Podcasts about Adjunct professor

Barry Appleton, international trade lawyer and co-director of the Center for International Law at New York Law School, and an Adjunct Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo Image: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Dr. Greg Wilson Mantilla is a Professor in the Department of Biology, Adjunct Professor in Department of Earth & Space Sciences, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Burke Museum, and Director of the DIG Field School at the University of Washington. He is also a Research Associate at the University of California Museum of Paleontology. His research explores the evolution of mammals that lived alongside dinosaurs and how mammals have diversified over time. Remarkable fossil discoveries have revealed that these early mammals were far more diverse than once thought, including species adapted for digging, climbing, gliding, and even feeding on small dinosaurs. Outside of science, Greg enjoys staying active, spending time with his family, and following sports. Playing soccer has long been a favorite pastime, and Greg now enjoys coaching his two children. He also enjoys watching soccer and other sports, working out, reading, traveling, and relaxing with movies and TV shows. Greg received his B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterwards, he received an NSF Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of Helsinki. Before moving to the University of Washington, Greg was Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Greg was awarded the Raymond M. Alf Award for Excellence in Paleontological Research & Education from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, and he received the University of Washington's Bergstrom Award for Art and Science (with Ari Rudenko). In this interview, Greg shares more about his life and science.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is investigating reports that a union representing roughly 600,000 workers is pushing to advance the interests of the Cuban regime. The committee is demanding information from the International Association of Machinists (IAM) about its possible links to the Cuban government. A report claims that IAM has traveled to Cuba, taken policy positions aligned with the regime, and union members have been addressed by a Cuban diplomat at a local union hall. FOX's Eben Brown speaks with Christine Balling, Senior Vice President & Adjunct Professor at The Institute of World Politics, who says its an influence campaign to sway American voters to support the foreign policy goals of a country hostile to the U.S. Click Here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NOTE: the audio is a little crunchy the first 27 min, I did fix it! ❤️ART CLUB  https://artprof.org/support-us/

From designing bridges to building software, engineers are behind much of the world we rely on every day.  But what does the business of civil engineering actually look like in Ireland? Where is demand coming from, what skills are most valuable, and how is the industry changing?  For this week's Industry Review, we're looking at the world of civil engineering with four experts from the sector.  Mark Cotter, Chair of Engineers Ireland Cork Region,Dr Mary Moloney, civil structural engineer and lecturer at MTU,Liam Gleeson, Director at GK Consultant Engineers in Lucan,and Eugene O'Brien, Civil Engineer, Adjunct Professor at UCD, and director at Research Driven Solutions

In the oldest Japanese municipalities, close to half the residents are already over 65. As young people move to cities, the retailers close, then the clinics, then the bus that used to reach the next town. Rural Japan is not simply ageing: it is emptying.Elisa Giannone (CREI, CEPR) and her co-authors have analysed Japan's 1,741 municipalities from 1980 onwards. The oldest quarter of them lost around 26% of their population by 2010; the youngest quarter grew by 22%, and the gap between them is still widening. Taxing city dwellers could reverse the trend. But that's a century-long policy, that would also lower national income per head by about 1.3%. There is no version of this without a bill attached, she warns.The research behind this episode:Giannone, Elisa, Yuhei Miyauchi, Nuno Paixão, Xinle Pang, and Yuta Suzuki. 2026. "Living in a Ghost Town: The Geography of Depopulation and Aging." CEPR Discussion Paper 21447 (gated).To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Elisa Giannone. 2026. "What price to save Japan's ghost towns?" VoxTalks Economics (podcast).About the guestElisa Giannone is a researcher at CREI, an Adjunct Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, an Affiliated Professor at the Barcelona School of Economics. She works on internal migration, regional income divergence, the spatial consequences of local shocks and the question of why people move.Research cited in this episodeSocial and natural population change. Demographers separate population movements through migration, known as social change, from births and deaths, known as natural change. Giannone's team runs both counterfactuals separately. Shut down migration and the oldest municipalities still age, but the population loss between 1980 and 2010 falls from nearly 0.3 log points to under 0.1. The framework follows Stanley Smith, Jeff Tayman and David Swanson's standard treatment of state and local population projections.Scale economies in local public services. A 1% increase in local population is associated with a 0.53% fall in municipal government spending per head. Roads, schools, clinics and administration carry a large fixed cost, so the cost of serving each remaining resident rises as a town shrinks. This is the fiscal arithmetic that makes depopulation expensive.Consumption-equivalent flow utility. The paper's measure of quality of life, amenity-adjusted real income. It captures what the residents of a place can actually buy and enjoy rather than what they earn on paper, which matters when the shops and the doctors are leaving.The five oldest prefectures. Kochi, Shimane, Tokushima, Tottori and Yamagata, ranked by elderly share in 2015. They are the target group in every policy simulation, and their combined elderly share reaches nearly 60% by 2215 under the baseline projection.Municipal extinction. Hiroya Masuda's 2014 book Chiho Shometsu warned that unipolar concentration in Tokyo would drive hundreds of rural municipalities out of existence. It set the terms of Japan's regional revitalisation debate, and the paper's projections give that warning a number.United Nations World Population Prospects. Giannone's figures for the global picture, including the count of countries that have already passed peak population and those projected to do so by the mid 2050s, come from the UN projections rather than from the paper itself.More VoxTalks Economics episodesEconomic decline and the rise of populism. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose explains what happens politically in the places this episode watches emptying, and why long term regional decline shows up at the ballot box.Related reading on VoxEU.orgLiving in a ghost town: The geography of depopulation and ageing. The authors' own column, with the charts behind this episode.Japan's age wave: Challenges and solutions, a column by Andrew Stawasz, Paige Kirby, JP Sevilla and David Bloom on the national scale of the problem this episode breaks down by region.Mobile seniors and local economic development. Marco Badilla-Maroto, Benjamin Faber, Antoine Levy and Mathilde Munoz find that retirees moving into poorer French regions bring economic gains with them, a useful counterweight to the Japanese story.Population shrinking and the future of European municipalities, in which Friedrich Heinemann, Alexander Kalb and Benny Geys set out the scale economies problem for Europe's own shrinking towns.

Guest: Jerold MandeShow Notes:What if improving health means not just having enough food—but having access to the right kinds of food? This episode explores how nutrition security, public policy, and healthcare systems work together to shape diet quality and chronic disease prevention—and what it will take to build a healthier future.Guest Bio:Jerold Mande is CEO of Nourish Science; Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University. For most of his career, he has served in senior federal food, nutrition, and health policy positions, including the FDA and USDA. Quote:"Food security just means people have access to food, but it doesn't mean they have access to food that they'll thrive on."Question of the Day:What changes, whether in policy or your local community—would make it easier for people to access nutritious food where you live?On This Episode You Will Learn:The difference between food security and nutrition security, and why both matter for preventing chronic disease.How government policies and food programs influence the foods we see in grocery stores, schools, and communities.Why ultra-processed foods have become such a big part of the American diet and how they may affect our health.The story behind the Nutrition Facts label and MyPlate, and how they changed the way Americans think about nutrition.What changes in food policy and nutrition research could help create a healthier future for everyone.Connect with Yumlish!Yumlish Website: YumlishYumlish on Instagram: @yumlish_Yumlish on Facebook: YumlishYumlish on Twitter: @yumlish_Yumlish on LinkedIn: YumlishConnect with Jerold Mande!Website URL: https://nourishscience.org/ https://hsph.harvard.edu/profile/jerold-r-mande/Twitter(X) URL: @JerryMandeLinkedIn URL: www.linkedin.com/in/jerold-mande

If you haven't listened to part one please check it out here.Dr. Piya Sorcar, PhD, CEO TeachAids, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford School of Medicine talks to Lauren and Nick about concussion education and TeachAids in PART TWO. Leveraging her wealth of experience, including her previous program tackling HIV/AIDS education, Dr. Sorcar discuss the importance of genuine concussion education, free concussion education from TeachAids. Not simply telling athletes to not do something, or to remind them of the dangers, Piya and TeachAids, use the power of technology and peer messaging to really get through. In part two we talk about the education and communication aspect that has made TeachAids so effective and successful. Whether it's a fun game amongst friends or a more competitive official school or univesity league, TeachAids CrashCourse Concussion Education has become an increasingly important part of educating the public in the US, Canada, UK and globally. Did I mention it's free?!Check out all the free products that TeachAids CrashCourse has to offer and get started with your league!Concussion CrashCourse: https://teachaids.org/for-concussions/crashcourse/Concussion Story Wall: https://concussionstorywall.org/If you use VR, take advantage of the excellent interactive experience! If you don't have a VR set (like yours truly) the YouTube and 2D educational experiences are great as well!PLEASE SHARE, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE! WHATEVER THOSE OTHER PODCASTS AND YOUTUBE CHANNELS ASK YOU TO DO FOR THEM, DO FOR US TOO!Check us out on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook! @concussiontalk & @lziaksThank you!Subscribe and leave a review!Visit https://www.concussiontalk.com/ for more!Follow and subscribe! @concussiontalk on YouTube, Instagram & Facebook 2014 e-book, Detour: https://leanpub.com/detourFollow Lauren on Instagram @lziaksConcussion Talk Podcast discusses traumatic brain injury (TBI) by featuring interviews with experts (physiotherapists, doctors, researchers, athletes, community leaders, etc.) and people who have experienced TBI first-hand.Chronically dives deeper into concussions and brain injury as I team up with Lauren Ziaks; a DPT, ATC, and wealth of knowledge of chronic health conditions post-concussion. Join us as we interview more experts, spread awareness of brain injury and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, and Ger Hyland, President of the Irish Road Haulage Association, discuss the pros and cons of the government extending cuts on fuel excise duties

There are tons of things leaders should be doing. The sheer volume of advice can become a mental blizzard—a complete leadership whiteout. That is why it helps to isolate a few essential leadership practices and remind ourselves why they matter. These are not complicated theories. They are practical leadership disciplines that determine whether teams produce results, understand expectations, cooperate effectively and continue moving in the right direction. Here are eleven leadership basics worth revisiting. What should leaders focus on first? Leaders should focus chiefly on the results to be achieved rather than simply on the activities being performed. Everything happening in the organisation should move the team towards a desired outcome. That sounds obvious. However, analyse your diary and look closely at where your time is going. You may be shocked by how few appointments, meetings and activities are directly propelling important results. Busy work is seductive because it creates the sensation of progress. Emails are answered, meetings are attended and reports are produced. Yet activity is not the same as achievement. Leaders also need to plan and organise effectively around the desired result. They must coordinate everyone involved so that individual contributions combine into meaningful organisational progress. Markets change, customer expectations move and circumstances can run over the top of even a good plan. Leaders must therefore keep asking whether the current plan is still relevant, whether the organisation is properly structured and whether the balance between individual responsibility and teamwork is right. Do now: Review your calendar and identify which activities directly contribute to your organisation's most important results. Reduce, delegate or eliminate the rest. How should leaders turn major objectives into action? Major objectives should be divided into bite-sized pieces, communicated clearly and supported by deadlines, measurements and individual accountability. Large organisational goals can sound inspiring but remain useless if people do not understand what they personally need to do. Leaders must translate strategic objectives into specific actions, time targets and measurable outcomes. Every important objective needs an accountability system. Without measurement, deviation from the plan can remain invisible until it is too late to make an easy correction. The post-pandemic workplace has made this more difficult. For many organisations, the orderly pursuit of targets was replaced by constant disruption, emergency responses and scrambling to survive. Even after the immediate crisis passed, hybrid work, shifting customer behaviour and economic uncertainty continued to complicate performance management. Textbook answers are not always enough. Leaders must combine data, judgement and practical experience to decide which performance standards remain realistic. Do now: Take one major organisational objective and break it into milestones, owners, deadlines and measurable indicators of progress. How can leaders establish effective performance standards? Leaders must make expectations explicit so that people know what successful performance looks like, why it matters and how it will be measured. Vague expectations create frustration. Employees believe they are doing well, while managers quietly feel disappointed. Effective performance standards remove this ambiguity. Standards should guide people towards profitable and productive action. They should be demanding enough to encourage growth but realistic enough to maintain credibility. Leaders must also build a results-oriented attitude throughout the organisation. This means helping people develop self-reliance, confidence and ownership of their goals. Remote and hybrid work have shifted visibility. Leaders can no longer judge contribution by who arrives early, stays late or appears busy in the office. Performance is increasingly represented by customer outcomes, project completion, financial measures and numbers on a spreadsheet. Some people thrive with autonomy. Others struggle without direct supervision, informal contact and frequent teamwork. Leaders must recognise these differences rather than assuming one working style suits everyone. Do now: Ask each team member to explain what is expected of them and how success is measured. Any inconsistent answers reveal a communication gap. Can leaders really motivate their people? Leaders cannot directly inject motivation into another person. They can, however, create an environment in which people are more likely to become self-motivated. Try yelling, "Be motivated, be motivated, be motivated," at your team and see how far that gets you. Leaders can motivate themselves, but they cannot control the internal drive of another person. Their real task is to understand what helps each individual perform at their best. That may include recognition, autonomy, meaningful work, career growth, financial reward, mastery, belonging or the opportunity to contribute to something important. The correct combination varies from person to person. This is where leadership becomes difficult. There is no universal motivational switch. The leader has to understand people individually and deliver the right environment one person at a time. Leaders should also encourage creativity. Creativity can be learned, but many leaders have never studied how creative thinking works. If leaders do not know how to generate ideas, challenge assumptions or explore alternatives, they will struggle to develop those abilities in others. Do now: Ask each team member what conditions help them do their best work. Do not assume their answer will be the same as yours. How should leaders track progress and coordinate people? Leaders must track progress consistently and coordinate everyone whose contribution affects the final result, both inside and outside the organisation. Tracking progress sounds easy. The reality is that leaders are often lost in the weeds, pulled hither and thither and overwhelmed by constant urgencies. Following up on planned results gets postponed because something more immediate demands attention. Yet when leaders stop tracking, deadlines slip, responsibilities blur and small problems grow into expensive ones. Coordination has also become more demanding in remote and hybrid workplaces. When everyone was in the office, people could exchange information informally, notice emerging problems and resolve misunderstandings quickly. When employees, clients, suppliers and partners are separated, leaders must expend more time and energy ensuring that the right people know what they need to know. They must also confirm that tasks are being completed when they need to be completed. Communication cannot be left to chance. Coordination requires deliberate updates, clear decision rights and reliable follow-through. Do now: Establish a simple review rhythm showing each priority, its owner, its current status, the next action and any obstacle requiring leadership intervention. Why must leaders keep communicating purpose and teamwork? Leaders must repeatedly connect everyday work to the organisation's continuing purpose and demonstrate through their decisions that teamwork is genuinely expected. Leaders often pontificate from on high about purpose and imagine everyone is on board. They assume the message was received, understood and accepted. It is always a shock to discover that not everyone got the message—or that they interpreted it differently. Purpose must therefore be communicated repeatedly. Leaders must explain what the organisation is trying to achieve, why it matters and how each person's work contributes. They must also check for understanding rather than assuming agreement. Leadership credibility is tested most severely when a high performer refuses to act as a team player. Are you prepared to confront—or even fire—a top performer who persistently undermines teamwork? This is where the rubber meets the road. If leaders praise collaboration but tolerate the corporate outlaw who does whatever they want, everyone learns how the organisation really operates. Behaviour that is tolerated becomes part of the culture. Do now: Identify one behaviour that contradicts your stated values. Address it directly before it becomes the organisation's unofficial standard. What is the most important leadership starting point? The most important starting point is self-awareness. Very few leaders can give themselves a perfect score across all eleven areas: Focusing on results Planning and organising effectively Breaking objectives into manageable actions Establishing clear performance standards Building a results-oriented culture Creating conditions for self-motivation Developing creativity Tracking progress Coordinating people and resources Communicating organisational purpose Demonstrating leadership and teamwork I certainly cannot give myself a perfect score. Reviewing this list is a painful reminder of my own failings and imperfections. That is the point. Busy work can mask what is vital. Leaders become tied up in meetings, messages, minor decisions and operational stuff. Eventually, they lose sight of the leadership responsibilities that matter most. Let's get back to basics. We are not divine. We still have work to do on ourselves. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie One Carnegie Award in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes regular business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Allies and Its Adversaries It was my pleasure to invite Paola Subacchi back into the Virtual Studio to examine the state of Europe's relations with its allies and its adversaries. We look at how Europe is reacting to the two hot conflicts, one in Ukraine and the other in the Mideast with the US and Iran; the instability created by the Trump administration in the global order; the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China; how Europe might react to a new UK Prime Minister; and how Europe responding to all these political and economic actions, and more. Paola Subacchi is currently Professor and Chair in Sovereign Debt and Finance at Sciences Po, Paris, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Bologna. She is also a partner at Essential Economics, a London-based economic consultancy. Her publications include: “The People's Money: How China is Building a Global Currency” and more recently, “The Cost of Free Money: How Unfettered Capital Threatens Our Economic Future”. She is currently working on a volume, the (provisional) title of the book is: “Debt Tangle”.

