The Leadership Japan Series

How to reshape culture in Japan without breaking what already works. 

What is the first question leaders should ask when inheriting a Japanese workplace?

Start by asking better questions, not hunting faster answers. Before imposing a global "fix," map what already works in the Japan business and why. In post-pandemic 2025, multinationals from Toyota to Rakuten show that culture is a system of trade-offs—language, seniority, risk appetite, client expectations—not a slogan. Western playbooks prize decisive answers; Japan prizes deciding the right questions. That shift reframes due diligence: interview frontline staff, decode internal norms (ringi, hanko, s...

Short intro: Forgetting names kills first impressions. The good news: a few simple, repeatable techniques can make you memorable and help you recall others—consistently, even in noisy, post-pandemic mixers and business events. 

Is there a simple way to say my name so people actually remember it?

Yes: use "Pause, Part, Punch." Pause before you speak, insert a brief "part" between your first and last name, then punch (emphasise) your surname. The pause stops the mental scroll, the parting creates a clean boundary (helpful in loud rooms or across accents), and the punch leaves a sticky...

Why authentic leadership is vital in 2025, when AI is everywhere

Back in 2021, the big conversation was about chatbots and holograms. Today, in 2025, AI has gone far beyond that. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and countless others are now part of daily life—at home and at work. They generate reports, answer questions, and even simulate empathy in conversation. For many, they feel like a companion.

But there is a dark side. We now read disturbing stories of unstable people encouraged by AI interactions to harm themselves or take their own lives. This isn't science fiction. It...

Why foreign "hammers" fail and what leaders must do differently in 2025

For decades, foreign companies entering Japan have repeated the same mistake: dispatching a "change agent" from HQ to shake things up. The scenario often ends in disaster. Relationships are broken, trust collapses, and revenues fall. In 2025, the lesson is clear—Japan doesn't need hammers. It needs builders who listen, localise, and lead with respect.

Why do foreign change agents so often fail in Japan?

Most fail because they arrive as "hammers," assuming Japanese organisations are nails to be pounded. They issue orders, de...

Balancing strength and flexibility in leadership in 2025

Leaders are often told to "never surrender" and "winners don't quit." At the same time, they are also expected to be flexible, adaptable, and open to change. These opposing demands resemble the yin-yang symbol—two seemingly contradictory forces that must coexist. As of 2025, when Japanese and global organisations face complex challenges from AI disruption to demographic decline, the real question is: should leaders concede, and if so, when?

Why are leaders expected to be both tough and flexible?

Leadership has long been framed as toughness—perseverance, resi...

Why leadership requires sensing and feeling, not just knowing, in 2025

Managers often prioritise what they "know," while leaders rely more on what they "sense" and "feel." This distinction, popularised by executive coach Marcel Danne, is more than semantics—it highlights a profound difference in mindset. As of 2025, with Japan navigating demographic challenges, digital disruption, and global uncertainty, the ability to sense and adapt has become more critical than simply knowing facts.

What's the difference between managers and leaders in decision-making?

Managers tend to focus on knowing first—building confidence through data, self-education, and sheer...

Why vision, mission, and values still matter in 2025—if leaders make them real

Not long ago, talking about "vision" often invited sneers. Leaders who spoke about visions were mocked as spouting psychobabble. Part of the cynicism came from the poor quality of early vision statements—trite platitudes that could double as sleeping aids. But times have changed. In 2025, vision, mission, and values are essential leadership tools, yet most organisations still struggle to make them resonate with staff.

Why were visions mocked in the past?

In the 1980s and 1990s, many vision statements were badl...

Why leaders must nurture ideas if they want innovation to thrive in Japan

People are more creative than they give themselves credit for, yet many work environments suppress rather than encourage innovation. Brainstorming sessions often produce nothing but wasted calendar space, or worse, good ideas that die on arrival because no one champions them. In Japan and globally, corporate graveyards are filled with unrealised concepts. Leaders must understand that creativity is not a one-off spark—it's a journey that requires cultivation, sponsorship, and careful timing.

Why do so many good ideas die inside companies?

Innovation is not the monopoly of the R&D Department.  Everyone of our staff has highly tuned antennae which pick up valuable commercial intelligence about consumer trends, supplier data and client feedback.  Just because they are not wearing white lab coats, doesn't mean their insights should be ignored.  Yet that is what we do in most companies.  Innovation is the application of creative ideas into practical products and services.  The germ of the idea is where the creativity component comes in and this is available to anyone.  The journey from creative idea to idea application treads a path which transc...

