Feng Tang: After reading Zeng Guofan for 20 years, I learned the three basic principles of "success"
? 1 prerequisite for success: manage yourself.
Managing yourself well is the most prerequisite for success.
Zeng Guofan has a point of view, "In times of crisis, only those in oneself can rely on, while those in others are unreliable".
Whether in the position of manager or ordinary executor, one's own ability, the resources that one can mobilize, and the ability to deal with emergencies are the most reliable and basic abilities.
In Zeng Guofan's view, "I can bear hardships, so I can work hard. I am a great man. Now that I have practiced a comfortable body, why should I shoulder major events in the future? "
A successful person should have a clear sense of self-management at all times, and stick to his own management even if he is temporarily in an environment where there is no possibility of success.
Zeng Guofan's self-management thought is not as simple as "self-discipline" and "delayed satisfaction", but can be disassembled into three dimensions: cultivating self-discipline through habits, maintaining high concentration and establishing reasonable goals.
1, cultivate self-discipline with habits
Self-discipline is something against humanity. Even Zeng Guofan himself was prone to indulge in foreign things and seek pleasure in his early years.
In order to effectively overcome the inherent inertia, Zeng Guofan put forward two problems that need to be solved first in his letter to his children:
"Do what you should do today in the morning, you must do it today", "If everything needs to be checked day by day, it will be difficult to remedy it later", "If you want to get rid of lazy words, you always take lazy words as the first meaning".
First, the daily work and itinerary must be recorded and repeated on the same day, and cannot be put off until the next day;
Second, don't stay in bed and sleep late.
For Zeng Guofan's two suggestions, Feng Tang's understanding is:
Whether a person can succeed, in fact, congenital factors only account for several levels. Specifically, it depends on whether you are hard enough for yourself. The formation of habits and acquired factors are definitely greater than congenital factors.
On these bases, the way of self-discipline is to be steady, not impetuous, and not to look around.
2. Maintain a high degree of concentration
In Zeng Guofan's view, "patience" is the most basic requirement for being a man and doing things, and it is also the most important accomplishment in life.
Since one thing is to be accomplished, it will definitely involve all kinds of trivial matters. If it can't be carried out continuously at high concentration, it will easily lead to low work efficiency due to burnout.
But patience does not mean to hold your temper forcibly, but to actually finish all the work set for the day, whether it exceeds working hours or not.
In Zeng Guofan's view, this behavior of doing everything is a way of working that only mediocre people who don't know how to do it.
For the vast majority of knowledge workers at present, daily work is actually composed of multiple modules. In order to finish the work as soon as possible, many people are used to using multithreading methods:
When writing an email, you can conceive the theme of the meeting. On wechat, you have a customer consultation to communicate with customers temporarily. You can open a web page and retrieve cases while running data ... This way of working is not only inefficient, but also consumes your patience to a great extent.
Zeng Guofan said: "Everyone does one thing, fine and fine, and fights for it." Feng Tang's explanation is that "multi-tasking is not to do many things at the same time, but to finish one thing and then do another, pick it up quickly and put it down quickly.".
Zeng Guofan, who is famous for his "self-discipline", does not advocate "excessive persistence", but must rely on external forces or strong willpower to maintain high-intensity concentration.
In his letters, he often reminds his colleagues or children not to put too much pressure on themselves from the beginning. "Those who are not used to hard work will gradually learn from it, and it will change day by day." Just exercise a little every day and gain weight slowly.
The important thing is that "the spirit is always more than enough, and then the spirit is full and the heart is not loose." The reason why a successful person can always maintain a high degree of concentration is that he is full of energy.
After concentrating, if you are tired, don't be too reluctant, leave some room for your spirit, and the rest of your work can be left until tomorrow.
3, establish a reasonable goal
After completing the exercise of the above two dimensions, we need to establish a valuable sustainable goal to manage ourselves. Driven by this goal, we will continue to manage ourselves.
In the way of choosing a goal, Zeng Guofan has always suggested that you should choose what you are afraid of or even dare not imagine as your goal.
He mentioned this point to colleagues and children many times. For example:
Educate my son "I'm afraid of writing, so I can force a few articles out of it", or say in my diary that "the village of gentlemen is respectful and self-reliant". I'm getting better and stronger every day, so what have I got? ""there is no easy place in the world, how can there be free time on earth? "
What makes you irresistible and easy to do, no matter what the external form, is essentially a small matter. If we always aim at this kind of thing, it will be harmful to the successful cultivation.
? 2 The main means of success: management team
The "management team" in McKinsey discourse system is how to be a good manager.
