43 Posts
78,767 followers
Get updates from Hiroshi Mikitani right on your homepage.
Hiroshi Mikitani

Hiroshi Mikitani

CEO, Rakuten Inc.

Teaching: The Secret Secret to Success

 

February 28, 2013
I imagine that there are not a few people in the world who feel that giving guidance to their subordinates is a pain. It takes up time, they say. It is a drain on my own productivity, they say.
But they are missing an opportunity to drive their own success.
I have often said that a leader must be a teacher. No matter the subject, to teach others means that you must first learn yourself.
In order to teach someone something, you must think about and analyze the things which you do subconsciously on a daily basis and be able to put them into language in such a way as to be completely understood by others. There are not many people who even think that much about their own jobs. For this reason, guiding your subordinates is actually a chance to improve your own abilities.
Because you are guiding someone else, you must take your own job that much more seriously. It is not uncommon to hear of people who entered a company with poor manners and developed better manners after gaining a subordinate. We sometimes say that it is the child that raises the parent. That principle works in business as well.
Photo: snapgalleria/Shutterstock