Clients may forget exactly how much they paid, but they rarely forget whether the quality was excellent or disappointing. This is one of the most important lessons in sales. Price matters at the moment of purchase, especially when budgets are tight or procurement teams are involved. Over time, however, the emotional memory of the experience becomes much more powerful than the original invoice. A reliable product, a successful service and a supplier who acts with integrity create trust. Poor quality, broken promises and evasive behaviour create the opposite. The real question for salespeople is therefore not simply, "How do I defend my price?" It is, "How do I make the value and quality unforgettable?" Why do clients forget the price but remember the quality? The price is a short-term transaction, while quality becomes part of the client's long-term experience. Think about something you bought years ago that has continued to perform well. You may no longer remember whether it cost ¥50,000, ¥70,000 or ¥100,000. You do remember that it was dependable and that buying it was a good decision. The reverse is equally true. When a product fails, a consultant disappoints or a supplier does not deliver what was promised, the precise cost gradually becomes fuzzy. The frustration remains crystal clear. This applies across consumer purchases, professional services, B2B solutions and corporate training. Procurement may concentrate on the quoted price during negotiations, but the end users and decision-makers remember whether the solution actually worked. Do now: Stop assuming that the lowest number wins. Make the expected quality, outcome and client experience easier to understand than the price. Why is competing mainly on price dangerous for salespeople? When salespeople focus excessively on price, they turn their offer into a commodity and weaken their own professional brand. A salesperson who immediately discounts is teaching the buyer to believe there is little meaningful difference between suppliers. Once that happens, the conversation becomes a bidding contest. The damage can extend beyond a single sale. When clients believe they received poor value, they do not only reject the product or service. They may also decide that the salesperson is unreliable, lacks integrity or cannot be trusted to protect their interests. In Japan, where business relationships and reputations can develop over many years, this is especially dangerous. Dissatisfied buyers may quietly avoid the supplier rather than openly complain. They may also warn colleagues, industry contacts and future decision-makers. You are not only selling today's solution. You are building or damaging your name in the market. Do now: Protect your personal brand by selling a defensible result, not merely offering a cheaper price. What should salespeople do when something goes wrong? Clients can forgive a genuine problem, but they rarely forgive avoidance, excuses or a refusal to accept responsibility. Machines fail. People make mistakes. Supply chains are disrupted. Technology does not always work perfectly. Even respected organisations occasionally disappoint a client. The defining moment is what happens next. The client wants the supplier to acknowledge the issue, communicate clearly and fix it quickly. Attempts to justify the unjustifiable only make the situation worse. The salesperson who disappears, blames another department or debates whether the client should be unhappy destroys trust. A fast and honest recovery can actually strengthen the relationship. The client may forget the inconvenience and the original price, but remember that the supplier acted with integrity when it mattered. This is the difference between completing a transaction and becoming a trusted adviser. Do now: When a problem appears, take ownership, explain the recovery plan and keep communicating until it is resolved. Why do product specifications fail to communicate quality? Specifications describe what a product is, but quality is demonstrated by explaining how it solves the buyer's particular problem. Many salespeople mistake detail for value. They explain the size, weight, colour, functions, methodology, modules or technical capabilities of their offer. These details may be accurate, but accuracy alone does not make them persuasive. The buyer is thinking, "What does this mean for me?" A faster system may reduce processing time. A more durable component may lower maintenance costs. A leadership programme may improve communication, decision-making or employee retention. Until the salesperson connects the specification to the buyer's desired result, the presentation remains a product pitch. The quality conversation begins when the buyer can see a clear match between what they need and what is being offered. In B2B sales, this alignment is often more important than the number of features included. Do now: Translate every major specification into a practical business benefit that matters to this specific buyer. Why do Japanese salespeople often begin pitching too early? Many Japanese salespeople begin with a prepared explanation because both the salesperson and the buyer have been conditioned to expect a formal pitch. The salesperson arrives, exchanges business cards and opens the presentation. The buyer listens politely. Everyone follows the familiar pattern. The problem is that the salesperson may know almost nothing about the client's priorities, internal pressures, timing, previous experiences or decision criteria. Japanese corporate culture often rewards preparation, consistency and conformity. These qualities can be valuable, but they can also discourage a salesperson from departing from the standard presentation. Asking probing questions may feel risky, particularly when dealing with a senior buyer. Sales managers may repeatedly tell their teams to ask more questions, yet the old behaviour continues. Coaching must therefore happen in real client meetings, followed by specific feedback and repeated practice. Do now: Do not allow the presentation deck to control the meeting. Earn permission to investigate the client's situation first. What is the best opening question in a sales meeting? A powerful transition is: "To understand whether we can help, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" The wording is simple, but the setup matters. First, briefly explain what your company does. Next, mention a relevant result you have achieved for a similar client. Then suggest that you may be able to produce a comparable result for this buyer. At that point, say: "In order for me to understand whether that would be possible in your situation, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" Most buyers will agree because the request is logical and professional. You are not interrogating them or delaying the presentation. You are trying to avoid recommending something that may not fit. You can then explore their objectives, problems, priorities, urgency, stakeholders, budget expectations and definition of success. This is where genuine consultative selling begins. Do now: Practise this transition until it sounds natural, confident and client-focused rather than scripted. How can salespeople justify a higher price? A higher price becomes easier to accept when the salesperson proves that the quality, outcome and risk reduction are worth more than the difference in cost. Prices fluctuate because of competition, currency movements, energy costs, labour expenses and supply-chain conditions. Quality should be more stable. Salespeople need to show the commercial logic behind the price. That may include a longer product life, faster implementation, stronger support, reduced downtime, lower risk, better adoption or a more reliable result. The comparison should not be between two price tags alone. It should be between the total consequences of each decision. A cheaper supplier who fails can become extremely expensive. A higher-priced supplier who delivers the right outcome, responds quickly and protects the client's reputation may represent far better value. When quality is aligned with the client's needs, the price gradually fades from memory. The successful result remains. Do now: Help the buyer compare total value, business impact and risk—not simply the initial purchase price. Conclusion Clients do not remember every invoice forever. They remember whether the decision made them look smart, solved their problem and produced the promised result. That is why the strongest salespeople do not rush into a pitch or rely on product specifications. They ask questions, understand the buyer's requirements and connect their solution directly to the outcomes the client values. They also recognise that quality includes more than the product itself. It includes communication, responsiveness, accountability, problem resolution and personal integrity. Sell on price alone and the client may leave as soon as someone cheaper appears. Deliver memorable quality and the client has a reason to trust you, buy from you again and recommend you to others. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Confidence is one of the most persuasive qualities a presenter can project. Audiences may not consciously analyse your vocal strength, eye contact or physical energy, but they quickly decide whether you genuinely believe in your own message. That judgement matters. A presenter who appears hesitant, uncertain or overly restrained makes it harder for the audience to trust the recommendation, accept the argument or take the requested action. Arrogance is not the answer. Confidence is. The good news is that presenters do not have to change their personalities or suddenly become theatrical performers. Two practical adjustments—the power of the voice and the quality of the eye contact—can dramatically improve how the audience perceives the speaker and the message. Why Does Presenter Confidence Matter So Much? Audiences are more inclined to believe a message when the presenter appears to believe it completely. Confidence acts as a credibility signal, particularly when the audience must evaluate an unfamiliar idea, a business proposal or a recommended course of action. Sales expert Victor Antonio has discussed the impact of seller confidence on persuasion. The lesson for presenters is not that they should become aggressive or arrogant. The real lesson is that conviction is contagious. This applies across business settings. A startup founder pitching investors, a multinational executive proposing a regional strategy and a salesperson recommending a solution all face the same challenge: the audience is evaluating the messenger as well as the message. When speakers sound cautious, apologetic or uncertain, listeners begin wondering what the presenter knows that they do not. When speakers communicate with controlled energy and conviction, the audience becomes more willing to examine the proposal seriously. Do now: Before presenting, ask yourself, "What do I genuinely believe about this recommendation, and why should the audience believe it too?" Why Do So Many Business Presenters Appear Uncertain? Many presenters use their everyday conversational style when the situation requires a stronger professional performance. They speak as though they are chatting with a colleague over coffee, even though they are now addressing a room, representing their organisation and asking people to concentrate. The result is often a presentation that is neither disastrous nor memorable. The speaker is not too loud, too energetic or too expressive. Unfortunately, the speaker is also not persuasive. This middle-of-the-road approach creates what we might call the "vanilla presentation": safe, polite and instantly forgettable. That is particularly dangerous for senior leaders. Executive presence depends on the audience seeing the speaker as prepared, credible and capable of leading the room. The content may be strategically sound, but weak delivery can make even an excellent recommendation seem less important. Japanese business culture often rewards modesty and restraint. However, giving a presentation is a different professional role. Projecting confidence is not boasting. It is helping the audience understand that the message deserves attention. Do now: Separate your normal workplace voice from your presentation voice. The responsibilities are different, so the delivery must be different. How Can Speaking Louder Make a Presenter More Persuasive? Speaking slightly louder than normal raises the presenter's energy and helps transmit conviction to the audience.This does not mean shouting, screaming or using artificial enthusiasm. It means deliberately projecting the voice beyond the people sitting in the first row. A useful technique is to imagine that you are sending your voice all the way to the furthest wall. This simple objective improves breath support, vocal strength and energy. When your voice becomes stronger, other elements of delivery often improve as well. Your posture becomes more upright, your gestures become more purposeful and your facial expression becomes more animated. The entire presentation begins to feel more intentional. This matters in both physical and virtual settings. In a large conference room, insufficient volume makes the speaker seem distant. In an online meeting, low energy is flattened further by microphones, cameras and screens. The presenter therefore has to generate slightly more energy than feels natural. A stronger voice tells the audience, "This point matters, and I am prepared to stand behind it." Do now: Rehearse the opening at a higher volume than usual. Record it and check whether you sound confident rather than merely loud. How Much Eye Contact Should a Presenter Make? Around six seconds of direct eye contact is usually long enough to create a personal connection without making the listener uncomfortable. Very brief eye contact feels accidental, while an extended stare can become intrusive. Three or four seconds may not be sufficient to establish a genuine one-to-one connection. On the other hand, holding someone's gaze for eight seconds or longer can begin to feel intense, especially in Japan. The purpose is not to stare people down. The goal is to give one audience member your complete attention while completing a phrase or sentence. You then move naturally to another person and repeat the process. This technique creates the feeling that the presenter is speaking to individuals rather than broadcasting information to an anonymous crowd. Eye contact can require particular concentration in Japan, where prolonged direct eye contact is less common in everyday interactions than it is in markets such as Australia or the United States. A business presentation, however, is a special communication environment. The speaker must create connection across the room. Do now: Choose one person, speak directly to that individual for approximately six seconds and then move smoothly to someone elsewhere in the room. How Can Eye Contact Keep an Audience Engaged? Unpredictable eye contact prevents listeners from mentally disappearing from the presentation. When audience members sense that the speaker may look directly at them, they are more likely to remain alert and follow the argument. Avoid moving mechanically from left to right or working systematically along each row. The audience will quickly recognise the pattern and calculate when they no longer need to pay attention. Instead, vary the direction. Look towards the back, return to the front, move to one side and then connect with someone in the centre. This creates natural unpredictability. In a forty-minute presentation, a speaker can potentially create hundreds of individual moments of connection. In a smaller executive meeting, each participant can receive focused eye contact several times. This is especially valuable when discussing complex subjects such as organisational change, investment decisions, sales proposals or new corporate strategy. People are less likely to drift towards thoughts about email, deadlines or their next appointment when the speaker is actively including them in the communication. Do now: Do not scan the room. Connect with one person at a time and vary the sequence so the audience cannot predict where you will look next. How Can Presenters Appear Confident Without Becoming Arrogant? Confident presenters focus on helping the audience understand the message, while arrogant presenters focus attention on themselves. The distinction is visible in the speaker's language, energy and attitude. Confidence says, "I have prepared carefully, I believe this will help you and I am willing to explain why." Arrogance says, "I am the smartest person in the room, and you should accept what I say because of who I am." The confident presenter uses strong vocal projection without becoming aggressive. They make direct eye contact without attempting to dominate. They acknowledge legitimate concerns, explain their reasoning and maintain respect for the audience. This balance is particularly important for leaders and salespeople in Japan. Credibility comes from combining professional conviction with humility, preparation and consideration for others. You do not have to imitate a celebrity speaker or adopt an exaggerated stage personality. Become a stronger version of yourself. Increase the vocal energy, improve the eye contact and let your belief in the message become visible. Do now: Concentrate on serving the audience. Strong delivery becomes confidence rather than arrogance when the purpose is to help listeners make a better decision. Conclusion Presenter confidence is not an optional performance extra. It directly affects whether the audience trusts the speaker, values the content and accepts the recommendation. Most professionals do not need to completely redesign their presentation style. Two adjustments can make a substantial difference: Project the voice towards the furthest wall. Maintain focused eye contact with one person for approximately six seconds. These changes raise the speaker's energy, strengthen executive presence and make the audience feel personally included. Your expertise may be excellent, your slides may be attractive and your argument may be logical. However, when you do not appear convinced by your own message, the audience has little reason to be convinced either. Confidence sells the audience on the message. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Guests:Peter Gallagher, Director of Dunsink Observatory at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College DublinJohn Regan from Maynooth UniversityLaura Hayes, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS)If you would like to listen to Jonathan's experience of flying into the path of totality of the solar eclipse in 2015, here's the link:https://soundcloud.com/whipsmart-media/path-of-totality-1

"Leading is empowering, guiding, inspiring and having a shared goal of working together." "You need to build up trust, and for me what really helped was the one-on-ones." "Nobody wants to have a surprise in the meeting." "Predictability is really important for any leader." "Leadership is bringing your people forward and putting them in the position where they can perform at their best."   Thomas Fraessle is the Representative Director and CEO of ITK Engineering Japan, a professional engineering services company that develops customised software and systems solutions across automotive, healthcare, railway and other technology-intensive sectors. ITK originated in Germany and later became part of the Bosch Group. Fraessle studied electrical engineering and completed his diploma thesis at Mercedes-Benz, working on vehicle energy simulation and battery sizing. He then joined ITK when it was still a relatively small engineering company, attracted by the chance to work across varied projects rather than enter a large corporation. After assignments supporting General Motors Europe, he asked for an opportunity to work abroad and chose Japan precisely because it was unfamiliar and culturally distant from his previous experience. He first arrived in Japan in 2008, worked through a local partner and helped initiate the establishment of ITK's own Japanese operation. After returning to Germany and developing his leadership experience, he came back to Japan in February 2022 as Representative Director and CEO. His career reflects adaptability across engineering, business development and people leadership, as well as the transition from individual technical contributor to cross-cultural organisational leader.   Thomas Fraessle's leadership journey in Japan began with curiosity rather than a carefully mapped expatriate career. After studying electrical engineering and completing a practical diploma thesis at Mercedes-Benz, he joined the then-small ITK Engineering because he wanted exposure to multiple projects and responsibilities. An assignment supporting General Motors Europe introduced him to international collaboration and prompted him to ask ITK's founder for an overseas opportunity. Given a choice between the United States and Japan, he selected Japan because it represented the more unfamiliar challenge. That first period in Japan, beginning in 2008, gave Fraessle direct experience as an engineer working with Japanese customers. More than a decade later, he returned as the head of ITK Engineering Japan. The country was familiar, but the responsibility was entirely different. As CEO, he had to build alignment, create trust, communicate direction and encourage people to speak candidly. He quickly discovered that leadership concepts such as motivation, feedback and empowerment do not travel unchanged across cultures. One of the sharpest differences was feedback. In Germany, direct feedback could be treated as a normal part of improving performance. In Japan, the word itself could sound negative, as though a leader was about to explain what an employee had done badly. Fraessle found that honest views rarely appeared automatically in group meetings. He therefore invested in repeated one-to-one conversations, asking not simply what was wrong, but how the team could improve something together and what support people needed from him. Trust accumulated gradually, and some changes required a full year of discussion and preparation. This experience led him to appreciate nemawashi—the groundwork conducted before a formal decision. In many Western meetings, participants debate an issue and decide in the room. In Japan, the visible meeting may be the final confirmation of extensive prior consultation. Fraessle learned to plant ideas, explain them more than once, listen to objections and allow people time to reach confidence in the direction. Although the process can seem slow, it can produce stronger implementation because surprises and unresolved resistance have been reduced beforehand. Trust is also reinforced through transparency and predictability. Fraessle explains not only KPIs and decisions, but the business reasoning behind them. He distinguishes explanation from excuse-making: the leader should own the decision rather than hide behind headquarters. He is also willing to acknowledge mistakes, viewing this as strength rather than weakness. Employees need to know that problems can be raised without anger, blame or humiliation. A leader whose reactions vary with mood creates hesitation; a consistent leader makes it safer to speak up. Fraessle translated these beliefs into organisational practices. He introduced company gatherings after the isolation of COVID-19, created engineering workshops and cross-project technical groups, and redesigned the office around shared desks and easier interaction. These choices were not cosmetic. They created occasions for engineers from different projects to meet, exchange solutions and generate ideas that could be reused with other customers. His approach to hybrid work is similarly contextual rather than rigid: customer satisfaction, project needs and team collaboration matter more than mechanically applying one rule to everyone. His ultimate definition of leadership is practical and developmental. It is about bringing people forward, helping them build competence, giving them confidence to decide, guiding them with useful feedback and placing them where they can perform at their best. In Japan, that requires patience, relationship-building and respect for context. The leader's task is not to impose a foreign operating model immediately, but to understand why the current system exists, preserve what serves customers and then lead change with clarity and consistency. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by context, relationship history and extensive preparation before visible decisions. Fraessle found that people may not openly disagree in a group, particularly when hierarchy, seniority or concern about losing face is involved. A formal meeting may therefore confirm a direction that has already been discussed through nemawashi rather than serve as the arena where competing views are first exposed. Leaders must learn to read what is not being said, create private channels for honest discussion and give colleagues time to absorb and test a proposal. Japan's strong commitment to quality and long-term customer trust also affects leadership. A defect or poorly handled mistake can damage a relationship that took years to establish, so teams often seek a very high degree of certainty before acting. Why do global executives struggle? Global executives often struggle because they interpret different behaviour as poor performance or resistance. A process may appear inefficient from headquarters, yet exist because a Japanese customer requires it or because it protects a long-standing relationship. Fraessle advises leaders to investigate why people work in a particular way before changing it. He benefited from having previously worked at customer sites in Japan and understood that management reports rarely show the full picture. Another difficulty is expecting direct feedback. Employees may say yes to preserve harmony without meaning that they fully support immediate execution. Foreign leaders can also mistake English silence for lack of knowledge, when capable employees are simply reluctant to risk making a linguistic mistake in public. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Fraessle's experience suggests that Japanese employees are not simply unwilling to take risks; they are highly conscious of quality, accountability and the social consequences of being wrong. An engineer may study a question for weeks before asking for help because appearing unprepared could mean losing face. That caution can protect quality, but it can also slow learning. Fraessle encourages people to ask earlier, communicate sooner and use colleagues' expertise. He also makes clear that mistakes are normal and that leaders should own their own errors. Risk-taking becomes more realistic when people know how failures will be handled, when trials are bounded and when the purpose of experimentation is organisational learning rather than individual judgement. What leadership style actually works? The most effective style in Fraessle's account combines approachability, consistency, transparency and role modelling. He used one-to-one meetings to build trust and even created a short personal guide explaining his direct German communication style so colleagues would not misread it as personal hostility. He established regular company meetings and informal gatherings so employees could see him, question him and understand how he behaved. He explains why targets and decisions matter, does not blame headquarters for choices he has made, and apologises when he is wrong. Above all, he stresses predictability. Employees should not have to study the leader's mood before deciding whether it is safe to raise a problem. How can technology help? Technology is central to ITK's business, but Fraessle's leadership lesson is that innovation requires human structures as well as technical expertise. Engineers working deeply on individual customer projects can become isolated from one another. ITK Engineering Japan therefore creates engineering workshops and cross-project technical groups where employees demonstrate tools, discuss cybersecurity, programming and systems challenges, and ask peers for alternative solutions. Ideas arising from these exchanges can improve one project and later become reusable solutions for other customers. Digital collaboration also supports an international workforce, but Fraessle does not treat technology as a substitute for human contact. Office design, shared desks, company meetings and informal conversation deliberately create the serendipitous exchanges that remote work can reduce. Does language proficiency matter? Fraessle believes learning Japanese is valuable because an expatriate leader is a guest in the country and language deepens cultural understanding. He also candidly acknowledges how difficult it is to improve without regular use and wishes he had invested more heavily at the beginning. At executive level, it is possible to lead without full proficiency, and sometimes using English can create a neutral international space. The larger challenge is psychological safety: many Japanese employees possess stronger English than they reveal in the office because they fear mistakes. Leaders should provide different ways to communicate, allow preparation and create low-pressure opportunities for people to use the language. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Fraessle defines leadership as bringing people forward. The leader should guide, inspire and support employees, help them build the competence required for autonomy, and give them the confidence to make decisions. This begins with trust and a genuine relationship. It also requires patience: change in Japan may take longer than an overseas headquarters expects, but forcing action without understanding can destroy commitment or customer value. The ultimate lesson is to understand the system before altering it, remain consistent in words and behaviour, and create an environment where people can contribute, question, learn and perform at their best. Author Credentials Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

Building a brand is exciting. Protecting it is essential. The Lawyer Stories Podcast Episode 278 features Danielle Garno, fashion, beauty, and luxury goods attorney, General Counsel at FIT:MATCH.ai, Partner at Daniel Ebeling Maccia & Cohen, entrepreneur, and Adjunct Professor of Fashion Law at the University of Miami School of Law. After building a successful career in Big Law, Danielle has become a trusted advisor to startups, emerging companies, and global luxury brands, helping them navigate intellectual property, licensing, advertising, social media marketing, regulatory compliance, and the legal challenges that come with building enduring brands. In this conversation, we discuss Danielle's journey from Big Law to leadership, why she chose to focus on fashion and luxury brands, the intersection of law, entrepreneurship, and innovation, and how lawyers can help businesses protect and grow their most valuable assets from day one. A fascinating conversation about branding, business strategy, entrepreneurship, and the evolving role of lawyers in today's innovation economy. This episode is presented by CallRail. Integrated into your case management system, CallRail helps law firms capture every call, respond faster, spot high-value leads instantly, and drive growth. Join over 3,000 law firms using CallRail to follow up faster, land bigger cases, and grow smarter. Start your free trial: https://www.callrail.com/legal-services?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=lawyer-stories Join us at REVCON 2026. If you've heard of RevCon before, this is the next revolution. Hosted by Dan Morgan, Operational Anatomy of a Record-Breaking Year is a one-day, CLE-accredited event featuring 14 experts in marketing, management, technology, litigation, and AI.

Leadership is not only about watching the P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, revenue and profit. Those numbers matter enormously, especially when conditions are difficult, but leaders can become so absorbed in survival that they neglect the people who must deliver the recovery. Effective leadership requires the agility to keep several priorities in motion at once: business performance, cooperation, culture, career development and personal self-control. Why must leaders influence cooperation rather than simply issue orders? Leaders achieve results through people, so cooperation is more sustainable than command-and-control pressure. When the business is under strain, determination, grit and force of will can become dangerous strengths. The leader starts pushing harder, communicating from on high and assuming that one perspective—the leader's own—is enough. That may produce short-term compliance, but it weakens ownership, trust and discretionary effort. A leader only has value in relation to the organisation and the people who constitute it. The real task is therefore to influence others to cooperate toward a desired result, not merely to demand obedience. Servant leadership is easiest to discuss when conditions are comfortable; it is tested when revenues are falling, cash is tight and everyone is tired. In those moments, leaders need to explain the goal, involve people in the path forward and make cooperation feel purposeful rather than compulsory. Do now: Replace one directive this week with a conversation that clarifies the outcome, invites input and builds shared ownership. How does a leader's personality shape organisational culture? A leader's attitudes, emotional control and assumptions about people are constantly transmitted into the culture. Leaders bring their whole personality to work: hopes, fears, values, impatience, humour and bias. When business is going well, it is easy to appear positive, tolerant and encouraging. The harder test comes when the organisation is facing chaos, missed targets or serious risk. Negativity at the top quickly permeates the team. Douglas McGregor's Theory X view of motivation described leaders who focus on shortcomings and become detectives searching for faults and failures. That mindset affects how people are treated and what kind of culture develops. Leaders do not need to pretend that everything is fine, but they do need the discipline to remain calm, fair and constructive. Sometimes leadership requires an actor's composure: appearing steady enough to help others think clearly, even when the leader is deeply concerned underneath. Do now: Before reacting under pressure, ask what emotional signal your behaviour will send to the organisation. Why should organisational goals and individual career goals be aligned? Performance improves when the organisation's ambitions and each employee's career goals can grow together. Leaders naturally have their own goals, incentives and ambitions, so pretending that self-interest does not exist is unrealistic. The higher standard is to pursue business outcomes while also taking a genuine interest in the growth of subordinates. That requires time. Leaders need to understand what motivates each person, what skills they want to build, what responsibilities they seek and what success means to them. Only then can the leader look for ways to connect individual aspirations with organisational priorities. In many cases, the two can be blended: a new project can build capability, a stretch assignment can support succession, or a cross-functional initiative can advance both enterprise performance and personal development. The details are rarely effortless, but creating that alignment is one of the clearest marks of leadership excellence. Do now: Ask each direct report what progress they want to make over the next twelve months, then connect it to a real business priority. What is a leader's responsibility for developing people? A central leadership responsibility is to help people become capable of producing important results. Developing people is not a soft extra that sits beside the real work; it is part of the real work. Organisations succeed through capable people who can make decisions, solve problems and recover from setbacks. That means leaders must coach, delegate, provide feedback and create opportunities to practise. Development also requires patience because growth is rarely tidy. The Japanese expression hanmen kyoshi means learning from a negative example, and that example may be another person or ourselves. Leaders who openly learn from their own mistakes make it safer for others to learn as well. By contrast, a leader who excuses personal errors but punishes subordinate errors creates a toxic double standard. Accountability still matters, but it should be applied consistently and used to strengthen judgement rather than merely assign blame. Do now: Turn one recent mistake into a structured learning conversation: what happened, what was learned and what will change next time? How should leaders treat failure when the stakes are high? Leaders must distinguish between careless failure and intelligent failure, while applying the same standards to themselves and their teams. Innovation, transformation and difficult decisions all carry risk. If every setback is treated as proof of incompetence, people will hide problems, avoid experimentation and wait for permission. Yet saying "we never fail, we only learn" is meaningless unless leaders apply that philosophy when the financial consequences become serious. The real test comes when large numbers, client relationships or reputational risks are involved. Leaders should examine whether the decision process was sound, whether assumptions were reasonable, whether warning signs were ignored and whether the lesson is being captured. They should also ask whether they would judge themselves by the same standard. Integrity, credibility and trust depend on this consistency. Generosity toward failure does not mean abandoning accountability; it means ensuring that accountability produces better future performance. Do now: Review one failed initiative for decision quality, not only outcome quality, and document the lesson for future teams. How can leaders read their own 'air' during difficult times? Leaders need enough self-awareness to recognise what is happening inside themselves before it distorts what happens around them. The Japanese phrase kuki wo yomu means reading the air: noticing what is really happening in a room beyond the visible surface. Leaders often try to read everyone else—the mood, resistance, hesitation or hidden concern—but fail to read their own internal atmosphere. Under pressure, fear may appear as aggression, uncertainty as over-control and fatigue as impatience. A short pause can prevent those emotions from becoming organisational signals. Self-reflection is especially important when leaders are juggling numbers, people, clients and operational risk at the same time. The four essential undertakings—building cooperation, managing personal impact, aligning goals and developing people—provide a practical check on whether leadership perspective has narrowed too far. Reading your own air is not self-indulgence; it is a way to protect the quality of judgement and the health of the team. Do now: In your next difficult meeting, pause and name your internal state before you speak or decide. What should leaders remember? Sustainable performance comes from combining financial focus with disciplined attention to people. Leadership becomes most visible when conditions are rough and tough. Financial discipline remains essential, but numbers alone cannot produce cooperation, resilience or growth. Leaders need to manage their own impact, connect organisational goals with individual aspirations, develop people through both success and failure, and regularly examine what pressure is doing to their judgement. The strongest leaders do not choose between performance and people. They understand that sustainable performance is delivered through people. Author bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers—Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery—along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X, hosts six weekly podcasts, and produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews on YouTube.

