• Business
    • Case Studies
    • Companies
    • Growth
    • Strategy
  • Functional
    • Finance
    • HR
    • Marketing
    • Science & Tech
  • Leadership
    • Be a Leader
    • Books
    • LDR Show
    • Leadership Nuggets
    • Movie Wisdom
    • Podcasts
    • Women & Leadership
  • Personal
    • Character
    • Values
    • Competence
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • E-Mag
  • Assessments
  • Subscribe
  • About Us
Leaderonomics.com
Leaderonomics.com
  • Business
    • Case Studies
      Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

      Crisis Communication: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

      The 5 Step Plan to a Winning Social Media Presence

      The 5 Step Plan to a Winning Social Media Presence

      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Embracing Digital To Power Growth

      Malaysia: Celebrating A Nation's History

      Malaysia: Celebrating A Nation's History

    • Companies
      Intention Matters, But Unwritten Rules Actually Create Company Cultures

      Intention Matters, But Unwritten Rules Actually Create Company Cultures

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

      "As you keep developing your skills, you become like a fine wine", Says Nithin Kamath

      "As you keep developing your skills, you become like a fine wine", Says Nithin Kamath

    • Growth
      Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Disengaged Employees

      Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Disengaged Employees

      The Importance of Legacy in Leadership

      The Importance of Legacy in Leadership

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

    • Strategy
      Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Disengaged Employees

      Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Disengaged Employees

      Pssst! Are You Overworked?

      Pssst! Are You Overworked?

      "As you keep developing your skills, you become like a fine wine", Says Nithin Kamath

      "As you keep developing your skills, you become like a fine wine", Says Nithin Kamath

      What If You Ran Your Business Like an Over-Achieving Spanish Soccer Club?

      What If You Ran Your Business Like an Over-Achieving Spanish Soccer Club?

  • Functional
    • Finance
      How Your Personality with Money Can Influence Your Financial Decisions

      How Your Personality with Money Can Influence Your Financial Decisions

      Making It in Corporate Finance

      Making It in Corporate Finance

      The Disruption in Accounting and Finance

      The Disruption in Accounting and Finance

      An Income for Everyone

      An Income for Everyone

    • HR
      The Six Pillars of Vibrant Workplace Culture

      The Six Pillars of Vibrant Workplace Culture

      A Lesson in Leadership from the HR Perspective

      A Lesson in Leadership from the HR Perspective

      Understanding Performance Management Today

      Understanding Performance Management Today

      Change and Disruption: Fight It or Embrace It?

      Change and Disruption: Fight It or Embrace It?

    • Marketing
    • Science & Tech
      May the 4th Industrial Revolution Be with You: Part 1

      May the 4th Industrial Revolution Be with You: Part 1

      6 Key Digital Trends to Look Out for in 2020 and Beyond

      6 Key Digital Trends to Look Out for in 2020 and Beyond

      How Embodying Trust Builds Big Picture Leadership Capability

      How Embodying Trust Builds Big Picture Leadership Capability

      The Future of the Wood Manufacturing Industry in Malaysia

      The Future of the Wood Manufacturing Industry in Malaysia

  • Leadership
    • Be a Leader
      Caring in Leadership Isn't a Luxury - It Lies at the Heart of a Team's Success

      Caring in Leadership Isn't a Luxury - It Lies at the Heart of a Team's Success

      A Lesson in Leadership from the HR Perspective

      A Lesson in Leadership from the HR Perspective

      Fastest Woman on Earth Leaves Competition in the Dust

      Fastest Woman on Earth Leaves Competition in the Dust

      Should a 4-Day Workweek Be the New Norm?

      Should a 4-Day Workweek Be the New Norm?

    • Books
      Lessons from Tara Westover's Memoir, 'Educated'

      Lessons from Tara Westover's Memoir, 'Educated'

      Michelle Obama Says One Decision Separates People Who Achieve Success from The Rest

      Michelle Obama Says One Decision Separates People Who Achieve Success from The Rest

      Why You Should Assess A Leader’s Capacity For Critical Thinking And Judgment

      Why You Should Assess A Leader’s Capacity For Critical Thinking And Judgment

      5 Skills You Need To Be A Great CEO

      5 Skills You Need To Be A Great CEO

    • LDR Show
      It Started as a Fluke: Making It in the Hotel Business

      It Started as a Fluke: Making It in the Hotel Business

      Leaving a Mark That Goes Beyond Business

      Leaving a Mark That Goes Beyond Business

      Through the Ups and Downs of Business

      Through the Ups and Downs of Business

      Coding Made Easy with Low Code

      Coding Made Easy with Low Code

    • Leadership Nuggets
      Leadership in Four Dimensions: Jonas Prising on Human Resources, Malaysia and Leadership

