Sun Tzu’s Art of War is a classic text that is touted as containing wisdom for today’s military general, head of government or business manager alike. If you have not had occasion to come across this text yet, it is written almost 2500 years ago by a young scholar in the Chinese State of Wu. When the King of Wu found the text, he was so impressed with it that he made Sun Tzu his general, who ably led his army in victory after victory for the next 20 years.

About half a century ago, it was “discovered” by the West and popularized by James Clavell (author of such best-sellers as Shogun and Taipan). Management pundits like to talk about applying the principles taught in The Art of War in strategic management, in international relations and in warfare. I do not have a problem with its application in military affairs, but its wholesale, and in my view, childish adoption by business management experts to marketing, management and strategic business planning need to be tampered with caution. I crinch at the idea of businesses “conquering” customers, “colonizing” market territories and generally speaking, treating the business space as a theater of war. While some aspects of the disciplined approach taken by the military is welcome, and one might even argue, required, in business organizations, I believe that we need develop a different view that business is not entirely like warfare, that it is not all about just making a profit. Perhaps then, it would be easier to apply ethical principles in business.

From what I can gather, there are recent attempts at understanding Sun Tzu’s original philosophy and its application to business by attempting to get a more accurate translation of the original and by a closer appreciation of its cultural context. Some recent works in this area can be found here and here. In any case, I think there is something amiss about taking what was essentially a military handbook and applying all of it to business.

If we approach business as we approach all of life, with a view that everyone we touch should come out of that experience a better person, that they derive some value from the relationship, then it would make for a better world. No, methinks, business is more than merely warfare, in which there can be no real winners, but in which there are only losers in more ways than one. Business is more like a long-term love affair, where there can only be winners.

About a couple of years ago, I found myself in the midst of a serious bout of depression. I had run into a series of devastating setbacks in my life, and looking back now, I found that the past eight years had been eight very different types of life circumstance for me, involving, among other things, separation from my love ones, death of my mom, loss of a business to trusted business partners, loss of major source of income and in many ways of control over life’s events. Although both my wife and I held on to the belief that God is in control of our lives, and even though we were bouyed by the promises found in His Word, for instance, Gen 50:20,21:

“20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. ”

and Jer 29:13:

“11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD , “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ”

…and even though we experienced time and again, His intervention and providence, I couldn’t help but found myself slipping in my depression.

It hit me the hardest, when a trusted Christian friend to whom I confided about my despair, fears and anxiety decided to do me a favor by writing me an e-mail admonishing me to lose my attitude, for and I quote “being depressed amounts to sin for it is not of faith”. I struggled with that a lot. I knew from where my friend was coming. I appreciated his brotherly concern. I felt his kindred spirits and even his biblical stance. Yet, I realized that I was no where near perfect mental health. So, I asked, am I wallowing in my depression? Am I deliberately sinning against God? Am I throwing away my faith in Him?

Then I re-read Psalm 42 and 43, and found solace in King David’s own despair, darkness of the soul and cries of desperation. I found in this psalm (for it was one psalm orginally), sparks of hope as well as a way out of the downward spirals of depression, despair, destitution, discouragement and darkness. I found the remedy that can lift me out of the mire of destruction, and yet, I found no quick answers. For as the Psalm shows, even though David knew how to get in touch with the One who can rescue him, yet he found himself trapped in the depths of devastating emotional turmoil. Nevertheless, the Psalm gave me hope, and it also gave me empowerment to be depressed. I had the license to be depressed and I felt free! I felt that even as I allowed myself to be depressed, and as I acknowledged my own emotional upheaval, I am then able to reach out to the Balm of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to wash over me with the soothing embrace of the All-Empathizing One.

Recently, I was encouraged to seek counselling. I found that I am clinically depressed, and that it is a physical ailment. In fact, through therapy I have come to realize that I have been depressed most of my life, and that I have not learned that life can be any different. I am glad that I went to therapy and I am pleased that I am on the road to recovery. Although the journey towards recovery is going to be rough, and it won’t be easy, I am glad that I have at least made some small steps towards this journey. Most of all, I am so glad that God accepts me in my depressed state, and that Christ died for the pain that has caused me to be in this state. I can claim His victory and I can learn from Him and grow as I let Him teach me and empower me to be the kind of person that He has come to free me to be.

A few days ago, I talked about my boss. She is a handful and a half. She talks often about being a mentor, about motivating, about customer service, about proactive-nesss (or is that proactivity?), and yet, she fills our daily lives with e-mails, voice mails, memos, verbal exhortations (which is another way of calling her question-and-answer-less lectures, or to put it another way, verbal assaults). Most of us have learned to divorce her tactics from our own self-worth, recognizing that it is her “thing” - she is the one with the issues - and she need to feel powerful and authoritarian by putting us down, belittling, and ordering us to do her bidding.

All this is preface to the things that I have been thinking a lot about lately, that is, the difference between leadership and management. Is a manager necessarily a leader? What distinguishes a manager from a leader? An immediate answer might be to think of a leader as the character of the person, while the manager is his role, function, or even his position.



Leadership, then, is a matter of not just what a person does, but who that person is. It is that person’s leadership qualities that flow out of him or her in the way that person thinks, carries out his/her day-to-day activities, in the way that person interacts with the people around him/her. In fact, one can even say that leadership is not about certain character traits or qualities, but it is itself a character trait, such as honesty, loyalty and courage are character traits. Therefore, we cannot say of a person that he or she is a “bad leader�. Embedded within the definition of leadership are the character virtues and ethical standards that prevent the appendage of “bad� or “evil�. For instance, Hitler cannot be considered a bad leader, for if he were a bad leader, it means that he is no leader at all. He can be called a tyrant, a dictator, a conqueror, but he does not belong in the class of leaders.



If this is what leadership is, then how can we develop leaders in our organization? What is leadership development? In some contexts, the term “leadershp skills” have been used to describe a plethora of personality characteristics, behavioral patterns, thinking patterns, ways of communication and interpersonal interactions that are deemed to be important to leaders and leadership. Yet, understood in the way I have described it, there are no leadership “skills”. There may be management skills, but leadership is more about character formation. Thus, leadership development is more about personal growth. Let me hear what you think…