The Leadership Japan Series By Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Do leaders have to be perfect? It sounds ridiculous to expect that, because none of us are perfect. However, leaders often act like they are perfect. They assume the mantle of position power and shoot out orders and commands to those below them in the hierarchy. They derive the direction forward, make the tough calls and determine how things are to be done. There are always a number of alternative ways of doing things, but the leader says, “my way is correct, so get behind it”. Leaders start small with this idea and over the course of their career they keep adding more and more certainty to what they say is important, correct, valuable and needed to produce the best return on investment. With an army of sycophants in the workforce, the leader can begin to believe their own press. There is also the generational imperative of “this is correct because this was my experience”, even when the world has well and truly moved on beyond that experience. If you came back from World War Two as an officer, you saw a certa

Here is a handy success equation which is easy to remember: our mindset plus our skill set, will equal our results.  This is very straightforward and unremarkable, but we get so embroiled in our day to day world, we forget to helicopter above the melee and observe the lay of the land.  A great mindset coupled with lacklustre skills, won’t get us very far.  A poor mindset with great skills won’t do it either, so we need both. What is our mindset composed of?  How we think is critical.  Are we operating with a positive mindset?  If we are deep in depression about the circumstances of the business, we are stuck in a hole from which it can be hard to emerge.  We are what we think, so control over what we think becomes so important. That also means being strict about what we put into our minds.  Stay away for fluff, endless scrolling on social media and negativity.  Find the useful, positive and valuable and make that the diet for our mind. Our opinions influence how we see the world.  Where do these opinions come

It is very common to hear from expat leaders here about their frustrations with leading teams in Japan.  They get all of their direct reports together in a meeting room to work through some issues and reach some decisions.  All goes according to plan, just like at home.  Weeks roll by and then the penny drops that things that were agreed to in the meeting are not happening.  “Why is it so hard to get people who are being paid good money to do their job?”, they ask me. One reason is that some of the people in the meeting room looked like they were in agreement because they don’t want to single themselves out as disagreeing with the boss in a public forum.  They keep a low profile and choose not to execute on a piece of work they think is a bad idea.  The Japanese methodology is the exact opposite.  Before the meeting, the boss checks in with the key people about this idea they have and gets input and feedback.  Once these consultations have taken place and any necessary adjustments have been made, then the mee

I was reading an article by Anjli Raval in the Financial Times about the transition for CFOs to the CEO job. She quoted a survey by Heidrick & Struggles which showed a third of CFOs in the FTSE 100 firms became the CEO.  This is up from 21% in 2019.  Raval makes an interesting observation, “research shows that CEOs promoted from the CFO job do not drive top-line revenue growth as quickly as those from other backgrounds, particularly in the first few years”.  Why is that the case? The article offers a few reasons about these promoted CFOs having a “cash-preservation mindset over a drive to pursue new opportunities”. Also, as the CFO, they had been making tough budget allocation decisions which had not been popular with their division head colleagues. Now they are the boss, but not everyone is happy about it.  As Yogi Berra said, “Leading is easy. It is getting people to follow you, which is hard”. That skill set isn’t taught to people trained in finance and accounting.  Analytical people, in general, are n

It sounds very obvious, doesn’t it, to remind the team what we are trying to achieve, but are we doing it?  Yes, we had that team Town Hall a few months ago and as the leader we outlined where we need to be at the end of the financial year. After that session, we have all been head down and getting on with it. “They know right?  I told them everything they need to know, to get on with it” is what we have ringing in our internal conversation with ourselves.  Is this true, though? Yes, we know the number we have to achieve, but what about the strategy to get there?  Is that clear enough to everyone? Do they all remember the details or have they been consumed by the minutiae of “doing” and have been neglecting the big picture of what we need to do to deliver the result?  The daily grind makes us small.  We are worn down by the doing and the bigger picture gets shoved into the background.  The leader’s job is to brush the dust off the plan and keep reminding the team what we have to do and how we are doing it. Th

Japan has had a very low degree of mobility in employment.  Large companies hired staff straight out of school or university and expected they would spend their entire working life with their employer.  That has worked for a very long time, but we have hit an inflection point where this is less something we can expect.  Mid-career hires were frowned upon. If you bolted from your employer, you had almost zero chance of joining a competitor. You entered a dark forest and had to find your way through the brambles and undergrowth to meet out a living on the lower rungs of a netherworld of small firms willing to take you on. In 1997, the venerable Yamaichi Securities blew up and a lot of competent, hard working finance industry people suddenly found themselves in the street without a job.  Other firms in the same sector employed them, because they were skilled and this was the first tear in the fabric of the stigma of the mid-career hire.  The Lehman Shock on September 15, 2008 added another slash to lifetime empl

Leaders now face a pivotal moment in business in Japan.  Do they continue to cling to the past? Do they replay what they went through when they were younger and lead as they were taught by their seniors or do they change the angle of approach?  Japan rebuilt itself after the devastation of the war.  The workers slaved away, adding a notch to their collective belts as they slowly overtook the GNP levels of leading European countries. I remember how proud some Japanese company employees were when they overtook the UK. They were winning the post-war economic battle after having lost the wartime military struggle. Getting to global number two status was built on the 6 days a week working dedication of today’s retired great grandparents. Not only six days a week, but incredibly long hours and long commutes. Sundays were spent playing golf with clients.  Company holidays were shared with colleagues, as well as beers after hours.  In a nutshell, men worked at the same company until retirement and married women had t

