Gathering Wisdom of Talents

Gathering the wisdom of talents is another skill the managers or entrepreneurs should learn.

Quoting a saying from Han Fei Zi,

"Low level ruler will gather all his efforts and skills, mid level ruler will gather the efforts of all, high level ruler will gather the wisdom of all."

A great ruler will rule by gathering the wisdom of his men. This applies similarly to managers as well. They must be able to gather the wisdom of his team members. The reason is because of the unique individual experiences, we can look at a problem or solutions at many angles. As such, we can be assured that most angles are covered and mistakes would not be made so easily.

So what skill is needed to "gather wisdom"? I believe there are three ingredients required.

1) Culture/Trust
2) People Skill

Are you adopting an open culture? If your culture is not open, no one will open up and you would not be able to gather their wisdom because it is locked up inside their brain and not communicated to anyone. For a culture to be open, there must be trust, trust that credit is given where it is due and trust that what they said would not be used against them.

Managers also need people's skill, to motivate, to understand and again to create a 'trusting' environment.

As a side note, if you notice, one of the ingredients required is also the five qualities that is required to be a great general, as stated by Sun Tzu. (Please click here to read the article "Five Essential Characteristic of General" and quote in Chinese Wiki)

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