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)

Related Books

Nurturing Talents

Nurturing Talents is part of any managers or employers job scope. It is very important how you nurture your talents.

If you plant pomelo trees, you can enjoy its fruits that gives out a nice smell and is sweet when eaten. If you plant hedge thorns, you will be pricked by its thorns. Thus it is of importance that the ruler takes note of what he talent he is 'planting'. - Han Fei Zi, Chapter 33

From this we can see that we have to be careful how we nurture talents. If we do not nurture well, the results can come back to 'prick' us. Managing talents is always one of the most difficult part of a manager's or employer's job because there is no one size fits all management approach due to the differences in each employees.

But I feel the most basic any managers should do is to take out some time to understand their team members, in which environment they perform well, why they are doing this job and most important of all, as the saying of Sun Tzu is seen below,

When the general regards his troops as infants, they will be willing to follow him through the greatest threats and gravest danger. When the general treats his troops like beloved sons, they will be willing to support and die for him. An army may be so overly pampered by the general that it cannot be useful, so excessively loved that it cannot be commanded and so disorderly that it cannot be disciplined. Such and army is like a bunch of spoilt and arrogant brats , and cannot be deployed. - Sun Tzu Art of War, Chapter 10

treat your team members like family members, show them that you genuinely care about their welfare. Do try your best to join your team members in any dinner or game session so that you have more time to bond with them and also understand their character better. When you understand them better, you can better assign suitable tasks to them and also avoid 'destructive' conflicts.

So go and put the dinner or game appointment in your schedule now. Get yourself invited to lunch. Chat with them and be open.

Related Books

Importance of Strategic Planning

What is the importance of Strategic Planning? Well there are at least two ancient sages that say that and they are Sun Tzu and Han Fei Zi.

In conclusion, those who have considered more details during planning and assessment in the temple will win while those who have considered fewer details will lose. The more details considered, the higher the chances of winning and vice versa. How much more certain is defeat if no planning is done at all? By observing the planning and assessment process, I am able to see whether victory or defeat is expected. - Sun Tzu Art of War, Chapter 1

Strategy, it decides between success and failures, thus its assessment is of utmost importance. - Han Fei Zi, Chapter 2

Well I can guess most of you would have said: "Of course I know strategy is important. Its obvious". Wait don't go away yet. You know strategy is important, so are you achieving your dreams, or in the process of achieving your dreams? If you are, think about how much planning have you done for the your strategy to achieve your dreams. I am quite sure there is a handful of you out there who only manage to sit down for 1hr (hopefully this is an underestimate) to do the planning and research. I know because I also tend to do that. The reason is because we find it quite 'painful' to do it especially when we know circumstances change and we might have to change or even scrap the strategy, thus finding it a waste of time.

But let me assure you, beside the importance of strategic planning, during your planning and assessment, you can learn a lot of things on the way which will cut down your learning curve in the future. So do make it a habit of planning your strategy and also assessing its effectiveness maybe once a week. Learn how to set goals and execute your strategy well. All the best in achieving your dreams!

Related Books

Stages of Talent Management

After reading so much about Ancient China's History and Military Works. I have gathered that there are three stages of using talents and all require great skills and wisdom. The three stages are as follows:

1) Recognize Talents
2) "Buy" Talents
3) Use Talents

Recognize Talents (识人)

Before you can even think about using talents, you must first be able to recognize one. How to recognize one? Well in this day and age, where information are plenty. 'Googling' for talents maybe something a company can look into. 'Google' the skills that you require and seek out the website contributors of those sites you think might lead you to the talent you are seeking. Another way of finding and recognizing talents is to ask those you know to recommend one. Usually, if one bother to recommend, even if it is only one, you should spend time to look into his recommendation. Would you recommend someone for the job if he is not good?

"Buy" Talents (得人)

Now what do I mean by "buying" talents? Very simply put, to have your talent pledge loyalty to you. Why is this so? Very simple, if you are not able to gain the loyalty of the talent you are seeking, do you think he will give you his best? So recognize the needs of your talents and give it to them where possible. Now, providing a huge renumeration package can only buy that much amount of loyalty. It has to be accompanied with other intangibles like nice working environment, good working relationship with subordinates and supervisor and so on.

Use Talents (用人)

After you have recognize and "buy" the talents, then you have to know how to use the talents. You have to put him in a position that would allow his talents to add the greatest value to the company. This comes with giving an adequate amount of authority to his position as well. Because even if you put him in a position that will allow him to use his talents to the fullest, if you 'tie' him up without giving enough authority to make decision, it is equivalent to not using him at all.

So these are a brief description of the three stages of using talents. Hope it helps in your human resource management.