As one of the most successful managers in China's modern history, Zeng Guofan has been consciously summing up "how to conduct team management effectively".
His core methodology can be analyzed from three dimensions: team selection, leader cultivation and leading the team:
1, the principle of selecting team members
Zeng Guofan had a thorough understanding of human nature when selecting members of the core team.
"greed, fear of righteousness, loyalty and anger, it is impossible. This can be a sigh ",Feng Tang's explanation is:
In the face of naked interests, not many people can be fair; People who do things first, strive for profits later, attach importance to facts and never cheat are always scarce.
When you do things and form a team, you must form a core of three or five such people. With such a core, we are not afraid of bullying without investment, policy and performance. Of course things can be done.
However, Zeng Guofan did not exclude ordinary employees because of this. In his view, "there are many benefits without harm, and it is still difficult to raise a gentleman." How brave? " It doesn't matter if the employees who charge in the front line have any ideological shortcomings.
Therefore, when calling the team, Zeng Guofan suggested taking a lenient attitude; But in the establishment of the core team, we must use it with caution.
"The way to seek the virtuous will be like the rule of Bai Gui, like the strike of an eagle, and there will be no end; Another example is that there is a mother, a pheasant has a medium, and it is sought after by the class. If you get one, the rest are possible. "
First of all, the eyes catch things like eagles, and the eyes are accurate and quick.
Secondly, we must seize the key person, that is, the above-mentioned "people who are not eager for quick success and instant benefit first, but loyal and angry after righteousness" and recruit such a key person to lead the whole team.
2. Self-cultivation of leaders
The basic requirement of a leader who can accomplish something is that "he who knows what is happening today is a gentleman".
Knowing people and being good at their duties is reflected in the selection and judgment of talents by leaders; The governor is the foundation of management, that is, knowing the logic and rules of doing things.
The logic and rules of doing things are first embodied in knowing your own limitations, not being self-righteous or opinionated. We don't know that there are many unexpected talents in the world, so don't stick to one word.
Secondly, and more importantly, respect diversity. Zeng Guofan repeatedly mentioned the importance of "respecting dissidents" on many occasions. "Only forgetting the machine can destroy many machines, and only ignorance can be ominous."
Feng Tang believes that as a leader who wants to achieve something, he must not try to change everyone's mind or reach a consensus on everything. In the face of other people's opinions, we should have enough minds to inspire, tolerate and reward dissidents.
But this does not mean that employees are allowed to develop freely. In his letter to his subordinates, Zeng Guofan warned them how to preside over the meeting.
In Zeng Guofan's view, it is best for the leaders attending the meeting to "expand their horizons and go to the valley while holding their own opinions in their hands."
If you want to be a * * * who can control the meeting, make the meeting achieve the ideal discussion effect, and not become a fairy meeting, the inevitable premise is to have an independent mind, a direction and a means to control the direction.
This means that the so-called leadership is actually in the above-mentioned "crisis moment, only reliable people are unreliable."
The ultimate embodiment of leadership is to be able to fight a tough battle alone, and to be able to carry it and cover it by one person, which is the foundation of all major events.
3. How to lead a team
A successful manager, when leading a team, the most important thing is to let the team have a continuous fighting spirit, "Qi is always more than enough."
In Zeng Guofan's view, a team that can always have the overall fighting spirit, win without arrogance and lose with grace depends on the manager's own mentality and strategy formulation.
Feng Tang further explained the manager's own mentality:
It is best for a leader to be a fanatical alpha personality (dominant personality, striving for the first place in everything), aggressive, insatiable, winning in a seemingly impossible state, and sometimes having the charm or skills to make the team blindly believe in him.
Secondly, "you need to do business day and night, but you can get familiar with it gradually, such as laying eggs and smelting alchemy. It is not appropriate to leave for a while." Managers should be integrated with their own teams day and night and be able to do things by themselves.
But many times, the problem of teams, especially entrepreneurial teams, is not whether managers are enthusiastic, whether they can do it themselves, or whether they have the ability to formulate a long-term vision that can inspire everyone in general. Often the founders are full of enthusiasm, but the employees are indifferent.
Zeng Guofan often warned his subordinates, "Diligence is the first thing in running the army, and you can't know it from personal experience." There is no one who doesn't get up early on weekdays, but the enemy can get up early suddenly, and there is no one who doesn't study hard on weekdays, but the enemy can study hard suddenly. "
The daily training of the team is a very important link for managers. Managers should let the team know their own shortcomings through ideological education. The second step is to take subject classes and performance culture. Use a stick if you don't practice.
