The Leadership Japan Series

Leading in Japan is distinct and different from other countries. The language, culture and size of the economy make sure of that. We can learn by trial and error or we can draw on real world practical experience and save ourselves a lot of friction, wear and tear. This podcasts offers hundreds of episodes packed with value, insights and perspectives on leading here. The only other podcast on Japan which can match the depth and breadth of this Leadership Japan Series podcast is the Japan's Top Business interviews podcast.

The Leadership Japan Series is a business podcast hosted by Dale Carnegie Japan, with 679 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Dale Carnegie Japan hosts The Leadership Japan Series, a business show with 679 episodes published.

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  The Leadership Japan Series

  Things Leaders Should Be Doing

  Aug 12, 202613 min

  There are tons of things leaders should be doing. The sheer volume of advice can become a mental blizzard—a complete leadership whiteout. That is why it helps to isolate a few essential leadership practices and remind ourselves why they matter. These are not complicated theories. They are practical leadership disciplines that determine whether teams produce results, understand expectations, cooperate effectively and continue moving in the right direction. Here are eleven leadership basics worth revisiting. What should leaders focus on first? Leaders should focus chiefly on the results to be achieved rather than simply on the activities being performed. Everything happening in the organisation should move the team towards a desired outcome. That sounds obvious. However, analyse your diary and look closely at where your time is going. You may be shocked by how few appointments, meetings and activities are directly propelling important results. Busy work is seductive because it creates the sensation of progress. Emails are answered, meetings are attended and reports are produced. Yet activity is not the same as achievement. Leaders also need to plan and organise effectively around the desired result. They must coordinate everyone involved so that individual contributions combine into meaningful organisational progress. Markets change, customer expectations move and circumstances can run over the top of even a good plan. Leaders must therefore keep asking whether the current plan is still relevant, whether the organisation is properly structured and whether the balance between individual responsibility and teamwork is right. Do now: Review your calendar and identify which activities directly contribute to your organisation's most important results. Reduce, delegate or eliminate the rest. How should leaders turn major objectives into action? Major objectives should be divided into bite-sized pieces, communicated clearly and supported by deadlines, measurements and individual accountability. Large organisational goals can sound inspiring but remain useless if people do not understand what they personally need to do. Leaders must translate strategic objectives into specific actions, time targets and measurable outcomes. Every important objective needs an accountability system. Without measurement, deviation from the plan can remain invisible until it is too late to make an easy correction. The post-pandemic workplace has made this more difficult. For many organisations, the orderly pursuit of targets was replaced by constant disruption, emergency responses and scrambling to survive. Even after the immediate crisis passed, hybrid work, shifting customer behaviour and economic uncertainty continued to complicate performance management. Textbook answers are not always enough. Leaders must combine data, judgement and practical experience to decide which performance standards remain realistic. Do now: Take one major organisational objective and break it into milestones, owners, deadlines and measurable indicators of progress. How can leaders establish effective performance standards? Leaders must make expectations explicit so that people know what successful performance looks like, why it matters and how it will be measured. Vague expectations create frustration. Employees believe they are doing well, while managers quietly feel disappointed. Effective performance standards remove this ambiguity. Standards should guide people towards profitable and productive action. They should be demanding enough to encourage growth but realistic enough to maintain credibility. Leaders must also build a results-oriented attitude throughout the organisation. This means helping people develop self-reliance, confidence and ownership of their goals. Remote and hybrid work have shifted visibility. Leaders can no longer judge contribution by who arrives early, stays late or appears busy in the office. Performance is increasingly represented by customer outcomes, project completion, financial measures and numbers on a spreadsheet. Some people thrive with autonomy. Others struggle without direct supervision, informal contact and frequent teamwork. Leaders must recognise these differences rather than assuming one working style suits everyone. Do now: Ask each team member to explain what is expected of them and how success is measured. Any inconsistent answers reveal a communication gap. Can leaders really motivate their people? Leaders cannot directly inject motivation into another