Business is not the art of war

Management books became trendy in the 80’s. One of the best-selling books at the time was The Art of War by Sun Tzu. I still meet business people today who, upon discovering that I do leadership trainings, automatically launch into a demonstration of the lessons they learned from the book.

Today, we have other business books entitled, Leadership Lessons from Atilla The Hun and, hilariously enough, Management Lessons from Winnie the Pooh. But I personally feel that pressing people to read the book is a great disservice to the field of leadership.

Those and other similar books are entertaining, yes. They also communicate a powerful message and offer page after page of elegantly set-out tactics. But the problem is that readers mistake their rival for the enemy.

In war, your enemy is hiding on the other side of the hill, waiting to launch a surprise attack and destroy you. But in business, what Pogo The Thinker has said is true: “We have discovered the enemy, and the enemy is us.” This means that a company succeeds against its rival (or rivals) not by attacking the other company but by satisfying the needs of its own clients.

Business is not war. We don’t go and murder our competitors, do we?

Maybe a “war mindset” is the reason why the work place is toxic. Aside from perceiving other companies as enemies, readers use the same tactics on another set of enemies – their own peers in the work place!

A great business leader direct the whole team to achieve aims beyond their expectations. And because being a member of a top-performing team makes one always in demand, these leaders do not have much trouble recruiting people to join their team, despite our free-agent, new-employment-compact world where loyalty is no longer the virtue it once was.

Working on a great team, with great leaders, provides a boost to any individual’s career. Not surprisingly, the three runners-up to succeed Jack Welch at GE all became CEOs of large companies.

Leadership consultant Michael Maccoby suggests that there are three distinct types of leadership roles that propel organizations to success, and these are:

• Strategic leaders

Strategic leaders are people within organizations who plot the course of the business. They are the longer-term thinkers. Generally, they can think far into the future. The best of them understand where the future is going and how to get there. They love trying to figure out tomorrow’s challenges long before the challenges present themselves.

• Operational leaders

Operational leaders make certain the trains run on time, the manufacturing processes are adequate, the logistics systems work, the technicians are well-trained, and the trucks are where they are supposed to be. Like strategic leaders, operational leaders are vital to an organization’s success.

• Bridge-building leaders

These are people who connect people together, transfer knowledge and information, make introductions and help others achieve their goals. Bridge-building leaders are extremely important within organizations as well.

All three leadership roles – strategic, operational and bridge-building – are vital to creating a common-purpose organization. Setting a goal (strategic), making certain that everything that is needed to reach that goal is being done (operational) and ensuring that everyone is working together to achieve the same aims (bridge-building) are essential to the success of any endeavor.

So here is my take on this:

You are in business. You are a professional, not a warrior. You don’t have to be ruthless to lead. You don’t have to be toxic to get things done; those who are never last. Serve and lead – that was Jesus’ model. And it works all the time.

(I’d love to hear from you! Click on to www.franciskong.com to send me feedback. You can also listen to my radio program “Business Matters” aired at 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays over 98.7 dzFE-FM, ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)