The Leadership Japan Series By Dale Carnegie Training Japan

Western leadership is a meritocracy where the most driven, talented, hardest working and ambitious are given the responsibility for those cannot make it to the top.  Everyone knows the rules and the system works pretty well.  The American version is at one end where the degree of ruthlessness is more pronounced and accepted.  Other Western nations have less stringent variations, but fundamentally follow the same basic ideas about who deserves to be a leader.  What happens when you put these leaders in charge of a Japanese team? The hero’s journey is not pronounced so much in Japan because the hero cannot make it alone.  Here the team is required to pull together as a unit and strengths and weaknesses are evened out across jobs and personalities.  The idea of 1 + 1 = 5 is often talked about in the West as a aspiration but in Japan it is the reality.  The component parts are harmonised and concentrated to get the results.  Individual requirements are not promoted above the good of the group. Landing into Tokyo

Getting change anywhere is a difficult process, but Japan is a special case.  Often in business, we represent the change.  We are the potential new supplier and that means a change.  They have been doing business with someone else and we want them to stop doing that and do business with us instead.  There are many currents underpinning Japanese culture and its resistance to change. I have been training in traditional Japanese karate for 52 years and part of that process is learning set sequences called kata.  These are fixed moves that cannot be varied in any way.  There is one way to do the movement, one order and our job is to replicate that same movement thousands of times until we have perfected it.  There is no possibility of doing it a different way - in other words, no change is possible.  This is a powerful metaphor for many things in Japan where there is only one way of doing things and it cannot be varied.  This is prime change resistance in action.  I find this at home too.  My wife is Japanese and

Society approves titles and status, especially in Japan.  We rise through the ranks and following the Peter Principle, we peak at our upper level of incompetence.  On the way up, we pick up titles and accrue status, respect and credence amplified through the power of our title.  Our personal power though could be suddenly exposed as bogus, when we get up to open our mouths in public.  This is one of those “The Emperor Has No Clothes” moments, when all is revealed, and we are found severely wanting. I was at a function recently and one of the bureaucratic elite in Japan was there to give a keynote presentation.  You generally get to become an elite official in Japan because you went to the right elementary school, middle school, high school and then University.  The reason these were the right schools up until University, is because they have the absolute best system in place to help you be a legend in memorization, rote learning and test taking.  At University you take a couple of years off, before you start

The calendar year represents the start of a new year for many businesses. Others will be looking at April 1st for their financial year start.  Nevertheless, everyone will be facing the change of year period and it is always a great time for reflection.  The holidays should be fully occupied with family responsibilities or pure down time, to rest and recharge. Take some time when you get back to the office, to start reflecting on the coming year. Are we where we need to be in the business? Is this thought depressing? We all enter year three of Covid hell. Runaway war inspired energy shortages and inflation are now rampart globally.  It is hard to be optimistic in many industries.  Certainly my industry, the training business, hasn’t seen any daylight in the long hard night as yet. As leaders, it is good to step away from the daily grind of the business to spend some time thinking.  Usually most of our thinking time is very immediate, responding to problems and crises.  The melee of daily battle is not the best

Fads are a constant in business.  Consultants have a field day. They rush around providing companies with ideas on how to ride the new fashion wave.  They then have to milk it as hard as possible, because they know it will be soon supplanted by the next fad.  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is right up there as the latest fad in Japan.  I am not saying that DEI isn’t legitimate or important.  What I am saying is that for many companies, this is a patina of legitimacy, a fig leaf, as they seek to show good citizenship rather than a heartfelt belief in the importance of DEI itself.  “If others are doing it, then we should be doing it too”, is more the motivation, in many cases in Japan. The benefits of DEI in the West are numerous.  These include faster problem-solving, better decision-making, increased innovation, employee engagement and better financial performance.  None of these outcomes have been accepted as relevant in Japan as yet.  The scope is also quite different. In the West, we are dealing wit

