This article explains how kindness and strictness in management consist of two axes—interpersonal and treatment—and how different organizational preconditions shape sustainable leadership styles. It highlights why styles A and B work and how aligning expectations with reality supports stability and growth.

Many factories visualize defect data, yet the numbers often don’t make sense. In several plants I supported, the same production batch showed different defect rates depending on the inspector—2% by an expert versus 8% by others. The issue wasn’t product quality but human behavior shaped by inadequate KPIs. When inspectors are evaluated by “how many items they check,” speed is prioritized, judgment becomes inconsistent, and defect data becomes unreliable. This leads not only t