Zhou Enlai: How to be a Good Leader

HOW TO BE A GOOD LEADER

April 22, 1943

[Editorial note: The outline of a talk to cadres of the Southern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, originally entitled "Outline of a Talk on Leadership and Review of Work"]

I. The definition of a leader

Any cadre may at some time have to take up the work of leadership, and very likely he is already doing such work. Therefore, the work of leadership concerns leading cadre at all levels, whether the lower, middle or upper.

Among the staff members at Hongyan and Zengjiayan there is only a difference in the kind of work each does, but no distinction is drawn between the leaders and the led, still less between cadres and non-cadres. Although some comrades working in Hongyan and Zengjiayan and in the office of New China Daily are not directly shouldering the responsibilities of leadership, they are in fact leaders.

II. The stand a leader should take

A leading cadre must proceed from the standpoint of the Party in everything he does. But this is only a general statement. More specifically, a leading cadre should have the following qualities:

1. A firm Marxist-Leninist world outlook and a revolutionary out-look on life;
2. Devotion to principle;
3. Faith in the strength of the people;
4. Dedication to study;
5. A tenacious fighting spirit; and
6. A high sense of discipline.

III. The leaders and the leading organizations

1. Collective leadership and leadership of each level by the next higher level - unified leadership, centralization and democracy (discussion and division of labour).
2. Individual responsibility and individual leadership - this is especially needed in the Great Rear Area and is by no means negated by collective leadership.
3. Direct personal intervention and decision from above - this is not the usual practice but one employed under special circumstances, or to set an example.

IV. What is correct leadership

I shall now elaborate on the three points Stalin once made:

1. Decisions made must be correct. First, leaders should evaluate the situation and anticipate possible changes, seeking out the characteristics of a given place at a given time. Second, they should relate all this to the general task of the Party and determine the tasks and policy for a given period. Third, in line with this policy, they should formulate slogans and tactics appropriate to the current situation. Fourth, they should then work out realistic plans and instructions. They should do all this through in-depth investigation and study of actual conditions, linking up the results with Party tenets and principles.
2. Correct decisions must be implemented. First, leaders should organize discussions of ways to implement the plan and carry out instructions. Second, they should carefully select capable persons and put them in charge of the plan's implementation. Third, they should organize efforts to realize the Party's plan. Fourth, they should organize efforts to realize the Party's plan. Fourth, they should personally take part in the implementation so as to set an example. By so doing, they can discover through practice whether the Party's line and tactics are correct or whether they should be modified.
3. There must be review of the actual implementation of the decisions. Methods of making such reviews: (a) we must note tangible results of work rather than promises; (b) we must not merely look at plans on paper, but inquire whether tasks are being performed conscientiously or only perfunctorily; (c) we must pay attention to content rather than to form and examine whether a decision is really being correctly carried out or is being distorted; (d) reviews should not only be conducted from top to bottom, but also from bottom to top; (e) reviews should be systematic and regular; and (f) leader should personally participate in reviews.

As Stalin has said, leaders must maintain close ties with the masses, and the experience gained by both leaders and masses must be synthesized. Only thus can there be correct leadership.

V. The tasks of leaders

Comrade Mao Zedong says that the tasks of leaders consists in using cadres well and implementing policies. This is true. Breaking the down, I think, they are as follows:

1. Leading cadres should pay close attention to ideological and political leadership. This requires that they constantly raise their own ideological level and strengthen their own political training. We ask our comrades to concentrate on the following: (a) placing emphasis on important matters; (b) sharpening political vigilance; (c) raising their theoretical level; (d) intensifying ideological struggle both inside and outside the Party; and (e) actively publicizing the policies and achievements of the Party.
2. Leading cadres should give careful thought to organizational leadership. Once the political line is laid down, organizational work decides everything. We draw our comrades' attention to the following points: (a) organizational leadership should be raised to the level of political leadership; in other words, all kinds of work should be put on a principled basis and connected with political tasks; (b) all organizational and day-to-day work should serve to guarantee the fulfilment of the Party's political tasks and the realization of its work plans; (c) importance should be attached to the Party's day-to-day leadership, so that Party organizations stay close to the grass roots and their work becomes even more concrete; (d) Party organizations and the masses must be mobilized to strive to surmount all difficulties; and (e) we should combat all forms of opportunism (such as perfunctoriness, empty talk, arrogance, bureaucracy, formalism, and red-taped routinism), corruption, degeneration, etc.
3. Prudence should be exercised in selecting cadres and assigning work. This is also part of organizational work, but it can be taken separately. Both political qualifications and work competence are indispensable criteria for selecting cadres, but political trustworthiness takes precedence. Stalin once pointed out the harm done to the Party when people made appointments not in accordance with principle. He said that such persons were followed by a large "entourage" wherever they went and that they employed only those whom they regarded as their "own" men. In one of his reports on the rectification movement, Comrade Mao Zedong, too, criticized such persons for being "dishonest". That was the failing of those "imperial envoys who rushed everywhere". Given a cadre's political trustworthiness, it is still important to use him properly (in the light of time, place and circumstances).
4. Work should be reviewed. The performance of working personnel and the implementation of the work plan must be reviewed. As Stalin has said, the objectives of the review are: first, to get to know the qualifications of the cadres; second, to determine the virtues and defects of the executive apparatus; and third, to determine the virtues and defects of the tasks or instructions that are set. Some leaders think reviews of this sort are likely to expose their own weaknesses, marring their prestige or shaking their self-confidence. This is incorrect. Leaders enhance their prestige by correcting their mistakes, not by covering them up, and by immersing themselves in hard work, not by bragging or boasting. Confidence will only be strengthened and not weakened through the correction of mistakes. It is only those who are vain and concerned with face-saving who fear the exposure of mistakes.
5. Go among the masses. The leaders should not only educate the masses but should also learn from them. The reason is that the leaders' own knowledge is incomplete and their experience insufficient. Leading positions in themselves cannot bestow knowledge and experience, so it is essential to go to the people and draw experience from them. We ask that comrades: (a) get close to the people, maintain contact with them, and to some extent become one with them; (b) heed the voice of the people; (c) learn from them; and (d) educate them instead of tailing behind them.

VI. Leading the masses and befriending them

1. The masses are not lead in the same way as Party members. The way we lead the masses and the attitude we take towards them should not make them feel that we are exercising leadership.
2. The basic method of leading masses in persuasion, and definitely not command. Only in situations when it is necessary and when the majority agree while a minority still do not, may we compel the minority to carry out the decisions of the majority.
3. The leaders themselves should play an exemplary role in giving leadership to the masses and befriending them.
4. When necessary, leaders should ignore insults hurled at them.
5. Leaders must never underestimate the role they play or the influence they exert, and must work prudently and cautiously.

VII. The art of leadership

According to the art of leadership as expounded by Lenin and Stalin, leaders should not run too far ahead of a movement, nor should they lag behind. Rather, they should grasp the key task and push the movement forward.

According to the art of leadership as expounded by Comrade Mao Zedong, they should take into account the over-all situation, think in terms of the majority and work together with our allies.

VIII. Work methods

1. Examine theoretical tenets and principles in the course of struggle;
2. Determine and review policies in the course of concrete work;
3. Improve work in a revolutionary spirit;
4. Promote democracy and encourage criticism and self-criticism;
5. Employ mainly persuasion and not administrative fiat. Resort to orders only in emergency situations.

IX. Work style

1. Lenin's style of work consisted of: Russian revolutionary sweep; and American efficiency
2. Comrade Mao Zedong's style of work consists of: The modesty and realism of the Chinese people; the simplicity and industriousness of the Chinese peasants; the love of study and deep thought of the intellectual; the flexibility and cool-headedness of the revolutionary soldier; and the tenacity and staunchness of a Bolshevik.
3. Combat all forms of opportunism manifested in day-to-day work. At present, we must especially combat perfunctoriness, empty talk, arrogance, formalism, routinism and all acts which sabotage the fine traditions of the Party and army.

