Code Brain: Ecosystem Connections, Cognitive Resonance

After six months, the Code Brain "Practical Leadership" intensive has officially graduated! Three required modules, two elective modules, and one bonus session — featuring role reversals, scenario simulations, sandbox exercises, and professional assessments... totaling 60 hours of in-person coursework. Two hundred and nine founder and executive participants, collectively supporting more than 30 MaHui member companies!

Leadership development doesn't happen overnight. It's a long-term process of creating enduring, genuine value. The coursework merely opens a door to new understanding, offering tested scientific methodologies and tools to help founders apply them in real business scenarios — ultimately achieving the leap from personal leadership to team leadership and organizational leadership.

Here, we've compiled the program's highlights and memorable quotes, hoping MaHui founders will return to them often for fresh inspiration as they reach new heights!

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Building a company is like "going to war." While victory in any battle depends partly on timing, terrain, and unity of purpose, the decisive factor remains the general leading the troops — how to read trends from the command tent and how to turn the tide when all seems lost...

Founders are the generals, charged with leading their teams to "capture cities and expand territory." Yet not every general is a good general, not every general wins battles, and not every founder builds a great company. What separates them is leadership on the battlefield — what we call practical leadership.

Leadership is the most visible expression of a manager's capabilities, manifesting across every aspect of business operations: from business model design and strategic decision-making to organizational architecture and corporate culture. But natural-born leaders are rare. Most founders need to deliberately cultivate their personal leadership, team leadership, and organizational leadership.

In December 2021, Code Brain launched the "Practical Leadership" intensive, pioneering a fixed small-cohort format for the first time. With a clear focus on "leadership," it used six months of modular, periodic learning to help early-stage portfolio CEOs and core executives address challenges at three levels:

Who — Who am I? Founders' self-awareness: What kind of leader am I? What are my strengths and weaknesses?

What — What is it? What kind of leader does a company need at different stages? How should leaders unite and rally the organization?

How — How to do it? In what areas should founders improve their personal leadership, and what tools and methodologies can they use?

The intensive was therefore structured around three required modules — "Know Yourself," "Drive Change," and "Unite the Team" — corresponding to the dimensions of people, tasks, and team (organization). That is: first help founders look inward and understand themselves, then equip them to lead on the "battlefield" and "win battles," and finally reflect on and solve team problems discovered in the process of "fighting."

In the "Know Yourself" required module, we invited Dr. Feng Li, founder of Leadership Grammar Theory and PhD in psychology from The University of Hong Kong, to lead founders through two days of Non-Positional Influence: Five Self-Cultivation Practices for Leaders, guiding them to explore themselves from a psychological perspective and build their non-positional influence within their teams.

Dr. Feng Li | Founder of Leadership Grammar Theory, PhD in Psychology from The University of Hong Kong

"Whether a team is well-led comes down to three metrics: team capability, team motivation, and team synergy. Four aspects of leadership: leadership effectiveness (results matter), leadership process (behavioral school), leadership situation (situational leadership school), and leader personal qualities. Five key personal traits of leaders: benevolence toward others, pursuit of excellence, confidence and decisiveness, strategic thinking, and wisdom in understanding people."

In the "Drive Change" required module, we introduced a hybrid online-offline gamified sandbox course — Change Leadership: How to Overcome Resistance and Implement Change. Ye Xiao, partner at HCD International and veteran talent development expert, used John Kotter's eight-step change model as a foundation to comprehensively demonstrate the "six stages" and challenges that companies inevitably face when driving change, helping founders identify targeted solutions.

Ye Xiao | Partner at HCD International, Veteran Talent Development Expert

"The failure rate for corporate change is as high as 70%. To succeed, start with three things — establish urgency, build a coalition of allies, and paint a vision. The 'six stages' companies experience when driving change and the core challenges at each stage; the three common mindsets/positions team members hold when facing change; and the eight methods leaders can use to overcome resistance at different change stages — helping leaders find targeted countermeasures and increase the probability of successful internal and external change."

Ye Xiao's presentation content

In the "Unite the Team" required module, we introduced a classic Western business course — The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team: How to Build a High-Performance Team. Using professional DISC leadership assessments and team self-diagnostic tools, Decheng Zhu, founder and chief consultant of A.PLUS International, led founders and their core teams to identify and solve problems, building high-performance teams.

Decheng Zhu | Founder and Chief Consultant, A.PLUS International

"Is a team without conflict ideal? Not necessarily. What matters most is whether the leader can harness constructive conflict. In the VUCA era, high-performance teamwork has become the only sustainable competitive advantage. Yet in most companies, teamwork remains difficult to master."

Decheng Zhu's presentation content

Beyond the three required modules, the "Practical Leadership" intensive also included two electives. These focused on "year-end review" and "building high-performance team habits." Among them, Yifeng Xu's From Individual Operator to Team Leader, brought by Chief Organization Officer partner, was specifically opened for CEOs to attend with their executives.

Yifeng Xu | Partner, Chief Organization Officer

"Founders and those in the #1 position shouldn't try to control everything. Stay open, and learn to let people and situations evolve with appropriate looseness."

• Code Brain | Your Startup's Core Team Needs a "Deep Dialogue"
• Code Brain | Founders' Time Management: "Two Must-Learns, Three Principles, Four Quadrants"
• Code Brain | Founders Need to Learn to Let Go

Following the electives, at the intensive's closing session in late July, we invited Source Code Capital partner and CHO Yunduan Zheng to deliver a bonus session. Zheng focused on understanding uncertainty in the current moment, and how founders should cultivate organizational capabilities that provide certainty.

Yunduan Zheng | Partner, Source Code Capital; CHO

"CEOs shouldn't be buried in operations every day. Build operational capabilities in others and replicate them continuously. 'Using the false to cultivate the real' means allowing for some mistakes in the process — using these mistakes to develop your leadership team, giving them more time and space. 'Using tasks to develop people' means building talent through real challenges, gradually elevating their capabilities."

• Code Brain | Zheng Yunduan: What Really Drives Organizations?

Issue 29 Code Brain | Zheng Yunduan: What Really Drives Organizations?

Issue 28 Code Brain | Mastering Human Nature to Build Your Overseas "Vanguard"

Issue 27 Code Brain | Carbon's Origins and Destinations

Issue 26 Code Brain | All About Overseas Marketing

Issue 25 Code Brain | Cracking Liu Genghong's Traffic Code

Issue 24 Code Brain | Equity Financing's "Changes" and "Constants"

Issue 23 Code Brain | Eight Questions on Going Global: Where Are the New Opportunities?

Issue 22 Code Brain | Managing Supply Chains Amid "Volatility"

Issue 21 Code Brain | Clear Despair Beats Vague Hope: On ToB Sales During the Pandemic

Issue 20 Code Brain | Is Your Cash Flow Healthy During the Pandemic?

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