Inspirational lessons from Miyamoto Musashi Common leadership


Elite Leadership
Issue 1 • November 2013
Top tips
for new
managers
Inspirational
lessons from
Miyamoto
Musashi
Then best
see inside for details
Common
leadership
myths
Inspiring people to become better leaders
CONTENTS
Page 4
Inspirational
lessons from
Miyamoto
Musashi
Page 8
Top Tips: New
Managers
Page 10
Common
leadership
myths
Page 13
Leadership
is...
Page 14
Leadership
book of the
month
2 •Elite Leadership www.EliteLD.co.nz
November 2013
FROM THE EDITOR
Hello and welcome to the first edition of Elite Leadership. The
aim of this mini-magazine is to promote and inspire quality
leadership.
Leadership is an underrated and often misunderstood quality.
It is difficult to define but we know it when we see it and more
importantly we recognise when leadership is not present. In
this first edition we look at an unlikely leadership hero
Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest samurai of all time victorious
in over sixty duels. We look into the past to examine his
teachings to find lessons in today's world.
Leadership lessons can be learnt from anywhere even ancient
samurais and to think otherwise is a myth. In this edition we
look at some other common myths as well as some practical
tips for Managers who are about to start their leadership
journey.
Editor In Chief Mark Wager, [email protected]
For my own personal leadership journey this mini-magazine is
the next step. If you find the content interesting then feel free
to contact me on email or via Twitter to continue the
conversation.
Images courtesy of:
Master isolated images
Jscreationz
nokhoog_buchachon
Mark Wager
Mark_wager
At freedigitalphotos.net All material appearing in Elite
leadership is copyright and
cannot be reproduced without
prior permission of the
publisher.
Elite Leadership www.EliteLD.co.nz• 3
Inspirational lessons from
Miyamoto Musashi
mountain”
Miyamoto Musashi, born in 1584 in Harima province Japan, is
widely regarding as one of the greatest warriors in history.
Miyamoto was a Ronin, a masterless samurai who travelled across
Japan to find the greatest warriors in their discipline in order to fight
them in a duel. Legends have it that Miyamoto Musashi fought and
won his first duel at the age of thirteen and would go on to fight over
sixty duels, undefeated in his lifetime.
4 • Your Magazine • website.com
During his later years Miyamoto Musashi would go on to write a
book entitled “The Book of Five Rings” in which he takes a
philosophical approach to fighting. While this may not seem like the
most likely source of inspiration never forget that each of us at
some time are fighting something whether it be a person, an
obstacle or even ourselves we are always facing something that we
have to overcome. So take a few minutes to read some quotes from
the greatest fighter of all time.
“You must understand that
there is more than one
path to the top of the
“Today is
victory over
yourself of
yesterday;
tomorrow is
your victory
over lesser
men."
“Think lightly of yourself and
deeply of the world”
“You must understand that
there is more than one path to
the top of the mountain”
"Do nothing that is of no use” “Get beyond love and grief:
exist for the good of Man.” “Perceive that which cannot
be seen with the eye.” “If you wish to control others
you must first control yourself” “The ultimate aim of martial
arts is not having to use them”
“It is difficult to understand the
universe if you only study one
planet” “Today is victory over yourself
of yesterday; tomorrow is your
victory over lesser men.” “You can only fight the way
you practice” “Whatever the Way, the
master of strategy does not
appear fast….Of course,
slowness is bad. Really skilful
people never get out of time,
and are always deliberate,
and never appear busy.” “Do not regret what you have
done” “If you do not control the
enemy, the enemy will control
you” “Do not sleep under a roof.
Carry no money or food. Go
alone to places frightening to
the common brand of men.
Become a criminal of purpose.
Be put in jail, and extricate
yourself by your own wisdom.” “All man are the same except
for their belief in their own
selves, regardless of what
others may think of them” “Respect Buddha and the
gods without counting on their
help” Elite Leadership www.EliteLD.co.nz • 5
“There is no one way to
salvation, whatever the manner
in which a man may proceed. All
forms and variations are
governed by the eternal
intelligence of the Universe that
enables a man to approach
perfection. It may be in the arts of
music and painting or it may be in
commerce, law, or medicine. It
may be in the study of war or the
study of peace. Each is as
important as any other. Spiritual
enlightenment through religious
meditation such as Zen or in any
other way is as viable and
functional as any "Way."... A
person should study as they see
fit.
