Encourage challenge: Pursue your infinite possibilities

With the title above, Inamori has shared with Seiwajuku members the tips of how to encourage challenges among your staff. Phrases quoted with “” are what Inamori said.

“Those who achieve their goals are ones who believe in their own potential. Once you’ve doubted based on your statis-quo, your goals never be achieved. Your endeavor allows you to expand your ability. Thus, no matter what project you are involved in, the first thing you should do is believe in the infinite potential hidden in you as a human being. Desire helps to wake up those hidden talents. Such desires and self-confidence have allowed Kyocera to become the world’s top manufacturer from scratch.”

“This can also be said as ‘believing in the infinite capabilities of human beings. Most people are humble, shy and sometimes traumatized with their mistakes that they made in the past. Nevertheless, I have encouraged our staff to believe that they are greatly capable. They could call themselves ‘steady learner, who keeps small but daily progress’. Because I am fully confident that such accumulated small but continuous efforts have empowered our team to achieve such unexpectedly great goals. “

Sometimes people state how difficult it is to make sales under the recession, while others easily give up starting new business due to the lack of resources.
Inamori also criticizes such attitudes as follows.

“I hate such excuses. I know it’s not easy, but the first step that leaders must do is changing the team’s mindset from ‘Why is it impossible? ‘ to ‘How can we make it possible? ‘. We, leaders, must orient the team’s mindset to initiate a small step. Even though such one step looks too tiny to create a huge change, have them pile up such efforts to create a current. Think about a caterpillar climbing up a branch inch by inch. I trust this is how we, Kyocera, have successfully launched various advanced technologies in the world. “

This is a very important motto that influences the lives of both our staff and management.

For the staff to pursue their infinite possibilities, I think the following three conditions must  be met in the working place.

Let me explain one by one.

1 Leader analyze why they are reluctant to challenge

People make excuses and justify their positions simply because they do not want to challenge new businesses. I feel this has something to do with people’s mental block in their subliminal mind. A mental block means “the tendency in thinking” that a person creates under his/her subliminal condition. This is driven by the subconscious mind, so the mental block ultimately governs people’s behavior. When people are afraid of losing something such as trust, fame, richness, or possession, as a result of failure, people unintentionally avoid challenges. Simply because where there is no challenge, there is no failure. Therefore, it’s quite important to understand how the mind works.

Mr. Inamori also mentioned the following, when he got the criticism that Kyocera fortunately benefitted from the fine ceramics boom.

“We never followed the fine ceramics boom. We created the boom. Moreover, we never started with ceramic technologies. All we had first was only this Philosophy. This allowed us to develop and accumulate technologies. This has been the ultimate source of everything. In other words, the human mind is the fundamental driver of every action happening in the workplace. Our mind has always been a seed, from which everything grew as a tree grows.”

Thus, the most serious reason which has made people make excuses is a fear: I must be in trouble if I take on a challenge. First of all, analyzing people’s minds is important in encouraging challenges.

2 Result does not matter

At Kyocera, I’ve heard that those who don’t challenge themselves have always been the least respected. From interviews with Kyocera executives, Inamori never blamed those who worked hard for their colleagues, even if the result was a failure. I think it’s very important to accumulate a lot of experiences like this. In other words, to develop a “Result doesn’t matter” culture where the failure is accepted is also important.

3 Absolute acceptance-tolerance-

In Kyocera’s start up stage, Inamori, had been standing and waiting at the entrance gate till late at night until the sales staff returned to the office. In Kyocera, there are very important mottos such as

Staff had ,for sure, been fulfilled as the top leader values them, regardless of the actual performance, as long as they work hard for the team. All Kyocera employees must always have a sort of conformity that they have been looked after by Inamori.

Mr. Inamori conveys the importance of repeating progress and development every day.

“At the same time, it is also important to ‘always conduct creative work.’ I always say that tomorrow is better than today, the day after tomorrow is better than tomorrow, and always be creative and ingenious. It is also very important for me to improve our own abilities.”

In order for staff to believe in their own potential, it is important to create an environment where supervisors understand where the reluctance comes from, the result doesn’t matter, and staff are always valued. When employees feel that they are in such an environment, I think they can believe in their infinite abilities and be able to be very much conscious of such creative work processes.

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

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