      Leadership in Four Dimensions: Jonas Prising on Human Resources, Malaysia and Leadership

      "Have Intentionality In Your Daily Life", says Kim Underhill

      "Have Intentionality In Your Daily Life", says Kim Underhill

      "Explorers Are Map Makers", Says Jana Stanfield

      "Explorers Are Map Makers", Says Jana Stanfield

      Leadership Nuggets: Worry Not When We Fail

      Leadership Nuggets: Worry Not When We Fail

    • Movie Wisdom
      What I Learnt About Leadership from the Game of Thrones

      What I Learnt About Leadership from the Game of Thrones

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Lessons From Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      Leadership Lessons From Madam Secretary

      Lessons From A 68-Year-Old Classic That Changed The Face Of Visual Storytelling

      Lessons From A 68-Year-Old Classic That Changed The Face Of Visual Storytelling

    • Podcasts
      The Importance of Legacy in Leadership

      The Importance of Legacy in Leadership

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      The Secret Sauce Behind the Success of a Co-Working Space

      Understanding Performance Management Today

      Understanding Performance Management Today

      Personal Change Affecting  Your Career

      Personal Change Affecting Your Career

    • Women & Leadership
      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

      Women in Leadership: Opportunities, Balance, Challenges and Support

      3 Easy Ways Women Can Demonstrate Their Authority at Work

      3 Easy Ways Women Can Demonstrate Their Authority at Work

      Be A Leader With Queen Oprah

      Be A Leader With Queen Oprah

      5 Lessons from the Life of Chetna Sinha

      5 Lessons from the Life of Chetna Sinha

  • Personal
    • Character
      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      How to Overcome Overthinking and Get More Done

      How to Overcome Overthinking and Get More Done

      11 Things Organised and Productive People Do Every Day

      11 Things Organised and Productive People Do Every Day

      Hiking – Reflections That Will Take You to Greater Heights

      Hiking – Reflections That Will Take You to Greater Heights

    • Values
      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      Hiking – Reflections That Will Take You to Greater Heights

      Hiking – Reflections That Will Take You to Greater Heights

      The Power of Compassion in Leadership

      The Power of Compassion in Leadership

      Raise Your Game: Forming Your Identity

      Raise Your Game: Forming Your Identity

    • Competence
      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      J.K. Rowling Says Success Has Nothing to Do With 'Destiny'

      How to Overcome Overthinking and Get More Done

      How to Overcome Overthinking and Get More Done

      11 Things Organised and Productive People Do Every Day

      11 Things Organised and Productive People Do Every Day

      Infographic: How Good Are Your Problem Solving Skills?

      Infographic: How Good Are Your Problem Solving Skills?

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • E-Mag
  • Assessments
  • Subscribe
  • About Us
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
Home
Leadership
Be a Leader

4 Leadership Lessons From The Samurai

November 13th, 2015 Be a Leader, Leadership

Share this article

Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
4 Leadership Lessons From The SamuraiBe a Leader

LDR-PDF-download-110x110

Learning and growing never stop

By ROSHAN THIRAN

In 2014, during the launch of TalentCorp’s “Women In Leadership” mentoring programme, keynote speaker Datuk Seri Idris Jala posed a question to the audience:

“Why is a Samurai fighter the hardest fighter to fight?”

He quickly explained that the Samurai fighter would be willing to die in a fight. It is almost impossible to kill someone who is willing to die.

As I was pondering this insight, I knew I had to explore the Samurai warrior and its leadership. And as I explored these Samurai warriors, some amazing insights on leadership and life emerged.

Here are my top four insights.

Samurai Leadership Insight 1: Defeat is not an option

Lord of Echigo in the 16th century explained the Samurai’s fatalistic approach to combat:

“Fate is in Heaven, the armour is on the breast, success is with the legs. Go to the battlefield firmly confident of victory, and you will come home with no wounds whatever.

“Engage in combat fully determined to die and you will be alive; wish to survive in the battle and you will surely meet death. When you leave the house determined not to see it again you will come home safely; when you have any thought of returning you will not return.