“Nam ut massa
turpis, ac blandit
justo. Nulla ultrices, odio commodo faucibus
commodo, mi
nisi tempor”
6 • Elite Leadership www.EliteLD.co.nz
“The true science of martial
arts means practicing them in
such a way that they will be
useful at any time, and to
teach them in such a way that
they will be useful in all things.” “Never stray from the Way.” “You may abandon your own
body but you must preserve
your honour.” “The only reason a warrior is
alive is to fight, and the only
reason a warrior fights is to
win” “To become the enemy, see
yourself as the enemy of the
enemy” “Know your enemy, know his
sword.” “When in a fight to the death,
one wants to employ all one's
weapons to the utmost. I must
say that to die with one's sword
still sheathed is most
regrettable.” “Whatever the Way, the master
of strategy does not appear
fast.” “It is said the warrior's is the
twofold Way of pen and sword,
and he should have a taste for
both Ways. Even if a man has
no natural ability he can be a
warrior by sticking assiduously
to both divisions of the Way.” “No man is invincible, and
therefore no man can fully
understand that which would
make him invincible” “In the construction of houses,
choice of woods is made.
Straight un-knotted timber of
good appearance is used for
the revealed pillars, straight
timber with small defects is
used for the inner pillars.
Timbers of the finest
appearance, even if a little
weak, is used for the
thresholds, lintels, doors, and
sliding doors, and so on. Good
strong timber, though it be
gnarled and knotted, can
always be used discreetly in
construction.” “The important thing in strategy
is to suppress the enemy's
useful actions but allow his
useless actions” “When your spirit is not in the
least clouded, when the clouds
of bewilderment clear away,
there is the true void.” “To know ten thousand things,
know one well” “It is difficult to realize the true
Way just through swordfencing. Know the smallest
things and the biggest things,
the shallowest things and the
deepest things.” “When you decide to attack,
keep calm and dash in quickly,
forestalling the enemy...attack
with a feeling of constantly
crushing the enemy, from first
to last.” Miyamoto Musashi left us many
lessons but the main lesson that
I've learnt from Musashi's legacy
is that despite how much the
world has dramatically changed
over the past 400 years the
fundamentals of what makes
success hasn't. At the core of
anyone who is truly successful is
self mastery. Musashi showed us
that the path toward success
starts within and it's only when
we've achieved mastery over
ourselves that we can begin
contemplating mastery of
something else.
“There is nothing outside of
yourself that can ever enable
you to get better, stronger, richer,
quicker, or smarter. Everything is
within. Everything exists. Seek
nothing outside of yourself.” Miyamoto Musashi
Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz • 7
Top Tips:
New Managers
Every month we will look at some practical tips to help managers in every situation
You've been working hard, you are
a business expert and everyone
knows how good you are at your
job and now that special day has
come that the boss invites you into
his/her office and gives you the
promotion you have been working
for.
Great news - right?
You are now a boss, you now have
people reporting to you and your
whole working life is now about to
change forever. Here are a few tips
to avoid those common first time
manager mistakes.
8 • Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz
1. You are now bottom of a new
ladder
3. Accept that you will make
mistakes.
Leadership requires a completely
different skill-set to the one you
required as a subject matter
expert. Never think that promotion
is the end of your learning journey
it's actually just the beginning.
Nobody has ever started a new job
and never made any mistakes and
you won't be the first. The big
difference is that this time your
mistakes are likely to affect your
team. Don't beat yourself up just
apologise, learn from your
mistakes and become a better
leader.
2. Remember it's never about you
The old mentality of believing that
a team works to support the boss
is outdated, the leader exists to
ensure that his or her team has
everything they need, direction, a
shared vision, skills and resources.
4. Hide your frustrations
The days of moaning about the
company or even worse moaning
about colleagues are gone. You
now represent the company so
everything you say will be seen as
a company statement regardless of
its intent.
Don't beat yourself up, just apologise. Learn from
your mistakes and become a better leader
5. Talk to your boss
8. Understand the organisational culture
With a new job it's likely you will have a new boss.
Talk to him or her and find out their expectations of
you, how they want to be updated and what their
priorities are for the company.
Every company has its own culture. It's vital to
understand what it is. Each company has HR policies
of different severity. Get to grips with the feel of the
company so that you don't accidentally come across
as too tough or too soft.
6. Talk to your team
Every one of your new team will have a slightly
different idea of what your role should be and what
you should be doing. Talk to your team and find out
what they expect from you and explain what you want
from them.
7. Lead by example
Whatever is contained in the company's code of
conduct or the performance plans people will always
learn what behaviour is acceptable by your actions.
You have to demonstrate the behaviour you want from
your team, if you don't you will never be seen as a
leader.
9. Be prepared to be unpopular
There will always be times that the needs of the
company will conflict with the needs of some
individuals. Always explain your reasons, people may
not agree but they will respect you. Remember you
can lead a team if people don't like you but you can't
lead if they don't respect you.