Shaun Tomson was a famous South African world champion surfer and the recent guest on Tim Reid’s podcast Small Business Big Marketing, of which I am a fan.  In the show, Shaun was talking about what he called his Code concept, based around 12 “I will” statements.  In fifteen minutes, we have to come up with twelve statements, each starting with the words “I will…”.  The idea is that we have to use our stream of consciousness to get down ideas about what we need to be doing.  In Shaun’s case he is getting people to think about things they need to do to improve their lives, but it can also be used for more specific business purposes.  I tried it for myself and thought this was a useful idea for strengthening the commitment of the team, to hit our goals and targets. I changed the naming from Code to Commitment, because I wanted a purely business oriented focus in this methodology.  Tim asked Shaun why the number twelve and there was not a particular reason for him to choose twelve, but I kept the same format.  I

Every month, I check the leave balance for my staff and am always unhappy with the numbers.  The team can accrue up to 20 days a year for a maximum of two years, so technically they can have 40 days available, if they don’t take any leave at all.  Anything beyond that 40 days they lose.  In my company we provide an additional 4 days of company paid holidays, plus a CSR day, which they can use anyway they like.  There are 16 national holidays in Japan, so you would think the team would be able to use their leave without feeling they were losing too much of it, but that has not proven to be the case.  I found they still weren’t taking enough leave and thought maybe they were worried about sick leave and so were hoarding their annual leave to cover that possibility off.  I subsequently gave them an extra 5 days of sick leave, but it made absolutely no difference – they keep stowing away their leave and don’t use it enough. As an Aussie, this whole Japanese non-leave taking thing is mystifying.  I try to set a go

When we first start out in business we are ninja boss watchers, studying our leaders with a level of forensic detail which is remarkable.  How is their mood today? Should I bring up that request or pick another day, etc.? We study how they lead, both the good, the bad and the ugly.  We are rarely mentally putting ourselves in their place, taking their viewpoint but we are quick to discuss the boss’s failing with our colleagues.  Then one day it happens and we are made someone else’s boss. The usual reason that happens is we have demonstrated some strong capabilities in the job we have.  The best salesperson, architect, engineer, accountant type of thing.  Rarely are we able to be a mediocre performer who is great with people, excellent in communication and get the next big job. This is where we hit our first snag, when we realise the people we are leading are not like us.  They don’t necessarily share the expertise in the things we are good at.  They may have young kids, elderly parents, a brilliant hobby, a

Bosses coaching employees is such a critical task, yet so few leaders get any training on how to be effective in this role.  In Japan, the OJT On The Job Training is supposed to provide the guidance needed.  That probably worked back in the 1960s when Japan was doubling the size of the GNP. Today though it is a poor cousin to what it used to be.  Back then, the bosses didn’t ever touch a keyboard.  They  weren’t carrying around the internet armed with supreme connectivity in their hand like today.  The time poor pressure we feel today was probably evident then too, but I think the speed of business has accelerated to an extent which makes comparisons between then and now meaningless. Today’s leaders are doing their own email, answering their own mobile phones and constantly migrating from one meeting room to another.  The one-on-one time needed for coaching has sailed out the window and been replaced with a thin version of OJT.  Time management is a challenge for everyone, including bosses.  I am always aston

The Japanese idea of Shu-Ha-Ri is a combination of three characters – 守破離.  Shu is to protect the traditional techniques, the basics, the fundamentals.  Ha is to detach and break away from the tradition, to innovate and depart from our attachments to what we are doing.  Ri is to transcend to a level where there is no self-consciousness of what we are doing, we make it our own, because we have absorbed it all and it is now part of us.  This transition matches what we go through as leaders.  When we start we are unsure of exactly what we are supposed to be doing but over time we mature as leaders and can raise our effectiveness t greater heights.  Well that applies if we have been properly trained on the way up, which probably makes it difficult for most Japanese leaders to make the cut.  On the Job Training (OJT) is great if your mentor leader provides an excellent role model on which to base your own leadership style.  This is very much a long shot at best in Japan.  Getting proper training however is a much

