Zen and the art of being a CEO

My monthly Vistage meeting today was focused around making your company remarkable. There was a great video clip that the speaker showed us of John Edwardson of CDW speaking about the topic of CEO required traits. A few things that resonated with me from that video clip were: 1. teams make better decisions than individuals and 2. get ideas from others without smothering them with your ideas.

I tend to fall back to my martial arts training and philosophy on a lot of business questions I pose to myself or others pose.

One thing that I always live by is the idea that a great leader (or sensei, teacher, CEO etc.) should welcome the day his student/employee was able to out perform him/her. I try to take this philosophy and apply it to business and how I mentor my staff. I try not to just train a successor to take over my position, but I try to train them (or inspire them) with the expectation and hope that they will take what I have created and make it better and exceed what I have been able to achieve or create. Having the ability to do that and not let ego or other stuff get in the way is a wonderful/magical thing. I think that only someone who has a strong character, self confidence and a non-defeatist attitude can achieve such a goal.

I have also learnt via Cuong Nhu (the martial art I train in and teach) that the following 10 leadership attributes are key: fitness, wellness, assertiveness, openness, fairness, directness, oneness, togetherness, forgiveness and creativeness.

It’s great to think about all this stuff when one is cycling. I am an avid cyclist as well as martial artist. I cycle to work daily and I find it allows my mind to be free to flow (no interruptions etc.). Old zen stories say that the body (like the mind) is also best equipped to perform when the fighting techniques are no longer required to be first thought before executed (ie. the body is flowing and not thinking about the next move). The moves just come out automatically without thoughts preceding them. There was an old zen story about a zen master who kept asking his best student how many movements of a kata (he was practicing) that he could remember. This student had been chosen to defend them against a pending attack on the kingdom. After lots of training, the student finally said he remember none of the movements – the zen master told him he was now ready to go out and protect the kingdom. Takuan said “The mind should be nowhere in particular” and I think this is accomplished when cycling (and other sports too) as it helps the mind to flow and great ideas are borne (just like in the zen story the body flows and great physical feats are accomplished). If you are interested in a quick read “Zen in the Martial Arts” by Joe Hyams is excellent (only 140 pgs!) and its not just about Martial Arts, the lessons are far reaching in my opinion and very applicable to the business world.

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