person. They can, however, create an environment in which people are more likely to become self-motivated. Try yelling, "Be motivated, be motivated, be motivated," at your team and see how far that gets you. Leaders can motivate themselves, but they cannot control the internal drive of another person. Their real task is to understand what helps each individual perform at their best. That may include recognition, autonomy, meaningful work, career growth, financial reward, mastery, belonging or the opportunity to contribute to something important. The correct combination varies from person to person. This is where leadership becomes difficult. There is no universal motivational switch. The leader has to understand people individually and deliver the right environment one person at a time. Leaders should also encourage creativity. Creativity can be learned, but many leaders have never studied how creative thinking works. If leaders do not know how to generate ideas, challenge assumptions or explore alternatives, they will struggle to develop those abilities in others. Do now: Ask each team member what conditions help them do their best work. Do not assume their answer will be the same as yours. How should leaders track progress and coordinate people? Leaders must track progress consistently and coordinate everyone whose contribution affects the final result, both inside and outside the organisation. Tracking progress sounds easy. The reality is that leaders are often lost in the weeds, pulled hither and thither and overwhelmed by constant urgencies. Following up on planned results gets postponed because something more immediate demands attention. Yet when leaders stop tracking, deadlines slip, responsibilities blur and small problems grow into expensive ones. Coordination has also become more demanding in remote and hybrid workplaces. When everyone was in the office, people could exchange information informally, notice emerging problems and resolve misunderstandings quickly. When employees, clients, suppliers and partners are separated, leaders must expend more time and energy ensuring that the right people know what they need to know. They must also confirm that tasks are being completed when they need to be completed. Communication cannot be left to chance. Coordination requires deliberate updates, clear decision rights and reliable follow-through. Do now: Establish a simple review rhythm showing each priority, its owner, its current status, the next action and any obstacle requiring leadership intervention. Why must leaders keep communicating purpose and teamwork? Leaders must repeatedly connect everyday work to the organisation's continuing purpose and demonstrate through their decisions that teamwork is genuinely expected. Leaders often pontificate from on high about purpose and imagine everyone is on board. They assume the message was received, understood and accepted. It is always a shock to discover that not everyone got the message—or that they interpreted it differently. Purpose must therefore be communicated repeatedly. Leaders must explain what the organisation is trying to achieve, why it matters and how each person's work contributes. They must also check for understanding rather than assuming agreement. Leadership credibility is tested most severely when a high performer refuses to act as a team player. Are you prepared to confront—or even fire—a top performer who persistently undermines teamwork? This is where the rubber meets the road. If leaders praise collaboration but tolerate the corporate outlaw who does whatever they want, everyone learns how the organisation really operates. Behaviour that is tolerated becomes part of the culture. Do now: Identify one behaviour that contradicts your stated values. Address it directly before it becomes the organisation's unofficial standard. What is the most important leadership starting point? The most important starting point is self-awareness. Very few leaders can give themselves a perfect score across all eleven areas: Focusing on results Planning and organising effectively Breaking objectives into manageable actions Establishing clear performance standards Building a results-oriented culture Creating conditions for self-motivation Developing creativity Tracking progress Coordinating people and resources Communicating organisational purpose Demonstrating leadership and teamwork I certainly cannot give myself a perfect score. Reviewing this list is a painful reminder of my own failings and imperfections. That is the point. Busy work can mask what is vital. Leaders become tied up in meetings, messages, minor decisions and operational stuff. Eventually, they lose sight of the leadership responsibilities that matter most. Let's get back to basics. We are not divine. We still have work to do on ourselves. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery , Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery , as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training . His books have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō （ザ営業） , Purezen no Tatsujin （プレゼンの達人） , Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō （トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう） and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā （現代版「人を動かす」リーダー） . Greg publishes regular business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show , Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

