3 Mindsets That a Manager Can Learn from 'Three Strategies of Huang Shigong (黃石公三略)'

It is difficult to be a manager or a leader of a team. Technical skills such as accounting skills, legal skills or computer coding skills can be learned. However, humans are so diverse that it is difficult to get better at soft skills. Especially being in the position of a manager who needs to lead a team. Leading a team with soft skills is extremely difficult. In fact, these issues are not new. How to lead the group has already been an issue since ancient times.

Since this was an issue from ancient times, people wrote the best practices and left those for the people living today. Not all might fit today's world but there are certainly some wisdoms which can apply to today's world. In this article, I would like to share some wisdoms I found in "Three Strategies of Huang Shigong (黃石公三略)" regarding mindsets of a manager.

Be the last

軍讖曰：軍井未達，將不言渴。軍幕未辦，將不言倦。軍灶未炊，將不言飢。冬不服裘，夏不操扇，雨不張蓋，是謂將禮。

(Brief English Translation)
A general should not say thirsty where the purpose is not achieved yet. A general should not say tired when the base camp is not built yet. A general should not say hungry if the meal does not finish cooking. Don't wear a jacket in the winter, don't use a fan in the summer and don't use an umbrella when it is raining. That's how the general should be.

I believe the main point about this saying is that although a general might have authority, it doesn't mean that the general has privilege. Every company should have a vision. And, all employees are members to make the company get closer to that vision. Plus, the basics of the business is to provide value to the customers. Employees are the one who will work to deliver value to customers. And a manager is there to manage or lead those employees to assure that value is delivered to the customers. Although managers and employees have different responsibilities, both are responsible for delivering value to customers.

Simon Sinek said in his famous TED Talk as follows.

We call them leaders because they go first. We call them leaders because they take the risk. We call them leaders because they will choose to sacrifice so that their people may be safe and protected and so their people may gain, and when we do, the natural response is that our people will sacrifice for us.

In order to achieve the goal, a manager needs to make employees safe and protected so that they only need to focus on delivering value to the customers.

Trust others

軍讖曰：賢者所適，其前無敵。故士可下而不可驕，將可樂而不可憂，謀可深而不可疑。

(Brief English Translation)
There should not be anyone interfering in front of a wise person. Therefore, one needs to be humble and respect the person. Be supportive and eliminate destruction. And, do not be doubtful about the well thought plan.

The reason we work in a team is that there is a limit for a person to achieve only by oneself. If we work together as a team, we can accomplish a lot more. The manager is the one to make an environment where members can output maximum results. I think it is easier to think of it as a piano concerto. Piano concerto is a type of concerto in which a piano player is featured accompanied by an orchestra. Usually, there is a conductor leading the concerto other than the piano player. The conductor can conduct the tempo or can conduct which instrument should be louder or softer. However, the conductor can not play the piano. Once the concerto starts, the conductor needs to trust the piano player with respect. And the best thing a conductor can do is to control the orchestra so that the piano player can play comfortably. Even if the conductor is a great piano player, once the conductor is in the position to conduct, the conductor can not be the piano player.

The job of the manager is just like a conductor in the piano concerto. What managers can do is to create an environment where members can work comfortably and to support members to get maximum results. In order to do so, once the supervisor decides to ask a member to do a certain task, the supervisor should be humble and be respectful in the way the member would like to proceed with the task. And, the supervisor should be supportive to accomplish the task. Furthermore, the supervisor should not be doubtful about the plan which the member tries to proceed with.

Do the right thing

軍讖曰：善善不進，惡惡不退，賢者隱蔽，不肖在位，國受其害。

(Brief English Translation)
If the one is knowing it is right to do but not to execute, knowing it is wrong but does not stop, make a wise person to be kept hidden and make an unworthy person to be in position. This will just destroy the country.

In 2015, there was an accounting fraud in Toshiba, one of the famous companies in Japan. This fraud was done at the company level so it became big news in Japan. Toshiba inflated earnings for a long time. The president of Toshiba at that time pressured the division which had difficulty reaching the level of profit assigned. Since there was a culture that nobody can question the manager, rather than reporting the difficult situation of achieving the goal, many of the employees decided to inflate the earnings. Although there were employees who noticed these illegal activities, since matching to the goal number in the accounting book was prioritized more than any other things, no one in Toshiba could stop this wrongdoing. Not only 9 members of the management team resigned from this incident but also Toshiba was dropped out of the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. (Toshiba was back to the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2021.) Plus, since many of the divisions were sold to external companies, the number of employees dropped from around 35,000 employees in 2015 to around 2,600 employees in 2019.

I believe this is one of the good examples of what will happen when wrongdoing is enforced under an unworthy management team. As the rightdoing was put aside by the wrongdoing, the company took severe damage where the company was nearly destroyed.

I believe that a manager should be the one who can determine what is right and what is wrong. Not only should a manager lead the team members into doing the right thing, but also the manager should be the one to step forward to stop if the company is doing the wrong thing.

Corporate culture can guide managers to the right direction

It would be easier to say stop if the company is trying to do illegal things. However, it rarely happens. In real life, there are many things which are difficult to distinguish whether it is right or wrong. Especially for a new manager, there should be many situations where it is difficult to decide whether members are doing things the right way or not. In these situations, I believe corporate cultures can help to decide whether members are acting appropriately or not, because corporate cultures state how a member of the company should act. And in the corporate cultures, there should be statements on what are the right things to do for the company.

In fact, Amazon has a leadership principle which every member of Amazon should follow. Also, in our company, we have HENNGE Way which states how we should act. Since we have a stated corporate culture, we can have a discussion about whether we are doing the right thing or not. If we are enforcing something which conflicts with our HENNGE Way, members of our company can say out loud that we are doing something which HENNGE Way states not to do. In fact, I have experience saying we should change the way because it is conflicting with our HENNGE Way.

I think many ancient Chinese literatures provide guidelines of how the culture of organization should be. And I believe learning from those literatures will make a manager aware of what are the right things to do. Plus, it would be better if the corporate culture reflects some key factors in those literatures.