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Best leaders lend an ear
By Wang Yong |
September 17, 2011, Saturday
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WOULD you promote someone who shamed you in public with good reason?
Few people would do that, but that was how China's former Premier Zhu Rongji treated those whom he called "capable opponents."
"I will trust those with important tasks who dare to challenge or even shame me to my face," says Zhu in his newly published best-seller in Chinese, "A Record of Zhu Rongji's Speeches."
"Certainly I won't promote everyone [who challenges or shames me]. I promote only those who prove to be capable in their own right," explains Zhu, who was premier from 1998 to 2003. "At any rate, I won't harbor bias or hatred [toward a bold critic]."
Western media dubbed Zhu an "economic czar" for his tough-fisted approach to a host of economic and social woes such as inflation, real estate bubbles and bureaucratic redundancy. The word "czar" evokes an autocratic ruler, but thanks to Zhu's new book from the People's Publishing House, we now know he was tough on thorny problems, never on capable opponents.
He begged to differ and to be disagreed with, he welcomed challenge and debate - rare personality traits that set him apart from the general political culture then and today in China, where a voice from the top is not to be interrupted, certainly not publicly doubted or disputed.
That unquestioning obedience to the man on top, whoever he may be, partly explains why China launched a hasty leap forward in high-speed trains while the now-disgraced Liu Zhijun was the Minister of Railways. That's also why Gujing Group, one of China's largest state-owned alcohol and hotel chains, turned a blind eye to the corruption of its chairman Wang Xiaojin before he was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for taking bribes. Wang confessed to prosecutors: "At Gujing, who dared to challenge me?"
Often worse than ministerial or managerial corruption is that involving Party secretaries at the county level who, according to a People's Daily commentary on September 5, are particularly prone to misuse of absolute power.
The commentator quoted a popular comic saying about bureaucrats: "No. 1 holds absolute truth, No. 2 holds relative truth, No. 3 follows the truth, and the rest absolutely have no truth."
Confusion tolerance
That's not the way to be if a country wishes to prosper.
Former Premier Zhu Rongji may be far from perfect, but his legacy is precious - respect for capable critics, or, in author Andy Stefanovich's words, "confusion tolerance."
To be a great leader, one must not pretend to be a know-it-all, Stefanovich says in "Look at More," his best-seller published this year. An expert on innovation and leadership, Stefanovich is a visiting scholar at Duke, Dartmouth and other prestigious American universities.
Zhu may not have read Stefanovich's book, but it endorses Zhu's managerial and political style, a style that belongs in a classic textbook on leadership for all who aspire to make their countries better.
Complement "Look at More" with "The Medici Effect," a 2008 best-seller, and you get a fuller picture of what makes a great leader.
Most people know the Renaissance, few know the Medici family, but it was the Medici family who made the Renaissanace happen in 15th century Florence.
As bankers, the Medicis funded art, science, literature, politics and many other fields.
It was exactly this intersection of disciplines that made Florence the center of the Renaissance and center of Europe at the time.
Quantity of ideas
"Quanity of ideas leads to quality of ideas," says Frans Johansson, author of "The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures." He is a writer and entrepreneur in New York.
If you want to create your own Renaissance, hunt for different ideas and work with different people. The hardest part, Johansson says, is in overcoming one's natural tendency to choose and hire people like oneself.
Here are the nuts and bolts of Johansson's advice:
Fill your workplace with people different from you, and make sure all ideas get a fair hearing. Train your team in conflict management, so members can depersonalize any conflicts that arise.
A common thread of the two books is an urge to treat one's colleagues as equals, not as subordinates. You may disagree with your colleagues, but don't disparage them. Lend them an ear, as Zhu Rongji did.
The two books are commendable in many other ways, but their call for respectful disagreement merits particular attention today in the worlds of politics and governance where the law of the jungle too often prevails.
They serve as a modern elaboration of a long-lost Confucian lesson: Gentlemen disagree but unite, while base men agree but disunite.
