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

[Tran Dinh Hoanh]

`Dear brother Andi & CACC,

Thanks for still giving lawyer some credit, Andi.  That is very refreshing,
especially if you life in the US :-)

When I talk about leadership here, I have a very clear purpose of providing
ideas for everyone of us to be a good leader, in our current capacity as an
older brother, a teacher, a parent, an administrator, an executive, a
whatever.  So when I ask "What kind of leader you are?"  I mean we want to
study leadership to work on ourselves, not to study is just to watch other
people (leaders) and making comments about them.

One of the biggest problems in management that I see is that, everyone seems
to think that "he is the leader, not me."  When my entire staff thinks that
way, I get nervous, because my staff will not try to act at the highest
level of their ability and will not be able to see things with a larger
vision that a leader would see.  I point out to each of my staff member that
"you are a leader of someone, whether you like it or not.  So start to act
like leader.  You have some staff under you, you are a leader.  (Even if you
have no staff under you, do you have a younger brother at home?).   And in
this company, I want you to think all the time like the leader of the entire
company.  I don't want you to think like you are just a technical person
doing this specific job.  You will not succeed in this company if you think
that way.  I want you to think like the leader of the company and to see
things that a leader would see."

That means, each of us just has to realize that we are a leader whether we
like it or not, and start to act like one.  That is my purpose.  Sorry if I
was unclear on this point, Andi.

About honesty, honesty is not the equivalent of stupidity,  Honesty doesn't
mean you have to say everything to everyone.  You don't have to say anything
to anyone.  If you don't want to say something, then don't say it.  Honesty
means that IF you say something, that will be the truth to the best of your
knowledge and belief.

I do not believe in "white lie."   White lie is a lie.  If I have to say a
white lie to save someone life, I probably will do it.  But I still
recognize that it is not honest.  I would try hard to think of a way to say
something honest, before I have to resort to a so-called white lie.  We have
to do what we have to do, as long as "we HAVE to do it" and we do not tell
lie, including white lie or yellow lie or whatever lie, as a matter of habit
and convenience.

I believe that a good leader must stand on the honesty principle.   I go to
court all the time and I don't lie to my opponent, although many things I
will not tell him.

Hope this clarify my previous message.  Sorry if I confuse you, brother
Andi.  Have a great day!

Hoanh




On 7/22/07, AD Marshall <admarshall at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [ Vietnam Business Forum ]
>
>
>
> A Hoanh, Bro',
>
> On 7/21/07, you wrote, "Brother Andi, politicians, like lawyers, have a
> bad reputation universally, although once in a while a politician or
> lawyermay enjoy some good reputation."
>
> Please be assured, though i'd largely agree with the stereotype that too
> many PROFESSIONAL politicians are weasels, i hold lawyers in general in
> quite high regard.  While lawyers, in Commonwealth nations at least, are
> broadly and rigorously educated and tested before qualifying for their
> profession, as Robert Louis Stephenson writ, 105 years ago, "Politics is
> perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary."<http://www.bartleby.com/73/1427.html>
> I have no negative stereotype of lawyers.  I even view a few as mentors, or
> masters, of living optimally.
>
> Next, you emphasized the limits of theory compared to practice and advised
> we each learn and build our own leadership methods, through practice, from
> scratch, from "ground zero", advise you later clarified and extended to any
> endeavor "in arts", in another mail to Bro' Ba Thien.  Please correct me if
> i'm misinterpreting.
>
> But back in your earlier mail.  You pointed out that, "leadership has less
> to do with politician than with you youself, Andi" and asked, "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?"
>
> I'm not sure whether your questions are merely rhetorical or actually
> seeking responses.  Which are they?  In either case, could you please do me
> the favor of providing examples of the sort of answers you're seeking,
> yourself.  I have what i think are clear and reasonable answers to those
> questions, but i'm not sure that i'd be addressing them from the angle you'd
> intended.  For example, in this context, what do you mean by "love" and how
> do "white lies" fit into it?
>
> Regarding the latter, for example, my own experience is that not only
> followers but peers will not appreciate honest expressions of what may be
> truth if it involves correcting some error in their ways or beliefs,
> especially deeply held or deeply personal beliefs.  They'd prefer a "white
> lie" or diversionary comment instead.  And, in fact, others may even view
> one as impolitic if he or she persists in saying what they truly think about
> the flaws of others in the group or even if they talk to blatantly about
> their own flaws if they themselves are supposed to be "leaders".
>
> I, myself, do not view myself as much of a leader in the sense i think
> leadership is being considered in this thread, precisely because of that
> last observation of mine.  I have a terrible tendency to blurt out questions
> like, "OK, but what about X, Y or Z?", when, in hindsight, i realize others
> had really wanted signs of support from me for some notion they were
> espousing.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> With warm wishes,
> Andi
>
>
> --
> Tran Dinh Hoanh, LLB, JD
> Washington DC
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