movement of things, knowing how to detect contradictions of things, discovering new things in accordance with the development of practice; the strategic thinking of leaders has a wide range of reflection, over a relatively long period of time, approaching problems on a global scale; the strategic thinking of leaders has a vision of the times and the achievements of human civilization. Strategic thinking is based on theoretical research and practical summary, is a synthesis of economic thinking, political thinking, cultural thinking, military thinking, foreign affairs thinking, thereby forming a vision that is both general and profound and meets the long-term development needs of practice.
2.1.3. The essence of improving strategic thinking skills
Talking about the level of thinking is talking about the thinking ability of people in the process of cognition and practical activities at certain levels. As mentioned above, thinking is the process of human consciousness approaching and grasping reality, is a high form of active, proactive, purposeful reflection on objective reality and is expressed as an intermediate, indirect, generalized perception of the relationships between things and phenomena. The level of thinking has a close relationship with thinking capacity. To improve the level of thinking, it is first necessary to affirm that the object that needs to be improved has full thinking capacity. Thinking capacity is a synthesis of abilities including: memorizing, reproducing, associating, abstracting, generalizing; then the process of processing reflected knowledge; finally applying and developing them in specific practical situations. Thinking capacity plays an important role in scientific cognition; is the ability to grasp and apply knowledge to life; is the ability to reflect by association, detect and process information in specific situations and circumstances; is a cognitive spiritual force, a moving mechanism, a synthesis of thinking rules on the basis of the rules of real life. Strategic thinking capacity is the synthesis of the psychological, physiological and intellectual qualities of the subject, is the dialectical unity between knowledge and mastery, skillful and creative application of scientific knowledge, the ability to summarize practice as well as appropriate logical thinking operations to make predictions and orientations for the future for the subjects.
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that the subject aims to research and solve. The development of strategic thinking capacity is demonstrated through the levels of strategic thinking.
The level of thinking is expressed at different levels, there is pre-scientific thinking and scientific thinking, there is experiential thinking and theoretical thinking. Strategic thinking is thinking at a high level in the process of human cognition. Strategic thinking is characterized by the ability to think with foresight, creativity, and foresight to make accurate predictions of future trends in the issue that the subject is aiming to research and reform. The level of strategic thinking is expressed through the ability to assess and evaluate the object, thereby outlining plans and policies to orient future development over a long period of time, bringing about expected results, in accordance with the trend of movement and change. The higher the level of strategic thinking, the more accurate the judgments and predictions about the movement and change of things and phenomena, thereby proposing policies and strategies suitable for those movements and changes, in accordance with objective laws. Accordingly, improving the level of strategic thinking essentially requires ensuring the improvement of the thinking level in all of its characteristic elements, which are:
First , improve the vision of thinking. Improve the vision of thinking to avoid the mindset of a term, only seeing the immediate and not the long term. This requires the subject to have the ability to see far and wide in both space and time, that is, to have a comprehensive view of all issues. Always put the target object in an open environment to consider and compare in relation to both the past and the future to accurately determine the state of existence of the object with all its advantages and limitations, advantages and difficulties, opportunities and challenges. In both cognitive and practical activities, it is required to consider from many aspects, many relationships, to consider it in the history of development, which elements and parts are composed of which relationships and interactions, thereby discovering the common attributes, basic attributes of the research object. Doing this will help
The subject avoids or limits one-sidedness, metaphysics, mechanics, and one-wayness in perception as well as in solving practical situations. Thereby creating the ability to correctly perceive things and phenomena as they are in reality. This is the basis, the basis for being able to accurately and effectively handle practical problems. Strategic thinking does not allow limiting the research object to a certain level, but needs to separate all surface phenomena to thoroughly see the inner essence of the matter, the nature of the movement, change, and change trend of the object. One-sided views must be eliminated to ensure accuracy. Having a comprehensive view is one of the key factors for strategic thinking.
