Master Sun: “Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness.”

Du Mu: “The way of the ancient kings was to consider humaneness foremost, while the martial artists considered intelligence foremost. This is because intelligence involves ability to plan and to know when to change effectively. Trustworthiness means to make people sure of punishment or reward. Humaneness means love and compassion for people, being aware of their toils. Courage means to seize opportunities to make certain of victory, without vacillation. Sternness means to establish discipline in the ranks by strict punishments.”

Jia Lin: “Reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence. Excessive sternness of command results in cruelty. When one has all five virtues together, each according to its function, then one can be a military leader.”

Adaptation: Here we are offered the classical description of the personal qualities embodied by genuine leaders according Sun Tzu and his commentators over the last 100 generations or so. While the message may appear self-evident its adaptation may not be.

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