To how to increase the “self-starters” Inamori mentioned as follows.
Just as there are flammable, non-flammable, and self-combustible objects, there are flammable people who get energized themselves when they get close to the live coals, non-flammable people who do not get energized even when they get close to the live coals and “self-starter”
Anyone who wants to accomplish something must have a strong passion. In high school baseball, young people who really like baseball are working together to practice vigorously, aiming for the big goal of the Koshien tournament. In that scene, you can feel the potential for the future and energetic dynamism released by those young players. They could be identified as “self starters”, who spontaneously drive themselves, push themselves harder, and keep striving themselves towards their dream: the victory at the Koshien tournament. To burn yourself, you need to love your work and at the same time to have a clear goal.
If you want to hire a “self-starter “staff, you should first look for the candidate’s personality. The first person to be identified as a “self-starter” would be a person who looks “aggressive” and a person who is “always active in everything”. A staff with such a personality usually loves the work given to him, he spontaneously turns into “self-starter”. Therefore, we hire people with that kind of personality as much as possible and encourage them to like their work. There is another way to hire a “self- starter”.
That is to give him a sense of responsibility and mission. For a serious and quiet staff, if we give him responsibility and ask him to complete his mission. Even if he looks reserved and had never been aggressive, for 3 or 4 team mates in his team, he changes his mindset and starts demonstrating his initiative by telling ” Hey guys, we should start this!!”
Here, Mr. Inamori says that the following two initiatives are important to motivate the staff to be the self-starters.
1 To like their works
2 To be responsible for a team
Furthermore, I listed the necessary actions to ensure above two initiatives implemented in our daily work processes .
1 To like their works
・ The president himself should demonstrate how much he loves his work.
・ The leader should share the sense of accomplishment and fulfillment through work.
・ Creating a corporate culture: loving your work looks cool
・ Encouraging ingenuity
・ Sharing the positive feedback from customers
・ Reiterating the mission, significance and the social impact of the work
・ Giving gratitude and praise from colleagues
・ Highlighting the forward looking corporate culture
・ Having them to be aware of their improvements of their skills
2 To be responsible for a team
As for the second point, the responsibility, I believe the following actions would empower staffs’ responsibility.
・ Demonstrating how much the top leader expects that staff to play important roles as a team leader.
・ Specifying numerical targets to be achieved
・ Reiterating the significance of working for the team: one for all, all for one
・ Showing with numbers how to make profits: maximizing sales and minimizing expenses
・ Encouraging to hold a desire (learning about the subconscious)
・ Removing the leader’s anxiety one by one
・ Analyzing his performance with reflections and admirations
By doing the above actions, I think we can increase the number of staff, recognized as “self-starters”. I myself always want to be a “self-starter”, to spread the culture of “self-starting” and to share the fulfillments as well as enthusiasm of working.
Further queries or doubts, please email to ytomizuka@abrilsjp.com
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