Organizations depend upon leaders and their leadership capabilities to guide them during trying times.
Sun Tzu said, “Next is the Commander. He must be smart, trustworthy, caring, brave, and strict.” Accordingly, the commander/leader must have those five traits; smart, trustworthy, caring, brave and strict. These qualities describe a person’s character.
Leaders, themselves are ‘Smart’ in order to be able to understand where the environment provides the best opportunities. The intelligent leader can able to rightly understand others, and to use the appropriate technique.
Today’s Leaders is that they have backgrounds as good technical managers who were promoted to their current management roles. They know their industry well, but…
“cannot distinguish between management and leadership beyond a mere intellectual understanding”
To be respected as leader of today’s organization climate, must be relevant and manage the inevitable organizational climate changes and the follow-on strategy changes with good leader.
‘Trustworthiness’ must inspire their staff’s devotion and subsequently the staff must never fear danger or dishonesty. Leader must represent its members with keen-concern and discuss the issues and fight for them and bring mutual agreement to the discussion table. They can have true influence and leverage over an organization, bringing the functional expertise to bear without artificial limitation, where appropriate, for the greater good of the organization.
Sun Tzu: the leader should be brave for obvious reasons. The modern equivalent could be “openness to experience”. This trait is key to using feedback from subordinates to improve one’s performance by establishing internal listening as a priority, and encourage two-way interaction. We must be willing to do the unpleasant parts of the job as well as the fun parts, and honor our agreements conscientiously. People must be able to depend on us.
If we are not reliable, no one will support us for long. If our decisions are well thought out and we act honestly, our follower will trust us. If we are trusted, people will speak their mind freely and openly, which means problems can be solved more quickly and effectively. ###
references from internet