Mr. Rodney Lanthorne, the former CEO of Kyocera International, KII, shared some episode of Mr. Inamori with Seiwa juku students. Seiwa juku is a workshop where the leaders of small to middle size businesses learn business philosophies from Mr. Inamori*.

 

Rodney said: “… every time I reported to Mr. Inamori, I wasn’t sure how he would react, whether he would be happy or unhappy with my delivery and give me severe feedback.

 

However, I would like to share with you one episode.

 When a guy reported Mr. Inamori good results and his good performance, the Honorary Chairman Inamori said, “No, this is not enough. I know you could have done more.” On the other hand, for a staff who did his best but could not deliver good results, Mr. Inamori told, ” You did your best with a good and honest mindset, so keep your endeavor.” The Honorary Chairman has not given any severe comments to anyone who remains humble and works hard for the company. This was very impressive to me. ”

 

 

Let’s call the former staff Andy. Mr. Inamori gave severe comments to Andy.

Let’s call the latter staff Bob. Mr. Inamori gave encouraging comments to Bob.

 

Differences between two guys, from my points of view, are as follows;

 

1 Intentions: being giver or taker

2 Who to fulfill? What has driven you to take such an action?

3 Strive yourself harder or not

 

 

1 Intentions: being giver or taker

 

Andy was the taker while Bob was the giver. Andy worked hard to gain the respect from Inamori, or from others. This is to fulfill Andy himself. Andy might have thought that he wanted to create some spare time, get rid of his responsibility, or wanted just simply a moderate workload. This may unintentionally take ,from a company, important business resources: labor or anticipated revenue.

Bob had no intention to take something from either company or colleagues. All Bob had in his mind is delivering his competency to the company or to others. This can be seen as the attitude of a giver.

 

The difference of intentions between the Andy and Bob was clear to Inamoi so he gave a harsh feedback to Andy.

 

The point No2 will be explained in the next blog.

 

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

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