As a training company, we are the canary in the coal mine about commercial trends and corporate shortfalls.  During a recent Sales Consultants Forum we were discussing client needs and the same theme kept coming up.  Companies are asking about leadership skills around better communication between Middle Managers and subordinates.  What is driving this, more than say sales training or presentation skills needs?  One answer can be Covid-19.  A lot of industries were hammered by Covid and companies had to reduce their team sizes.  With fewer staff fewer managers were needed.  These managers are being replaced now that Covid has been contained or at least the perception is there that it is being contained.  It would seem the Japanese Government would like to move forward and are doing whatever they can to achieve a change in the citizenry’s mentality about the pandemic.  The borders have been opened up and that nightly map of the case numbers in every prefecture has mysteriously disappeared from the NHK 7.00pm ne

We work long, diligently and hard.  We are recognised for our devotion and the quality of our output and get promoted.  Instead of being solely responsible for our own results, we are now in charge of our colleagues and we are accountable for their results too.  If we stride around like the boss and are bossy, we are likely to hit some turbulence from the led.  If we are a cream puff, walking around on egg shells, we may be ignored and not taken seriously.  Who knew this leadership gig was so tricky? Imposter syndrome, self-doubt, fraudster misgivings are all crowding our mind as we try to navigate this new role.  We have to be confident without appearing too confident.  Given we are not confident at all, this is a hard needle to thread.  Here are four strategies for helping to build our confidence as a new leader. Self-Acceptance Perfectionism is a curse for the new leader, yet it is a natural goal, as we want to prove that the trust which has been placed in us, has not been misguided.  We get into compari

“Japanese are two faced”, is a common complaint you will hear from foreigners in Japan.  The implication is you cannot trust someone who has two faces, so believing what you are told is a folly here and you need to really evaluate the messenger carefully.  It is totally true that Japanese are two faced, in fact they are world champions at it.  Living cheek by jowl for centuries in crowded cities breeds a lot of accommodations and a big one is with the truth.  In the West the truth is absolute, but in many parts of Asia the truth is more relative.  Hence the trust divide between East and West and that includes Japan.   We do it in the West too.  The “little white lie” is a bold faced lie, but we wrap it up in cotton wool and creates the illusion it isn’t so bad.  If your friend, who is obese, tells you she has been trying to lose weight and she has last a couple of grams and asks you how she looks now, what do you say – an absolute truth – “You are still grossly overweight and look like a heart attack waiting

There is a lot of focus on conscious and unconscious biases at the moment given the  amount of attention being directed at Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  In Japan’s case, for  the most part, this is a discussion  about gender and to some extent age.  The leader however faces other challenges, apart from addressing these topical subjects.  We are all witnessing major changes in the workforce driven by Covid.  Many companies have staff continually working from home or are executing a dual shift approach where half the crew take turns attending on specific days.  Leading a remote team is not how we leaders were trained, so there is a lot of gritting of teeth going on.   Leaders are smart enough not to be voicing their preferences for everyone back in the office, under the careful gaze of the supervisors.  The hesitancy is fairly simple – staff retention.  If you are forcing people to work in the office, they may just quit and go to your competitor, who has a more flexible leadership approach and doesn’t deman

When things are humming along beautifully, leading is a snap.  We can even indulge ourselves in some tangential activities because we have been able to remove our nose from the grindstone.  We join a committee in a Chamber of Commerce or a non-profit. We have a spring in our step and effuse confidence and certainty.  Our energy is electric and we infect everyone with our bonhomie.  When the plan has been set and then things don’t go accordingly, we feel we are under assault from waves of challenge after challenge.  We have to be brutal thespians wringing out the maximum leverage possible to mask our despair.  Our team take their direction from us and if we go into a hole of depression, then they will be leaping into that same hole, like lemmings following the leader into oblivion.   We ride the razor edge of concern about the lack of results and the need to maintain our optimism that this ship will right itself and not go down.  If we were emotionally stable all of the time, this may be doable, but we are cre