“You may not be in the wrong to think that the world is always subject to change, but the warrior must not entertain this way of thinking, for his fate is always determined.”

If you look at the world’s best leaders and talent, they all believe that defeat is not an option they have.

Meredith Grey a surgeon from Grey’s Anatomy adds, “Defeat is not an option, not for surgeons. We don’t back away from the table till the last breath’s long gone. We’re not easily intimidated.

We don’t flinch. We don’t back down and we certainly don’t surrender, not at work anyway.

“… To do our jobs, we have to believe defeat is not an option. That no matter how sick our patients get, there’s hope for them but even when our hopes give way to reality and we finally surrender to the truth, it just means we lost today’s battle, not tomorrow’s war.” (Season 5, Episode 19 – Sweet Surrender)

We know that the road to success is littered with failure. If, however, we truly believe that at the end of the day, we will succeed and win, we will quickly brush off the dust and jump back onto our feet and work towards our victory.

Knowing deep down that defeat is not an option, we will then have a total bias to action and work doggedly towards our goals.

Failure is not defeat. Failure only becomes defeat when we surrender. Defeat is not wanting to go through another failure and picking ourselves up.

Legend has it that Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés burnt all his boats once his men stepped out of them into enemy territory in 1519. He did that to ensure that his men had no opportunity to retreat and had to give everything they had to win.

Do we give everything we have? Everything? Or do we have the option to give up when we feel lazy, tired, and uninspired?

Samurai Leadership Insight 2: Victory begins from within

Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, writes about having a personal victory before a public victory. It is very much the same with the Samurai warriors.

Before they even enter battle, they must have won their “private battle”. Sun Tzu writes:

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

There is a battle that rages within each of us. We need to resolve that inner “war” and be clear as we enter the public realm on what success looks like.

Many of us have no clear vision, nor do we have the end in mind. If we do not resolve this before our “public performance” then regardless of the outcome, we may not be able to know if we have succeeded.

Each of us have a different purpose and differing goals and aspirations. If we cannot clearly articulate that goal, then we may never achieve our dreams. It has to start from within. Are we self-aware?

This might interest you: The Genesis Of Success: Self-Awareness

Samurai Leadership Insight 3: Reasons are rubbish

Most of us usually have some great excuses and reasons when we fail. Many times, these are valid reasons.

For the Samurai warriors, there can be no reasons or excuses. If you fail, you fail. Even if your reasons for failing are infallible, it does not matter. You failed.

And if we learn from the Samurai, we can learn there is power in never having reasons. Why is this the case?

Because many times, reasons provide us with excuses to continue behaving in a dysfunctional way. If we have a reason for our failure, we never seek to look at ourselves and our shortcomings.

Excuses deny us an opportunity to look at our personal shortcomings.

I have noticed in many organisations, including mine, numerous individuals who will point out a fault for why they failed. Instead of fixing themselves, they try to harp on how the world needs to be fixed (or the office!) but never themselves.

The best way to change the world is to first change yourself. However, having good reasons and excuses is a sure-fire way to blame others and never see the “log in your eye”.

Like the Samurai, resolve in your heart that whenever you fail to accomplish something or miss your target or goals, first and foremost, look at yourself. Eliminate the need for having a reason. No excuses.

Just take a good look at our shortcomings and make a good plan to improve ourselves. If we keep doing that daily, we are bound to become great Samurai-like leaders.

Miyamoto Musashi, one of the greatest Samurai of all time wrote a book called The Book of Five Rings which articulates the Bushido Samurai code. One of the key principles outlined in the book is to “be always honest, especially with yourself.” So, no excuses. Total honesty.

Samurai Leadership Insight 4: Continuous improvement

Musashi who lived from 1584 to 1645 made another important point in his book on the Samurai Bushido code. He laid out that an important success factor for life was to “constantly improve your skills and knowledge”.

More than 500 years ago, Musashi and the Samurai warriors clearly understood the importance of constant growth.

Many of us enjoy status quo. We love our lives to be constant and we detest change. In the book, Musashi also expounds the importance of always “keeping an open and receptive mind”.

We need to be constantly learning and growing. Learning is a painful process as learning requires us to change our mindset, change our skillset, change our behaviour and even change our ability and skills. Change is never easy. Yet to progress and become great, we need to constantly change and learn.

