Podcasts about presentations japan series

Deliver the win, then ring the bell. Make small mistakes fast; make big learnings faster. Think global, act local — but don't go native. Do the nemawashi before the meeting, not during it. Your salary is earned in the stores: go to the gemba. A 28-year Domino's veteran, Martin Steenks began at 16 as a delivery expert in the Netherlands. He rose to store manager, multi-unit supervisor, then franchisee, building his operation to eight stores by 2019. After selling his stores, he became Head of Operations for Domino's Netherlands, then CEO of Domino's Taiwan in 2021, and subsequently CEO of Domino's Japan. Previously he was Chief Orchestrator in Japan, focusing on operational excellence, culture, and scalable execution in one of Domino's most exacting service markets. He is known for hands-on store work, cross-training, "Friday F-Up" learning rituals, the Grow & Prosper bell for micro-wins, and quarterly "Go Gemba" days that connect HQ functions with frontline realities.  Martin Steenks' leadership arc runs from a three-minute job interview at 16 to orchestrating Domino's Japan — one of the brand's most demanding markets for service quality. The connective tissue is execution discipline: he has run stores, supervised regions, built and exited an eight-store franchise, owned national operations, and led two country P&Ls. That breadth gives him pragmatic empathy for franchisees and HQ alike, which he leverages to align incentives, simplify operations, and insist that every back-office salary is ultimately "earned in the stores." Japan sharpened his leadership. Coming from low-context, fast-moving Dutch and Australian business styles into high-context Japan, he learned that meetings signalling agreement can still stall without prior nemawashi — the groundwork with middle management and other stakeholders. He now invests in pre-alignment, translating intent into culturally legible action: fewer big-room debates, more quiet lobbying, more ringi-sho style consensus building for irreversible decisions, and a clear bias to test-and-learn for reversible ones. Rather than trying to "change the culture," he adjusted himself — becoming more patient while preserving speed by separating decision types and sequencing alignment before action. His operating system is human and tangible. He set a weekly rhythm of learning with a "Friday F-Up" session, where leaders share mistakes and what was learned — a radical move in a high uncertainty-avoidance culture. He celebrates micro-wins with the Grow & Prosper bell to make progress visible, sustaining morale during long transformations. He bridged HQ–store gaps with Go Gemba: each quarter, every function works a store shift; IT discovers why a workflow fails at the point of sale, marketing sees campaign friction at Friday night peak, finance hears cost-to-serve realities. He personally worked in stores four to five days a month, especially during crunch periods like Christmas, leading by example and rebuilding trust through competence. Marketing localisation is equally pragmatic. Deep discounting can signal poor quality to Japanese consumers; "customer appreciation weeks" preserve value perception while rewarding loyalty. Community building is pushed to the store level — managers engage local clubs and schools to turn footfall into fandom. Cross-training makes delivery experts confident product explainers at the door, restoring a human touch in a world where >90% of orders arrive online. Ultimately, Steenks' playbook blended cultural fluency with decision intelligence. He aligned stakeholders through nemawashi, codified learning rituals, chose language and campaigns that respected local signals, and keeps strategy tethered to the edge where pizzas are made, boxed, and delivered hot. The title "Chief Orchestrator" wasn't just whimsy; in a business of many specialists, he conducted tempo, harmony, and timing — the difference between noise and music.  What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's high service standards and high-context communication demand leaders who are both exacting and empathetic. Success depends on pre-work: nemawashi with middle managers, thoughtful ringi-sho style consensus for high-impact choices, and visible demonstrations of respect for the frontline. Uniforms (like Domino's iconic race jacket for store managers) and rituals create shared identity that motivates in a group-oriented culture. Why do global executives struggle? Low-context leaders often misread meeting "yeses" as commitment. Without groundwork, nothing moves. Impatience backfires in high uncertainty-avoidance environments; public criticism shuts people down. Leaders must separate reversible from irreversible decisions, secure alignment offline, and then move decisively. They should also avoid copy-pasting global marketing: in Japan, steep discounts can be read as "lower quality," eroding trust. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Japan is less risk-loving than many markets, but teams will take smart risks when safety and learning are explicit. Stanks normalises small, fast experiments, celebrates micro-wins, and protects people when bets misfire. This reframes risk as controlled uncertainty with upside — a shift from avoidance to improvement. What leadership style actually works? Lead from the front and the shop floor. Work stores every month. Tie HQ metrics to store impact. Use rituals — Friday F-Up, the Grow & Prosper bell — to institutionalise learning and momentum. Celebrate teams more than individuals, and praise privately when cultural norms warrant it. Think global, act local, but don't "go native": retain an outsider's clarity about pace and standards. How can technology help? Digital tools amplify decision intelligence when paired with gemba reality. Store-level dashboards, route optimisation, and digital twins of peak-hour operations can test scenarios before rollouts; telemetry from ovens, makelines, and delivery routes can reveal bottlenecks that nemawashi then resolves across functions. Tech should reduce operational complexity, not add it. Does language proficiency matter? Fluency helps, but intent matters more. Demonstrating effort — basic greetings, store-floor Japanese, and culturally aware email etiquette — earns trust. Tools that translate bidirectionally unlock participation, but leaders still need to read context and invest time with the middle layer. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Do the cultural homework, orchestrate alignment before action, and keep your hands in the dough — literally. When people see you respect their craft, protect their learning, and tie strategy to execution, they'll go all-in. Timecoded Summary [00:00] Origin story: hired at 16 as a delivery expert in the Netherlands; stayed through school; first — and only — job interview; early leadership as store manager, then multi-unit supervisor. [05:20] Entrepreneurship chapter: buys a struggling store; builds to eight locations with his wife's support; sells in 2019 to become Head of Operations for the Netherlands, trading entrepreneurial freedom for strategic impact. [12:45] Asia leadership: becomes CEO Taiwan in 2021, then moves to Japan; discovers that despite common Domino's DNA, markets differ; Japan's service bar is the highest. [18:10] Cultural recalibration: early meetings show apparent agreement but slow follow-through; learns nemawashi and middle-layer alignment; patience becomes a leadership muscle; adopts "Chief Orchestrator" title to reflect cross-functional reality. [24:00] Store-first operating system: cross-training (makeline ↔ delivery ↔ service); >90% of orders online makes the delivery interaction critical; community outreach by store managers; hands-on leadership with 4–5 store days per month and peak-period shifts. [31:30] Learning rituals: Friday F-Up meeting reframes failure as fuel; Grow & Prosper bell celebrates micro-wins to sustain momentum; public recognition calibrated to cultural comfort; Domino's manager jacket signals identity and pride in Japan. [38:05] Marketing localisation: avoid pure discounting (quality signal risk); position as "customer appreciation"; test premium, limited campaigns; keep operations simple for peak. [43:20] Bridging HQ and field: quarterly Go Gemba embeds IT/Finance/HR/Marketing in stores; internal surveys (anonymous) surface issues; visible follow-through flips scepticism to trust. [49:40] Leadership philosophy: lead by example, protect experimenters, separate reversible vs irreversible decisions, and use decision intelligence (telemetry, digital twins) to derisk change while moving faster. 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. 

"Care and respect aren't slogans; they're operating principles that shape decisions and client experiences". "Lead by approachability, using nemawashi-style one-to-ones to draw out quieter voices and better ideas". "Calm, clarity, and consistency beat volume; emotion never gets to outrank the message". "Consensus isn't passivity—done well, it's disciplined alignment that accelerates execution". "Confidence grows by doubling down on strengths, seeking honest feedback, and empowering the team". Akiko Yamamoto is the President of Van Cleef & Arpels Japan, leading the French maison's jewellery and watch business in a market it has served for over fifty years. She began her career at L'Oréal Japan, spending twelve years in marketing across brands including Kérastase, Helena Rubinstein, and Kiehl's, ultimately managing multi-brand teams. Educated in Japan with formative childhood years in the United States, she later completed a master's degree at the University of Edinburgh. Having led primarily in Japan, she now manages a multicultural team, drawing on international exposure, bilingual communication, and deep local insight to harmonise global brand culture with Japanese expectations. Akiko Yamamoto's leadership story is anchored in a simple premise: people follow leaders they can trust. That trust, she says, is earned through care, respect, and steady examples—not declarations. After a foundational run at L'Oréal Japan, where she learned the rigour of brand building and the mechanics of marketing leadership, Yamamoto stepped into the jewellery and watch world at Van Cleef & Arpels. There, she refined an approach that blends global standards with local nuance, ensuring the maison's culture of care resonates in Japan's relationship-driven marketplace. Her leadership style is deliberately approachable. Rather than "planting the flag" at the summit and expecting others to follow, she prefers to climb together, side-by-side. In practice, that means creating psychological safety, inviting dissent early, and spending time—especially one-to-one—to surface ideas that might be lost in large-group dynamics. She embraces nemawashi to build alignment before meetings, recognising that consensus in Japan is less about avoiding risk and more about creating durable commitment. Yamamoto's calm is a strategic asset. She is explicit that emotion can crowd out meaning; when leaders perform anger, the message gets lost in the display. In a culture where visible temper can be read as immaturity, she chooses composure so that the content of decisions remains audible. When missteps happen—as they do—she follows up, explains context, and converts heat into learning. The aim is not perfection but progress with intact relationships. For global leaders arriving in Japan under pressure to "turn things around," she recommends two immediate moves: become intensely reachable and cultivate a few candid truth-tellers who will share the real story, not just what headquarters wants to hear. Language helps, but fluency isn't the barrier; respect is. A handful of sincere Japanese phrases, consistent aisatsu, and an evident willingness to listen can narrow social distance faster than chasing perfect grammar. On advancing women, Yamamoto rejects tokenism yet underscores representation's practical value. Visible female leadership signals possibility; it tells rising talent that advancement is earned and achievable. Her own leap to the presidency required an external nudge, plus a disciplined shift of attention from self-doubt to strengths—past wins, trusted relationships, and demonstrated team outcomes. That reframing, combined with empowerment of capable colleagues, made the role feel both larger and more shared. Ultimately, Yamamoto treats "client experience first, results follow" as an operating model, not a motto. Decision intelligence—clear context, decisive action, and empathetic execution—converts consensus into speed. In her hands, culture is not a constraint; it's compounding capital. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan prizes harmony, preparation, and earned consensus. Leaders succeed by combining decisiveness with empathy, using nemawashi to socialise ideas before meetings and ringi-sho-style documentation to clarify ownership and next steps. Calm conduct signals maturity; approachability creates safety for frank input. Why do global executives struggle? Many arrive with urgency but little social traction. Defaulting to big-room debates and top-down directives can silence contributors and slow execution. The fix is proximity: sustained one-to-ones, visible aisatsu, and a small circle of candid advisors who translate context and sentiment. Uncertainty avoidance exists—but it's often rational; people hesitate when they haven't been invited into the reasoning. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It's less "risk-averse" and more "uncertainty-averse." When leaders reduce ambiguity—through pre-alignment, clear criteria, and explicit trade-offs—teams move quickly. Consensus done well accelerates delivery because dissent was handled upstream, not deferred to derail execution downstream. What leadership style actually works? Approachable, steady, and standards-driven. Yamamoto models care and respect, sets crisp direction, and empowers execution. She avoids theatrical emotion, follows up after tense moments, and insists that client experience lead metrics. Clarity + composure + collaboration beats charisma. How can technology help? Technology should reduce uncertainty and amplify learning: shared dashboards that make ringi-sho approvals transparent, lightweight digital twins of client journeys to test service changes safely, and collaboration tools that capture one-to-one insights before group forums. The goal is not more noise but better signal for faster, aligned decisions. Does language proficiency matter? Fluency helps but isn't decisive. Consistent courtesy, listening, and reliability shrink the distance faster than perfect grammar. A capable interpreter plus leaders who personally engage—in simple Japanese where possible—outperform hands-off translation chains. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Lead with care, earn trust through example, and turn consensus into speed by front-loading listening and clarity. Focus on strengths, empower capable people, and keep emotion from overwhelming the message. Do this, and results follow. Timecoded Summary [00:00] Background and formation: Early years in the United States, schooling in Japan, master's at the University of Edinburgh. Marketing foundations at L'Oréal Japan across Kérastase, Helena Rubinstein, and Kiehl's; progression from individual contributor to team leadership. [05:20] Transition to Van Cleef & Arpels: Emphasis on a maison culture of care and respect that maps naturally to Japanese expectations; client experience as the primary driver with sales as consequence. Expanding to lead multicultural teams. [12:45] Approachability and trust: Building durable followership by remaining accessible after promotion; maintaining continuity of relationships; modelling aisatsu and everyday courtesies to embed culture. Using one-to-ones to surface ideas that large meetings suppress. [18:30] Calm over drama: The communication cost of anger; how emotion eclipses meaning. Post-incident follow-ups to turn flashes of heat into alignment and learning. Composure as credibility in a Japanese context. [24:10] Working the consensus: Nemawashi to prepare decisions; ringi-sho-style clarity to memorialise them. Consensus reframed as disciplined alignment that speeds execution once decisions drop. [29:40] Global leaders in Japan: Close the distance quickly—be reachable, secure truth-tellers, and learn enough Japanese for sincere aisatsu. Don't over-index on perfect fluency; prioritise respect, listening, and visible learning. [34:15] Women in leadership: Representation without tokenism; the confidence gap; how sponsorship and a focus on strengths help leaders step up. Empowerment as the multiplier—no president wins alone. [39:00] Closing lesson: Decision intelligence = context + clarity + care. Reduce uncertainty, empower teams, and let client experience steer priorities; results compound from there. 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.

"Relationships come before proposals; kokoro-gamae signals intent long before a contract". "Nemawashi wins unseen battles by equipping an internal champion to align consensus". "In Japan, decisions are slower—but execution is lightning-fast once ringi-sho is approved". "Detail is trust: dense materials, rapid follow-ups, and consistent delivery reduce uncertainty avoidance". "Think reorder, not transaction—lifetime value grows from reliability, patience, and face-saving flexibility". In this Asia AIM conversation, Dr. Greg Story reframes B2B success in Japan as a decision-intelligence exercise grounded in trust, patience, and detail. The core insight: buyers are rewarded for avoiding downside, not for taking risks. Consequently, a new supplier represents uncertainty; price discounts rarely move the needle. What does? Kokoro-gamae—demonstrable, client-first intent—expressed through meticulous preparation, responsiveness, and long-term commitment. Greg's journey began in 1992 when his Australian consultative selling failed to gain traction. The lesson was blunt: until trust is established, the offer is irrelevant because the buyer evaluates the person first. From there, the playbook is distinctly Japanese. Nemawashi—the behind-the-scenes groundwork—recognises that many stakeholders can say "no." External sellers seldom meet these influencers. The practical move is to equip an internal champion with detailed, risk-reducing materials and flexible terms that make consensus safer. Once the ringi-sho (circulating approval document) moves, execution accelerates; Japan trades slow decisions for fast delivery. Greg emphasises information density and speed. Japanese firms expect thick printouts, technical appendices, and rapid follow-ups—even calls to confirm an email was received. This signals reliability and reduces the purchaser's uncertainty. Trial orders are common; they are not small but strategic—tests of quality, schedule adherence, and flexibility. Win the test, and the budget cycle (often April-to-March) can position the supplier for multi-year reorders. Culturally, face and accountability shape referrals. Testimonials are difficult because clients avoid responsibility if something goes wrong. Longevity itself becomes social proof: "We've supplied X for ten years" carries weight. Greg's hunter-versus-farmer distinction highlights the need to support new logos with dedicated account "farmers" who manage detail, cadence, and service levels that earn reorders. Patience is tactical, not passive. "Kentō shimasu" may mean "not now," so he calendarises a nine-month follow-up—enough time for internal conditions to change without ceding the account to competitors. Throughout, he urges leaders to think in lifetime value, align to budget rhythms, and communicate more than feels natural. The result is a high-trust system where consensus reduces organisational risk—and where suppliers that master nemawashi, detail, and delivery become integral partners rather than interchangeable vendors.  Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership succeeds when it reduces organisational risk and preserves face during consensus formation. Nemawashi equips internal champions to address objections before meetings, while ringi-sho formalises agreement. Leaders who foreground kokoro-gamae, provide dense decision packs, and allow time for alignment see decisions stick and execution accelerate. Why do global executives struggle? Western managers often prize speed, big-room persuasion, and minimal detail. In Japan, uncertainty avoidance is high; buyers seek exhaustive documentation and incremental proof via pilots. Under-investing in detail or follow-up reads as unreliable. Overlooking budget cycles and internal approvals leads to mistimed asks and stalled ringi. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Individuals are incentivised to avoid downside, which shifts decisions from "risk-taking" to "risk-mitigation." The system favours tested suppliers, visible track records, and trial orders. Price rarely offsets perceived risk. Trust and history function as risk controls; once approved, delivery speed reflects the system's confidence. What leadership style actually works? A patient, service-led style that privileges relationships over transactions. Leaders ask permission to ask questions, listen for hidden constraints, and co-design low-risk pilots. Farmers—or hunter-farmer teams—sustain cadence, escalate issues early, and remain flexible as conditions change, protecting the champion's face and the consensus. How can technology help? Decision intelligence platforms can map stakeholders and sentiment across the approval chain. Digital twins of delivery schedules and SLAs, plus living dashboards of quality metrics, give champions ringi-ready evidence. Structured knowledge bases, rapid response workflows, and audit trails strengthen reliability signals during nemawashi. Does language proficiency matter? Language builds rapport, but process fluency matters more: understanding nemawashi, ringi-sho, and budget cycles; providing dense Japanese-language materials; and maintaining a proactive follow-up cadence. Bilingual support teams and translated technical appendices can materially lower perceived risk. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Optimise for the reorder, not the first sale. Reliability, speed of follow-up, document density, and cultural fluency compound into durable trust. Japan rewards those who "hasten slowly," then deliver flawlessly when the decision finally lands.  Timecoded Summary [00:00] Context and thesis: Japan's B2B environment rewards risk mitigation over risk-taking; relationships precede proposals. Greg recounts his early failure applying Australian consultative selling before building rapport and trust as prerequisites. [05:20] Nemawashi in practice: Many stakeholders can veto; sellers rarely meet them. Equip the champion with dense packs, options, and flexibility to navigate objections. Ringi-sho formalises consensus, and once signed, execution accelerates. [12:45] Detail and responsiveness: Japanese buyers expect information-rich printouts and fast follow-ups—even same-day responses. Trial orders function as risk-controlled tests of quality, schedule, and flexibility. Delivery during trials sets the tone for long-term partnership. [18:30] Referrals and proof: Public testimonials are rare due to accountability risk. Tenure becomes currency—long relationships serve as de-risking signals to new buyers. Social proof derives from sustained performance, not logos on a webpage. [24:10] Cadence and patience: "Kentō shimasu" often means "not now." Calendarise a nine-month check-in to match likely internal change cycles. Align proposals to April budget rhythms to avoid timing out. Maintain polite persistence without pushiness. [31:05] Operating model: Pair hunters with farmers; once a deal lands, a service-led team manages detail, SLAs, and face-saving flexibility. Leaders message lifetime value, not quarterly wins, and use technology (decision intelligence, digital twins, knowledge bases) to support nemawashi and ringi.  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.   

"Get your hands dirty: credibility in Japan is built in the field, not the boardroom". "Bridges beat barriers: headquarters alignment turns local problems into solvable projects". "Make people proud: structured "poster sessions" spark ownership, ideas and nemawashi". "Decisions at the edge: push market choices to those closest to customers, then coach". "Trust travels: clear logic, calm feedback, and consistency convert caution into commitment". Belgian-born power-electronics engineer turned global executive, Erwin Yseijin leads Semikron Danfoss in Japan with more than three decades across Japan, Germany, and Taiwan. Beginning as a hardware engineer in switch-mode power supplies and motor drives, he joined a Japanese semiconductor firm in Munich in 1989 and relocated to Japan in 1992, learning operations, production planning, quotations, and logistics from the inside. Subsequent leadership roles at Infineon included Japan and a five-year post-merger integration in Taiwan overseeing ~50 R&D engineers and close OEM relationships across PCs, routers, and wireless. After a gallium-nitride startup stint in Dresden, he joined Semikron, later Semikron Danfoss, leading APAC reorganisation, factory consolidation, and a direct-plus-distribution sales model, before becoming Japan President. Fluent in the technical, commercial, and cultural languages of the region, he specialises in aligning headquarters and local teams, and in building pragmatic, customer-led organisations in Japan. Erwin Yasvin exemplifies the hands-on leader who earns trust in Japan by showing up where problems live. His credo—"get your hands dirty"—is not metaphorical. When customers escalate issues, he goes with sales to uncover root causes and secure head-office commitments on the spot. That credibility shortens cycles in a market where 100% quality is table stakes and where the service "extra mile" extends even a decade beyond a nominal warranty. A European by training and temperament, he learned Japanese corporate practice from the inside in the early 1990s, when multilayered hierarchies still defined decision flow. Rather than railing against the pyramid, he mined its upside: leaders who rise through layers bring practical judgement and empathy for shop-floor realities. Yet he also streamlined speed by bridging headquarters and Japan—translating commercial logic, technical constraints, and customer detail into decisions the field can act on. He builds voice and pride through "poster sessions": monthly forums where team members present customers, markets, wins, and bottlenecks to peers. That design triggers nemawashi—quiet pre-alignment—and fosters cross-functional curiosity. By picking one or two ideas from each session and ensuring execution, he turns speaking up into visible impact. Decision rights sit with those closest to the market. Each salesperson owns one or two verticals—motor drives, wind, solar, energy storage, UPS—with accountability for target customers, competitive intel, product needs, and pricing. Headquarters supports with budgets for samples and after-warranty analysis, signalling trust with money. Where ambiguity or urgency is high—such as the 2022 exchange-rate shock—he decomposes the "working package" into digestible actions, avoiding paralysis. Mistakes are coached privately and framed as leadership accountability: if an error occurred, expectations weren't clear enough. Monthly one-on-ones, written agendas, and evidence-led conversations establish a durable logic chain that travels across language boundaries. Culture-wise, he neither copies a Japanese firm nor imposes a foreign pace. Instead, he articulates values—efficient workdays, transparent processes, skill development—while adapting compensation to local norms through a hybrid bonus model that blends guaranteed and performance-tied elements. Asked how outsiders should lead in Japan, Yasvin stresses credibility, example, and constancy: be present in the hard moments, don't over-promise, and speak in clear, digestible steps. In a country where consensus and detail orientation are prized, leaders win by aligning logic with respect—turning caution into momentum without sacrificing quality. Q&A Summary What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan blends layered hierarchies with high expectations for managers to understand field-level problems. Leaders gain status less by slogan and more by track record. Consensus is built through nemawashi and formalised via ringi-sho, with detail-rich documentation that honours uncertainty avoidance while preserving quality. The upside of layers is decision empathy; the downside can be speed—unless leaders bridge across functions and headquarters. Why do global executives struggle? Many push headquarters logic without translating it into local realities: customer expectations of zero defects; service beyond written warranty; and process fidelity (e.g., traceability standards) that must integrate into Japanese customers' own systems. Leaders also misread how "pride" shows up—quietly, not publicly—and miss mechanisms (like poster sessions) that let people contribute without confrontation. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Not exactly; it's uncertainty-averse. When leaders clarify the "box" and broaden it gradually, teams will step forward. Decomposing problems (e.g., FX pass-through frameworks) turns ambiguity into executable steps. Decision intelligence—structured data, clear thresholds, defined triggers—reduces uncertainty and enables action without violating quality norms. What leadership style actually works? Lead by example; be visibly present at customer flashpoints. Push decisions to the edge (market owners), back them with budgets, and coach in private. Use structured forums to surface ideas, then implement a few to prove that speaking up matters. Keep corporate values intact (efficient workdays, skill building) while tuning incentives to local practice. How can technology help? Operational dashboards that tie customer issues to root-cause analytics, plus digital twins of power-module reliability and logistics flows, elevate conversations from anecdote to evidence. Traceability systems aligned to global standards reduce manual re-entry and delays, while decision thresholds (e.g., FX bands) automate price updates and ensure fair, consistent application. Does language proficiency matter? Helpful, not decisive. Clear logic, written agendas, data, and diagrams travel farther than perfect grammar. Leaders who frame problems visually, confirm next actions, and close the loop consistently can overcome linguistic gaps, while continuing to study Japanese accelerates trust and nuance. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Credibility compounds. Show up in the hard moments, keep promises small and solid, convert ideas into implementation, and protect quality while increasing speed through better alignment. Over time, trust becomes a structural advantage with customers and within the team. About the Author 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.

Why Do Speeches Often Go Too Long? Speakers love their words, but audiences only want what matters. The danger comes when speakers keep talking past the emotional high point. Once engagement peaks, attention begins to fade. Mini-summary: Speeches lose power when they drag past the point of maximum engagement. What Is the Risk of Having No Time Limit? When organisers set a limit, discipline is forced. But when speakers control their own slot, they often run long. Without boundaries, self-indulgence creeps in, and the speech becomes tiring. Mini-summary: Lack of limits tempts speakers into rambling and overstaying their welcome. How Should a Speech Be Designed? A well-structured speech builds toward a climax and then ends quickly with a call to action. The final words should land while the audience is emotionally primed, not after their interest has waned. Mini-summary: Design speeches to peak with emotion and finish with a crisp call to action. Why Is Discipline Essential in Speechwriting? We get attached to stories and opinions, padding talks unnecessarily. Discipline means cutting until only what supports the key message remains. It's better to leave audiences hungry for more than overfed and bored. Mini-summary: Ruthless editing ensures clarity, impact, and memorability. What's the One Key Question Every Speaker Should Ask? "What is the single message I want them to remember?" Anything unrelated should be cut. This forces clarity and ensures the speech drives action instead of drifting. Mini-summary: A clear central message should be the speech's anchor. So What's the Right Length for a Speech? It isn't measured in minutes but in impact. A short, sharp message at peak engagement beats a long-winded performance. The right length is always "long enough to inspire, short enough to leave them wanting more." Mini-summary: The best speeches end on impact, not on time. About the Author 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.

Salespeople worldwide use frameworks to measure meeting success, but Japan's unique business culture challenges many Western methods. Let's explore the BANTER model—Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, Request—and see how it fits into Japan's sales environment. 1. What is the BANTER model in sales? BANTER is a simple six-point scoring system for sales calls. Each letter stands for a key factor: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, and Request. A salesperson assigns one point for each element successfully confirmed. A perfect score means six out of six, showing a fully productive meeting. In Japan, however, acronyms like BANTER face cultural headwinds. Consensus decision-making, indirect communication, and reluctance to disclose financial details make scoring all six nearly impossible. Mini-summary: BANTER is a six-step framework to assess sales calls. In Japan, cultural barriers make a perfect score rare. 2. Why is budget so hard to confirm in Japan? Budget transparency is crucial in sales, yet in Japan, buyers rarely share numbers openly. Many fear that revealing too much will encourage vendors to push for higher spending. As a result, responses are often vague or evasive. This contrasts sharply with Western practices, where budget conversations are normal and allow salespeople to tailor proposals. In Japan, salespeople often end up working blind. Mini-summary: Japanese buyers protect budget details, leaving salespeople without clear financial guidance. 3. Who really has authority in Japanese companies? In many countries, the people at the table can make decisions. In Japan, it's different. Authority is diffused through ringi-seido, a process of circulating documents for approval. Stakeholders who never attend the meeting may hold veto power. This means even strong supporters in the meeting may lack final say. Authority is hidden, and salespeople must navigate carefully. Mini-summary: Decision-making in Japan is consensus-driven, so real authority is often invisible in the meeting. 4. Do Japanese buyers express their needs clearly? In consultative selling, uncovering client needs is the first priority. But in Japan, cultural norms make direct questioning difficult. Salespeople often feel compelled to begin with detailed presentations before asking what the client truly needs. This reversal wastes time and often leaves core needs unspoken. Identifying pain points is possible, but rarely straightforward. Mini-summary: Japanese sales meetings emphasise presenting solutions before probing needs, making “N” hard to score. 5. Why is timing both clear and paradoxical in Japan? Japanese buyers are usually precise about timing once a decision is made. Execution must be flawless and fast, sometimes immediate. However, decision-making can take weeks or months due to consensus processes. The result is a paradox: slow approvals but urgent delivery expectations. At least here, salespeople can usually secure clarity. Mini-summary: Timing in Japan is paradoxical—decisions are slow, but execution is expected immediately. 6. How do Japanese buyers show engagement? Engagement is often signalled through questions and objections. In fact, objections are a positive sign in Japan. Silence or polite agreement may actually indicate lack of interest. This is where salespeople can earn a point in BANTER. Detailed questions show buyers are seriously considering the solution. Mini-summary: Objections in Japan mean engagement. No objections usually mean no interest. 7. Why do Japanese meetings rarely end with clear requests? In other markets, meetings often end with a next step: proposal, trial, or follow-up meeting. In Japan, it is common to hear “we will think about it.” Far from being a brush-off, this reflects the need for internal alignment. Still, the absence of a concrete request means this element is rarely scored. Mini-summary: Meetings end vaguely in Japan, as decisions move to backroom consensus. Conclusion: What's Japan's BANTER score? Adding it all up: Budget 0, Authority 0, Need 0, Timing 1, Engagement 1, Request 0. That's two out of six. It may sound discouraging, but that's the reality of selling in Japan. If you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere. The difficulty makes the victories even more meaningful. Mini-summary: Japan scores two out of six on BANTER, proving why sales here is among the toughest in the world. About the Author 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.

