What exactly is leadership? Are there cultural differences in leadership? Is there such a thing as Chinese leadership? How to develop leadership in the Chinese cultural context?
Chinese leadership is born in the soil
If Chinese-style leadership is not Machiavellianism, what is the real Chinese leadership?
The essence of leadership is the same at home and abroad, but due to different cultural and historical environments, the cultivation and practice of leadership are bound to be significantly different. This is where the so-called Chinese leadership comes in. Chinese-style leadership is grown in the soil of Chinese culture, which can lead the Chinese people and adapt to the development of Chinese organizations. The essence of leadership is to make leaders and followers reach a consensus and achieve a common goal. In China, it must be the Chinese-style context and culture to better communicate and form the characteristics of Chinese leadership.
Alibaba attaches great importance to the construction of corporate cultural values, and many practices are very local. For example, the management of Sanban ax “pull hair, look in the mirror, smell”, flower culture, handstand culture, and so on. Antony shares some of Alibaba’s practices: “Internally we talk about a picture, a heart, a battle. First of all, Ali has another saying called focusing (Zhang, 2019). From top to bottom, we should repeatedly confirm the purpose of doing this thing, which is to reach a consensus. One heart means that Ali likes to do all kinds of mobilization meetings, including Double 11 and 6.18, and do all kinds of compound dishes, which is essential to gather people’s hearts. You make the renderings first. Our drawings are renderings. How to realize the effect drawing, we must have the construction drawing, the construction drawing is the battle, we must know their respective strategy on the battlefield (Zhang, 2019).
Yin and Yang are called Tao
Is the use of Chinese-style leadership in the context of Chinese culture inconsistent with western management systems and institutions? Observing the successful enterprises in China, no matter whether they are Alibaba, Tencent, or Huawei, they are all soft, hard, and Yin. Its culture is basically local, but its management system is absolutely Westernized. Huawei is the most typical. Ali has a lot of GE stuff. Yin and Yang are called Tao. Yang is the management system process system, is the hardware of the organization; Yin is a cultural value, which is the software of the organization. Any business has this Yin and Yang. The management system and process system can learn from the West and adopt the doctrine. Cultural values are hard. They involve people’s inner beliefs and beliefs. The soul of Chinese enterprises can only grow out of the soil of Chinese culture.
Mind or practice
How to develop leadership in the Chinese cultural context? Traditional leadership courses are no longer effective. There are some differences between the East and West in how to develop leadership. Western leadership development focuses on practice. Standardize the leadership model, and change your behavior will improve your leadership. Leadership development is about changing people. What is the most important change? It’s behavior. Only behavior can be controlled and changed. So the Western model in many cases tells you directly what the behavior is. ATD has a managerialism model called the ACCL model, which means that a manager can be a good leader and only need to do five aspects well (Hoeijmakers et al., 2013, p. 176). The development of Oriental leadership focuses on cultivating the mind. The Confucian idea is sanctification, the Taoist ideal is immortality, and the Buddhist ideal is Buddhahood (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, n.d.). Whether you become a saint, an immortal, or a Buddha, you need to go through a long process of cultivation. The focus of this process is the cultivation of the mind, which emphasizes the understanding of the process. Chinese culture provides Chinese managers with ultimate belief and belief, which is the source of leaders’ mental strength and the internal support for leadership behavior display. The essence of Chinese-style leadership development is mind cultivation (Mingzheng & Xinhui, 2014, p. 165). Effective development of leadership needs to create a process of cultivation. There are three metaphors for this process. The first metaphor for leadership is a pair of outstretched wings pushed down. When faced with a very challenging task, as if you are on a cliff, will be pushed off, can you stretch out a pair of wings. The second analogy is that leadership is a discipline that enforces dialogue and sublimates knowledge and practice. The third metaphor is the transformation of leadership over and over again. Everyone is constantly moving from their comfort zone to their discomfort zone to develop leadership. The manager’s faith, his pursuit, his courage, his attitude towards life, even inspiration, luck, many seemingly accidental opportunities, even miracles. It’s what really makes a business, what makes a person successful. And that’s exactly what management education didn’t cover in the past. But what do these things depend on for maintenance? What to cultivate? The classics of traditional culture, Chinese traditional culture, are all integrated into these classics, and they all come in this direction.
References
Hoeijmakers, M., Harting, J., & Jansen, M. (2013). Academic collaborative centre Limburg: A platform for knowledge transfer and exchange in public health policy, research and practice? Health Policy, 111(2), 175-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2013.04.004
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). Chinese philosophy: Overview of topics. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy | An encyclopedia of philosophy articles written by professional philosophers. https://iep.utm.edu/chin-ovr/
Mingzheng, X., & Xinhui, W. (2014). Chinese leadership. Public Integrity, 16(2), 165-172. https://doi.org/10.2753/pin1099-9922160204
Zhang, D. (2019, April 8). Compete with yourself and other tips for leaders from Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/7-leadership-principles-from-alibaba-ceo-daniel-zhang.html
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