How to make your company “Invincible”　Part 2

We have been discussing on the tips that makes your company “invincible”, under the harsh competition. Mr. Kato, who was the technical director of Sanga and led the team to J1 league. Kato recalled his memory on Inamori’s management style and his winners’ philosophy .

Those are:

Let us explain from 4-6.

4 Be winner in your life not in a match

Mr. Kato is quoted from his university teacher’s words.

“When I was pushed by my opponent and went into defense…”You guys, don’t play that kind of passive football, it would be totally nonsense for you young men to live in such passive lives. ” My master also mentioned, “The simplicity is the shared truth under the universe.” I feel football must be simple. Playing simply looks fundamental and the ultimate football play underlies such simplicities. ” Mr. Kato recalled above.

Some people say that this is just a football game, but some people say the game itself is the ultimate objective of their lives. I think it’s important that we always take the match in front of us as the most important one in our lives. By demonstrating such an attitude, we may win good luck.

5 Master how to use “Carrot and stick”

Mr. Kato showed another episode of Mr. Inamori.

“When I entered Sanga, I saw Honorary Chairman Inamori was very angry. He looked almost furious, I did not know where that enormous energy came from. However, suddenly he stopped his speech and said, “Oh, I forgot my dentist appointment!” His words completely changed the atmosphere in the players’ room. He completely changed his mood, asked the chairman, “Please take the guys to dinner.” tapped players’ shoulders, and left the room. Even if Inamori got upset so severely, I think those guys didn’t look desperate at all….Normally, a whistle blower tends to suffer what he/she did. He/she has to be overcautious on the reaction of people. However, if you remain angry, you may think about how hard those who got scolded get recovered. Inamori knows the psychological transition and just left the message in young players and made them well-motivated.

Kato described how Mr. Inamori encouraged players by scolding.

We don’t learn business administration at schools. Even in business schools, it’s hard to learn how to motivate your staff efficiently. I think the most difficult thing is motivating people. I think it’s about having your staff look in the same direction as you do. This is really difficult to harmonize with your staff and resonate with them.

By getting scolded through that approach, players have to

1 )Reflect their bad play humbly and sincerely ,

2) Make proper regression to their performance,

3) Swear to do their best for future performance

4 ) Get fully motivated and envisage their better performance

I don’t think we can teach people the above process without having actual experience.

However, Mr. Inamori shared his experience on how to certainly get the players motivated.

Kato also demonstrated another story.

“The Honorary Chairman says, “I’m not perfect, but I would like you to change your deficit in your personality as. …” Just by pointing out others’ deficit, people may not listen. However, if the speaker also admits his personal deficit, he can expect the better result. The Honorary Chairman speaks always about himself as a part of his speech. Saying is always easy but conducting and executing is really difficult and not everyone can do it.”

Everyone tries to avoid being looked down upon by others.

Especially those who are obsessed with being elite or seek the perfect may show such aspects: not the one to be fooled. They unintentionally avoid referring to themselves in their speech and pointing out faults of employees or staff. The listener of your scolding would never reflect themselves nor respect you as a leader. I learned the trick of making people open and listen.

６ Keep endeavor to be a better person

When Mr. Kato was first interviewed in Sanga, Mr. Inamori asked about Kato’s personality. Mr. Kato answered:

“I have some stubbornness. I try to deliver the best result that I am committed to, but when it comes to matters insensible to me, I tend to go against whoever my counterpart is. I can’t be a diplomat. I think that being stubborn is both my strength and weakness.”

In response, Mr. Inamori said, “That’s because you are still immature. You have to work hard to be a better person, I mean the humanity part.”

Upon hearing this, Mr. Kato started shed tears.

I was also reading this part, and tears came out.

I think that life is full of training in taking good passive actions. Under martial arts, we call it Ukemi. Life itself is full of Ukemi.

I am also worried about the project that I have been involved in. Our opponent did not either use their force or impose a sort of pattern. However, I tried to make a good passive reaction, but I unintentionally used strength and insisted a bit of format.

I couldn’t feel the other person’s energy. Even if I felt a bit, I may have been overwhelming myself and added a lot of formality. Getting back to the nature of the assignment, I should have considered what are the fundamentals of the assignment and what are the core parts of the project. I could have kept the project as simple as possible.

Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com

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