Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang’s Top Six Leadership Tips
阿里巴巴CEO张勇的六大领导力技巧
原文：DANIEL ZHANG (FastCompany)，2017年1月11日上午05时
As you might imagine, leading one of the world's biggest e-commerce companies comes with its challenges. Since becoming Alibaba's CEO in May 2015, I've had to adopt a handful of strategies to help me overcome them each day.
正如你可能想象的，领导全球最大的电子商务公司之一，挑战随之面来。从2015年5月担任阿里巴巴的首席执行官以来，我不得不采取一些策略帮助我每天克服这些挑战。
Some are more tactical, like rethinking the company's approach to meetings, a difference that even our founder Jack Ma has noticed since I came on board. Other strategies I've learned to embrace deal with bigger-picture issues—like how to make tough calls and take action when the path forward is unclear. Here are six of the approaches to leadership that I've found serve me best.
有些是更具战术性的，如反思公司的会议方式，这一点我们的创始人马云，从我上任以来就注意到有所不同。我还学会使用其它一些策略，来应对更长远的问题，比如，如何做出艰难的决定以及如何在前进道路不明朗时采取行动。这里有六个领导力技巧，对我帮助很大。
1. USE MEETINGS TO FIND WEAK SPOTS, NOT TO TRADE UPDATES
利用会议发现薄弱点，而不是周知进度
I'm a strong believer in efficient communication, so I ask my teams to share all the relevant presentation materials with me before each meeting. In general, I've found that meetings are among the worst formats for sharing information. They're best when they're kept short. I try to get all the facts lined up before the meeting and use the meeting itself for discussion, debates, and decision making. That way we can use the time together to look for weaknesses in our strategy or line of thinking.
我坚信有效的沟通，所以我要求我的很多团队，在每次会议之前要分享所有会议相关的材料。一般来讲，我发现为了共享信息，会议是最糟糕的形式之一。会议越短越好。会议之前，我试图搜集所有能列出的事实，用于在会议上进行讨论、争辩和决策。通过这个办法，我们可以有时间一起来发现战略中的不足或者是思考过程中的薄弱环节。
Typically, I start out with some basic questions that let me poke around and see if the person presenting actually knows their stuff. If he or she can respond to some of my random questioning right up front, then it's a good sign they've done their homework. Those who flounder generally haven't thought everything through thoroughly. When I get the sense that's the case, I'll usually press forward with some additional questions so we can get straight to uncovering any holes in our approach.
通常会议时，从一些基本问题开始，我能探究和发现陈述人是否实际上了解他们的会议材料。如果回答我的一些随机问题都在点子上，说明他们已经做了会前准备，这是一个好现象。通常那些勉强应付的人不会彻底思考每一件事。当我意识到这种情况时，我往往会借助很多额外的问题来向前推进，以便我们能直接地找到我们前进中的任何漏洞。
注：poke around，仔细寻觅；探究；打探
All my meetings have to have minutes and action items. Meetings without actionable outcomes are useless. I've found that lecture-style meetings can be helpful—but only sparingly; hosting them once or twice a year is sufficient. On a day-to-day basis, meetings aren't the place for getting everyone up to speed. They're for finding your weak points and debating how to fix them.
我的所有会议必须要有会议纪要和行动项。没有可行动输出的会议是没用的。我还发现讲座式的会议可能有些用处，但要尽量少，每年有一次或两次足够。对于日常的工作，会议不是让每个人得到最新进展的地方，会议是为了找到你的弱点并讨论如何解决掉它们。
注：minutes，还有备忘录，会议记录，审判记录的意思
2. MAKE IMPERFECT DECISIONS, EVEN IF THEY'RE WRONG
做不完美的决定，即使可能是错的
I face tough decisions every day. In fact, the easy ones often don’t make it to my desk at all. As such, I try to devote my energy to making the types of challenging decisions that nobody else in the organization can. Even if a decision will result in controversy, a final call has to be made. And having the courage to make it, and to bear that responsibility, is really important.
我每天都面对艰难的决定。事实上，容易的事根本不会放到我的办公桌上。因此，我努力集中我的精力做挑战型决定，这些决定在组织内没有其它人能做。即使一项决定会引起争议，也必须作出最后的决定。有勇气做到这一点并承担责任，是非常重要的。
But for any team, the greatest fear shouldn't be whether a decision turns out to be wrong. You can always course-correct if things don’t work out. The real fear is in the state of paralysis that results when you can't make a decision at all.