“Leading is easy. Getting people to follow is the hard part”. “Listen first; don't pre-decide the outcome”. “Japan is a Swiss watch—change one gear and the whole movement shifts”. “Do nemawashi before decisions; ringi-sho is the runway, not red tape”. “Bring people back to Japan—networks mature with the country”. Chris LaFleur is Senior Director at McLarty Associates, the Washington, D.C. based strategic advisory firm. A career U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he served multiple tours in Japan—including Sapporo, Yokohama language training, and Tokyo in political and politico-military roles—worked on the staff of Secretary of State Al Haig, at the U.S. Mission to the UN, and at the U.S. Embassy in Paris focusing on Asia during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. He later became Deputy Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, returned to Tokyo as Deputy Chief of Mission under Ambassador Tom Foley, and served in Washington as the No. 2 in the Bureau of East Asian Affairs as well as a negotiator on alliance modernisation with Japan and South Korea. He was U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia in the Iraq War era, then Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Japan, and repeatedly served as President and Chairman at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Today, he advises global firms on policy, regulatory, and political risk across Japan and the region.  Chris LaFleur's leadership journey tracks the evolution of U.S.–Japan relations and the realities of making decisions inside complex systems. Beginning as a vice consul in Sapporo, he learned that listening precedes leading in Japan. Hokkaidō's standard Japanese, the step-by-step pace of regional life, and daily immersion built linguistic and cultural pattern recognition. That foundation scaled when he rotated through Yokohama language training and the Tokyo Embassy, where politico-military work brought alliance management into focus: with bases, communities, and bilateral policy layered together, decisions were not events but processes requiring consensus and continuity. Shifting to Washington to staff Secretary Al Haig offered a crash course in how policy gets made, while the UN posting and a Paris portfolio on Asia sharpened his systems view across capitals. Taiwan unlocked dormant Chinese language skills and reminded him that capability compounds with context. Returning to Tokyo as Deputy Chief of Mission under Ambassador Tom Foley, he saw that organisational power is distributed: success hinged on local staff with deep networks, continuity across rotating Americans, and steady, trust-building communication with home offices that wanted speed while Japan required sequence. As Ambassador to Malaysia during the second Iraq War, LaFleur had to explain and persuade amid public scepticism—learning again that legitimacy is earned by hearing concerns first. Transitioning to the private sector as Vice Chairman at JPMorgan Japan validated a surprising constant: large companies decide like large governments. He expected neat, calculated choices; he found coalitions, trade-offs, and path dependence. The lesson for leaders: map stakeholders, solicit ideas early, and let nemawashi do its work before the ringi-sho formalises momentum. In consulting today, he helps global executives reframe “risk” in Japan as uncertainty to be worked through with decision intelligence—aligning goals, mapping interdependencies, and testing scenarios before locking in. Japan, he says, is a Swiss watch: its precision is an asset, but every gear is linked. Leaders succeed by respecting that system—sequencing conversations, checking downstream effects, and ensuring consensus is genuine, not assumed. Technology can accelerate this work—digital twins for processes, collaborative platforms for traceable sign-offs—but tools must fit culture. Above all, bring people back to Japan; networks—and trust—rise with time. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan's operating model is sequence over speed. Nemawashi aligns stakeholders in advance; the ringi-sho codifies consensus; and downstream interlocks across compliance, customers, and partners mean details matter before decisions. Leaders must treat decisions as journeys, not moments, and recognise local staff as the critical path to progress. Why do global executives struggle? Headquarters often assumes top-down approvals equal action. In Japan, meetings with “the top” rarely move the machine unless the working levels are engaged. Foreign leaders also underestimate uncertainty avoidance embedded in tightly coupled processes—the “Swiss watch” effect—so a small tweak can ripple across functions and clients. Is Japan truly risk-averse? It is more accuracy-seeking than risk-averse. The system prizes predictability because errors propagate widely. What looks like reluctance is often prudent scenario-testing. Reframe risk as uncertainty management: clarify assumptions, run premortems, and build reversible steps that preserve harmony while enabling change. What leadership style actually works? Listening first. LaFleur emphasises not pre-deciding outcomes and actively soliciting ideas from Japanese colleagues. Credibility grows when leaders translate Japan's logic to HQ (and vice versa), sequence approvals, and sponsor inclusive consensus. Authority helps; empathy and patience deliver. How can technology help? Use decision intelligence to visualise interdependencies and simulate impacts. Digital twins of processes reveal where approvals, compliance, and client commitments intersect. Collaborative tools can make nemawashi transparent, while structured knowledge bases preserve networks as staff rotate. Tech should speed alignment, not bulldoze culture. Does language proficiency matter? Fluency amplifies effectiveness but isn't binary. Even partial competence builds sensitivity to context, omissions, and implied meaning. Leaders who grasp how Japanese sentences carry subject and object through context better “hear” what a yes might actually mean in terms of readiness. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Inspire people to move together. Map the system, honour the culture, and turn listening into aligned action. Keep bringing talent back to Japan so relationships mature; in a consensus economy, trust is compounding capital. 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.

Why Are Industrial Product Presentations Often So Dull? Industrial products are technical and specification-heavy. Salespeople often present them in dry, functional ways that mirror catalogues. Buyers tune out because they don't just buy specs—they buy confidence, trust, and belief. Mini-summary: Specs alone don't sell; buyers connect with confident, engaging salespeople. How Can Salespeople Move Beyond Features? Features are important, but benefits are what matter. A durable machine saves downtime and repairs. An easy-to-install product reduces disruption and costs. Linking benefits directly to a client's business creates relevance and excitement. Mini-summary: Translate features into applied benefits that directly improve the client's business. Why Should Numbers Be Used Creatively? Industrial products last years, which allows long-term savings calculations. But buyers also need to see short-term value. Breaking down savings into labour cuts, tax benefits, or immediate efficiencies ties the future to today's bottom line. Mini-summary: Frame long-term savings into immediate, bottom-line benefits. How Can Visuals Increase Buyer Engagement? Charts and graphs simplify comparisons. Videos showing installations or satisfied clients bring proof to life. With tablets and online tools, even technical evidence can be presented dynamically. Seeing is believing. Mini-summary: Visuals—from graphs to videos—make industrial product benefits vivid and real. What Lessons Can We Learn from Blendtec? Blendtec turned the blender into a viral sensation in 2007 with “Will It Blend?” By blending iPhones and iPads, they showed even mundane products can become captivating when presented creatively. Mini-summary: Creativity can transform the dullest product into a memorable story. What's the Key for Salespeople in This Market? Specs are essential, but not enough. Salespeople must connect benefits to client needs and support claims with evidence. Competitors who do this will win if your team doesn't. Mini-summary: Salespeople who integrate benefits, creativity, and evidence outperform those who just recite specs. 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.

“Listening is easy; listening intently is leadership.” “In Japan, trust isn't a KPI — it's earned through presence, patience, and predictable behaviour.” “Leaders here must be gatekeepers of governance and ambassadors for people, culture, and brand.” “Don't copy-paste playbooks; calibrate the boss, context, and cadence.” “Win hearts first, then heads — only then will ideas and decisions truly flow.” Loïc Pecondon-Lacroix is President and Country Holding Officer (CHO) of ABB Japan, responsible for governance, compliance, and the enabling infrastructure that keeps ABB's Japan entities operating within law, regulation, and internal policy. A French national educated primarily in sales, he built his career as a business controller and CFO across local, regional, and global roles, developing a reputation for process discipline and decision support. Before ABB, he spent a decade in the automotive sector, including senior roles at German powerhouse Mahle, where he moved between France, Germany, China, and Japan. His first Japan posting was as a general manager in the automotive industry; his second brought him back to Tokyo, where — after his spouse's executive opportunity catalysed the move — he was recruited in-market by ABB directly into the CHO role.  What makes leadership in Japan unique? Japan is a high-context, consensus-first environment. Leaders must prioritise nemawashi before ringi-sho, invest in psychological safety, and value presence over performative activity. Engagement is not a survey score but an accumulation of trust signalled by consistent behaviour, calibrated communication, and respect for cadence and etiquette. Decision intelligence here blends informal alignment with formal governance so progress sticks rather than bounces.  Why do global executives struggle? Many arrive with “fix it fast” mandates, underestimate uncertainty avoidance, and over-rely on imported playbooks. They communicate problems upward without solutions and fail to “manage the boss” — i.e., calibrate global expectations to local timeframes. Skipping nemawashi, they trigger resistance, burn political capital, and misread engagement metrics that don't map neatly across cultures.  Is Japan truly risk-averse? It's less risk-averse than uncertainty-averse. Leaders can reduce uncertainty with clearer problem framing, milestones, and prototypes, thereby enabling motion without violating safety and quality norms. The practical move is to de-risk through staged decisions, transparent governance, and strong internal controls — an approach especially congruent with ABB's integrity and compliance culture.  What leadership style actually works? Begin with humility and intense listening, then coach. Win hearts before heads, model the behaviours you seek, and make middle managers masters of feedback and retention. Use direct channels (town halls, internal social platforms) to complement cascades. Choose battles, protect cadence, and be explicit about “why this, why now.” Influence beats authority in matrix settings; patience beats bravado.  How can technology help? Internal communities and collaboration platforms create lateral flow so ideas don't stall under middle-management “concrete.” Analytics can enrich decision intelligence by signalling hotspots in retention and development. In ABB's domain, digital twins and automation are metaphors for leadership too: simulate options, align stakeholders, then execute with control plans that keep quality and compliance intact.  Does language proficiency matter? Fluency helps but isn't decisive. Context literacy — reading air, watching body language, knowing relationship histories — often yields more truth than words alone. Leaders can operate in English while respecting Japanese protocols, provided they invest in nemawashi, maintain constancy, and avoid breaking trust with premature declarations or unilateral moves.  What's the ultimate leadership lesson? “Win hearts, then heads.” Authenticity tempered with empathy, disciplined listening, and careful boss-calibration turns culture from obstacle to engine. When people feel safe and seen, they move — applying for stretch roles, sharing ideas, and compounding organisational capability over long cycles.  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.

Why authentic leadership is vital in 2025, when AI is everywhere Back in 2021, the big conversation was about chatbots and holograms. Today, in 2025, AI has gone far beyond that. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and countless others are now part of daily life—at home and at work. They generate reports, answer questions, and even simulate empathy in conversation. For many, they feel like a companion. But there is a dark side. We now read disturbing stories of unstable people encouraged by AI interactions to harm themselves or take their own lives. This isn't science fiction. It's here, and it's dangerous. AI doesn't feel, but it can appear to. And when people trick themselves into believing a machine cares, the consequences can be tragic. In this new context, the role of the boss has never been more important. Leaders must become the human alternative to AI—providing authentic empathy, guidance, and care that machines simply cannot. Why do people prefer AI conversations today? The attraction is convenience. AI never gets tired, never loses patience, and always has an answer. For someone who feels isolated, anxious, or unseen, AI can feel like a safe space. In Japan, where loneliness is a social crisis, this is particularly dangerous. Employees may begin to confide more in machines than in their managers. If leaders neglect people-care, their staff may default to AI for guidance and validation. That's not just bad for morale—it's risky for mental health. Mini-Summary: People turn to AI because it feels safe, patient, and always available. Leaders who don't engage risk leaving staff vulnerable to dangerous dependence on machines. How did the pandemic pave the way for this? Covid-19 accelerated remote work and digital reliance. People learned to depend on screens for human connection. By the time AI matured, the habit of seeking digital substitutes was already ingrained. Now, instead of waiting for a manager to reply to a message, an employee can ask AI and get an instant response. The problem is that AI provides efficiency, not empathy. It can mimic listening but cannot care. Mini-Summary: Remote work normalised digital substitutes for connection. AI has filled the gap with speed—but not with real empathy. What are the risks of letting AI fill the emotional void? The most alarming risk is manipulation. AI systems can mirror human emotions, but they cannot judge when someone is in crisis. We've already seen tragic cases where vulnerable people, treated to AI's false empathy, were nudged toward self-harm. In the workplace, the danger is disengagement. Employees who feel unsupported may retreat into AI interactions, becoming emotionally disconnected from their leaders and teams. Over time, this undermines loyalty, performance, and culture. Mini-Summary: AI cannot distinguish between casual talk and crisis. Employees who rely on it emotionally may drift away from their leaders and teams—or worse, suffer harm. Why is the boss's role more important than ever? Because only humans can care. A boss who asks a team member, “Are you okay?” and listens deeply is offering something AI never can: authentic empathy. In Japan, where harmony and belonging are powerful motivators, the boss's role as a human anchor is critical. Leaders must check in intentionally, not leave staff to find comfort in algorithms. Mini-Summary: The boss's role is to provide real empathy and belonging—things AI can mimic but never deliver. What should leaders do in 2025? Schedule human time. Block out time for conversations with staff, no matter how busy. Ask better questions. Go beyond “How's work?” to “How are you coping?” and “What support do you need?” Listen actively. Don't interrupt, dismiss, or rush. Coach direct reports to do the same. Human connection must cascade through every level of leadership. Without these steps, staff may choose AI as their “listener.” Leaders must compete by being more present, empathetic, and human. Mini-Summary: Leaders must outcompete AI by offering deeper listening, better questions, and genuine care. Conclusion AI is now woven into daily life in Japan and worldwide. It offers efficiency, speed, and simulation of empathy—but not the real thing. For vulnerable people, the illusion of care can be deadly. For employees, it can quietly erode engagement and loyalty. That's why the boss's role is more vital than ever. Leaders must be the human alternative to AI—showing real concern, listening with empathy, and anchoring their people in authentic human connection. In 2025, it's not optional. It's the only way to keep teams safe, motivated, and loyal in the age of AI. About the Author 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.

Why trust, empathy, and human relations remain the foundation of sales success in Japan Hunting for new clients is hard work. Farming existing relationships is easier, more sustainable, and far more profitable. Yet not all buyers are easy to deal with. We often wish they would change to make our jobs smoother, but in reality, we can't change them—we can only change ourselves. That principle, at the core of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, remains as true in 2025 as it was in 1936. By shifting our mindset and behaviour, we can strengthen buyer relationships and secure long-term loyalty. Why must salespeople change first, not the buyer? Expecting buyers to change their habits or behaviours sets us up for frustration. Buyers act in ways that make sense to them, even if inconvenient for us. The only real lever we have is our own behaviour. Even a small shift—like adjusting our approach by “three degrees”—can change the buyer's counter-reaction. In Japan, where harmony and long-term trust are prized, this principle is especially powerful. A salesperson who shows flexibility and empathy stands out in contrast to competitors who push rigidly for their own preferences. Mini-Summary: Salespeople cannot force buyers to change; by adjusting their own behaviour, they influence the relationship and build trust. What role do Dale Carnegie's Human Relations Principles play in buyer relationships? Carnegie's Human Relations Principles are timeless tools for building cooperation. Three are particularly relevant for sales: Don't criticise, condemn, or complain. Criticism rarely changes behaviour—it provokes defensiveness. Give honest, sincere appreciation. Genuine recognition strengthens bonds and motivates reciprocity. Arouse in the other person an eager want. Frame solutions around what the buyer personally values. These principles apply across industries, from manufacturing to finance. Japanese buyers, in particular, value respectful, non-confrontational communication that acknowledges their contributions. Mini-Summary: Carnegie's Human Relations Principles—no criticism, sincere appreciation, and aligning with buyer wants—remain timeless tools for sales. Why does criticism damage buyer relationships? When salespeople criticise clients, they expect reasoned acceptance. Instead, they trigger defensiveness. Buyers justify their decisions, harden their positions, and often sour the relationship. Consider situations common in Japan: extended payment terms, last-minute order changes, or requests for multiple quotes as compliance. Criticising these behaviours damages trust. Instead, salespeople must work constructively within the constraints, showing professionalism while seeking long-term influence. Mini-Summary: Criticism never wins buyers—it hardens resistance. Professionalism and patience maintain the relationship, even under pressure. How does sincere appreciation change buyer behaviour? Most professionals receive little genuine recognition. Buyers, like colleagues, are often starved of appreciation. Yet false flattery is quickly detected, especially in Japan where sincerity is scrutinised. The key is to find something specific and genuine. For example: “Suzuki-san, thank you for sending the information so promptly—it helped me meet my deadline.” This kind of concrete, truthful appreciation motivates buyers to cooperate more readily in future. Mini-Summary: Specific, honest appreciation builds cooperation and strengthens relationships—especially in Japan, where false flattery backfires. Why must salespeople align with buyer wants, not their own? Buyers spend most of their time focused on their own priorities, not the salesperson's. To gain cooperation, salespeople must align their proposals with what the buyer values personally, not just professionally. In Japan, this often means recognising not only company goals but also individual motivations—career advancement, personal reputation, or peace of mind. Framing solutions to satisfy these deeper wants increases buyer engagement and willingness to act. Mini-Summary: Sales success comes from aligning with buyer priorities—both corporate and personal—rather than pushing seller needs. How can salespeople apply these principles consistently? Building strong buyer relationships requires discipline. Salespeople should: Avoid negative talk about buyer policies. Express timely, specific appreciation for buyer cooperation. Frame every proposal around the buyer's personal and organisational goals. Companies like Toyota and Hitachi succeed because their sales teams apply these principles systematically, not occasionally. Sales leaders must coach and reinforce this mindset, ensuring every client interaction strengthens trust. Mini-Summary: Consistency in applying human relations principles transforms sales teams from product pushers into trusted partners. Conclusion In 2025, with competition fiercer than ever, building strong buyer relationships remains the bedrock of sales success. We cannot expect clients to change for our convenience. Instead, by applying Dale Carnegie's timeless principles—avoiding criticism, giving sincere appreciation, and aligning with buyer wants—we shift the relationship dynamic in our favour. Buyers in Japan reward this behaviour with trust, loyalty, and repeat business. About the Author 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.

  Timeless luxury thrives on trust, not transactions. In Japan, “walk the talk” converts respect into results. Prepare for 90, execute the final 10 flawlessly. Curiosity first; conclusions later. Empathy is the shortcut to nemawashi.   Born in Geneva, Switzerland — the same city where Piaget began — Alexis Perroton started his career at TAG Heuer. At 24, he accepted a “Japan or nothing” posting and arrived without language skills or prior affinity for the country. The culture shock was immediate, but he refused to quit, immersed himself in the language, and built fluency as he learned retail from the shop floor. After four years, he moved to Richemont's Finance Planning & Analysis team supporting watch maisons and later Cartier, partnering closely with marketing on product performance dashboards. That collaboration paved the way to a leadership shift: he became Head of Jewellery for Cartier Japan during a pivotal rebuilding phase marked by new management, optimism, and local creative freedom. To broaden his scope and network, Perroton relocated to Cartier's head office in Geneva, working with the executive committee and coordinating commercial activities across Asia at the height of China's expansion. He subsequently led marketing and communications across 12 diverse markets in Southeast Asia from Singapore, then moved to Hong Kong in 2015 to oversee Hong Kong & Macau — the largest subsidiary at the time — through a demanding, resource-rich growth period. Recruited to Piaget by a former Cartier colleague tasked with revitalising the maison, Perroton returned to Japan eight years ago to lead Piaget Japan. Since then, he and his team have delivered strong results across triumphs and setbacks, emphasising client relationships, boutique excellence, and disciplined execution. Across roles in Switzerland, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and back to Japan, his career reflects 18 cumulative years in Japan, a deep commitment to on-the-floor leadership, and the conviction that respect, transparency, and consistency (“walk the talk”) generate trust and performance. Alexis Perroton's leadership philosophy is forged from the boutique floor up. He insists luxury is about emotion and human connection, and that leaders must be visible, useful, and humble where the relationship actually forms: in-store. Early in Japan, unable to speak or read the language, he nearly left. Instead, he doubled down, learned Japanese, and used that experience to shape a style that blends Swiss discipline with Japanese trust-building. Over time he moved through finance, marketing, and general management across Asia, all while honing empathy and executional rigour. Perroton learned that Japanese engagement cannot be read through global dashboards alone. Survey scores trend conservative, but comments are nuanced and often positive; a “5/10” may signify a customer's desire to keep a brand exclusive rather than dissatisfaction. He rejects international league tables that flatten culture, preferring to mine qualitative feedback and then close the loop visibly so staff see action, not surveys for surveys' sake. This is classic nemawashi: patiently build consensus and psychological safety before decisions are formalised (ringi-sho), and communicate the “why,” the frame, and the plan. He is equally clear-eyed on empowerment. Large brainstorming sessions seldom unlock the quiet voices; one-to-one breakfasts and small-group conversations do. He schedules weekly “what I did/what I'm doing” forums so every voice exercises agency. Then he provides structure — owners, milestones, expectations — so ideas survive the off-site and turn into operational work. He understands Japan's “prepare 90, execute 10” rhythm and harnesses it: meticulous rehearsal (including speeches scripted phonetically in romaji) ensures flawless client experiences. On technology, he is pragmatic. Luxury e-commerce remains smaller in Japan; clients value brick-and-mortar intimacy, trusted advice, and post-purchase care. Technology supports, but cannot replace, that theatre. Decision intelligence for leaders here means translating data into empathetic action: role-plays at morning chokurei, field coaching, and feedback cadences that respect uncertainty avoidance while still inviting challenge. Language proficiency matters because it collapses distance. Speaking directly with clients at dinners and events, or packing event crates with staff after hours, signals “same boat” solidarity that no town hall can replicate. It also short-circuits the “expat for three years and gone” scepticism. Resilience, for Perroton, comes from perspective: sleep resets the day; reframe the negative until a constructive path appears. In a market where wealth skews older and relationships are compounding assets, his approach fuses empathy, preparation, and presence — the quiet mechanics of trust that make luxury feel effortless. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leaders succeed by investing disproportionate energy in trust and preparation. Nemawashi precedes decisions; ringi-sho codifies them; consensus safeguards execution. Staff and clients value “walk the talk” — the leader who shows up at events on weekends, role-plays in morning huddles, and can serve a client in Japanese. Preparation (90) before execution (10) yields the “flawless” client moment. Why do global executives struggle? They over-index on global benchmarks and underweight context. Japanese engagement and NPS scales are conservative; comments carry the gold. Translation nuance matters. Without patient listening, one-to-one conversations, and follow-through, ideas die in the gap between off-site enthusiasm and Monday reality. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Japan is uncertainty-averse more than risk-averse. Teams will pursue bold goals once leaders reduce ambiguity: clarify intent, sequence, owners, and safeguards. Meticulous rehearsal de-risks the last 10 percent. Leaders who frame decisions with transparent dashboards and narratives convert caution into commitment. What leadership style actually works? Respect, transparency, and consistency. Be reachable, empathetic, and specific. Set frames (who/what/when), then empower execution. Build psychological safety in small groups; invite challenge privately if needed. Model shared labour — from packing crates to greeting clients — to accelerate trust and speed up nemawashi. How can technology help? Use technology to enhance, not replace, human theatre. Digital twins of service journeys and decision intelligence dashboards can surface bottlenecks, skill gaps, and best practices. But luxury clients in Japan still choose boutiques for trust, tactility, and tailored advice. Tech should augment coaching (e.g., role-play libraries, analytics), not automate empathy. Does language proficiency matter? Yes — it compresses distance and signals respect. Direct Japanese conversations enable richer feedback loops with staff and clients, reduce reliance on filters, and quicken consensus. Even partial fluency, used consistently, advances trust faster than polished slides. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Curiosity before conclusions. Listen wide, close the loop visibly, and “walk the talk.” In Japan, leaders who pair empathy with structure turn consensus from a delay into a multiplier, sustaining performance through crises and growth cycles alike. Timecoded Summary [00:00] Geneva to Ginza: Perroton recounts growing up in Switzerland, joining TAG Heuer, and taking a “Japan or nothing” assignment at 24. Early months are brutally hard — no language, cultural isolation — but he refuses to quit, learns Japanese, and discovers the client-facing heartbeat of luxury. [05:20] From FP&A to jewellery: At Richemont he partners with marketing on analytics, then becomes Head of Jewellery for Cartier Japan during a renewal period with new management and local freedom. The move proves that cross-functional fluency (finance + marketing) accelerates leadership range. [12:45] Head office vantage: In Geneva, he coordinates Asian markets as China scales rapidly, building an ex-co network and regional perspective. The exposure to different uncertainty profiles and market maturities seeds his later playbook on framing and consensus. [18:30] Southeast Asia tour: From Singapore, he oversees 12 heterogeneous markets — mature (Singapore), emergent (Vietnam), culturally complex (Indonesia), Anglo-Saxon (Australia). A small, tight team learns to tailor playbooks without losing brand coherence. [23:40] Hong Kong & Macau (2015): He leads the largest subsidiary pre-COVID, where resourcing and pressure are equally high. He calibrates “prepare 90, execute 10” at scale, learning that big markets demand both autonomy and disciplined alignment. [28:10] Piaget Japan: Recruited amid a brand rebuild, he returns to Japan. Eight years deliver wins and setbacks, but the throughline is presence: weekends at events, dinners with clients, and coaching on the floor. He schedules boutique time, blocks calendars, and adapts to two time zones daily. [34:15] Engagement optics: He critiques comparing Japan's NPS/engagement to other countries. Scores are conservative; comments reveal loyalty and exclusivity impulses. The fix: translation nuance, qualitative mining, action plans, and visible follow-through — nemawashi in practice. [40:00] Empowerment engine: Weekly “feedback” meetings make speaking up routine. Small breakfasts surface quieter voices. He supplies frames (owners, timelines) so ideas outlive off-sites. Role-play during chokurei institutionalises learning despite dispersed retail schedules. [45:35] Digital vs. human: E-commerce is smaller in Japan's luxury; clients prioritise tactile experiences and trusted advisors. Technology should serve decision intelligence and coaching, not attempt to automate empathy. [49:50] Resilience & habits: He writes everything down, rehearses speeches in romaji, takes thinking breaks, and resets daily — reframing negatives until a constructive path emerges. The ultimate lesson: curiosity, empathy, structure, and “walk the talk.” 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.

Why foreign “hammers” fail and what leaders must do differently in 2025 For decades, foreign companies entering Japan have repeated the same mistake: dispatching a “change agent” from HQ to shake things up. The scenario often ends in disaster. Relationships are broken, trust collapses, and revenues fall. In 2025, the lesson is clear—Japan doesn't need hammers. It needs builders who listen, localise, and lead with respect. Why do foreign change agents so often fail in Japan? Most fail because they arrive as “hammers,” assuming Japanese organisations are nails to be pounded. They issue orders, demand compliance, and move quickly to replace “uncooperative” staff. Within months, good people leave, clients are alienated, and HQ is asking why nothing has improved. In Japan's relationship-driven culture, trust and precedent matter more than speed. What works in the US or Europe—shock therapy and rapid restructuring—backfires badly in Tokyo. Mini-Summary: Change agents fail because they impose foreign models on Japan, destroying relationships and trust in the process. What makes Japan's business environment unique? Japan's corporate culture is deeply relationship-based. Employees and clients alike expect stability, respect for hierarchy, and long-term partnership. Leaders who ignore these norms are seen as reckless and disrespectful. Imagine if a Japanese executive were sent to New York or Sydney with no English, no knowledge of local clients, and an eagerness to sack your colleagues. How would staff react? That's how many Japanese employees feel when foreign hammers arrive. Mini-Summary: Japan values stability, respect, and trust. Ignoring cultural context guarantees resistance to foreign-led change. How does poor localisation damage performance? Foreign leaders often fail because they don't understand Japanese customers, laws, or working styles. Policies designed for HQ markets rarely fit Japan. When imposed, they drive away clients and demoralise employees. Losing even a handful of senior staff can devastate sales because relationships with clients are personal and long-standing. Unlike in Silicon Valley or London, relationships in Japan cannot be quickly replaced. Mini-Summary: Poor localisation alienates both staff and customers. Once key relationships are broken in Japan, they are almost impossible to rebuild quickly. What should leaders do differently before landing in Japan? Preparation is everything. Leaders should study Japanese language, culture, and business practices before stepping on the plane. They must also build “air cover” at HQ—support for localisation and patience with results. Quick wins help: small, visible improvements that build credibility. Equally important is identifying influencers inside the Japanese office to champion necessary changes. Instead of dictating, leaders must co-create solutions with the local team. For a comprehensive roadmap, leaders should read Japan Business Mastery and Japan Leadership Mastery, which remain the most up-to-date guides on how to succeed in Japan's unique and complex business environment. Mini-Summary: Leaders should prepare deeply, secure HQ support, and pursue small wins with local influencers. Japan Business Mastery and Japan Leadership Mastery are the definitive playbooks for succeeding in Japan. Why is listening more powerful than ordering in Japan? Successful leaders in Japan listen first. They try to understand why processes exist before changing them. What seems inefficient to outsiders may serve a hidden purpose, such as preserving harmony with partners or complying with local regulations. Listening builds credibility and signals respect. Staff become more open to change when they feel heard. By contrast, ordering without listening provokes silent resistance, where employees nod in meetings but fail to execute later. Mini-Summary: Listening creates buy-in and reveals hidden logic. Ordering without listening triggers silent resistance in Japan. How can foreign leaders build rather than wreck in Japan? The answer is to be a builder, not a wrecker. Builders respect relationships, cultivate influencers, and adapt global practices to local realities. They hasten slowly, introducing sustainable changes without blowing up trust. Executives at firms like Microsoft Japan and Coca-Cola Japan have shown that localisation, patience, and humility create long-term growth. Change agents may deliver in other markets, but in Japan, only builders succeed. Mini-Summary: Builders succeed by respecting trust, localising global models, and moving at Japan's pace. Conclusion The “change agent” model is a repeat failure in Japan. In 2025, foreign companies must abandon the hammer approach and embrace a builder mindset—listening, localising, and cultivating trust. Japan's market is rich, stable, and full of opportunity, but only for leaders who respect its unique culture. For executives who want a practical roadmap, Japan Business Mastery and Japan Leadership Mastery remain the most relevant and up-to-date books on how to win in this demanding environment. About the Author 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.