Few people would do that, but that was how China's former Premier Zhu Rongji treated those whom he called "capable opponents."
"I will trust those with important tasks who dare to challenge or even shame me to my face," says Zhu in his newly published best-seller in Chinese, "A Record of Zhu Rongji's Speeches."
"Certainly I won't promote everyone [who challenges or shames me]. I promote only those who prove to be capable in their own right," explains Zhu, who was premier from 1998 to 2003. "At any rate, I won't harbor bias or hatred [toward a bold critic]."
Western media dubbed Zhu an "economic czar" for his tough-fisted approach to a host of economic and social woes such as inflation, real estate bubbles and bureaucratic redundancy. The word "czar" evokes an autocratic ruler, but thanks to Zhu's new book from the People's Publishing House, we now know he was tough on thorny problems, never on capable opponents.
He begged to differ and to be disagreed with, he welcomed challenge and debate - rare personality traits that set him apart from the general political culture then and today in China, where a voice from the top is not to be interrupted, certainly not publicly doubted or disputed.
That unquestioning obedience to the man on top, whoever he may be, partly explains why China launched a hasty leap forward in high-speed trains while the now-disgraced Liu Zhijun was the Minister of Railways. That's also why Gujing Group, one of China's largest state-owned alcohol and hotel chains, turned a blind eye to the corruption of its chairman Wang Xiaojin before he was sentenced to life in prison in 2009 for taking bribes. Wang confessed to prosecutors: "At Gujing, who dared to challenge me?"
Often worse than ministerial or managerial corruption is that involving Party secretaries at the county level who, according to a People's Daily commentary on September 5, are particularly prone to misuse of absolute power.
The commentator quoted a popular comic saying about bureaucrats: "No. 1 holds absolute truth, No. 2 holds relative truth, No. 3 follows the truth, and the rest absolutely have no truth."
Confusion tolerance
That's not the way to be if a country wishes to prosper.
Former Premier Zhu Rongji may be far from perfect, but his legacy is precious - respect for capable critics, or, in author Andy Stefanovich's words, "confusion tolerance."
To be a great leader, one must not pretend to be a know-it-all, Stefanovich says in "Look at More," his best-seller published this year. An expert on innovation and leadership, Stefanovich is a visiting scholar at Duke, Dartmouth and other prestigious American universities.
Zhu may not have read Stefanovich's book, but it endorses Zhu's managerial and political style, a style that belongs in a classic textbook on leadership for all who aspire to make their countries better.
Complement "Look at More" with "The Medici Effect," a 2008 best-seller, and you get a fuller picture of what makes a great leader.
Most people know the Renaissance, few know the Medici family, but it was the Medici family who made the Renaissanace happen in 15th century Florence.
As bankers, the Medicis funded art, science, literature, politics and many other fields.
It was exactly this intersection of disciplines that made Florence the center of the Renaissance and center of Europe at the time.
Quantity of ideas
"Quanity of ideas leads to quality of ideas," says Frans Johansson, author of "The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures." He is a writer and entrepreneur in New York.
If you want to create your own Renaissance, hunt for different ideas and work with different people. The hardest part, Johansson says, is in overcoming one's natural tendency to choose and hire people like oneself.
Here are the nuts and bolts of Johansson's advice:
Fill your workplace with people different from you, and make sure all ideas get a fair hearing. Train your team in conflict management, so members can depersonalize any conflicts that arise.
A common thread of the two books is an urge to treat one's colleagues as equals, not as subordinates. You may disagree with your colleagues, but don't disparage them. Lend them an ear, as Zhu Rongji did.
The two books are commendable in many other ways, but their call for respectful disagreement merits particular attention today in the worlds of politics and governance where the law of the jungle too often prevails.
They serve as a modern elaboration of a long-lost Confucian lesson: Gentlemen disagree but unite, while base men agree but disunite.
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