In Chapter Seven of Sun Zi Art of War, Sun Zi mentioned four important areas to achieve a good fighting force. They are:

1) Morale
2) Psychology
3) Physique
4) Change

Morale refers to the fighting spirit or the troops' willingness to fight. Psychology refers to emotional intelligence of the troops, their ability to manage their emotions. Physique refers to the well-being of the troops, whether they are well fed or well rested. Change refers to the troops’ ability to respond to situations.

So how can we apply this to business?

Business Application

Morale

This is the most important areas out of the four. It is equivalent to the fighting spirit of the employees in your the company. High morale can help the company to tide over even the worst crisis. But morale is very fragile. Any slight negativity in the company like a bad remarks or rumors can cause a drastic drop in it. So a good manager should always be able to keep the morale high in a company .

Psychology

This is equivalent to the emotional intelligence of the department This in turn is equivalent to the emotional intelligence of the leaders in the department. Many a times, we have seen that the leader’s emotions usually will affect other team members. If the leader of a team has low emotional intelligence, it is a matter of time before the team will self-destruct because of working relationship issues.

Physique

Studies have shown that absenteeism is a major costs on companies, but now there are studies that show 'presenteeism' can also be a huge costs as well because firstly, they can spread their disease to others in the office and secondly, the drop in productivity due to their sickness.

The best solution to these two problems is to take care of the health of your employees. Why not set aside time for your employees to do some exercise if they want to? Because in my opinion, time spent on work done is important but it is productivity that matters. Good health has been shown to have a high relationship with productivity. So if the increase in productivity can compensate for the time lost by a large extent, it could be worth your while. Do you have a program that takes care of your employees’ health?

Change

In this dynamic business environment, major changes come often. So how do you help your employees to cope with changes, both within the company and those in the industry? The key here is information.

The reason most people do not like changes or are not able to handle it is because the fear of uncertainty. The fear of what is going to happen after the change. So what can help your employees to manage and handle change is information. Let them know why such changes are made, what are the repercussions that are going to follow. Allow them to be able to anticipate what is coming from these changes so that they can make ample preparations for it. Is this being carry out in your company?