Leadership Archives - Page 3 of 9

Liu Bei Takes the People Across the River

In chapter 41 of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei flees from Cao Cao with more than a hundred thousand soldiers and civilians. They cover little more than ten li a day. His generals urge him to leave the people behind. Liu Bei weeps: “Whoever undertakes great things must take people as the root. Now the people have come to me. How could I abandon them?” (举大事者必以人为本。今人归我，奈何弃之？)

Soon after, Zhao Yun carries Liu Bei’s infant son out of the battle. When he hands the child over, Liu Bei throws him to the ground. A common saying gives the scene its usual reading: he did it to buy people’s hearts.

Paternalistic Leadership

In 2000, the organizational psychologists Farh Jiing-Lih and Cheng Bor-Shiuan published an analysis of paternalistic leadership in Chinese organizations in the Taiwan journal Indigenous Psychological Research. Their model has three parts: authoritarian leadership, benevolent leadership and moral leadership.

A 2021 review in Advances in Psychological Science, published by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sums up the style as one that combines “absolute authority, elder’s care, and moral role model.”

Justice Bao

Qingtian, blue sky, is also a word for an upright official. The Handian dictionary gives the example: “The common people call Lord Bao ‘Bao the Blue Sky.'” Bao Zheng was a Song official who became the judge in many folk stories.

The Taiwan television series Justice Bao began in February 1993. It was planned for 15 episodes, but its ratings kept it on air for 236. Its theme song in Hong Kong was titled “May the World Have a Blue Sky.” The series was also popular in mainland China, where several provincial channels broadcast it in 2010.

Like Black-Eyed Roosters

In chapter 75 of Dream of the Red Chamber, Baochai says that she will move out of the garden, and Tanchun agrees. When Madam You asks why she is chasing away relatives, Tanchun answers with a cold laugh. “Some people get chased away by others. Better that I do the chasing first. Relatives can be on good terms without having to cling to staying.”

Then she adds: “We are one family, of one flesh and blood. Yet are we not each like a black-eyed rooster, longing for you to eat me and me to eat you?” (咱们倒是一家子亲骨肉呢，一个个不象乌眼鸡，恨不得你吃了我，我吃了你！)

Brothers Quarrel Within the Wall

The ode Changdi in the Book of Songs praises brothers. “Of all the people of today, none are like brothers.” It also says: “Brothers quarrel within the wall, but they fend off insult from outside.” (兄弟阋于墙，外御其侮) The idiom xiongdi xiqiang, brothers quarreling at the wall, now means conflict within one’s own group.

A later stanza turns. “When the troubles are over and there is peace and quiet, though one has brothers, they are not as good as friends.”

Lenovo Is Not My Home

An anonymous text titled “A Record of the Layoffs: Lenovo Is Not My Home” was posted online in March 2004. Its writer was a manager who had to take colleagues to their exit meetings. “Today,” it says, “is probably the largest layoff in Lenovo’s history.”

Its conclusion: “The relationship between employees and the company is a relationship of interests. Never treat the company as one’s home.” The writer’s name is not known.

Not My Brothers

On April 12, 2019, during the public debate over the 996 working schedule, JD’s founder Liu Qiangdong posted on WeChat Moments: “People who just muddle along are not my brothers!” JD would never force employees to work 995 or 996, he wrote, “but every JD person must have a fighting spirit.”

His brothers, he explained, were those who fought together, shared the pressure and shared the rewards. The post came while reports of mass layoffs at JD were circulating. JD called the reports “completely untrue.”

Three Monks

The animated film Three Monks was made by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1980 and directed by Xu Jingda, known as A Da. It has no dialogue. It is based on a folk saying: “One monk carries water on a pole. Two monks carry it between them. Three monks have no water to drink.”

The film won the Golden Rooster Award for best animated film and a Silver Bear at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.

A Feeling of Home

In January 2021, a post on The Paper’s account platform described a manager who announced a staff birthday party at a colleague’s home and called it team-building, tuanjian. Five employees did not come. In the group chat, the manager wrote that those absent would be fined 100 yuan. He later said that nobody was actually fined.

He explained the party as company culture: “This is to strengthen employees’ sense of belonging, so that they feel at home in the company.” A columnist of the Qilu Evening News replied: “What kind of family forces people to do what they do not like?”

A Ball of Harmony

一团和气 A ball of harmony. The Handian dictionary says it first described a warm and friendly manner, and now also means keeping on good terms without regard to principle. In chapter 19 of the Water Margin, a character says of the Liangshan chief Wang Lun: “He treats everyone with a ball of harmony. Why is his heart so narrow?”