How to activate human potential and power?

Former Alibaba political commissar, founder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Yeast, Zhang Lijun, at Chaos University, combined with her own experience in establishing Hupan College and the organization department at Alibaba, dissected the company's recruitment and employment methodology in detail. She believes that, The most core ability a boss must master is to be able to read people's minds.

"China has really entered an era of entrepreneurial entrepreneurship by a group of elites. If you don't have three knives on your waist, don't come out to mess around."

Zhang Lijun teaches at Chaos University

Teacher | Zhang Lijun

Former political commissar of Alibaba, founder and CEO of Entrepreneurial Yeast

Before we officially start, let us think about three questions:

What is the most important thing about running a business?

What is the essence of management?

Is HR really just a matter of HR?

Generally speaking, there are three dimensions to running a business, namely people, finance and affairs, but you must know that people are everything. All troubles come from people. All kinds of people make you unhappy, and you will be overwhelmed. Every time you are tortured, it is because of people's problems.

The flowing human heart and the unchanging human nature.

In other words, the most core ability a boss must master is the ability to read people's minds. As for the essence of management, my understanding is to get results through others.

In addition, you must also realize that HR is not the HR department’s business, it must be your own business. Every entrepreneur is first and foremost the chief human resources officer.

So, after today’s course, I hope you can forget about the so-called methods, but you must establish a “people” awareness. For example, when you get up every morning, when you finish thinking about your business, you must immediately Think about it from another perspective, whether the people doing this business can do it, whether they can fight, and whether they can win the battle. This is the most important thing.

What should a good HR do?

Every boss who has met me will basically ask me, where can I find a HR as good as you? I think it doesn’t matter if you can’t find them. There are many good HRs. The key is whether you can help them.

What exactly should a good HR do to be an HRVP or CHO? I think there are these three things:

Cultural inheritance

Have you ever found that when there are 100 employees, others cannot understand the ideas you mentioned? There will be leaks in the transmission, and the information will be reduced layer by layer. You need to use a good mechanism, which is what we call "mission, vision, values" and other cultural factors.

This is not a slogan, but a manager who sets an example. The people below will do the same if they feel it.

Let me tell you my story. When I first joined Alibaba, my first master was Guan Mingsheng, the man who created Alibaba culture. I regard him as my lifelong mentor.

At that time, he was already the CEO of the group, and I was just a sales employee. However, he was on a business trip abroad and would personally tell me how to answer customers' questions at 2 a.m. local time.

When I managed a team for the first time in my life, I managed 15 small employees. Before that, I was a teacher and didn’t know anything, so I didn’t know what to do.

As a result, my team was miserable. They didn’t produce a single order for half a month. Then these 15 people wrote a piece of A4 paper and jointly petitioned to fire me.

But fortunately, Ni Liang (the person Zhang Lijun reported to at the time) came to talk to me later and said this:

Someone reported that you were not doing well, and I thought it was me. responsibility because I did not tutor you. So, first, starting from tomorrow, bring your notebook over every morning and write down clearly what you want to do today, why you want to do it, and how you plan to do it, and I will coach you; second, you must have a good working habit every night. Tick ??the things you have done and finish them today; third, I will support you in any public situation.

I was very touched at the time. Every morning thereafter, I would give a ten-minute report and he would give me guidance. Then, on various occasions, he would say every time, today she is your boss, and if any of you oppose her, please leave.

After I was trained in this way, I then used the same method to coach my subordinates, and eventually I became a regional manager, regional manager, and general manager from supervisor.

This is the teaching and learning of culture.

Strategy implementation

When a strategy is implemented, it must have business operation indicators. Only by living today can we have tomorrow. After the business is finalized, we will start to allocate human resources. You need to do three things:

① Arrange the troops

Next year we need to do business and fight. We must first select the marshals, generals, and vanguards. Who will take the lead in this matter, who will provide food, and who will raise morale? You should take inventory of talents based on your goals.

② Training

To train this group of people, you have to think about your partners, your senior managers, and people at different levels, and what different methods should be used to Train them.

