Characteristics of Successful Leaders (Those Who Can Turn Work into a Story)
When you go to a bookstore, you will find many books on leadership theory.
If you skim through them to see what they are about, they generally say things like this.
・Gain empathy for the "vision" of the members and the business to achieve results.
・Raise the motivation of members to achieve results.
While these are the kinds of things mentioned, the specific methods often don't quite resonate.
Today, based on my own experience, I have written about a way to raise member motivation by leveraging the inherent characteristics that humans possess.
1. How can you gain the empathy and shared understanding of your members?
Considering the role of a leader, it can be summarized into the following three points.
1) Making members understand the "philosophy."
It is about making them understand why our company does this business and gaining their empathy and shared understanding.
2) Gaining empathy and shared understanding for the "vision" of the business.
What will happen to the customers and the company through this business? What kind of contribution will it make?
3) Making them understand the Vision, Mission, and Values.
These are the consolidated "visions" of your own department based on the company's philosophy.
The role of a leader is to gain empathy and shared understanding of these three things with members and lead them to results.
2. To gain the empathy and shared understanding of members, tell a story!
In reality, gaining empathy and shared understanding of the "philosophy" and "vision" is quite difficult.
If you try asking, "Can anyone tell me our company's philosophy?", I think very few people will be able to answer.
This is because there is no need to be conscious of the "philosophy" during daily work.
However, if you can explain your work to new clients or your own family by saying,
“We want to contribute to our customers with this philosophy.”
“The vision rooted in our philosophy is to provide value through these products and services that leads to customer joy.”
If you can convey this, the probability of gaining trust increases significantly.
For example, readers, are you familiar with the folktale 'Momotaro'?
It is a story that every Japanese person knows.
What happened? (What) Current Situation
“Once upon a time, an old woman was washing clothes in a river when a large peach came floating down from upstream.”
“The old woman took the peach home.”
Why did it happen? (Why) Hypothesis
“Old man, I wonder what is inside such a large peach.”
“Old woman, let’s cut this peach open. Then we will know.”
“Oh my, a baby came out of the peach!”
What should be done? (How) Tactics
“Let’s raise this child to be a fine person.”
“Since he was born from a peach, let’s name him Momotaro.”
“He must have mysterious powers. Let’s raise him to be strong.”
What happened? (Result) Outcome
“Momotaro heard that an ogre who troubled the villagers lived on Ogre Island.”
“Momotaro tried to defeat the ogre and make a name for himself.”
“On the way, he took a dog, a pheasant, and a monkey as his subordinates and defeated the ogres.”
In summary, this is the story.
Do you understand why almost all Japanese people accurately remember the story of Momotaro?
It is because it is composed of what happened (What: Current Situation),
why it happened (Why: Hypothesis/Issues),
what should be done (How: Tactics),
and what happened (Result: Outcome), making it easy for people to understand.
3. This is what happens when you tell a business story using Amazon's Alexa.
When you turn an actual business model into a story, you find out even more interesting things.
For example, there was a conversation between Amazon's Alexa and a user, Mr. A.
[A conversation between Alexa and Mr. A one day]
One day, Alexa said this to Mr. A.
Alexa “It is about time for the detergent you ordered previously to run out.”
Mr. A “Oh! You're right. Then please order the usual detergent.”
Alexa “Certainly. The product will arrive the day after tomorrow.”
If you turn this into a business story, it looks like this.
What happened? What (Understanding the current situation)
When buying daily necessities, many customers go to a shopping center, choose products, put items from the shelves into a cart, pay at the register, and drive home.
Why did it happen? Why (Hypothesis)
Such people feel,
“It’s a waste of time to go shopping!”
“It’s a hassle!”
they feel.
The issue to solve that problem Why (Issue)
Our founder Bezos's philosophy is 'The customer is always right.'
Our company's strengths are IT, AI technology, and a massive server system.
Using these strengths to provide a solution that satisfies 'The customer is always right' is our company's challenge.
What should be done? How (Tactics)
We realize the best buy for customers while they are at home by utilizing our strengths to build '1-Click ordering,' 'AI-driven search functions,' 'proposing what you want,' 'when the customer wants it,' and 'delivering quickly.'
We have launched a service called Alexa that fulfills all those requirements.
As a result, what happens? Result (Outcome)
The value Alexa provides is delivering what customers want to their homes without wasting their time. In other words, what we are selling is the customer's“experience and time.”.
How about that?
When you turn things into a story using What (Current Situation), Why (Hypothesis), and Why (Issue), it becomes much easier for people to understand.
If you share this story with customers and members of your own department, empathy will be born.
4. Actually, when you connect information into a story, you can see even more amazing things.
I think some readers may have already noticed.
What is noteworthy about this Alexa business model is that the product being sold is the customer's“experience and time.”point.
If you turn a business into a story, needs that were previouslyunarticulatedwill become articulated within the context.
Conversely, information that cannot be turned into a story can be callednoise.
What do you think?
Why not try turning your own work into a story and sharing it with the members of your department?
You might just find the seeds of innovation there.