rogers

This one is from a great web page called "Quotes about Lies" by Jennifer M.
C. Vendemia, Ph.D, who "for the last three years... has worked as a
Principal Investigator on a grant through the Department of Defense
Polygraph Institute studying the cognitive correlates of deception.",
http://www.vendemia.net/quotables.htm

An omnipotent God is the only being with no reason to lie.
-- Mason Cooley (b. 1927), U.S. aphorist. City Aphorisms, Fourth Selection,
New York (1987).

And this last one, which may well explain most of the above, is from the
Quotations Page:

It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck,
people understood each other, they would never agree.
-- *Charles Baudelaire<http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Charles_Baudelaire/>
**, French poet (1821 - 1867)*

Now, i've noted that the rough criteria you listed for "honesty" do not
explicitly include abstaining from deception, but can i presume that that
would fit somewhere within "integrity, trustworthiness, reliability,
dependability"?  If so, should we not qualify "honesty" considerably as a
criterion for the leadership of people?

Just a couple more dong's worth from the loyal opposition of the devil's
advocacy. ;)

With warm wishes,
Andi


On 7/21/07, AD Marshall <admarshall at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wow, A Hoanh,
>
> That was a truly impressive analysis, re-presentation (synthesis) and
> enhancement of the lists posted.  I have to wonder at how you can afford the
> time for as much.  Thanks.  You should work it up and publish it.
>
>
> On 7/21/07, Tran Dinh Hoanh <tdhoanh at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
> >
> >
> > 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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>
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