“Anything that stretches you and makes you grow is never easy.” “In general, to gain trust, the three things that work are humility, curiosity, and authenticity.” “In Japan, you have to move from busy to productive, and from productive to impactful.” “As a leader, you must trust others to be your voice, your interpreter, and your proofreader.” “First and foremost, put your hand up—there's too much hesitation and self-censoring.” Dr. Laura Bonamici is the Global Head of Marketing at Fujitsu, based in Tokyo, Japan. Her career has spanned multiple industries and geographies, from consumer goods and luxury fashion to technology, each stage demanding adaptability and reinvention. Previously she was a Communications Specialist, Embedded PR; Commodity Operations Program Manager, Goldman Sachs; Investment Banking Division, Goldman Sachs; Corporate Marketing Assistant, Drake International-Learning Technologies.  She has a Ph.D. from Royal Holloway University of London; and B.A from Universita degli Studi di Firenze. She has built her reputation on her ability to lead transformation across cultures, guiding teams through periods of uncertainty and change. In Japan, she has been tasked directly by Fujitsu's CEO with spearheading marketing transformation, a mandate that challenges her to balance global speed with the local consensus-driven style of decision-making. Fluent in several languages and deeply committed to cultural immersion, Laura has become known for blending precision with creativity, humility with authority, and long-term commitment with immediate impact. She champions diversity, particularly encouraging women to take leadership roles and pursue international assignments, believing that exposure to different cultures is essential for confidence and perspective. Today, she continues to refine her leadership approach in Japan's uniquely complex business environment, guided by authenticity, curiosity, and respect for cultural nuance. Leadership, for Dr. Laura Bonamici, is a process of constant growth, challenge, and adaptation. As Global Head of Marketing at Fujitsu, she has learned that leadership in Japan is unlike anywhere else in the world: demanding patience, cultural sensitivity, and an unwavering commitment to authenticity. Upon her arrival in Tokyo, she was tasked by the CEO with driving transformation. Yet, she quickly discovered that while international markets often prize speed and disruption, Japan's consensus-driven decision-making process values nemawashi (informal groundwork), ringi-sho (formal approval circulation), and a deliberate pace. Rather than imposing a foreign model, Laura chose to respect the cultural norms while still pushing for meaningful change. This balancing act has required resilience and an appreciation that transformation cannot be rushed. Trust lies at the heart of her leadership. As a non-Japanese executive, she is acutely aware of perceptions that foreigners may not stay long. To counter this, she invests time in one-on-one interactions, symbolic gestures like delivering speeches in Japanese, and consistent demonstrations of long-term commitment. These actions, while small, become essential trust-building measures that gradually shift perceptions. Laura's leadership style is built on humility, curiosity, and authenticity. She believes in asking questions, even in a culture where questioning may be uncomfortable, framing them in ways that show genuine interest rather than criticism. She uses tools such as workshops, Post-it brainstorming, and agile methodologies to encourage open participation and psychological safety. For her, leadership is not about imposing a style but about weaving together the best aspects of Japanese precision, international innovation, and Fujitsu's own corporate culture. She also emphasises the need to move from being “busy” to truly “impactful.” By deliberately carving out time in her calendar for reflection and creativity, she models the behaviours she wants her team to adopt. This philosophy resonates strongly in Japan, where overwork is common but does not always translate to high impact. For women, she acknowledges both the barriers and the opportunities in Japan. She urges female leaders to “put their hand up” rather than self-censor, and advocates for international assignments to build resilience and global perspective. With Fujitsu's goal of 30% female leadership, she sees systemic change as gradual but achievable through consistent encouragement and role modelling. Ultimately, Laura likens leadership to salt: essential when used wisely, overwhelming when misapplied. Her approach, grounded in authenticity and cultural respect, is a reminder that leadership is both an art and a discipline, particularly in the nuanced environment of Japan. What makes leadership in Japan unique? Leadership in Japan is shaped by consensus-driven decision-making and cultural expectations of humility and harmony. Unlike markets that prioritise speed, Japan values nemawashi and ringi-sho, where alignment is painstakingly built. For Laura, leadership here requires balancing international urgency with local patience. Why do global executives struggle? Executives often arrive expecting to implement rapid change, only to find progress feels slow. They underestimate the importance of trust and long-term commitment. As Laura highlights, without demonstrating persistence and cultural respect, leaders may be dismissed as transient. Is Japan truly risk-averse? Rather than being risk-averse, Laura believes Japan exhibits high uncertainty avoidance. Transformation is not rejected but must be managed through careful consensus-building. She frames this as a shift from rushing decisions to ensuring impact, which aligns with decision intelligence principles. What leadership style actually works? Authenticity, humility, and curiosity are key. Asking questions, even when uncomfortable, models openness and encourages dialogue. Laura avoids imposing a singular “foreign” leadership style, instead blending the strengths of Japanese precision, international innovation, and Fujitsu's own values. How can technology help? Laura leverages agile methodologies, workshops, and digital collaboration tools to break down silos and create psychological safety. She believes technology, such as digital twins and agile design frameworks, enables experimentation without fear, helping bridge the gap between speed and consensus. Does language proficiency matter? Yes, both symbolically and practically. Delivering speeches in Japanese signals respect and commitment. It also reduces the reliance on interpreters, though Laura emphasises trusting interpreters and proofreaders as extensions of leadership. What's the ultimate leadership lesson? Leadership, like salt, must be applied with balance. Too much control overwhelms; too little leaves teams directionless. Laura's ultimate lesson is that leadership is about fostering trust, modelling authenticity, and creating the conditions for impact rather than imposing authority. [00:00] Dr. Laura Bonamici introduces her leadership philosophy, stressing that anything that stretches and challenges you is never easy. She frames leadership as a balance of authenticity and cultural adaptation. [05:20] Discusses her arrival in Japan and mandate from Fujitsu's CEO to drive transformation. She quickly identifies the challenge of aligning international speed with Japan's consensus culture, rooted in nemawashi and ringi-sho. [12:45] Highlights the importance of trust-building as a foreign leader. Shares strategies such as one-on-one meetings, learning Japanese, and consistent presence to counter perceptions of transience. [18:30] Outlines her leadership pillars of humility, curiosity, and authenticity. Explains how asking questions, though culturally uncomfortable, demonstrates genuine interest and encourages dialogue. [25:10] Describes practical tools like workshops, Post-it brainstorming, and agile practices to foster innovation and psychological safety within teams. [32:00] Emphasises the shift from being busy to impactful. She blocks time for reflection and creativity, modelling productive behaviours in contrast to Japan's culture of overwork. [39:15] Addresses the challenges and opportunities for women leaders in Japan. Urges women to put their hand up, avoid self-censoring, and take overseas assignments to build resilience. [45:00] Concludes with her metaphor of leadership as salt — essential in balance, destructive in excess — encapsulating her philosophy of authenticity, cultural sensitivity, and patience. Host 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.

Balancing strength and flexibility in leadership in 2025 Leaders are often told to “never surrender” and “winners don't quit.” At the same time, they are also expected to be flexible, adaptable, and open to change. These opposing demands resemble the yin-yang symbol—two seemingly contradictory forces that must coexist. As of 2025, when Japanese and global organisations face complex challenges from AI disruption to demographic decline, the real question is: should leaders concede, and if so, when? Why are leaders expected to be both tough and flexible? Leadership has long been framed as toughness—perseverance, resilience, and determination. Leaders are expected to stand firm when others waver. Yet modern organisations also demand agility. Executives must adapt to shifting markets, employee expectations, and cultural norms. In Japan, this dualism is particularly acute. The expectation of gaman (endurance) coexists with the need for kaizen (continuous improvement). Leaders must embody both, choosing when to persist and when to pivot. Mini-Summary: Leaders must balance resilience with adaptability. In Japan, gaman (endurance) and kaizen (improvement) highlight this dual demand. Why do most people avoid leadership roles? Leadership is stressful. It involves accountability, difficult decisions, and constant scrutiny. As Yogi Berra once quipped, “Leading is easy. It's getting people to follow you that's hard.” Leaders must sometimes fire underperformers, push unpopular decisions, and absorb criticism. In Japan, where harmony is valued, these responsibilities are even more daunting. Many professionals choose to remain followers, leaving leadership to those willing to shoulder the stress. Mini-Summary: Leadership is hard because it involves accountability and stress. Most people avoid it, which is why true leaders are rare. Why is delegation so difficult for leaders? Many leaders struggle to delegate effectively. The pressure to deliver results tempts them to keep control. Yet failing to delegate creates bottlenecks and burnout. In Japan, where leaders are often overloaded with both strategic and administrative tasks, this is a recurring challenge. Research shows that high-performing leaders focus on tasks only they can do, while delegating the rest. This requires trust, coaching, and patience. Without it, leaders end up hoarding tasks that should be done by others. Mini-Summary: Leaders often fail to delegate, but true effectiveness comes from focusing on high-value tasks and trusting the team. How should leaders balance authority with openness? Many leaders mouth platitudes about “servant leadership” or “management by walking around.” In reality, these often turn into issuing orders from new locations. The real test is whether leaders listen and incorporate team input. In Japan, where collectivism runs deep, openness is crucial. Employees are more engaged when they feel heard. Leaders who concede occasionally—adopting team ideas over their own—strengthen trust without losing authority. Mini-Summary: True openness means listening and conceding when team ideas are better. In Japan, this strengthens trust and loyalty. Can conceding actually make leaders stronger? Conceding is often seen as weakness, but in fact, it signals confidence. Leaders who admit they don't know everything gain credibility. They also encourage innovation, as employees feel safe proposing new approaches. In my own case, developing self-awareness has been key. Recognising that my way is not always the only way allows me to adapt and grow. Conceding doesn't mean surrendering; it means being smart enough to choose the best path. Mini-Summary: Conceding wisely shows strength, not weakness. Leaders gain credibility and foster innovation by admitting they don't know everything. How can leaders develop flexibility without losing authority? The key is mindset. Leaders must accept that multiple paths can lead to success. Flexibility requires conscious effort: more coaching, more listening, and more openness to alternatives. Japanese leaders, often trained in rigid hierarchies, may find this shift difficult. Yet flexibility is essential in today's unpredictable business environment. By selecting the best ideas—whether theirs or others'—leaders strengthen both their authority and their team's performance. Mini-Summary: Flexibility doesn't erode authority. By adopting the best ideas available, leaders remain strong while empowering their teams. Conclusion Leadership is not about rigidly holding the line or constantly conceding. It's about knowing when to do each. In 2025, leaders in Japan and worldwide must master the dualism of resilience and flexibility. By conceding strategically—listening, delegating, and adapting—leaders can inspire loyalty, foster innovation, and remain credible anchors in uncertain times. About the Author 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.

How a structured roadmap transforms sales performance in Japan At the centre of every sale is the customer relationship. Surrounding that relationship are the stages of the sales cycle, which act like planets revolving around the sun. Without a structured cycle, salespeople risk being led by the buyer instead of guiding the process themselves. With it, they always know where they are and what comes next. Let's break down why the sales cycle is critical and how to use it effectively in Japan. What is the sales cycle and why does it matter? The sales cycle is a five-stage roadmap that moves from first contact through to closing and after-sales follow-up. Each stage—credibility, questioning, solution, objections, and close—ensures that salespeople remain in control of the process. In Japan, where buyers are cautious and expect professionalism, having a clear cycle prevents missteps. It reassures clients that the salesperson is competent and methodical. Just as Toyota uses structured processes for manufacturing excellence, salespeople need a reliable process to achieve consistent results. Mini-Summary: The sales cycle provides a roadmap that keeps salespeople in control, especially in Japan where clients expect structure and professionalism. How should salespeople make a strong first impression? The first step is credibility. Buyers often meet salespeople through referrals, events, or cold calls, and they form impressions quickly. A refined credibility statement is essential: it should clearly communicate who you are, your expertise, and why you are reliable. At this stage, qualifying questions are also critical. They help determine whether the prospect is a genuine fit for your solution. Without qualification, time and resources are wasted. In Japan's relationship-driven market, credibility and early alignment build the trust needed to advance the conversation. Mini-Summary: A polished credibility statement and targeted qualification questions establish trust and ensure you're talking to the right buyer. Why is questioning compared to a doctor's diagnosis? Just like doctors, salespeople must diagnose before prescribing. Asking questions reveals the buyer's current situation, future goals, barriers to success, and personal motivations. These insights uncover not only organisational needs but also the executive's personal stakes in the outcome. In Japan, where buyers may not volunteer information freely, structured questioning is vital. It demonstrates that the salesperson genuinely wants to understand before offering solutions. This approach aligns with consultative selling methods used by multinational firms, which outperform competitors relying on generic pitches. Mini-Summary: Diagnostic questioning uncovers both company needs and personal stakes, showing buyers you are serious about solving their problems. How do you present solutions effectively in Japan? Once needs are clear, the salesperson must outline the solution with detail and proof. This involves explaining features, translating them into benefits, and providing evidence of success in similar contexts. For example, showing how Fujitsu or Rakuten solved a comparable problem makes the solution credible. Importantly, salespeople should use trial closes to test understanding and identify concerns before the final ask. In Japan, this gentle approach respects hierarchy and allows buyers to raise issues without losing face. Mini-Summary: Effective solution presentations combine features, benefits, and proof, reinforced by trial closes to surface and resolve concerns early. How should objections be handled? If objections arise, it signals that either clarity or persuasion was lacking. The professional response is to address concerns respectfully, provide further evidence, and reframe value. In Japan, objections are often indirect, so listening carefully is essential. Global best practice suggests preparing objection-handling strategies in advance. Whether in consumer goods or B2B tech, salespeople who anticipate resistance show competence. Japanese clients in particular value patience and persistence in overcoming doubts. Mini-Summary: Objections reveal gaps in clarity or persuasion; handling them calmly and respectfully strengthens trust in Japan's relationship-driven culture. How do you close the sale and secure loyalty? Closing should not be abrupt. Instead, salespeople can “paint a word picture” of success, helping the buyer imagine the benefits of the solution in action. Then, a soft closing technique invites agreement. After closing, follow-up is critical. Maintaining contact ensures satisfaction, resolves issues, and opens the door for referrals. In Japan, where reputation spreads through networks, happy clients become powerful advocates. The sales cycle does not end with the sale—it ends with loyalty. Mini-Summary: Successful closing combines gentle persuasion with strong follow-up, turning satisfied clients into long-term advocates and referral sources. Conclusion The sales cycle—credibility, questioning, solution, objections, and closing—is the roadmap that guides salespeople through every conversation. Without it, sales interactions risk becoming chaotic or buyer-led. In Japan, where professionalism, trust, and long-term relationships are paramount, mastering the cycle is non-negotiable. Salespeople who use it consistently not only close more deals but also create loyal clients who sustain their business for years to come. About the Author 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.

Why leadership requires sensing and feeling, not just knowing, in 2025 Managers often prioritise what they “know,” while leaders rely more on what they “sense” and “feel.” This distinction, popularised by executive coach Marcel Danne, is more than semantics—it highlights a profound difference in mindset. As of 2025, with Japan navigating demographic challenges, digital disruption, and global uncertainty, the ability to sense and adapt has become more critical than simply knowing facts. What's the difference between managers and leaders in decision-making? Managers tend to focus on knowing first—building confidence through data, self-education, and sheer hard work. Leaders, however, prioritise sensing first—tuning into people, context, and emotions before deciding. In practice, this means managers often bulldoze forward with certainty, while leaders pause to feel and reflect before acting. In Japan, this distinction matters. Hierarchical firms often elevate those who “know,” but the complexity of 2025 requires leaders who can sense subtle shifts in markets, teams, and cultures. Mini-Summary: Managers lead with knowledge; leaders lead with sensing. In 2025 Japan, sensing is critical for navigating complexity. Why are managers often so confident in their own answers? Managers often rely on personal effort: self-education, long hours, and relentless execution. This creates confidence, even ego, but often without much self-awareness. Many managers assume the path is clear because they've worked hard to “know” it. This overconfidence mirrors Western corporate cultures where rugged individualism is prized. But in Japan, such confidence can clash with collaborative norms. A “my way or the highway” mindset alienates teams, undermining innovation and engagement. Mini-Summary: Managerial confidence stems from effort and ego, but without self-awareness, it risks alienating teams—especially in Japan. Why do Japanese firms prioritise questions over answers? Japanese business culture values asking the right questions more than having immediate answers. To a Western-trained manager, this seems counterintuitive, but it ensures decisions reflect collective wisdom. Leaders in Japan often pause to ask: Are we even solving the right problem? This contrasts with the West, where speed and decisiveness are praised. In 2025, Japanese organisations that blend both—rigorous questioning plus timely execution—are best positioned for global competition. Mini-Summary: In Japan, leaders prioritise asking the right questions before jumping to answers, ensuring collective wisdom shapes decisions. How do feelings reshape leadership effectiveness? Managers often dismiss emotions as distractions. Leaders, however, integrate feelings into decision-making. Dale Carnegie's Human Relations Principles emphasise empathy, appreciation, and understanding as essential leadership skills. Leaders who sense how people feel can adjust tone, timing, and messaging. In 2025, with hybrid work and employee burnout prevalent, emotional intelligence is more critical than ever. Companies like Hitachi and Sony are embedding empathy into leadership development to retain talent and drive innovation. Mini-Summary: Feelings, once ignored by managers, are now essential for leaders managing hybrid workforces and avoiding burnout. Can leaders evolve from “knowing” to “sensing”? Yes. Leaders can shift by gradually reordering their priorities. Many, like myself, began as managers focused on knowing and execution. Over time, through feedback and reflection, feelings and sensing moved to the forefront. For example, Dale Carnegie training encourages leaders to practice empathy, appreciation, and active listening. These skills shift behaviour from control to collaboration. Even small changes—like pausing before responding—signal growth. Mini-Summary: Leaders can evolve from knowing-first to sensing-first through training, reflection, and small behavioural changes. What should leaders do today to balance sensing and knowing? In 2025, leaders must balance data with empathy. This means: Asking the right questions before chasing answers. Listening actively to signals from teams and markets. Using knowledge as a foundation but not the driver. Modelling humility and curiosity in decision-making. Executives at firms like Toyota and Rakuten illustrate this blend, combining rigorous data with people-first leadership. Leaders who fail to evolve remain stuck in outdated managerial mindsets. Mini-Summary: Leaders must balance sensing and knowing by listening, questioning, and modelling humility—skills critical in 2025 Japan. Conclusion The difference between managers and leaders lies in order of priority: managers know first, leaders sense first. In Japan's complex 2025 environment, sensing, feeling, and questioning matter more than simply knowing. Leadership is a journey of self-discovery—moving from rugged individualism to collaborative sensing. The challenge for executives today is clear: are you still managing by knowing, or are you leading by sensing? About the Author 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.

Why Western sales revolutions haven't reshaped Japanese selling practices Sales gurus often argue that “sales has changed.” They introduce new frameworks—SPIN Selling, Consultative Selling, Challenger Selling—that dominate Western business schools and corporate training. But in Japan, sales methods look surprisingly similar to how they did decades ago. Why hasn't Japan embraced these waves of change? Let's break it down. Why has Japan resisted Western sales revolutions? Japan's business culture is defined by consensus decision-making. Unlike in the US, where one buyer may have authority to sign a deal, Japanese firms typically rely on group approval. Aggressive closing techniques—“100 ways to overcome objections”—don't resonate in a context where no single buyer holds final power. When a salesperson meets a Japanese executive, even the president, decisions are often delegated downward for due diligence. The result? What looks like a top-level entry point becomes just the beginning of a long bottom-up approval process. Mini-Summary: Western-style “hard closes” fail in Japan because decisions are made through collective consensus, not individual authority. Who really decides in Japanese sales negotiations? Salespeople often assume they're negotiating with the decision-maker. In Japan, that's rarely the case. The person in front of you is usually an influencer, not the final authority. They gather information and share it with unseen stakeholders—division heads, section chiefs, back-office teams—who never meet the salesperson directly. This creates the sensation of “fighting invisible ninjas.” You prepare to persuade one buyer, but in reality, you must equip your contact to persuade a network of hidden decision-makers. Mini-Summary: In Japan, sales success depends on influencing unseen stakeholders through the buyer's internal champion. How do Japanese buyers expect salespeople to behave? Unlike Western buyers who are open to consultative approaches, Japanese buyers often expect a pitch. When salespeople arrive, they are typically asked to explain features and price. This isn't necessarily because they don't value needs analysis, but because decades of feature-focused selling have conditioned buyers to expect the “pitch-first” style. Even in 2021, many Japanese sales meetings begin with a features dump, not diagnostic questions. As one veteran trainer notes, Dale Carnegie's 1939 sales model of asking questions before proposing solutions remains largely ignored in Japan today. Mini-Summary: Japanese buyers have been trained by decades of salespeople to expect a feature-and-price pitch, making consultative selling harder to implement. What problems arise from pitching before asking questions? Pitching before discovery creates major risks. If you don't know the buyer's actual needs, you can't know which features matter most. Worse, buyers may dismiss your solution as irrelevant or commoditised. Globally, best practice is clear: ask questions, uncover pain points, align benefits, provide proof, then close. Yet in Japan, many salespeople still rush to pitch, skipping diagnostic discovery altogether. This keeps Japanese sales culture stuck in the “dark ages” compared to markets like the US or Europe, where consultative and challenger methods are standard. Mini-Summary: Pitching without discovery weakens sales effectiveness and prevents alignment with buyer needs, but remains common in Japan. How can sales teams in Japan modernise their approach? The roadmap is simple but powerful: Ask permission to ask questions. Diagnose needs thoroughly. Identify the best-fit solution. Present that solution clearly. Handle hesitations and objections. Ask for the order. This structure modernises Japanese sales while respecting cultural norms. It avoids “pushing” while still providing a disciplined process for uncovering and addressing client needs. Executives at global firms like Toyota, Sony, and Mitsubishi increasingly expect this approach, especially when dealing with multinational partners. Mini-Summary: A structured consultative process—diagnose, propose, resolve—aligns global best practice with Japanese cultural norms. What should leaders do to drive change in Japan's sales culture? Leaders must train salespeople to abandon outdated pitching habits and embrace consultative questioning. This requires coaching, reinforcement, and role-modelling from the top. Japanese firms that continue with pitch-driven sales risk falling behind global competitors. By contrast, firms that shift to questioning-based sales processes build trust faster, uncover hidden opportunities, and shorten approval cycles. The future of sales in Japan depends on whether leaders push for transformation or let tradition slow them down. Mini-Summary: Leaders must drive the shift from pitch-first to consultative sales or risk being left behind in a globalising market. Conclusion Japan hasn't embraced the sales revolutions of the West because its business culture is consensus-driven, pitch-conditioned, and tradition-bound. But the future demands change. The companies that modernise sales processes—by asking permission, diagnosing needs, and presenting tailored solutions—will outpace those stuck in pitch-first habits. Leaders have a choice: keep Japan's sales culture in the past, or bring it decisively into the 21st century. About the Author 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.

Why trust is the ultimate driver of long-term sales success in Japan Salespeople everywhere know that trust is essential for winning deals, but in Japan, trust is the difference between a one-off sale and a lifelong customer. Research shows that 63% of buyers prefer to purchase from someone they completely trust—even over someone offering a lower price. In a market where relationships outweigh transactions, trust doesn't just support sales, it builds loyalty. Why does trust outweigh price in Japanese sales? While discounting may win a deal, it doesn't create loyalty. Trust, on the other hand, generates repeat business. The cost of building trust is far lower than repeatedly slashing prices to close deals. Buyers in Japan, who are highly attuned to signs of insincerity, quickly detect opportunistic sales tactics. When they find a salesperson who is genuinely trustworthy, they hold on tightly. This is why successful firms in industries from pharmaceuticals to IT services prioritise building trust-based partnerships over price competition. Global research and local practice confirm that loyalty is rooted in belief, not bargains. Mini-Summary: Trust is more powerful than price in Japan because it creates repeat business and loyalty, while discounting only secures short-term wins. What mindset builds long-term customer loyalty? The salesperson's mindset determines whether buyers see them as a partner or a pusher. A focus on long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions changes everything. When salespeople think in terms of “partnership” and “reorder,” communication becomes more genuine, reassuring buyers that their interests are respected. In Japan, this long-term orientation aligns with cultural norms of reliability and stability. Buyers expect a salesperson to stand by them through multiple cycles, not just disappear after the first contract. Sales leaders at companies like Toyota and Hitachi have reinforced this by emphasising repeat business as a performance metric, not just one-time deals. Mini-Summary: A partnership mindset—focused on reorders and long-term success—creates loyalty and aligns with Japanese business culture. How do buyers sense a salesperson's true intention? Buyers are experts at detecting hidden agendas. If a salesperson approaches with a “win-lose” attitude, buyers sense it immediately. Past purchasing mistakes make buyers cautious and wary of being taken advantage of. By contrast, when salespeople project genuine interest in mutual success, buyers relax and open the door to trust. The key is consistency: every action, from initial meetings to after-sales support, must reinforce the message that the salesperson is invested in a “win-win” relationship. Mini-Summary: Buyers intuitively sense whether a salesperson is seeking a win-win or win-lose deal. Only the former leads to loyalty. What drives buyer loyalty beyond trust? Loyalty is both emotional and behavioural. It stems from the buyer's belief that the salesperson is reliable, competent, and focused on their success. The trust-loyalty equation can be expressed as: Trust + Relationship = Buyer Loyalty At one extreme sits the “product pusher,” chasing maximum price before moving on. At the other extreme is the “trusted advisor,” dedicated to mutual benefit and long-term collaboration. The question every salesperson must ask is: where do you sit on this scale? Mini-Summary: Buyer loyalty comes from the combination of trust and relationship, positioning the salesperson as a trusted advisor rather than a product pusher. What are the five drivers of trust in sales? To earn loyalty, salespeople must master five trust drivers: Intention: Always seek win-win outcomes. Competence: Deliver reliable solutions that meet buyer needs. Customer Focus: Prioritise the buyer's success as the path to your own. Communication: Provide clarity, manage expectations, and follow through. Value Creation: Continuously add value that goes beyond the product. In sectors like finance and healthcare, where risk is high, these drivers determine whether clients commit for the long term. Without them, loyalty cannot be sustained. Mini-Summary: Trust is built on intention, competence, customer focus, communication, and value creation—five pillars every salesperson must master. What should leaders do to embed loyalty in sales teams? Organisational culture matters as much as individual behaviour. Some firms claim to be “customer-first,” but internally reward only short-term sales. Leaders must align messaging and incentives with trust-building behaviours. Salespeople working in trust-driven environments are more motivated, more professional, and more successful. If a company does not encourage loyalty-driven practices, sales professionals may need to move to one that does. In Japan's competitive market, those who embody trust and loyalty enjoy longer, more rewarding careers. Mini-Summary: Leaders must create environments that reward trust-building, or risk losing both customers and talented salespeople. Conclusion Customer loyalty is built on trust, not discounts. For salespeople in Japan, adopting a win-win mindset, projecting genuine intentions, and mastering the five drivers of trust are essential to becoming a trusted advisor. Companies that encourage loyalty-focused behaviour will thrive, while those stuck in transactional models will struggle to sustain growth. About the Author 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.