10. Don't change who you are
The most common mistake that new managers make
is that they try to become someone else or the kind of
person they think a manager should be. One of the
reasons you got this job is because you are you. By all
means aim to be a better person but don't deviate too
far from who you really are.
Elite Leadership www.EliteLD.co.nz • 9
Common
leadership
myths
There are many of us
who believe we have
a lot to offer this world
and one of the ways
to do this is to
become a leader.
Someone who in the
words of John Quincy
Adams performs
actions that inspire
others to dream
more, learn more, do
more and become
more. There are
many of us who
aspire to be leaders
while others have the
mantle of leadership
thrust upon them but
is leadership what we
think it is?
There are a lot of
misconceptions out
there and we need to
be aware of those
misconceptions so
that we can truly
understand what
leadership really is. In
this article I will be
exploring some of the
most common myths
about leadership.
10 •Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz
" T h e m o s t d a n g e ro u s
leadership myth is that
leaders are born."
Warren G. Bennis
Leadership is a series
of behaviours and skills
and like all behaviours
and skills they can be
learned
Myth: Leadership is glamorous
To be honest being a leader can give you a bit
of a buzz but there are times when difficult
decisions have to be made and it is in these
times that a leader has to prioritise the greater
need of the team ahead over any personal
interests and that can be difficult. Leadership is
about doing what needs to be done and a lot of
the time that doesn’t require you being behind
a desk or in front of your team. Sometimes the
greatest examples of leadership is standing
side-by-side in the trenches with the team or
even behind them doing the jobs that others
won’t do.
Myth: Leaders are born not made.
This is an old myth and still today all too
commonly mentioned. The suggestion of
leaders being born instead of being made is not
only outdated but disproved by scientific
studies many times over. Leadership is a series
of behaviours and skills and like all behaviours
and skills they can be learnt. Nature may give
you a head start but it’s what you do that
makes you a leader.
• Elite leadership . www.EliteLD.co.nz • 11
Myth: You have to be loud in order to become a
leader.
One of the first things I make perfectly clear when I
develop leaders is that every person has the potential
to become an equally effective but unique leader.
There are a lot of leaders who are introverted in
nature. I’m one of those people. We all have our
preferences. Leadership is about being aware of those
preferences and being prepared that there will be
times when you will need to act outside of those
preferences without straying too far from the person
you are.
Myth: Leadership is the same as management.
While often considered the same leadership and
management are very different. Management is the
responsibility and control over people and resources in
order to achieve an objective while leadership is the
influence over people in order to achieve an objective.
Myth: Leaders know all the answers.
If you know all the answers you are not a leader you
are a genius and you shouldn’t be reading this article.
Leaders are people and people have limitations. It is
unrealistic to know all the answers and it’s not healthy
for a team to be so reliant on one person. An elite
leader influences the team so that questions/problems
can be answered by using the collective knowledge
and experience of the team. A true leader never stops
learning.
Myth: Leaders have to distance themselves from
the team.
While some people prefer closer relationships with
their colleagues than others it is not an essential
requirement in the role of a leader. Leaders can be
approachable and likeable. A true leader knows that
they are not more important than anyone else in the
team. Sure a leader may have different skill sets and
the rarity of those skill sets may mean they are paid
more but it doesn’t mean they are more important than
anyone else in the team.
Myth: Leadership is a position.
Management is a position but leadership is not.
Leadership is a mission. Remember leadership is
about influence and influence within an organisation
can come from many sources and not all of those
sources are at the top of the management structure.
Effective teams have leadership at all levels.
12 •Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz
Leadership in many ways is about the search for truth.
Finding the truth within yourself, finding the truth within
your team and finding the truth behind the challenges
you face. It is misconceptions like the ones above that
cloud the truth and make the path of leadership a
more difficult journey. It is time to cast these myths
aside and learn the truth about leadership.
Become the leader that
your team needs you to be
* Leadership Mentoring
* Team Building
* MBTI Workshops
[email protected]
Leadership is....
"Leadership is surrounding
yourself with people who are
prepared to challenge you."
"Leadership is the spark that
turns disgruntlement into a
revolution."
13 •Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz
"Leadership is about being
the person that other people
strive to be, it's about being
better than good. It's about
being the best."
"Leadership is knowing that at
the end of pain is success."
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14 •Elite Leadership • www.EliteLD.co.nz
Etiam eu eros nisl.
Nunc elementum
porttitor quam sed
consequat.
Vivamus purus
nibh, condimentum
sed porta non
portis liberum.”