Being fair to everyone in the team is one of the most basic elements of leadership.  It builds leader trust, predictability and reliability.  But are we actually always being fair?  Sometimes our own team members try to draw us off the fairness straight and narrow path.  There are those who want to play politics.  No matter how large or small the organisation politics will raise its ugly head at some point.  Obviously the bigger the company the more opportunity for political infighting.  In my observation, those not kept sufficiently busy have the band width to politic inside the firm.  Busy people, working hard and super focused on results don’t go for that option, because they are razor intent on producing results.  I like those sort of people and I hate corporate politicians.    As the boss, we are often oblivious to the underground politics going on inside our companies.  We are like those busy people focused on results just mentioned, so we are working toward results and can miss what is going on around

Some company polices toward remote work are let a hundred flowers bloom, a thousand schools contend.  Others are saying get back in the office right now or leave.  This issue is certainly contentious and there seems to be a preference for Japanese leaders to have their staff under their direct gaze.  What is driving that desire?  Is it that the bosses can’t manage a remote workforce?  Is it that they don’t trust people to do their work under their own accountability?   Is it because they have seen a drop off in productivity?  Or is it because Japan doesn't like too much change and clings to the known, over the unknown?   There are certainly big bucks tied up in real estate costs, especially here in Tokyo.  I can easily imagine companies looking at that expense in their P&L and thinking we could really hack into that cost and use the money somewhere else more productively.  For the first time ever, my landlord didn’t increase my rent at lease agreement renewal time.  They must be really hurting to agree to

I have talked before about the loneliness of the leader.  This is often felt most strongly when facing difficulties.  The entrepreneur, in particular, owns the company, has all of the responsibility on their shoulders and feels the weight of that burden.  I am reminded of the ship’s captains in the age of sail.  They bore the responsibility for the safe delivery of the cargo and passengers to the destination, dealing with bad weather and even worse pirates.  The modern firm captain has the responsibility for the livelihoods of their staff and families.  If we get it wrong we can bankrupt the company or see us taken over by an entity who fires everyone and strips the firm of the goodies.   We face many tribulations of late, especially a global pandemic, the scale of which we haven’t seen since the Spanish Flu in 1918.  I certainly wasn’t around then, so have zero experience or insight into how to deal with the disruptions.  In other words, no smart answers for the challenges being thrown at us.  The years of C

In Part One we looked at Dr. Emily Anhalt research with 100 leaders and 100 psychologists.  She identified seven factors which measure how “fit” we are in this sphere of mental health and we covered the first three: Learn your emotional triggers and biases, understand the emotions of others and find comfort in discomfort.  Today we will continue with the last four points.   Foster a safe space of connection “Psychological safety” as a term has popped up over the last couple of years.  We all need a space where we feel we can be ourselves, where we can relax and let our guard down.  This could be within the family and circle of close friends.  Here is the rub.  Often as leaders we are too busy working to really develop family relationships and deep friendships.    Divorce rates are at about 50% in the West. A lot of this is due to the time being devoted to the work being disproportionate to the time being devoted to those closest to us.  We are constantly sacrificing family and friends for work projects.  I

Dr. Emily Anhalt is an American psychologist who has created a gym for mental health, based on research she did with 100 leaders and 100 psychologists who were treating leaders.  She identified seven factors which measure how “fit” we are in this sphere of mental health.  Does any modern leader believe things are going to ease off and leading will become less stressful and more relaxed?  I certainly don’t.  The problem is many of us grew up in the era of harden up, “soldier on” with strife and troubles, suck it up, grit your teeth and bear it.  That era’s level of technology, speed of business, global matrix connectivity was far removed from the complexity we all face today.  We need to be as fit mentally, as we all strive to become physically.  Let’s take a look at the good Doctor’s suggestions.   Learn your emotional triggers and biases This is familiar territory for me because I teach a course called Disagree Agreeably and this is where we look for what we call “Hot Buttons” or triggers that get the temp