Why vision, mission, and values still matter in 2025—if leaders make them real Not long ago, talking about “vision” often invited sneers. Leaders who spoke about visions were mocked as spouting psychobabble. Part of the cynicism came from the poor quality of early vision statements—trite platitudes that could double as sleeping aids. But times have changed. In 2025, vision, mission, and values are essential leadership tools, yet most organisations still struggle to make them resonate with staff. Why were visions mocked in the past? In the 1980s and 1990s, many vision statements were badly written—either too vague, too long, or too clichéd. Employees saw them as irrelevant. Cynical cultures, like Australia's, dismissed them as hollow leadership exercises. Fast-forward to today, and vision has become mainstream. Companies in Japan, the US, and Europe frame it as a strategic anchor. But credibility remains the challenge: if employees can't recall the vision, they can't live it. Mini-Summary: Early visions failed because they were clichéd or irrelevant. Today they are vital, but only if staff remember and act on them. Do employees actually know their company's vision, mission, and values? Research and field experience suggest most don't. Trainers often test this by flipping framed statements on the wall and asking staff to recite them. Typically, no one remembers the vision or mission, and at best, a few values. In Japan, where employees pride themselves on discipline and detail, this gap is striking. It shows that leadership communication is failing. Employees can't live what they can't recall. Mini-Summary: Most employees cannot recite their organisation's vision, mission, or values—evidence that communication and ownership are missing. Why do so many statements fail to inspire? There are two extremes: bloated statements too long to recall, or cut-down slogans so short they become vapid clichés. Both kill engagement. Worse, leaders often draft them alone, without wordsmithing skills or input from employees. Even when teams co-create content, turnover means newcomers feel no ownership. In Japan, where lifetime employment has eroded, this turnover effect is magnified. Leaders must find mechanisms to refresh ownership constantly. Mini-Summary: Vision and value statements fail when they're too long, too short, or disconnected from employees—especially in high-turnover environments. What practices help embed vision into daily work? One proven method is daily repetition. Ritz-Carlton Hotels review their values at every shift worldwide, with even junior staff leading the discussion. Inspired by this, Dale Carnegie Tokyo holds a “Daily Dale” every morning, where team members take turns to lead the session and recites the vision, mission, and values and discuss one of 60 Dale Carnegie Human Relations Principles. This practice ensures even new hires quickly internalise the culture. Egalitarian leadership—having secretaries, not just presidents, lead—also deepens ownership. Mini-Summary: Embedding vision requires daily rituals, repetition, and egalitarian involvement, not just posters on walls. Should companies also create a “strategic vision”? Yes. Many visions describe identity—who we are and what we stand for—but not direction. During the pandemic, Dale Carnegie Tokyo added a “Strategic Vision” to articulate where the company was heading. In 2025, with Japan navigating digital transformation, demographic decline, and global competition, leaders need both: a cultural compass (vision, mission, values) and a directional map (strategic vision). Without both, organisations drift. Mini-Summary: Companies need two visions: a cultural compass for identity, and a strategic vision for direction—especially in turbulent times. How can leaders bring visions to life in 2025? Leaders must test whether employees know the vision, mission, and values. If they don't, leaders should redesign communication and embedding processes. Mechanisms like daily recitation, story-sharing, and recognition linked to values make culture tangible. The post-pandemic world has raised expectations: employees want meaningful work, and customers want values-driven partners. Leaders who treat vision statements as wallpaper risk being left behind. Mini-Summary: Leaders bring visions to life by testing recall, embedding practices into daily routines, and aligning recognition with values. Conclusion Vision, mission, and values were once dismissed as leadership fluff. Today, they are essential but often forgotten or poorly implemented. In 2025, leaders in Japan and globally must transform them into living tools—clear, repeatable, and tied to both culture and strategy. If your team can't recite your vision, mission, and values today, you don't have a culture—you have a poster. About the Author 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.

Why leaders must nurture ideas if they want innovation to thrive in Japan People are more creative than they give themselves credit for, yet many work environments suppress rather than encourage innovation. Brainstorming sessions often produce nothing but wasted calendar space, or worse, good ideas that die on arrival because no one champions them. In Japan and globally, corporate graveyards are filled with unrealised concepts. Leaders must understand that creativity is not a one-off spark—it's a journey that requires cultivation, sponsorship, and careful timing. Why do so many good ideas die inside companies? Most ideas never make it past the brainstorming stage. Either nothing actionable emerges, or promising suggestions are quietly buried. Even in companies with innovation-friendly cultures, ideas face hurdles before they can be applied. Lack of sponsorship, risk aversion, and overloaded leadership pipelines kill innovation before it matures. In Japan, this is amplified by hierarchical decision-making. Ideas often stall before reaching senior management because middle managers, stretched thin and politically cautious, block their path. Without a system to shepherd ideas upward, they disappear. Mini-Summary: Good ideas often fail because they lack sponsorship, timing, or pathways upward—especially in Japan's hierarchical organisations. Where do creative ideas come from? Ideas start with individuals. Inspiration can come from anywhere—external networks, professional communities, or day-to-day frustrations. The broader an employee's networks, the higher the likelihood of fresh sparks. The problem is engagement. In Japan, only about 5–7% of employees rank as “highly engaged” in surveys. That means most staff aren't motivated to generate or push ideas. Without engagement, even the most creative sparks fizzle. Leaders must connect daily work to purpose so employees see why innovation matters. Mini-Summary: Creative ideas emerge from individuals with broad networks and high engagement—but in Japan, low engagement is a major innovation barrier. How can leaders cultivate employee ideas? Cultivation requires more than slogans about innovation. Leaders must make purpose explicit, encourage risk-taking, and reward those who step outside comfort zones. If junior staff can't articulate the company's “why,” their ideas will lack direction. In Japan, where conformity often trumps experimentation, leaders must show daily that trying new things is safe. Recognising effort, even when ideas fail, builds confidence. The way leaders treat innovators—successes and failures alike—sets the tone for the whole organisation. Mini-Summary: Leaders cultivate ideas by clarifying purpose, rewarding risk-taking, and encouraging experimentation—even in failure. Why do smart ideas need sponsors and champions? Ideas rarely succeed alone. They need collaborators to refine them and sponsors to promote them. Expecting to walk straight into a boardroom with a raw idea is unrealistic. Allies, mentors, and champions must first shepherd it through the system. In Japanese firms, where harmony is prized, ideas must often be “harmonised” at lower levels before reaching executives. Champions play a critical role in ensuring promising concepts aren't lost to politics or hierarchy. Mini-Summary: Ideas need allies and champions to survive the political journey inside companies, especially in hierarchical Japan. How does timing affect idea success? Even brilliant ideas fail if introduced at the wrong time. Microsoft famously launched its Tablet PC years before the iPad, and its SPOT Watch long before the Apple Watch. Both flopped, not because the ideas were bad, but because the market wasn't ready. In Japan, timing is especially crucial when companies face cost-cutting or conservative leadership cycles. Innovation requires resources—time, talent, and money—which are scarce during downturns. Leaders must align idea introduction with corporate readiness. Mini-Summary: Timing can make or break ideas—introduce them too early or in the wrong climate, and they will fail regardless of quality. What systems help ideas travel upward? Without an “express lane” for good ideas, most are trapped in corporate silos. Middle managers, often protective of their turf, can stall innovation. Creating formal pathways that allow vetted ideas to reach senior leaders quickly is essential. Some global companies use innovation labs or dedicated sponsorship committees to fast-track ideas. In Japan, establishing such systems prevents good ideas from being smothered by bureaucracy or politics. Leaders who create express lanes differentiate themselves and unlock competitive advantage. Mini-Summary: Formal “express lanes” help promising ideas bypass bureaucracy and reach top decision-makers, ensuring innovation isn't lost. Conclusion The creative idea journey within companies is long and fraught with obstacles. Ideas require engaged employees, cultivation, sponsorship, careful timing, and systems that allow them to travel upward. In Japan's conservative corporate culture, leaders must work even harder to ensure innovation isn't stifled by hierarchy or risk aversion. The true white-collar crime of leadership is failing to apply ideas that could have transformed the business. About the Author 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.

Why mastering client conversations in Japan defines long-term sales success When salespeople meet new clients, the first few minutes set the tone for everything that follows. This “transition zone” between pleasantries and serious discussion is where trust is either built—or broken. Let's explore how professionals in Japan and globally can own this crucial phase. Why is the sales transition zone so critical? The sales transition zone is the moment when the buyer and seller move from small talk into business. For the client, the first question is usually, “How much will this cost me?”. For the salesperson, the focus is on proving value beyond price. Unless this gap is bridged quickly, the conversation can collapse into a price war. In Japan, where relationship-building and long-term trust are prized, handling this transition with sensitivity is even more critical than in the US or Europe. Western executives may prefer blunt efficiency—“Let's get straight to business”—but Japanese buyers expect context, respect, and subtlety. Mini-Summary: The transition zone is where price-driven client expectations collide with value-focused sales strategy. Mastering it determines whether the meeting builds trust or breaks down. How should salespeople frame the meeting agenda? After greetings, professionals should set a clear agenda that shows respect for the client's time. For example: “I appreciate Suzuki-san introducing us. She felt there may be mutual benefit, so today I'd like to explore how our solutions may support your business. I also want to better understand your needs and see if there's a fit. Are there other items you'd like to cover?” This framing balances structure with flexibility. It prevents the client from feeling “sold to” while subtly keeping control of the meeting. Across industries—from pharmaceuticals to IT services—Japanese clients respond positively when they feel their input is requested early. Mini-Summary: Outlining a flexible agenda signals professionalism and respect, while keeping the salesperson in control of the meeting flow. How can unique selling propositions (USPs) be introduced naturally? Clients don't want a corporate brochure; they want proof of relevance. Introduce USPs in a conversational way: “We are global soft-skills training experts, here since 1963, specialising in sales training in Japan.” This single sentence embeds four powerful points: global scope, world best practice, 60 years of Japanese experience, and local market adaptation. Companies like Toyota, Rakuten, and Fujitsu look for vendors who demonstrate both international credibility and deep domestic roots. Mini-Summary: Well-crafted introductions should deliver layered USPs that combine global credibility, local experience, and proven relevance. How can salespeople prove credibility with results? Proof must be concrete, relevant, and measurable. For example: “Recently we trained a company in your industry. Salesperson confidence rose 40%, and revenues increased 18% within six months.” This approach works across sectors—manufacturing, finance, and consumer goods—because executives trust comparative results. But credibility evaporates if numbers are exaggerated. In Japan, where long-term relationships matter, any suspicion of dishonesty ends future business. Mini-Summary: Share specific, industry-relevant metrics to prove impact. Honesty is non-negotiable if you want repeat business in Japan. How do you smoothly shift to client questioning? Once credibility is established, invite permission to ask questions: “I don't know if we could achieve the same results for you, but may I ask a few questions to better understand your situation?” This low-pressure approach keeps the salesperson in control while respecting the client's space. It allows for uncovering challenges—talent gaps, process inefficiencies, competitive threats—without triggering defensiveness. Japanese executives particularly value humility paired with competence. Mini-Summary: The best transition uses respectful permission to shift into diagnostic questioning, creating trust and revealing real client needs. What if you discover you can't help the client? Not every prospect is a fit. Forcing a solution damages reputation. Instead, tell the client: “This may not be the right match.” This honesty preserves brand integrity. In Japan's tight-knit business networks, reputation compounds: one display of integrity can open doors elsewhere. Global comparisons support this: US firms often admire aggressiveness in sales, but in Japan, restraint builds credibility. Long-term success comes not from a single deal, but from a portfolio of reorders, referrals, and reputation. Mini-Summary: Walking away respectfully when there is no fit strengthens credibility and ensures long-term opportunities in Japan's relationship-driven market. Conclusion Owning the sales transition zone means balancing confidence with humility, structure with flexibility, and proof with empathy. Salespeople who master this moment avoid premature price talk, build credibility through structured storytelling, and earn the right to ask deeper questions. Ultimately, success is not about one transaction but about sustaining long-term partnerships in Japan's trust-based business culture. About the Author 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.

Why Japanese buyers demand sharper differentiation in today's competitive market Many companies thought that surviving the global pandemic would reduce competition. Instead, by 2025 the business environment in Japan has become even more intense. Buyers have more choices, new competitors are entering the market, and digital transformation is raising expectations. Today, if your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) are vague or outdated, you risk being treated as a replaceable commodity. Why are Unique Selling Propositions still so critical in 2025? In today's market, uncertainty is constant. Inflationary pressures, geopolitical instability, and shifting customer needs mean buyers are cautious about whom they partner with. In Japan, risk reduction remains paramount—executives will only commit if they feel reassured that your offering is safe and superior. A strong USP is no longer optional. It must demonstrate not only why you are different but also why you are the least risky choice in a volatile economy. Companies like Toyota or NTT still look for partners that can prove stability and reliability as much as innovation. Mini-Summary: In 2025, sharp USPs differentiate suppliers and reassure risk-averse Japanese buyers facing an unpredictable economy. Why do USPs need regular updating? The pandemic highlighted how fast buyer priorities can shift, but the same lesson continues today. Executives in 2025 are focused on digital integration, sustainable growth, and talent retention. If your USP still emphasises pre-2020 value points, you will sound irrelevant. For example, training firms that once sold “programmes” now must sell “employee engagement, resilience, and measurable performance outcomes.” The buyer's lens has shifted, and USPs must evolve to keep pace. Mini-Summary: USPs must be revisited frequently to stay aligned with fast-changing buyer priorities—today that means outcomes, not offerings. How should sales teams frame USPs from the buyer's perspective? The danger is always that we describe what we sell, rather than what the buyer values. In 2025, Japanese executives expect ROI, measurable outcomes, and global standards delivered locally. For Dale Carnegie, the shift is clear: we don't just sell “sales training.” We sell “higher per-head revenue, improved leadership bench strength, and stronger client retention.” Buyers want results they can report to boards and shareholders, not abstract promises. Mini-Summary: USPs framed around outcomes and ROI resonate with today's Japanese buyers, who demand measurable impact, not just services. What makes a strong USP in Japan's 2025 market? Several tested examples show how reframing traditional USPs creates sharper impact: Longevity: Instead of “in business since 1912,” highlight that “113 years of proven success reduces your risk.” Client base: “We train 90% of the Fortune 500” works better when reframed as “the world's largest firms have done their due diligence and continue to trust us.” Global presence: Replace “100 countries” with “we deliver seamlessly worldwide, in the local language and culture that ensures your teams succeed.” Trainer quality: Rather than “250 hours of certification,” stress that “only the most dedicated professionals survive an 18-month global certification process, guaranteeing world-class trainers.” Mini-Summary: Japanese USPs must emphasise precedent, trust, and global proof—reframed to reduce buyer risk and highlight safe outcomes. How do you know if your USPs are still relevant? The simplest test is buyer reaction. If a client says “so what?” you haven't nailed it. If they nod and lean in, you've struck a chord. By 2025, issues such as digital adoption, ESG commitments, and workforce resilience dominate board agendas in Japan. If your USPs don't speak to these themes, they may no longer land. Companies like Rakuten, Hitachi, and Fujitsu regularly update their value propositions to mirror client concerns. Your USPs need the same refresh cycle. Mini-Summary: The best test of a USP is buyer reaction. If it doesn't connect to today's challenges—digital, ESG, resilience—it needs revising. What role should leaders play in sharpening USPs? Leaders can't delegate USP development entirely to marketing. They must personally review and test whether the messaging truly answers buyer concerns. If USPs are seller-centric or outdated, leaders need to drive a reset. In Japan, where precedent and reassurance matter, the strongest USPs highlight proven track records, client references, and measurable results. Leaders who fail to sharpen differentiation risk being treated as interchangeable—and in today's crowded market, that's fatal. Mini-Summary: Leaders must ensure USPs emphasise outcomes, precedent, and proof—or risk being commoditised in Japan's 2025 market. Conclusion By 2025, competition has intensified rather than eased. Buyers in Japan are cautious, risk-averse, and increasingly demanding. Unique Selling Propositions must be crisp, regularly refreshed, and reframed around outcomes and risk reduction. Those who cling to outdated USPs risk irrelevance. Those who sharpen them will win trust, stand out in crowded markets, and secure long-term partnerships. About the Author 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.

Salespeople don't set the price of what they sell.  This is usually an obscure outcome decided by someone else inside the machine.  It might actually be an elaborate process, where multiple variables are carefully calibrated, mathematical formulae are applied and a price is arrived at.  Or, it might be a slightly moist index finger boldly thrust skyward to come up with a number.  The latter is often the case when arriving at pricing for services. Regardless, the salespersons task is to sell at that price.  This is where we get into trouble.   Salespeople are total wimps when it comes to price.  We have learnt that getting a sale is what counts and price is an obstacle in that process.  If we are on a fixed salary and bonus or base salary and commission, the two usual cases in Japan, we get paid when we make a sale.  Do we know the profit margin attached to each sale? Usually no and actually we don't often care either, as long as we get paid.  We are just happy to (A) not get rejected by the buyer and (B) get a win, however small. Our self-esteem is totally tied up with getting sales, modest in size or otherwise.   The instinct of the salesperson then is to make the price as malleable as possible.  Offering a discount seems to get the buyer in a good mood and more likely to give us a yes.  This reduced price immediately impacts our commission and if we keep doing this, will also impact our bonus and job security, as we don't bring in enough revenue relative to the target.   The key problem is that the salespeople often don't believe in their own product or service.  Because of this they can discount with gay abandon.  This is a short-term gain for long-term pain.  The ability to meet the price requirement is a critical piece of the salesperson's skill set.  Dropping the price may be easy, but we never build the skills to really succeed in this profession.  It usually is a path to our removal by the sales manager, who understands we are unable to sell.   Amateur salespeople, when they don't believe in the price, start right off the bat with a discounted price. They say stupid things like, “normally the price is x but I am going to offer it to you for y”.  Or, “if you buy two, I will drop the price by x”.  The client hasn't even requested a discount, begun haggling, attempted to massage the ask and yet lo and behold, a miracle has just popped up without warning.  This tactic may be misinterpreted by salespeople, who don't know what they are doing, as building trust and a good relationship with the client. That is a false dawn of hope on the part of our intrepid hero or heroine.   Thanks to volunteering an unprompted price cut, the client now understands that your firm are a bunch of liars who say one thing, but do another.  They also know you are a tricky bunch who are trying to snow buyers with your fiction pricing magic.  They don't see the gratuitous lower price as a bargain.   They see that as the starting point in a negotiation to drive the price even lower.  By having a listed price and immediately offering a lesser price, the buyer feels you cannot be trusted because you cannot even defend what you say is the value of your offering.     By dropping the price so quickly, the whole question of perceived value is brought into fundamental disrepute.  There is no fixed price for this sale and therefore no equivalent particular value attached to it either.  We are now in the Wild West of selling, where there the only rule is the right of force and the buyer has the Gatling Gun and we have a water pistol.   The salesperson's job is to pour on the value explanation and show why this pricing is fair and reasonable, fully justified and easily defensible.  If they do need to meet the client's restricted budget or need to allow the buyer to save face with their bosses, then any discounting should in the first instant be attached to volume purchases.  If they buy more then the price can be adjusted.  The amount reduced should be as smallish amount, as part of the first offer.  Remember, we are now off the paved highway and are hacking our way through the dense brush of a negotiated agreement, where there are no maps, no signposts and no 5th Cavalry about to come to the rescue over the sand dunes.   If the price point is to be assaulted, then the reductions should be small and fought heroically all the way.  Do not go for round number drops or large number drops, go down in dribs and drabs.  The client will feel much better knowing that they got a legitimate discount against the usual price, because they extracted that right out of the salesperson's hide, rather than the salesperson rolled over right from the get go.  When that happens, they doubt everything about you and your company because your pricing seems bogus.   Never drop your price.  Defend your price with value.  Resist reductions all the way down and extract some form of quid pro quo against volume purchases.  If you buckle, you will be destroying the brand, the brand positioning and the credibility of the firm.  You may lose some sales.  These are usually people who cannot afford you anyway.  If you believe in the value of what you are selling don't give in, defend, show value, fight, fight, fight.   Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at greg.story@dalecarnegie.com   If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.japan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our "Free Stuff" offerings - whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules.     About The Author Dr. Greg Story: President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development. Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making and become a 30 year veteran of Japan.   A committed lifelong learner, through his published articles in the American, British and European Chamber journals, his videos and podcasts “THE Leadership Japan Series”, THE Sales Japan Series and THE Presentations Japan Series, he is a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations. Dr. Story is a popular keynote speaker, executive coach and trainer.   Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate and is currently a 6th Dan. Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.

I teach presentation skills to businesspeople.  In the first class they do a simple self-introduction and this is where we instructors can tell the skill level of the people in the class.  A recent class had quite competent people and I am sure they would have been seen as already quite good by their peers and bosses.  At the end of the class on the next day, they were transformed into a completely different, highly persuasive and skilled presenter.  I was thinking what was the difference?  They were by all measures fairly good when they arrived into the class.  The obvious answer was the coaching they received, but why did that make such a major difference and can we get better at presenting by ourselves without coaching?   There are books on presenting and I have written one called “Japan Presentation's Mastery” and there are millions of others.  There are tons of videos on presenting and I release two a week, one called “The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show” which covers leadership, sales and presenting.  The other show is called the “Japan Business Mastery Show” and it covers the same content, but in a more abbreviated version for people with no time.  There are no doubt a lot of podcasts on the subject and I release this one “The Presentations Japan Series” every week.  What I am saying is there are no shortage of resources on how to become a better presenter and I am doing my best to create content for Japan as my niche.   If you absorb all the content available there is no doubt you will become a better presenter.  But will it make you a great presenter?  To become great, I believe you need two things – lots of presenting opportunities and quality coaching from experts.  I forget which Tony Robbins book it was I was reading, but I remember he made the conscious decision to do as much presenting as he could, in order to master the art.  I thought that made sense and I certainly grabbed every opportunity after I came back to Japan to work in 1992 to give presentations.    Things have gone quiet since Covid, as there were no events, but still I am up to presentation number 548.  I tried to incorporate what I was studying into my talks and also to note what was working for me and what was not.  Over three decades I have built up the experience now to be very comfortable speaking and presenting.  My TED talk last year did push me though, because it is very short at 13 minutes and the video goes global. If you are doing a poor job, a lot of people know about it. I also don't count my presentations given as a corporate trainer, because that is not a public speech style presentation and has a different goal and cadence.  It is still standing up in front of people and commanding the room though, but it is different, so I don't count the many thousands of those facilitations.   What about the coaching aspect?  The coach provides options.  We know what we know, but the coach can see more than what we can see.  When you think about it you are facing the audience and looking at them and you cannot see yourself, unless you are videoing the talk (and I strongly recommend you do that every possible chance).  The coach can see the impact we are having and can help us to ramp that up.   It might be more voice variety and modulation.  It might be larger gestures.  I might be to start moving around or to stand on the one spot and not move.  It might be to get us working on engaging our audience members through using eye contact and holding their gaze as we speak to them.    It might be to inject pauses to slow things down.  If we are nervous or even if we are on a roll, we might be speeding up.  When this happens, each successive wave of ideas wipes out the previous one and the audience can get a bit lost trying to keep up.  The pauses allow them to digest what we are saying and get them ready for the next pearls of wisdom.  They also allow us to adjust our speaking speed and slow down.    The coach can mention to us that we have a very serious look on our face, because we are concentrating so hard and it comes across as aggressive or angry and that isn't the image we want to project.  We don't notice we are doing that because we are consumed with the message and the delivery and are oblivious to the how we look to the audience.   The coach can also encourage us to take some risks.  They can suggest things which are outside our usual gamut, but which when incorporated will enable us to lift our presentation to a higher height than we could imagine by ourselves.  Sometimes we need to stretch ourselves so that we can make a bigger action in the talk and have it within the bounds of business relevancy.  The coach can help us to escape from our Comfort Zone and challenge us to be more and be better.   My recommendation is to absorb as much knowledge and information as you can about presenting, get as much frequent practice as you can manage and get a quality coach.  That is the winning combination.  Remember we are all putting out personal and professional brands out there every time we open our mouths to speak.  Do we want to be perceived as true professionals and in that way build trust and credibility?  Of course we do, so that is why this trifecta is such a winner.

In the good old days we could have multiple public personas in sales.  We could be the professional salesperson, but that image was entirely separate to our family life.  We could enjoy boozy celebrations and getting off our face with relative anonymity.  We could accumulate customer complaints and deal with them in private.  We could rely on word of mouth from within a limited circle of acquaintances.  When we met people for the first time, they basically knew almost nothing about us, except the name of our company and any reputation that brand name had in the market.   Times have changed haven't they.  I was reminded of this fact recently.  I host a weekly podcast called Japan's Top Business Interviews where I interview leaders about one topic – leading in Japan.  Through a mutual contact, a young man about to graduate from Temple University sought my advice on his speech at the Commencement Ceremony as the student body representative.  In the course of that conversation with him he told me he had already chosen a prominent American insurance company to work for, entirely based of the interview I did with the CEO.  Separately, two other leaders here mentioned to me that when they were interviewing people to work at their companies, the candidates mentioned they had listened to their interviews with me before the job interview.  Potential clients reach out to me, because I am producing a prodigious amount of content spread across the six podcasts and three TV shows I release each week.   My point is never before have salespeople had the opportunity or the risk of having everything out there in social media about them, quite easily discoverable, before meeting with the prospective client.  Buyers do check us out, in the same way that we check them out.  Naturally they are looking for red flags and we are looking for commonalities, so that we can create solid connections with them.   This means we need to carefully curate our social media information and image.  There are plenty of occasions where I have been out on the booze with mates or clients, but you won't find any of that on social media.  Of course, I can control a great deal of what goes up on social media, but when someone else is taking and uploading the photos of the debacle, it gets a bit trickier.  Nevertheless, when we are in sales, we need to be very much aware that these occurrences will be seen by potential buyers.  I suggest you be the demure one in the photo, while your colleagues in the shot are completely off their faces.   If buyers do a search on you, what will they find?  If you don't know, then I suggest you get busy and start doing a forensic analysis of what they will find.  Better you know before they know. If they find nothing, that is a problem in itself.  If they do find content, what will they discover about you?  Originally, I was scared and doubtful of social media.  In 2011, I attended the Dale Carnegie International Convention in San Diego and well known sales instructor Jeffrey Gitomor was a guest speaker.  He told us he has 30,000 followers on Twitter and asked how many we had.  I had zero because I wasn't on any social media.    After I got back to Japan, I took my first tentative steps to build a social media profile and a following.  Today I have 26,000 followers on LinkedIn.  The good thing about a late start was I could be very scrupulous about what I posted. I avoid politics and religion as topics and stick to business content.  I had previously been writing articles for the different Chamber of Commerce magazines, so I started uploading these to the social media.    In 2012, I started podcasting and also loaded that content up to social media.  LinkedIn tells me I have 2700 articles posted on LinkedIn.  These will be around 800 words long and will have been multi-purposed into audio and in some cases video, to extend the reach.  Around 2018 I started releasing my own TV shows on YouTube. There is no swearing or bad language in any of these posts or shows, despite how popular this has become.  Am I a prude?  No, I am a typical Aussie male with a fulsome vocabulary of colourful expressions, but I know there will be members of my audience who don't appreciate that degree of authenticity, so I restrain myself.  My rule is, if my mother was still alive, would she want to hear this type of language in public from me?   Today my weekly shows have grown.  The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show which goes out as video, audio and text is up to 245 episodes, 8th year.  Both the Presentations Japan Series and Sales Japan Series podcasts go out as audio and text and are up to 299 episodes, 6th year.  The Leadership Japan Series podcast is both audio and text and we are up to 473 episodes, 10th year.  The Japan Business Mastery Show is video, audio and text and we are up to episode number 145, 3rd year.  The Japan's Top Business Interviews show is video, audio and text and we are up to 112 episodes, 3rd year.    Okay, I am bragging, because who else do you know in sales who produces this much regular weekly, consistent free content? Nobody.  This is part of my brand though and I am trying to catch as many potential clients in my social media web as possible.  Over the years we have upped the production and editing values and now produce and release very professional work.  Could we do more?  Yes, we could, but there is a limit on time and money to be spent on free content.   When clients look for me on social media, or through Google or YouTube searches, they are hit with this carefully curated tsunami of content, all aimed at proving I am an expert in these areas and suggesting they should use us for their training.  There is no propaganda though.  I am avoiding this type of content because it is a turn off to buyers. Do you need to do this much content?  No, but you need to be putting out some regular, current, high quality content.  Avoid high jacking someone else's content and putting your cameo intro to the post.  Produce your own original work, because this has value and clients can gauge whether you are the real deal or not. Avoid shots of you smashed out of your mind at some boozer with your mates and make sure there are plenty of professional shots of you suited and booted for work. Buyers will judge you before they meet you, whether you agree with it or like it or not.  Make sure they find what you determine they will find.

