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318 Be Both Busy and Organised In Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Release Date: 07/07/2024

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Enterprise killers can include Customer Service. We know that all interfaces with the customer are designed by people. It can be on-line conversations with AI robots or in-store interactions, but the driving force behind all of these activities are the people in our employ. The way people think and act is a product of the culture of the organisation. That culture is the accountability of senior management. The common success point of organisations is to have the right culture in place, that best serves the customer. The success of senior management in making all...

334 Those Vital Few Seconds When You Start Your Talk In Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Don’t let your speaker introduction be a disaster. Usually when we are speaking we are introduced twice. Once at the very start by the MC when they kick off proceedings and then later just before our segment of the talk. The MC’s role is quite simple. It is to set the stage for the speaker, to bring something of their history, their achievements and various details that make them a credible presenter for this audience. This can often be a problem though, depending on a few key factors. How big a risk taker are you? Are you relying on the MC to do the necessary...

Dealing With Ambush Speaking Requests

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Suddenly you hear your name being called upon and you are being requested to make a few remarks. Uh oh. No preparation, no warning and no escape. What do you do? Extemporaneous speaking is one of the most difficult tasks for a presenter. It could be during an internal meeting, a session with the big bosses in attendance or at a public venue. One moment you are nice and comfy, sitting there in your chair, taking a mild interest in the proceedings going on around you and next you are the main event. Usually the time between your name being called and you...

333 Real World Leadership

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Change is hard to create anywhere in the world. Getting things to change in Japan also has its own set of challenges. The typical expat leader, sent to Japan, notices some things that need changing. Usually the Japan part of the organisation is not really part of the organisation. It is sitting off to the side, like a distant moon orbiting the HQ back home. There are major differences around what is viewed as professional work. The things that are valued in Japan, like working loyally (i.e. long hours) even with low productivity, keeping quiet, not upsetting the applecart, not contributing in...

332 Presentation Visuals

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Last week we talked about when presenting, you need to transfer your energy to the audience. However don’t have your energy levels at the maximum volume all the time. That just wears an audience out and wears you out too. Instead, you need to have some variation. Very strong and then sometimes very soft. And I mean drop it right down. Remember to have that in the voice range. Sometimes say your point in an audible whisper. I remember when I gave a presentation in Kobe. It was at a university summer school for...

331 Ending Presentations Secrets

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

This is a tricky part of designing and delivering our presentations. Think back to the last few presentations you have attended and can you remember anything from the close of their speech? Can you remember much about the speaker? This close should be the highlight of their talk, the piece that brings it all together, their rallying cry for the main message. If you can’t recall it, or them, then what was the point of their giving the talk in the first place? People give talks to make an impression, to promulgate their views, to win fans and converts, to impact the...

330 Common Sense Needed More

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

As the leader we have to work on the presumption that people know what they are doing. It is impossible to micro manage every single person, every moment of the day. By the way, who would want to do that anyway? The issues arise when things deviate from the track we think they are on or expect that they are on. We find that a process has been finessed, but we don’t like the change. We find that some elements have been dropped completely, but we only find this out by accident or substantially after the fact. We are not happy in either case. Why does this happen? Training can cover the basics,...

329 Join The Buyer Conversation In Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Life is busy, busy today. Communications has sped up business to an extent unthinkable even ten years ago. Every company is a publisher now, due to social media’s pervasiveness. Content marketing is driving original content creation and release. LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook are favouring live video, so we have to become television talents. Voice is the next big thing, so podcasting requires us to be radio personalities. If you are in business, your personal information is out there, easily searchable and found. We check out the buyers and they...

328 Dealing with Questions When Presenting In Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Having an audience interested enough in your topic to ask questions is a heartening occurrence. Japan can be a bit tricky though because people are shy to ask questions. Culturally the thinking is different to the West. In most western countries we ask questions because we want to know more. We don’t think that we are being disrespectful by implying that the speaker wasn’t clear enough, so that is why we need to ask our question. We also never imagine we must be dumb and have to ask a question because we weren’t smart enough to get the speaker’s meaning...