 As leaders, we are busy bees.  We are buzzing around, going from meeting to meeting. We are getting together with clients over lunch, touching base with HQ, handling the media, talking to HR about our people and a host of other important activities. Usually poor time managers, we are constantly hemmed in by the demands on our schedules.  The upshot is we are constantly looking for corners to cut, minutes to be shaved off regular activities and feeling oppressed by the overwhelming workload we face. The common victim in all of this is our leader's communication with our team.  We have found we can save time if we get straight to the point and then we can move on.  We are packaging up orders to be given to get the team moving.  Orders are given and we move on to the next activity.  We commonly forget to talk about the big picture, the background, the context, the WHY of what we want done.  We give the staff the short headline version of what we want done. We expect them to fill in the detail themselves, as we

 There are many paths to the mountaintop in the leadership area.  Today, let’s go back to the practical realities of getting others to listen to you and, even more importantly, to follow you.  My favourite quote on leadership is from Yogi Berra, the American baseball coach rather infamous for murdering the English language. He said something profound though, when he noted: “Leading is easy.  It is getting people to follow you, which is hard”.  If nobody likes you, what are your chances of uniting the team behind you?  Pretty dismal would be the obvious conclusion.  How many bosses are likeable, though? Often, they are demons, autocrats, channelling Genghis Khan for ideas on how to lead the team.  They enforce compliance, but don’t foster engagement. Their influence on what is possible for the team is limited in scope. Understanding the members of the team and what each individual wants is a good place to start to reverse the lack of engagement.  When they scold staff, this creates barriers and subterranean re

 You would think that organisations choose their leaders because they are skilled in communication.  What is the job after all, but communicating with the team to make sure everyone is clear about what they have to do and to encourage them to do it?  Well you would be wrong!  Leaders are usually selected for promotion because they are very good, often the best, at their current job. It is assumed that they will be the best person to lead the team on that basis.  Just as we know that the talented sports person doesn’t necessarily migrate those skills into leadership roles as a successful coach, neither does the talented functional specialist transform into a successful leader.  The gun sales rep doesn’t become a great sales team leader.  The best architect doesn’t make the best choice to lead other draftsmen and women.  The list just goes on and on and we wonder why we keep repeating the same errors?  One aspect of that difficulty is that it is hard to see the immediate results of leadership, unless they reall

Leaders may not even be aware that they are poor listeners.  They are very focused on telling others what to do. Being time poor, they are very focused on their own messaging, rather than the messaging efforts of others.  In the war for talent in Japan, that could be a fatal move.  One of the biggest factors driving engagement in Japan is the feeling that the boss values you.  If the leader isn’t really listening to the team members, they are not stupid and they will pick up on this.  Before you know it, they have fled to greener pastures.  They are off to your competitor, and the arduous and expensive task of replacing them begins.  We don’t want that. Here are some hints on making sure you are a gold medal winning listening boss. 1.        You display an open and accepting attitude toward the speaker This sounds easy, but are we doing it?  Have we stopped the noise in our own brain to refocus on the person in front of us and not let that internal message competition diminish our capacity to listen to what w

The S-Curve is a very simple concept.  Over time, a newly promoted employee goes through distinct stages in their performance achievement.  Initially, their performance declines as they grapple with the new set of responsibilities.  Gradually they get the swing of things and start to do well at their new accountabilities.  After a period of becoming comfortable with their role, they start to stagnate as they stop growing. Within these stages are many nuances.  We select people for promotion based on their history and our hope for their future.  We expect that good work and result production in the current role is an important indicator of talent and ability and that these attributes can be transferred into their leadership role.    One of the astounding things about modern business in Japan is that firms abandon these individuals at this point. Puzzlingly, they do not provide their newly promoted leaders with any great assistance to succeed.  The newly promoted are given the baton of command and left to thems

As leaders are we all perfect?  Are we perfect all the time?  Obviously, the answer is “no” to both counts, but that doesn’t mean we always face up to our own shortcomings.  An important part of growing and improving as a leader is to be honest about who we really are.  Let’s go through some common areas where leaders can improve. 1.     Uninspiring   This uninspiring tag covers a vast majority of leaders.  Ask yourself, “how many of my previous bosses would I describe as inspiring?”  The answer for most people is usually none or one. Now ask yourself, “if someone surveyed my team members, how many would say I was inspiring?”  This type of reality check is useful because it can help us become better in some key leadership areas.  What contributes to a leader being seen as uninspiring?  It usually relates to a lack of enthusiasm, someone going through the motions with no great passion. This is reflected in how they communicate.  The voice is dull, the energy low, the fire in the belly has long since smoldered

