The Leadership Japan Series By Dale Carnegie Training Japan

When you've got a dozen priorities, meetings, emails, and "urgent" requests hitting you at once, the real problem usually isn't effort—it's focus. This is a simple, fast method to get your thinking organised, coordinate your work, and choose actions that actually improve results: build a focus map, then run each sub-topic through a six-step action template.  How do I get focused when I'm overwhelmed with too much work? You get better results by shrinking the chaos into one clear "area of focus," then organising everything else around it. In practice, overwhelm comes from competing directions—sales targets, KPIs, internal politics, client deadlines, hiring, and admin—all demanding attention at the same time. In Japan, this can be amplified by stakeholder-heavy coordination; in the US and Europe, it can be amplified by speed and constant context switching. Either way, your effort becomes scattered and poorly coordinated.  The fix is to pause briefly and decide: "What is the one thing (or two things) I need to

In Parts One and Two, we covered the relationship fundamentals: stop criticising, give sincere appreciation, understand what people want, show genuine interest, smile, and remember names. In Part Three, we move to the final three skills that make those principles work in real leadership: listening, speaking in terms of the other person's interests, and making people feel important—sincerely.  1) Be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves Many leaders unintentionally weaken relationships because they listen selectively. If the conversation isn't "useful," they tune out. The problem is that people notice—and they disengage. As the article puts it: "Some people are boring when they talk about themselves and I tune out, because I only want to hear stuff that is of interest to me, like where are the results". That doesn't sound like a good approach to build an engaged team, does it?  A better standard is to make learning about your people part of your leadership job. Listening isn't passive;

In Part One we covered three foundational human relations principles: avoid criticism, offer honest appreciation, and connect your requests to what the other person wants. In Part Two, we level up the relationship-building process with three more principles that are simple, timeless, and strangely rare in modern workplaces. How do leaders build trust when everyone is time-poor and transactional? Trust is built by slowing down "relationship time" on purpose—because rushed efficiency kills human connection.In post-pandemic workplaces (hybrid, remote, overloaded calendars), teams can become purely transactional: tasks, Slack messages, deadlines, repeat. The problem is: efficiency is a terrible strategy for relationships. If people don't feel known or understood, you don't have trust—you have compliance (and even that is fragile). Across Japan, the US, and Europe, the pattern is consistent: when leaders invest time in people, cooperation rises; when leaders treat people as moving parts, motivation drops. Relati

Most leaders genuinely want a strong relationship with their team, yet day-to-day reality can be messy—especially when performance feels uneven. The trap is thinking "they should change." The breakthrough is realising: you can't change others, but you can change how you think, communicate, and lead.  Why do leaders get annoyed with the "80%" of the team (and what should they do instead)? Because the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) makes it feel like you're paying for effort you're not getting—but the fix is to lead the whole system, not just the stars. In most teams, a smaller group carries a disproportionate chunk of the output, and that can irritate any manager trying to hit targets, KPIs, OKRs, or quarterly numbers.   But treating the "80%" as a problem creates a self-fulfilling spiral: you spend less time with them, they feel it, motivation drops, and performance follows.  In Japan-based teams (and in global teams post-pandemic, with hybrid work and remote collaboration), this spiral gets worse because "rel

When markets are kind, anyone can look like a genius. The test arrives when conditions turn—your systems, skills, and character decide what happens next.  What are the five drivers every leader must master? The five drivers are: Self Direction, People Skills, Process Skills, Communication, and Accountability. Mastering all five creates resilient performance across cycles. In boom times (think pre-pandemic luxury hotels in Japan) tailwinds mask weak leadership; in shocks (closed borders, supply chain crunches) only strong drivers keep teams delivering. As of 2025, executives in multinationals, SMEs, and startups alike need a balanced "stack": vision and values (Self Direction), talent and trust (People), systems and analytics (Process), clear messaging and questions (Communication), and personal ownership (Accountability). If one leg is shaky, the whole table wobbles. Do now: Score yourself 1–5 on each driver; identify your lowest two and set 30-day improvement actions.  Mini-summary: Five drivers form a compl

Newly promoted and still stuck in "super-doer" mode? Here's how to rebalance control, culture, and delegation so the whole team scales—safely and fast.  Why do new managers struggle when they're promoted from "star doer" to "leader"? Because your brain stays in production mode while your job has shifted to people, culture, and systems. After promotion, you're accountable not only for your own KPIs but for the entire team's outcomes. It's tempting to cling to tasks you control—dashboards, sequencing, reporting—because they're tangible and quick wins. But 2025 leadership in Japan, Australia, the US, and Europe demands more: setting strategy, articulating vision, and developing capability. The pivot is psychological—move from "I produce" to "I enable production," or you'll cap growth and burn out. Do now: List your top five "leader-only" responsibilities and five tasks to delegate this week; schedule handovers with owners and dates.  Mini-summary: New leaders fail by over-doing; succeed by re-wiring attention fr