③ Figure out the company’s basic rules

What are the most important policies and systems at the bottom of the company? Indicator system and financial budget system related to sales improvement, including performance appraisal, rewards and penalties, etc.

If a policy is formulated and everyone agrees, is this good? Rubbish.

Any policy system should be popular and be able to screen out good employees and let the bad ones go. This part in the middle should make him feel pressured.

Organizational Development

Do you know, in the field of HR, which department has the most expensive people? He is the boss in organizational development, because he wants to improve the capabilities of managers at all levels. Going forward, there will be no more than ten people in China.

① How to improve the abilities of a group of people?

You need to focus on solving these three problems:

? Solve the problem of whether employees are willing to do it or not

When you implement something, the first thing you need to think about is Yes, how to make him willing to do this.

? Solve the problem of employee competency

You find that the ability of this matter requires 123, and the employee’s ability is only 1 and 2, missing 3. At this time, through external training , or personal counseling, you have to add this 3.

? It takes a group of people to work happily

If the people in the company who do well are not as good as those who do not do well, do you think they will be motivated to do it? No. Therefore, you need to create an atmosphere that is fair, transparent and inspiring.

② How to improve the capabilities of junior, intermediate and senior managers?

When I was at Hupan College of Ali Management Cadre College (the predecessor of Hupan University), I studied one thing - how do managers need to improve their capabilities?

? Leg Strength - Junior Managers

I made the 20 best junior managers in the company and observed what they did in a day, a week, and a month. Write down your work habits. Write slowly. There are more than a hundred items.

Among these things, we found that there are three most important things, so we picked them out and developed them into courses:

The first thing is not only to be able to recruit, but also to Know how to organize people;

The second thing is to learn how to build a team;

The third thing is to get results? How to get the result? What to do with the data? How to do the process? What should I do with the method path of the result?

Let’s emphasize again “opening people”. Have you ever opened a business with more than 10 people? There is an old saying in the industry that only those who have worked for 100 people are called management masters, and those who have worked for 10 people are called management beginners.

In other words, if you have not fired so many employees, your management has not yet started.

? Waist strength - middle-level managers

Directors and senior directors are the backbone and mainstay of a company. The abilities required by these people also include three levels:

Smell

When you return to the company after a week's business trip and walk around twice, can you intuitively feel something? I remember that the first thing Mr. Ma did when he came back from a business trip was to run up and down. After the run, he would have a meeting and talk about so-and-so’s problems. He was very accurate.

Affection comes from the heart, and whether everyone is in good or bad shape is written on their face. If you are a good manager, the first thing you do when you return to the company is to observe whether there is sparkle in the employee's eyes and whether there is a smile on his face.

This ability must be trained until you find that you have a dog nose, and the more you smell, the more sensitive you become.

Pulling hair

How can we truly understand the boss’s thoughts? You have to learn to think from a higher perspective, if you were the boss, how would you deal with this problem?

When my subordinates come to me for a quarrel, I just ask them, what would you do if you were me, and that solves the problem. This is called hair pulling. On the other hand, the CEO must also learn to use this method to understand your employees.

Look in the mirror

There is a famous monkey theory, which is that a tree is full of monkeys. When you look up, they are butts, and when you look down, they are all smiling faces. In fact, in the workplace, you are also such a tree-climbing monkey.

When you are at the grassroots level, look up, it’s all butts, everyone is beating you, at this time you have to tell yourself it’s okay, I’m just here.

When you climb to the middle, you are actually the most tired, just like a middle-aged greasy man. Although there is not much butt at the top, the butt is too heavy. Looking down, everyone is smiling. , can't help you with anything.

So, as an executive like this, you have to learn to look at yourself in the mirror. Am I really doing the right thing?

What is the most dangerous executive? When I want to do something, the first thing I consider is how to deal with my boss. It's very dangerous when you have this idea, because no one can stop you, and no one says you must be wrong, so you must learn to reflect on yourself.

? Organization Department - Senior Manager

When you reach the senior director level or above, you will enter the core management, that is, the company's organization department. We have a separate course called ALDP ——Alibaba leadership. There are only three core competencies: strategic ability, the ability to cultivate people, and your mind, structure, and ability to work in parallel.