Japan is internationally famous for efficiency. The Shinkansen runs with extraordinary punctuality, public services are dependable and complex systems generally work remarkably well. Yet inside many Japanese companies, decisions that appear straightforward can take weeks, months or even years. Foreign executives often find this contradiction frustrating. They are accustomed to cultures where speed, individual initiative and calculated risk-taking are rewarded. In Japan, however, business decisions are usually judged by a different standard: not how quickly the organisation moved, but whether everyone was consulted, every risk was considered and mistakes were avoided. Understanding this difference is essential for anyone selling, negotiating, managing or building partnerships in Japan. Why is business decision-making so slow in Japan? Japanese companies often move slowly because accuracy, internal alignment and risk reduction are valued more highly than speed. In many Western businesses, an ambitious employee is expected to take initiative, make a recommendation and move quickly. A reasonable level of error may be tolerated if the organisation gains speed, market share or profitability. Japanese companies tend to approach responsibility differently. A rushed decision that later creates a problem can damage the reputations of everyone involved. Consequently, employees collect information, check assumptions and consult colleagues before committing themselves. This does not necessarily mean people are indecisive or unproductive. They are trying to prevent the organisation from sprinting enthusiastically off a cliff. The decision may look painfully slow from the outside, but internally the process is designed to make the eventual implementation safer. Do now: Allow more time for internal consultation and provide accurate information that helps your Japanese counterparts reduce perceived risk. Why does Japan appear efficient but operate slowly internally? Japan is highly efficient when executing an established system, but creating or changing that system usually requires extensive preparation. The Shinkansen is a wonderful example. Once the timetable, safety procedures, training standards and operational responsibilities have been agreed, execution is precise and dependable. Corporate decision-making is different because the organisation is considering an uncertain future. A new supplier, technology platform, joint venture or management policy may affect multiple departments. Each group wants to understand the operational, financial and reputational consequences. Western executives often equate efficiency with making a rapid decision. Japanese executives may define efficiency as preventing disruption after the decision has been implemented. This explains why the preparation stage can feel glacial while the execution stage is often remarkably smooth. Japan invests time before acting so that fewer corrections are needed afterwards. Do now: Do not judge progress only by whether a contract has been signed. Information gathering, internal meetings and stakeholder consultations are also signs of movement. Why are mistakes treated so seriously in Japanese companies? Mistakes are costly in Japan because they can damage trust, professional credibility and long-term business relationships. Many Western CFOs accept that eliminating every defect may cost more than tolerating a small failure rate. A company might decide that a three per cent defect rate is commercially acceptable if the additional revenue outweighs replacement costs. That calculation is more difficult in Japan. Customers expect products and services to work reliably from the beginning. A faulty launch can weaken confidence not only in the product but also in the company behind it. This creates a "measure three times, cut once" mentality. Documents are reviewed repeatedly, figures are checked and proposals are refined before they reach senior management. The minimum viable product concept can therefore be challenging. Japanese customers may accept continuous kaizen improvement, but they still expect the original offering to be dependable. Do now: Present evidence, quality controls, implementation plans and contingency measures rather than relying only on enthusiasm for the opportunity. Why do Japanese companies conduct so much due diligence? Japanese companies often examine potential partners carefully because business relationships are viewed as long-term commitments carrying mutual obligations. Western firms frequently form what might be called marriages of convenience. Two companies cooperate while the arrangement remains commercially attractive. When the benefits disappear, they separate and pursue other opportunities. Japanese companies are more likely to treat an important partnership as a long-term relationship. The initial decision therefore carries greater weight. They want to know whether the potential partner is financially stable, operationally dependable and committed to the Japanese market. Foreign firms can be perceived as higher-risk partners because they may change regional strategies, replace senior executives or withdraw from Japan when global priorities shift. The Japanese side is not merely evaluating the immediate proposal. It is also asking whether your organisation will still be dependable several years from now. Do now: Demonstrate continuity, local commitment and post-contract support. Explain who will maintain the relationship after the deal is completed. Who actually makes the decision inside a Japanese company? The company president may formally approve the decision, but the practical decision is often shaped by managers and departments below the president. Unless the business is founder-led, the president may not personally investigate every proposal. Junior and middle-level employees collect information, assess the risks and circulate the proposal among the divisions that will be affected. Japan's traditional ringisho approval process illustrates this approach. A written proposal moves through the organisation, gathering comments and personal seals from relevant decision-makers before reaching senior management. To a foreign salesperson, this can look like excessive bureaucracy. From the Japanese organisation's perspective, it creates shared awareness and reduces the possibility that one department will later oppose implementation. The formal executive approval may be the final rubber stamp, but much of the real decision-making has already occurred during the internal circulation process. Do now: Identify all affected stakeholders. Give your contact materials, evidence and explanations they can use to persuade colleagues internally. What does "we will think about it" mean in Japan? In Japan, "we will think about it" often means the buyer genuinely needs time to investigate, consult and build internal agreement. Western salespeople may interpret the phrase as a polite rejection or as an invitation to apply greater pressure. They immediately ask who controls the budget, when the decision will be made and how the process can be accelerated. Those questions are reasonable, but excessive pressure can be counterproductive in Japan. The buyer may not control the timetable and may be unable to predict how long internal approval will take. It is not unusual to win business from a Japanese company several years after the first meeting. During that period, priorities change, budgets become available and internal supporters gain influence. The buyer is never operating according to the salesperson's timetable. Slow progress does not always mean no progress. Do now: Follow up patiently, continue providing value and remain visible without becoming irritating or demanding. How should foreign executives deal with slow business processes in Japan? Foreign executives should combine patience with disciplined follow-up rather than trying to force Japanese organisations to adopt Western decision-making speeds. Start by providing complete, accurate and easily shareable information. Explain the financial case, operational implications, implementation process and risk controls. Anticipate the questions that legal, finance, procurement, IT and senior management may raise. Ask your contact which departments will be involved and what information each group requires. Instead of saying, "How can we speed this up?", ask, "What can we provide to make the internal discussion easier?" At the same time, do not become passive. Maintain regular contact, share relevant insights and keep demonstrating your organisation's reliability. Patience in Japan does not mean disappearing for six months and hoping someone remembers you. Slow is often considered safe, but trusted partners can help make slow considerably smoother. Conclusion Business in Japan takes time because organisations are protecting quality, trust, internal harmony and professional reputations. Decisions are checked repeatedly, proposals circulate across departments and long-term risks are examined before formal approval is granted. Foreign executives may never learn to love the pace, but they can learn to work effectively within it. Provide excellent information, understand the internal approval system and support your contact rather than pressuring them. Above all, remember two principles: the buyer is never on your timetable, and perseverance is often more powerful than pressure in Japan. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He is the author of the best-selling books Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including ザ営業, プレゼンの達人, トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう and 現代版「人を動かす」リーダー. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking to succeed in Japan.

The first five minutes of a presentation can determine whether an audience sees you as credible, confident and worth listening to—or as unprepared, uncertain and forgettable. Most presenters spend their preparation time assembling slides, adjusting fonts and moving bullet points around. Meanwhile, they give almost no thought to the personal and professional impression they want to create. That is a major mistake. Your audience will judge your competence, credibility and personal brand whether you plan for it or not. A strong presentation opening is not something that should be left to chance. It should be designed. Why Are the First Five Minutes of a Presentation So Important? The first five minutes establish how the audience will perceive your credibility, confidence and value as a presenter.Once that initial judgement has formed, changing it can be extremely difficult. Audiences begin assessing us before we say anything meaningful. They notice how we enter the room, how we stand, what we wear, whether we make eye contact and how confidently we begin. They are silently asking: Is this person professional? Do they understand my world? Will listening to them be worth my time? In executive presentations, client pitches and conference speeches, people are especially quick to judge. Senior leaders at companies such as Toyota, Rakuten or global multinationals may attend several meetings in one day. They do not have unlimited patience for a slow, disorganised or self-indulgent opening. Do now: Decide exactly how you want the audience to describe you after the presentation—and demonstrate those qualities from the moment you appear. How Should You Plan the Opening of a Business Presentation? Begin your presentation planning with the desired audience outcome, not with the order of your slides. Your visual materials should support your message, but they should not dictate your opening. Write down the perceptions you want to create. You might want to be seen as professional, competent, clear, engaging, knowledgeable, energetic or trustworthy. Then ask yourself what behaviours would provide visible evidence of those qualities. For example, a presenter who wants to appear organised should not spend the opening minutes searching for a file or trying to connect a laptop. Someone who wants to be viewed as confident should not begin with an apology, a weak voice or a long explanation of why they are nervous. This principle applies equally to an internal management briefing, a startup investment pitch, a B2B sales presentation or a multinational leadership conference. Do now: Choose three perceptions you want to create, and design one visible behaviour that supports each perception. How Does Personal Brand Affect Presentation Credibility? Your appearance and behaviour send a message about the standards you represent before the audience evaluates your content. Personal brand is therefore part of presentation strategy, not a superficial extra. In my case, I want my appearance to communicate quality, reliability and attention to detail. That means an Italian suit, usually Zegna, a French-cuff shirt, cufflinks, a silk tie, a pocket square and highly polished leather shoes. The intention is not to show off. It is to create consistency between what I claim about delivering quality solutions and what the audience can immediately observe. Your personal brand may be different. A technology founder speaking to software engineers may choose a more relaxed appearance. A banker addressing institutional investors may require conservative business attire. A creative director may have more freedom to express individuality. The key is alignment. Your visual identity should suit your audience, industry, role and message. Do now: Check whether your appearance supports or contradicts the professional promise you are making. What Should a Presenter Do Before the Speech Begins? Arrive early, understand the room and begin building audience relationships before you are formally introduced.Presentation effectiveness starts well before the first slide appears. I like to meet as many people as possible before the talk. This creates an initial personal connection and makes the audience feel less like a collection of strangers. I also check the attendee list or name badges, particularly when I expect to see people I have met before. Remembering names is not easy for most of us. Arriving early gives us the chance to refresh our memory and avoid the awkwardness of failing to recognise an important client, colleague or senior executive. Early arrival also allows you to test the microphone, confirm the screen is working and organise the room. Technical problems may still occur, but discovering them before the audience gathers is much better than troubleshooting them during your opening. Do now: Arrive early enough to test the room, learn key names and connect personally with several audience members. How Should You Walk Onstage and Begin a Presentation? Move with purpose, take control of the space and deliver value immediately. The transition from your introduction to your first message should be smooth, confident and free of technical distractions. When my name is called, I move quickly and confidently to the centre of the stage. I do not spend the next minute adjusting the laptop, searching for the correct slide or untangling cables. Those details have already been handled. A lavalier microphone allows me to keep my hands free for natural gestures. I establish eye contact, pause briefly and begin with an opening designed for that specific audience. The opening might be a provocative question, a surprising fact, a short story, a strong statement or a relevant business problem. A weak opening wastes the small window in which an audience is most curious. A strong opening signals that the speaker is prepared and that useful content is coming. Do now: Rehearse the walk, pause, eye contact and first sentence as carefully as you rehearse the main content. Should You Change Your Presentation Style for Different Audiences? Yes. Adapting your delivery to the audience is professional communication, not inauthentic performance. The objective is to make the message easier for the audience to receive. My usual presentation style contains energy, strong eye contact, vocal power and dynamic movement. However, that approach will not suit every situation. An audience of teenagers may need a different rhythm from a group of experienced board directors. An audience in its eighties may appreciate a slower pace, more pauses and greater vocal clarity. Cultural and organisational context also matter. A high-energy approach that works at a sales conference in the United States may need adjustment for a formal executive briefing in Japan. A startup audience may welcome informality, while government officials or regulated-industry leaders may expect a more measured style. The speaker's core values remain the same. The delivery changes because the audience's needs change. Do now: Adjust your pace, volume, movement and examples to suit the people in front of you—not simply your personal preferences. How Can Presenters Design a Strong First Impression? A strong first impression comes from aligning your appearance, entrance, voice, behaviour and opening message with the needs of the audience. Every element should reinforce the same professional identity. Do not limit presentation preparation to slide production. Ask who will be in the room, what matters to them and what they may already believe about your topic. Decide how you want to be perceived and then design the opening to produce that perception. This requires attention to practical details. Clothing should suit the occasion. Equipment should be ready. Your first sentence should be memorised. Your posture should appear confident. Your energy should match the room. Your examples should reflect the audience's industry, responsibilities and level of knowledge. Different audiences will respond to different presenter personas. The objective is not to please everyone through artificial behaviour. It is to communicate intentionally rather than accidentally. Do now: Treat the first five minutes as a designed experience involving your brand, behaviour, message and audience connection. Conclusion The first five minutes of your presentation are too important to improvise. Your audience will form opinions about your professionalism, competence, trustworthiness and personal brand. Since those judgements will happen anyway, take control of the process. Decide what impression you want to create and build every part of your opening around it. Arrive early. Understand the audience. Prepare the equipment. Choose your appearance deliberately. Rehearse your entrance and opening sentence. Adjust your energy and delivery to the people in the room. Do not allow the audience's first impression to be the product of random luck. Make it the product of your design. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