但对于任何团队，最害怕的不应该是一个决定是否会导致错误。如果事情没有效果，你可以随时纠正。真正的害怕的是陷入不知怎么办的状态，导致你根本不能做出决定。
Leaders have to have the courage to be decisive, even if that means making imperfect choices. In some cases, there isn’t always a clear right or 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.
领导者必须要有勇气去决定，即使这意味着做出不完美的选择。在某些情况下，并不总是有明确的正确或错误。我发现如果你有决心，即便比别人多走些弯路，几乎任何事情都有可能解决，毕竟条条大路通罗马。关键是保持持续地前进。
In fact, the adage that "the shortest distance between two points is a straight line" makes logical sense but doesn't always work out in practice. In my experience, innovators don't often have the luxury of waiting to identify the shortest distance between two points. Sure, the CFO can work out the numbers and precise projections, but if you hesitate to act until everything's figured out, you might have surrendered your first-mover advantage.
事实上，“两点之间的最短距离是一条直线”这一合乎逻辑的格言，并不总是能在实践中发挥作用。根据我的经验，创新者们确定两点之间的最短距离，不会是舒服地等待。首席财务官(CFO)当然可以计算些数字来精确的规划，但如果你犹豫等到一切都计划好了才行动，你可能已经丧失了你的先发优势。
It isn't easy to set plans into motion when they aren't fully formed yet, but that's often necessary. When the plan isn’t entirely clear, you need to rely on your intuition. Most people, after all, want to get things right, and leaders need to have faith in their teams if they want to make progress. I expect of all our managers in the company to have the courage to create opportunity—which includes the courage to bear whatever risks accompany it.
当事情尚未完全成形时，在行动中制定计划并不容易，但这通常是必要的。当计划不完全清晰时，你需要依靠你的直觉来判断。毕竟大多数人都想把事情做对，要想取得进步，领导者需要对他们的团队有信心。我期望公司里所有管理者有勇气创造这样的机会，即敢于承担伴随任何风险的勇气的机会。
3. QUIT COORDINATING PURPOSELESSLY
别做无目的地协调
Speaking of which, I've found that the most decisive action often comes from the front lines. If everything has to be decided through central command, then many opportunities will be lost. Managers need the leeway to make decisions independently.
说到这一点，我发现最果断的行动往往来自前线。如果必须通过中央指挥来决定任何事，那就会失去很多机会。管理者需要有做出独立决定的余地。
Sometimes coordination can be counterproductive; you don't need teams to align if they don't have common goals. That’s like binding the legs of two people headed in different directions. We want to make work as straightforward as possible. If an issue can be resolved by one department, there’s no need to involve a second.
有时协调可能适得其反；如果团队之间没有共同的目标，你不需要团结这些团队。这就像绑住往不方向前进的两个人的腿。我们希望工作尽可能地直截了当。如果问题一个部门就可以解决，就不需要牵扯第二个部门。
The internet and mobile communication have really opened up management possibilities in this regard, allowing teams to work as parts of highly efficient networks. At the 11.11 Single's Day headquarters this year, there were no more than 10 people on the ground, because nowadays everyone doesn’t have to be in the same room in order to communicate effectively. A leader doesn’t have to stay at headquarters, and neither do the staff. People are all links in the same universal communications chain. They can be everywhere without being anywhere specifically.
互联网和移动通信已经真正创造了管理的可能性，允许团队作为高效网络的一部分来工作。今年双11光棍节，总部不超过10人，如今每个人不必在同一个房间就能以有效地进行沟通。领导不需要留在总部，甚至也不需要工作人员。所有人都在同一个通用的沟通网络上，他们不需要在任何特定地方，就能出现在每一个地方。
4. BE WILLING TO REDEFINE EVERYTHING
愿意重新定义一切
The iPhone redefined the mobile phone, making a touchscreen interface the norm. That's one of my favorite examples of how a single innovation can change everything. The future isn't invented by analyzing the past. Leaders have to be fearless in questioning what we think we know. After all, true innovation has no past, only a future.
iPhone重新定义了手机，促使触摸屏界面变成了常态。这是我最喜欢的例子之一：单一的创新如何改变一切。分析过去不能创造未来。领导者必须敢于质疑我们认为我们已经知道的东西。毕竟，真正的创新没有过去，只有未来。
That doesn't mean wiping the slate clean completely, though. "Restructuring" is a word I use often. I believe in rearranging a company's existing building blocks in order to create new ways of doing things. Simple addition and subtraction doesn't cut it. What we want is to create a multiplier effect—to restructure a business so a chemical reaction can take place, bringing about something new, something more.