“Greg, you are everywhere!”.  I am often told this by business people here in Tokyo.  What they mean is that I am prolific on social media, video and audio.  Well, if you are in sales today and you are not prolific in promoting yourself, then what are you doing with your time?  It is an old saw in sales that “it doesn't matter how many people you know, it is more important how many people want to know you”.  Fine, but how do you get that to work?  Afterall, there are only so many people we can meet in a month and naturally, we want all of them to want to know us.  The democratisation of social media and the free nature of the medium has changed many things in getting our reputation in front of many more people than we could ever physically meet in a month.   I was always wary of social media.  I didn't trust the platforms, so I avoided them until December 2011.  That year I made my first visit to San Diego in California to attend the Dale Carnegie International Convention.  One of the speakers was Jeffrey Gitomer, published author and sales training guru.  He was quite a character.  He was wearing a bright red shirt that from memory had his name” Jeffrey” and “Sales Dept” embroidered on it.  He was dressed like some guy who would be working at a gas stand pumping petrol.  Dale Carnegie is a pretty conservative organisation, so he had been told to tone down the profanity, but what he said was shocking to me.   He asked the one thousand plus attendees “how many twitter followers do you have?”.  At that point he had over 30,000 and I had none.   On the plane back to Tokyo, I was thinking about what he said, so I made my first sceptical foray into the social media platforms. I found Twitter didn't suit me as much as Facebook and Linkedin, so I tended to concentrate there.  I don't post any personal stuff on these platforms. It is all business and I make sure none of it is controversial or embarrassing.   Around 2012 I started publishing blogs on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and I am still doing that.  I was also publishing articles in the American Chamber Journal and the Acumen magazine every month.  The American Chamber Journal editor Roberto de Vido suggested to me that I should do a podcast.  I asked him “what is a podcast?  I can't remember how, but I discovered this other American guy, Gary Vaynerchuk, popularly known as Gary Vee.  Another character and this time plenty of profanity from Gary. He was interesting because he was combining reality TV, education and motivation together and was pumping out massive amounts of content.  He taught me to multi-purpose my content.  I could use the content for my blogs for the magazines to become the content for my podcasts.    The first blog was published as a podcast called The Japan Leadership Series on August 2nd, 2014 on the topic “Flexible Japan-Stop Dreaming”. I was covering leadership, sales and presentations content in that one podcast.  I started hearing that going deeper into niches was important, so I created two more podcasts called The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan Series and started publishing podcasts on those specialities from November 3, 2016.   In mid-2018 I read that Google would start using audio for search in addition to text.  In the text world I was competing with millions, maybe billions of blogs.  The audio podcast world was a bit less competitive. I already had three podcasts by that time, but I decided to strip out the audio from two of my YouTube TVs shows, The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show and the Japan Business Mastery Show and create podcasts. The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show first episode was on “Not Meeting the Leadership Challenge Is Quietly Killing Us” on August 18, 2019. The Japan Business Mastery Show came out on October 4th, 2019 on “Five Deadly and Dastardly Leader Misperceptions”. The next year I launched a new show called Japan's Top Business Interviews where I interview CEOs and we talk about one topic – leading in Japan.  The first episode was on June 6th, 2020 with Yasuaki Mori then CEO of Infinion Technologies Japan.   What has been the upshot of all this effort and time?  My personal branding has skyrocketed and I have a core of true fans who regularly follow the content.  Because I am posting fresh and different content Monday to Saturday on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook I get people contacting me about training in Japan.  I don't do any paid promotion and just rely on organic search to find me. Yes, I get a lot of people trying to sell me sex, dodgy investments, various products and services too, but I just ignore those.  For those who are genuinely interested in business in Japan, then they can judge the quality of what I offer by accessing my oeuvre.  They can try before they buy.   So are you having a Jeffrey Gitomer moment like I had in 2011?  By the way, Jeffrey has 67,000 followers on LinkedIn and I have 26,000, so I am only 40% as good as he is, but for my niche, how many people have more than I do?  How many people are accessing audio search on Google as well as I am?  I have no idea, but what I do know is if you are in sales, your biggest problem is getting found.  The text blog world is competitive and that means you are competing with seven million blogs a day.  Podcasts are said to be over two million in number.  I publish my podcasts using LibSyn and their numbers show the biggest group of podcasts are published on Apple Podcasts and that Japan originated podcasts are only about 1% of their total. If you broke that down to English language podcasts, the numbers could get very interesting.  My point is I am punching way above my weight here and it is working.  If you are in sales, what are you doing about being found?

In one of my other podcasts, “The Presentations Japan Series”, l talked about “Virtual Chatbots Are The End Of Civilisation”.  What is the problem and what do we bosses have to do to stop this happening inside our companies?  XiaoIce's virtual chatbot accounts for sixty percent of all global human-AI interactions.  There are already 660 million users and it is designed to hook us by providing the levels of human interaction we cannot get in real life.  Danit Gal, an expert in AI ethics at Cambridge University says, “Users ‘trick' themselves into thinking their emotions are being reciprocated by systems that are incapable of feelings”.  This is sad.    Nippon is not immune. Pre-Covid, Japan already had legions of fans, mainly young men, waving light sticks at concerts given by the very generously proportioned, long legged, big eyed, super cute, singing idol, Hatsune Miku.  Unfortunately, she isn't real, because she is a hologram, an illusion.  If some people are that desperate for human interaction, that they fall in love with virtual chatbots and holograms, what can bosses do inside their companies, to provide that sought after human interaction quotient.  We spend a lot of time working under the care and supervision of bosses.   This discussion is particularly pertinent in the time of Covid, where we have been flung to the winds and don't congregate that much in the office anymore, if at all.  Our team began working from home in February 2020.  We are still there.  Personally I have found getting hold of people much harder than when we were all in the office.  Trying to catch people by phone is a constant irritant, because it is hard to get hold of them.  The speed of communication has slowed down, as you have to wait to make contact.  You call they are not picking up, you leave a message. They don't see the message, so you send an email. They don't see the email, so it takes that extra time to communicate.   For the boss, this means that the work which needs to get done, isn't getting worked on. The sense of time pressure goes up, as output deadlines are elongated and results production is slowed down.  In this type of scenario, the already busy boss become much busier.  The danger is that bosses become so focused on what they need to get done, that they lose touch with their team.  When you are barely getting through all the work on your plate for that day, the additional bandwidth to check in on other people just isn't there.  Now we might be thinking, “no problem, my direct reports are keeping up close contact with their team members”.   Is this too optimistic?  Probably.  They are under similar time pressures to their boss.  It can easily become a systemic problem across the whole organisation.  It isn't something we can just pigeonhole as a “younger person's problem”.  Humans are social animals and for the last 18 months we have become individual units, sitting at home in isolation from one another.  There are people, of all ages, in our teams who need that human interaction.  Do we really want to abandon them to the dubious charms and comforts of a virtual chatbot?  Aren't we sacrificing our people care responsibilities, on the altar of being super busy?   We can't do everything, but we can do the most important things.  The issue then becomes one of prioritisation.  Are we sufficiently prioritising our people?  We might be thinking “of course I am, what a load of rubbish”.  There is truth in schedules and diaries.  Just go back a week or two and take a good look at where you were spending your time?  I will guarantee that viewed with the cold, hard eye of pragmatism, none of us were spending enough time for our people.  Were we encouraging our direct reports to be checking in in their team?  Again, the proof is in the records of meetings and team meeting minutes.  The ugly truth is we were no doubt assuming they knew what to do.  The other part of that ugly truth is they were probably doing just what we were doing – concentrating on their own work, head down and going hard at it.   We cannot let virtual chatbots replace the human touch.  It won't necessarily happen by itself, so we have to be proactive and make it happen.  Step one is block out the time in our schedules.  If it isn't sharp elbowed in there, then it probably won't happen.  Step two is “just do it”.

Start  In today's show we are looking at how fragile our leader brand is when we don't know how to present properly and what we can do about it. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number six  and we are talking about Six Ways To Accentuate Your Authentic Leader Voice       Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor…. Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Six Ways To Accentuate Your Authentic Leader Voice Why are so few business leaders good communicators, given all the education they have received, starting at varsity and then later, through their workplace organisations? Leaders are often told they need to be “authentic”.  That means to some, that it is fine to be dull, obtuse, monotone and forgettable.  While dramatic oratorical flourishes are not required, congruency is a must.  For leaders this means matching the way we communicate with the content of our message.    Here are six things to pay attention to, in order to differentiate our leader voice:   Don't speak using a monotone delivery. Our audience start to look for other points of stimulation, such as how we are dressed, our body language, our voice quality – almost everything except the actual key message content.   Leaders need to match their vocal variation and facial expression to the message being delivered. Congruency means emphasising key words or phrases, through either adding or subtracting voice projection. Whispering is as powerful as yelling, as long as the message content is aligned with the delivery mechanism.  Dialing up and down the energy and speed when speaking, creates the necessary vocal variation.   Business leaders are often notable for maintaining the same facial expression throughout their talk.  Good, striking, even exceptional news is greeted with the same fixed expression as announcing disaster, doom and gloom.   Voice speed can be an indicator of confidence or terror. Most of us, when nervous, tend to speed up and our ideas can rapidly begin to overtake each other. Pausing is needed to allow the audience to process and digest what they have just heard.    We can also speak using our eyes. The front, middle, back, the sides – the leader makes eye contact to engage with people in all parts of the room. Eye contact means actual engagement – looking an audience member in the eye and speaking to them for around 6 seconds. Less than that makes for a rather fleeting, perfunctory type of engagement.  Locking on to their gaze for too much longer starts to burn into their retina and becomes uncomfortable.    With our hands we either overemploy them, so that everything gets the same unbroken level of emphasis or we don't deploy them at all. Gestures are powerful to emphasise the key points we want our audience to remember. As a general rule, 15 seconds for each gesture allows it to have impact. After that point, the strength subsides and the gesture just becomes annoying.   You are the brand and what you say and how you say it matters. We judge the entire organization on you, so how leaders perform in public matters. Be congruent, authentic, be you, but be the best possible you.   Remember: always be congruent between our content and our delivery; use vocal tone, facial expression, power and speed to vary the delivery; keep our eyes fixed on our audience the whole time engaging them one by one; work the whole room and not just one side and understand you are the brand Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode seven we are talking about The Seven Deadly Sins Killing Your Team's Motivation Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show  

Start  In today's show we are looking at how to be differentiated from our rivals and be the consumate professional when we first meet the client. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number five  and we are talking about  Use These Three Sales Amplifiers In The First Thirty Seconds      Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor….   Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Use These Three Powerful Sales Amplifiers In The First Thirty Seconds   Building rapport in the first meeting with a prospective client is a critical make or break for establishing likeability or trust.  The first three to thirty seconds is vital, so what do we need to do?    Here are three things we need to get right:   Pay attention to our dress and our posture! Looking sharp and stand straight – this communicates confidence. Walk in standing straight and tall, stop and then bow or shake hands depending on the circumstances. If there is a handshake involved then, drop the dead fish (weak strength) grasp or the double hander (gripping the forearm with the other hand). The latter, is the classic insincere politician double hand grip. Some Japanese businesspeople I have met, have become overly Westernised, in that they apply a bone crusher grip when shaking hands. Don't do that.   When you first see the client, make eye contact. Don't burn a hole in the recipient's head, but hold eye contact at the start for around 6 seconds and SMILE. This conveys consideration, reliability, confidence – all attributes we are looking for in our business partners. We combine this with the greeting, the usual pleasantries spoken with supreme confidence, “Thank you for seeing me”, “Thank you for your time today”.  Now, what comes next is very important.    We segue into establishing rapport through initial light conversation. Try and differentiate yourself with something that is not anticipatory or standard. Be careful about complimenting a prominent feature of the lobby, office or the meeting room. Say something unexpected, intelligent and memorable.  For example, “Have you found your brand equity with your client's has improved since moving here?”.  This get's the focus off you the salesperson and on to the client and their business.   Having a good stock of conversation starters should be basic for every salesperson.  It might mean imparting some startling statistic that they may not have heard.  For example, “I read recently that the number of young people aged 15-24 has halved over the last 20 years, are you concerned about future talent retention as demand exceeds supply?”.  We might educate the client with some industry information they may not be aware of, but which would be deemed valuable.  We face a lot of competition for the mindspace of our prospective clients. To counteract that possible external pre-occupation and to get them back in the room with you, use a question – it works every time.   Remember: Refine an image through dress, posture and eye contact that projects confidence; stock your opening comments such that they are really well differentiated from all of your competitors, who have swanned in ahead of you; provide useful business references to introduce something new to the client that gets the attention off you and on to the client's business Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode six we are talking about Six Ways To Accentuate Your Authentic Leader Voice Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show   

Episode #105 Success Formula for Leading Project Teams Take One   Leading projects can be tricky.  Often the enthusiasm for the detail overrides the brain and the team are leaping into the minutia of the details without planning the project from a holistic viewpoint.  The other penchants of the misguided are looking for cool tech solutions when the biggest issues are always people issues.  Having a tracking tool is good except when the people involved don't have sufficient accountability to either use it.  Today we will dig deep into what we need to do to be a successful team leader for any projects.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Japan has the lowest ratio of people of working age to those aged sixty five or over according to a UN report.  Japan has only one point eight people aged twenty five to sixty four, for each person aged sixty five or older. By comparison the ratio in Australia and New Zealand was three point three and three in Europe and North America.  In other news, cash settles eighty percent of the transaction sin japan, with the rest done by credit cards, mobile payments and prepaid swipe cards.  That is the second highest cash usage in the world after Germany. According to Nomura research Institute cashless payments increase per customer sales by one point six percent.  Finally, according to the Research Institute of Japan Finance Corporation the average age of people who started a business in two thousand and eighteen was forty three years of age.  The proportion of people older than fifty rose to twenty six percent.  The research also showed that sixty eight percent of those starting a business were able to do so with less than ten million yen or ninety three thousand dollars. This is episode number #105    and we are talking about  Success Formula for Leading Project teams     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Projects are too common.  Because of this we take them for granted, seeing them as part of everyday work, but we don't approach them properly.  We usually gather the team together and then dive straight into the details of the project, without really applying a professional approach.  We certainly don't apply as much planning expertise to the task as we should, as we wade straight into the mechanics of the execution.  Why is that?   Poor leadership and lack of skills make for dangerous dance partners, as the team launches forth rocking and rolling with no strategy and little expertise.   Often, there is no existing documented planning process in place.  This can be rather ironic because often the projects are repeated or very similar projects are undertaken.  Templates and structure are missing so everyone just wings it, making it up as they go along, re-inventing the wheel.   The goals of the project are often vague.  This is a lack of direction from the top leadership to those tasked with doing the work.  The project leader has to push back and manage upwards, seeking clear reasons for the WHY of the project and then make sure everyone involved in the team understands the WHY.   Project scope creep is like a cancer that can kill the project, denying it success.  The project begins with vague boundaries around what is to be done.  In quick order, either external parties or the team themselves, become like Emus and are attracted by bright shiny objects.  Very quickly the additional tasks multiply but the time frame and the resources committed to the project do not change.  This never ends well.   The implementation strategy regarding roles, budgets, timelines and follow-up is weak or non-existent.  Well, when you are having fun and winging it, you are super busy getting on with the actual work, so no strategy needed.  Later things go wrong because timelines were not clear nor properly planned.  The resources do not turn up at the required timing or the sequencing of the work is found to be skewwhiff, so there are delays you cannot easily cover or resolve.   You quickly find that people, rather than logistics, are the trickiest part of project leadership.  You may not have been able to match the project team resource with the skill sets required and you have to make do with what you have.  There may be incompatible working styles in the team and you are now chief psychologist, in addition to team project leader, spending a lot of time and energy dealing with staff or division conflicts. Welcome back The start of the project may be exciting, but over time other tasks start to impede on this project and compete for your people's time.  Their motivation starts to slide.  You have to rally them constantly to be enthusiastic and committed to the successful completion of the project.  This is when you discover your communication and persuasion skills are rubbish and you are getting nowhere with them.  This becomes magnified when there are critical issues of internal and external cooperation required.  People not completing their tasks on time unleashes issues around trust and reliability.  Their excuses are never in short supply, but this is not especially helpful, because your boss won't be accepting any from you, as project leader.    Because you have never been trained on how to delegate properly, you either don't do it at all or you give it a shot, it fails and you wind up doing most of the work.  This would be fine if you had nothing else to do and could devote your time to just this one project.  Strangely enough the organization has bigger plans for you and they involve a whole slather of other work to be done as well.   The answer is fairly simple.  Train people properly on how to lead projects.  Projects are always going to occur and we should have our own organisation's way of doing them.  This would be developed through long periods of hands on experience and constantly updated to reflect best practice discoveries made along the journey.    There are seven project evolution steps we should follow: define scope; devise plan; implement; monitor/modify/keep checking; get closure/evaluate and finally celebrate.  For each of these steps we need a trained project head, highly skilled in leading people, rather someone we who is ace on creating macros in spreadsheets! THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.   In episode #106 Don't tell Me, Show me we are talking about. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!  

Start  In today's show we are looking at the importance of the boss care factor about staff, the power of the WHY and where pride in the organisation plays a role in getting our people engaged.   INTRO  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number  4 and we are talking about Four Vital Ways To Get Your People More Engaged       Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor…. Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Four Vital Ways To Get Your People More Engaged There is a lot to do and once you get to a certain scale you realise you can't do it all by yourself.  This is when you need your staff.  That is fine, but they didn't start the business or if it is an established business, they are not the boss on much better money.  How do you get your people to actually really care about the business?   There are four things to focus on.  This research was completed globally , including in Japan and it showed the same results.    Look carefully at your relationship with your direct reports. This is the biggest factor and this is where you may be the source of the disengagement. The simple rule is this: how would you like to treated by the boss?  Okay, in this case, you are the boss, but are you reserving one rule for yourself and how you wanted to be treated and a having a different set of rules for your team?  Do you know what is going in their lives?  Do you understand their motivations, goals, aims, values?  If you don't, then get busy and find out.   Do the people at the bottom believe that the people at the top are taking the organisation in the right direction?Often the WHY of what we are doing is not communicated well enough.  The senior execs know what it is, because they created it.  They just do a poor job of informing everyone down the line about it.  You might think, “Hey, I told then the Vision, Mission and Values, so it is done and dusted”.  It is not done, because you have to keep telling them and telling them, all the time and forever.  Leaders learn this the hard way.  You cannot tell them once and expect they get it.  Note to self: keep telling them.   Are people proud to work in the organisation.If you work for Toyota then it is probably pretty easy to feel pride, because you are Godzilla dominating everyone.  If you don't have gargantuan bulk, a massive brand or world domination going for you, then you have to think about getting pride going in the troops.  Punch above your weight, be the speedboat not the oil tanker, monster a niche – find a way to emphasise your mission, differentiation or special juice.   The spark, trigger, nitro to light up engagement is the boss making sure the people know the boss cares about them and really values what they do.Sounds tremendously simple, except we find ourselves constantly barking out orders like a mad pirate captain.  Really communicating that the work people are doing is highly valued gets their motivation, confidence and engagement going.  But are you doing it?  If you aren't, then look for ways to communicate that they and their work are highly valued around here and do it in a genuine way.   So the four things to get engagement are ONE. work on your relationship with your direct reports, TWO. explain the WHY, THREE focus on your company's super power and FOUR tell people they and their work is highly valued by you. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode 5  we are talking about Use These Three Powerful Sales Amplifiers In The First Thirty Seconds Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show  

Episode #104 Hard Sell Hell Take One I feel sorry for the “phone dogs” having to cold call clients to sell them stuff and at the same time I hate them.  They are paid to call clients to arrange for one of the sale's team to roll in and close the sale. I am all in favour of cold calling but I detest idiocy.  The phone dogs are given sales scripts cobbled together by idiot bosses and the end result is you feel your intelligence is being insulted by this brutal process.  There are so may better ways to cold call clients it is embarrassing, so why do they persists doing it the stupid way?  Let's look at a more intelligent approach.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. We all grew up thinking teachers had a pretty good life.  Work is over by 3.00pm and they get months off from work during the summer holidays.  How good is that!  Well of course not in Japan.  Junior high school teachers here worked the longest hours on average of all the forty eight OECD countries.  They are putting in fifty six hours per week on average compared to the thirty eight point three hours average by the participants in the Teaching and Learning International Survey.  Primary school teachers in japan worked fifty four point four hours per week on average. In other news, a government survey has found that fifty three point two percent of youths and young adults in japan do not want to study abroad.  This is interesting because as the Japanese consumer population declines, because of the aging society, Japanese companies must add operations based outside of Japan.  These companies will desperately need more internationally minded and highly skilled speakers of English to compete internationally.  Where will the come from if the young don't want to leave Japan?  Finally, there is a major wealth disparity in Japan.  According to a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey, households whose head is sixty years or older, have about twenty four million yen or two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in savings on average.  About eighteen percent of this age group had forty million yen or three hundred and seventy thousand dollars or more in savings.  Twenty two percent however only had five million yen or forty six thousand dollars.  Households headed by someone twenty nine years or younger had on average only two point five million yen or twenty three thousand dollars in savings and debts of four point nine million yen or forty five thousand dollars. For those between the ages of forty and forty nine the average savings were ten point two million yen or ninety five thousand dollars and had debts of ten point six million yen or one hundred thousand dollars. This is episode number 104   and we are talking about  Hard Sell Hell     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. “We are going to be in your area next week, would you be available on Tuesday or Thursday?”. “Really? Which part of my area will you be in?”. “Are you available on Tuesday or Thursday?”. “Wait a minute, you just said you would be in my area, so which part of my area will you be in?”  “Akasaka”. “Really that's interesting. Akasaka is a big place, which part of Akasaka?”. “Are you available on Tuesday or Thursday?”.   This was an outbound investment sales call.  The object was to sell me on investing my hard earned cash in their company's investment product.   By the way, this conversation carried on far beyond what I have extracted here and became even more ridiculous, if that is actually possible.  The essence was that I didn't believe that what they were saying was true.  They started with a suggestion that they would be in my area and could just drop by.  They say this to appear indirect and less “hard sell”.   However, when you push back on the validity of what they are saying, out comes the blatant hard sell - their constant annoying refrain of “Tuesday or Thursday?”.  Why would they be doing this, when it is so obviously ridiculous?  The answer is lack of sales skills and proper training.     There is a set script in place and I departed from the sacred text by challenging what they were saying. I did not believe that they will happen to be in my area and therefore that they could just drop by.  It sounded unlikely to me, so I pushed back on their basic assertion.  If they wanted to see me, why not just say, “we would love to visit you, would Tuesday suit or how about Thursday?”.  Instead they started with a lie or at best, a dubious assertion, that has close to zero credibility.   Now this sales call is for an investment offer, where you cannot see, taste, hear, touch or smell the product and you won't know if it is any good for years.  The trust factor on this type of sale is huge, yet they start the proceedings with an obvious lie.   How could they have done it more professionally?  They don't know me and have found my address and phone number somewhere, so are trying to begin a relationship.  When you are starting a relationship you need to immediately put the other person at ease and try to build some rapport.   “Hello Dr. Story, we have not met or spoken before, but my name is Taro and I am with xyz company. We exist to serve the interests of highly discerning clients like yourself.  Do you have a few moments to speak?   Thank you.   We offer information, insight and help busy executives like yourself to better manager their wealth.  Our clients often tell us they are so busy helping everyone else that they tend to sacrifice devoting enough time to their own personal wealth management.  Is this the type of experience you have ever had?   We may or may not have something that suits your situation, but the beauty of spending a short meeting with our experts is that they can at least outline some of the most successful portfolio structures that have been working for executives similar to yourself.  Are you in a position today to be able to consider investing in products which you might find attractive?”. Find out more when we come back from the break   Welcome back This example passage does a number of things.  It flatters me that I am discerning, checks that I have time to talk, tells me they are in the wealth advisory business.  They also pick a problem that busy executives do have and that is that often we are not managing our own wealth sufficiently well.     By asking me if I have had that experience, this opens up a sufficiently broad timeframe range to receive a positive “yes” response. By saying they may or may not have what I need, comes across as balanced, consultative and not hard sell.  Referring to the best practice examples, tells me they are only going to talk about things that are relevant and working well already.     Checking whether I have capacity to take action will save us all a lot of time.  Wealthy people don't leave their money sitting around in cash.  They are leveraging it, investing it, working it.  Often, as a result they don't have any capacity to invest, because they are already locked into other investments.  The wealth management firm is looking for people who have not committed all of their wealth because they have recently cashed out of something, come into sources of cash or have a high degree of liquidity to enable them to move cash around between investments.   Instead, all we had here was a hard sell for a Tuesday or Thursday alternative of choice, built off a lie about the fact they would be in my area next week.  There is no congruency between what they are selling and how they are selling it.  The young woman I was talking to was calling me from a Philippines sales boiler room and was a "phone dog", her job being to call large numbers of people like me on a list and go through the script.  I departed from the script and she was lost.   We are all in the trust business and so what we say can't be tricky, smarmy or duplicitous.  We are here to serve clients and tricking them into seeing us isn't a winning formula.  The point of the conversation was to get an appointment, no matter what.  Wrong objective!     The point of the conversation should have to been to build trust and invoke interest. They need to weed out non-clients like me, so that they are only speaking with qualified buyers. I wasn't one, but she had no idea of knowing that because the script wasn't intelligent.  Now you would hope that your financial advisor would be intelligent, yet what they were doing was clear proof to me how unintelligent they were.   In this modern age, boiler room induced hard sell doesn't work.  The client's interest has to be paramount.  Salespeople who don't get this basic point are not going to be around very long.  Re-design the sales approach and put the client's success at the center and then you will meet clients and make sales.  THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.   In episode #105  we are talking about Success Formula For Leading project teams. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!      

Start  In today's show we are looking at how to plan to be clear in your talk, knowing the viewpoint of your listeners and getting the delivery right.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number 3  and we are talking about Four Easy Ways To Become More Clear When You Present      Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor…. Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Four Easy Ways To Become More Clear When You Present   The most common request from people attending our presentation skill classes is to become a clearer speaker.  Here are four areas to concentrate on.   Decide what is the purpose of our talk? Is it to Entertain people, so they leave feeling warm and fuzzy about us and our organization? Is it to Convince them or to Impress them that our organization is reliable and trustworthy?  Is it to Persuade or Inspire them to take some action that we are recommending?  Is it to just Inform them of some recent data or information that is relevant to their industry?  We need to be crystal clear about what we are trying to do with our talk, before we even worry about the design, production and delivery.   Thoroughly investigate beforehand just who will we be talking to? What is the generational mix, the age demographic, the male/female split? Are they experts, amateurs, dilettantes, critics, supporters, potential clients, etc.?  We need to pitch our talk at the right level for the audience – no dumbing down to the exceedingly well informed, insulting them at every turn.  We don't want to be an acronym heaven dweller or a specialist jargon snob, baffling the punters completely.  We need to gauge our listener's level of comprehension and make sure we are talking to them at their level of expertise.   Rehearse our talk before we give it. Sounds straight forward doesn't it, except that hardly anyone does this! If we prepare the talk in writing, we may find the cadence is different when we say the words out loud, compared to when we read it on a page. We also may find we have misjudged the time completely and be too long or too short.  We need to start singling out key words we want to hit harder than others for emphasis.  Speaking in a boring monotone is one of the most common errors of non-professional, non-competent speakers.   Get the mechanics of delivery right. When the message content is not congruent with the way you deliver the message, we get distracted by how you are dressed, by your body language, by the tone of your voice. Also, get you face involved! If it is good news, then smile; if you suggest doubt, have a quizzical expression on your face; if the information is surprising, have an expression of wonder; if it is bad news look unhappy or concerned. A wooden face, totally devoid of expression is a tremendous waste, when we have so much potential to add power to our words with our facial expression. Engage your audience by using eye contact and keep each person's gaze for around 6 seconds to make the eye contact meaningful, without it becoming intrusive. A well placed pause is a brilliant way to get the audience focused on what we have just said.  Often when we are nervous we speed up and start running the ideas together.  This makes it hard for the audience to digest the key points, because the points are rapidly overwhelming and replacing each other. Throw in some gestures to add power to the words, but don't maintain the same gesture for longer than 15 seconds.   To be clearer we need to decide what is the purpose of our talk, thoroughly investigate beforehand just who will we be talking to, rehearse our talk before we give it and get the mechanics of delivery right.   Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode 4 we are talking about Four Vital Ways To Get Your People More Engaged   Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show  

Episode #103 The Danger Zone When Presenting   In the history of the world, it has never been harder to be a presenter.  The Age of Distraction has guaranteed that everyone will mentally escape from us, without a bye your leave and with no compunction.  Assuming you have done a good job planning the opening to grab attention, have you also planned for the middle stanza of your talk?  This is where people can get bored and distracted.  They will leave you.  We need to plan the brackets of the main body of our talk or we may find ourselves talking to ourselves, as everyone is furtively looking at their phones under the desks.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. According to Toyota their Japan Taxi vehicle was launched not for profit but to contribute to the creation of a rich society by supporting the movement of many people with taxis.  It can carry wheel chair users, luggage-laden travelers and foreign visitors of all sizes.  It has a sliding door on the left side which make it very easy to enter and exit from. The object is to replace one third of Tokyo's thirty thousand taxis before the Olympic games start. Government subsidies are giving taxi companies incentives to buy the vehicle.  They consume half the fuel of older vehicles and the anti-collision sensors have reduced accidents by ten percent.  In other news, the Financial Services Agency the FSA is calling on financial institutions to crate financial products that focus on longevity  risk. This is running out of money before running out of life risk.  The FSA warns thought hat there is a need for services that preserve asset for when people cognitive functions deteriorate.  Finally, with the rise of research into autonomous driving issues have arisen.  In a level three situation the car is self driving but the human driver must take over in an emergency.  How does the car know this is the time to release the autonomous driving mode?  It won't do that until it is sure the driver is ready to take over.  Sumitomo Riko in Nagoya have developed the Smart Rubber sensor, made of anti-vibration electrically conductive rubber material which can determine which part of the steering wheel the driver is holding, by detecting a change in pressure.  Currently computers have a hard time determining whether pressure applied to the rubber on the steering wheel was from the driver or something else.  The new sensor will improve the accuracy of those detections. This is episode number #103  and we are talking about The Danger Zone When Presenting      Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. We have worked hard to get our opening right.  We know that first impressions really count and we have planned the start.  We contacted the organisers well before the talk to get a sense of who has signed up for the talk and what their main interests are. We got to the venue early and checked on all the logistics.  We don't need to thump the microphone and ask if they can hear us don the back because we have already tested it.  We don't need to fuss around with our laptop because we are ready to go or if there is a laptop change over, we do that first before we even start saying one word.    That first word is a chosen word, not some accidental offering.  We have been speaking with some of the early arrivals to get a sense of why they are attending and to know their name. we reference their name as we start to connect with the audience and remove the barriers between speaker and the gathered masses.   We are also fully primed for the end, with both our first summation and our final close.  We know we need two closes, one for the immediate end of the talk and another one for after the Q&A.  We have prepared both.  We know how to properly handle questions – repeating, if not hostile or paraphrasing if a veiled or direct attack upon us.  In this way, we can make sure everyone heard the question and that any invective in a question has been properly neutered.   What about the middle bit of the speech?  How we do we keep attention from start to finish when we have an entire audience fully tooled up with their escape vehicles firmly clasped in their hands.  Their mobile devices will release them from the mortal toil of listening to us and they can be swept afar to more interesting and pleasant climes.   The next time, you are at a presentation look around after the first 10 minutes and see what the audience are doing.  Many will be surreptitiously scrolling through their Facebook or Line feed or whatever, multi-tasking, rather than giving the speaker their full attention.  How do not become that speaker who has lost the opportunity to get their key message across to the audience?   Every five minutes we need to switch the pace.  We need to be presenting something that grabs the attention of the masses.  We need an example, a story, demonstration, audience involvement, etc.  This shouldn't be left to random chance.  This needs D-Day level planning, so that you know what slide you will show at what point, what story you will relate.  Your voice is such a phenomenal tool yet so many neuter it by turning it into a monotone that is guaranteed to become an insomnia cure.  Find out more when we come back from the break   Welcome back We need to use pace – fast and slow, strength – loud and soft, vocal intonation – up and down.  Japanese native speakers have a disadvantage on the up an down front because Japanese is  monotone delivery language.  No problem , just work on the pace and strength variables and you will gain enough variety in the delivery to keep your audience's attention.   Story telling is so powerful and so under used.  There is huge demand for reality television, which are like home movies into the lives of celebrities.  This is basic storytelling, often at a very mundane level.  Nevertheless, these programmes draw an audience because we are fascinated by the personal lives of others.  So tell your disasters, your fails, your hard won lessons, your triumphs.  Come up with pithy quotes that are referencing well known legends like JFK or Churchill etc.    The key here is the planning and then the practice.  What is written down sounds a bit clumsy sometimes when we say it out loud.  This is where rehearsal comes in.  Go through the presentation and work on the cadence of the delivery.  Make sure that every 5 minutes you are switching gears and giving your audience something to do, like raise their hand (don't overdo this, it is annoying) or ponder, or laugh at, or to nod knowingly.  We cannot let our audience escape and lose the benefit of hearing our valuable message to the idiocies of whatever is trending on social media.  It is our job to make sure that doesn't happen and the way to do that is to plan thoroughly on the basis, they will be gone in a nanosecond if we falter. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube. In episode #104  we are talking about Hard Sell Hell. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!  

