Approaches That Promote Member Growth

1What Toyota Leadership Training Methods Says

Chapter 6 presents five lectures covering Toyota's practical approaches for developing members. The overarching framework is four verbs: praise, correct, compete, and entrust. A fifth lecture adds "not saying the answer" as a distinct development method.

Lecture 19: The First Step in Relationship-Building Is Praise

Praise is positioned as both a relationship-building tool and a growth mechanism. Toyota defines the "right way to praise": without being cold, without forgetting, with genuine gratitude, and for specific behavior (not vague terms). The prerequisite: the leader must stand where the whole team is visible — if you cannot see the work, you cannot praise it. The book gives the counter-example of a restaurant manager who worked alongside staff all day but could not name a single good action any employee had taken. When praise creates a chain — members see others praised and understand what behaviors are valued — the leader's work becomes easier.

Lecture 20: The Toyota-Style Way to Correct Members

Correcting is defined as improving the workplace and developing members — never as venting or winning an argument. Toyota's rules: correct only when unavoidable, never in front of others, never causing disappointment, with humility, and with calm affection. Correction requires an existing trust relationship — without it, correction only leaves resentment. After correcting, the leader must follow up: "It is all right. I trust you." The book distinguishes correction from anger: the member must feel the leader's care, not their frustration.

Lecture 21: When Making Members Compete, Set Support as a Pair

Toyota uses competition (creative suggestion system, rank-based training, Skills Olympics) to motivate growth. But competition without support creates failure, not development. The book emphasizes: the difference in growth comes from the superior's involvement after training. Leaders must check what was learned, correct misunderstandings immediately, review training content, and stay involved. For members who experience setbacks, pair them with others, build backup structures, and create another chance to try again.

Lecture 22: How to Entrust Work So That Members' Ability Grows

Entrusting means communicating "I trust you" and giving freedom — while the leader follows the progress and takes responsibility. It is not abandonment. The book's key principles: measure the member's capability first, give work that stretches them but is achievable with effort, communicate that the leader will back them up, and build teams when there is concern about a solo assignment. Entrusting and following must be a set.

Lecture 23: Develop Members by Not Saying the Answer

The book distinguishes "not saying the answer" (deliberate development) from "being unable to say the answer" (neglect). The method: when a member is stuck, listen carefully, form a hypothesis about where the process broke down, then give the minimum advice needed for the member to find the answer themselves. The leader identifies which step in the problem-solving process is weak and targets advice there. This requires deep observation — it is not passive. The goal is building the member's autonomous problem-solving capability, not just getting today's task done.

2Historical Context

These five lectures are also very Toyota-like and mirror the company and the era I worked in. They are nothing new — they represent attempts to make good leadership patterns explicit that were already practiced by the best leaders for decades.

This content comes mainly from inside Toyota and Japanese culture, especially the point about creating careful competition. The Skills Olympics, the creative suggestion system, and rank-based training are distinctly Japanese mechanisms for channeling competitive energy into growth rather than politics.

The emphasis on learning — not just the result — is also very Toyota-like. Good leaders cared about how you learned, what you learned, and how that made you better for the future. The result mattered, but a good result achieved without learning was considered incomplete. This is certainly not unique to Japanese culture, but Toyota practices these methods in daily work at a level most companies never reach.

3Commentary

This chapter is somewhat simplistic compared to the complexities of reality. My personal experience with excellent Toyota leaders was honestly more in line with Situational Leadership practices. We never called it that in Japan, but it was very similar. Good leaders were always diagnosing the situation — the skill of the learner, what they could contribute, where they were in their development — and then flexing their leadership style accordingly.

The progression looked like this: For less experienced people, the leader was often very direct — in a good sense. Think Job Instruction. You do not fumble around experimenting or waste time discovering what is already known as best practice. You learn the Toyota Way, and that is a good thing. As you evolve, you are taught and held accountable to a standard — quality, cost, safety, time. Gaps occur inevitably, and you learn to problem-solve those items following a specific method. You do not waste your time inventing your own method — you learn the Toyota Business Practice eight-step method and follow that. Then eventually you mature, and instead of solving gap-from-standard problems you learn to incrementally change things, experiment, and improve. We call this kaizen. Eventually some rare people reach a higher level and make radical breakthroughs — not everyone does.

The point is that leaders do not simply "not tell you the answer." They teach beginners the answer — steps, key points, and reasons why. Then you graduate to getting coached against a standard and learning to solve problems. Then you gain some ability to work on your own and the leader supports you. Then eventually they delegate entire work streams or processes to you. This is more akin to good situational leadership, and although it is how a Toyota leader behaves, for some reason it is not documented this way — which I think is a shame. The book presents these as separate tools. In practice they are a developmental continuum, and the best leaders move fluidly along it.

4Common Mistakes

These mistakes are encouraged by the overly simplistic view of teaching and coaching presented in this chapter. A good leader diagnoses the situation and plans how to proceed based on the ability of the person they are working with. The reality is far more nuanced than "tell" or "don't tell."

1. "Apply my way" because it is the only way you know. A weak leader has one coaching mode and uses it regardless of the person or situation. They have never learned to diagnose and flex.
2. Saying nothing, teaching nothing. Waiting for the learner to attempt something and make a mistake before offering guidance. This is both a waste of time and a failure of respect for people.
3. Missing the grey zone. In reality most coaching lives between telling nothing and telling everything. It means helping people when they are stuck with key points, showing them how to do things better, and offering encouragement. Sometimes this means letting them struggle and experiment so they arrive at the conclusion on their own. But this can also lead to frustration if left unchecked. Coaching is not binary — it requires constant judgment.
4. Telling everything. While this was a common mistake decades ago, I rarely see it today compared to the past. The more frequent error now is the opposite — leaders who disengage under the belief that people should "figure it out."

5Key Takeaways

All good Toyota leaders I worked with practiced what is known as Situational Leadership — diagnosing the person and the situation, then flexing their style from direct instruction to coaching to support to delegation. They never called it that, but that is what it was. I hope someday there is a Toyota Situational Leadership course written by Toyota.

• Praise, correct, compete, and entrust are real tools — but in practice they form a developmental continuum, not a menu of separate options.
• The emphasis on learning over results is distinctly Toyota. A good result achieved without learning was considered incomplete.
• Coaching is not binary. The grey zone between telling everything and telling nothing is where most real leadership happens — and it requires constant diagnosis and judgment.
• These methods come from inside Toyota and Japanese culture, codified for the modern era. They cost nothing but consistent leadership behavior.