Teams that have not experienced daily training should not take risks. What they can't do at ordinary times can't be done in the face of the enemy.
The main purpose of success is to manage things.
The essence of managing things is to solve problems. Feng Tang used a series of questions to explain its meaning:
Is the information collected correctly? Is that enough? Is it true and reliable? Is the calculation correct? Does reasoning conform to logic and common sense? What is the hypothetical solution? Under the fact, within the logic, can it hold water? What does such a solution mean for all stakeholders? How will they accept it? Accept or not accept or accept to some extent, what is the most likely outcome of joint efforts? What is the communication plan? Has the communication meeting been arranged? Who will attend? Who is most likely to say what? What might be the outcome of the meeting? How to deal with it?
How to answer this long list of complicated questions? Zeng Guofan put forward one of the most fundamental principles-"presenting the matter first, making it clear".
Feng Tang's interpretation of this is: If we exclude uncontrollable factors such as luck and timing, "Ming" is the most important factor in managing things.
Zeng Guofan's "Ming" here has two meanings: smart and smart.
Clever means that you can see the core and handling principles of the problem without specific scenes;
Cleverness refers to accuracy, investigation and research to obtain enough detailed information, multi-party reasoning, and draw logical conclusions.
On the basis of "Ming", Zeng Guofan refined a refined version of the eight-character motto, "Think big and start small". Feng Tang summed it up as a "formula of success": success = sincerity × (diligence+caution).
This is also the three-layer refinement principle of managing things:
1, sincerity-execution and attitude
"Honesty" is first reflected in the execution of things. As the saying goes, it is difficult to remedy afterwards. You must finish what you have done in one day, and you must not delay.
Secondly, "sincerity" is reflected in the attitude of doing things. "If you are not a steady soldier on weekdays, you must not treat it lightly; It is not the right way on weekdays, and you must not act rashly. "
Feng Tang's explanation is: when the soldiers are in danger, the troops must always be stable and reliable; When the army staged a coup, the leader should always be aboveboard.
But in real life, it is almost impossible to get a solid and reliable army, and there are almost no aboveboard leaders, so don't take chances, take risks, and don't use tricks.
2, diligence-attach importance to stupid kung fu
Zeng Guofan's view on the problem is very rational. "To do great things, half depends on manpower and half depends on nature" and "Be careful with your life and bury yourself in your work".
It must be admitted that the success factors of some things may really come from luck or other factors beyond human control.
However, Zeng Guofan's attitude is that although fate cannot be controlled, he should try his best to exert what he can control and make up for the problems that may be caused by non-human factors to the greatest extent.
Zeng Guofan often mentioned his views on "diligence", such as "diligence is the foundation, honesty is the supplement." Diligence is soft, but it will be strong, and stupidity is clear. "
A "simple and clumsy" person, although he has no advantages in talent, resources and opportunities, can persist in doing things with stupid kung fu, or he can be "gentle and honest, stupid and clear."
3. Caution-a long-term sense of urgency.
The meaning of "prudence" is not simply controlling risks.
Zeng Guofan mentioned that "caution" is first reflected in the fear of risks and public opinion. "Those who steal a false name have unexpected disasters, those who hide their names have unexpected disasters, and those who worry have unexpected disasters."
For those who have done something, they should always think about whether what they get matches their abilities. Being unworthy of virtue is a taboo. If you can't fear, it is likely to lead to disaster.
Secondly, "caution" is a cautious attitude in doing things under any circumstances.
Zeng Guofan mentioned that "since the servant marched, every servant was afraid of winning or losing, and then won;" Or when you are full of ambition, you will win and lose again and again, you will be half a beat slow, and then there will often be unexpected losses. "
This means: whenever victory or defeat is uncertain and we are afraid of caution, we can always win; However, after winning several battles in succession, we were complacent, and our team was arrogant and sloppy, and we were often defeated.
For this, Feng Tang also has a deep understanding-
He often mentioned that when he was studying medicine at Union Medical College, the old professors repeatedly stressed that if you were on the edge of the abyss, you were walking on thin ice. A seemingly common cold can also take the life of the patient. You can become a great doctor only if you continue to be anxious.
4. Conclusion
Dominic Barton, former global chairman of McKinsey, said:
Modern management is based on the scientific nature of modern business, the induction of great men's words and deeds, and vivid and profound historical details.
For the current knowledge workers in China, taking the management practice of "great managers" in history as a sample and learning from their effective experience in China may be a more intimate and direct road to success than business school courses.