March10, 2023
Many companies explicitly state their company philosophies in terms of the mission, vision, etc. that they strive toward in their business. And I feel that in almost every case, these company philosophies are excellent ideals. However, despite their excellence, I often hear that penetration or buy-in is a real struggle to obtain. I recently heard someone offer some thoughts on this subject of philosophy buy-in that I felt were quite useful, and I’d like to share it here.
This person is the director of a preschool, and she introduced the philosophy of the organization that she manages as, “Through our child education, we pursue the material and spiritual happiness of all our employees and contribute to society.”
Frankly, that phrasing is general enough that it could be used for any preschool, and changing the angle slightly, for any enterprise. But when I asked her why she decided to manage a preschool, her response made it clear that she was not just someone running a business for profit. She said, “There are children in the world who wind up taking their own lives. I want to be able to save even a single child from such a fate. And I want for the children in my preschool not to just achieve happiness in their own lives, but to become the kind of person who can reach out and help a friend who might be down and suffering. That’s why I’m in education, but there’s a limit to what I can do on my own. I need other people who have the same beliefs that I do, who will work together with me to educate children, and that’s why I run this organization.” As she said this, I could see that tears were starting to well up in her eyes.
When I heard those thoughts, it made me feel that it’s not just beautiful words strung together that move people’s hearts; rather, it’s the commitment and purity of thinking by the person who wants to achieve something, and the extent to which that person is driven. To put it a different way, I’ve come to feel that the difference between an enterprise that actually achieves penetration of its philosophy and one that doesn’t, comes down to the extent to which the top leader’s life accords with the philosophy that the organization promotes.
Our company’s mission is to “Empower company, empower you.” Our vision is to “Become the world’s number one accounting firm where people would love to work.” Looking back five years to when our management was still shaky, I can say that my own life was not in accordance with the company’s philosophy, and I believe that is why I didn’t have the full trust of our staff. An organization’s growth is determined by the life of its leader. After hearing the words of the preschool director that I mentioned, I realized yet again that our company’s future growth and development requires me to take our staff members’ growth and happiness seriously, and that I have to be fully committed to using my life for that purpose.
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