[To my knowledge, I am publishing this article by Zhou Enlai on the internet for the first time. Thanks to Mike B. "How to be a Good Leader" is also being added to the Zhou Enlai Internet Archive at MIA. It is from Selected Works of Zhou Enlai, Volume I, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing: 1981. pp. 146 - 150. I have ommitted the explanitory notes. Please see also Liu Shaoqi's similarly titled How to be a Good Communist as well as Mao Zedong's articles Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership, and Methods of Work of Party Committees, as well as Some Points on the Mass Line by Freedom Road Socialist Organization.]

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Freedom Road on the Mass Line

"The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history." - Mao Zedong

One of the main things that attracted me to Marxism-Leninism and the thought of Mao Zedong when I was becoming an activist and getting involved in popular struggles, particularly in the antiwar movement, was the revolutionary theory and practice of the mass line.

I was drawn to this method of organizing and leadership because it answers in a practical and straightforward way many questions that people have to deal with if they want to fight for fundamental change in society. When I was first beginning to organize and work is large mass meetings in the anti-war movement I felt the need for a revolutionary theory that could measure up to the test of practice. And the mass line measures up.

I first encountered the mass line in Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong. Later I read other articles by Mao Zedong on the subject, such as Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership and his January 30, 1962 talk on democratic centralism. I also studied articles by other communists like Liu Shaoqi's Concerning the Mass Line of our Party and the short collection of Lenin's writings, Party Work in the Masses.

That being said, I just wanted to draw people's attention to this newly released pamphlet by the U.S. Marxist-Leninist group, Freedom Road Socialist Organization on the subject, Some Points on the Mass Line. It is a study of the mass line that was developed by FRSO which explains many of the key points of communist organizing, theory and practice, philosophy and revolution, in a very clear way. If an activist/organizer wants to know what Marxism has to offer in practical terms, in terms of getting stuff done, talk to them about the mass line and show them this pamphlet. It is about how to organize for revolution and change the world.

Well, though it is being published officially by Freedom Road now, in February 2008, it is really sort of a re-release, because as a study it has been floating around for a while now. So at the very beginning of Some Points on the Mass Line it says, "This study was prepared by a leading member of FRSO in the late 1980s. Since then this study has been used extensively inside and outside our organization and it has been reprinted in a number of different political settings. The application of the mass line is basic to how we do our work in trade unions, in the movements of oppressed nationalities, in anti-war and other progressive struggles. It informs our work on building a new communist party." So the real target audience of Some Points on the Mass Line is clearly Marxist-Leninists, though I think advanced activists and organizers who aren't necessarily Marxists or communists could get a a lot out of studying it as well. When combined with a strong, Marxist-Leninist class analysis, a clear view of the national question in the U.S., and important texts like the Main Political Report and other documents from FRSO's 5th Congress (2007) we see that this document on mass line organizing is well contextualized within the rest of what Freedom Road has to offer.

When you get right down to it, Some Points on the Mass Line is an organizing handbook, with 20 points dealing with various aspects of the mass line, and including study questions. Some Points on the Mass Line deals with questions ranging from the philosophical (Marxist theory of knowledge, relationship between theory and practice) to the political (democratic centralism and communist organization), to the very practical (methods of work and methods of leadership). It shows how the mass line allows organizers to deals with questions as seemingly simple as how to respond practically to apathy and cynicism. It discusses the importance of summing up experiences and the struggle for summation. It talks about how to do united front work. It even deals with questions regarding how to build a stable core of activists to mobilize masses of poeple. And, importantly, it links all of these points with deeper questions such as how to raise the level of people's consciousness.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is recommended reading at the end. The point is made that "although the term mass line was coined by the Communist Party of China, the basic method of reliance on, and the mobilization of, the masses of people has been utilized by all successful revolutionary parties." So along with the well known texts of Mao Zedong and Chinese communism, others like Lenin's On Confounding Politics with Pedagogics and Stalin's Armed Insurrection and our Tactics are listed there as well for people to do more research into the classics of Marxism-Leninism.

It is in the mass line that the dialectical relationship between theory and practice is the most clear. As a revolutionary method, the mass line has be proven by successful revolutionary movements all over the world. This pamphlet from Freedom Road shows, point by point, just how that works. I would highly suggest that people read it and apply it.

"The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding, it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge." - Mao Zedong

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