West-point Leadership Training

The eagle is the longest living bird, and it can live up to 70 years. However, when it is 40, it has to face a critical choice: to wait to die or to be reborn after 150 days of painful nirvana and then, live for another 30 years.

If an enterprise wants to survive or even win over a crisis, it also needs to undergo a rebirth process. To stage the rebirth of an enterprise, its leader must have extraordinary courage and more importantly, outstanding leading capacity. The United States Military Academy at West Point is just the place for leadership training.

The Academy has cultivated a great number of marshals and generals as well as numerous chairmen and presidents of the Global Top 500 corporations. Therefore, in this sense, it is not only an excellent military academy but also the best business school in the world.

【Course Objectives】

Thousands of years of refined wisdom gave birth to the west-point military spirit,which for over a hundred years,have cultivated numerous elites, and with a decade of efforts, we eventually forged such a great course. The course aims to put an end to the out-dated thinking patterns among trainees, alter their low-efficiency behavioral habits and urge them to go beyond the traditional business models. It is a renewal of their souls as well as a chance to retain the control over themselves and their team. The spirit of West-point is the key to success. We promote the concept, “Thinking creates value, and study alters our fate!”

【Syllabus】

Perception——To know the way of the universe, understand the way of human relations and then, develop your way of doing business.

    The success of West-point lies in the unique characteristics of personality that its leadership embodies: courage, determination, honesty, perseverance, perspective taking, expert knowledge, adaptability and spontaneity. We uncover the mysterious veil of West-point and let the leaders perceive the real substance, which will definitely turn them into winners in commercial competitions.

I. Courage

When an enterprise confronts a moral trial or a life-death crisis, its leader must have the courage to face the reality, make the choice and take the responsibility. Courage is the instinctive capability of human beings, and anyone can exert his courage through learning.

II. Determination

Under complex, uncertain circumstances, a leader must keep calm, determined and be quick to respond.

III. Honesty

A leader should have followers, and the way to have followers is to win their trust. The noblest personality of a leader consists of honesty and righteousness.

IV. Perseverance

In face of difficulties and holdbacks, never giving up is another important character of West-point. A leader with perseverance is ready to face the worst consequence. Perseverance brings about 2 characteristics of a result-oriented leader: vigor and mindfulness.

V. Perspective Taking

Emphasis on the understanding of cadets’ psychology is another advantage of the West-point education. A leader should think in the shoes of his employers from time to time and ask the question, “What kind of person do I hope my leader should be?” so as to discover the capabilities a leader should have, and then he acts on them.

VI. Expert Knowledge

Solid expert knowledge is essential for a leader to make correct decisions. It is such kind of knowledge that endows a leader with irreplaceable authority.

VII. Adaptability

West-point promotes adaptability which enables people to respond quickly to the changing situation and in the meantime, make strategic, tactical and psychological adjustments.

VIII. Spontaneity

In crises, the leader’s action is the best leadership, as at the critical moments, employees do not see any positive or negative encouragement as importantly as at the peaceful time. Therefore, the leader must force a way through by calmly resorting to the real action and concentrating on dealing with actual problems.

Tactics——To invent and carry out right tactics unswervingly

    Perception is the guidance to achieve success, while right tactics are the tool to fulfill it. At West-point, a leader is supposed to invent and discover the skills which may help them achieve success. In a crisis, reform is inevitable, which, first of all, calls for the alteration of people’s mind, and then, various skills to strengthen their capabilities; eventually, all of them should be embodied in the system and put into practice.

I. Lean Reform

West-point emphasizes continuous improvement and amelioration. In a crisis, reform is the way to achieve improvement and amelioration. Reform is not simply laying off employees, and in order to make the enterprise lean, the more important thing is to stage conceptual reform, i.e. to make people’s thinking lean. Such kind of lean thinking has helped many international corporations (such as Toyota) go through their crises—of course, its core is still amelioration.

1．Lean thinking: To get rid of various waste and achieve constant amelioration

2．Constructing the lean system

3．Case Study: Cost-oriented lean management

II. Talent Promotion

West-point has a strict elimination mechanism. About 1/3 of cadets will be eliminated before graduation. The cultivation of excellent managers is also subject to the law of “survival of the fittest.” Jack Welch said, “If you don’t put the prominent people in the right position, it is a sin; however, if you don’t eliminate the unsuitable, it is a crime.”

1．Morality and Talent

2．Arousing the potential of your employees

3．Discussion: Why purchasing managers are more likely to have problems

III. Effective Communication

A battle cannot be fought by a single person; it is teamwork. Successful teamwork must rely on the effective communication among team members. An enterprise is a team, and it needs cooperation and communication, which enable people to discover the obstacles in communication and obtain communicative skills, thus contributing to success.

