Altruism is the benchmark for leaders

This time, Mr. Inamori is talking about altruism. In both running a company or making any important decisions in our lives, it’s important to make decisions based on this altruistic mind. The phrases quoted with “” are Mr. Inamori’s words.

“Thinking ‘I should be benefited first’ is an egoistic mind, while ‘Help others even if I  sacrifice myself’. Judging by selfishness, you are always thinking only about yourself, so you cannot get any cooperation. Furthermore, as you are obsessed with egoistic minds, your decisions may be misled and you tend to make wrong decisions. On the other hand, judging from the altruistic mind: “to be good to others”, so everyone around you will cooperate. You can take a step back to get a big picture, so you can make the right decisions. In order to do a better job, you should not think about yourself, but think about the people around you, and make decisions based on a compassionate ‘altruistic mind’.”

Followings are the checklist to see whether you are based on “egoistic mind” or “altruistic mind”.

Let me explain the above checklist.

1 Why do you do that?

Inamori described the “altruistic mindset” as follows.

“The thoughts that came out momentarily are from instinct, but the thoughts that came out after your sufficient consideration are from the altruistic minds …”

“Put the thought that came out first aside and ask yourself, ‘Wait a minute. As Mr. Inamori said to judge with altruism, let’s think about whether it is good or bad for my counterpart, not about whether it is profitable or not. ‘ Having such a pause is important. Make decisions when you are confident that it is good for both you and the other person. Even we ordinary people who are not enlightened should be able to make wonderful decisions if we decide based on such altruism. ”

2 Who will be fulfilled by that action?

“Under Buddhism, (Altruism) is to make others happy and to help others. The best action of altruism is to help others even if you sacrifice yourself. “

“To make both you and your counterpart happy, furthermore, to make all creatures on the earth live together, that is altruism.”

We often use the phrases “this is for you” and ” this is good for you”. When you say this, you need to think about whether it’s really for your counterpart or not.

In reality, there are many reasons that drive your actions. Even though you think it’s for the other person, in many cases, it’s not for the other person, but for myself. I myself have to keep this in my mind.

3 Are you satisfied without the gratitude (reward) from the counterpart?

The goodness that you are about to give to your counterpart, but the benefit to him/her seems to be only temporary, we call such an action “fake goodness”.  Fake goodness never benefits your counterpart over the long term. There is a proverb: ‘Fake goodness is like a great evil,‘ “

“( The parents of Ototake, who was born without legs and arms) let him do everything by himself so that he could live by himself, while watching and caring with affection. It is sometimes said that ‘Great goodness is like ruthlessness.’ The great goodness of nurturing wonderful human beings seems to be an attitude of no mercy. Some had blamed Ototake’s parents, ‘ How come you treat a boy with no hands in such cruel manner?’ ‘However, this is great goodness, as parents raise their child to be independent.

→I think Ototake’s parents treated him harshly, no matter how much they were criticized by their child or how much they were resented throughout his life. They know that dependence between parents and a child would spoil the child in the future.

4 Are you really fulfilled with your daily lives? (Do you know the sense of fulfillment?)

“Having said, altruistic minds can only be judged by enlightened saints or monks. In other words, the ultimate ‘altruistic mind ‘ is the form of ‘ enlightenment’.  “

→ Above is related to the following other mottos that Mr. Inamori has been keeping in his mind.

If you manage your business with an unfulfilled mind, you will seek approval or respect from employees and customers. As I’m doing everything, I should be the one to be respected.  As you got taken that respect for granted, you would get arrogant. Such arrogance spreads in the working environment as an atmosphere, creating pressure, and causing negative business results. To change the root cause, I feel leaders should always be fulfilled in mentally.

I would like to deeply reflect on myself whether my behavior is arrogant or not.

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

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