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  The Leadership Japan Series

  Leadership Essential Undertakings

  Aug 5, 202616 min

  Leadership is not only about watching the P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, revenue and profit. Those numbers matter enormously, especially when conditions are difficult, but leaders can become so absorbed in survival that they neglect the people who must deliver the recovery. Effective leadership requires the agility to keep several priorities in motion at once: business performance, cooperation, culture, career development and personal self-control. Why must leaders influence cooperation rather than simply issue orders? Leaders achieve results through people, so cooperation is more sustainable than command-and-control pressure. When the business is under strain, determination, grit and force of will can become dangerous strengths. The leader starts pushing harder, communicating from on high and assuming that one perspective—the leader's own—is enough. That may produce short-term compliance, but it weakens ownership, trust and discretionary effort. A leader only has value in relation to the organisation and the people who constitute it. The real task is therefore to influence others to cooperate toward a desired result, not merely to demand obedience. Servant leadership is easiest to discuss when conditions are comfortable; it is tested when revenues are falling, cash is tight and everyone is tired. In those moments, leaders need to explain the goal, involve people in the path forward and make cooperation feel purposeful rather than compulsory. Do now: Replace one directive this week with a conversation that clarifies the outcome, invites input and builds shared ownership. How does a leader's personality shape organisational culture? A leader's attitudes, emotional control and assumptions about people are constantly transmitted into the culture. Leaders bring their whole personality to work: hopes, fears, values, impatience, humour and bias. When business is going well, it is easy to appear positive, tolerant and encouraging. The harder test comes when the organisation is facing chaos, missed targets or serious risk. Negativity at the top quickly permeates the team. Douglas McGregor's Theory X view of motivation described leaders who focus on shortcomings and become detectives searching for faults and failures. That mindset affects how people are treated and what kind of culture develops. Leaders do not need to pretend that everything is fine, but they do need the discipline to remain calm, fair and constructive. Sometimes leadership requires an actor's composure: appearing steady enough to help others think clearly, even when the leader is deeply concerned underneath. Do now: Before reacting under pressure, ask what emotional signal your behaviour will send to the organisation. Why should organisational goals and individual career goals be aligned? Performance improves when the organisation's ambitions and each employee's career goals can grow together. Leaders naturally have their own goals, incentives and ambitions, so pretending that self-interest does not exist is unrealistic. The higher standard is to pursue business outcomes while also taking a genuine interest in the growth of subordinates. That requires time. Leaders need to understand what motivates each person, what skills they want to build, what responsibilities they seek and what success means to them. Only then can the leader look for ways to connect individual aspirations with organisational priorities. In many cases, the two can be blended: a new project can build capability, a stretch assignment can support succession, or a cross-functional initiative can advance both enterprise performance and personal development. The details are rarely effortless, but creating that alignment is one of the clearest marks of leadership excellence. Do now: Ask each direct report what progress they want to make over the next twelve months, then connect it to a real business priority. What is a leader's responsibility for developing people? A central leadership responsibility is to help people become capable of producing important results. Developing people is not a soft extra that sits beside the real work; it is part of the real work. Organisations succeed through capable people who can make decisions, solve problems and recover from setbacks. That means leaders must coach, delegate, provide feedback and create opportunities to practise. Development also requires patience because growth is rarely tidy. The Japanese expression hanmen kyoshi means learning from a negative example, and that example may be another person or ourselves. Leaders who openly learn from their own mistakes make it safer for others to learn as well. By contrast, a leader who excuses personal errors but punishes subordinate errors creates a toxic double standard. Accountability still matters, but it should be applied consistently and used to strengthen judgement rather than merely assign blame. Do now: Turn one recent mistake into a structured learning conversation: what happened, what was learned and what will change next time? How should leaders treat failure when the stakes are high? Leaders must distinguish between careless failure and intelligent failure, while applying the same standards to themselves and their teams. Innovation, transformation and difficult decisions all carry risk. If every setback is treated as proof of incompetence, people will hide problems, avoid experimentation and wait for permission. Yet saying "we never fail, we only learn" is meaningless unless leaders apply that philosophy when the financial consequences become serious. The real test comes when large numbers, client relationships or reputational risks are involved. Leaders should examine whether the decision process was sound, whether assumptions were reasonable, whether warning signs were ignored and whether the lesson is being captured. They should also ask whether they would judge themselves by the same standard. Integrity, credibility and trust depend on this consistency. Generosity toward failure does not mean abandoning accountability; it means ensuring that accountability produces better future performance. Do now: Review one failed initiative for decision quality, not only outcome quality, and document the lesson for future teams. How can leaders read their own 'air' during difficult times? Leaders need enough self-awareness to recognise what is happening inside themselves before it distorts what happens around them. The Japanese phrase kuki wo yomu means reading the air: noticing what is really happening in a room beyond the visible surface. Leaders often try to read everyone else—the mood, resistance, hesitation or hidden concern—but fail to read their own internal atmosphere. Under pressure, fear may appear as aggression, uncertainty as over-control and fatigue as impatience. A short pause can prevent those emotions from becoming organisational signals. Self-reflection is especially important when leaders are juggling numbers, people, clients and operational risk at the same time. The four essential undertakings—building cooperation, managing personal impact, aligning goals and developing people—provide a practical check on whether leadership perspective has narrowed too far. Reading your own air is not self-indulgence; it is a way to protect the quality of judgement and the health of the team. Do now: In your next difficult meeting, pause and name your internal state before you speak or decide. What should leaders remember? Sustainable performance comes from combining financial focus with disciplined attention to people. Leadership becomes most visible when conditions are rough and tough. Financial discipline remains essential, but numbers alone cannot produce cooperation, resilience or growth. Leaders need to manage their own impact, connect organisational goals with individual aspirations, develop people through both success and failure, and regularly examine what pressure is doing to their judgement. The strongest leaders do not choose between performance and people. They understand that sustainable performance is delivered through people. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.

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  The Leadership Japan Series