Second , enhance the creativity of thinking. Strategic thinking must be expressed by creative, forward-thinking. Human creativity is limitless, but not everyone dares to realize their creative ideas into reality for many different reasons. Those reasons become barriers to creative thinking and if those barriers are not overcome, strategic thinking will not be possible. To have creative thinking, the subject needs to eliminate, overcome and overcome some old ways of thinking, which are outdated factors and obstacles to creative thinking. Experiential thinking with trust in available experiences easily leads to dependence, which will greatly hinder creative thinking. To promote creative thinking, it is also necessary to overcome the fear of failure. New ways of thinking and new ways of doing things often face many risks and high failure. Therefore, many people choose the safe way of just following existing experiences. Such thinking will make the subject easily become lazy, timid, not daring to explore, try new things, gradually stunting his own creative thinking. Creativity means having thoughts or ways of solving work that are different from the old way of thinking and doing. People with creative thinking are those who dare to overcome the existing rules and standards. With creative thinking, the subject must be able to remove the constraints and influences of traditional concepts, concepts, institutions, dead, outdated ways of thinking to face new things, thoughts, concepts, perspectives,
New requirements to discover new problems in order to propose new paths and directions. In the context of society and the era that is moving, changing, and developing rapidly today, creativity is the soul for the progress of a nation, the driving force for national development. Creativity of thinking is opposed to conservative, stagnant, and innovation-averse thinking, and social practice and its movement are endless, and creativity of thinking also has no ultimate limit. Strategic thinking cannot be a way of thinking that confines itself, is limited in the old, the past, so the requirement for creativity in thinking is indispensable in strategic thinking. Currently, the requirement for innovation and creativity to develop the country quickly and sustainably of our Party is also a manifestation of strategic thinking in the new period.
Third , thinking predicts the movement of things and phenomena. Strategic thinking must be demonstrated by the ability to correctly predict the movement and development trends of things and phenomena, of reality, must make judgments and predictions, from which there are correct directions for movement and development in the future, especially in the distant future, affirming a long-term vision. People with vision will know how to outline long-term plans and have solutions for that plan. For those without vision, the way of working in the style of "building bridges wherever water reaches" will make it difficult to be creative, to outline the development steps for the future of work. Strategic thinking is demonstrated by focusing on planning long-term policies and guidelines, not just planning, so it requires creative vision and forecasting but must have a feasible basis, attracting widespread support and consensus in society. We all know that the future always includes both definite and uncertain elements. It is the uncertainty that leads to complexity in the process of movement and development in general. The current situation of our country is determined that, besides the advantages, there are also difficulties and challenges, so it is necessary to have the capacity to respond to those changes. To respond effectively, the subject must have the capacity to forecast the potential changes of the object to outline the necessary and appropriate direction in the future. At the same time, forecasting to build both
contingency plans, responding to both unexpected and unwanted changes. Having a good forecasting mindset helps the subject grasp opportunities, proactively outline shortcuts, and anticipate effectively and in accordance with the law, which will help the country develop quickly and integrate with the general development of the modern world.
2.2. THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC THINKING FOR LEADERS
The two terms "leadership" and "management" are often used interchangeably in similar contexts. However, it can be seen that some authors have tried to distinguish between the two terms. Two different opinions can be expressed regarding the distinction between the two terms.
The first opinion is that "leadership is an important aspect of management... effective leadership is one of the keys to becoming a good manager" [14, p.418]. According to these authors, leadership is a basic function of management, but management includes more than leadership... Management includes careful planning, creating an organizational structure to help people accomplish the plans, and staffing the organization with people with the necessary competencies. However, all management functions will not be performed well if managers do not understand the human element in their activities and do not know how to lead people to achieve the desired results.
Thus, from this point of view, leadership is only a part, a function of management, management is broader than leadership. That is, management includes leadership. For managers, leadership is only one of the qualities. It seems that this point of view is generalized from the practice of business management in industrial societies.
Although leadership and management have certain differences; however, the boundary is only relative. In essence, leadership and management are both control processes, interaction processes between the subject and the object, the subject affects the object to control, towards the object to achieve a certain purpose. Leadership
Leadership or management must be associated with people or organizations. Depending on the functions and tasks of each organization, people determine whether that organization has the main function of leadership or management. For example, to distinguish the authority or responsibility of the Party from the State, the Party has a leadership role (setting out guidelines, leadership decisions, organizing implementation, inspection, etc.), while the State has a main role of management (issuing management decisions, laws, policies, measures, organizing implementation, etc.).
