This time, Mr. Inamori talks about the criteria of a leader based on the film “Outriders”. In the pioneer era in the United States, many troops headed to the West from the East. Mr. Inamori summarized the criteria of leaders from the plot and identified the keys by which the groupe successfully achieved their goal.
The criteria are as follows.
1 Demonstrate the mission and the vision
2 Clarify the specific goals and drive the team
3 Keep challenging spirits
4 Be trusted and respected by the team
5 Have compassion and affection
1Demonstrate the mission and the vision
By setting a goal that everyone can understand and share and everyone in the group can work hard to achieve, the leader must motivate people to naturally think “Let’s realize this wonderful idea together.” The captain of the group also has a strong “mission” to realize everyone’s dream by safely leading the group to the new world in the west.
→ Imagine that you are talking with a person. Generally speaking, you can judge by his behavior what he is thinking in his mind. People’s intentions somehow always appear in their actions. To put it the other way around, you can read other people’s mind by analyzing their behavior. If your counterpart’s action and words are not pointing in the same directions, you can rely on his behavior not on his words. For example, a top leader may spend entertainment expenses, while he pushes staff to minimize operational expenses. This is because he doesn’t want to pay taxes, so he tends to spend more than he needs. Even though he says reducing cost is very important, his mind is focused on minimizing the tax, so his subliminal mind is obsessed with spending more.
That is why Mr. Inamori listed “strong will of the leader” here as the first criteria of the leader. If there is a desire, that desire always appears in his action. The leader’s desire is communicated to his teammates through every action the leader makes.
2 Clarify the specific goals and drive the team
Transfer energy
“Once you have decided on a goal you should aim for, you need to thoroughly convey to your subordinates not only what the numbers mean, but also the significance of achieving the goal and the methodology of how to achieve it. I have to talk passionately about my thoughts on the business and on achieving that goal, and continue to talk with all my heart until every one of the team gets excited. I call this process “Transferring energy “.
“No matter how high a goal a leader sets, the higher and more complex the goal is to be achieved, the more difficult the goal can be achieved just by one person. I feel that only when a leader can completely transfer his energy to the staff, the goal gets awfully close. In other words, staff must have the same motivation, passion and understanding as does the leader. If a subordinate receives a job instruction and answers “yes”, the chances of success are about 30%. Even if my subordinates strongly say, “I will do my best”, the success percentage is about 50%. Furthermore, if the leader transfers all his energy to his subordinates and they even think that “this business belongs to my team,” 90% of the work was successful. This is what I learned. “
Kyocera was able to develop new products one after another, to diversify, and to develop the company as of today, even though we had no major business resources: people, capital, and technologies. I transformed all my energies to them. Many of the transformed leaders ,with strong passions, committed themselves to the promotion of the division which each one of them was responsible for. Those leaders’ efforts worked, so Kyocera could achieve higher goals one after another.”
→ I think energy is similar to consciousness and mind. In Aikido, you are taught that you should not be careless once you’ve touched your counterpart. You should maintain the same level of energy to finalize the relationship with your counterpart. When you have a first contact with your counterpart, you should concentrate on how and where the energy stream flows, how to integrate energy streams of you and your counterpart, and how to let the energy go as a natural wave. You can learn from Aikido all of those energy transfers.
3-5 will be explained in the next blog
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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