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, senpai–kohai), and learn the organisation's unwritten rules. Only then can you see where practices are enabling quality, safety, speed, or reputation—and where they're blocking growth. Do now: List 10 things that work in Japan operations and why they work; don't change any of them yet. Mini-summary: Question-first beats answer-first when entering Japan; preserv

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 final note—useful in Japan, the US, and Europe where surnames often carry professional identity. Executives at multinationals and SMEs alike can coach teams to deploy this consistently at trade shows, chambers of commerce events, and alumni nights. Over time, your name becomes an asset—clear, repeatable, and easy to introduce.  Do now: Practise: "Hello, my name is… (pause) …Keiko… (part)…TANAKA." Record it, tweak cadence, rehearse

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’s here, and it’s dangerous. AI doesn’t feel, but it can appear to. And when people trick themselves into believing a machine cares, the consequences can be tragic. In this new context, the role of the boss has never been more important. Leaders must become the human alternative to AI—providing authentic empathy, guidance, and care that machines simply cannot. Why do people prefer AI conversations today? The attraction is conven

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, demand compliance, and move quickly to replace “uncooperative” staff. Within months, good people leave, clients are alienated, and HQ is asking why nothing has improved. In Japan’s relationship-driven culture, trust and precedent matter more than speed. What works in the US or Europe—shock therapy and rapid restructuring—backfires badly in Tokyo. Mini-Summary: Change agents fail because they impose foreign models on Jap

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, resilience, and determination. Leaders are expected to stand firm when others waver. Yet modern organisations also demand agility. Executives must adapt to shifting markets, employee expectations, and cultural norms. In Japan, this dualism is particularly acute. The expectation of gaman (endurance) coexists with the need for kaizen (continuous improvement). Leaders must embody both, choosing when to pe

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 hard work. Leaders, however, prioritise sensing first—tuning into people, context, and emotions before deciding. In practice, this means managers often bulldoze forward with certainty, while leaders pause to feel and reflect before acting. In Japan, this distinction matters. Hierarchical firms often elevate those who “know,” but the complexity of 2025 requir

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 badly written—either too vague, too long, or too clichéd. Employees saw them as irrelevant. Cynical cultures, like Australia’s, dismissed them as hollow leadership exercises. Fast-forward to today, and vision has become mainstream. Companies in Japan, the US, and Europe frame it as a strategic anchor. But credibility remains the challenge: if employees can’t recall the vision, they can’t live it. Mini-Summary: Early visions fail

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? Most ideas never make it past the brainstorming stage. Either nothing actionable emerges, or promising suggestions are quietly buried. Even in companies with innovation-friendly cultures, ideas face hurdles before they can be applied. Lack of sponsorship, risk aversion, and overloaded leadership pipelines kill innovation before it matures. In Japan, this is amplified by hierarchical decision-making. I

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 transcends the scope of one individual.  This is where the wheels fall off and most companies cannot capitalize on the latent creativity inside their firms. Our recent global survey on creative ideas at work uncovered some disturbing findings.  Given the intense competition in the marketplace for companies, you would expect that leaders would be doing all they could to seize and shepherd creative ideas through

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 day consumes us.  Before you know it, the last serious work on yourself as a leader was many, many years ago.  Often all you have to show for the passage of time is a thinning hairline or more grey (or both), a more generous waistline and higher blood pressure. Leadership as a discipline requires constant study.  We need people to work longer, so the generations in the workplace have increased up to five for the first time in history.  Younger

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 bird amongst businessmen, someone who can write their own tome on the subject. If we think about the concept of kaizen, continuous improvement, it would make sense to apply this to ourselves, as leaders in our businesses.  We should take a moment and examine just what we are doing, why we are doing it and how we are doing it.  In this way, we can analyse where there are gaps, inadequacies and f

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, you won’t, because you will be working all of the time, putting off life to earn a living.  The treadmill you should be the on is the one down at the gym, not the one where you are working like a dog, because you are trying to do it all yourself. Inherently, we know we should delegate, but we have had prior bad experiences with it and are now gun shy about using this important tool in our leader toolkit.  When I was growing up in Australia there was a common expression that “a good workman doesn’t blame his

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 don’t care about the company, then you are unlikely to care about the firm’s customers.  These interests are not always aligned, so where does the leader need to assign attention? There is no business without a customer and the reason you have customers is because your staff make sure you have repeater customers, rather than single transactions.  CEO attention however is not always focused on the staff.  They can se

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.  America is a very litigious society and there seems to be a built in reflex to not admit guilt, accountability or responsibility.  The upshot of this positioning is to ignore what was said to your staff member and hope it goes away naturally, after the client has gotten their complaint off their chest.  Privately, the boss can then commiserate about the “nasty” client and bond with the staff member. Loopholes are always in high demand in these te