"The most important thing for a leader, in my view, is integrity." "You need to be hands-on, but then you need to delegate." "If this fails, ultimately, the accountability sits with me." "Culture is something that all of us jointly develop and nurture." "At the end of the day, you have to own your decisions, so you cannot just let AI make   Noriko Sasaki is Country Head of Checkout.com Japan, leading the UK-based payment service provider's expansion in the Japanese market. Checkout.com helps online merchants, gaming companies and digital platforms process payments, improve acceptance rates, receive settlement funds and use payments as a driver of growth and profitability. Sasaki was born in Saitama and spent part of her childhood in Los Angeles when her father was assigned to American Honda. Returning to Japan as a teenager, she rebuilt her Japanese literacy, entered a leading Tokyo high school through a returnee pathway and later studied political science at Waseda University. She began her career in international consulting, working on business-process reengineering and SAP implementation, before earning an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. After returning to Japan, she worked at Walt Disney and then spent close to twenty years at Citibank, where she led major sales operations and participated in the historic transfer of Citi's Japanese retail-banking business into SMBC Trust Bank. She later held roles at Accenture, PwC and a Japanese consulting start-up before joining Checkout.com in November 2024. Her career combines consulting discipline, financial-services leadership, operational transformation, bicultural communication and a long-standing commitment to advancing women in leadership.   Noriko Sasaki's leadership journey has been shaped by repeated transitions across cultures, industries and organisational models. Born in Japan and raised partly in Los Angeles, she returned at fifteen with strong spoken Japanese but limited reading ability. Re-entering the Japanese education system required intensive study, adaptability and resilience. That bicultural experience later became a professional advantage, allowing her to move between Japanese context and international corporate expectations. After studying political science at Waseda University, Sasaki entered international consulting, where she worked on business-process reengineering, operational standardisation and SAP implementation. She eventually questioned whether advice based mainly on frameworks was enough without experience inside a company. An MBA at Carnegie Mellon gave her a broader business foundation, after which she returned to Japan, joined Walt Disney and then moved into banking through a major Citi integration project. Her first substantive people-management role came at Citi. The team was small and entirely female, and one early challenge was managing someone older, more experienced and more knowledgeable about banking. Sasaki responded with humility and respect rather than relying on title. She clarified that both people had different responsibilities, maintained a continuous dialogue and focused the team on a shared goal. That approach became a recurring leadership principle: alignment requires over-communication, clear accountability and respect for expertise at every level. Sasaki later led Citi's branch sales organisation and became closely involved in the transfer of the Japanese retail bank into SMBC Trust Bank. The experience taught her how to translate vision into strategy, strategy into action and action into clearly assigned responsibility. She also learned that senior leaders cannot remain distant from operations. At times, she worked directly on front-line tasks and took customer calls to understand the real issues. The challenge is to remain sufficiently hands-on to retain credibility while delegating enough to expand the organisation's capacity. Her delegation model is structured rather than passive. Before assigning work, she checks the timeline, capacity, assumptions and direction. She asks for interim updates well before completion so that course corrections do not arrive at the final moment and destroy motivation. The employee retains room to execute, but Sasaki remains accountable for the outcome. That air cover matters in a Japanese environment where fear of mistakes can discourage initiative. Innovation similarly depends on lowering the barrier to contribution. Sasaki uses brainstorming rules that give everyone an equal opportunity to speak and explicitly reject the idea of a stupid suggestion. She reminds teams that improvement does not always require a dramatic zero-to-one breakthrough. A small change from 1.0 to 1.1 can still create meaningful value. This framing is especially useful in Japan, where perfectionism, hierarchy, seniority and concern about losing face can suppress ideas before they are voiced. Trust, in Sasaki's view, is built through the smallest commitments. If she casually promises dinner, she records it and follows through. Technology helps her remember birthdays, promises and relationship milestones, but the principle is behavioural consistency. Blaming someone when something goes wrong can destroy trust immediately. Leaders therefore need to own consequences, support people through difficulties and demonstrate that accountability flows upward as well as downward. At Checkout.com, Sasaki works within global operating principles while adapting them to Japan. A principle such as 'talk straight' cannot simply be imported as blunt communication. Honesty must remain, but the method should fit the individual and the high-context Japanese environment. She rejects the notion of building a personal empire around the country head. Culture should survive the leader and be jointly developed by everyone, because engagement is a shared responsibility. Her advice to expatriate leaders is to be patient, recognise the depth of context behind Japanese communication and keep searching for channels through which people can contribute. She also urges them to enjoy Japan beyond the office. For women seeking leadership, she stresses sponsors, internal and external networks, authentic behaviour and the willingness to accept promotion as a means of influencing change for others, not merely pursuing personal ambition. Sasaki's leadership definition rests on four pillars: integrity, vision, communication and accountability. AI can strengthen decision intelligence by processing more information and highlighting options, but leaders must still judge relevance and own the final decision. AI also creates a human-capital challenge: when routine work collapses from 100 hours to ten, leaders need a vision for the capacity released. People should be treated as capital and sources of ideas, not simply as costs to eliminate. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan operates inside a high-context culture where a spoken sentence rarely contains the entire message. Sasaki advises leaders to consider background relationships, informal communication and the time people need to digest information before responding. Silence does not necessarily indicate disengagement, and an immediate answer may not be realistic when employees are trying to avoid mistakes. Hierarchy, age, tenure and gender can also influence who feels entitled to speak. Effective leaders create equal opportunities for contribution, clarify expectations and adapt the communication method to the individual without compromising honesty. Why do global executives struggle? Global executives often struggle because they import behavioural principles without local adaptation. A global instruction to 'talk straight', for example, can be interpreted as permission for bluntness, even though direct confrontation may shut down dialogue in Japan. Leaders also underestimate how much patience, explanation and relationship-building are required. Sasaki recommends resisting the urge to judge delayed responses as resistance. Foreign executives should search for different communication channels and recognise that Japanese colleagues often have valuable ideas but may lack confidence in English or fear offering unverified information. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Japan's reluctance to take risk is closely connected to perfectionism, accountability and fear of public error. Sasaki lowers this barrier by making delegation explicit, requesting early updates and accepting ultimate accountability when an initiative fails. She also reframes innovation as incremental improvement rather than demanding a revolutionary breakthrough. An idea that improves a process from 1.0 to 1.1 is still worthwhile. When leaders demonstrate that there are no stupid ideas and that people will be supported rather than blamed, employees become more willing to test improvements and leave the safety of established routines. What leadership style actually works? Sasaki's style balances humility, structure and hands-on credibility. When managing people with greater age or technical experience, she respects what they know while remaining clear about her own role. She aligns people around mission, breaks vision into strategy and action, and specifies responsibility, including her own. She will enter the operation to understand reality, but she does not remain there permanently. Delegation succeeds when people know the direction, assumptions, deadline and escalation points. The leader provides support, receives interim updates and owns the consequence without micromanaging every step. How can technology help? Technology supports both Checkout.com's payment business and Sasaki's leadership practices. Payments data can help merchants improve profitability and growth, while productivity tools help leaders keep promises and maintain relationships through reminders and accurate follow-up. AI extends this further by processing a much larger volume of information and supporting decision intelligence, scenario development and contingency planning. Sasaki nevertheless draws a clear boundary: AI can provide evidence and insights, but leaders must determine what is relevant and own the decision. Technology should strengthen judgement rather than replace responsibility. Does language proficiency matter? Language proficiency matters because Japanese is a high-context language and much meaning sits in nuance, implication and relationship history. At the same time, Sasaki believes communication is possible even when English proficiency is limited, provided there is patience and genuine will on both sides. Leaders should use multiple channels, allow preparation and avoid assuming that difficulty expressing an idea means the person has nothing to contribute. Her own bicultural background demonstrates the value of moving between languages and contexts, but the deeper skill is creating enough psychological safety for people to keep trying. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? The ultimate leadership lesson is to act with integrity and accept accountability. Sasaki believes leaders must consistently do what is right for the company, customers, society and other people. Vision gives direction; communication enables others to understand it; accountability assures employees that the leader has their back. Culture should not become a personality cult or depend on one country head. It should be jointly developed, durable and grounded in shared behavioural principles. Leadership is therefore not personal dominance, but consistent stewardship that allows others to act, learn and contribute. Author Credentials Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.

Felix Dodds is Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina.  Felix chaired the 2011 UN conference that proposed the first set of indicative Sustainable Development Goals.  From 1992 to 2012, he served as the Executive Director of the Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future. He established the Network for Regional Government for Sustainable Development in 2002, the Water and Climate Coalition in 2007, and the Communitas Coalition for the UN's SDG 11 in 2013. His most recent books are both with Chris Spence: last year's Environmental Lobbying at the United Nations and the 2023 book Heroes of Environmental Diplomacy: Profiles in Courage.  The United Nations, through its international conferences, research studies, agency programs, and collaboration with civil society, has been one of the most significant proponents of discussions on the climate crisis and clean energy. Many countries have bypassed the USA in achieving energy independence and environmental enhancement.                     

12 - It's Friday on The Dom Show and Dom has a lot to discuss to kick off the program today. 1210 - Side - all time mottos 1220 - More side question answers. Why are some washed up pundits and former Eagles executives mad at Defensive Coordinator ?Vic Fangio? 1230 - “The Angriest Black Man in America”, Attorney, Radio & TV Host, and Columnist Michael Coard joins us here today. Does everyone hate the Philadelphia Parking Authority? How bad is it that the PPA is stringent and incompetent? Why does Michael consider them to be “street things”? Why are “red light” and speed cameras unlawful? How do they act like a mafia? How can you beat tickets? 1250 - Your calls to round out the hour.

Prof. John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin

Dr. Piya Sorcar, PhD, CEO TeachAids, Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics, Stanford School of Medicine talks to Lauren and Nick about concussion education and TeachAids. Leveraging her wealth of experience, including her previous program tackling HIV/AIDS education, Dr. Sorcar discuss the importance of genuine concussion education, free concussion education from TeachAids. Not simply telling athletes to not do something, or to remind them of the dangers, Piya and TeachAids, use the power of technology and peer messaging to really get through. Whether it's a fun game amongst friends or a more competitive official school or university league, TeachAids CrashCourse Concussion Education has become an increasingly important part of educating the public in the US, Canada, UK and globally. Did I mention it's free?!Check out all the free products that TeachAids CrashCourse has to offer and get started with your league!Concussion CrashCourse: https://teachaids.org/for-concussions/crashcourse/Concussion Story Wall: https://concussionstorywall.org/If you use VR, take advantage of the excellent interactive experience! If you don't have a VR set (like yours truly) the YouTube and 2D educational experiences are great as well!PLEASE SHARE, LIKE, SUBSCRIBE! WHATEVER THOSE OTHER PODCASTS AND YOUTUBE CHANNELS ASK YOU TO DO FOR THEM, DO FOR US TOO!Check us out on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook! @concussiontalk & @lziaksThank you!Subscribe and leave a review!Visit https://www.concussiontalk.com/ for more!Follow and subscribe! @concussiontalk on YouTube, Instagram & Facebook 2014 e-book, Detour: https://leanpub.com/detourFollow Lauren on Instagram @lziaksConcussion Talk Podcast discusses traumatic brain injury (TBI) by featuring interviews with experts (physiotherapists, doctors, researchers, athletes, community leaders, etc.) and people who have experienced TBI first-hand.Chronically dives deeper into concussions and brain injury as I team up with Lauren Ziaks; a DPT, ATC, and wealth of knowledge of chronic health conditions post-concussion. Join us as we interview more experts, spread awareness of brain injury and more! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded at the PSE-CEPR Policy Forum, Paris School of Economics.Tariffs move trade around, but so does economic power. When one economy dominates, other countries fall into step with it. They trade with the dominant economy, and also with each other. Alberto Martin (Barcelona School of Economics, CEPR) is one of a team that has tracked the influence of hegemons, large dominant economies, on trade from the start of the 19th century. In  our latest VoxTalk he tells Tim Phillips about how they used treaties (not necessarily about trade) as a proxy for alignment, and built a database of 77,000 of them signed between 1800 and 2020 to test their theory.Hegemons sign a disproportionate share of these international agreements. After treaty-signing, trade links become stronger. But treaty-signing has fallen sharply over the past 15 years, as much as it did during the two world wars. If we are heading towards a multipolar world, might what will the absence of a global hegemony do to trade?The research behind this episode:Broner, Fernando, Alberto Martin, Josefin Meyer, and Christoph Trebesch. 2025. "Hegemonic Globalization." CEPR Discussion Paper 20339 (gated).To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Alberto Martin. 2025. "How superpowers shape trade." VoxTalks Economics (podcast).About the guestAlberto Martin is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Research in International Economics (CREI), an Adjunct Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, a Research Professor at the Barcelona School of Economics, and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, where he directs the International Macroeconomics and Finance programme. His research spans macroeconomics, finance, and international economics, including asset bubbles, credit cycles, sovereign debt, and the political economy of trade.Research cited in this episodeGlobal Treaty Database. The dataset at the heart of the paper, assembled by the authors from the United Nations Treaty Collection, the League of Nations archive, and country-specific historical sources. It records roughly 77,000 international agreements signed between 1800 and 2020, most of them bilateral, sorted into economic and non-economic categories such as trade, taxation, migration, borders, and military cooperation.Hegemonic stability. The idea, introduced by Charles Kindleberger in 1973, that an open and stable world economy needs a single dominant power to underwrite it. This paper builds a formal model of the mechanism Kindleberger described, and asks what happens to openness when dominance is contested.Alignment and UN voting. The most common existing proxy for how closely two countries are aligned is whether they vote together at the United Nations. The authors' treaty measure correlates with UN voting in some periods and less in others, partly because many UN votes turn on narrow questions; treaties cover more policy areas and reach back 200 years, which UN voting cannot.The recent decline in treaty-signing. Since 1800 treaty-signing has trended upward, interrupted by three sharp falls: the First World War, the Second World War, and a decline over the last 15 years that is proportionally comparable to the first two. The authors checked large-country sources directly to rule out a reporting lag, and the fall appears real.More VoxTalks Economics episodesThe safety paradox. Isabelle Méjean on how, when countries impose trade restriction to protect themselves, it also makes conflict more likely. Related reading on VoxEU.orgWhy globalisation needs a leader: Hegemons, alignment, and trade, the authors' own VoxEU column setting out the theory of hegemonic globalisation and what a shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world might mean for trade.From bilateralism to a system: Europe's early trade treaties and lessons for EU trade policy in a contested world, a VoxEU column by Laura Panza and Maria Ptashkina drawing on nearly 900 commercial treaties from 1815 to 1919 to argue for expanding networks of agreements even without universal multilateralism.

