Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: Strategies for Leadership and Business

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a classic text on military strategy, written in the sixth century BCE in China. But its wisdom goes beyond the battlefield, and its teachings can be applied to leadership and business today. In this article, we will explore 15 key strategies from The Art of War that can help leaders and businesses achieve success.

1. Never Lead by Force

According to Sun Tzu, the best leaders are those who cultivate virtues such as wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness. They follow the moral law and strictly adhere to method and discipline. By doing so, they have the power to control success. In their plans, consideration of advantage and disadvantage should be blended together.

2. Know the Competition

Sun Tzu advises leaders to hold out baits to entice their enemy, feign disorder, and crush them. Leaders should seek to irritate their opponent if they have a choleric temper. The key is to avoid what is strong and strike at what is weak.

3. Doing Nothing is Better Than Acting Out of Fear

Sun Tzu urges leaders to make a forward move only if it is advantageous, otherwise, they should stay where they are. Leaders should not fear the result of a hundred battles if they know themselves and their enemies. Inaction can be a wise decision. The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon that enables it to strike and destroy its victim.

4. Always Plan Ahead

Sun Tzu says that the enlightened ruler lays plans well ahead, while the good general cultivates his resources. By altering arrangements and changing plans, the enemy remains without definite knowledge. By shifting camp and taking circuitous routes, leaders prevent the enemy from anticipating their purpose. Circumstances may change, so one should modify plans accordingly.

5. Refrain From Decision-Making When Angry

According to Sun Tzu, no ruler should put troops into the field just to gratify their own spleen. No general should fight a battle out of pique. The skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without fighting, captures their cities without laying siege to them, overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field.

6. Study the Competition

Those who know things and put their knowledge into practice will win their battles. Those who do not know or practice them will be defeated. Careful comparisons of the opposing army with one’s own abilities give leaders an edge. What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.

7. Use Your Team Wisely

A clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy and does not require too much from individuals. The leader’s ability to pick out the right men and utilize combined energy is crucial. With combined energy, fighting men become like rolling logs or stones. If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s authority is weak. If banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.

8. Act Like a Leader

Sun Tzu advises that a general should be quiet to ensure secrecy, upright to maintain order. He must be able to mystify his officers and men by false reports and appearances, to keep them in total ignorance. Bestowing rewards without regard to rule, issuing orders without regard to previous arrangements, enables leaders to handle a whole army as though they had to do with but a single man.

9. Trust Yourself

The one who knows when to fight and when not to fight will win. The one who is prepared and waits to take the enemy unprepared will win. The one who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces will win.

10. Think Strategically

By keeping forces intact, leaders can dispute the mastery of the empire, and without losing a man, their triumph will be complete. Attacking by stratagem is the key. The rule in war is that if forces are ten to the enemy’s one, surround them. If five to one, attack them. If twice as numerous, divide the army into two.

11. Know Yourself

According to Sun Tzu, if you know yourself and the enemy, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. The ability to prepare oneself and wait for the enemy unprepared is a critical skill.

12. Think Diplomatically

Sun Tzu believes that all warfare is based on deception. Leaders should seek to irritate their opponent if they have a choleric temper. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.

13. Never Lose Sight of the Goal

In war, the great objective should be victory, not lengthy campaigns. The one who wins is the one whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.

14. Have A Plan

Leaders should have a plan that includes both tactics and strategies. Without tactics, strategies are the slowest route to victory. Without strategy, tactics are the noise before defeat. Leaders should let their plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when they move, fall like a thunderbolt. They should avoid strong enemies, depress morale, seem humble to fill them with conceit, exhaust them, attack their weaknesses, and emerge to their surprise.

15. Know When to Quit

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard. The greatest victory is one that requires no battle. Leaders should build their opponents a golden bridge to retreat across.

In conclusion, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War provides invaluable lessons for leaders and businesses. Its wisdom goes beyond the battlefield and can be applied to various areas of life. By following these lessons, leaders can cultivate virtues such as wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness. They can achieve success by knowing themselves, their competition, and how to act strategically.