  Guiding Principles Of Leadership Part Two

  Jul 29, 202617 min

  Leadership principles are rarely complicated. The difficulty is remembering to practise them consistently when targets are missed, markets become unstable, staff disappoint us and the pressure keeps building. In Part One, we examined the first seven guiding principles of leadership. Here are principles eight to sixteen: practical reminders about respect, recognition, accountability, goal-setting, focus, resilience, work-life balance, worry and enthusiasm. They may sound familiar, but familiarity is not the same as application. How does showing respect improve employee motivation? Genuine respect is the foundation of sustainable employee motivation because people are more willing to contribute when they feel valued as human beings. This applies not only to star performers but also to the large middle of the workforce whose performance may be average or inconsistent. Many bosses naturally respect their top 20% because those people deliver results. The real leadership test is how they treat everyone else. Frustration can leak into the boss's voice, facial expression and daily interactions. Staff quickly recognise when they are being tolerated rather than respected. Leaders do not have to accept poor performance. They do, however, need to separate the individual's worth from the current quality of the work. Clear coaching, fair expectations and honest feedback can coexist with dignity. Do now: Check whether every team member receives the same basic level of courtesy, attention and respect, regardless of performance. Why are recognition and praise sometimes more powerful than money? People work for money, but they often go the extra mile because they receive recognition, praise and meaningful rewards. Fair pay matters, but salary alone rarely creates emotional engagement, loyalty or discretionary effort. Frederick Herzberg described salary as a "hygiene factor". When pay is unfair, it causes dissatisfaction. When it is fair, employees generally treat it as an expected part of the employment relationship. The stronger motivational effect often comes from achievement, responsibility, progress and recognition. Our Dale Carnegie research has repeatedly identified feeling valued by one's immediate manager as an important emotional driver of engagement. Employees cannot read the boss's mind. They know they are valued because the leader communicates it through specific praise, appreciation and acknowledgement. A vague "good job" is better than silence, but precise recognition is stronger: explain what the person did, why it mattered and who benefited. Do now: Recognise one specific contribution today and connect it directly to its positive impact. Should leaders admit their mistakes? Strong leaders admit mistakes quickly because accountability builds credibility rather than diminishing authority. A boss who pretends to be infallible creates defensiveness, fear and political behaviour throughout the organisation. Ego, face, pride and professional image can make an admission difficult, particularly in hierarchical business cultures. Some managers worry that saying "I was wrong" will weaken their position. Usually, the opposite happens. Employees already know the mistake occurred. The only unresolved question is whether the leader has enough confidence and integrity to acknowledge it. Admitting an error does not mean accepting chronic incompetence. Leaders and employees must still meet professional standards. The principle is to be quick to acknowledge genuine mistakes, slow to criticise others and constructive when correcting performance. A leader who accepts personal imperfection is also more capable of responding calmly when a team member makes an occasional error. Do now: Admit the mistake, explain the correction and focus the team on preventing a recurrence. How should leaders set challenging but realistic goals? Effective goals should stretch performance without becoming so unrealistic that employees stop believing effort will make any difference. Clear, challenging and attainable targets generate more commitment than numbers based on guesswork, hope or executive wishful thinking. Throughout my career, I have encountered targets that appeared to have no scientific, commercial or logical foundation. A wet finger held up to the breeze seemed to be the methodology. These goals did not motivate anyone. They encouraged cynicism, sandbagging and creative explanations for failure. Today, I use a spreadsheet to track each salesperson's results from the date they joined the company. This allows comparisons based on experience, historical performance, conversion patterns and realistic productivity expectations. Large corporations, SMEs and startups may use different metrics, but the principle remains the same: base targets on evidence, explain the rationale and confirm that employees can influence the outcome. Do now: Review whether your team's goals are evidence-based, clearly explained and difficult but genuinely obtainable. How can leaders maintain focus on the big picture? Leaders maintain strategic focus by protecting time for important long-term work, even while urgent problems compete for attention. Markets, currency movements, wars, technological disruption and economic downturns can easily pull leaders into permanent crisis management. Employees are often understandably focused on today's workload, career, compensation and immediate problems. Senior leaders must operate across a longer horizon. They need to keep reminding the organisation where it is going, why that destination matters and what must be protected during periods of disruption. The familiar advice is to work on the business, not only in the business. Stephen Covey's Quadrant Two—important but not urgent—is where strategic planning, relationship building, capability development and risk prevention normally sit. Unfortunately, these activities are easily postponed because they are not yet