He had a lot of trouble when he spent his childhood as a hostage of the Imagawa Clan instead of his father. After the death of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, he seized power after the battle of Sekigawara in 1600. After Tokugawa unified Japan, The Warring States period ended, and there was peace until 1868.
Later, a nanny called Kasugano Tsubone raised his first grandson; however, the second son was raised by his mother, the daughter-in-law. Eventually, this raised the concern of a succession struggle. To mitigate the succession problems and sustain the long Tokugawa Clan line, he wrote letters to his daughter-in-law because he wanted her to raise the son to be a proper leader. Ieyasu wrote these letters to his daughter-in-law because he wanted her to raise her son to be an appropriate leader. This letter was copied and taught to many daimyos.
Of course, the letters were written in the past, and some concepts cannot be applied very well. Although, there are some insights we can gain from them. I want to introduce a few parts of the letters we can still use for our leadership in this blog.
A leader cannot understand anything by only practicing Confucianism, Benevolence, righteousness, gratitude, wisdom, and faith until seeing the mirror reflecting ourselves.
It is not a physical mirror that can be polished by hand to make it shiny. It’s a mirror exists in our heart. Thus, it can be polished only by one’s heart.
If you don’t do what is right, the mirror of your heart remains cloudy and does not permit reflection.
To keep it from becoming cloudy, we have no choice but to learn from others about the impact of our actions.
The letter is a rough translation by me. ~ I did not add my interpretation here.
おこうの家康の手紙に書かれた信長・秀吉の人物像 真のリーダー像とは「早わかり歴史授業94 徳川家康シリーズ61」日本史方. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRMzbjupi8&t=1058s&ab_channel=%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E3%81%BB%E3%81%A9%21%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC
Confucianism heavily influences Japan. To become a good leader, you must practice the five basic Confucian ethical concepts: Benevolence (仁), rightness (義), gratitude (礼), wisdom (智) and faith (信) Ieyasu said that practicing Confucian ethical ideas is not good enough to become a good leader.
For example, Ieyasu wrote about why a leader must practice benevolence. Subordinates and vassals might follow orders even if the orders were not a good decision. Thus, a leader is not ethical or compassionate, and your subordinates also act unethically.
Ieyasu preaches how to practice the five basic Confucian ethical concepts by controlling oneself in the following ways.
You should be kind to everyone. It would be best if you were fair. For example, you should not create an exception for those people who are close to you.
You should be loyal to those whom you work for. Don’t break your promises.
Think about others first. Never forget your gratitude. Maintain yourself and behave well at all times.
Control yourself using wisdom in order not to be arrogant or treat others lightly.
To obey the rules that exist at all times.
Same YouTube as the above. I directly translated the letter without adding my interpretation.
Exercising these controls is not solely good enough to be a good leader, Ieyasu stated.
A good leader must polish the mirror of his heart so it is not cloudy. To shine the mirror of the heart, you must listen to the viewpoints and excellent advice.
Then, Ieyasu gives examples to explain why it is essential to listen to others.
If a leader likes to hear only opinions convenient to him, people around him will only give the statements he wants to hear. The people who could give you the proper guidance will be distant from you. You will be only left with sycophants who only speak what you want to hear. Therefore, a leader should listen to others from time to time.
The rapid change of environment forces the organization to be adaptable to sustain a competitive edge while dealing with the increasing complexity in the workplace due to the rapid changes. It is pretty challenging to make sound decisions only among top leaders. Thus, recent leadership theories started emphasizing the bottom-up aspect of leadership and the importance of humility to organization effectiveness (OWENS & HEKMAN 2012).
To secure the position, many leaders tend to protect themselves with people with similar ideas or followers. The group may have more bindings or loyalty; although, it can be dangerous. No single man makes the right decision all the time. If a leader surrounds himself with only those types of followers, an organization can make serious mistakes without realizing it until it is too late. He observed the errors fallen leaders such as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi made. Ieyasu lived through the Sengoku Period, the period of the warring states, a very turbulent era. One single mistake can lead to the clan falling. He understood that humility was a crucial element for leaders in a turbulent world. He learned from their mistakes.
According to the oxford dictionary, humility is defined as the quality of not thinking that you are better than other people. Having humility does not necessarily mean that you let other people walk all over you. It means that you should gain the ability to regard others as no more or less than you. Such capability allows a leader to listen to important advice or information, which helps them make the soundest decision for their organization. Rapid changes in environments require leaders to gain the most accurate information from the organization quickly. It is more effective to practice the bottom-up aspect of leadership to accomplish organizational effectiveness in some cases.
Humility is important in my personal life. It is unlikely that I can make the soundest decision all the time; therefore, I must learn to listen to others who could give the correct opinion. I understand the importance of humility theoretically; however, I found practicing it isn’t easy. The more social status and experiences I gain, and the more complex the practice has become. I often found myself that I struggled to listen to others because of my arrogance.
We live in quite a different world from that of Ieyasu. Therefore, I cannot apply all of what he said in the letter. Some concepts still can apply to my leadership style at work and my personal life. I found practicing humility is challenging despite its importance – that often prevents me from overlooking the critical advice from others. Thus, I need to think about how to gain the trait from now on.
References
Owens, B. P., &Hekman, D. R. (2012). Modeling HowTo Grow: An Inductive Examination Of Humble Leader Behavior, Contingencies, And Outcomes. The Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 787–818.
Oxford Dictionary. (n.d.). Humility noun. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/humility
こうの家康の手紙に書かれた信長・秀吉の人物像 真のリーダー像とは「早わかり歴史授業94 徳川家康シリーズ61」日本史方. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpRMzbjupi8&t=1058s&ab_channel=%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E3%81%BB%E3%81%A9%21%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC