Skillfully Applying Philosophical Thinking to Troop Leadership, Driving Quality and Efficiency Improvements Across All Areas of Unit Building

Philosophy is the scientific summation of the laws governing the development of things. Mastering and applying philosophical thinking is of great benefit to us in solving difficult problems and driving development. Chairman Xi has pointed out: 'Marxist philosophy profoundly reveals the general laws governing the development of the objective world, especially human society. In today's era it still possesses powerful vitality and remains a powerful ideological weapon guiding us Communist Party members forward.' In unit building, troop leaders bear the heavy responsibility of leading officers and soldiers in their growth, consolidating unit cohesion, and enhancing combat effectiveness. Faced with the new situation in which officers and soldiers in the new era are intellectually active and have diverse needs, and in which grassroots work is extraordinarily complex, if scientific and effective methods of leading and training troops cannot be adopted, it will be difficult to improve the capabilities and quality of officers and soldiers or to ensure unit solidarity and unity. Only by skillfully applying philosophical thinking to guide practice and drive work can one grasp the laws, identify the correct direction, and drive quality and efficiency improvements across all areas of unit building.

Uphold dialectical thinking (辩证思维), and grasp the laws of troop leadership within the unity of opposites. Dialectical thinking requires us to recognize and handle problems in a comprehensive, developmental, and interconnected manner; it is the 'master key' for resolving contradictions and advancing work. Strict management and generous care are a pair of dialectical relationships that must be precisely grasped in the practice of troop leadership. Excessive strictness in management can easily cause a unit to become lifeless and lacking in vitality; boundless generosity in care can easily cause a unit's work style to become lax and its discipline to slacken. In his time, Comrade Zhu De was impartial and unyielding on matters of principle, while being sympathetic, tolerant, and attentive in helping officers and soldiers through difficulties in their growth—thereby producing generation after generation of elite soldiers and strong commanders, laying a solid foundation for the growth and development of the People's Army. Looking at the present, a small number of troop leaders have failed to correctly grasp this dialectical relationship: some simply transmit pressure downward while paying insufficient attention to the growth difficulties and livelihood hardships of officers and soldiers; others act as 'yes-men,' turning a blind eye to behavioral deviations by individual officers and soldiers. All such conduct will ultimately harm unit development and internal solidarity. The art of leading troops lies in applying dialectical measures. Front-line troop leaders must view officers and soldiers with trust and a developmental perspective—both identifying shortcomings and correcting problems, and excavating potential and capturing strengths; both grounding themselves in the present and looking toward the long term; both establishing authority through iron rules and strict discipline, and rallying strength through heartwarming encouragement. Only by achieving a balance of leniency and strictness, with appropriate tension and relaxation, can one maximize the consolidation of the hearts and morale of the troops and stimulate vitality and drive.

Firmly establish reality-seeking thinking (求实思维), and improve methods of troop leadership through seeking truth from facts. The essence of reality-seeking thinking is proceeding from actual conditions in all things, respecting objective laws, and seeking truth from facts. Leading and training troops must be grounded in actual conditions and guided by scientific measures. At present, some troop leaders are hidebound by convention, believing that 'old experience' can solve all new problems, and stubbornly adhering to traditional methods of troop leadership, causing the improvement of officers' and soldiers' capabilities and quality to be slow; others suffer from severe 'borrowism' (拿来主义), blindly copying the training and management methods of other units, applying pressure and conducting training in a simplistic manner without regard for the differences in the baseline levels of their own unit's officers and soldiers, which instead leads to an increase in problems… These measures divorced from reality violate objective laws and naturally make it difficult to improve training quality and effectiveness. Front-line troop leaders must vigorously promote the fine work style of seeking truth and being pragmatic, conduct thorough investigation and research deep in squad and platoon barracks and at the front lines of missions, listen to genuine opinions, observe actual conditions, and devise practical strategies, so as to accurately grasp the ideological dynamics, capability shortfalls, actual difficulties, and real demands of officers and soldiers. On the basis of clarifying actual conditions and summarizing laws, persist in applying precise measures and teaching in accordance with individual aptitude (因材施教), differentiating by position, personality, and baseline differences to tailor cultivation plans, and guide officers and soldiers to each display their talents and give their utmost. Only in this way can work be done in a manner that truly resonates with officers and soldiers and promotes their all-around development.

Strengthen practical thinking (实践思维), and improve the quality and effectiveness of troop leadership through hands-on practice. Practice is the living source of understanding, the sole criterion for testing truth, and the 'whetstone' for tempering troop-leading ability and improving troop-leading quality and effectiveness. To do troop-leading work well, one must be rooted in practice—rising to act and taking the lead in working hard. On the eve of the Campaign to Liberate Hainan Island, faced with problems such as officers' and soldiers' insufficient experience in naval warfare and the harsh operational environment, Comrade Han Xianchu actively led his troops in training, carrying out vigorous large-scale naval training exercises, thereby strengthening officers' and soldiers' capability to conduct amphibious operations and laying a solid foundation for the campaign's victory—setting an example for front-line troop leaders. In reality, a small number of troop leaders emphasize theory over practice, emphasize deployment over implementation, and emphasize paper trails over actual results; they are unwilling to go deep to the front lines to tackle hard problems, resulting in helplessness when faced with thorny issues and a serious deficiency in the practical ability to overcome difficulties. Such work-style habits will inevitably delay the growth of officers and soldiers and affect unit building. Strengthening the military and invigorating the armed forces requires hard work above all; the path to victory originates in practice. Front-line troop leaders must step forward with courage and engage in hands-on practice. On one hand, they must lead from the front and set an example, proactively rushing to the fore and standing at the forefront in the front lines of preparing for war and fighting, and in the face of urgent, difficult, dangerous, and arduous missions—using concrete actions to make the call 'watch me, follow me' ring out, and inspiring and motivating officers and soldiers through their own superior capabilities and quality. On the other hand, they must vigorously drive implementation and seek practical results, work hard to resolve bottlenecks and difficulties in training, make great efforts to remedy the shortfalls in officers' and soldiers' capabilities and quality, use pragmatic measures to resolve contradictions and solve difficult problems, and continuously strengthen the unit's cohesion and combat effectiveness.