Start  In today's show we are looking at how to prepare to deal with the gatekeepers who will try to block you, the right approach during the call and the importance of having a massive hook to grab attention.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show".  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number 2   and we are talking about The Top Three Most Critical Things You Must Do When Cold Calling       Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor…. Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. The Top Three Most Critical Things You Must Do When Cold Calling   Cold calling is dead!  No cold calling is not dead!  Lots of debate and advice on this subject and many a fortune funded as a result no doubt.  For Japan it is not dead but it is diabolically hard.  We need to select ideal prospects who are not presently clients.  We need to list companies up who are look-a-likes for current clients or fit into our sweet spot.  We have what they need, they just don't know it yet.  It is our duty to help them solve their problems with our help.   Step 1.  Expect resistance, barriers, fear, timidity, non-cooperation from the young lady who has been designated to answer the phone.  Her job is to get rid of you and she doesn't want to get balled out by her boss by letting you slip through the protective wall.  You know this, so you must design a killer opening to woo her to let you speak to her boss.   Step 2.  Introduce your name and company, very, very slowly and tremendously clearly.  It doesn't matter what language you are speaking. All that katakana is a total brain whiteout for her.  “This is Greg Story, from Dale Carnegie Training Japan”.  She was freaking out from the get go that it was a foreigner calling and all she can think about is that she can't speak English well and then you hit her with all those unfamiliar strange sounding names.   Step 3.  Slowly explain what you do and include a massive hook in there to get interest.  “We are global experts in corporate soft skills training.  We recently worked with XYZ company, your competitor, to increase their revenues by finding new clients.  It was a great success and they have seen a 35% jump in new business sales already.  Maybe we could do the same for you, I am not sure.    Please transfer me through to your Sales Director, so that he can make a judgment about whether this is something your company would like to know more about or whether you are okay for your rival to grab greater market share?  If you are not getting the new business, then that will have a big impact on your business survival. I know your Sales Director won't want to see that happen, so please let me discuss this with him.    If you don't allow me to speak with him, then my next call will be to another one of your competitors and so the problem will just get worse won't it.  We don't want that do we?  Please put me through to him”.   Yes it is a bit hard core for Japan you might be thinking, but in cold calling here you need dynamite to blow up that defensive wall. If they won't put you through,  call you back or answer your email, then keep approaching their competitors and one of them will want to hear what you have to say.   So the three steps are: One, mentally brace for getting the bum's rush. Two, introduce your name and company name very slowly and clearly.  Three, explain why you can help them and put a big hook in there to get them to bite. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode three we are talking about Four Easy Ways To Become More Clear When You Present   Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show   

How To Persuade Followers Take One Welcome back to this weekly edition every Monday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show"     I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Here is some bad news for pollen allergy sufferers in Japan. The National Federation of Health Insurance Societies the Kenporen have proposed that prescription drugs to treat hay fever containing the same content as their nonprescription counterparts should be excluded form public medical insurance coverage. Hay fever patients who pay only ten to thirty percent of the costs of these drugs would need to fund the full cost from their own pockets.  The savings would 560million dollars a year for public health costs. Nationally one in four people suffer from these allergies and in a big city like Tokyo the number is probably closer to half.  In other news, the Government is going to increase subsidies for companies whose employees take paternity leave.  The rate of staff taking the leave is only about six percent and far from the government's goal of thirteen percent by twenty twenty.  Japan ranked forty first in a UNICEF report on paternity leave based on legal entitlements.  The reasons cited for why more men don't take the leave were companies being short handed and a corporate culture that makes it hard for employees to request paternity leave.  Finally, financial institutions are starting to implement measures to address issues related to the dementia amongst their aging customer base. Elderly people hold sixty percent of individual assets totally some sixteen trillion dollars.  The number of aging dementia sufferers is projected to grow to seven point three million by twenty twenty five.  The share of assets held by dementia sufferers is expected to top ten percent by twenty thirty. Banks are training their staff on how to support customers with dementia.  They are also requiring that customers suspected of having dementia be accompanied by their family members when they visit the bank. This is episode number #102  and we are talking about How To Persuade Followers     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. The tried and true leadership model of “do what I say or else” is a personal favourite of people who actually can't lead.  This is the military model, which works when the bullets fly and your death is a requirement to achieve the broader objective.  This is a ridiculous model for business and yet it lingers on.  Death is not imminent but following idiots probably does shorten our lives.  Higher degrees, certification, specialisations, longevity, technical knowledge  etc., are all relied on for authority, to convince others that we should be in charge. But should we be in charge?   Leaders and managers have different roles.  Managers are there to manage the processes of the organization, to make sure what needs to be done is completed, in a timely fashion and correctly.  Leaders do all of that too, but they have an additional role and that is to develop people.  This is where the “my way or the highway” breaks down.    We respect knowledge and ability more than we respect position power, degrees or degrees of self-aggrandisement.  The thing we respect most though is how much interest the boss has in helping me to grow in my career.  How much sympathy and understanding has the boss for my personal situation at home, because of my aging parents requiring care or my marriage is hitting a rocky patch, or my kid is having problems, etc.   In the old days, there was a clear separation between the individual's work life and private situation and the boss would never go there, as it was considered intrusive and none of their business.  Times have changed and society seems more complex today.  We want people to bring their whole selves to work.  The need for staff input of ideas and creativity is greater than it has ever been in human history.  Technological advances have plugged the entire advanced world into a 24/7 cycle of work.   Persuading people of the “why” is leading today, not just pointing out the “what” or the “how”.  Apart from professional salespeople who move up into management, there are probably few leaders who are any good at persuading anyone of anything.  They are usually poor presenters, especially the technically oriented types.    They are working off the old paradigm of “I am smarter than you, that is why I am the leader and so do what I say”.  If we want our organisations to be powered by just the brains and experience of these few leaders that is fine.  If we want to bring the entire power of our teams to the battle front line with our competitors, it is not sufficient.  Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome back We need as many engaged brains as possible assembled and working on the problems facing us.  The spark of creativity is not solely located in the leader's brain.  The youngest, newest employee may have keen insights and openness to new possibilities that the leaders who have moved far from the frontline cannot even recognise any more.  Depending on the market, they may also be closer to the customer than their much older bosses.   The point is how to persuade our staff to think, to be creative, motivated, to come up with better ideas than our rivals.  The issue is how to get them to engaged completely rather than simply working at a mediocre rate, collecting their pay and then switching on their brains as they hit the building exit.   The technical person who as leader gets a rush of blood to the head and starts telling the why will sometimes assume that having told the team the why, they are good to go.  I wish it was that easy. One of the surprising things about leadership is that you have to keep telling your people the same things over and over again and you cannot assume they ever fully get it.    In our office, we start the day by getting everyone together and going through the Vision, Mission, Values, and on daily rotation, one of Dale Carnegie's principles.  Why do we do this everyday?  Connecting the team to the WHY we are doing this work is the single most important job of the leader.  Each person takes turn leading the session, so it is not reliant on my being there.  The alternative, which you no doubt have seen, is to frame all of this stuff and hang it up on a wall so everyone can remain oblivions to it.  Not much of an alternative really is it.  Better to make it real and remind everyone everyday about the WHY.   So we need to make time available to explain the why to people, keep repeating it and to find ways to tap into the full power of the brains populating our organisation.  Here is a new challenge for bosses. Drop the “I know everything, now do this” approach and take on the “what do you think” alternative instead.   This is a radical switch for many leaders, but an absolutely important one.  Asking questions will yield so many more dividends than telling everyone what to do and how to do it. If you can make the switch you will have more success, because you are able to out think the opposition.  Even if they copy you, they will always be one step behind.  They also miss out on the motivational aspect of team members seeing their ideas come to fruition.  This builds teamwork and higher levels of engagement.  Your rivals will have a very hard time trying to copy that, because you have created an ecosystem of success that is distinctly your own. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube.   In episode #103  we are talking about The Danger Zone When Presenting. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!  

 Welcome to this first episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show. If you enjoy podcasts as well, there is an accompanying podcast episode released every Friday.  This show is designed for busy people who just want the diamonds. In today's show, as leaders, we are doing a reality check on our assumptions about what our staff really want. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Friday of "THE Japan Business Mastery Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Business Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our studio in the High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo.   This is episode number one  and we are talking about Five Deadly And Dastardly Leader Misperceptions       Before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor…. Welcome back, Okay, now its time for the show, Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Five Deadly And Dastardly Leader Misperceptions Becoming a leader is usually because we were superior to our colleagues.  Maybe we had better technical knowledge, more experience, were better organized, worked harder than the others.  The problem is that for a hammer everything looks like a nail and we are the same.  We imagine everyone else is similarly motivated like us.  “If you just do what I did you will be fine” is what we tell them.  Not true!    Here are five of the most common misconceptions leaders have about their team members   Everybody is the same. We believe that there is a commonality of purpose within our team.  They are basically looking for similar outcomes.  We can treat them and interact with them the same way.  The reality is we will have people in different stages of their life and career.  They have different educational backgrounds, grew up in different locations, have different families and think quite differently from one another and from us.     Everybody wants the same thing out of work We are highly motivated and that is part of the reason they made us the boss.  We love challenges, to be creative, to push the envelope.  We love the thrill of the hunt for business, the cut and thrust of negotiating with buyers.  Probably none of these things excite someone who works n the back office.  Some people see a job as a job and their real passion is the hobby or their family or friends.  Work is just a means to an end.  They do their work and then want to go home and forget about it.   Everybody wants to be promoted You worked super hard because you had tremendous ambition.  You now synthesise your desires with those working for you.  You imagine they want to be promoted too, just like you.  They are not that interested.  They are happy with what they are doing.  They have found their groove, where they can control the stress and the wear and tear. They don't want to upset the apple cart.   Everybody wants to be a manager You had ideas, desires and aspirations to be the boss.  You wanted to be in charge, to do things your way.  All great, but the people working for you may be constructed in an entirely different manner.  They see what a miserable time you are having as a manager.  Constant pressure from above for results, the long hours, the unrelenting pace.  Maybe they don't want that for themselves.   Everyone wants to live up to “your expectations” You're the boss, so you have your standards of how things should work.  You are logical and considered, so it is natural that others would agree with how you want to run the world.  Well maybe not.  They may disagree with the way you run things.   They may have their own opinion on standards and these differ from yours.   We fool ourselves into seeing everything around us through our own prism.  We extend that viewpoint to our team and believe they are in sync with us when they are not.  When you look at your team members remember : people are different; they don't want the same things out of work. They don't all want to be promoted, not everyone wants to be a manager and they have different standards from you.  Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. THE Japan Business Mastery Show is here to help you navigate your way around business in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues.  Hit the little bell for automatic new episode notifications. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Mondays, I release my other TV show The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube.   In episode two we are talking about The Top Three Most Critical Things You Must Do When Cold Calling Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next exciting episode of the Japan Business Mastery Show    

Today is a very special milestone, as we have reached the 100th episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show.  It is nearly two years now since we started.  In the show, I bring the power of the Dale Carnegie Training curriculum to bear on the tough issues we all face.  I add in my own experiences in business here, hard earned over the last thirty three years. I have made plenty of mistakes and I hope I can be a guide for you, so you can avoid them in your case.  There have been other business shows set in Japan in the past, which I used to enjoy, but one by one they have all faded away. I am glad that my own show has continued. On this special occasion we need something special to go with it.  We will send to you, no matter where you are located on the planet, a copy of my new book Japan Business Mastery.  We will be giving away twenty copies and here is how you get one. If you are happy for me to quote it please leave an email comment at greg.story@dalecarnegie.comand the twenty most insightful comments on the show will be rewarded with a copy of my new book.  I will reach out to those selected, asking you for your best postal mailing address, so we can send you the book by airmail. Those who enjoy listening to podcasts will be happy to know you can now access all the episodes of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show as a podcast as well, wherever you get your podcasts.  Today I am also drawing your attention to my new book called Japan Business Mastery available on Amazon.  To go with the book, I am also starting a new TV show on YouTube called The Japan Business Mastery Show. There is a podcast version to go with it, wherever you get your podcasts. With all of this action going on, I need to move some things around.  Here is the new weekly publishing schedule.  The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show on YouTube and the podcast version are released on Mondays.  On Tuesdays, I continue with the Presentations Japan Series Podcast, Wednesdays with the Sales Japan Series Podcast, and Thursdays with the Leadership Japan Series Podcast.  Fridays, I will release the Japan Business Show on YouTube and the podcast version the same day.  That means we are broadcasting every day of the week.  I guess Saturday and Sunday are still open, but I think I am already crazy enough to be doing daily releases every week.  Actually, I am getting tired just thinking about this publishing schedule.  Why am I doing all of this for free?  The answer - at Dale Carnegie we have a genuine passion to help people progress in their careers and for businesses to be successful.  To have the consistency and dedication to release an episode every day, week in and week out, requires passion.  A passion to serve and that is very important in all of our businesses isn't it?  In this one hundredth episode, I am going to talk about the importance of showing your passion for your subject when you are speaking.  We have all suffered from the opposite haven't we?  We have been forced to listen to a boring, unengaged speaker just droning on and on, as they run through the details of the data.  When it is our turn, we all need to do a lot better than that don't we, if we want to keep the attention of our “Age of Distraction” audience.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show". This is quite special, as today we broadcast episode number one hundred, so please allow me to say thank you to all the followers of the show for supporting it over this two year period.  I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery and my new book Japan Business Mastery. As always we are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The number of working women in Japan has topped thirty million, the highest since records were started in nineteen fifty three.  The number of women holding a job rose five hundred and thirty thousand for last year. Only fifty five percent of women hold full time jobs, the rest are working part time or are contractors with less stable positions and generally lower wages.  A Kyodo News survey of one hundred and twelve companies found fifty seven percent said they are trying to create a working environment more favourable to women.  In other news, Japanese women and men retained second and third place respectively, in their rankings for average life expectancy around the world in two thousand and eighteen. The average life expectancy of women in Japan is eighty seven point three two years.  For men it is eighty one point two five years.  A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official commented, “Life expectancy has grown longer as we have seen drops in mortality rates for cerebro vascular disease or strokes and pneumonia amongst women and the rate of cancer for men.  Finally Toyota Motor Corporation has developed a self driving mini robot car to transport sports equipment during athletic events such as the Olympic Games next year.  It will transport the equipment used for the shot put, javelins, discuss and hammer throw events to return them to the athletes .  The robot which can travel at twenty kilometers an hour, has three cameras and a lidar sensor which enable to it to see its  surroundings.   In this episode we are talking about   The Power Of Passion When Speaking     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.   Formulistic presentations may tick the boxes, but definitely don't ignite much enthusiasm in the audience. Yes, the key points were covered, the time was consumed, people heard the presentation matching the topic previously promulgated, but so what?  When we attend a mediocre or even bad presentation, we are reminded that a great opportunity has gone begging.  When it is our turn and we stand in front of an audience, we are representing our personal brand and our firm's brand.  People will evaluate our company on how we perform.  So our job is to perform well and really build fans for our business and ourselves.   Yes, a written speech is grammatically perfect, but it is often boring because of the flat way in which it is delivered.  The reading cadence doesn't suit the live speaking situation.  Have you ever noticed that a flat, deadly boring speech can be followed by a very engaging Q&A session led by the speaker? This is because the speaker is now freed from their self-imposed limitations of reading the speech.  They start telling us stories of people to illustrate their points.  They pepper us with useful information and data that gives us insights.  We see some passion in what they are telling us.  We all need to be like this in the main body of the speaking time. Observing a lot of speakers, I have noticed that the things that often go missing most are their passion and commitment for   the topic. Additionally, it may be that an already low energy, flat delivery is further hindered by a poor structure.  We enter a room full of pre-occupied people, with microscopic attention spans, basically entirely distracted before we even start.  We need to grab their attention away from whatever it was they were thinking about before we get up to the podium.   An excellent opening needs considerable planning.  It must be a battering ram to break through the wall of audience disinterest and skepticism.  It must have a powerful hook in there to keep our attention.  Remember, this is how we in the audience are trained.  Headlines, the opening stanzas of newspaper and magazine articles, book titles, talk shows, the nightly news programming, television dramas, movies, etc., are all carefully designed and scripted to grab and keep our attention.  This is what we, as speakers, are competing with – a professional class of smart, well paid, attention monopolizing experts.   So our opening has to instantly grab attention.   Next we need to lead our flock through the intricacies of our topic, so that they can keep up and understand where we are going.  If we have key points, then give them numbers, because we more easily follow number sequences.  Just don't make it too many numbers.  Keeping up with the thirty three key points of any topic, delivered in a thirty minute speech, is a nightmare the audience doesn't need.   Wrapping it all up at the end is a critical component too, because this is the speaker's final impression with the audience.  Have you noticed how often the final words of the talk just fade out.   The speaker's voice strength just drops away altogether at the end.  What we really want is passion backing up the conclusion.  The voice tone should rise to a crescendo.  The talk completes with a powerful hypnotic, all embracing call to action.  We want everyone, metaphorically, to join us and storm the barricades.    Instead we get that limping, low energy fade out, as the ineffective speaker just bumbles their way into Q&A.  Typically, they don't have any strategy to control the flow of Q&A either.  Because of this, they lose control of the proceedings. They have committed a fatal mistake and allowed the final question to completely determine the final impression of the talk with the audience.  How many times have you heard a question raised which was completely off topic? Unfortunately this happens quite often, so the danger here is that the questioner highjacks our speech.  Their topic is the last item ringing in the ears of the audience rather than what we were there to talk about.  Do not let that happen!  We need two powerful, passionate closes – one for the end of our speech and one for the end of Q&A.   Passion for the topic and the audience are requirements.  These are not optional extras, useful additions, that we can include or not at our leisure.  If we don't feel passion for our topic and our audience, then we come across as flat, perfunctory, formulistic.  In these cases, when the audience leaves the venue, the speaker, topic and their organisation are immediately forgotten.  With that type of result, we have to ask, “well just what was the point?”. The residual impression is negative. The listeners feel that their time was wasted and no great value was imparted. They leave determined that if that same speaker ever pops up again in the future, they won't bother to attend.   You may not have world beating speaking technique, structure, openings, closings or control of the Q&A, but you can overcome all of these shortcomings, if you really communicate your passion.  We will forgive you small foibles, if we feel you really want to share this vital information with us.  We want to know that you are really motivated to help the audience, who have given up their precious time to hear you out.  Enthusiasm is contagious.  Our audience will forgive a lot of our faults, if they feel our energy, passion and commitment for the topic. Be passionate, enthusiastic, well organised, well structured when you speak.  If you do, then your audience will recall both you and your firm with positive  regard as truly professional  and isn't that what we want in business? THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this 100thepisode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my other weekly shows.  For podcasts, Mondays for the Cutting Edge Japan Business show podcast version, Tuesday for The Presentations Japan Series, Wednesdays for The Sales Japan Series, Thursdays for The Leadership Japan Series, and Fridays for The Japan Business Mastery Show, wherever you get your podcasts.  Also on Fridays, I release my other TV show The Japan Business Mastery Show on YouTube In episode one hundred and one, we are talking about How to Find Golden Clients. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Here is a simple question – are you only working on the highest value items, that only you can do?  Some things you can and should delegate but there are others that need your exclusive, personal touch.  Isn't that what leaders should be doing with their time.  If that is not the case, then please take note of some efficiency ideas from today's show. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The proportion of children with allergies or dental problems is more than ten times higher in families on welfare than in those not receiving benefits.  The Tokyo university study identified factors such as stress, house dust and lack of supervision.  In households on welfare, thirty one percent of boys aged five to nine suffered from asthma, ten times higher than the norm.  In other news, part-time University lecturers with Ph.D.s are part of the working poor.  They get paid a very low amount for lectures, get no pay during holiday periods and don't get remunerated for preparing classes or marking essays. Tenured tracks are reducing but those entering the pipeline are increasing.  In two thousand and eighteen the number of Phds was fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty eight compared to only five thousand five hundred and seventy six in nineteen weighty nine.  The number of PHD doing part time work went up six fold from fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty eight in nineteen eighty nine, to ninety three thousand one hundred and forty five in two thousand and sixteen. Finally, one in seven Japanese children live in relative poverty.  The child poverty rate in Japan tops all of the OECD countries.  In single parent households, it is fifty percent.  Among households on welfare the ratio of children advancing to universities and vocational training was thirty five percent less than half the average of seventy three percent. This is episode number  ninety-nine and we are talking about How To Finally Get Your Act Together     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. “The first thing is to make sure you are in the moment” says sixteen time tennis Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.  “That is much easier to say than to do.  You have to exclude all distractions and focus on what you are about to do.  In order to get into that state of concentration, you need to have a lot of experience, and a lot of mental strength. You are not born with that.  It is something you have to build by yourself”.     Leaders are busy people and it is difficult to find time during the day to be “in the moment”. Phones ring, email floods in without mercy, staff want a piece of you, meetings suck the life force out of your day, business social media beckons with its siren song of “look at me, look at me”, imminent deadlines loom.  Consequently, you often look back on the day and are bewildered as to where the time went and become frustrated with how little actually got done.    Excluding distractions and focusing on what you need to be doing are learnt skills.  It is astonishing to me how few leaders plan their day.  When I am teaching leadership to senior leaders and we get to the time management bit, I ask who plans their day – written down and prioritised?  On average I would be lucky to get 10% of the participants raising their hands.  When I clarify that they are writing it down in some form of numbered order, a few sheepishly lower their hands.   Are they lacking the mental strength to be able to organize themselves?  I don't think that is the issue.  It seems to be a general lack of ability to self-organise their day.  The first barrier is philosophical – “I don't want to be locked into a schedule, because mine changes so much throughout the day, there is no point setting priorities which will keep changing”.   There is a breakthrough technology for that called the pencil.  If your priorities change, then change the order by re-writing to list. “I can't be bothered doing that burdensome task”.  Well if that erase and re-write construct is too much for you, then we have to wonder why you are being put in charge of people and budgets in the first place.   The reality is the basic order of priorities will only ever change a few times a day and not every day, so the alteration of the order is no big deal, so get over it.  The power of setting priorities, in order, is that you can concentrate on the highest value components of your work.  When I was at University, I remember one of the professors showing me a cartoon about the difficulties of sitting down and writing. The ironing, the cleaning, the lawn mowing all were given a higher priority, because the writer was afraid to start and looked for escape routes.  We do that in leadership – we procrastinate on projects and tasks we should be doing.   Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome back The golden rule of leadership time management is “we can't do everything, but we can do the most important things”.  The most high value tasks are those that only we can do – they are not things we can delegate.  The key is to concentrate our mental energy to be “in the moment” to complete those highest value tasks without being distracted or hindered.  Therefore time must be allocated for the highest value tasks that we have nominated ahead of all the other many tasks.  The latter are the lower value tasks, which is where those without a prioritised list, spend the majority of their working lives and are left wondering why they can't get enough done.   To allocate the time required for the highest value tasks, we need to create block time.  This is cordoned off time, no distractions time, no meetings time, no calls or emails time.  We seize the highest priority work to be done and we throw everything we have at it, uninterrupted and unapologetically. Allocate time in our diaries for block time by diarising a meeting with ourselves that is set in stone. If we don't do that we will never be able to marshal the time we need for the highest value projects we need to be working on.   We also need to create block time for thinking.  We can get very tied up in our businesses, busy, busy, busy working in them.  We should also allocate time to for working on them as well.  That means getting away from the everyday routine and taking a step back.  We need that thinking time to let ideas emerge, percolate and galvanise.  What should I be doing more of?  What should I be doing less of?  What can I add in to the business?  What can I take out?  Time spent pondering these ponderable will be some of the most valuable time you spend at work.  You don't do it now or do enough of it, because you are not allocating the time.  The weeds have seized you and you must break free.   Leaders, let's stop kidding ourselves - all we have is time and how we spend it determines all. Let's take back our control and rise above the noise, to work at the most peak level of effectiveness possible.   THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode  we are talking about. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