Regardless of what level of leader we are, from neophyte to legend, there are four attributes which we need to master and keep remastering, because business never sleeps.  There are leaders who are busy, busy working in their business and then there are those who make the time to work on their business.  The biggest component of working on their business should be working on themselves.  This however tends to be neglected.  We graduate from varsity, learn on the job, maybe we can lob in an executive education week, at a flash, brand name business school, but the day to d...

We are often leadership practitioners, rather than genteel philosophers, pontificating on leadership issues.  Yet, we have probably developed a certain style of leadership nevertheless.  We just haven't focused on it as a methodology, because we are too busy doing it.  We leave the books and articles to the academics, who study this stuff with intellectual rigour, complete vast research projects and then write about business from atop their ivory towers.  Or we leave it to other successful business people to have ghost writers assemble their mad ramblings into a coherent form and get it published.  Or we have that rare...

The most fatal words ever spoken by a leader are , "it will be faster if I do it myself".  No it won't.  If you want to scare yourself, sit down and write down all the tasks that you face both regular and irregular.  That is one long, long list for leaders.  Are you really going to be able to get through all of these items and take care of filing your taxes on time, see the kids sports events, have a romantic dinner with your partner, lie on the couch and read a book, magazine or the newspapers?  In short...

Shareholders put up their future security in the hope of increasing their returns and adding further to their security.  They take risk of losing some or all of their dough.  CEO remuneration is often tied to how well they increase value for shareholders by driving the share price up and paying out regular fat dividends.   Customers buy the product or service, so without them being enthusiastic, the scale of the revenues will fall and so will the share price and dividends.  Without engaged employees, the customer won't be satisfied with the quality of the solution or the service provision.  If you...

If the client complains directly to your staff member about their poor service, should you go to bat for your team member?  Should you publicly apologise and deal with the errant staff member privately?  Should you make a public show of solidarity with the staff member and criticise the manner in which the complaint was made?  Should you aggressively argue the point with the client?  Should you just ignore it and get back to other pressing matters? 

The answers to these real life situations will differ, depending on the culture of your society and your legal system.  Americ...

Recruiting and developing the perfect team is an illusion, a Fool's Gold hot pursuit for leaders.  Even if you do manage to recruit great people, an increasingly difficult task in Japan where the population is in decline and the improvement of English skills is getting nowhere, they leave.  They start a family, get poached for more dough, get sick, need to take care of aging parents or a myriad of other reasonable reasons and you have to start again.  The reality is we are always going to be dealing with people in different stages of their career and ability bui...

Leaders are often poor listeners in the modern age.  To listen to our team members requires the allocation of precious time. Advances in technology, especially hand held devices, was trumpeted as unfurling access to more time for contemplative pursuits and work-life balance.  Is there anyone out there who feels they are now more ebullient, because of all the extra time the technology has thrown our way?  Probably not.  In fact, as the pace of life has sped up, we are more time poor than ever. 

The mobile phone has become addictive and we are reaching for it almos...

We have met them.  Thrusters, mad with power and hungry to control others.  Organisation insider politicians who spend all of their time sucking up to the powerful, while lobbying for themselves to be granted more and more status and authority.  The absolute nobody, who controls approval processes and who milks it for all it is worth.  The psychologically damaged and emotionally stunted intent on making our life hell, now that they have been promoted.  The mixture of leaders and power can be a powerful tonic and it can also be a toxic cocktail.  Let's take a look at five power...

To SER With Love

In the movie "To Sir, With Love", Sidney Poitier was brilliant in the role of a black teacher in a tough London East End high school.  He was trying to make a difference for these young outcasts to better prepare them for the life they would face after graduating from school.  A very uplifting story about what is possible when we encourage others to be their best.  So what has this got to do with business, you may be asking?  As leaders, we have four jobs.  Run the machinery of the operation so every...

We know the name Achilles because of Brad Pitt and Hollywood or we may have read the Iliad.  He was a famous mythical Greek hero whose body was invulnerable, except for the back of his heel.  His mother plunged him into the river Styx to protect his body, but her fingertips covered the heel, leaving it vulnerable.  Research by Dr. Jack Zenger identified four common elements which comprise Achilles' heels for leaders. Blind spots are a problem for all of us.  We can't see our foibles, issues and problems, but they are blindingly obvious to everyone else working for us. ...

In today's business world, leaders need to be "authentic" leaders. We have all come across this somewhere, endorsed by self-proclaimed gurus and prophets.  I often ponder what does that actually mean?  I am sure all of those Japanese leaders screaming abuse at their staff, when they make mistakes, are being authentic.  They are authentically terrible, dictatorial, abusive leaders.  Actually this worked like a charm for a very long time in postwar Japan.  You joined a company for life and there was only one route for those who changed jobs and that was down into a netherworld of strife, insecurity and l...