This might interest you: A True Leader Learns And Grows
How many of us really take time to improve ourselves daily? If you really want to improve your leadership skills, are you spending time reading and learning from other leaders?

Or even simply spending 10 minutes a day at www.leaderonomics.com learning great leadership insights. Spending a few minutes a day learning is an arduous task.

Yet, we need to schedule it and be consistently working to better ourselves in our personal life, professional work and in every aspect of our lives. Do you schedule in continuous improvement in your life?

Final thoughts

Martin Luther King Jr once said:

“Consider that people are like tea bags. They don’t know their own strength until they get into hot water.”

Many of us have deep power and strengths like the Samurai. After all, they are also just human. However, to unleash that power, it requires us to abandon excuses and focus on continuously growing and improving. Start from within and never let defeat be an option.

Click play to listen to the corresponding podcast:

Roshan Thiran is Founder & CEO of Leaderonomics. He is against war and fighting and has a preference for peace but has been intrigued by the inner power of the Samurai warrior. To get his daily leadership nuggets, go to www.facebook.com/roshanthiran.leaderonomics or follow him via Twitter (@lepaker). For more Be A Leader articles, click here. 

Roshan Thiran

Roshan is the founder and CEO of the Leaderonomics Group. He believes that everyone can be a leader and make a dent in the universe, in their own special ways. Connect with Roshan on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter for more insights into business, personal development and leadership. You can also email him at roshan.thiran@leaderonomics.com.

http://www.leaderonomics.org

Share this :

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Tags
  • BFM89.9
  • C-level
  • Continuous Learning
  • Fresh graduates
  • Growth
  • Leadership
  • Middle Management
  • New entrants
  • PDF
  • Podcast
  • Roshan Thiran
  • Senior Management
  • Teenagers
  • Visioning
  • Young adults
Next article Raise Your Game: Suffering = Success: Learning From Superheroes
Previous article To Attract The Best, You Have To Be The Best

Related Posts

Go Crazy For Gold Personal

Go Crazy For Gold

Raise Your Game: It Takes A Community To Build A Leader Be a Leader

Raise Your Game: It Takes A Community To Build A Leader

Raise Your Game: Leadership Blind Spots Leadership

Raise Your Game: Leadership Blind Spots

MyChangkul: Planting The Seeds Of Community Case Studies

MyChangkul: Planting The Seeds Of Community

Triggers That Enable You To Become A Great Leader Be a Leader

Triggers That Enable You To Become A Great Leader

Diamonds Are Forever Personal

Diamonds Are Forever

3 Comments

  1. ck
    August 29, 2017 at 6:09 pm Reply ↓

    “A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

  2. Keith
    January 24, 2018 at 11:39 am Reply ↓

    incredible article. So insightful. Never knew you could learn leadership from the Samurai.

  3. Winnie
    April 1, 2019 at 6:16 pm Reply ↓

    I visited Japan and I went to visit their Samurai museum and was impressed. these warriors understood the importance of discipline and self-control. A lot of success is highly dependant on the character of a person and character is usually developed very early in childhood (I read this article on this issue on http://www.leaderonomics.com somewhere). I like the quote on teabags quote as we never know how strong we are except when the going gets tough. Great write-up and I would like to read more such articles which looks at the Asian perspective on things. We have too much write-ups on western ideology and methods.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Bahasa Malaysia | English

Pick of The Week

Dec 7th 6:47 AM
Functional

The Six Pillars of Vibrant Workplace Culture

Dec 6th 9:08 AM
Leadership

A Lesson in Leadership from the HR Perspective

Dec 5th 9:00 AM
Business

Don’t Underestimate the Impact of Disengaged Employees

NEW – The Leaderonomics Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft7JHfu_PL4

Leaderonomics FM – Now on Spotify/iTunes!

https://leaderonomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Leaderonomics-FM.wav
  • Business
  • Functional
  • Leadership
  • Personal
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • E-Mag
  • Assessments
  • Subscribe
  • About Us
  • Back to top

About Leaderonomics.com

Leaderonomics.com is a leadership portal owned by Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming nations through leadership development. Leaderonomics.com features leadership insights, trends, CEOs, thought leaders, HR leaders and inspiring real-life stories for your personal and professional development.

Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy      
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are those of the writers or the people they quoted and not necessarily those of Leaderonomics.
[Sitemap | RSS]
Copyright © 2010-2019 Leaderonomics Media Sdn Bhd. All rights reserved