Advance-guard or control room, where should the leader stay?

This time, Mr. Inamori is talking about the theme of “Taking the lead”
Leaders may need to:

I will explain one by one.
The words in ” are what Mr. Inamori said. ”

1 Act

“ In order to get the cooperation of your subordinates and those around you in your work, you must take initiatives. You, as a leader, should be the first to tackle work that people are reluctant to conduct. No matter how wonderful or beautiful words you say, unless you act, you would not be able to influence your staff. By demonstrating what kind of initiative you want your staff to take, the people around you will follow you. It takes courage and conviction to take the lead, but by always keeping in mind and doing this, you can improve yourself. We must create a culture that everyone should soon tenuously take the initiative.

As a leader, you must work on the front line. I have been trying to work at the forefront from the beginning, thinking that ‘the leader should encourage his subordinates from behind. “

→ It takes courage to act. If you think only about yourself, you tend to be late in your actions. However, for the sake of the staff and for the customers, I feel like I can stand up and act quickly.

2 Show a big picture (macro perspective)

Although that front line is protected, the leader should consider cases in which the enemy defeats another front line that is out of the leader’s sight, and the troupe may end up running away from the war to survive. People may criticize that stupid commander put soldiers’ lives in a risk simply because he wanted to show off how brave he was. On the other hand, as a leader, if you take command in the rear, some may criticize you as follows, ‘On the front line, solders run out of bullets and are running into hand-to-hand combat. Not knowing such a terrible situation, you are located on the top of the hill and watch the battle calmly. You could never imagine how miserable the battle is. “

→ I regret that I failed to share the big picture of our works. By demonstrating the mission and visions that the leader has to staff, the leader can sort out his ideas. I thought it is important to show a big picture, our goals, where we are, and what kind of options we could take to achieve our goals.

3 Face the fear in our mind

Mr. Inamori showed the episode General Nogi Maresuke and Commander Iwao Oyama of the Russo-Japanese War. General Nogi had repeatedly charged without any effective strategies to occupy the 203 highlands, and Commander Oyama remained “laid back” in the commander room despite harsh battles in the front.

Inamori shared his opinion towards those two Japanese.

“When I heard this episode, I thought,’ As a leader, I should not remain in the back. I should be in the front to struggle with my people. Getting a big picture from the top of the height is of course important. I know some clever leaders use this as an excuse when they got blamed. Those clever guys would reply, when criticized that they failed to capture the war tide, that remaining on the back allows them to see the pig picture. But I know it’s not true. I know those clever guys are simply cowards, and don’t want to expose themselves to any risk. This is not only for the war but also for business operations. I want to say to those clever guys, ‘What are you talking about? If you’re a leader, get to the front and work. You should walk around and take work orders. Don’t tell your subordinates to “take the order” if you can’t take even one order.’ So to sum up, guys, encourage your subordinates on the front line and unless you share the hard time with them, no one would follow you. On the other hand, you should return to the back and look over the big picture to read the war tide and make the best decision. This initiative is not only for the president but team leaders and managers as well. You must be a leader who spontaneously demonstrates good business practices, rather than ordering people from the height. “

→ Sometimes, I find myself leaving everything to the staff and stay away from them. Sometimes people don’t want to see the reality and are reluctant to deal with difficult assignments.

We, leaders, have to talk to ourselves.

I think the above self-checking seems to be useful in analyzing the mental traumas of leaders.

This is how the leader faces him(herself)self. By doing so, the content of anxiety and fear will become clear, and I think this psychological approach allows us to be active. And after all, I think that sharing hard times and struggling with staff are very important to unite people’s mind and deliver the utmost energy. This is the key for the Japanese military to realize the triumphs against other countries in the past wars.

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

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