Leadership principles are rarely complicated. The difficulty is remembering to practise them consistently when targets are missed, markets become unstable, staff disappoint us and the pressure keeps building. In Part One, we examined the first seven guiding principles of leadership. Here are principles eight to sixteen: practical reminders about respect, recognition, accountability, goal-setting, focus, resilience, work-life balance, worry and enthusiasm. They may sound familiar, but familiarity is not the same as application. How does showing respect improve employee motivation? Genuine respect is the foundation of sustainable employee motivation because people are more willing to contribute when they feel valued as human beings. This applies not only to star performers but also to the large middle of the workforce whose performance may be average or inconsistent. Many bosses naturally respect their top 20% because those people deliver results. The real leadership test is how they treat everyone else. Frustration can leak into the boss's voice, facial expression and daily interactions. Staff quickly recognise when they are being tolerated rather than respected. Leaders do not have to accept poor performance. They do, however, need to separate the individual's worth from the current quality of the work. Clear coaching, fair expectations and honest feedback can coexist with dignity. Do now: Check whether every team member receives the same basic level of courtesy, attention and respect, regardless of performance. Why are recognition and praise sometimes more powerful than money? People work for money, but they often go the extra mile because they receive recognition, praise and meaningful rewards. Fair pay matters, but salary alone rarely creates emotional engagement, loyalty or discretionary effort. Frederick Herzberg described salary as a "hygiene factor". When pay is unfair, it causes dissatisfaction. When it is fair, employees generally treat it as an expected part of the employment relationship. The stronger motivational effect often comes from achievement, responsibility, progress and recognition. Our Dale Carnegie research has repeatedly identified feeling valued by one's immediate manager as an important emotional driver of engagement. Employees cannot read the boss's mind. They know they are valued because the leader communicates it through specific praise, appreciation and acknowledgement. A vague "good job" is better than silence, but precise recognition is stronger: explain what the person did, why it mattered and who benefited. Do now: Recognise one specific contribution today and connect it directly to its positive impact. Should leaders admit their mistakes? Strong leaders admit mistakes quickly because accountability builds credibility rather than diminishing authority.A boss who pretends to be infallible creates defensiveness, fear and political behaviour throughout the organisation. Ego, face, pride and professional image can make an admission difficult, particularly in hierarchical business cultures. Some managers worry that saying "I was wrong" will weaken their position. Usually, the opposite happens. Employees already know the mistake occurred. The only unresolved question is whether the leader has enough confidence and integrity to acknowledge it. Admitting an error does not mean accepting chronic incompetence. Leaders and employees must still meet professional standards. The principle is to be quick to acknowledge genuine mistakes, slow to criticise others and constructive when correcting performance. A leader who accepts personal imperfection is also more capable of responding calmly when a team member makes an occasional error. Do now: Admit the mistake, explain the correction and focus the team on preventing a recurrence. How should leaders set challenging but realistic goals? Effective goals should stretch performance without becoming so unrealistic that employees stop believing effort will make any difference. Clear, challenging and attainable targets generate more commitment than numbers based on guesswork, hope or executive wishful thinking. Throughout my career, I have encountered targets that appeared to have no scientific, commercial or logical foundation. A wet finger held up to the breeze seemed to be the methodology. These goals did not motivate anyone. They encouraged cynicism, sandbagging and creative explanations for failure. Today, I use a spreadsheet to track each salesperson's results from the date they joined the company. This allows comparisons based on experience, historical performance, conversion patterns and realistic productivity expectations. Large corporations, SMEs and startups may use different metrics, but the principle remains the same: base targets on evidence, explain the rationale and confirm that employees can influence the outcome. Do now: Review whether your team's goals are evidence-based, clearly explained and difficult but genuinely obtainable. How can leaders maintain focus on the big picture? Leaders maintain strategic focus by protecting time for important long-term work, even while urgent problems compete for attention. Markets, currency movements, wars, technological disruption and economic downturns can easily pull leaders into permanent crisis management. Employees are often understandably focused on today's workload, career, compensation and immediate problems. Senior leaders must operate across a longer horizon. They need to keep reminding the organisation where it is going, why that destination matters and what must be protected during periods of disruption. The familiar advice is to work on the business, not only in the business. Stephen Covey's Quadrant Two—important but not urgent—is where strategic planning, relationship building, capability development and risk prevention normally sit. Unfortunately, these activities are easily postponed because they are not yet emergencies. The big picture does not maintain itself. Leaders have to schedule time to think. Do now: Block regular Quadrant Two time for strategy, people development and prevention before urgent work consumes the calendar. Does work-life balance improve leadership performance? Consistently high performance requires recovery because health, reflection and leisure support better judgement, creativity and endurance. Leadership is a marathon, even though ambitious executives sometimes behave as if every month is the final sprint. "I will outwork, out-sacrifice and out-commit everyone" can sound admirable. It becomes dangerous when exhaustion damages decision quality, relationships or physical health. Many of our strongest ideas appear while walking, running, swimming, exercising or gardening—not while staring at another spreadsheet late at night. My father established his own company at the age of 49 and achieved rapid financial success. He died from lung cancer at 51 and was not there to enjoy the rewards. That experience permanently shaped my view of success. Winning in business is meaningless if leaders destroy their health, family life and capacity to enjoy what they have built. Do now: Treat sleep, exercise, relationships and recovery as performance disciplines rather than optional rewards. How can leaders remain positive during severe setbacks? Resilient leaders take strength from what remains possible instead of allowing past failures and present negativity to consume their energy. Positivity is not pretending that serious problems do not exist. It is maintaining the ability to act despite them. The movie reel inside our minds repeatedly shows mistakes, humiliations, losses and disasters. News media amplify the effect because negative stories attract attention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the training industry suffered extraordinary disruption. Remaining optimistic while facing losses, uncertainty and upheaval was not easy. My mantra was TINA: There Is No Alternative. Quitting mentally would not improve the situation, so the only productive option was to keep adapting and fighting. Japan's well-known saying, "Fall down seven times, get up eight," captures the required mindset. Resilience does not remove the wound. It gets us moving again. Do now: Identify what remains within your control and take one constructive action before reviewing the problem again. What practical method helps leaders control worry? Leaders can reduce worry by converting vague fear into a clearly defined problem followed by practical solution choices. Worry thrives when the mind circles endlessly around uncertainty without moving toward a decision. Questions such as "Can we make payroll?", "Will we run out of cash?" and "How much longer can we survive?" became genuine concerns for many business owners during the pandemic, supply-chain disruption, market instability and geopolitical conflict. A simple four-part process can interrupt paralysis: What is the problem? Why is it a problem? What could I do to alleviate the problem? Which solution is best? This structure moves the mind away from emotional repetition and into analysis, options and action. The selected solution may not be perfect, but purposeful movement is generally healthier than passive anxiety. Do now: Write down the worry, answer the four questions and choose the next specific action. Why is enthusiasm essential for leadership? Enthusiasm gives leaders the emotional energy to influence others, sustain momentum and keep hope alive when circumstances are grim. It can move people, but it must also be protected from persistent negativity. Negative colleagues, commentators and acquaintances can act like kryptonite. Their pessimism gradually drains confidence and makes every idea appear impossible. Leaders cannot always avoid difficult people, particularly when the negative person is a colleague, client or family member. They can, however, control how much authority that person's outlook is allowed to have. Enthusiasm is not constant excitement. It is a renewable commitment to possibility. Leaders should identify the activities, people, purposes and achievements that reignite their energy. A small spark can become the blue flame that helps a team believe there is a worthwhile future ahead. Your emotional state is contagious, whether you intend it to be or not. Do now: Protect your enthusiasm, reduce unnecessary exposure to habitual negativity and reconnect with what gives the work meaning. Conclusion: How can leaders turn familiar principles into daily habits? The sixteen principles covered across Parts One and Two are not new, glamorous or technologically advanced. Most leaders have heard similar advice before. The problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is inconsistent execution. Respect, recognition, humility, constructive feedback, realistic goals, strategic focus, personal health, resilience, practical problem-solving and enthusiasm only create value when they become visible behaviours. Choose one principle each day and deliberately practise it. Treat the principles like daily business health supplements. One small leadership behaviour repeated consistently can improve trust, engagement, judgement and organisational performance. The obvious principles are often the ones we neglect. Leadership improves when we stop admiring the ideas and start living them. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Why Your Best People Want You to Leave Them Alone   There is a pattern Nathan Jamail has seen across hundreds of organizations, in every industry, at every level. Ask employees what their professional goal is, and most will eventually tell you: to be so good their boss leaves them alone. That is not apathy. That is a signal about how leadership is being experienced. In this episode, Nathan and Rocky go deep on why coaching cultures fail not because leaders lack intention, but because they spend their attention on exactly the wrong people.   In This Episode: Why 90% of employees at every level aim to be left alone by their manager, and what that reveals about leadership The distinction between coaching those who need attention and those who deserve it Why the leader in the middle is the most powerful and most overlooked force in any organization How AI will eliminate the leader who manages through process and amplify the one who leads through genuine connection Why promoting the best salesperson into management is often the most costly mistake a company makes What "serve up, coach down" actually requires at every layer of an organization Why accountability and mandating behavior are acts of belief, not control   Key Insights: Leaders default to spending time with struggling employees while leaving high performers alone. The consequence: high performers learn that good performance means less coaching, and they plateau. The goal is not buy-in. Buy-in is compliance. The goal is belief, and belief is built through alignment from the very top down. AI will not replace the leader. It will replace the manager who adds no human value. Connection, trust, and accountability cannot be automated. The leader in the middle (the director, the senior manager) holds more organizational power than anyone above or below them. They make or break alignment. Accountability is not control. It is the highest form of belief in another person's capacity.   About Nathan Jamail: Nathan Jamail is a record-setting performer, CEO, Adjunct Professor in the MBA program at SMU's Cox School of Business, where he has earned more than 18 Teacher Excellence Awards, and a bestselling author of leadership and sales books. During his tenure as an Executive Director at a Fortune 100 company, Nathan built and led seven #1 producing teams across five states and Puerto Rico. He has also built, scaled, and sold multiple small businesses, bringing real-world corporate and entrepreneurial leadership experience to everything he teaches. For more than two decades, Nathan has coached and developed leaders on three continents and thousands around the world. His leadership principles now serve as the backbone for organizations across manufacturing, finance, technology, communications, hospitality, and more. In a business climate shaped by AI acceleration and constant disruption, Nathan helps organizations leverage technology without losing their human edge, building teams that win through clarity, discipline, accountability, and trust.   Links: www.NathanJamail.com Email: info@nathanjamail.com LinkedIn: @nathanjamail https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanjamail/ Facebook: @jdgroup https://www.facebook.com/jdgroup Instagram: @nathan_jamail https://www.instagram.com/nathan_jamail   Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@richersoul Richer Soul Life Beyond Money. You got rich, now what? Let's talk about your journey to purposeful, intentional, amazing life. Where are you going to go and how are you going to get there? Let's figure that out together. At the core is the financial well being to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want. It's about personal freedom! Thanks for listening! Show Sponsor: http://profitcomesfirst.com/ Schedule your free no obligation call: https://bookme.name/rockyl/lite/intro appointment 15 minutes If you like the show please leave a review on iTunes: http://bit.do/richersoul https://www.facebook.com/richersoul http://richersoul.com/ rocky@richersoul.com Some music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

Competitors can damage your margins, poach your best people, outspend you, undercut your prices and introduce technology that makes your current offer irrelevant. Worrying about them, however, is not a strategy. The better response is to build a competitive moat before you desperately need one. That means creating distinctive value, stronger client relationships, better delivery systems and advantages that rivals cannot easily or cheaply reproduce. How Much Attention Should We Pay to Our Competitors? Leaders should understand their competitors clearly, but they should not allow competitors to dictate every business decision. The objective is informed awareness rather than corporate paranoia. The intensity of competition depends on the market. In a commodity sector, price and supply capacity may determine almost everything. In a narrow market with only a few suppliers, gaining market share may be extremely difficult. Currency movements, technological disruption, regulatory changes, capital availability and the loss of key employees can also alter the competitive balance overnight. A rival with hundreds of salespeople may reach far more potential buyers than your team of twenty. A heavily funded newcomer may willingly destroy industry pricing to purchase market share. These threats are real, but constantly reacting to them can pull your organisation away from its own strategy. Do now: Identify the three competitor actions that could most seriously affect your revenue, margins or client retention. Why Is Competing on Price So Dangerous? Price competition is dangerous because a rival with deeper pockets can sustain losses for longer than you can. Once buyers become accustomed to discounted pricing, restoring the previous market rate can be painfully difficult. Many companies spend years building their prices to a sustainable level. Then a new entrant arrives and offers a similar product for substantially less. The newcomer may not need to make an immediate profit. It may be funded by a parent company, private equity, venture capital or profits from another division. This creates a zero-sum battle of winners and losers. Smaller firms often cannot match the discount without destroying their own margins. The answer is not always to become cheaper. It is to make direct price comparison harder by changing the value equation. Instead of allowing an apple-to-apple comparison, create a musk-melon-to-apple comparison. In Japan, premium musk melons command extraordinary prices because buyers perceive them as a completely different category of value. Do now: List the services, expertise, guarantees or outcomes that could move your offer beyond a direct price comparison. What Is a Competitive Moat in Business? A competitive moat is an advantage that protects your clients, revenue and market position from attack by rivals.Strong moats are valuable to buyers and difficult, expensive or time-consuming for competitors to copy. A moat might consist of proprietary technology, trusted relationships, specialist expertise, exclusive distribution, superior service, faster delivery, a powerful brand or a deeply embedded client ecosystem. In business-to-business markets, the moat may be the accumulated trust created through years of reliable execution. The irony is that companies usually need to build these defences while business is going well. Unfortunately, good times create complacency. Leaders are busy serving current demand, employees are fully occupied and there appears to be no urgent reason to invest in protection. That is precisely when the work should begin. Once the crisis arrives, the organisation may lack the time, cash or management attention required to respond properly. Do now: Ask what clients would genuinely miss if your company disappeared tomorrow. Their answers reveal the foundations of your moat. Why Do Companies Wait Until a Crisis to Innovate? Companies delay innovation because the cost and inconvenience are immediate, while the danger of doing nothing appears distant. A crisis suddenly reverses that calculation. Our experience at Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training illustrates the problem. Business was surging during 2018 and 2019. Revenue was strong, demand was high and the organisation was occupied with delivering training. Everything looked pretty peachy. Then Japan confirmed its first COVID-19 case in January 2020. Clients began cancelling scheduled programmes, and the outlook changed dramatically. We had no sufficiently developed moat against the disappearance of face-to-face delivery. Dale Carnegie had conducted virtual training internationally since 2010, but introducing it properly in Japan required curriculum translation, instructor development, producer training and financial investment. Before the pandemic, those barriers encouraged us to dawdle. Once survival was at stake, we found the money, time and determination remarkably quickly. In retrospect, the capability should have been built before the crisis. Do now: Identify one strategic capability your organisation keeps postponing because there is no immediate urgency. How Can a Business Create Value Competitors Cannot Copy? Distinctive value comes from solving client problems more completely, conveniently or reliably than the alternatives. The strongest advantages often combine several modest benefits into one difficult-to-replicate system. Leaders frequently believe they already provide sufficient value. The more useful question is: what additional impact could we create for the buyer? A manufacturer might attach consulting, installation, training or maintenance services to a physical product. A professional services company might add diagnostics, benchmarking, follow-up coaching, digital resources or implementation support. A software provider might reduce risk through stronger onboarding, integration assistance and user education. Some additions will cost money without producing an immediate, separate fee. That does not automatically make them a bad investment. Real moats are expensive. If an advantage is cheap and simple to introduce, competitors will reproduce it quickly. The goal is to provide musk-melon value at an apple price—or at a price only slightly above the apple. Do now: Brainstorm ten ways to save clients time, reduce their costs, lower their risk or improve the quality of their results. Should We Build a Competitive Moat When Business Is Strong? The best time to build a competitive moat is when revenue is healthy, clients are buying and the company still has strategic choices. Waiting until sales collapse removes many of those choices. Good times always feel as though they will continue. They do not. Economic downturns, geopolitical shocks, technological change, new regulations, shifts in buyer behaviour and unexpected competitors can all expose weaknesses that were invisible during periods of growth. This does not mean leaders should become pessimistic or divert unlimited resources into defensive projects. It means allocating regular time and budget to resilience, differentiation and innovation. Executives should examine which revenue streams depend on one client, one delivery method, one salesperson, one supplier or one technology platform. They should also test whether their supposed advantages are truly valuable to clients or merely internal beliefs. Moat building should become part of normal strategy, not an emergency activity launched after the castle is already under attack. Do now: Review your strategic plan and assign an owner, budget and deadline to one moat-building initiative. What Should Leaders Do About Competitors Now? Competitors deserve attention, but obsessing over them will not protect your business. The strongest defence is to become more valuable, more distinctive and more difficult to replace. Study the market, understand emerging threats and watch for changes in price, technology, regulation, talent and client expectations. Then turn the attention back to your own organisation. Ask what you can provide that buyers value and competitors struggle to reproduce. Look for ways to combine products with services, expertise with technology and quality with greater speed or convenience. Most importantly, do not wait for the next crisis. Build the moat while the business is healthy, because the moment when you urgently need protection is usually the worst possible moment to begin constructing it. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His Japanese-language works include Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

With growing evidence about concussion, repetitive head impacts and long-term brain disease, have we underestimated the risks of sport all along? How did we get here, what do we really know about head injuries and given the risks, is it time to rethink children's participation in sport?In this episode, we chat to Alan Pearce, a neuroscientist and Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne who has been researching sports-related concussions for more than two decades.This episode was written and produced by Isabella Podwinski. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.

