Self-Development Begins with Learning

So how does Toyota create the conditions that allow both self-development and close monitoring to identify the self-developers who will live out the Toyota values and become Toyota leaders? Toyota uses aptitude tests for a preliminary screening of new hires,⁴ but it does not believe that formal tests are useful for determining who has leadership potential. Coming from a farming culture, Toyota knows that you can tell whether a person is a hard worker only by seeing her work in many challenging conditions. It stands to reason that you can judge leadership only by directly observing how people lead in challenging situations. Of course, people can do only what they have learned to do, so they need teachers to develop them.