emergencies. The big picture does not maintain itself. Leaders have to schedule time to think. Do now: Block regular Quadrant Two time for strategy, people development and prevention before urgent work consumes the calendar. Does work-life balance improve leadership performance? Consistently high performance requires recovery because health, reflection and leisure support better judgement, creativity and endurance. Leadership is a marathon, even though ambitious executives sometimes behave as if every month is the final sprint. "I will outwork, out-sacrifice and out-commit everyone" can sound admirable. It becomes dangerous when exhaustion damages decision quality, relationships or physical health. Many of our strongest ideas appear while walking, running, swimming, exercising or gardening—not while staring at another spreadsheet late at night. My father established his own company at the age of 49 and achieved rapid financial success. He died from lung cancer at 51 and was not there to enjoy the rewards. That experience permanently shaped my view of success. Winning in business is meaningless if leaders destroy their health, family life and capacity to enjoy what they have built. Do now: Treat sleep, exercise, relationships and recovery as performance disciplines rather than optional rewards. How can leaders remain positive during severe setbacks? Resilient leaders take strength from what remains possible instead of allowing past failures and present negativity to consume their energy. Positivity is not pretending that serious problems do not exist. It is maintaining the ability to act despite them. The movie reel inside our minds repeatedly shows mistakes, humiliations, losses and disasters. News media amplify the effect because negative stories attract attention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the training industry suffered extraordinary disruption. Remaining optimistic while facing losses, uncertainty and upheaval was not easy. My mantra was TINA: There Is No Alternative. Quitting mentally would not improve the situation, so the only productive option was to keep adapting and fighting. Japan's well-known saying, "Fall down seven times, get up eight," captures the required mindset. Resilience does not remove the wound. It gets us moving again. Do now: Identify what remains within your control and take one constructive action before reviewing the problem again. What practical method helps leaders control worry? Leaders can reduce worry by converting vague fear into a clearly defined problem followed by practical solution choices. Worry thrives when the mind circles endlessly around uncertainty without moving toward a decision. Questions such as "Can we make payroll?", "Will we run out of cash?" and "How much longer can we survive?" became genuine concerns for many business owners during the pandemic, supply-chain disruption, market instability and geopolitical conflict. A simple four-part process can interrupt paralysis: What is the problem? Why is it a problem? What could I do to alleviate the problem? Which solution is best? This structure moves the mind away from emotional repetition and into analysis, options and action. The selected solution may not be perfect, but purposeful movement is generally healthier than passive anxiety. Do now: Write down the worry, answer the four questions and choose the next specific action. Why is enthusiasm essential for leadership? Enthusiasm gives leaders the emotional energy to influence others, sustain momentum and keep hope alive when circumstances are grim. It can move people, but it must also be protected from persistent negativity. Negative colleagues, commentators and acquaintances can act like kryptonite. Their pessimism gradually drains confidence and makes every idea appear impossible. Leaders cannot always avoid difficult people, particularly when the negative person is a colleague, client or family member. They can, however, control how much authority that person's outlook is allowed to have. Enthusiasm is not constant excitement. It is a renewable commitment to possibility. Leaders should identify the activities, people, purposes and achievements that reignite their energy. A small spark can become the blue flame that helps a team believe there is a worthwhile future ahead. Your emotional state is contagious, whether you intend it to be or not. Do now: Protect your enthusiasm, reduce unnecessary exposure to habitual negativity and reconnect with what gives the work meaning. Conclusion: How can leaders turn familiar principles into daily habits? The sixteen principles covered across Parts One and Two are not new, glamorous or technologically advanced. Most leaders have heard similar advice before. The problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is inconsistent execution. Respect, recognition, humility, constructive feedback, realistic goals, strategic focus, personal health, resilience, practical problem-solving and enthusiasm only create value when they become visible behaviours. Choose one principle each day and deliberately practise it. Treat the principles like daily business health supplements. One small leadership behaviour repeated consistently can improve trust, engagement, judgement and organisational performance. The obvious principles are often the ones we neglect. Leadership improves when we stop admiring the ideas and start living them. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery , Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery , along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training . His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō （ザ営業） , Purezen no Tatsujin （プレゼンの達人） , Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō （トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう） and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā （現代版「人を動かす」リーダー） . Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show , Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

