Japan’s image as a sophisticated country with a solid, unique traditional culture is well placed. For example, every year around 130,000 Shinkansen bullet trains run between Tokyo and Osaka, bolting through the countryside at speeds of up to 285 kilometers an hour and boast an average arrival delay of 24 seconds. Think about that average, sustained…

What Japanese Presenters Get Wrong Clients have some common problems with their Japanese leaders. I know this because the same requests keep coming up. This is across industries and companies and it is consistent. Usually Japanese presenters are excellent at assembling lots of data and information. They can really pack a lot into a few slides. When…

“You have to crystallize the objective—what the goal is, and how we can get there.” “I treat differences as differences—not as superior or inferior.” “If people are good at what they do, all I need to do is be a facilitator.” “Eighty percent of stress comes from dealing with people—it’s not the work itself.” Previously Eiichiro was CEO of Nippon Bu…

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…

Stupid people in organizations aren’t always easy to spot. They can appear confident, energetic, and articulate in interviews, fooling even the most seasoned managers. But over time, their lack of insight and poor judgment start surfacing. These individuals often speak before they think, overwhelming those around them with bluster and assertiveness…

Selling to a buyer in-person and selling to the same Japanese buyer online are worlds apart. Yet how many salespeople are succeeding in making the transition? Are your clients seeking virtual sales training? Not enough. COVID has revealed a lot of salespeople weaknesses. which were hidden in the face-to-face sales call world. Wishing things get bet…

Once upon a time, we taught public speaking and presentation skills in a class room, with tons of people all seated together, right next to each other. We moved to teaching everything LIVE On Line since February 2020, so what has been the difference? Surprisingly, not as much as we expected. The one big difference is the lack of opportunity to empl…

· You’ve got to create the right environment so people can be successful and want to stay.” · “In Japan, trust takes longer to earn—but once you have it, it doesn’t disappear.” · “You can’t just come in and declare the solution—you’ve got to sit back and observe first.” · “I don’t want to tell people what to do; I want them to lead and ask for advi…

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 psychologica…

You manage to get the appointment, which at the moment is seriously job well done. Trying to get hold of clients, when everyone is working from home is currently a character building exercise. You ask permission to ask questions. Well done! You are now in the top 1% pf salespeople in Japan. You do ask your questions and quickly realise you have jus…

Video is tricky. However, it looks so simple. You just stand in front of the camera and give your talk. I don’t know why video saps twenty percent of our energy when it is actually broadcast, but that seems to be the accepted wisdom. That means that just speaking normally into camera will now look a lot less energetic. Getting the delivery to be fl…

“Trust, for me, is the ability to predict someone’s behaviour—consistency builds that predictability.” “Excellence isn’t the outcome—it’s the rigour of the process, even when the result is uncertain.” “You can’t sell yourself forever; you have to build trust in the company, not just the founder.” “Being vulnerable as a leader unlocks trust—it gives…

We watched a big-name company blow a golden opportunity. The speaker was the President, and he had a dramatic story to tell—corporate crisis, media attacks, public apologies, and a redemption arc. Yet his presentation landed like a lead balloon. Why? Because he delivered it in a lifeless monotone, with no energy, emotion, or storytelling. It was a …

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 enc…

Salespeople have sales tools which often are not thoroughly thought through enough. These can be flyers, catalogues, slide decks, etc. They can also be proposals, quotations and invoices. Usually the salespeople are given the tools as they are and either don’t ask for improvements or don’t believe the marketing department has much interest in their…

Too smooth politicians, silky salespeople, urbane company thrusters all set off alarm bells. We can meet impressive people and we can meet impressive looking people. Over time we have learnt how to plumb the difference. The world of presenting is made up of the top 1% who know what they are doing and the 99% who have no real clue. The 99% group are…

Previously Terii was Talent and Change-Asia Pacific head for British American Tabacco; Executive Officer and Vice-President, Business Engagement Leader-Special Projects, MetLife; Talent Partner APAC-Director UBS; Senior Consultant, Human Partners/Citadel Consulting; Organization Development Executive British American Tabacco Japan. He has a BA from…

Things go wrong. That’s life in business. Mistakes, delays, accidents — they’re inevitable. But the real difference is how we handle them when they occur. In Japan, people expect you to own the mistake, not hide from it. Silence, excuses, or blaming the customer won’t work. In fact, they can do invisible, long-term damage to your reputation — the k…

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 identifi…

I hear some people say translating terms like “nemawashi” into English is difficult. Really? I always thought it was one of the easier ones. Let's just call it “groundwork”. In fact, that is a very accurate description ,from a number of different angles. Japanese gardeners are superstars. There is limited flat space in this country, so over centuri…

English versus mathematics? Easy choice for budding engineers at High School and for when they get to University. Science is logical, knowable, understandable. Presenting seems to have little in the way of science and more art involved, so best avoided. Actually they do a pretty good job of avoiding it, until a certain stage in their careers. These…

“If you’re going to lead a team in Japan, trust is the number one thing you have to build.” “I didn’t want it to be too top-down—I wanted everyone to feel part of one unit.” “Celebrate success, but do it as a team—that’s how you motivate in Japan.” “Innovation needs a safe environment where people feel they won’t be punished for trying.” “Foreign l…

The Japanese saying "mikka bozu," or "three-day priest," perfectly captures the common experience of initial enthusiasm quickly fading. People sign up for the priesthood, find it tough and promptly give up. We often begin new endeavours with resolute resolve, but daily challenges diminish our commitment. If you feel yourself teetering on the brink,…

