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

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

 Dear Brothers Thien and Andi,

Glad that you like this subject so much !!

Brother Thien, teachers are never good enough for us.  All teachers are
alike, each brings to us some knowledge.  But leadership is an art, we just
have to practice, practice, and practice until we master the art
ourselves.

The old masters are revered because, for thousands of years, people realize
that what they say make sense (otherwise, why should they be so famous for
so long?).  Human behavior changes very little over the milleniums.   Hi,
no, ai, o, bi, lac, duc.  For millions of years, fundamental human needs and
impluses change very little.  Thus, fundamental human-relation principles,
such as leadership principles have changed very little.  And If you should
learn from a teacher, try to find the best teacher of the world.  For me,
the best teachers are the ones that have been proven to last the longest.

But we cannot over-emphazie teachers, we have to rely on our own practice in
order to master the art.  You realize that in constructing the list of
leadership core elements, I did not rely on any old master's method.  I
strictly use common sense and common reasoning.  Nothing fancy.

Time-proven principles are like ingredients, salt, sugar, lemon, pepper, for
cooking.  They have been there for thousands of years. You learn how these
ingredients work and come up with your own dish.

The best way to practice leadership is to build something from ground zero,
such as building a new company, building a new organization, opening a new
project, opening a new group.  Nothing, no master old or new, can replace
practice, practice and practice.

Brother Andi, politicians, like lawyers, have a bad reputation universally,
although once in a while a politician or lawyermay enjoy some good
reputation.

But leadership has less to do with politician than with you youself, Andi.
What kind of leader your are?  How do you act toward your children, your
younger siblings, your employees, your subordinates?  Are you not honest to
them?  Are you not loving them?

About Bill Clinton's example, if Bill were as competent but more honest than
the Bill we know, wouldn't you like that better?  Of course, in an imperfect
world, we must make an imperfect choice.  But if you have a better choice,
wouldn't you take the better choice?

But again, this is less about Bill or any leader out there than about
ourselves, about you, me, and each one of us who wants to develop
him/herself.

Have a great day, brother Thien & Andi, and all.

Hoanh
-- 
Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
Washington DC
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.saigon.com/pipermail/vnbiz/attachments/20070721/b8c353bd/attachment.html