Engaging your team as a leader is a relatively new idea.  When I first started work in the early 70s, none of my bosses spent a nanosecond thinking about they could engage their staff as a leader.  What they were thinking about was catching mistakes, incompetence, error and willful negligence, before these problems went nuclear.  That meant micro managing everyone.  "Management by walking around" meant checking up on people.  The construct was that the team were problematic and the boss needed to have forensic skills to stop problems escalating.  That was the age of the hero boss, who was the be...

Smirks emerge quite quickly when you mention "role model" and "leaders" in the same breath.  Most peoples' experiences with leaders as role models have been that they encompass the "what not do as a leader" variety.  Hanmen Kyoshi (反面教師) or teacher by negative example, as we have noted in Japanese.  What are some of the things we should be focused on in our quest to become a real role model for our teams?

We can break the role model aspect into four major areas: Self-Aware; Accountability; Others-Focused and Strategic.  Within these four categories, there are eleven sub-categories on which we are...

We are recognised for our capabilities and potential and promoted into our first leadership role.  We have been given charge over our colleagues and now have additional responsibilities.  In many cases we don't move into a pure "off the tools" leadership role. We are more likely to be a player/leader hybrid, because we have our own clients and also produce revenue outcomes.  One of the biggest difficulties is knowing how to balance the roles of "doer" and "urger".

 Jealousy, bruised egos, sabotage, mild insurrection can be found amongst our former colleagues as we are now their new...

We have seen Hollywood pumping out comic heroes as movie franchises to get the money flowing into the studios.  The premise is always the same.  The super hero comes to the rescue and saves everyone.  What about for leaders when coaching their team members?  Fortunately, we have four super heroes we can rely on to help us do a better job as the leader. They are Encourage, Focus, Elevate and Empower.

Encouraging our team sounds pretty unheralded and straightforward. But do we actually do it?  Leaders are busy people and have tons of pressure on their shoulders.  Life i...

The chain of command is a well established military leadership given.  I have three stripes, you have none, so do what I say or else.  In the post war period, this leadership idea was transposed across to Civvy street by returning soldiers.  This worked like a charm and only started to peter out with the pushback against the Vietnam War, when all authority began to be challenged.  Modern leaders are currently enamoured with concepts like the "servant leader".  The leader serves the team as an enabler for staff success.  Dominant authority is out and a vague negotiated power equilibrium has re...

Japan has a wonderful year end tradition where the entire house is given a massive clean up. Dust is dispatched, junk is devolved and everything is made shipshape.  We need to do the same with our business and I don't mean cleaning up your desk.  We have two types of people working for us.  There are those who receive a salary of some dimension, be they full time or part-time and then there are those who get paid for their services.  Some of these services are delivered regularly throughout the year.  Others are intermittent, on a needs basis.  Regardless, we nee...

I met the owner of a successful business recently.  He had bought the company twenty years ago and then pivoted it to a new and more successful direction.  So successful, that he employs over 230 staff and was recently listed on the local stock exchange.  It was a business meeting to discuss collaboration and I was expecting an entrepreneurial leader, charismatic and personally powerful.  Why was that my expectation?  Being raised in Australia, that is what successful entrepreneurs in the West are like, so I expected a Japanese equivalent.  He was totally different to what I expected.

He had no...

The ad on social media said, "we are looking for sales A players".  I know the guy who put out the ad and he had recently moved to a new company, a new entrant into Japan and they were aggressively going after market share here.  I was thinking I would love to be able to recruit A players for sales as well, but I can't.  The simple reason is that A players in Japan are seriously expensive.  If you are a big company, with deep pockets in a highly profitable sector, then this is a no brainer.  Why would you b...

Years ago I inverted the pyramid and promoted the best salespeople to become the branch leaders.  The existing branch leaders were shuffled around to new branches and they provided the grey hair and the credibility needed by the older rich clientele, but didn't have responsibility for driving revenues anymore.  They were moved because if they had stayed in the same branch, they would have undermined the authority of these "upstarts" recently promoted.  The revenue generation responsibility was shifted from guys in their 50s to a 60/40 mix of younger guys and gals, taking the average age down to 35 years of age...

Time is the enemy of good leadership.  It takes time to develop a team of individuals.  A common metaphor is the orchestra conductor.  Each instrument player has a specific role and it is the job of the leader to meld them together to work harmoniously and effectively.  The conductor takes a significant amount of time to get this working correctly.  That is their sole purpose.  They make the best of the talent in the team, get them working well together and develop the individual talents of those involved.  In business, we have to do all of these things and worry a...