In this modern day and age a salesperson just swanning into a meeting and asking the client really basic information about their company is completely incomprehensible. It is basic laziness and unprofessionalism.  It is winging it when there is no need.  There is so much readily available information on businesses and the individuals running them today it is incredible.  It is about time salespeople started using it.  Find out how they should be doing that very shortly. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Tokyo cryptocurrency exchange Bitpoint was hacked to the tune of three point five billion yen or thirty three million dollars.  Remixpoint the owner of the exchange said two point five billion yen or roughly 24 million dollars belonged to customers.  Ouch.  In other news, Japan recycles eighty four percent of the plastic it collects, one of the highest rates in the world.  This sounds good but the figures are misleading.  Of the plastic recycled only twenty three percent is turned into new plastic, four percent is chemically recycled into its constituent parts.  The vast majority, all the remainder, is burned. Other countries don't count burning as recycling.  Finally, convenience store giant Seven and I had their new mobile payment system using barcodes and QR codes hacked and customers were defrauded through unauthorized access.    Eight hundred and eight customers using the cashless payment system lost thirty eight million yen or three hundred and sixty thousand dollars.  One month after its all dancing all singing debut, the system has been entirely scrapped. This is episode number ninety eight and we are talking about  Stop Being Hopeless In Client Meetings     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Salespeople are very busy, rushing around finding new clients, developing leads, networking, cold calling, attending client meetings, getting stuck into preparing proposals and later executing the follow through on what has been promised.  Somewhere in this process some key basics start to go missing.  One of those basics is the proper preparation for client meetings.   This is rather ironic because we salespeople have never had it so good.  In this modern age we have so much information available to us just a few clicks away.  Listed client companies very conveniently include their financial details, strategies, corporate officer information, etc., in their annual reports on their web sites.    Invariably, we will see a modern besuited business Titan posing in the plush corporate corner office. In addition to the PR division's photographic efforts, there will be a substantial article or interview with the CEO, outlining the way forward for the company.  The key organisation goals and milestones are on display for all to see.   A few minutes finding this information and reading it will give the salesperson a very clear idea of the key business drivers for the company's strategy.  The financial section will also tell us how the entity is tracking against it's declared goals.  It may even get down to a breakdown at the divisional or country level, which is pure gold to someone about to meet a decision-maker from that firm.    Being able to tie what you sell to the goals they have set for themselves instantly makes the context relevant and places the discussion on the right basis.  Talking about your contribution to their ROI is of great interest to someone in that company, who has responsibility to deliver the goals established by senior management.  So rather than talking about what you want – to sell something – the discussion is better focused around how you can help them achieve their goals.   How many salespeople though bother to do this prior to calling on the client?  Not enough! If we turn up to their office and say, “Tell me about your business?”, this speaks volumes about our lack of research on the company beforehand.  It would be much better to ask a question that relates to the goals which have been set within the company.  We should be looking for some context where we can show how helpful we can be, in solving their local issues preventing them from satisfying their corporate goals.   We should be coming into that meeting talking about the most relevant issues facing the team we are meeting.  We might say:   “I notice that your company President has made it a clear goal to grow the business by 12% over this next year.  Given the current business climate, that sounds pretty tough.  Is that also the commitment you need to deliver from the Japan business?”   This is a great question because we have indicated we have done our homework on the firm, we are aware of their goals and we are empathetic. We are also checking if the local business has the same issues or not.  If they answer that the local unit has to grow by 30%, then that sets us up for a very interesting conversation about how they are going to achieve that and why their local goal is so much larger.   We want to capture the scale of the gap between their current performance and their required performance, plus their chances of bridging that gap without our help.  If we find out the opportunity to grow 30% in Japan is a snap, because business conditions here are so much better than everywhere else for them, we may have a hard time showing where we can be helpful. Find out more when we come back from the break   Welcome back On the other hand if they are really suffering from having such a large target, then perhaps we may be the solution and they will be all ears to hear how we can help.  We could ask them “how is business?” and they may or may not choose to enlighten us to their reality.  Remember, everyone loves to buy but no one wants to be sold.  So the less you have to tell salespeople anything, the less likely you will be sold anything.    If we are able to lead the conversation into a deeper stage quickly, the more likely we are to find out if we have a new client here or not. This should be our goal and we should be using the best resources available to us to achieve our goal.   Apart from the information on the firm, there is also information we will find on the individuals we will meet from the firm.  They will probably have a Google, Yahoo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube presence.  A quick search on their name will turn up useful background information, which may allow us to draw out some connections we share in common.  If you both studied at the same university or previously both worked in the same industry or lived in the same location (state or town) or have the same hobbies, these are speedy connectors between two total strangers.   In sales, we need our buyers to know, like and trust us. The like and trust parts are the difficult bits, especially at the initial stages of the relationship. Sharing things in common is a great way to quickly establish credibility and a relationship.    Let's take my example.  I am a proud Queenslander, grew up in Brisbane, I support the Brisbane Broncos and Origin rugby teams, studied Modern Asian Studies at Griffith University and I practice karate.  There are a wealth of speedy connectors right there.  You can find all of this out about me on-line in about five minutes.    Start our meeting by commenting on how well Queensland has been doing in the Origin rugby and you and I are off to a great start! It means you know about the rabid Queensland versus New South Wales State rivalry in rugby and how important it is to native Queenslanders like me to win.   I am a buyer of goods and services here in Japan.  Over the last twenty 25 years here, not one salesperson has tried to connect with me through knowing some common connectors. Given what is out there now in the public domain, there is no excuse for salespeople calling on me, particularly over the last ten years, to not try to connect in this way.   It is the same for most people we meet.  We can get the relationship off to a flying start, if we bother to invest the time to find out their key details.  Yes, we are all very busy but that is not a sufficient excuse. We salespeople are simply not doing a good enough job to use the tools at our command today.  It is crazy when you think about it.  Trying to build a connection and establish a positive first impression has to be every salesperson's goal when meeting new clients for the first time.    Yes there are unlisted companies and yes, not so many Japanese business people use LinkedIn as yet.  However, there are plenty of companies though who are listed and plenty of Japanese people on Facebook etc., so we should make the effort to do our homework on the client before we meet.  In this Internet age there really are no excuses.   One of the other tricky bits about Japan is the group dynamic of decision-making.  We may not know beforehand precisely who will be in the room.  Often there will be extra people who turn up and so we won't be able to research them prior to the meeting.  However, after the meeting we can try to find out something about them that might enable us to establish a relationship.  If they support a particular interest, we might send them an article on that subject.    If they like a certain sport or activity we might arrange tickets as our guest.  However, I am a bit conservative regarding individual gift giving in Japan.  There are often corporate compliance restraints on entertainment and gift giving which we should be aware of.  We don't want our efforts to cause them any embarrassment or trouble.  On the other hand, we could bring something to eat to be shared with the whole team and that is usually acceptable.  Japan, fortunately has an amazing selection of these types of goodies for just such an occasion.   This is the age of readily available and free information. We need to differentiate ourselves from every other salesperson out there. A simple way to do that is to spend some time researching the company and the individuals.  When we have these insights we ask better designed questions, we uncover more key information more quickly and we provide great context for our conversation with the buyer.   Action Steps   Go on-line and read through the corporate annual report Use social media to find out about the person we are going to meet Use search tools like Yahoo and Google to see what we can know prior to the appointment If new people turn up to the meeting, do a search on them and see if there are ways we can connect with them. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode ninety nine we are talking about How To Finally Get Your Act Together. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

New clients are the lifeblood of businesses.  Keeping clients is difficult, things change and they disappear. They have to be replaced.  How do we replace them?  In today's show we look at two excellent techniques for doing just that.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Hanko the personal stamps required in Japan since the  eighteen  hundreds are getting phased out at some of the country's biggest institutions.  Lenders have begun allowing customers to transfer money or make payments with their smart phones, instead of using hanko. Japanese banks are trying to slash paperwork, boost efficiency and appeal to younger generations. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group has started offering accounts that don't require hanko or passbooks and is trying to overhaul its branch network to replace rows of tellers with tablet computers and video booths.  The goals is to help customers adapt to digital platforms so they can do more banking on their own devices.  As many as one hundred on the five hundred plus branches will convert to the new format by twenty  twenty  four.  They plan to halve the number of branches at the same time.  The Abe government is trying to make more government services available on-line.  In other news, six years have passed since Prime Minister Abe announced plans to create a Japan in which women can shine.  According to the OECD, only zero  point  seven percent of Japanese women were in management positions in  two  thousand  and  seventeen , basically the same share as in two thousand and   eleven. The figure is well below the average four  point  seven percent seen on other developed countries.  In the World Economic Forum's annual World gender Gap Index Japan ranked one  hundred  and  ten out of one hundred  and forty  nine  countries. Japan ranked lowest among Group of Twenty nations in terms of female politicians, with women occupying just  ten  point two  percent of the  four  hundred and  sixty  three  seats on the Lower House.   Finally, back in the early  two  thousands  the government implemented reform of the nations system for training legal professionals, launching law schools modeled after those in the USA.  However more than half have been shut down due to declining enrollments and the bar examinations for students who have completed the two year programs have been disappointing.  In  two  thousand and  fifteen the government gave up on its goal of boosting the annual number of successful bar exam applicants to  three  thousand, halving the target to one  thousand  five  hundred. This is episode number eighty two  and we are talking about  Using Your Hands     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.We think of speaking as an activity where we use our voice. That is true but we use a lot more than that.  We use our face, eyes, legs, body and our hands.  When we are speaking while seated it is different to when we are standing. We need to master all situations for when we are called upon to speak in front of others.  One of our problem areas is what to do with our hands when we speak.  Judging by most of the presentations I see in Japan, few speakers have worked this out yet. Here are some common habits we can improve upon to make ourselves much more persuasive and professional. ONE  Hands in front of the body.  This for men will usually means wrapping the right fist by the left hand and holding both in front of the groin.  For women, Japan has a specific requirements such as cupping the fingers of each hand so they interlock like the yin yang symbol and holding them at waist height or sliding the fingers together at the thumb and first finger intersection,  so the arms are outstretched and all the fingers are pointing to the ground.  This is usually a set piece and is combined with the foot positioning, so that one foot is forward of the other and the front toe of the rear shoe touches the back heel of the front shoe. These elaborate rituals are a product of trying to standardise the form and to kill uncontrolled hand movements.  It also kills the ability to use gestures to support and strengthen our words.  The arms and hands when held in front of the body also create a subliminal barrier between the audience and the speaker.  It is saying “I don't trust you, I am scared of you and I need to protect my most vial organs from you, in case of sudden attack”.  As a speaker, we want to be as inclusive as possible, so we need to eliminate all physical barriers (podiums, reams of notes, ipads, arms) between ourselves and our audience.  We also want to show we are totally confident and have a welcoming attitude to our audience. TWO   Arms behind the back, clasped together. This is another anchor technique used when the speaker has no idea what to do with their hands.  The hands are also invisible to the audience, so the speaker feels they can forget about what to do with them or how they are placed or situated.  That is true, but there are a few issues with this pose.  Since cave dweller days, we have learnt not to trust people whose hands are not visible to us.  They may have been concealing a weapon.  The thigh bone of a major animal, a sturdy, gnarled tree root or a sharp, flinty rock with which to bash us on the head and steal out fire, food or loved ones. In more advanced and sophisticated times, the fear is they will suddenly whip out a deadly blade and plunge it deep into our soft intestines and kill us. The palms open and facing forward gesture is a universal and timeless indicator of “I am not a threat to you, because, as you see I have no hidden weapon”.   This when associated with certain words and phrases says “you can trust what I am saying”.  Not a bad thing for a speaker to achieve with an audience, especially to a gathering of card carrying skeptics. THREE  Arms folded across the chest or one hand touching one elbow while the other hand is held near the face.  Like number one, these are defensive postures specifically designed to keep your audience away from your vital spots.  By the way, I do recommend the latter posture, if you are ever standing close and talking with someone you are suspicious of.  My karate background recommends that position, because from there it is very quick to parry a sudden “king hit” style blow to either your face or your body, but I digress.  In speaking term though, these postures send all the wrong messages.  We want to be trusted as a speaker and to do so, we have to show we are open to our audience.  Holding our hands by our sides is a natural position and from here it is easy to raise our hands when needed, to inject a powerful gesture with which to back up our words. FOUR   Hands in the pockets.  This is a particular favourite of male executives who have no idea of what to do with their hands when speaking.  The really confused thrust both hands into their respective trouser pockets achieving a sort of  stereo effect.  It presents the hands where they can be seen from the front, but it denies us the opportunity to use gestures during out talk. Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backLet me introduce a couple of coming opportunities to you.  Our One Day Successful Public Speaking  Course will run on July 8th.  Also our Two Day High Impact Presentations Course will run on July 10thand 11th.  Details are on our website at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com Back to where we left off.  FIVE    Holding something in our hands.  When we are teaching public speaking, our participants often want to hold their speaking notes in their hands when they do the pair practice role plays.  I notice they actually never look at them, but they feel comforted that should they get into trouble, help is close by, if there is a possible brain white out.   Sheets of paper however tend to become a distraction as we tend to wave them around.  The pages quiver and shake if we are nervous and this is visible to our audience. We are sending the wrong message to them.  We want to convey belief and confidence in our message. If we are looking down, be it at the notes page or an iPad, we break off eye contact with our audience. Instead, we need to be watching our audience like a hawk, constantly gauging their reaction to what we are saying. We also want to employ our eye power to engage with them directly and sell them on our key messages.  We want to remove all distractions from what we are communicating and we want to free up our hands so we can employ our gestures to bolster our argument. SIX   Gripping the podium, the microphone stand or holding the hand microphone with both hands.  The double hand, vice like grip of the podium gives the speaker the feeling of stability. It also removes the “what do I do with my hands” conundrum.  What it says about you though is, “I am nervous and lacking in confidence”. It can make us appear quite strained as we apply muscle power to the upper arms and raise our shoulders, as we ensure the podium does not make a sudden attempt to scarper.  Best to not even touch the podium at all and just feel free to raise your hands for gestures.  Holding the microphone or it's stand with both hands, precludes us from gesturing during our talk.  Don't touch the microphone stand at all.  Restrict the hand microphone usage to one hand only, so the other is free and readily available for emphasis. Having said that, if you find your arms and hands are shaking almost uncontrollably, because the adrenaline is coursing though your body, then by all means hold the microphone with both hands and gather it to your chest, so no one can see how petrified you are.  The shaking won't be visible anymore and you can feel more confident when you are talking. SEVEN   Hands under the table.  If we are seated during our presentation, we don't want to hide our hands under the table.  This is the same trust issue as the hands behind the back in number two.  Place the hands on top of the table, resting comfortably together where they can be seen.  From there, pick them up and use them for gestures. EIGHT  Over employing or holding on to the same gesture, all of the time.  We need to use a variety of gestures otherwise, we become too predictable and boring for our audience.  We also need to turn gestures on and off, like the faucet of a tap. Don't let the water run too long, remember to switch it off for a while.  The break between usage and non-usage, gives the gesture more force with our audience.  If we hold the same hand position for longer than 15 seconds, all the power of that gesture dies and it just becomes an annoyance to our audience. NINE    Pointing our finger at people, making a fist like we want to fight, making slapping sounds and waving our hands around like a drowning person when speaking.  Thrusting our single finger at someone is an aggressive action, as is brandishing our fist. We associate these gestures with an invitation to argument or combat. Neither should be our intention when engaging with our audience.  Slapping or hands together or slapping our legs is an unnecessary distraction and we should avoid doing so. Waving our hands around becomes another distraction from the message we want to convey and can look like we are out of control. Mastering how to employ our hands effectively distinguishes the professional speaker from the rest of the crowd. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my weekly podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.  In episode eighty three we are talking about New Client Acquisition. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Most presenters fail to consider the importance of where to stand when presenting.  In today's show we will go into some detail on how to adjust for different venues, how to engage with your audience and things to avoid.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The curriculum for general courses taught in high schools, which has remained untouched since the current system was established after world war two, will be reformed as part of a plan to drastically revamp secondary education. This reform reflects a sense of crisis among educational authorities about declines in the amount of time that high school students spend studying and their willingness to study. Nine point three percent of first year junior high school students said they do not study on weekends with the figure rising to twenty five point four for first year high school students. In other news, the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group banking unit executive Saiko Nanri wants to change Japan's long-standing culture of drinks between managers and employees. Companies have long encouraged such parties to give workers the chance to break down barriers with their bosses in an informal setting. Nanri has told her team that she won't hold the gatherings, saying they're unproductive and unfair to parents of young children.  Her stance calls into question old work habits blamed for hindering productivity and discouraging women from remaining in the workforce.  Finally, almost half of the rail lines run by JR Hokkaido are unprofitable.  About two thirds of lines operated by JR Hokkaido have considered seeking financial assistance in order to keep their respective routes open, while the remaining third are leaning toward shutting their lines down due to a dearth of passengers.   This is episode number eighty five and we are talking about  Where Should I Stand When I Am Presenting     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.Usually this isn't even a question for most presenters, because the organisers have already set up the room when you arrive. Our speaking spot has been designated for us.  But have we been designated a spot by experts in public speaking or by the venue crew who usually just haul chairs, lug tables around and set up the stage? Sadly the coalescence between expertise in public speaking and membership of the logistics team is rare.   So where should we stand? This will depend on the venue size, the illumination of the room, the size of the audience, the layout of the stage, where the screens are located and what you want to achieve.    I attended an effective talk where the stage was empty, yet the speech suddenly got underway with no speaker in sight.  He was actually wearing a Lavelle microphone and was behind the audience at the rear of the room. The acoustics of that hall however, gave no indication of where he was standing and so it created a buzz as the assembled masses tried to place the speaker's location, with the voice they could all hear.  He then strode manfully to the stage and continued his oration.    As an attention-getter, to break through all the clutter in the heads of the audience, it was very effective and he did that just by varying his speaking spot from where everyone usually starts.   If we are using a screen, then is it hoisted high above us, are there two giant screens on the left and right or is it at our height in the center of the stage?  In smaller venues, the screen is normally at our height and usually set up such that the podium is on the audience right of the stage.  No particular thought has gone into this location and the choice is purely random, often linked more closely to power outlets and cabling considerations, than the speaker's effectiveness.   Stand on the audience left of the screen, so that the audience can read your facial expression and body language and then move their eyes right to read text or images on the screen.  We read left to right, so this is a natural progression.  We always want the screen to be subordinate to us.  So set the proceedings up such that they have to look at you first, rather than at the slides on the screen.  Our face is a trillion times more powerful as a communication tool, than anything that is on that screen.   If there are giant screens above, then the chances are the venue is pretty large and the stage will be quite wide.  Rather than being stuck in one place, work the stage area.  I don't mean nervous, fidgety, random pacing across the stage as I have seen done by many amateur presenters.  I mean move right to the very apron of the stage and to the extremes of left and right to engage with all of your audience.  Just be careful at the edge that you don't fall off, because that can easily happen, when we are fully engaged on our audience and we miss the peripheral sight of the edge.    Start in the middle of a large stage, as close as you can get to your audience.  Remember, that to those seated at the back or up on the first, second or third tiers of seating, you are the size of a peanut.  Yes, they have the giant screens but try to bring your physical presence as close to your audience as you can, to create a closer connection.    Move slowly to the extreme left and then stop.  Now we can engage everyone on this side of the room.  After a few minutes move slowly back to the center and stop.  Now move slowly across to the extreme right and stop.  Then slowly back to the center, by which time it will be getting very close to your peroration.    I might also add that if the venue is large, then really exaggerate your gestures and expressions. The scale of the venue requires that larger version of you to enable you to engage with your audience and “work the room”.  Get to the venue early and go sit in the most distant seats. That is when you realize how small the speaker is when on stage and that you have to “big it up” more.   Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backand here is some information on presenting.  On July eight we will run our Successful Public Speaking course.  On July tenth & eleventh and later on November thirteen and fourteen, we will hold our High Impact Presentations course in Japanese.  On July sixteenth and seventeen, we will hold the same course on English.   Back to where we left off. You might be thinking you have to stand where the podium is located. Why?  With the automatic slide advancers available today we can be highly mobile.  If the clicker isn't working well, then enlist a colleague as a “slide advancer” to man the laptop and move slides on your signal.  Or, you can just stroll back to the laptop and do it yourself. Don't get stuck behind the podium because we can't access all of your body language if you do that.   If you are stuck behind a podium, then be sure that as much of your upper body as possible is visible. This might require asking the venue staff for a small platform on which to stand behind the podium.  The microphone arrangements may make that tricky, depending on the height of the stand provided. If you need to remove the microphone from the stand then do so and stand as tall as possible, so you can be seen easily.   If the venue is smaller, then we can stand left of the screen but we can employ three strategic distances in combination with the content of what we are saying.  We start speaking when we are about halfway between the back of the stage and the audience – the neutral or green zone.    If we want to add strong support to a micro point we are delivering, then we move forward to as close to the audience as we can get, the intense or red zone.  We don't stay there long because the pressure is too strong for the audience.  We should move back to the middle, to lessen the intensity.    If we want to make a bigger or more macro point, we move toward the rear of the stage, the big picture or blue zone and then go back to the green zone. These changes of distance are related to what we are talking about so there is no consistent pattern necessarily.  In fact, we don't want any consistent patterns or we will become predictable to our audience. They switch us off because they have anticipated what we will do and they soon lose interest.   Normally lighting isn't an issue unless some amateur stage hand, do-gooder or volunteer decides your screen needs more contrast and they turn off or dim the lights.  Stop whatever you are doing and request them to turn those lights back on.  We need to be seen and we need to see the faces of our audience.  We need to gauge the reaction to what we are saying and to check if we are losing their interest or not.    A speaker recently gave a TED talk here in Tokyo, but to accommodate various cool technological features such as holograms, an invisible screen was separating the speaker from the audience.  Well it was invisible to the audience and they could see the speaker, but not the other way around.  That is a nightmare right there, because you are talking to an audience you can't actually see.  It always pays to check the speaking arrangements before you speak or get here early and try to fix logistical items which will negate the impact of your talk.   Sometimes in smaller, more intimae venues like clubs, the lighting is rather poor.  We can use the projector to throw up light or we can look for spotlights to try to get some light on us and the audience.  We can also try and stand very close to the audience, so that our physical presence will compensate for the lack of light.   If we are on a panel and everyone is seated, we should stand when we give our initial remarks, if possible. Thereafter, we may be seated, as we back and forth on the various worthy points under consideration.  By standing, we use our full arsenal of body language capability and projection to make our argument.  When you can stand up and speak without relying on having notes cradled in your lap, you gain more credibility and more projection for your argument.  In Japan, the crowded space on the raised dais between your seat and the obligatory low table, may not allow it, but don't be afraid to stand and talk, rather than having to remain seated if you can manage it.   To be an effective speaker, we need to include consideration of the best logistics needed to support our efforts.  Don't rely on the clueless to prepare the venue properly, instead have a clue ourselves and always be in command of our environment. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode eighty six we are talking about The One Hundred and Six Centimeter Salesman. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

What are we on about with this sales lark?  Are we in sales to make our fortune or to make the client their fortune?  The difference in perspective is massive. For a long and successful career in sales we need to be thinking in terms of how we can best partner with the client to make them successful.  This mentality is not all that common in the profession and that is why so few salespeople are successful – they have the wrong mentality, they don't know their true north to get their correct bearings.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market. Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately.   Convenience store operator Lawson will introduce self-checkout systems in all of its fourteen thousand convenience stores by October this year to cope with Japan's labour shortage.  Customers will scan the barcodes themselves with cashier machines that can be used for self service.  Only cashless payment methods such as credit cards and digital currency will be accepted.  In related news, The Trade ministry last April, unveiled their Cashless Vision aiming to raise the ratio of cashless payments from twenty  percent  to  forty  percent by twenty  twenty  five. By comparison about  ninety  percent  of transactions were cashless in south Korea,  sixty  percent in China and forty  five  percent in the USA.  Pay Pay Corp entered the cashless market last October and is backed by yahoo and Soft Bank.  Using the app, customers can scan QR codes displayed at stores with their smart phones to complete payments.  PayPay has a tie up with Alipay, an on-line payment system from China's Alibaba Group targeting foreign visitors.  The Japanese Government is going to reward with discounts  of  five  percent of purchase amounts for a period of nine months, to consumers who make cashless payments to small and medium sized retailers.  They are doing this to take some of the sting out of the increase in the consumption tax from  eight  to  ten   percent in September.  Finally, as part of the Tokyo twenty  twenty  Robot Project, robots will be deployed to assist spectators and staff at the Tokyo Olympics.  The Human Support Robot (HSR) and Delivery Support Robot (DSR) developed by Toyota Motor corporation will be used in tandem to assist visitors using wheel chairs.  The HSR is a one armed robot about a meter tall which can hold objects, pick things up off the ground and reach high up. When people order food or drinks using a tablet computer, DSR will transport the item in a basket and HSR will then deliver them directly to guests. In addition Atoun Model Y a wearable robotic suit developed by Panasonc corp will be used by staff tasked with carrying, loading and unloading heavy objects.  The suit can reduce the burden of heavy loads by  ten  to  forty percent. This is episode number eighty and we are talking about  TRUE NORTH IN SALES     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.Like a lot of people, I subscribe to various sites that send you useful information, uplifting quotes etc.  The following morsel popped into my inbox, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care –Anonymous”.  Wow! What a powerful reminder of the things that really matter in our interactions with others.  This piece of sage advice should be metaphorically stamped on to the brain of every single person involved in sales. Don't miss it – we all know that selling stuff is a tough gig.  Rejection is the normal response to our spiffy sales presentation and follow up offer. You have to be tough to survive in a sales job.  You need other things too. Product and technical knowledge are important.  Total command of the detail is expected by clients.  However, we need to be careful about what we focus on. Are we letting the product details and features confuse us about what selling is really all about? Some salespeople I have encountered remind me of an icy mammoth trapped in a time warp from the past, still trotting out the product brochure and seeing if I will go for one of their goodies?   You don't like that one, well then how about this one, or this one, or this one, ad nauseam? I want “blue” but they keep showing me 50 shades of “pink”. They are playing that pathetic, failed salesperson game named “process of elimination”. I want to buy, but are they really showing me they are focused on understanding me? Are they demonstrating to me that they foremost care about my benefit?  Are they communicating to me that, “in your success Greg, is my success”? Or do they come across not with stars in their eyes, but $$$$ signs?  I can recall seeing them sitting across the table from me, mentally salivating at the thought of the big fat commission this sales conversation is worth?  I can sense they have already bought the new three  series Beemer before the ink is dry? The quote at the beginning, “People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care” reminds me of a great Japanese word, which should be embraced by everyone in sales - kokorogamae(心構え).  It can be simply translated as “preparedness” but the Japanese nuance goes much deeper than that. Anyone studying a martial art or a traditional Japanese art (道) will immediately be on my wave length, when they hear this kokorogamae term. As a side note, here is a little Japanese language grammar insight for you.  Kokoro in Japanese means your heart or spirit and kamae means you ready position.  In karate, for example, we take our kamae, fighting position, when we do free sparring.  So the word kamae becomes gamae when kokoro and kamae are made into a single compound word. So we can translate kokorogamaeas “getting your heart or true intention in order”.  This concept is the core foundation of my sales philosophy. This means to really hark back to your most basic principles of true intention.  What we can call True North – the purity of our intention. What is the spark in our heart driving our behavior?  Is it the money or is it the serving?  Is it what we want or what the client wants?  Is this going to be a long-term relationship or a fleeting transaction?  Salespeople need to start by searching their heart for their true intention.  Huh? Does this sound a bit too “hug a tree” Californian style, overly emotional for you?  Why do I recommend searching your heart?  Because clients can sense your motivation isn't centered on their best interests and therefore they won't buy from you.  Of course, there are the exceptions – the Hollywood image of the “smooth talking” salesperson who could sell you anything and will certainly try to.  Oh, they may con us once, but we will eventually work them out. In this modern age, social media can kill us very fast.  Our reputation can be shredded and before we know it, we are out of business. These single transaction orientated salespeople are like skyrockets that initially blaze bright through the night and then explode!  They are here for a good time not a long time and they give the profession of sales a bad brand.  The best Japanese salesperson I ever interviewed for a sales job was a convicted criminal.  The criminal part didn't surface immediately, but came up later through some background checks  - note to Sales Managers – do background checks!.  Find out more when we come back from the break   Welcome backLet me introduce a couple of coming opportunities to you.  Now Part Two from the April edition of Sales Booster will run on August 5th.  On November 11th we will again run the One Day Sales Booster Course Part One. Details are on our website at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com Back to where we left off.  He was absolutely brilliant in the first two interviews, polished, genius personified in the sales role play, and WOW, what a closer!  I thought “Yes!” at last, I have found my perfect Japanese salesperson. Actually, he was a liar, a thief and a baddie.  He had zero True North orientation and his kokorogamaewas plain wrong.  What a wake up call to smell the coffee for me. So let's ignore the outliers, those riff raff of sales and come back to the vast majority of salespeople who are not evil, just inept.  They are underskilled because they have never received proper sales training. People often arrive into sales jobs through companies who are transactional in nature.  It is the industrial model of sales.  Potential salespeople come in the front door and if they don't magically hit their numbers, are shown the back door after a few weeks or months.  Another sacrificial victim is then brought into the meat grinder through the front door and the process repeated forever.  No thought is given to investing in these new hires to properly develop their understanding and skills.  It is just a throw of the dice every time, to see who stays and who goes.  This routine usually produces very unfortunate sales behaviour in the individuals involved, as they become more and more desperate to make a sale to keep their employ. Desperation drives people to extremes and the client's interests in all of this are thrown right out the window. The ethos of the organization is short-term gain and their salespeople are a type of plug-and-play item, to be switched out as soon as needed. If you want a successful career in sales, change your heart, focus on True North, purify your intentions, show you genuinely care about the buyer's best interests before your own.  If you do that every single time you meet a client, you will have get success in sales and build a powerful personal brand.  We need clients to know, like and trust us.  Establishing our individual sales philosophy based on the kokorogamae concept is going to deliver the like and trust component in spades. If your current sales life is a nightmare of transactional relationships, burning clients for short-tem gain, unrelenting pressure on the numbers and no training, then get out of there as soon as possible.  Before you can get out of there though, take responsibility for yourself, make kokorogamaeyour light on the hill and move forward. Watch the videos on YouTube, get the books on sales written by the famous masters and study hard about what it takes to have a successful sales life.  If you want to stay in sales, then create your own philosophy of what that means as a profession. Decide to be the very best that you can be.  Decide what your personal kokorogamaeof sales will be. So, no more hesitation, let's commit and get on to it! Action Steps Decide why you are in sales in the first place? Choose sales as a career and create your own philosophy to guide you through the peaks and troughs, the good times and the scary times If you are working for or with people who have the wrong approach, the incorrect kokorogamae, then get out of there as soon as possible Make the client's interests your interest and you will do well in sales. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode  eighty one we are talking about The Professional Leader As Coach. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