这并不意味着过去一笔勾销。“重组”是我经常使用的词。我相信重组一个公司现有的业务块，可以创造出新的做事方式。简单的加法和减法不会削减它，我们想要的是创造一个乘数效应：重组业务，发生化学反应，带来新的东西，更多的东西。
That's what we're trying to do at Alibaba in retailing. The landscape has evolved beyond merely meeting customers' needs. Now it's about creating new demand, and to do that, we need to find ways to stimulate latent, yet-to-be-discovered consumption demand.
这就是我们试着在阿里巴巴零售业做的事情。零售业大环境的演变已超越了单纯地满足客户需求。现在，该创造新的需求，要做到这一点，我们需要找到办法来刺激潜在的，尚未被发现的消费需求。
5. DON'T FIXATE ON THE NUMBERS
不要盯着那些数字
To this day, the thing people always care most about during our 11.11 Single's Day Global Shopping Festival continues to be the final GMV (gross merchandise volume) number. Every year people ask me for an estimate, but I always decline, even if it's Jack Ma asking. My mantra is, "The house never places bets."
到目前为止，人们最关心的事情仍然是双11光棍日全球购物节最终的GMV（商品交易总额）。每年人们要我估计一下，但我总是谢绝，即便是马云问我。我的座右铭是：“房子从来没有下注”。
When the GMV ticker on the 11.11 monitor reached 118.8 billion yuan ($17.5 billion USD), I was pretty pleased. In fact, I would've been happy even if it hadn't gone any higher. In 2012, our total GMV was 19.1 billion yuan ($3.1 billion USD), and a lot of people came up to me afterward to say we should've done more to hit the 20 billion mark. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with leaving a little bit on the table for next time. Everyone has their own measure of success, and for me, the most important thing is how much of the progress made is translated to day-to-day operations.
当双11显示器上显示GMV达到1188亿元（175亿美元）时，我很高兴。事实上，即使不再更高，我也会很高兴。2012年，我们总计GMV为191亿元人民币（31亿美元），很多人后来告诉我，我们应该做更多的事来冲击200亿大关。但我不认为有什么问题，为下次留一点点余地。每个人都有自己的成功标准，对我来说，最重要的是每一天的行动会变成为多少我们取得的进步。
Similarly, a company’s stock price is often used as the metric for judging a CEO’s performance. But to me, this number isn't important. If all I do is obsess over Alibaba's stock prices, then the business will be compromised and decisions will be made for the wrong reasons. A low stock price doesn’t necessarily reflect a bad situation, while a skyrocketing stock price is probably more optimistic than it should be.
同样，公司的股价通常被用来衡量一个CEO绩效的指标。但对我来说，这个数字并不重要。如果我所做的是围绕着阿里巴巴的股票价格，业务将会妥协，为了错误的理由做一些决定。低股价不一定代表不好的情况，而猛涨的股价也可能比它应有情况更乐观。
I believe it's far more important to recognize that the market has its own logic, and to accept it. We need to have faith that the ultimate measure of success isn't reflected in these ups and downs but in the long-term value we're creating. And long-term value can't be fully expressed by just a single number.
我认为更重要的是意识到市场有自己的逻辑，并接受它。我们需要有信心，成功的最终衡量不是反映在股价的上上下下，而是在我们正在创造的长期价值。长期价值不能仅由一个数字完全表示。
6. REST UP SO YOU CAN DREAM BIG
为了伟大的梦想好好休息
Work stress is inevitable, but no matter what challenges the day may throw at you, it's crucial to get a good night’s sleep. In fact, perhaps my biggest competitive advantage is that I'm able to sleep no matter what. I have a knack for falling asleep and waking up naturally when I need to without an alarm clock.
工作压力是不可避免的，但无论白天可能面临什么挑战，晚上睡个好觉都是至关重要的。事实上，也许我最大的竞争优势是无论无何我都能睡着。我有一个不需要闹钟就能熟睡及自然醒的诀窍。
But even if that doesn't come easily to you, you still need good quality sleep. Every effective leader needs to sustain the clarity and energy to make tough decisions and plan for the future—to dream big, day in and day out. After all, as Alibaba's CEO, it's my duty to dream.
但即使对你来说不容易，你仍然需要良好的睡眠质量。每个办事有效的领导者都需要保持清醒和精力，以便为未来做出艰难的决定和计划。为伟大的梦想，每天奋斗。毕竟作为阿里巴巴的CEO，实现伟大的梦想是我的责任。
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