I remember reading once about a President reflecting on the cost controls he had instituted inside his organisation.  The industry had emerged from a recession and even though the economy and the company had recovered, he had forgotten to ease the strict controls he had instituted to protect the company.  Covid-19 has forced many of us to institute strict controls in order to survive the business disruption caused by the virus.  When should we release some of those stringent controls?

This is a tricky subject at any time, but it becomes more pungent when you are coming out...

Giving people orders is fine and fun, when you are the leader.  Not so great when you are on the receiving end though.  Collaboration and innovation are two seismic shifts in workstyle  that are fundamentally different from the way most leaders were educated.  Command and control were more the order of business back in the day.  Hierarchy was clear, bosses brooked no opposing ideas or opinions and everyone below knew their place.  Things have moved on, but have the bosses moved on with it?

Basically, the people you see in your daily purview are arraigned against a simila...

Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School and INSEAD Business School are all awesome institutions.  My previous employer shelled our serious cash to send me there for Executive education courses.  Classes of one hundred people from all around the world engaging in debate, idea and experience exchange.  One of my Indian classmates even wrote and performed a song at the final team dinner at Stanford, which was amazing and amazingly funny, as it captured many of the experiences of the two weeks we all shared together there. 

When you get off the plane and head back to work, you...

Tokusan the scholar visited Ryutan the Zen Master to learn about Zen.  Tokusan was a very smart fellow and very confident in his knowledge and experience.  He was good at impressing others with his capabilities and many people looked to him for guidance and advice.  After about ten minutes of conversation, Ryutan invited Tokusan to enjoy some green tea.  As the Zen master poured the hot tea into the cup, the tea began to flood over the brim, but Ryutan kept pouring the tea.  Tokusan became agitated and said to stop pouring, because the cup was already full.  Ryutan then t...

In Part One we looked at two broad categories of leadership competences around being Self-Aware and having Accountability.  In this next tranche, we will look at being Others-Focused and at being Strategic. 

Others-Focused has many sub-points, but today we will investigate five key aspects

Inspiring

Through role modelling and communication skills, leaders can and should inspire followers.  The olde days of the boss having to know more than everyone else has gone.  The focus has shifted to developing followers, through personal interest and example.  Are you consciously, systematically doing this?

Develops Other...

The President of a company is a very powerful force.  They drive the direction, the strategy and the culture formation inside the enterprise.  In Western corporations, there are big salaries and big incentives tied to the leader's performance, especially around profit achievement and share price gains for shareholders.  We project this idea on to Japanese companies and imagine they are basically built in the same way.  This idea seems fine, until you ever have to get a decision from a Japanese company.  This is when you enter the twilight zone of differences about how things are really done here.

Leading is super easy.  You are given the title, the authority, the budget, the power and then you just tell people what they need to do.  How hard can that be?  As we know, leading is a snap, but getting others to follow you is the tricky bit. Our awesome power will certainly bludgeon compliance. Sadly, the troops turn off their commitment and engagement switch whenever they come into contact with kryptonite bosses.  We get promoted because we personally did a rather good job on our individual tasks.  That is a false flag though when it comes to being able...

Japan has some set pieces around leadership.  The Middle Manager boss sits at the head of an array of desks arranged in rows, so that everyone in the team can be seen.  This is important because this is how the boss knows who is working well in the team and who isn't.  They can be observed every day, all day long.  What time they arrive and what time they leave, who is late back from lunch – it is all there in front of the boss.  Meetings are easily arranged and follow up is a shout away – "Suzuki, what is happening...

Clients sometimes ask us to help their Japanese executives have more "presence".  This is rather a vague concept with a broad range of applications. There is a relevant Japanese concept called zanshin ( 残心 ).  A rather difficult term to translate into English, but when you see it, you will recognise it.  In Karate we do the predetermined, specified forms called kata (型).  When someone is performing one of these kata, there are different points of emphasis and after the physical action is completed, there is a residual energy and intensity of commitment that continues.  It is the same in the kumite (組手) or free fighting.  After...

In business we live in the world of shallow statements of opinion.  Imagine there is a topic for discussion amongst the leadership team.  People will let fly with their thoughts and this becomes the basis for decision making, based on people's statements on the matter.  Usually everyone is pretty busy, so the drill is to listen to what was said and then make the choice from amongst the various alternatives and move on.  There is a problem with this.  We are trapped in Phase One thinking if we continue in this way.  Phase One thinking is that first reaction level...