Those Who Lead Troops Should Genuinely Care for Their Soldiers, Deepening Mutual Understanding Through Measured Flexibility and a Balance of Leniency and Strictness

When I first became a company political instructor, how to quickly establish authority and manage the company well became a practical challenge before me. Because I believed that "strictness is the hard truth," my standards grew ever higher and my demands ever stricter. Watching the soldiers fall into complete compliance under my management, I thought I had found the way of leading troops—until a later experience made me realize my problem.

One day, Sergeant Xiao Zhang was sent away for centralized training. His father then suffered a sudden illness and urgently needed him to return home to care for him. What puzzled me was that I learned of this only by chance, overhearing Xiao Zhang on the phone with the company clerk—he had not reported it to me on his own initiative. I had once been Xiao Zhang's platoon leader; he used to greet me with a smile, and the two of us had talked about everything. Now he was deliberately avoiding me. The magnitude of this change was something I had not anticipated. After repeated questioning on my part, Xiao Zhang spoke his mind: "Instructor, last time I didn't shout the slogan loudly enough, you criticized me in front of the whole company, and it chilled my heart. On top of that, whenever you were with me your expression was always grave and heavy. I thought you had a serious problem with me, so when I ran into difficulties I didn't dare to just speak up…" After a heart-to-heart conversation, we cleared away the estrangement between us. To resolve Xiao Zhang's urgent situation, I immediately reported it to my superiors, and the next day he was granted permission to return home and take his father to see a doctor. Xiao Zhang's family circumstances were poor; the company applied for the "Compassion Fund" (爱心基金) on his behalf in accordance with regulations and reminded him to seek medical care at a military hospital whenever possible.

After this incident, I reflected seriously and concluded that my understanding of "strict management with deep care" (严管厚爱) contained a fundamental error. Establishing authority through strictness must also be accompanied by building trust through genuine feeling. Those who lead troops should genuinely care for their soldiers, truly enter the inner world of officers and soldiers, and deepen mutual understanding and support through measured flexibility and a balance of leniency and strictness. From that point on, I no longer managed purely in a "cold tone," but instead took the initiative to integrate myself with everyone. The atmosphere in the company became considerably more harmonious as a result.

Manage strictly, but do not arbitrarily raise the bar. At present, military barracks are composed primarily of officers and soldiers born after 1995 and 2000. Young officers and soldiers think actively and hold diverse views. If those who lead troops do nothing but put on a stern face—this is not allowed, that is not permitted—it is easy to provoke a psychology of resistance. There is nothing wrong with holding officers and soldiers to strict standards and strict management in itself, but if regulations and rules are applied mechanically without accounting for the actual circumstances of officers and soldiers, and if any minor problem is immediately elevated into a matter of principle, it may look imposing on the surface while in reality planting the hidden danger of "suppression without genuine compliance" (压而不服). Manage within reason, be strict within bounds, and hold love in the heart. Strictness does not mean piling on layer after layer; it must be strictness within the law and strictness grounded in evidence. Depart from this premise and the phenomena of substituting personal words for law and substituting personal authority for law will emerge. Only when those who lead troops establish rule-of-law thinking and carry out their work in strict accordance with laws and regulations can they find the scientifically calibrated measure for managing troops and drive continuous new achievements in unit building.

Have both "hardness" and "warmth." "Set love first, set authority afterward" (爱设于先，威设于后) is a principle of troop governance put forward by ancient military strategists. It means first caring for soldiers and drawing them close, and only then establishing authority and making punishments clear—this is the only way to forge a truly capable force. Deep care is the key to leading troops, but it is not a loosening of discipline or a slackening of conduct; it is encouragement in work and concern in life. Those who lead troops must genuinely care for officers and soldiers, respect and trust them with an attitude of equality, think more from their perspective, understand more of their difficulties and hardships, and bring wholehearted enthusiasm to helping them resolve their worries and pressing concerns. One must do the work of ideological education, psychological counseling, and the like, combining strict management with effective communication and the building of consensus, and in practice emphasizing the embodiment of humanistic care (人文关怀) and management wisdom—only then can the unit, from top to bottom, be filled with warmth and with vigorous fighting spirit.