327 Build Your Team In Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Teams are fluid. People move or leave and new people join. Targets go up every year. The compliance and regulatory requirements become more stringent, the market pivots and bites you, currency fluctuations take you from hero to zero in short order. Head office is always annoying. There are so many aspects of business which line up against having a strong sense of team. We can’t be complacent if we have built a strong team and we have to get to work, if we are in the process of team building. Sports teams are always high profile and successful sports coaches are lauded for their ability to...

More Episodes

Focus is under constant attack. The speed of business makes longer term planning a dubious endeavor. Projecting 5 years forward sounds reasonable. That is until you go back 5 years and look at all the changes that have taken place through technology, societal attitudinal changes, business realities and logistics. The leader is supposed to be defining the way forward for the team. The vision of the future is the guiding light on the hill toward which the troops are pointed. The relevancy of that vision is constantly being challenged by the market and by clients.

The leader can no longer easily keep up with all of the demands on their time. Social media has become a major source of information and we are all drinking from the firehouse. Meetings are numerous and suck up time at a prodigious rate. Email comes gushing forth in relentless fashion and inboxes become archives. "I will get to that email" is a plaintive cry from the oppressed masses. If we are traveling across time zones, then sleep patterns are shattered and we enter a zombie like twilight zone but still have to function anyway. When we get finally back home we are still trying to assimilate with our usual everyday challenges, but in a jet lag induced vegetative state.

We are not delegating enough. We know we should do more of it but we don't. We are holding on to too much control and this is ramping up our workload. In tougher times we had to jump in and keep things afloat. After the refloat though, we haven't eased off on the controls and are still doing too much ourselves. Where is the time to work on those things that only we can do?

Projects are bright shiny objects that fascinate our minds. We already have a big bag of them to carry around, but we keep stuffing more into the same bag. Our intellect and our imagination make us constantly hungry to do more and more interesting things and we do. The hours of the day don't grow to match our hunger, so things start well and then drift. We pull back the edge of the carpet and there they all are - projects started but never finished. Stacked up there out of sight and out of mind because they have been replaced by a newer sexier beau.

We never get to any perfect harmony with our team. The ones we want to keep, move on to greener fields, the ones we want to move on, we wind up keeping by default. The turnover means time and expertise is lost and we are in a state of constant starting again. This kills progress. The current candidate friendly market in Japan means that we are in a permanent recruit and retain mode. We have to put a higher value on continuity, than in the past, because the lag between losing people and hiring new staff gets longer. Hiring gets harder and more expensive.

None of this looks like it is going to improve any time soon. The ability to deal with this level of complexity becomes more important. The agile yet focused will win in this game. A good leverage point is heightened self-awareness. Knowing what is important and then giving that time is a differentiator. We need to have a “true north” in mind, against which to align ourselves, or we will find ourselves adrift in a sea of confusion.

The fog of busyness needs a clear counterpoint. We need to reestablish who we are, what we want and where we are going. This sounds simple. But if I ask you right now, can you pull out your written down game plan for your future? Can you articulate the steps needed to keep moving forward? Have you clearly nominated what success actually looks like.

“I want 10 million dollars”, is too vague. What do you want it for, how are you going to use it, how does this translate into your personal happiness or satisfaction?

The manic pace of the everyday can distract us and we forget about working on our personal alignment. Ironically, we need to slow down in order to speed up and get more done. We need to re-establish the point of what we are doing. We need to re-set the starting point and to fix a clear image of the finish line in our minds. We can then swim hard against the pull of busyness with a firm plan in place. The alternative is often being drawn along in the froth and fury of the storm tide.

So stop what we are doing. Intervene in our busyness. Re-connect with who we really are. Reaffirm our direction. Define true north. Make a new plan and follow it.

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