If you think The Art of War is just about ancient Chinese battlefields, you’re missing the point. Your battlefield is the quarterly earnings call. Your terrain is the market. Your enemy isn’t the competitor—it’s waste, friction, and poor strategy .
When a re-org or crisis hits, offer clarity. The manager who provides calm maps wins loyalty.
If a rival team is failing, offer help. Tomorrow, that ally may save you. sun tzu the art of war for managers 50 strategic rules
Listen to what your competitor’s job postings say (what skills are they desperate for?). Listen to what your team doesn’t say.
If you’ve been trying to fix a broken process for 3 months, burn it down and rebuild. If you think The Art of War is
Care for them. Feed them. Train them. Then they will cross the fire for you.
200 people on a CC list is not a team. It’s a crowd. Reduce the CC list. Section VII: Maneuvering (Agility) 35. The hardest thing is to turn the indirect into the direct Turn a complaint (“This process is slow”) into a win (“You just designed the new workflow”). If a rival team is failing, offer help
Don’t share unfinished strategies with the whole company. Share them with your trusted two. Section VIII: Variations & Adaptation 40. Adapt to the terrain A remote team needs different rules than an in-person one. A startup is not a bank.
The manager who brags about “putting in 80-hour weeks” has already lost. Efficiency is silent. Section III: Strategic Offensive (Taking Initiative) 14. The supreme art of war is to subdue without fighting Win a budget battle by showing how your project grows the pie for everyone. No politics required.
Here are from Sun Tzu, translated for the boardroom and the Slack channel. Section I: Laying Plans (The Strategy Phase) 1. The five constants Before any project, assess: Mission (The Way), Market (Heaven), Terrain (Earth), Leadership (The Commander), and Discipline (Method).