greatest wisdom book

Chapter 117 Interaction Part 5
Ingenious tricks, emotions change people's hearts

Treat a soldier like a baby, so you can go to the deep stream with him; treat him like a beloved son, so you can die with him.Thickness cannot be manipulated, love cannot be enforced, chaos cannot be cured, like a proud son, it cannot be used.

Human hearts are made of flesh. If you want to be treated with sincerity by others, you must first give your sincerity.As a leader, if you want to gain the respect and support of your subordinates, you must put aside your sense of superiority and face them with a caring and equal heart.Just as Sun Wu said: Treat soldiers like babies, then soldiers will go through troubles with the general; treat soldiers like their own sons, then soldiers will live and die with the general.

Sun Tzu's "Respect a soldier like a son" is exactly the same as the traditional saying "Love the people like a son". The emphasis is on appropriate emotional investment, which is very necessary for both the army and the people. It is easier to achieve the unity goal of working together, living together and dying together.

Wu Qi was a famous military strategist during the Warring States period. When he was the commander of the Wei army, he shared the joys and sorrows with the soldiers and exchanged his sincerity for the loyalty of the soldiers. He treated his soldiers like friends.

Once, a soldier had an abscess on his body. Wu Qi, the commander-in-chief of an army, even sucked the pus and blood for the soldier with his own mouth.

Someone asked strangely: "Your son is just a small soldier. The general sucked the abscess for him. Why are you crying? It is a blessing for your family that your son can get the general's love!" The mother cried Said: "This is not loving my son. It is clearly asking my son to work for him. I think General Wu sucked pus for the father of the child. As a result, during the war, his father worked extra hard and charged forward. In the end Died on the battlefield; now he treats my son like this, it seems that the child will not live long!"

People are not grass and trees, how can they be ruthless, with such a commander who "loves soldiers like sons", can his subordinates not do their best to serve the battlefield?Wu Qi's actions may indeed contain real feelings, but there is nothing wrong with the old mother crying, and Wu Qi cannot avoid the suspicion of buying people's hearts.As the commander-in-chief of an army, Wu Qi personally sucked pus and blood for the soldiers. No matter how you look at it, it seems like a "bitter trick", using the soldiers' simple feelings to make them repay his feelings with their lives.This is the art of emotional investment, which is also the wisdom of Sun Wu's "regarding soldiers as beloved sons".

Everyone has their own dignity, and they all hope that others can look up to and respect themselves.At this time, the leader cares about the subordinates, bets affection on the subordinates, especially cares and takes care of the subordinates' private affairs, which can satisfy their dignity and make them grateful and willing to serve to the death.Sometimes two emotional words and a few sad tears are often more touching than a high-ranking official.Therefore, emotional investment can be described as a brilliant leadership technique.

The deputy general manager of a foreign company is deeply disgusted by his subordinates because he often blames his subordinates. Therefore, the department's people are loose and the relationship between the superior and the superior is tense, resulting in poor work coordination and low efficiency.One day, the deputy general manager's immediate boss, the general manager, walked into the office angrily, ignored the existence of the deputy general manager, pointed to a department manager who made the work plan, and said, "What plan are you writing?" A deputy general manager who often blamed his subordinates stood up in time and said: "I asked him to write like this, and I will bear the responsibility!"
Since then, the atmosphere has completely changed. Although the deputy general manager snapped at his subordinates as before, his subordinates' attitude towards the deputy general manager is quite different from before.Because they realized that the deputy general manager was thinking of them.After this incident, the general manager trusted the vice president even more, and said to him: "You should have done this long ago!"

It can be seen that whether it is for the development of the entire organization or for personal development, the boss must know some skills to buy people's hearts.Especially when people's hearts are scattered, it is necessary to unite the scattered hearts and let the subordinates serve wholeheartedly, only then can miracles be created.

Mencius said that the right time is not as good as the right place, and the right place is not as good as the harmony of people.The role of harmony can turn things around, and the best way to get harmony is proper emotional investment.

(End of this chapter)