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  The Leadership Japan Series

  Guiding Principles Of Leadership Part One

  Jul 22, 202612 min

  We collect leadership ideas from everywhere: books, training courses, articles, mentors, bosses, colleagues and the occasional painful lesson delivered by experience. The problem is that we rarely collect these ideas in one place. They arrive randomly over many years, and we forget more than we retain. We may recognise a useful principle when we hear it, nod wisely and then promptly return to doing exactly what we were doing before. Here are seven leadership principles we already know but probably need to remember. In Part Two, we will continue with principles eight through sixteen. Should Leaders Focus on Strengths or Weaknesses? The first step towards leadership success is identifying your strengths and deliberately building on them. That is not what most of us do, though, is it? We usually focus on what we are doing badly. We replay mistakes, analyse weaknesses and beat ourselves up because we are not perfect. All of that keeps us looking backwards. Naturally, leaders cannot ignore weaknesses that are hurting the team or damaging results. However, leadership development should not become an endless repair job. We also need to ask where we already perform well and how we can create even more value from those capabilities. Perhaps you are good at setting direction, developing people, winning trust, communicating through uncertainty or making tough decisions. These strengths are leadership assets. Use them consciously rather than treating them as accidental. Do now: Write down your three strongest leadership capabilities and decide where you will apply each one more deliberately. What Really Builds Trust in Leadership? Trust is built when leaders are fair, keep their promises and do the right thing even when nobody would blame them for taking the easier option. Communication is built on trusting relationships, but what actually creates that trust? Fairness is a major part of it. Employees, vendors and clients are always watching how we behave when pressure, money and competing interests enter the picture. During the COVID period, we had access to international pricing for one of our training programmes. That price was higher than what we normally charged locally. We could easily have taken the extra money, and in those very straitened times, the cash would have been welcome. But where is the trust if we do that? Trust also means doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it and in the way you promised. That sounds easy. It is not. Busy schedules, shifting priorities and unexpected problems all get in the way. Regardless, leaders have to keep their eyes on integrity and follow their true-north values. Do now: Review the commitments you have made recently. Is there anything you promised but have not yet delivered? Can a Leader Force Employees to Be Motivated? Motivation cannot be forced. People have to want to do a good job, and the leader's role is to help create the conditions for that motivation. Imagine a cartoon boss screaming, "Be motivated! Be motivated! Be motivated!" so loudly that the employees' hair is blowing backwards. Ridiculous, obviously. Yet many managers are not doing anything much more sophisticated. They push harder, repeat the target, add pressure and wonder why people are not suddenly overflowing with enthusiasm. A better starting point is alignment. What does the individual value? What does the enterprise value? Where can those interests connect? One employee may want advancement. Another may want recognition, professional mastery, security, flexibility or the chance to work on something meaningful. Leaders need to understand those individual motivations and help employees see how strong performance can move them towards their own goals. Here is the million-dollar question: do you know the goals and values of each staff member? And do you keep checking? Goals change. Do now: Ask each person what they most want to achieve professionally over the next twelve months. Why Must a Leader's Interest in People Be Genuine? Genuine interest strengthens relationships because people can quickly detect the difference between real curiosity and fake friendliness. The key word is "genuine". This is not about pretending to care because you want something. It is not a technique to secure cooperation, win a sale or encourage someone to work harder. We have all seen the opposite. Someone is charming while they expect a generous tip and then looks visibly disappointed when the amount is not sufficient. In Japan, there is also the eigyo smile —the fake "sales smile" used to help win business. The mouth is smiling, but the rest of the person is not involved. Leaders make the same mistake when they ask polite questions while clearly waiting for their turn to talk. People are fascinating. When we show pure curiosity, we learn far more about their experiences, concerns, motivations and ambitions. They also sense that the interaction is genuine. As leaders, let's be curious. Do now: Ask someone a question today simply because you are interested in the answer, not because you need anything from them. Why Is Empathy Essential for Modern Leaders? Empathy helps leaders understand the world affecting another person instead of judging everything from inside their own world. Deadlines, targets, quotas, emails, bills and endless meetings—the rough and tumble of business is relentless. It is easy to become completely consumed by our own pressures. When that happens, we forget that everyone around us is dealing with a different set of circumstances. I once watched a company owner networking vigorously at an event. Another guest made a snide comment about what the owner was doing. Maybe that guest sailed through the pandemic completely unscathed. The company owner, however, had been clinging on by the fingernails. The networking was not vanity or attention-seeking. It was an attempt to keep the business alive. That is what happens when we focus entirely on ourselves. We judge visible behaviour without understanding the invisible circumstances behind it. For leaders, that is a disaster. This is especially true when talented employees can easily jump ship if they do not feel they are being understood or looked after. Empathy is not an occasional activity. As leaders, we had better become empathetic if we want to succeed in modern business. Do now: Before criticising someone's attitude or performance, ask what may be happening that you do not yet understand. Why Are Good Listeners So Persuasive? Nobody is more persuasive than a good listener because people are far more open to someone who makes them feel heard and valued. This sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? We often imagine persuasion as having the gift of the gab, controlling the conversation, steering the content and driving forward through sheer force of will. In practice, this often means finishing other people's sentences, cutting them off or jumping in with our genius contribution before they have completed their point. This behaviour is so common that when someone actually shuts up and lets us talk, we feel liberated. We feel energised. We feel valued. We like that person. We also become more positive about who they are, what they have to say and what they want us to consider. Introverts, in particular, often respond well when they are given enough space to think and speak without being steamrolled. So, if you want people to listen to you as a leader, first let them do the talking. Do now: In your next conversation, do not interrupt. Let the person finish, pause and then ask a follow-up question. Why Are Team Players the Leaders of Tomorrow? Tomorrow's leaders will succeed through creativity, critical thinking and collaboration rather than trying to dominate everything through personal force of will. The three Cs—creativity, critical thinking and collaboration—are becoming increasingly important. Collaboration is the relatively new arrival. When I was growing up in business, Jack Welch was the dominant leadership role model. The popular image was of a tough leader driving results through force of personality, pushing subordinates hard and casting overboard anyone who did not measure up. It was a Darwinian struggle producing zero-sum outcomes. Today's business environment is different. No leader can personally master every market, technology, customer expectation, regulatory risk and operational problem. The winning formula is the ability to tap into the collective intellect, energy and commitment of the whole team. I can see this weakness in myself. I now tell my son he should not think he has to do everything alone, as I did. He should seek support, mentors and collaborators. I wish I had been smarter about this rather than following the path of the hairy-chested individual trying to do everything independently. I have been a notoriously slow learner. Do now: Choose one important problem you are carrying alone and bring other capable people into the discussion. Which Leadership Principles Matter Most? Leadership improves when we consistently apply familiar principles rather than endlessly searching for fashionable new theories. Know your strengths and build on them. Be fair and protect trust. Understand what motivates each individual rather than attempting to force motivation upon them. Take a genuine interest in people. Step outside your own world and practise empathy. Listen before trying to persuade. Finally, stop believing that strong leadership means doing everything alone. Collaboration is not a sign of weakness. It is how leaders gain access to the full intelligence and commitment of the team. We know these principles. The real challenge is remembering to apply them when we are busy, under pressure and tempted to return to old habits. In Part Two, we will continue with principles eight through sixteen. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery , Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery , as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training . His Japanese-language books include Za Eigyō （ザ営業） , Purezen no Tatsujin （プレゼンの達人） , Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō （トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう） and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā （現代版「人を動かす」リーダー） . Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show , Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

