Giving advice is much better than giving an order - The Matsushita Way

“Giving advice is much better than giving an order. As a President Director, if Konosuke Matsushita has something to do for his team, he will make a conversation like he was looking or giving advice. In another way, he wasn’t saying “Try to do this and that”, but saying something like “I think we can do it with this way. What do you think?” or “Do you want to do this?”. That way, his team can feel free to express their opinion or suggestion. As a result, the staff will take the assignment as if it was their own initiative. Matsushita found that people showed their best performance if they work based on their own willingness and responsibility. The HR Training and Management style of Matsushita is based on the strong understanding of the subtlety of human nature.”

This is from one of my fave book, the biography of Konosuke Matsushita. The Founding Fathers of Panasonic Corporation. And this advice things is one of my fave part from the book. Sekian lama jadi corporate slave, gw notice beberapa gaya para Bos yang pernah gw temui terutama dalam hal per-advicean. Pernah mengalami hal yang sama?

1). The Boss who always do everything by his/her own.

Ini typical Boss yang kalo ngerjain apapun, dikerjain sendiri. Boro-boro nanya pendapat teamnya, basically you will never know what the boss is doing. Lha cc email aja gak, semua kerjaan dan informasi kalau bisa dikerjain sendiri ya bakal dikeep sendiri. Type yang sangat mandiri, dan ga mau merepotkan teamnya. Bisa ditebak, type bos macam begini ga akan (atau jarang sekalii) berdiskusi dengan teamnya, kebanyakan cenderung memberi instruksi. Karena, tentu saja, the one who knows better is only him/herself, so why bother to ask other’s opinion, right?

Yang kayak gini, unfortunately, banyak benerrr.

2). The Boss who will cc you in every email, without further explanation.

Apapun yang dikerjain sama Bos, teamnya pasti tahu. He/she always keep the team in the loop. Just so they know. But how further they know, that is another question. Ibarat mengendarai mobil, the driver will let the passenger know the destination. But why he/she choose that destination, what will be done in the destination, when we will arrive in the destination, those detail things the passenger may not know, because everything was basically decided by the driver. Nah, apakah bos macam begini bakal meminta advise atau diskusi dengan teamnya? Oh, they will. On the certain level. Sometimes pertanyaan mereka juga retoris sih, cuman sekedar nanya tapi ga butuh jawaban hahahah. Semacam pertanyaan “Menurut kamu, lebih enak bakso atau pangsit? Tapi saya lebih suka pangsit sih” – sounds familiar? Hehehe.

Yang kayak gini, patut disyukuri lah, at least better than the number 1, ye kan?

3). The Boss who will make you like being part of the game.

Ini type yang agak unik. Kalau nemu yang kayak begini, sujud syukur! Seumur-umur gw masuk ke dunia korporasi (halahhh), gw baru nemu dua orang yang macam gini. Awalnya ngerasa aneh sih, tapi kemudian baru sadar, this kind of people were a gem. 

Gw pernah punya Boss yang kalau ngerjain proposal penting, doi selalu email ke gw dulu. In his email, bunyinya begini “Dit, tolong cek dong, kalau ada yang salah atau aneh. Klo ada yang salah, tolong benerin ya. Klo udah bener, lu langsung kirim aja.”. Awalnya pas ketemu bos kayak gini, gw kaget. Mon maap, ini bos nya yang mana, kenapa jadi gw yang ngecek kerjaan bos gw? Kagak kebalik? Eh tapi, ternyata kalau dipikir-pikir, it’s just his way to teach me. The easiest way to teach me, I should say, hahah. Karena gw jadi belajar sendiri cara Bos gw bikin proposal, cara doi ngitung, cara doi bikin asumsi, etc. Gw jadi memahami logika berpikirnya tanpa dia harus susah-susah ngajarin gw. Dan gw serius belajarnya karena gw harus mereview the whole proposal yang dibikin kan, buat ngerti proposal itu salah atau gak, make sense atau gak. Gak jarang, gw jadi end up diskusi sama Bos. “Pak, ini kenapa asumsinya begini?” atau “Pak, ini sales targetnya ga ketinggian?” etc. Most of the time, to be honest, kesalahan proposal bos gw kadang cuman typo. Which actually means, he doesn’t really need me to check the proposal. But still, he did it.

Another time, I had a boss yang kalau punya ide, as far as he could, always asked my opinion. Typical emailnya “Dita, ini idea saya. Please go through dan let me know your opinion” atau “Dita, kayaknya kita bisa melakukan hal ini. Kamu ada concern gak?”. Begitupun kalau dia menerima proposal dari orang lain, yang sometimes not even my business, tapi if he think it’s necessary, dia akan send email macam gini “Dita, ini proposal dari XXX. What do you think?”. And we will discuss first before he go discuss with the higher level. Dulu, gw kadang suka kesel kalau bos udah kirim email macam begitu. Karena artinya gw harus mikir dulu buat jawab emailnya, hahah. Tapi sekarang, damn, I miss that challenging email, really.

Bos yang kayak gini, jangan sampe lepas! LOL. But seriously, this type of boss is one of a million. Treasure it and learn as many as you can!

Do you have another version? Share your story, please!