Which is more important to us as the leader – what we choose to do or who we choose to be?  Most of our careers on the way up will have been concentrated on doing, achieving, delivering results, making the numbers, getting projects delivered on time and on budget.  Absolutely nothing wrong with any of that.  When we get into a position of leadership there is always a lot to do.  Previously we were responsible for ourselves and now we are responsible for a bunch of other people.  It is always breathtaking to discover that the people you are leading are nothing like you. They have different mindsets, motivations, values, fears, habits, desires and ambitions.  The old boss idea that “if you want to get ahead, be like me”, is a joke in this modern business world.  The “doing” in business is so loud, we are often oblivious to how we are showing up.  Everyone of our staff are expert boss watchers.  They can notice the smallest variation in our demeanour from one day to another.  They are like those gazelles you see

Leadership is about creating environments that influence others to achieve group goals. This works because people support a world they help create. There are five success areas for leaders to focus on that make all the difference. Rate your performance by giving yourself a mark on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) for each area. Self-direction This is a must for leaders. If you can’t organise yourself, your ability to have others follow you is doubtful. Effective self-directed leaders have a personal vision which they review each day to remind themselves that the compass is more critical than the clock. They write down this vision and they write down their goals. They do this because they know there is magic in committing generalities to specifics in written form. They have a broad range of goals around their main roles in life, so that the balance between business and non-business is never compromised. They have clearly defined values that guide their behaviour. This makes them predictable, congruent, consis

We have probably all been on the receiving end of it or have been a witness to it. The presentation is completed, after which come the questions; some are fact finding, some seek clarification, while some are just plain nasty. Perhaps the questioner is not trying to be mean, but the result is the same. All eyes in the room burn a hole into you as everyone waits to see how you are going to handle this little Scud missile that is thinly disguised as a question. Some presenters splutter, nervousness sapping intellectual and verbal powers, while some give such a pathetic response we can see their credibility sail out the window as they speak. Some get angry, assuring everyone there that they are not fit for higher responsibilities because they can’t control their emotions.  Do these questions come up? Yes, so there is no point imagining that we won’t have to face the meeting room moment of truth. Do we usually prepare beforehand, in the event that someone might decide to go after us? In 99% of cases the answer is

Doing more, and doing it better, faster and with less is driving global business. A cadre of professional managers running organisations is going the same way as the typing pool. Organisations can no longer afford managers who only manage; instead, they also need them to be leaders. This begs the question: what is the difference between a manager and a leader? Simply put, leaders build people and manage processes, while managers just manage processes. The organisation has various processes that must be completed entirely, efficiently and reliably—the classic belief of “getting the paperwork sorted”. Attention to detail is paramount. Multi-tasking, time management, and personal effectiveness all contribute to process success. The manager must ensure these activities are being carried out correctly and so the supervision of staff is key. If the operation is not coordinated, then there is potential for chaos. However, it is more likely we are dealing with inefficiencies and costly delays. The manager has to moni

“Hey, it’s a jungle out there”. A brilliant meeting followed by a woeful meeting; the emotional roller-coaster world of sales.You’re up and down within minutes, depending on the client’s interest and reaction. You’re always too early or too late for the business chance. The client is never on your timetable, especially your schedule around meeting the month’s quota. So how do we keep salespeople motivated to push through and produce the needed results? Managing salespeople requires time-usage perspective. Break the team composition down to some key segments; the star, the non-performer, the new or developing, and the plateaued employee. Our natural instinct is to spend a disproportionate amount of our time on “fixing” non-performers. Stop doing this! Instead, spend only 10% of your time on it and give them clear guidelines, firm activity targets, lots of encouragement and sell them hope.Tell them they can do it but let them do it—don’t do it for them. Send them to training to get the required skills. The pla

Success is usually thought to be built on a combination of personal attributes such as intelligence, technical knowledge, street smarts, hard won experience (built on failures from pushing too hard), guts and tenacity.  Our varsity halls offer a vast array of academic knowledge, information, insights, concepts, theories, tomes, technology and debate.  Company education is usually focused on producing detailed product knowledge and navigation clarity around the organizational labyrinth. Tick the boxes on all of these and you are off to the races for career progression.  Trouble usually starts though when they recognize you and start to expect leverage from your personal abilities.  Leverage means not just what you can individually contribute, but your capacity to get contribution from others they have placed in your charge.  As the old saw goes "all of our troubles in life walk on two legs and talk back".  Welcome to management! Even if you are a powerhouse, a total workaholic,  pounding out 100 hours every we

Corporate learning isn’t working. Heroically, time and treasure are being spent by company leaders to improve staff performance. Inherent in that goal is that we as recipients learn something new or re-learn what we supposedly should know already. Talking to companies interested in increasing people performance, we have noted some common barriers to making learning work. Business conditions, markets, the competition are all in a state of flux and change is now "constant". Companies attempt to respond. The clarion call goes out to the troops to rally behind the latest change. New policies, slogans, work methods, and systems "cascade" and are met with disinterest or just tacit compliance. The changes usually require everyone to "learn" to do things in a new or different way. The desired order is usually (1) learn, (2) change, (3) improve results. The breakdown point in this continuum is the one in the middle – change. The organisation may want improved performance, but is met with the mindset of "I" agree in