Learning from Uncle Ho about scientific and effective working style

Ho Chi Minh's style is an important part of the entire invaluable legacy that he left to the nation and humanity. As the head of the Party and State, the supreme leader of the entire nation, Ho Chi Minh had a scientific and exemplary working style to conduct work and implement the leadership of the Party.

Born into a poor, patriotic Confucian family of peasant origin, the son of a Vice-Chancellor, Ho Chi Minh received a Confucianeducation from an early age. That soon shaped his personality. Ho Chi Minh orderliness, neatness, diligence, seriousness in thinking and action. The years of searching for a way to save the country abroad, working to earn a living, and immersing himself in the workers' movement in Western industrial countries created and formed in Him a scientific working style, knowing how to value time and arrange daily work according to a specific, reasonable plan to complete the work with the highest efficiency.

Becoming the Head of the Party and State, Ho Chi Minh's working style is clearly and deeply expressed in the way of handling daily work, in countless relationships with cadres, party members, compatriots and comrades. First of all, it is the working style of going deep, going close, investigating and researching, grasping the work, grasping the people, grasping the specific situation. Ho Chi Minh clearly stated: "No matter what work is successful or not, we need to study the roots, analyze clearly and then conclude. That conclusion will be the key to developing the work and helping cadres move forward" (1). That means, when making work decisions, or when determining how to organize implementation, cadres must not sit at their desks, listen to people's reports and then draw pictures, subjectively imagining without going deeply into reality.

Uncle Ho working at House 54 in the Presidential Palace. Photo: Archive

A scientific working style requires cadres to have a plan and purpose for everything they do. According to Ho Chi Minh, to plan in a truly scientific way, cadres must “carefully consider the situation and arrange the work properly. Do the main and urgent work first. Do not be sloppy, without a plan, do whatever work you encounter, so that every work is the main work, messy, and disorganized” (2). Scientificity must be demonstrated from the moment of making a decision, to organizing the implementation of the decision, and checking and urging the implementation of the decision.

To organize the implementation of work tasks, Ho Chi Minh taught that we must know how to select and use cadres in an impartial and practical manner. When assigning work to cadres, we must make them feel secure and happy in their work. During the process of cadres performing their tasks, we must organize regular inspections and controls from top to bottom and from bottom to top in a systematic manner. Only then can we evaluate the activities of cadres and party members and also evaluate whether the policies and guidelines set forth are correct or not?

One of the outstanding features in President Ho Chi Minh's scientific working style is punctuality, maximum time saving and time allocation to solve work in a reasonable way. He worked and studied on his own to cultivate and improve his knowledge to meet the new requirements of daily work. He often reminded cadres: "Learning is something that must continue throughout life. Throughout life, theory must be linked with practical work. No one can claim to know enough or everything. The world is changing every day, our people are progressing more and more, so we must continue to study and practice to keep up with the people's progress" (3).

From the practical life and revolutionary activities, President Ho Chi Minh left behind standards on working style. These are profound practical lessons for every Vietnamese person, especially the team of cadres and civil servants, in the context of the current fourth industrial revolution, requiring us to have a scientific, modern and effective working style to contribute to the development of the country.

VU KIM YEN (President Ho Chi Minh relic site at the Presidential Palace)

(1) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, volume 5, page 283

(2) Ho Chi Minh: Complete Works , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, volume 5, page 332

(3) Ho Chi Minh: Complete works , National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2011, vol.10, p.377

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