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,…

Minato-ku or the “Port Area” is a central part of Tokyo, which used to be harbourside for goods being delivered to the capital in ancient times. My three barbers’ stories are tales of customer service opportunities gone astray, in a country where customer service is the envy of the rest of the world. Each story brings forth a reflection on our own …

Everyone is getting very swish with the tech these days, as we spend more and more hours in online meetings. Consequently, we are more and more likely to find ourselves in a breakout room to discuss a topic. When we first started doing this March 2020, as we ran our first LIVE On Line training, we discovered some disconcerting things about the medi…

“Leadership is building a strong team that can execute with resilience and deliver consistent results over time.” “There’s no easy way—other than talking to people—to truly know what’s happening in your organization.” “You need a balance of patience and impatience to create belief and drive change in Japan.” “If you say the customer comes first, th…

Team presentations differ significantly from solo presentations, where you have complete control. A common mistake is inadequate rehearsal, which can damage personal and organizational reputations. Thorough preparation with multiple rehearsal sessions is crucial. The order of speakers matters too. The strongest presenters should lead to create a po…

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 mana…

There is no doubt that the pandemic has made it very fraught to find new clients in Japan. The new variants of the virus are much more contagious and have already overwhelmed the hospital infrastructure in Osaka, in just weeks of the numbers taking off. Vaccines are slow to roll out and so extension after extension of lockdowns and basic fear on bo…

“That has to come out”. “Why?”. “It might offend women in the audience”. “But this example is totally in context with what I am saying”. And so it went on. This was my first bruising encounter with cancel culture. Living in Japan this third time since 1992, I have been outside the cancel culture debates sweeping America. Until now. The speech I was…

Previously Akiko was a Commentator for Fuji TV; Co-Founder of Women In Action; Partner, Strategy &; Division Head at Japan Post; Vice-President Calyon Securities; Associate McKinsey & Company; Vice-President and Associate, General Counsel J.P. Morgan. She graduated with a JD in Law from Tokyo University and has a Master Of Law from Columbia Law Sch…

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 …

Japan is a very hierarchical society. I am getting older, so I appreciate the respect for age and stage we can enjoy here. Back in my native Australia, older people are thought of having little of value to say or contribute. It is a youth culture Downunder and only the young have worth. “You old so and so, you don’t know anything” is reflective of …

Our event speaker was a well-coiffed and well appointed senior executive in one of the world’s biggest corporations. The topic was on building your personal brand. A good crowd had turned out to pick up some pointers. Anticipation gradually turned to disappointment though, as the talk unfolded. The slant taken was how to project your brand “within”…

“If you want to impact people, first, you need to trust them—and then give them space.” “You forget about collective decision-making in Japan—you build consensus privately, one by one.” “The best execution comes from ideas people believe are their own.” “I listen first. Then I discuss. Then I decide. But always, I listen first.” “Leadership is not …

In Japan, the common response of “We’ll think about it” often comes after a salesperson’s second meeting with a client. The first meeting focuses on establishing trust and understanding the client’s needs, while the second involves presenting a proposal and trying to close the deal. However, the reality is different: many Japanese salespeople jump …

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 p…

When we read commentary about how we should be recruiting A Players to boost our firm’s performance, this is a mirage for most of us running smaller sized companies. If you are the size of a Google or a Facebook, with massively deep pockets, then having A Players everywhere is no issue. The reality is A Players cost a bomb and so most of us can’t a…

This is horrible. Man, this is so bad, what were they thinking? I am watching a video of a leader asking for some major changes to the organisation’s finances and he is doing a woeful job of it. They have a dedicated Coms team, there are talented people in the leadership group, so I am asking myself how could this train wreck come to pass? I was al…

Previously Rodrigo was Managing Director Danone Oceania, Managing Director Danone Nutricia Oceania, Managing Director Early Life Nutrition Danone Australia and New Zealand, Managing Director India, Sales and Commercial Director Medical Nutrition Division Sao Paulo, Brazil, Affiliate General Manager Columbia Eli Lilly, Regional Brand Director Europe…

Holding people accountable is essential for any leader, yet many struggle with it, leading to missed deadlines, poor performance, and incomplete work. Often, this happens because people aren’t deliberately failing; they’re simply lacking the structure and guidance needed to perform at their best. As leaders, we must start with ourselves, particular…

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.…

If we try to hide the bad news for the buyer will that work? How long with it work for? Bernie Madoff died in prison, his wife left in a perilous state, one son dead from suicide and the other from cancer. I call that family devastation. He got away with his lies and cheating for quite a while. He offered modest, but steady returns. He told people …

It makes sense to be authentic when presenting, because this is the easiest state to maintain. As someone wise once noted, “if you are going to be a liar you need a stupendous memory to keep up with who you told what”. Presenting is something similar. Maintaining a fiction in front of an audience takes a lot of skill. In fact, if you have that much…

Previously, Rose worked for Pernod Ricard Japan as a Brand Manager for Ki No Bi and White Spirits, Brand Manager for Jameson Irish Whiskey, and Wine Ambassador. Her earlier roles also included Sales Support Executive at iSeek Communications, Guest Relations at Tokyo Daiichi Hotel, and Guest Relations at Whitehorse Hotel. Rose holds a Bachelor of Co…

Our mindset is key to success in any activity, whether it's sports, business, or public speaking. Yet, many of us forget this vital aspect when preparing for presentations. We dive straight into the content, logistics, and technicalities without pausing to ensure we have the right mental attitude. Since a presentation puts both our personal and pro…

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 auth…

The buyer is King. This is a very common concept in modern Western economies. We construct our service approach around this idea and try to keep elevating our engagement with royalty. After living in Japan for 36 years and selling to a broad range of industries, I have found in Japan, the buyer is not King. In Nippon the buyer is God. This differen…