Tolerance

I read many Chinese history books and watched many historical movies recently. Perhaps the emperor I admire most is the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, known as Lee Shie Ming. After many years of wars, China was in deep shit when he was in power. His biggest threat at that point in time was the emperor of the “Wu” people in the northern grass fields and the poverty of the country. In fact, he can be easily defeated in the initial stage but with his ultra strong determination, he struggled through and learnt along the way. Well, he was famous for his tolerance to consider and accept different opinions and people, and regards people who were high in competency and good in personality as precious as his own limbs. Imagine he was willing to injure his own hand for giving the blood to save his soldiers. The impact of this gesture to other soldiers is immerse and everlasting. To me, his tolerance can be regarded as what a Chinese cliché says “the stomach that can accommodate the mountains and rivers”. I analyzed what is “Tolerance” during my free time and found that it was indeed the ability to recognize that Men are different and not perfect, they make mistakes and should be given the benefit of doubt. You see, when we make mistakes, we excuse ourselves by saying that, “we are human maa…” Another way to look at it is if my children are young and await me to feed them, I will do anything, be it ethical or otherwise, to find anything to feed them, including cunning you. Sometimes, we may assume one is unethical or wilful but if you can put away your assumptions and stand on his positions, you may see an entirely different view. Why not we give each other some time to reflect upon and improve ourselves? Why not we give a chance to each other? I trust the natural laws that nothing is eternal except the word “Change”. Perhaps the so called wilful person has changed over the years.

Lee’s tolerance and his ability to respect differences earned him the respect and loyalty of many races, tribes and countries. What he used to worry was that he did not treat his officials and foreign embassadors in good enough manner, not his own enjoyment. In his government, he earned many genuine and different opinions and sound from different group of people and races, including the widely known general of the “Wu” people who fought with him for years, namely “Ah Shei Na Shei Mo”. This contributed in controlling his arrogance and pride, hence ensuring him from making minimum mistakes during his governance.

So, how can we define “Tolerance” in business context? Business needs network and network needs link, acceptance of and support from different people. Tolerance is perhaps an important catalyze in building the network, beside sincerity, being socialable, honesty, humor, etc.. How far we can go depend largely on who is inside our network, the basis (for interests or for genuine friendship, etc) and strength of the links and the size of your network.

A boss should have the tolerance to accept that his staffs are different and do make mistakes. Likewise, he must also recognize that he makes mistakes by himself, too. Perhaps it is his job is to bring his staffs back to the correct path, share his opinions with them of the best thing to do given the situation and give them a chance to correct themselves instead of scrutinizing and firing them whenever they make mistakes. A reasonable staff, if treated in this manner, will give his utmost devotion and loyalty to his boss. A boss with helping hands when they are in need will be treated as a life long friend and remembered for life. This is perhaps the main notion in the book “HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE” written by DALE CARNEGIE.

A LEARNING ORGANISATION, according to Peter M. Senge in his book, THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE, is an organization that allows staffs to think independently and learn from trials and errors. Without this ingredient, the boss who thinks that he is the only one who can think cannot manage the inherent problems in different sites or levels because he has 24 hours in a day only. May be after 10,000 years, according to some scientists, there will be 25 hours in a day. Moreover, staffs who work under close scrutiny fear mistakes and suffer from pressure. This in turn hinders them from trying, thinking independently, learning and improving themselves. That is what I regard as strong leaders can block staffs from thinking, except obeying orders. This type of leadership is suitable in chaotic environments only. In usual environments and with well trained staffs and clear procedures, this is perhaps not suitable.

Guess in a cup of coffee, which part has the thickest aroma? Of course it is the bottom part. Many hidden problems and answers in an organization can be found at the operational level, not on the summit. On the summit, we set the direction but we go to the bottom to get things done. Anyhow, the operational level consists of the most staffs and it is the point of the Moments of Truth (from the book known as “MOMENT OF TRUTH”), where your customers give marks to your work at the end of the day.

Please note that we earn respect from others by respecting people only, not monitoring them closely and fire them whenever things go wrong. That’s why the mature grasses always have their terminal buds facing down, for respecting people and finding answers at the bottom. This will eventually make the boss very approachable, enlarge his internal network and be able to discover the underlying problems and answers.

Another thing that I learnt from Lee is “Who are the best Gurus in your life?” There are indeed two Gurus, namely “Problems” and “Yourselves”. If you can find your way to overcome the problems you face, you have learnt a new lesson. Another way to explain this is we should treat problems as stones in front of us. Climbing up the stones can elevate us to higher latitude which in turn allows us to enjoy better scenery and fresher air after the hard work. Perhaps we may not achieve our targets after our best attempts. But please be noted that we will learn more things in the process and other people can see our attitude. This is perhaps more fruitful and important than the result alone. In conclusion, we should be grateful to those who give us “Problems” and what make the difference are our choices of reactions.

With these attributes, no doubt that the China became the most prosperous, advance and united country in the world during the Tang Dynasty. In fact, this was all accomplished within 16 years (The “Chung Kuan Years” – 629a.c. to 645a.c.).