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  The Leadership Japan Series

  Leader Outputs – Divorce, Angry Kids, Weak Finances And No Friends

  Jul 15, 202615 min

  Leadership success is usually measured through revenue, market share, promotions, productivity and team performance. Those indicators matter, but they do not tell us whether a leader is succeeding in life. A leader can deliver excellent corporate results while gradually damaging their marriage, weakening their relationship with their children, neglecting their health, mishandling their finances and losing touch with their friends. That is not genuine success. It is professional achievement purchased at an unnecessarily high personal price. This risk is especially relevant in Japan, where long working hours, loyalty to the organisation and the demands placed on player-managers can make work the dominant force in a leader's life. The Wheel of Life provides a useful way to examine whether leaders are achieving balanced and sustainable success. Why do Japanese leaders struggle with work-life balance? Many Japanese leaders still operate within a deeply established culture that rewards commitment, endurance and long working hours. Even when official working practices change, the expectation of total dedication can remain. Japan's post-war economic recovery was driven partly by extraordinary levels of personal sacrifice. During the rapid-growth era, many fathers spent most of their waking hours working, commuting or socialising with colleagues. Mothers frequently carried most of the responsibility for raising children and managing the household. Conditions have changed. Most schools and companies no longer operate every Saturday, dual-income households are increasingly common and younger employees often expect more control over their personal lives. However, the old attitudes have not completely disappeared. Middle-management positions have been reduced in many organisations, technology has transferred administrative work back to managers and leaders are often expected to manage teams while delivering their own individual results. These player-managers may supervise people, handle clients, prepare reports and complete routine administration themselves. Do now: Examine whether your working hours reflect genuine strategic necessity or simply an inherited organisational habit. What is the Wheel of Life for leaders? The Wheel of Life is a self-assessment tool that helps leaders evaluate several important areas of life rather than judging success through career achievement alone. The tool is normally presented as a circle divided into categories. The centre represents a score of zero and the outer edge represents ten. Leaders score their level of satisfaction in areas such as career, finances, family, health, friendships, community, personal interests and spirituality or personal meaning. When the points are connected, the resulting shape shows whether life is relatively balanced or heavily distorted. A leader may score nine in career but only three in health, two in family relationships and one in social life. That person may look successful in the office while experiencing a personal life that is increasingly difficult to sustain. The objective is not to achieve a perfect ten in every category. That is unrealistic. The purpose is to identify serious imbalances before they become crises. Do now: Score each area honestly from zero to ten and identify the two categories that require your immediate attention. Can career success damage a leader's family life? Yes. When work consistently receives the leader's best time, energy and attention, the family may be left with whatever is remaining. Over time, this can create distance, resentment and damaged relationships. Many leaders say they are working hard for their families. The intention may be genuine, but the outcome does not always match the explanation. A leader may provide financial security while rarely being emotionally or physically available. For male leaders in Japan, the traditional model of the absent salaryman father can still influence behaviour. He leaves early, returns late and assumes that providing income is his main family responsibility. However, spouses and children may need time, conversation, support and shared experiences more than another late-night meeting or client dinner. As more women develop independent careers and incomes, they may also be less willing to tolerate relationships in which responsibility and emotional connection are consistently one-sided. Working for the family while gradually losing the family does not make sense. Do now: Schedule protected family time with the same seriousness you apply to an executive meeting or major client appointment. Why should leaders take more responsibility for their finances? High income does not automatically create long-term financial security. Leaders still need to manage savings, investment, retirement planning, insurance and household risk. Many people in Japan have traditionally held a large proportion of their wealth in bank deposits. During long periods of deflation and low inflation, holding cash appeared relatively safe. In a more inflationary environment, however, cash can gradually lose purchasing power. Busy leaders often delay financial planning because it does not feel urgent. Retirement seems distant, investment appears complicated and the company pension may seem sufficient. The problem is that financial preparation benefits enormously from time. Delaying ten or twenty years can make the eventual task considerably harder. Japan's ageing population also places continuing pressure on public pension and social security systems. Leaders should not assume that future government benefits alone will provide the lifestyle they expect. This does not mean making reckless investments. It means becoming financially literate, seeking qualified advice where appropriate and preparing rather than hoping. Do now: Review your savings, investments, retirement plan, insurance and household obligations at least once each year. Why do busy leaders lose their friends? Friendships weaken when leaders repeatedly sacrifice social relationships to work. Connection requires time, effort and genuine interest, not occasional promises to catch up later. Social life is often one of the first casualties of overtime. Leaders postpone dinners, cancel weekend plans and stop calling people because the next deadline always seems more important. Remote and hybrid work have also blurred the boundary between professional and personal life. Without a physical commute to mark the end of the day, some leaders continue responding to emails, checking reports and attending online meetings well into the evening. Corporate entertaining should not be