1．Obstacles in communication

2．Communicative skills

3．Teamwork

IV. Management by Objectives (MBO)

A commander, who has no clear objectives, will send many innocent lives to death—this is a felony. A manager, who cannot manage his enterprise by objectives, will waste lots of resources. MBO is an essential tool for good managers.

1．MBO

2．The SMART principle

V. Time Management

In the battle field, the chance to win the battle shifts swiftly, and a good commander must use the short time interval very efficiently to make the right decision. An entrepreneurial leader also must be good at time management, and he must make decision efficiently, grasp the opportunity and take immediate action.

1．The concept of time management

2．Methods of holding efficient meetings

3．Principles of improving efficiency

VI. Problem Management

“The problem of being unable to see problems is the worst problem for a manager.” Various problems exist in the business operation of an enterprise. A manager must face problems with a positive attitude and deal with them scientifically. He must start with details and explore the source of the problems step by step so as to entirely wipe them off.

1．The basic patterns of problem management

2．Improving the problem solving skills of your subordinates

3．The Lean solution: ——5WHYs

VII. System Construction

West-point requires its cadets to abide by the rules unconditionally. Enterprises often have series of rules and regulations, but many lack the guts and right methods to really carry them out. Leaders are not only rule makers but more importantly, the first implementers.

1．System construction

2．System implementation

3．System amelioration

Wisdom——Smart people understand what others are thinking, while wise people know what they themselves want.

Smart people understand others but don’t know themselves; however, wise people know not only others but themselves. Only those who know themselves can be really enlightened. A real leader should, first of all, have a scientific thinking pattern so as to have right judgment in decision-making. Forming good habits can also increase a leader’s leverage for success. The application of enneagram may help leaders know others as well as themselves and utilize the best resources in the best places.

I. Thinking Drill

1．The broader one’s mind is, the greater his achievements will be

2．The thinking patterns necessary for a leader

II. Habit Formation

1．Habits are winner’s servants

2．The habits necessary for a successful leader

III. Personality Refining

1．Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.

2．The essential skills for leaders to know people

Action

I. Leaders’ Choices

The birth of a leader can never be smooth. It calls for some abandonment but more importantly, guts; choices have to be made, but unswerving faith is more essential; he must be adaptable and outstanding capabilities as well…

1．Unswervingly move forward, though prospects remain unknown

2．Boldly make a breakthrough: Choose to be a leader

3．Trust others and make the right judgment: Choose to be led by others

4．Define yourself and be willing to take responsibilities

II. Actual Practices

    In the simulated scenarios, trainees put what they have learned in class into action, so that they can have further recognition of the theories, experience how to manage a team, make their goals clear, and exercise their leaderships…

1．Improving the capabilities for team organization and coordination

2．Experiencing MBO in actual practices

3．Experiencing time management in actual practices

4．Learning how to use communicative skills in actual practices

5．Experiencing market competition in actual practices

6．Learning how to take responsibilities in actual practices

7．Exercising leadership in actual practices

III. Recalling, sharing, summarizing and enhancing

【Introduction to the course lecturer 】 

    Fang Guanghua   

	●	President and chief consultant of Dives Group	●	EMBA of University of Missouri, USA
	●	Expertise: corporate governance structures and lean management	●	Visiting scholar of Leipzig Graduate School of Business
	●	10 years of field experience in management consultation	●	Director of the EMBA Program (Shanghai), Tianjin University
	●	Having provided management consultation for dozens of enterprises	●	Director of the MBA Program (Shanghai), Lanzhou University
	●	Having worked in industrial enterprises ranked on the Fortune Global Top 500 List	●	Member of the board of directors of Shanghai Federation of Industry & Commerce
	●	Senior research fellow in Enneagram	●	Member of the board of directors of Shanghai Enterprise Confederation

    Works:

《The Modern Corporate Management Core Courses series》

《The Cost-oriented Lean Management》

《The 5S Management with Chinese Characteristics》

《Enneagram & the Improvement of Leadership》  

   Courses that he has conducted:

《Professional Qualities and Social Duties 》

《MBO and Performance Assessment》

《International Certified Trainer ITTT》

《Lean Manufacturing 》

《Pushing 6S Management Forward in Enterprises》

《Problem Analysis and Solving》

《Thinking Innovation and Leadership》

Efficient Communication in Management, etc. 

【Trainees】

Executives of various enterprises, including general managers, vice general managers and division managers

【Time】

    Sep. 26—27, 2009 (2 days & 1 night)

【Course Charge】

    5800 RMB/Person

【Location】

    Shanghai, China