In an article for Fastcompany.com, Zhang described six approaches to leadership that he has found the most effective in practice.
1. Meetings should look for weaknesses and find solutions
Zhang considers meetings one of the worst ways to share information. Therefore, he insists on all participants having and knowing necessary information in advance so that meetings can focus on discussing this, finding weaknesses in the given issues and ways to improve things.
Minutes are written for every meeting, including a list of action steps to be taken based on the discussions. Without such action steps, meetings would have no sense.
2. Leaders can't be afraid to decide
Zhang focuses primarily on decisions nobody else could take instead of him. He is convinced that leaders must have the courage to decide even if in the future their decisions may prove to have been incomplete or quite wrong.
"I've found that if you have resolve, almost anything is possible - all roads really do lead to Rome, even if some turn out bumpier than others. The key is just to keep moving forward," says Zhang.
3. Managers need more space to decide
Most decisions for action come from the first line. If all such steps have to be decided by central leadership, the company would miss many opportunities.
According to Zhang, managers need more space for independent decision-making in their teams. If anything can be resolved within a single department, it is not necessary to involve other departments that have nothing to do with the issue.
4. Don't be afraid to innovate
"The future isn't invented by analysing the past," says Zhang. "Leaders have to be fearless in questioning what we think we know. After all, true innovation has no past, only a future."
5. Don't focus only on money and numbers
The most important measure of success according to Zhang is the progress that translates into everyday business operations. Markets have their ups and downs, manifested e.g. in the changes of share prices, but the most important factor is the long-term value a company creates. That can't be expressed by a single number.
6. Get enough sleep
"In fact, perhaps my biggest competitive advantage is that I'm able to sleep no matter what," says Zhang. He has developed the ability to fall asleep and wake up at the right time without needing an alarm clock.
Every leader needs enough quality sleep to have enough energy to make decisions and plan the future.
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