Send us Fan MailKeven Rinaman is the Director of Innovation and Educational Technology at Calvert Catholic Schools and an Adjunct Professor at Tiffin University in Ohio. He is also the author of 3DU: A Guide to 3D Printing in Every Classroom (and talked about 3d printing on Ep 218)He recently wrote the book Tinker Kid & the Case of the Wobbly Desks with his 10 year old son Cooper. "When the students at St. Michael Elementary start complaining about wobbly desks, Tim Kooper knows it's time for action. As his superhero alter ego, Tinker Kid, Tim teams up with his friends Sara and John to investigate the problem. Using creativity, problem-solving, and a little 3D printing magic, the trio designs clever solutions that not only fix the desks but also bring the class closer together. Packed with humor, teamwork, and hands-on STEM adventures, this story shows how curiosity and ingenuity can turn even small challenges into big victories."As a Director of Technology, Keven enjoys facilitating Professional Development for his staff and at conferences. His extensive background in both education and technology has given him an understanding on how to meaningfully integrate technology, while knowing how to present to a group of learners.Connect with Keven:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/keven-rinaman-ed-s-7a714666/Keven's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keven.rinaman3DU Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61582255271581Tinker Kid & the Case of the Wobbly Desks: amazon.com/Tinker-Kid-Case-Wobbly-Desks/dp/B0GDKWT4CQ3DU Book: amazon.com/3DU-Printing-Classroom-Affordable-Content/dp/B09HPS7Y23Chris Woods is the host of the STEM Everyday Podcast... Connect with him:Website: dailystem.comTwitter/X: @dailystemInstagram: @dailystemYouTube: @dailystemGet Chris's book Daily STEM on AmazonSupport the show

An interview with Kelly Alvarez DoranWhy do our building codes encourage carbon pollution? How have we landed in a "progress paradox," where older buildings often outperform new ones in both operational and embodied energy? In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Alvarez Doran, co-founder of Ha/f Climate Design, to unpack the hidden impacts of the built environment—a sector responsible for nearly 40% of global emissions.The good news is that architects and planners can use their agency to stop these "right now" pollutants. Meaningful decarbonization doesn't have to cost a premium: Kelly shares how simple material swaps recently slashed a UK project's carbon by 26% (800 tonnes) with zero impact on the budget or schedule.Kelly Alvarez DoranKelly is a father, architect and educator. His holistic approach to the design of the built environment has been shaped by his experiences working across the world - first in the resource development sector, and later as MASS Design Group's East African Director where he led the design and implementation of several of MASS's projects, notably the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture–winner of several international awards for sustainable design and construction. Working in these contexts brought about a profound sense of the scales of social and environmental impacts inherent to the built environment. Kelly is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, a Senior Fellow of Architecture 2030, a founding member of the Bio-based Materials Collective, a winner of the Canada Council's Prix de Rome for Emerging Practitioners, and a member of the RAIC's Committee on Regenerative Environments.TeamHosted by Kristof IrwinEdited by Nico MignardiProduced by M. Walker

Our reporters Cathal Dowd and Alex Redmond were in Dun Laoghaire in Co Dublin to see what people would like to see in October's budget announcement. We also got analysis from Prof. John Fitzgerald, Adjunct Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin.

We collect leadership ideas from everywhere: books, training courses, articles, mentors, bosses, colleagues and the occasional painful lesson delivered by experience. The problem is that we rarely collect these ideas in one place. They arrive randomly over many years, and we forget more than we retain. We may recognise a useful principle when we hear it, nod wisely and then promptly return to doing exactly what we were doing before. Here are seven leadership principles we already know but probably need to remember. In Part Two, we will continue with principles eight through sixteen. Should Leaders Focus on Strengths or Weaknesses? The first step towards leadership success is identifying your strengths and deliberately building on them. That is not what most of us do, though, is it? We usually focus on what we are doing badly. We replay mistakes, analyse weaknesses and beat ourselves up because we are not perfect. All of that keeps us looking backwards. Naturally, leaders cannot ignore weaknesses that are hurting the team or damaging results. However, leadership development should not become an endless repair job. We also need to ask where we already perform well and how we can create even more value from those capabilities. Perhaps you are good at setting direction, developing people, winning trust, communicating through uncertainty or making tough decisions. These strengths are leadership assets. Use them consciously rather than treating them as accidental. Do now: Write down your three strongest leadership capabilities and decide where you will apply each one more deliberately. What Really Builds Trust in Leadership? Trust is built when leaders are fair, keep their promises and do the right thing even when nobody would blame them for taking the easier option. Communication is built on trusting relationships, but what actually creates that trust? Fairness is a major part of it. Employees, vendors and clients are always watching how we behave when pressure, money and competing interests enter the picture. During the COVID period, we had access to international pricing for one of our training programmes. That price was higher than what we normally charged locally. We could easily have taken the extra money, and in those very straitened times, the cash would have been welcome. But where is the trust if we do that? Trust also means doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it and in the way you promised. That sounds easy. It is not. Busy schedules, shifting priorities and unexpected problems all get in the way. Regardless, leaders have to keep their eyes on integrity and follow their true-north values. Do now: Review the commitments you have made recently. Is there anything you promised but have not yet delivered? Can a Leader Force Employees to Be Motivated? Motivation cannot be forced. People have to want to do a good job, and the leader's role is to help create the conditions for that motivation. Imagine a cartoon boss screaming, "Be motivated! Be motivated! Be motivated!" so loudly that the employees' hair is blowing backwards. Ridiculous, obviously. Yet many managers are not doing anything much more sophisticated. They push harder, repeat the target, add pressure and wonder why people are not suddenly overflowing with enthusiasm. A better starting point is alignment. What does the individual value? What does the enterprise value? Where can those interests connect? One employee may want advancement. Another may want recognition, professional mastery, security, flexibility or the chance to work on something meaningful. Leaders need to understand those individual motivations and help employees see how strong performance can move them towards their own goals. Here is the million-dollar question: do you know the goals and values of each staff member? And do you keep checking? Goals change. Do now: Ask each person what they most want to achieve professionally over the next twelve months. Why Must a Leader's Interest in People Be Genuine? Genuine interest strengthens relationships because people can quickly detect the difference between real curiosity and fake friendliness. The key word is "genuine". This is not about pretending to care because you want something. It is not a technique to secure cooperation, win a sale or encourage someone to work harder. We have all seen the opposite. Someone is charming while they expect a generous tip and then looks visibly disappointed when the amount is not sufficient. In Japan, there is also the eigyo smile—the fake "sales smile" used to help win business. The mouth is smiling, but the rest of the person is not involved. Leaders make the same mistake when they ask polite questions while clearly waiting for their turn to talk. People are fascinating. When we show pure curiosity, we learn far more about their experiences, concerns, motivations and ambitions. They also sense that the interaction is genuine. As leaders, let's be curious. Do now: Ask someone a question today simply because you are interested in the answer, not because you need anything from them. Why Is Empathy Essential for Modern Leaders? Empathy helps leaders understand the world affecting another person instead of judging everything from inside their own world. Deadlines, targets, quotas, emails, bills and endless meetings—the rough and tumble of business is relentless. It is easy to become completely consumed by our own pressures. When that happens, we forget that everyone around us is dealing with a different set of circumstances. I once watched a company owner networking vigorously at an event. Another guest made a snide comment about what the owner was doing. Maybe that guest sailed through the pandemic completely unscathed. The company owner, however, had been clinging on by the fingernails. The networking was not vanity or attention-seeking. It was an attempt to keep the business alive. That is what happens when we focus entirely on ourselves. We judge visible behaviour without understanding the invisible circumstances behind it. For leaders, that is a disaster. This is especially true when talented employees can easily jump ship if they do not feel they are being understood or looked after. Empathy is not an occasional activity. As leaders, we had better become empathetic if we want to succeed in modern business. Do now: Before criticising someone's attitude or performance, ask what may be happening that you do not yet understand. Why Are Good Listeners So Persuasive? Nobody is more persuasive than a good listener because people are far more open to someone who makes them feel heard and valued. This sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? We often imagine persuasion as having the gift of the gab, controlling the conversation, steering the content and driving forward through sheer force of will. In practice, this often means finishing other people's sentences, cutting them off or jumping in with our genius contribution before they have completed their point. This behaviour is so common that when someone actually shuts up and lets us talk, we feel liberated. We feel energised. We feel valued. We like that person. We also become more positive about who they are, what they have to say and what they want us to consider. Introverts, in particular, often respond well when they are given enough space to think and speak without being steamrolled. So, if you want people to listen to you as a leader, first let them do the talking. Do now: In your next conversation, do not interrupt. Let the person finish, pause and then ask a follow-up question. Why Are Team Players the Leaders of Tomorrow? Tomorrow's leaders will succeed through creativity, critical thinking and collaboration rather than trying to dominate everything through personal force of will. The three Cs—creativity, critical thinking and collaboration—are becoming increasingly important. Collaboration is the relatively new arrival. When I was growing up in business, Jack Welch was the dominant leadership role model. The popular image was of a tough leader driving results through force of personality, pushing subordinates hard and casting overboard anyone who did not measure up. It was a Darwinian struggle producing zero-sum outcomes. Today's business environment is different. No leader can personally master every market, technology, customer expectation, regulatory risk and operational problem. The winning formula is the ability to tap into the collective intellect, energy and commitment of the whole team. I can see this weakness in myself. I now tell my son he should not think he has to do everything alone, as I did. He should seek support, mentors and collaborators. I wish I had been smarter about this rather than following the path of the hairy-chested individual trying to do everything independently. I have been a notoriously slow learner. Do now: Choose one important problem you are carrying alone and bring other capable people into the discussion. Which Leadership Principles Matter Most? Leadership improves when we consistently apply familiar principles rather than endlessly searching for fashionable new theories. Know your strengths and build on them. Be fair and protect trust. Understand what motivates each individual rather than attempting to force motivation upon them. Take a genuine interest in people. Step outside your own world and practise empathy. Listen before trying to persuade. Finally, stop believing that strong leadership means doing everything alone. Collaboration is not a sign of weakness. It is how leaders gain access to the full intelligence and commitment of the team. We know these principles. The real challenge is remembering to apply them when we are busy, under pressure and tempted to return to old habits. In Part Two, we will continue with principles eight through sixteen. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the best-sellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, as well as Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His Japanese-language books include Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Welcome to Mysteries to Die For.I am TG Wolff and am here with Jack, my piano player and producer. This is a podcast where we combine storytelling with original music to put you in the heart of a mystery. All stories are structured to challenge you to beat the detective to the solution. Jack and I perform these live, front to back, no breaks, no fakes, no retakes.In the world's most dangerous working environments it can seem like everything is out to kill you. The equipment you use. The materials you work with. The very air you breathe. Stored energy is a coiled viper waiting for the right moment to lash out. Owners, manufacturers, contractors, and beyond have developed safety protocols to combat STCKY, that is, Stuff That Can Kill You. Gravity, Motion, Mechanical, Electrical, Pressure, Sound, Radiation, Biological, Chemical, Temperature. This season is all about the means of murder as authors put our STCKY detective skills to the test. This is Season 9, Stuff That Can Kill You.This is Episode 14, where heat, pressure, chemical, and mechanical are our STCKY means of death. This is The Rendering of Truth by Chuck BrownmanDELIBERATIONAlone, neither Lena nor Mercer have what it takes to crack the case. But together, and with our help, we can figure out what happened to Eddie Weller and Dale Curtis. Here's the suspect list, in the order we met them:Junior Lattimore, rendering techJohn Reese, plant managerTanya Lowell, accounting clerk and office mateFrank Jackson, rendering foremanDale Curtis, plant foremanHere are the facts that Lena and Mercer have uncovered:• Eddie Weller, newly promoted to Operations Reviewer, went into the rendering pit. The pit was activated and Eddie died from a lethal combination of heat, oxygen deprivation, and mechanical grinding.Eddie was formerly an operating tech and, in his new role, signed off on the maintenance documentation. He knew the paperwork or safety protections he knew was needed to enter the confined space.No one offered an explanation of why Eddie would have entered the pit.Junior Lattimore did not look into the pit before he turned it on. He had no reason to think anyone was in it.A search of Eddie's desk found evidence of falsified invoices for filters. The invoices were signed by Reese. He added a note to check with DC, interpreted as Dale Curtis.Tanya prepares the invoices for Reese's signature. She said he directed her to process the invoices for his approval, saying they were a rush job from a new vendor.Reese said he signs the invoices Tanya prepares, implying he did not scrutinize or even read the documents.A torn piece of bank statement found in the trash in the office Eddie and Tanya shared had a sizable balance but no nameCurtis later heard Eddie in his office talking to someone about stealing, but couldn't see who as the door was closed.Mercer recognized Steam Line #4 was tampered with. The line then failed catastrophically killing Dale Curtis. He was found with a pipe wrench in the vicinity.A drawing of the plant found in Eddie's apartment also highlighted Steam Line #4 as out of compliance on maintenance inspection.Lena and Mercer speculate the person or persons behind the “accidents” had to have an understanding of the plant to orchestrate both deaths.Tanya had knowledge and access to the invoice, but does not have knowledge of the plant. Tanya and Eddie shared an office and were friends. Eddie spent time with her son.Junior had knowledge of the rendering area, but did not have access to accounting. Junior lost out on the promotion to Eddie and was bitter.Junior had no apparent problem with Dale Curtis.Jackson had knowledge of the rendering area. Recently separated, he and Tanya were dating. He often when to her office, and even helped straighten Tanya's desk for her. He was there in the office when Eddie died.Reese claims his knowledge of the plant isn't detailed. He signed off on plant expenditures.Whose greed was paid for with the lives of Eddie Weller and Dale Curtis?MEMBERSHIPS!Mysteries to Die For now has memberships! Three tiers – The Grave Digger's Union (free), The Cadaver Collective ($4 / month) and The Preservationist Society ($8 / month). We are starting memberships to help pay for our real live human authors, to keep the software working and the power flowing, and avoid the dreaded use of ads. If you want to show you love but aren't ready for a commitment, you can now tip us and leave a witting, punny note for us. Links are in the show notes and on our website M2D4podcast.com.ABOUT Chuck BrownmanA mostly-retired (and hopefully recovering) attorney, Chuck Brownman now enjoys writing noir fiction, concentrating on short fiction. His work has been published in several anthologies and on multiple websites, including those listed at the top of this episode. He has also served various times as a judge for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards. When not writing fiction, Chuck continues to advise some of the country's most entrepreneurial energy and natural resource companies. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law, and has spoken at legal seminars for many years. He lives with his wife in Colorado, the peaceful vistas offering a counterbalance to his suspenseful and often bloody crime fiction. A full list of his published fiction can be found at his website, www.chuckbrownman.comWRAP UPThat wraps this episode of Mysteries to Die For. Support our show by subscribing, telling a mystery lover about us, or joining a membership. Check out our website m2d4podcast.com for links to this season's authors and membership options.Mysteries to Die For is hosted by TG Wolff and Jack Wolff. The Rendering of Truth was written by Chuck Brownman. Music and production are by Jack Wolff. Episode art is by TG Wolff. Join us next week for a Toe Tag, which is the first chapter from a fresh release in the mystery, crime, or thriller genre. Then come back in two weeks for our next original story where chemical is our STCKY means of murder. It's Gen X by Melinda Di Lorenzo

Austin Campbell draws a parallel between the AI data center backlash and the decades-long collapse of US nuclear power, then Sam Lyman of the Bitcoin Policy Institute puts real odds on whether the Clarity Act passes the Senate before August recess. Hosts: Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern Ram Ahluwalia, Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida Chris Perkins, Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto Guest: Sam Lyman - Head of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute This clip is from a longer conversation on foreign funded opposition to AI data centers and the odds of the Clarity Act passing. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/-xbSniveaQU  We go live every Monday - subscribe to catch it live. Sponsor Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained  (use code: UNCHAINED). Chapters:

Leadership success is usually measured through revenue, market share, promotions, productivity and team performance. Those indicators matter, but they do not tell us whether a leader is succeeding in life. A leader can deliver excellent corporate results while gradually damaging their marriage, weakening their relationship with their children, neglecting their health, mishandling their finances and losing touch with their friends. That is not genuine success. It is professional achievement purchased at an unnecessarily high personal price. This risk is especially relevant in Japan, where long working hours, loyalty to the organisation and the demands placed on player-managers can make work the dominant force in a leader's life. The Wheel of Life provides a useful way to examine whether leaders are achieving balanced and sustainable success. Why do Japanese leaders struggle with work-life balance? Many Japanese leaders still operate within a deeply established culture that rewards commitment, endurance and long working hours. Even when official working practices change, the expectation of total dedication can remain. Japan's post-war economic recovery was driven partly by extraordinary levels of personal sacrifice. During the rapid-growth era, many fathers spent most of their waking hours working, commuting or socialising with colleagues. Mothers frequently carried most of the responsibility for raising children and managing the household. Conditions have changed. Most schools and companies no longer operate every Saturday, dual-income households are increasingly common and younger employees often expect more control over their personal lives. However, the old attitudes have not completely disappeared. Middle-management positions have been reduced in many organisations, technology has transferred administrative work back to managers and leaders are often expected to manage teams while delivering their own individual results. These player-managers may supervise people, handle clients, prepare reports and complete routine administration themselves. Do now: Examine whether your working hours reflect genuine strategic necessity or simply an inherited organisational habit. What is the Wheel of Life for leaders? The Wheel of Life is a self-assessment tool that helps leaders evaluate several important areas of life rather than judging success through career achievement alone. The tool is normally presented as a circle divided into categories. The centre represents a score of zero and the outer edge represents ten. Leaders score their level of satisfaction in areas such as career, finances, family, health, friendships, community, personal interests and spirituality or personal meaning. When the points are connected, the resulting shape shows whether life is relatively balanced or heavily distorted. A leader may score nine in career but only three in health, two in family relationships and one in social life. That person may look successful in the office while experiencing a personal life that is increasingly difficult to sustain. The objective is not to achieve a perfect ten in every category. That is unrealistic. The purpose is to identify serious imbalances before they become crises. Do now: Score each area honestly from zero to ten and identify the two categories that require your immediate attention. Can career success damage a leader's family life? Yes. When work consistently receives the leader's best time, energy and attention, the family may be left with whatever is remaining. Over time, this can create distance, resentment and damaged relationships. Many leaders say they are working hard for their families. The intention may be genuine, but the outcome does not always match the explanation. A leader may provide financial security while rarely being emotionally or physically available. For male leaders in Japan, the traditional model of the absent salaryman father can still influence behaviour. He leaves early, returns late and assumes that providing income is his main family responsibility. However, spouses and children may need time, conversation, support and shared experiences more than another late-night meeting or client dinner. As more women develop independent careers and incomes, they may also be less willing to tolerate relationships in which responsibility and emotional connection are consistently one-sided. Working for the family while gradually losing the family does not make sense. Do now: Schedule protected family time with the same seriousness you apply to an executive meeting or major client appointment. Why should leaders take more responsibility for their finances? High income does not automatically create long-term financial security. Leaders still need to manage savings, investment, retirement planning, insurance and household risk. Many people in Japan have traditionally held a large proportion of their wealth in bank deposits. During long periods of deflation and low inflation, holding cash appeared relatively safe. In a more inflationary environment, however, cash can gradually lose purchasing power. Busy leaders often delay financial planning because it does not feel urgent. Retirement seems distant, investment appears complicated and the company pension may seem sufficient. The problem is that financial preparation benefits enormously from time. Delaying ten or twenty years can make the eventual task considerably harder. Japan's ageing population also places continuing pressure on public pension and social security systems. Leaders should not assume that future government benefits alone will provide the lifestyle they expect. This does not mean making reckless investments. It means becoming financially literate, seeking qualified advice where appropriate and preparing rather than hoping. Do now: Review your savings, investments, retirement plan, insurance and household obligations at least once each year. Why do busy leaders lose their friends? Friendships weaken when leaders repeatedly sacrifice social relationships to work. Connection requires time, effort and genuine interest, not occasional promises to catch up later. Social life is often one of the first casualties of overtime. Leaders postpone dinners, cancel weekend plans and stop calling people because the next deadline always seems more important. Remote and hybrid work have also blurred the boundary between professional and personal life. Without a physical commute to mark the end of the day, some leaders continue responding to emails, checking reports and attending online meetings well into the evening. Corporate entertaining should not be confused with friendship. Taking reluctant junior staff out for drinks or attending obligatory client functions may fill the calendar, but it does not necessarily create meaningful social support. Strong relationships are a form of wealth. Friends provide perspective, humour, honesty and support that cannot be replaced by job titles or business contacts. Do now: Contact one person you value but have neglected and arrange a specific time to meet rather than saying, "We should catch up sometime." Why do leaders need interests outside work? Hobbies and personal interests protect leaders from allowing their job to become their entire identity. They provide creativity, renewal and a sense of progress that is independent of corporate performance. Some leaders view personal interests as indulgent or unproductive. They believe every available hour should be used to advance the business. That approach may produce short-term output, but it can also make life increasingly narrow. Personal pursuits can include music, writing, painting, gardening, travel, sport, reading, cooking or learning a language. The activity does not need to generate income, improve a résumé or create a new business opportunity. For me, writing and recording articles on Saturdays can look like another form of work. In practice, writing also serves as a creative outlet. I cannot play a musical instrument, paint or draw particularly well, so writing gives me a way to create something and explore ideas beyond operational business tasks. Leaders need something they enjoy simply because it makes life richer. Do now: Protect regular time for one activity that has no connection to your targets, clients or corporate status. Why is health a leadership responsibility? Health is not separate from leadership performance. Energy, concentration, emotional control and decision-making all become harder when leaders neglect exercise, sleep, nutrition and medical care. Leaders often say they are too busy to exercise, but many of the same people can find time for long client dinners, alcohol and late-night work. The issue is usually not a complete absence of time. It is the priority assigned to health. Weight gain can happen gradually through business meals, entertaining and inactivity. I experienced this myself while working in Nagoya. After attending a work-related geisha party, someone gave me a commemorative photograph. The side-profile image revealed how much weight I had gained. It was an uncomfortable but useful moment of recognition. Losing weight and improving fitness require sustained lifestyle changes, not a few weeks of enthusiasm with a personal trainer. Leaders need systems they can maintain, including realistic exercise routines, better food choices and limits around alcohol. Do now: Choose one measurable health behaviour to improve for the next ninety days and track it consistently. Why should leaders contribute to their communities? Community involvement helps leaders develop perspective, strengthen relationships and contribute beyond the boundaries of their company. It also prevents professional status from becoming their only source of identity. Japan has a strong tradition of community responsibility shaped by cooperation, shared spaces and collective expectations. This could be seen during the pandemic, when many people voluntarily changed their behaviour to reduce risk to others. However, senior leaders can become disconnected from the communities around them. Work absorbs their attention and they spend most of their time with colleagues, clients and people from similar professional backgrounds. Communities need people who can organise, mentor, listen and solve problems. Leaders have useful experience that can support schools, local groups, professional associations, charities and younger generations. Community activity also benefits the leader. It exposes them to different experiences and reminds them that the world is larger than the company's latest spreadsheet, quarterly target or restructuring plan. Do now: Select one community, educational or professional group where your experience could make a practical contribution. What role does reflection or spirituality play in leadership? Leaders need time to consider who they are, what they value and what they intend to do with their lives. Without reflection, they may become highly efficient at pursuing goals they have never consciously chosen. Spirituality is deeply personal and does not need to refer to a particular religion. It can involve faith, philosophy, meditation, service, nature or simply quiet reflection. The underlying questions are universal. Why am I here? What kind of person am I becoming? What will matter when my career is over? What impact am I having on other people? Busy leaders often avoid these questions because financial reports, customer issues and operational problems feel more immediate. Yet a life filled only with targets, meetings and performance reviews can eventually feel empty, regardless of professional success. Reflection helps leaders reconnect daily actions with personal values. It can also expose uncomfortable contradictions between what they say matters and where they actually spend their time. Do now: Create a regular period without screens, meetings or work and use it to reflect on how you are investing your life. Conclusion Leaders have many roles. They are executives, managers, parents, spouses, friends, community members and individuals with physical, emotional and financial needs. Work is one important part of life, but it is not the whole of life. The Wheel of Life is useful because it reveals where professional ambition has created unhealthy imbalance. A leader who produces revenue while losing their family, health, friendships and financial security should not automatically be considered successful. Sustainable leadership means producing strong organisational outcomes without destroying the other areas that give life meaning. As a friend of mine says, "Time is life." The real question for every leader is simple: what are you doing with yours? Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three bestsellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Conversation #360:  The Story, Journey and Passion of Shannon Herbert, PhD, RD, CDNToday's conversation is with Shannon Herbert,  a registered dietitian and yoga instructor with Laura Cipullo Whole Nutrition + Yoga, as well an Adjunct Professor at New York University Steinhardt School. Her work focuses on eating disorders and hormonal health, blending nutrition science with mind-body approaches. She's the co-host of the Eat Kale & Cupcakes podcast, she is a life long learner and such a lovely guest on the podcast today. Please enjoy my conversation with Shannon. Connect with Shannon:Instagram: @shannonherbertrdWebsite: https://lauracipullo.com/registered-dietitians/shannon-herbert/Podcast: Eat Kale and Cupcakeswww.anneelizabethrd.comCopyright © 2026 AEHC & OPISong: One Of These DaysArtist: The Geminiwww.thegeminimusic.comMusic used by permission. All rights received.© ASCAP OrtmanMusic

My friend Alisha Anderson (graduate degrees in Environmental Humanities and Masters of Fine Arts, Artist, Writer, Adjunct Professor, mid-30s), joins us to share her queer story center around four main themes: Love is easy when it's based on sameness. The true test of love is difference. Time is one of God's greatest tools. I've come to believe in a God who does not wish to sacrifice me, but grow me. We need each other—in both our suffering and our joy. As part of these themes, Alisha shares unique and powerful insights are deeply moving—and even after 900+ episodes are unique. Insights that I believe will help other queer Latter-day Saints find hope as they bravely move forward—and insights that help allies/parents better support/love our queer friends. Thank you, Alisha, for being on the podcast. I learned so much from you! You are so emotional/spiritual/intellectually mature and thoughtful. You are a gift to our community. Honored to have you on the podcast! Links: Instagram: @_a_anderson Website: alishaanderson.org

For years, Michael Saylor's Strategy was the market's most dependable Bitcoin buyer. Recently, it has done the opposite. Strategy just sold 3,588 Bitcoin for roughly $216 million, its largest single tranche yet, deepening the question of whether Michael Saylor has become a structural seller instead of a buyer. Ram Ahluwalia, Austin Campbell, and Chris Perkins break down the STRC dividend mechanics behind the sale, the bull case for a catch-up trade, and the bear case if Bitcoin never rallies back. Hosts: Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern Ram Ahluwalia, Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida Chris Perkins, Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto This clip is from a longer conversation on Strategy's Bitcoin sale, the stablecoin wars, and the token versus equity debate. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/H3z68SYty0k  We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live. Sponsor:

Amy Oraefo is an entertainment lawyer, founder, and influential speaker. She is dedicated to education and empowerment of entrepreneurs and creatives. As the Principal Attorney and Founder of Amy Oraefo, P.C., a boutique law firm, Amy serves as legal counsel for high performing musicians, music producers, podcasters, media and tech companies, content creators, entrepreneurs, and cultural innovators such as Earn Your Leisure, Invest Fest, Kel-P Vibes, Kevin Ross, and Renee Montgomery. She has negotiated and closed over $80 million dollars in client deals in connection with brands such as iHeart Media, Kobalt Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Revolt, Empire, United Masters, Meta, SpringHill Entertainment, Viacom, Square, Puma, L'Oreal, and NFLPA to name a few. Amy is dedicated to advocating for her clients both nationally and internationally and she has a passion to assist in the growth and protection of their respective brands. In addition to devoting time to skillfully manage her law firm and serve as an Adjunct Professor, Amy is a member of the Recording Academy and she has served as a member of the Reggae and Global Membership Committee of the Recording Academy, and she also previously served on the Board of Governors for the organization. As the previous co-founder and CEO of a music publishing company, Amy has served as legal counsel and an advocate for music artists, songwriters, music producers, podcasters, and content creators in the United States and Nigeria for over thirteen (13) years. As a result of her commitment and passion to educate creatives and entrepreneurs, Amy has launched Creative Passport, www.creativepassport.co, a platform to empower emerging musicians, music producers, podcasters, and content creators globally and she is also a global consultant, lawyer, and advisor for artists within the United States, Nigeria, and in various countries throughout the continent of Africa. Amy has gifted our listeners to this freebie: Free Own It & Scale It Starter Guide A concise, actionable framework covering IP ownership, distribution strategy, and the first steps toward building a scale-ready business — built specifically for educators and knowledge professionals. Your community can grab it here: https://www.ownitandscaleit.com Free Access to the Own It & Scale It Masterclass — July 15 Creative Passport is hosting a free live virtual masterclass on Wednesday, July 15 from 12–2 PM ET. It's a working session designed to help educators identify their ownable IP and map a real path to monetizing their expertise. We'd love for your community to join as our guests. Registration link: https://www.ownandscalemasterclass.com. ______________________________________________________________________ The Edupreneur: Your Blueprint To Jumpstart And Scale Your Education BusinessYou've spent years in the classroom, leading PD, designing curriculum, and transforming how students learn. Now, it's time to leverage that experience and build something for yourself. The Edupreneur isn't just another book; it's the playbook for educators who want to take their knowledge beyond the school walls and into a thriving business.I wrote this book because I've been where you are. I know what it's like to have the skills, the passion, and the drive but not know where to start. I break it all down: the mindset shifts, the business models, the pricing strategies, and the branding moves that will help you position yourself as a leader in this space.Inside, you'll learn how to:✅ Turn your expertise into income streams, without feeling like a sellout✅ Build a personal brand that commands respect (and top dollar)✅ Market your work in a way that feels natural and impactful✅ Navigate the business side of edupreneurship, from pricing to partnershipsWhether you want to consult, create courses, write books, or launch a podcast, this book will help you get there. Stop waiting for permission. Start building your own table.Grab your copy today and take control of your future.Buy it from EduMatch Publishing https://edumatch-publishing.myshopify.com/collections/new-releases/products/the-edupreneur-by-dr-will

Laura Shin has reported on crypto scams since the early days and wrote one of the first stories on sim swaps. That did not stop a spear-phishing attempt from getting her to download software and run a terminal command before she caught it. Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins turn her near miss into a practical defense playbook, then debate whether self-custody still makes sense for anyone with a public crypto profile. Hosts: Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern Ram Ahluwalia, Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida Chris Perkins, Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto Guest: Laura Shin - Founder and Host of Unchained This clip is from a longer conversation on crypto security and social engineering. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/yKHaE6xMZsE  We go live every Monday - subscribe to catch it live. Sponsors:

Three years ago, Chris Perkins sat across from Terry Duffy in Congress and made the case for perpetuals. Duffy pushed back — hard. Now Duffy's CME is suing the very regulator that finally allowed them. The CME argues Bitcoin perpetual futures are really swaps and should carry far more collateral. Chris traces the Dodd-Frank history that created the swap-versus-future divide, and Austin Campbell lays out why picking this fight in a post-Chevron court could backfire on the incumbent. Is a perpetual a swap or a future, and who gets to decide? Hosts: Austin Campbell - Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern Ram Ahluwalia - Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida Chris Perkins - Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto This clip is from a longer conversation on tokenization, the AI trade, and the CME's lawsuit against the CFTC. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/oSiOeWq_pKE  We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET - subscribe to catch it live.  Sponsor Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). Chapters ⚖️ 00:00 The incumbent sues its own regulator: what the CME is actually claiming