Don’t be a Japanologist
Japan-fatigue is real and can be fatal to your success and career. Don’t try to explain how Japan is different to executives in your head office. While such conversations are great for dinner parties, talks with students, and war stories with friends, unless executives in your head office are interested in Japanology as a hobby, […]
Your Own Worst Enemy
Businesses can be their own worst enemies when business process supplants business thinking. The CEO of a large industrial American company in Japan told me of difficulties he faces in buying from a division of a large Japanese industrial company, not because of a lack of will to sell on their part, but rather unnecessary and […]
[:en]Incentive Pay Doesn’t Work[:ja]インセンティブに効果はない[:]
[:en]If I offered you more money for results, would you change anything that you are doing now? I have asked this very question to numerous successful CEOs, and invariably the answer is no. I suspect yours is as well.
[:en]Practices That Accelerate Leadership Success[:ja]リーダーシップの成功を加速させるための習慣[:]
[:en]Below are my list of the top twenty-one practices that accelerate your success as a leader based on the most successful business leaders I know.
[:en]Strategy? Forget All You Know![:ja]戦略についての従来の常識を忘れること[:]
[:en] Below are seven pieces of advice I give to business leaders based on the most successful strategy practices I know. Whenever I discuss these in an open forum, there is always pushback from at least a few people, particularly in Japan. Some people are even offended! That’s OK. If I am doing my job […]
[:en]The Secret to Persuasive Strategy[:ja]説得力のある戦略とは[:]
[:en]All senior level executives and managers are asked to develop and present a strategy, whether global strategy, regional strategy, or simply strategy for a team or department they oversee. Many managers create long slide presentations with lots of data to justify why their strategy is right. However, the most persuasive managers talk about all the […]
[:en]3 Pillars of Change Traction[:ja]変革を牽引する3つの柱[:]
[:en]If you want traction for change among individuals in your organization, it is only when there are clear standards of performance or behavior, accountability to meet them, and support to help people succeed that a change can take hold. In my experience, a deficit in any one of these three will alter the way any […]
[:en]Feedback is Not Always a Gift[:ja]フィードバックは相手のためのものとは限らない[:]
[:en]Unsolicited feedback is meant only for the benefit of the person who gives it and never for the person to whom it is given. I pay it no heed. Neither should you.
Strategy on Your Own Terms
The best military strategists always choose the terrain on which they will do battle, rather than allowing the enemy to choose for them. So, in business, why would you possibly allow others to define the topography of your business environment instead of choosing the topography yourself? Yet, that is often precisely what business people do.
[:en]Authority Isn’t Empowerment[:ja]権限とエンパワーメントとは同義語ではない[:]
[:en]Empowerment is like breathing. We all recognize its need but we’re rarely aware of it until something is wrong. Passivity in business is the most common symptom of lack of empowerment.