Executives can conduct 360-degree assessments to evaluate whether the general manager is good or not. They should ask his boss, his peers, and his subordinates. Why 360 degrees? Because the boss can only look at his ability, his peers can look at his mind, and his subordinates can look at his character. This is an institutional construction.

After experiencing so much in the workplace, can you still return to your pure self? Only by returning to that pure state and growing the power for good from the depths of your heart can you do greater things. Therefore, our core requirement for senior executives is that everyone should grow inward.

A truly good manager will be particularly good at stimulating your good side, while a bad person will stimulate your bad side, so that your negative abilities become more and more powerful.

③ If your company has more than 100 people, you must hold three meetings

If your company has more than 100 people, you must hold three meetings: business strategy meeting, financial budget meeting and Talent inventory meeting. These are also the three most important things when Alibaba holds a group meeting at the end of the year, namely human, financial and business strategy meetings.

For example, during the talent inventory meeting, Mr. Ma is the cruelest to those who report directly to him. He will ask the company's HR, VP and president to come together, and will keep asking questions until Manager level.

Every boss is in a panic, because you must know the advantages and disadvantages of all the lines of management you report to, and you cannot make mistakes.

Because, before this, the Organization Department has already done a talent inventory, we have formed all the reports, and Mr. Ma has read them, and he has got more information than you know.

The core work of HR: How to recruit and select people?

How to recruit partners?

There are three key points for recruiting partners:

① Have the same vision

You must love this thing from the bottom of your heart, and you are most afraid of recruiting a partner. People are here for your money, or he said, investors are very popular in this business recently, so we have to do this.

② Back-to-back trust and tolerance

Trust has two levels. First, I believe in you. You prove it to me first, and then I will believe you; second, I choose first. I believe you, just do it with confidence.

These two approaches seem to lead to the same goal, but do they really? After you find a like-minded partner, do you choose not to trust him first, or do you choose to trust him?

Believe it, because if you don’t trust him, the worst thing will be for you. No matter what you say, when others feel that you don’t trust him, he will definitely cope with it and will not be of the same mind as you.

Choosing to believe first does not mean you are a fool. You can observe in the process. This is what Mr. Ma said, be suspicious when employing people, and use those who are suspicious.

③ Complementarity

If you want to be a good CEO, you should have at least 6 abilities. Externally, it is building a brand, integrating resources, and being able to raise funds. Internally, one must be able to formulate strategies, be able to deceive people, and be a spiritual leader.

Among these six, if you really can't do it, you must do three things, set a strategy, integrate resources, and be everyone's spiritual leader. You can find a partner to help you divide the rest. For example, find a good CFO to help you with financing.

How to recruit senior executives?

A senior executive is not a blank sheet of paper and has everything written on it, but he may or may not agree with your values, which is normal. So when you choose a senior executive, there are three main things:

① Have a strategic vision

Senior executives have to lead the troops to fight. If their strategic vision is not good, their execution ability will be poor. The better, the more people will die. For example, this was a trap. He didn't know it, but the people below listened to him, and in the end the whole army was annihilated.

② Be ambitious

Every department led by a senior executive is a parallel department, and fights will naturally occur. No matter how powerful a company is, its resources and money are always limited, so at this time, the person's structure is very important.

③ If you surpass Bole, will you cultivate your subordinates?

In the past, Ali had an unwritten rule that if you want to be promoted, if there is no backup management

Impossible to be promoted.

How to choose ordinary management?

For ordinary management below senior executives, you have three requirements for them:

① Have upright roots and good values;

② A sense of team responsibility ;

③ Systematization of business management.

Why should we add a special systemization? Because you will find that many people manage their business point-to-point and do not have the power of a system, but you must remember that management must be systematic. From KPIs to how to break down results, it should be systematic management.

(End)

* This article is compiled based on the course "Human Resources is the CEO's First Project" taught by Zhang Lijun at Huanchao University. The content is only 1/7 of the entire course.

More details:

1. How to recruit and employ people at different stages of enterprise development?

2. Where did Lakeside College’s “Three Axes” come from?

3. Never work as a CHO in such a company