confused with friendship. Taking reluctant junior staff out for drinks or attending obligatory client functions may fill the calendar, but it does not necessarily create meaningful social support. Strong relationships are a form of wealth. Friends provide perspective, humour, honesty and support that cannot be replaced by job titles or business contacts. Do now: Contact one person you value but have neglected and arrange a specific time to meet rather than saying, "We should catch up sometime." Why do leaders need interests outside work? Hobbies and personal interests protect leaders from allowing their job to become their entire identity. They provide creativity, renewal and a sense of progress that is independent of corporate performance. Some leaders view personal interests as indulgent or unproductive. They believe every available hour should be used to advance the business. That approach may produce short-term output, but it can also make life increasingly narrow. Personal pursuits can include music, writing, painting, gardening, travel, sport, reading, cooking or learning a language. The activity does not need to generate income, improve a résumé or create a new business opportunity. For me, writing and recording articles on Saturdays can look like another form of work. In practice, writing also serves as a creative outlet. I cannot play a musical instrument, paint or draw particularly well, so writing gives me a way to create something and explore ideas beyond operational business tasks. Leaders need something they enjoy simply because it makes life richer. Do now: Protect regular time for one activity that has no connection to your targets, clients or corporate status. Why is health a leadership responsibility? Health is not separate from leadership performance. Energy, concentration, emotional control and decision-making all become harder when leaders neglect exercise, sleep, nutrition and medical care. Leaders often say they are too busy to exercise, but many of the same people can find time for long client dinners, alcohol and late-night work. The issue is usually not a complete absence of time. It is the priority assigned to health. Weight gain can happen gradually through business meals, entertaining and inactivity. I experienced this myself while working in Nagoya. After attending a work-related geisha party, someone gave me a commemorative photograph. The side-profile image revealed how much weight I had gained. It was an uncomfortable but useful moment of recognition. Losing weight and improving fitness require sustained lifestyle changes, not a few weeks of enthusiasm with a personal trainer. Leaders need systems they can maintain, including realistic exercise routines, better food choices and limits around alcohol. Do now: Choose one measurable health behaviour to improve for the next ninety days and track it consistently. Why should leaders contribute to their communities? Community involvement helps leaders develop perspective, strengthen relationships and contribute beyond the boundaries of their company. It also prevents professional status from becoming their only source of identity. Japan has a strong tradition of community responsibility shaped by cooperation, shared spaces and collective expectations. This could be seen during the pandemic, when many people voluntarily changed their behaviour to reduce risk to others. However, senior leaders can become disconnected from the communities around them. Work absorbs their attention and they spend most of their time with colleagues, clients and people from similar professional backgrounds. Communities need people who can organise, mentor, listen and solve problems. Leaders have useful experience that can support schools, local groups, professional associations, charities and younger generations. Community activity also benefits the leader. It exposes them to different experiences and reminds them that the world is larger than the company's latest spreadsheet, quarterly target or restructuring plan. Do now: Select one community, educational or professional group where your experience could make a practical contribution. What role does reflection or spirituality play in leadership? Leaders need time to consider who they are, what they value and what they intend to do with their lives. Without reflection, they may become highly efficient at pursuing goals they have never consciously chosen. Spirituality is deeply personal and does not need to refer to a particular religion. It can involve faith, philosophy, meditation, service, nature or simply quiet reflection. The underlying questions are universal. Why am I here? What kind of person am I becoming? What will matter when my career is over? What impact am I having on other people? Busy leaders often avoid these questions because financial reports, customer issues and operational problems feel more immediate. Yet a life filled only with targets, meetings and performance reviews can eventually feel empty, regardless of professional success. Reflection helps leaders reconnect daily actions with personal values. It can also expose uncomfortable contradictions between what they say matters and where they actually spend their time. Do now: Create a regular period without screens, meetings or work and use it to reflect on how you are investing your life. Conclusion Leaders have many roles. They are executives, managers, parents, spouses, friends, community members and individuals with physical, emotional and financial needs. Work is one important part of life, but it is not the whole of life. The Wheel of Life is useful because it reveals where professional ambition has created unhealthy imbalance. A leader who produces revenue while losing their family, health, friendships and financial security should not automatically be considered successful. Sustainable leadership means producing strong organisational outcomes without destroying the other areas that give life meaning. As a friend of mine says, "Time is life." The real question for every leader is simple: what are you doing with yours? Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three bestsellers — Japan Business Mastery , Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training . His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō （ザ営業） , Purezen no Tatsujin （プレゼンの達人） , Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō （トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう） and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā （現代版「人を動かす」リーダー） . Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show , Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews , which are widely followed by executives seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

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