In contrast to the above view is the view that leadership and management are different and in which many authors believe that " leadership " includes " management ", " management " is only a part, an aspect of " leadership ".
Leadership and management in the activities of cadres, including the grassroots, are essentially the process of influencing, guiding, and controlling subordinates and the masses to complete certain political tasks. Leadership and management, in essence, are both control processes [38, pp.11-12].
Another opinion is that:
The leadership process and the management process are the same. But leadership focuses on direction, while management focuses on organization, arrangement, and command. The leadership of the Party Committee first sets out resolutions, that is, outlines general directions and tasks. The management of the government is to institutionalize and concretize those resolutions in a creative way. Leadership and management also differ in their methods and methods of influence, leadership focuses on persuasion, management focuses on "compulsion" [102, p.27].
According to the Vietnamese Dictionary : "Leadership is to set out policies, guidelines and organize and motivate implementation"; and "Management: 1) to look after and maintain according to certain requirements. 2) to organize and control activities according to certain requirements" [79, p.540]
According to the definition of Vietnamese Dictionary , it is clear that leadership covers management, and management is the execution of a certain task directed and led by superiors. That is, management is not only a component of leadership work.
leadership, while management is essentially the concrete implementation of leadership. Thus, to talk about leadership is to talk about outlining directions, guidelines, practical guidance and inspection of implementation at the macro level. These general policies and guidelines will be implemented by different levels in the specific practical management system of the State.
Leaders are first and foremost the heads and those in charge of an organization, unit or movement who are elected or appointed. Leaders are responsible for setting out policies, directions for implementation, and decisions that are appropriate to the characteristics and strategic nature of the unit they are in charge of. Leaders are also the ones who orient and organize the unit or movement in a specific direction, adjust decisions to suit changes in objective conditions, check the implementation of policies and decisions, evaluate and summarize the level of completion of the set goals.
No matter from which angle we approach leadership, we see that leaders need two basic qualities: 1) the ability to choose and make the right decisions, and
2) The ability to organize and successfully implement those decisions in an optimal way. With these two qualities clearly, for a leader, two processes with two different capacities take place simultaneously, which are thinking and acting. For a leader with strategic vision, thinking capacity is the most important. The thinking capacity of leaders always determines their success or failure. Leaders must be excellent cadres, they are cadres trusted by the Party and the people to be assigned important responsibilities to carry out the great tasks of the revolution. At the same time, leaders must have the ability to check the implementation because "not checking is considered not leading".
Leadership is an activity of the leader's orientation to the leadership object by many methods (education, persuasion, motivation, etc.) to achieve a certain goal. Thus, the nature of leadership is the directional influence, adjusting human activities to achieve a certain goal. Orientation requires leaders of agencies, unions, and organizations in general to have a certain level of thinking.
strategy. Because strategic thinking plays a very important role in orienting leadership activities. The activities of leaders are the process of influencing and controlling between the leadership subject and the object. The object here is the subordinates and the masses to achieve the highest goals in all areas of social life. Leadership activities have many stages and steps, which can be expressed as: Grasping and processing information, making decisions, organizing forces to implement decisions, organizing inspection of decision implementation... All of these steps require strategic thinking.
Leaders are those who hold important positions in the political system at all levels (Party, State, socio-political organizations) from the central to the grassroots level, especially those who are leaders of party committees, government organizations and mass organizations with great responsibilities. With such positions and roles, the leadership activities of leaders are both general orientational and specific practical guidance in the locality and unit where they are in charge.
In the current period of innovation, the requirements for leaders in our country are higher than in the previous period. First of all, the general requirement for our cadres is to firmly and creatively apply Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Party's viewpoints, guidelines and policies on building socialism and defending the Vietnamese Fatherland. Leaders must have pure revolutionary ethics, fight for the Party's revolutionary cause throughout their lives for the interests of the class, the people and the nation; know how to creatively apply the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, the Party's viewpoints and guidelines to the leadership fields they undertake and organize their implementation well; effectively carry out the tasks assigned by the Party and the State; know how to respect the people, take the people as the root and listen to the people's opinions while performing their leadership duties to avoid possible mistakes. Leaders must always be exemplary in implementing justice and obeying the law; learning and following Ho Chi Minh's moral example, etc.