Chapter 2

Self-Development: Reliably Identifying and Coaching Developing Leaders at the Gemba

Only that one in the world who is most perfectly sincere is able to give full development to his nature. Being able to give full development to his nature he is able to give full development to the nature of other human beings.

—from The Doctrine of the Mean by Zisi, grandson of Confucius

Are leaders born or made? This nature versus nurture question has been thoroughly debated in leadership literature for at least a century, if not longer. Toyota’s answer to this question of whether leadership is innate or learned is a resounding yes. Yes, leaders are born—or, to put it another way, some people simply do not have leadership abilities or aspirations, and no amount of training, in whatever form, will change that. But also, yes, leaders have to learn to be leaders. Taking individuals with leadership potential and telling them, “This is what a leader is like. Please act like this from now on,” is useless. The only way to become a Toyota leader is to learn the Toyota style of leadership by doing through a continuous, never-endin....