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Assessing The Strength of The Leading Person

Of course, the very first point is the leading person itself. Any army must have the General. Any country must have by the General. What will happen if you behead the army, keep it without the General and grant the full power to soldiers? You army will fall apart, break up itself from the inside and I will be able to easily conquer your country, without a single shot.

The country requires the leading person. And it must not be the decoration, but the ruling person provided with the real power. What will happen with your army, if you constrain the power of the General from making decisions and enforcing them? You army will become a sort of the heavy-weighted bureaucratic machine with very weak reaction and I will be able to easily conquer your country, without a single shot.

I can talk much about the personal qualities of the leader such as strong will, intelligence, self-learning capabilities, etc. But the best way to assess a person – it is by its real deeds, actions and results attained in the past. We will always make mistakes, until we stop acting. Only people who do nothing make no mistakes. Do not blame the person for its mistakes, but blame it for not learning on those mistakes and not acting to avoid the same mistakes in the future. No books, no theorists, no professors, no advisers will ever teach you to become an intelligent person, not just an educated person, until you start thinking and acting yourself.

Another two key capabilities of the leading person, which I have to stress before proceeding to the next assessment point, are its ability to find the way out of the tough situation and its ability to stick to the select idea. The real intelligence of the leading person is showed up during extraordinary situations, not during ordinary ones. Everyone can be a hero in the ordinary situation, but when the heat comes only the real intelligent person can have the will to take responsibility, to make decisions and act together with like-minded people – the team. When the heat comes the very first step is to find the way out. And when the heat abated the next step is to pump out the water, to determine the root cause and make sure of the heat will not return and that we will be prepared next time to meet it with the fridge.

The ability to stick to the select idea, or the opposite – changing the steed at the crossing, is also very critical. I think, you read my article about building the successful investment company and should know that once you select the idea you have to stick to it. You have to adapt its development strategy and tactical implementations to the changing environment, but your idea must form the firm ground for you and your followers.

The second point is the team of the leading person. One cannot conquer alone. If the person says that it can do all of the stuff itself, man, you would be better to keep away from such the person. It is either an absolute dictator or an absolute madman or madwoman. What is worth the General without the army? The leading person must have the team. Preferably, they must be from the same party. I prefer monolithic team that follows the leading person. The ruling team must be formed from members of the same party: none of ruling Frankenstein when the ruling team is represented by members of different parties. Each person is driven by own interests, politicians in particular.

The ruling Frankenstein just slows down the decision making process and does not facilitate actions, but creates different obstacles. If the ruling team members are from different parties there are too much if’s and when’s between them. And when some decision promotes interests of one party it must be accommodated in order not to do harm or restrict the interests of other participants. Ultimately, if you want to slow down the development and reformation process, then create the ruling Frankenstein. If you want to facilitate the development and reformation process, then create the monolithic ruling team, whose members will be devoted to one idea – the idea of the leading person.

The third point is the governance system. Basically, everything I said on the second point is true for the governance system. The image of the ruling Frankenstein is effective for the governance system as well. I prefer strong vertical power line, when the leading person has the strong and monolithic party. I do not like different blocks and unions – there are too many if’s and when’s, thus clashes of interests. One of the war tactics states that in order to weaken your enemy or even destroy it completely, you have to disorder its unions. You must also be cautious when forming unions, because in the union each party must always cede some interests and freedoms. Because of these reasons I prefer monolithic party with the strong and monolithic vertical power line.

The fourth point is the business relationships. We have to understand that business feeds people and government: by creating jobs, paying salaries and taxes. If the leading person is not on the same page with the business, it will not be able to create the effective state. Be on the same page means that both the leading person and businesses are willing to cooperate in order to create the fertile environment where small, mid-sized and large businesses can successfully grow. The leading person must reach agreement with both representatives of small and mid-sized businesses and representatives of large corporations. The cooperation between these three parties is required in order to elaborate the mutually beneficial solution.

The task is to create the environment, where capable people can use their capabilities to create businesses and develop domestic market. But we cannot ignore the presence of large business owners at all. They are the product of the free market. The total absence of the large business owners means that there is only one large business owner in the state – the government, or more precisely it is the leading person and its team. So do not be blind on this matter. The position of the leading person must be to reach the mutually beneficial agreement with large business owners and representatives of small and mid-sized businesses to secure their co-existence. The balance must be maintained in order to secure the permanent and diversified economy development.

The fifth point is the economy development strategy. Basically, it must be the roadmap of how the leading person envisions the economy development. It must be the coherent development strategy which answers the question “what”. Although the question “how” is important, but it is the subject of the operating and tactical implementations plans. The important thing to size up is that the leading person has the coherent economy development strategy. The operating and tactical implementations plans are working materials created on the later stage by the relevant authorities.

To sum up, here is my checklist to assess the leading person:

1. What has the leading person realized in the past?
2. What real outcomes of deeds of the leading person can you identify?
3. How effectively did the leading person handle with tough situations in the past?
4. Does the leading person have the monolithic ruling team or it is the person-by-himself with the ruling Frankenstein?
5. How effectively did the leading person work with ruling teams in the past?
6. How many and what parties are involved in the ruling team of the leading person?
7. How strong is the vertical power line of the leading person?
8. How strong is the political party of the leading person? Is it a monolithic party or a block of parties?
9. What relationships does the leading person have with businesses? Can it handle with them?
10. What economy development roadmap does the leading person have?