The number one request we receive from our participants in our presentations classes is help to make them clear to their audience. You would think that wouldn't be that heard.  Don't worry, plenty of people are seizing defeat from the jaws of victory in this department. Today we will shine some light on what we should be doing to be more clear when presenting.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Cash is still king in japan. Notes and coins in circulation account for twenty percent of the nation's GDP.  This is double the amount in the EU.  Cashless payments are still in their infancy at only twenty percent compared to Korea at ninety percent.  Japan plans to reach forty percent cashless payments by the time it hosts the next Expo event in Osaka in twenty twenty five.  Japan is expensive for credit card costs to merchants.  At an average of three point five percent this is high compared to globally at one point five percent.  Even for QR code systems the rate is three percent.  There are estimated to be three hundred million e-money cards in circulation and over thirty million mobile phones with e-money functions in Japan.  These only account for a few percent of retail payments though.  In other news, last year one in eight young people turning twenty in Tokyo were not born in Japan.  That doesn't count those born in japan, but who are not ethnically Japanese. The Government says there are two point seven three million non-japanese living here.  The Japanese population may be declining, but the number of non-japanese is up six point six percent since two thousand and seventeen.  Finally, if you are thinking of buying a convenience store franchise in Japan to become free of the corporate chains you might want to do some careful research. For example, seven eleven increased its outlets by one thousand every year between two thousand and eleven and two thousand and seventeen.  During the same period, the labour shortage became more severe.  The number of job offer to job seekers went from zero point five six to one point five four. Hourly costs for staff went up from seven hundred and thirty yen per hour to eight hundred and forty eight yen.  The labour shortage and twenty four hour operating rule of the franchisors is forcing owners to work increasingly longer personal hours with no time off.  Seven eleven also asks for between forty percent to seventy five percent of gross profit as its franchise fee. This is episode number ninety one and we are talking about Don't Mystify Me With your Presentation Please     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. he global chief's private jet has landed. We are all assembled in a luxury hotel's gorgeous function room. The big brand name, the resplendent silver mane, the speaker's resume and abundant confidence all speak to a brilliant talk coming up.  After the obligatory networking and chatting with tablemates over lunch, the main event gets underway.  The keynote starts well but gradually we start to lose connection with the speaker's message.  The talk is full of supple subtleties.  The main point becomes fuzzy, distant, unapproachable and impenetrable.  We sit there wondering are we all stupid, because we can't grasp the speaker's nuanced argument or is the speaker simply rambling and incoherent?   Actually, it doesn't matter which of us is stupid, because the talk has failed.  The speaker has not been able to get the message across in a way that resounds with the audience.  Being intellectually brilliant and speaking above your audience is not effective communication. We have to know who is in our audience, their level of understanding of the subject and their capacity to be challenged.  We need to be able to communicate, which means the listeners can understand and follow what we are saying, rather than trying to impress with our own brilliance.   Structure helps to guide the audience through the proceedings. This speech, if it had a structure, it was obscure, vague and puzzling. Consequently the speaker lost the audience. A heavy mist rolled in on this speech after about the first ten minutes and engulfed us all in such a way, that we struggled to follow where this meandering was going.  What was the point being made here?  Where are we going with these stories?  What is the key argument being made?  These are all bad questions for an audience to be asking.  They should never have to wonder because the speaker is clear, coherent and provides direction.   The use of slides on this occasion was minimal. In many cases this is a blessing, but not this one.  We needed some more form to follow the speaker's points.  We were lost. We could have found a path, if there had been some visual guideposts for us.  The slides roll out and pull us along the path of the argument.  Other simple ploys like “there are three key issues” or “the five areas of urgent attention are…” helps to frame the content in a way where we can track it.  These structures help us to relate the current point to those preceding it.      Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backIf you would like to give crystal clear presentations then take a look at doing our High Impact Presentations two day programme running on November thirteenth and fourteenth.  Details are on our website at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com  Back to the show Maybe a fellow genius, if indeed our speaker was a genius, may have been simpatico with our speaker's intent and understood the thesis. Alas we were just ordinary punters, turned out in the hope of a nice lunch and some enlightenment from this font of knowledge.  Our font this day though was dry and not at all helpful because we couldn't get the point.   As speakers we have to make it easy for our audience to understand us.  If we are going to be clever and tangential, we run the risk of losing people.  If we are fixated on subtlety, we can be too opaque for the troops and they just get lost.  We were all crime scene witnesses to the merciless murder of a major brand that day.  When the big cheese fails like that, we doubt the whole organisation.  Our faith in the firm has completely subsided.  Apart from the damage to the company, the individual's personal brand is shredded, torn and tattered.    The stakes are high when you are a presenter, so mastering the ability to connect with your audience is critical.  Don't over complicate the exercise.  Have a clear structure, be easy to follow as you navigate your way around your talk and pitch it at the right level for your audience. Do that and your personal and professional brands will be enhanced, appreciated and working for you, not against you. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Remember, if you would like to give crystal clear presentations then take a look at doing our High Impact Presentations two day programme running on November thirteenth and fourteenth.  Details are on our website at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode ninety two we are talking about Every new sales year you are back to zero again. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!  

Very few business presenters are able to really engage their audience. They are speaking at them rather with them. In today's show we will deal with how to turn that situation right around and become a presenter who has the audience eating out of the palm of your hand.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. There have been some changes in the way higher education is being funded in japan.  Government spending on education in japan represents one point seven percent of  public spending compared to the OECD average of three percent.  Tertiary educational institutions in japan rely heavily on private funding at sixty eight percent, more than twice the OECD average of thirty percent.  The amount of financial support provided by families as a percentage of income of university students has declined from seventy six percent in nineteen ninety six to sixty percent in two thousand and sixteen.  During the same period the percentage of student loans increased from six percent to twenty percent.  In other news, the Japanese government is encouraging firms to keep employing workers up to the age of seventy, to help ease the manpower shortage and ease the pressure on the pension system brought on by the twin factors of an aging and also declining  population. The number of sixty five or older workers was eight point six two million or twelve percent of the sixty six point six four million people, fifteen or older who are working.  Today twenty four point three percent of senior citizens have jobs.  The pool of workers in the fifteen to sixty four age group has dropped five million since two thousand and twelve to seventy five million today.  Finally, the Japanese domestic market for internet shopping has grown steadily at an annual rate of ten percent according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.  In two thousand and seventeen, Japan's on-line shopping market reached sixteen point five trillion yen or one hundred and fifty four billion dollars. This accounts for five point seven nine percent of total household spending..  The ratio in Britain, China and The US has already passed ten percent so Japan can expect to double in size over the next few years. This is episode number Ninety Four and we are talking about  The four hundred face presentation     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Can we be successful as a presenter if we don't connect with our audience?  Many presenters believe this simply is not needed.  This connecting lark is rather fluffy and irrelevant for them because the content is king.  The delivery is a sideshow, a trifle, a distraction from the main game.  Solid high value information, backed up with verifiable data is the mother lode.  Actually that is not true.   Solid, verifiable data delivered in a monotone, presented looking down to the reams of notes on the podium, in a disinterested manner is a communication killer.  No matter how good the "goods" are, it is not much help if no one if getting your message.  Why aren't they getting it?   They are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Line instead.  We cannot be so arrogant as to imagine our content can carry the day in this age of distraction.  The younger generation are going to be the future business audience from Hell. They are growing up totally distracted all the time, with the concentration span of a dazed gnat.  They have an addiction to being in touch with each other all the time and are unapologetically reaching for their escape vehicle - their phone - in a heartbeat.   If you are looking down at your note when speaking then the most valuable data is being withheld from you.  Watch your audience like a hawk.  If you see them disappear under the desk scrolling with their device, then you can kiss your message goodbye.  Look them right in the eye.  And do it for six seconds.  Why six?  Less is not giving us time enough to connect and any longer becomes intrusive - we start giving them sunburn from our intensity.   So the maths on that calculation are pretty simple.  Six seconds means ten people per minute.  A 40 minute speech means we are constantly using our eye contact to connect with 400 faces.  Some will be the same faces, depending on the size of the audience.  In a large audience, we may think we cannot connect with everyone but we can.  Those seated far from us will imagine we are looking at them.  The actual person we are looking at and the twenty people sitting around them, all believe we are talking directly to them.  Our object should be to speak one-on-one to every single person in that audience.   But Greg, in Japan, we don't make eye contact.  Not true.  In a typical business meeting, continuous eye contact will be burn out the retinas of our Japanese counterparts, so we have to learn how to turn the eye contact on and off.  A presentation is not the same thing though.  This is a different role for us and we need to play the bigger game of being persuasive. To do so means we have to bring our full armory to the cause, to battle listener distraction and escape attempts.   Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backHow would you like to become a dynamite presenter?  Sounds good doesn't it, well here is the answer – the High Impact Presentation Course.  Two days, two instructors, every thing video reviewed, massive individual coaching – this is the Rolls Royce of presentation training.  The next programme in Japanese will run on November thirteen and fourteen. In English we may have another programme scheduled for November but that is not yet decided.  We certainly will have one in English on February fourth and fifth next year.  Details can be found at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com Divide the audience up into six sectors, depending on the size. A smaller audience might become just three sectors.  The point is to ensure we visually rove across the audience and speak to every single person, no matter where they are seated.  We are not looking at the projection screen, our laptop monitor, the back wall, the front row or only one side of the room.  We are circulating in a random fashion around the audience, trying to draw them into the web of our message.   We have in our mind those 400 faces we have to connect with, before our time is up.  When we do this, the members of the audience feel more closely connected to us.  They feel as if they are being spoken to directly and they feel flattered with the attention.   We can read their faces for reaction to what we are saying.  This allows us to respond by varying our delivery, by using voice tone, questions and silence to keep them in the room with us.   If we have their attention then we have a chance of getting our message across.  Even if they cannot remember all that we say, they will never forget us.  Getting both would be a wonderful result, getting one is better than being totally forgettable like most speakers.   THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget that the next High Impact Presentations programme in Japanese will run on November thirteen and fourteen.  In English we may have another programme scheduled for November but that is not yet decided.  We certainly will have one in English on February fourth and fifth next year. Details can be found at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com   In episode  Ninety Five we are talking aboutWinning Sales Follow Through. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Technical experts are rarely expert presenters.  Why is that?  They are smart, well educated, highly knowledgeable about their area of expertise, have tons of data and boast abundant experience.  Their presentations should be nothing less than triumphs, legendary value, unmatched deep dives on their subject.  Rarely the case though. They fail for the simplest of reasons, when really they shouldn't fail at all.  Find out why very shortly.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, Your Corporate Coaching and Training Guy, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market. Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The Japan Post Insurance scandal boasts some amazing numbers.  Ninety thousand cases of inappropriate sales, twenty-two thousand cases of customers being tricked into making double payments, forty-seven thousand cases of being left uninsured for months before signing new contracts after their old ones were terminated, and twenty four thousand other cases where customers were disadvantaged.  What happened? The bosses set aggressive sales targets for the sales staff and they gamed the system to make their numbers.  When the scandal broke, the bosses tried to justify what they staff had been doing calling it “legitimate”.  That didn't fly and before you knew it, the Presidents of Japan Post insurance and Japan Post were doing a lot of deep bowing at their press conference. In other news, a Pew Research center report for japan found that ninety percent of Japanese think robots and computers will be doing much of the work currently being done by people, in the next fifty years.  Some eighty-three percent saw this as causing greater inequality, while seventy four percent believed people will have trouble finding work.  Finally, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has provided five hundred million yen or roughly five million dollars in subsidies over three years and three months to SkyDrive Inc, the first company in japan to develop an electric vertical takeoff and landing craft or eVTOLs.  Osaka Prefectural Government is aiming for a one person vehicle with six propellers to provide a demonstration flight at the Osaka World Expo in twenty twenty five.  At the Fukushima Robot Test Field at the end of February ten drones were launched simultaneously by different business operators to test whether they could fly safely without collisions in an airspace of nine hundred by six hundred meters. This is episode number  ninety-seven and we are talking about Technical Presenters Biggest Mistakes  Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Technical experts love their specialty.  Usually, they have studied hard and long to get into their profession and there is also substantial on-going professional development required to stay current. They are analytical types who thrive on the detail.  When they present technical subjects to business people who are not experts they can run into trouble.   The slide deck will be vast and detailed.  There is a lot of information to get through and so the slides can be dense.  The subject matter, being technical, is a serious business and that is how they approach their delivery. Somber, low energy, no gestures, monotone delivery are all de rigeurfor our self assured, serious experts.  The pace is slow, large numbers of the slides are read to the audience.  The entire atmosphere is funereal.   Is there a contradiction between the subject matter and presentation delivery skills.? If the matter is technical shouldn't the material speak for itself.  Isn't the presenter just a simple conduit of information? Yes, you could do it that way, if you want to be completely forgettable, have no interest in establishing a powerful personal brand and become the go to person on the subject.  For many technical people that would be just fine, because they don't enjoy the limelight, they don't really want to meet new people and would rather be immersed in their specialty.   If the firm is happy for them to be nobodies in a crowded field of similar experts all vying for the same client business, then that monk like approach is a good outcome.  If however, you want your firm to stand out above the din, to become famous for the quality of your team and for your professional bedside manner with non-specialists, then a re-think is in order.   Lets start with the deck, because this is the holy grail for specialists and this is where all the time is sucked up, with iteration after iteration.  Slides can be printed out and distributed after the presentation.  Why not during?  Yes, you can do that but the chances are that you will be on slide 5 and your audience will be on slide 45 and you have lost control of their attention. Better to mention at the start that the materials will be distributed after the presentation.  There may be one or two sheets where the detail is so dense, say numbers on spread sheets, that it is impossible to read on screen and these could be handed out at the start. Find out more when we come back from the break   Welcome back The details can be presented on the slide because our audience can read it for themselves, which means we don't have to cover every detail on every slide.  We can show and tell.  That is, show the slide in its full glory but only refer to a few key points. This allows us to speak without being trapped by the text on screen.  We can speak to the points, elaborate and tell stories to bring the facts to life.    Storytelling is mainly absent from the repertoire of technical presenters but these are the things the audience will remember after the talk.  They also make the detail more interesting because they are usually dealing with things at the application rather than the theoretical stage.   When speaking not every word needs to have the same value.  This is the monotone delivery approach, which quickly puts everyone to sleep. Instead we can select out key words for additional emphasis and hit those words harder when we deliver them. We can bring energy to the fore when we make recommendations or issue warnings.  These are simple voice modulation techniques which add validity to what we are saying.   We can use gestures to back up our words, again these bring energy to key points in a way that adds credibility to the content.  Our passion for the subject should shine through.  The specialist though often believes that their subject matter should be unemotional and delivered in a bland way, that is not controversial.  We don't have to be outrageous to make a connection with the audience.  Regardless of the subject matter, it usually has ramifications for people and people are emotional.  We can find how this topic relates to their businesses and their lives and make it real for the audience.   We don't have to be dull. We can take highly technical subjects and humanize them, tell stories, inject situations and people into them to bring them to life. We just need to change our mindset about what we are actually doing here.  Are we simply going through the motions or are we trying to communicate our key messages to our audience?  That decision makes the path forward very clear. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts In episode ninety-eight we are talking about Stop Being Hopeless in Client Meetings. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Nervousness when presenting can make us do strange things.  Two of those are reading our speeches or trying to memorise them. Both are a potential disaster and best avoided.  We think we have to read it or memorise it, because we are not sure we will know what to say. We are killing our audience when we read it and we are jousting with a meltdown if we fail in our memorization. Today we will take a look at why these two techniques are a poor choice and look at what we can do instead.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market. Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. Tokyo based venture company A.L.I Technologies aims to release a mass market flying motorcycle by twenty  twenty  two. Called a hover bike they plan to sell them in emerging economies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where there is poor road infrastructure.  The vehicle will use propeller power to hover centimeters above the ground.  It will stay at the desired altitude through technologies that use sensors to avoid obstacles.  The price will roughly match those of mini vehicles.  In other news, Seven Eleven has launched an experimental program by shortening business hours at some directly run outlets in order to consider whether to revise its policy of operating twenty four hours a day.  There are currently fifty eight thousand convenience stores in Japan, dominated by Seven Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson. Most convenience store chains require that they be run without a break. The labor shortage in japan however is driving this review.  Franchise store owners are finding it increasingly hard to hire staff. There may also be some greater effort toward using automation and artificial intelligence to run stores without staff to get around the staff shortage problems.  Finally, Suicide is the leading cause of death among children aged  ten  to  fourteen  in japan. It now accounts for  twenty  two  point nine  deaths in this age group.  Overall suicides peaked in  two  thousand and  three  at more than  thirty  two  thousand. In  two  thousand  and  seventeen it had dropped to  twenty  thousand  four  hundred and  sixty  five per  year. For children there has been noted surge in suicides after holidays such as the spring and summer vacations.  Last July the government adopted a suicide prevention plan, strengthening counseling on-line while also giving lectures to students on how to seek help when they have concerns. This is episode number seventy NINE and we are talking about  DON'T READ IT     Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.The content was really great and the way the words were put together was quite clever.  Obviously a tremendous amount of work had gone into this piece.  The speaker had a previous professional journalistic background and the careful selection of just the right vocabulary and the descriptive flourishes were excellent. The speech however was a dud. It failed miserably because it was a written speech, read to us.  He could have emailed it to all of us and we could have read it for ourselves. If we read it for ourselves and struggled with some of the big clever journo style words, we could still break out our dictionaries and plumb the meaning. The next speaker just spoke. He wasn't such a fluent talker, sometimes stumbling over some of his words, occasionally stuttering, but he had everyone's attention because he was authentic.  He wasn't reading to us, he was looking at us and connecting with us. He had a slide deck, but he just used this as his navigation, to help draw us into his story. The issue here is how should we deliver the content we have designed.  Do we have to remember it exactly, memorise it so we can be faithful to our speech design and message?  Speakers get very hung up on their content.  They feel that they have to deliver the perfect coalition of words to get their message across.  Our first speaker couldn't memorise his speech because it was way too long. That is the case for just about all of us.   Usually the sheer effort required is not worth it.  His speech content was far superior in the construction of the content, compared to the second speaker.  But he failed as a communicator, because he read it to us. All of his effort went into the crafting the script and nothing into the delivery.  It was all about him and how clever he was and not about us in the audience. If it is a very short speech, you can try and memorise it, but these are usually very special occasions. Japan is a very formal country, so if you are asked to speak at a friend or subordinate's wedding here, then there are established protocols and sentences you must use in Japanese.  If you greet the Emperor of Japan, then there are set things you must say in Japanese, the specific content will depend on the occasion.  Mick Jagger told me not to drop names, but I have done both and I did memorise the content. These were short pieces, so I could manage them without getting myself into trouble. However I did get myself into serious trouble though, trying to memorise a longer speech.  I was the Dean of the Kansai Consular Corps at the time and was asked to speak at the farewell party for China's Consul General Li, before he left Osaka for America.  I had studied Chinese at University and although pretty rusty, thought I could pull off a short speech.  Because I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese, having lived here in Japan for thirty years, I had to memorise the content.  The plan was to memorise the first part in Chinese and then switch to Japanese, which was much easier for me.  As the Australian Consul General in Osaka at that time, I thought this would be a pretty deft piece of national branding, emphasising Australia's commitment to Asia.  As we say, it seemed like a good idea at the time! Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backLet me introduce a couple of coming opportunities to you.  On May 27th and July 8th we will run our One Day Successful Public Speaking Course. For two days on July 10thand 11thwe will run our High Impact Presentations course. Details are on our website at emjapan.dalecarnegie.com Back to where we left off. This is where memorisation can get us into trouble, and this includes trying to do it in your native tongue. Well I wasn't doing this in English, so it was a high risk strategy.  So off I went, with no safety net.  I was doing fine actually, until I got to a quote from the famous poem by Mao Zedong called “Reascending Jinggangshan”.  All of the Chinese guests in the audience immediately recognised it and started applauding enthusistically.  At this juncture I made a self inflicted, fatal error.  While they were applauding I was wondering what to do next.  After having a brief internal debate with myself, I decided to wait for the applause to die down and then resume my memorized speech.  Because it was a memorised speech and not natural conversation, it was a forced exercise to remember the words.  Disaster.  Suddenly my mind went completely blank, and I mean a total whiteout.  I could not recall what came next.  If you are ever up on a big stage, facing thousands of expectant faces and your mind goes blank, you will find that a solitary microphone stand is not much cover behind which to hide your embarrassment.  After about 20 seconds of stone motherless silence, which felt like an eternity, I was somehow miraculously able to pick up the next part and complete the speech, before switching into Japanese.  I learnt it is pobably wiser to avoid memorising your speech. Please don't read it to us either, if you can avoid it.  If it is a highly technical speech, something with gargantuan legal implications if you get it wrong, a life or death statement to the media or on behalf of your absent big boss, then you may have no choice. If so, then please use as much eye contact with your audience as possible.  You can study the text, such that you really know the content.   You can read the first part of the sentence, then voice the last section while looking at your audience and still remain perfectly faithful to the sacred text. You can read the words and add in gestures, to emphasis the message.  You can stand straight and tall and project confidence, reliability, credibility and trust rather than hunching down over the microphone stand.  You can have pauses, to allow the audience to digest the key points.  You can hit key words for emphasis and can use voice modulation to bring the text alive. Please, please, please do not have your head down, eyes glued to the text and cut yourself off from your audience.  Even better, read your audience not your text.  Observe if they are buying what you are saying, see if they are understanding the point.  You don't have to memorise your talk or read it to us or read the slides to us.  You can have speaking points and talk to those points. For the vast majority of speeches, a conversational tone of talking to key points will work extremely well. If it is severely formal and you have either memorise it or read it, well go ahead.  However if you don't have that type of caveat, then look at us, talk to us and engage with us.  We will forgive any sins of grammar, pronunciation or lack of speaking fluency in the delivery.  We will connect with you and we will receive your message. We will regard you highly as an authentic person who spoke from their heart.  And we will remember you thereafter in a positive vein. THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my weekly podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts. In episode Eighty  we are talking about true north in sales. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

We all know we are the product of our habits, yet we do nothing about elevating our behaviours.  We also know that certain things work better with people than others and we should focus on the things that work best and make those our habit.  But we don't do that either.  Instead we keep repeating the same errors every time.  What did Einstein say?  Repeating the same actions but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.  So we must be crazy then. Effective human relations principles are things we should firstly understand and secondly bolt on to our personal operating system, such that they become seamless habits that we employ without thought.  Today we will look at just how to do that.  Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market. Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The Japanese government is about to introduce legislation requiring companies to set up protocols for preventing and dealing with abuses of power.  Pawahara is the Japanese word for this taken from the English Power Harassment.  It will take a year before the legislation comes into force for larger companies and three years for midsize and smaller companies.  By the way, there are no penalties attached to the legislation. Complaints about Power Harassment have increase three times from twenty  two  thousand one  hundred  and  fifty  three cases in two  thousand  and  six   to  seventy  thousand,  nine  hundred and  seventeen in  two  thousand  and  sixteen. Power Harassment is officially defined by the Government as the act of causing physical or emotional pain, or demoralizing the workforce by exploiting one's position.  The Labor Ministry had issued six examples: physical attacks, verbal abuse, deliberate isolation from other employees, making excessive demands, making too few demands and infringing on the privacy of others.     In other news, Line corp and Mercari are joining forces on mobile payments.  The operator of japan's most popular messaging platform and the used-goods online marketplace app will let shoppers pay for purchases at stores that accept each other's systems.  They also launched an alliance to welcome other mobile payment providers.  Line plans to introduce Line securities equities trading with Nomura Holdings this year if it receives the necessary permits.  It is also looking at a banking tie up with Mizuho Financial Group in twenty  twenty. Last November, Line announced an alliance with China's Tencent Holdings and its WeChat Pay aimed at Chinese visitors to Japan.  Finally, the Japan patent Office established the startup Support team last July to help startups protect their intellectual property faster. As part of their IP Acceleration Program for Startups they send specialists from their IP Mentoring Teams to the companies to assist them.   Also restrictions were eased for super-accelerant patent examinations to speed up the process.  It used to take an average of nine months to get a patent approved in two  thousand  and seventeen and this is now expected to shorten to around  twenty  four  days. Progress This is episode number seventy eight  and we are talking about  GOOD LEADER HABITS    Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going.          We are all the product of our habits.  What we do regularly defines our level of success. Bad habits, good habits are all the same, in terms of the production of results, so the input point not the process, becomes very interesting for those wanting to succeed.  How do we ensure that we are adding good habits and eliminating bad habits?  Part of the input process is selection of priorities.  Going to the gym rather than the sports bar is a choice.  Eating that donut rather than an apple is a choice.  Discipline is a famed part of military life and various slacker generations are recommended compulsory military service as a way to fly straight.  Where does this military discipline come from?  Regular habits are a big part.  Doing specific things at the precise same time, in the same way without variation instills habits.  Doing things that must be done, regardless of how you feel about wanting to do them, instills disciplines, which become habits.  You don't have to join the military to garner good habits but becoming more disciplined is a big help. Our biggest successes come from our ability to work with other people.  There are very few professions where you can do everything on your own and don't need the input, cooperation or contribution of others. However, we can pick up bad habits that damage our ability to garner that input, cooperation and collaboration. Here are a few bad habits we can eliminate if we want a smoother path to success. ONE  Don't make it your habit to complain to or about others. When others complain about us to others and we hear about it, what is the usual reaction?  Generally not good and animosities arise and can linger for many years, as the result of what is considered an unwarranted assault on our good name.  Some people are pretty good haters and excellent at bearing a grudge.  So if you want to create a blood feud, then start publically whining about your colleagues.  If you have a beef with someone and you heroically decide to confront them with their failings, expose their inadequacies, and detail their insufficiencies then expect either the silent assassin who won't say much but will be seeking revenge at the first opportunity or the instant combustible who will explode right there and then and counter attack ferociously.  Very few individuals will look deep inside their heart, saint like, and admit their errors and bow to your superior and wiser judgment.  You have just made an enemy for life.  How about you?  Do you have enemies for life or have you become someone else's enemy for life? If the chances of success in complaining about others are so low, then why do people persist in thinking they can right the world by drawing other's attention to their failings?  Habit and a major lack of self-awareness are culprits. Let's stop doing that and instead find a more subtle way to draw attention to problems which allow that person to save face.  Call out the error indirectly.  The issue will be raised for discussion and solution but not the animosity.  Make this your habit rather than a surgical first strike. TWO Help others to want what you want and make that style of communication your habit When we are direct and assertive, it comes across like giving orders and few people like being told what to do.  Yes, you can gain compliance and they will do it, if you are higher in the power structure, but you won't win the hearts and minds to the cause.  Let's become a more skilled communicator and look for ways to stimulate self-discovery on their part that leads them to see the wisdom of the solution, that we have identified, as the best way forward. Questions are our friends here and statements our enemies.  A statement will trigger resistance, whereas a well crafted question will lead to self-enlightenment.  Make asking well thought out questions your habit, rather than firing off statements like missiles.  Socrates was doing this back in ancient Greece, so there is nothing new about this concept. Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backLet me introduce a couple of coming opportunities to you.  On May 24th and September 2ndwe will run the One Day Step Up To Leadership  Course.  If that is too early for you we will run it again on September 2nd .  Also, starting on June 3rdand running for seven weeks, we will offer the Leadership Training For Managers Course. Details are on our website at emjapan.dalecarnegie.com Back to where we left off.  THREE Make it a habit to be a good listener, you will become more persuasive as a result It sounds counter-intuitive doesn't it, listening rather than telling your way to success.  Hollywood has glorified the riveting, moving oratory that rouses the masses and points them in the same direction.  In the real world of business leadership, this is a useful skill known only to a miniscule minority.  The vast majority will not be able to inspire their colleagues to man the barricades anytime soon, but with better human relations skills they can persuade them to do more mundane tasks like ensure the organisation goes forward and prospers.  When we shut up and allow others to speak we learn a lot more than when we are doing al the talking.  We already know what we know.  By listening, we uncover their desires, thoughts, attitudes, hot buttons, beliefs, fears, interests etc.  By knowing each other better, we can become closer through better communication around points of agreement and shared interests.  It is hard to disagree with someone you like. The reason you like them is because of those shared interest and ideas etc.  The reason you know those things is because you weren't always hogging the airwaves and doing all the talking. The caveat here is that you are genuinely interested in them.  A predatory listener, hoping to scoop up enough material to manipulate the other person into doing their bidding, is not a creating a success habit.  People are not stupid and we can all spot fake interest pretty quickly.  The wielder of the fake interest weapon will cut themselves to pieces, as others realize they cannot be trusted.  As we all know, when you lose trust in business you are finished. FOUR    Craft the appreciation habit   Self-centered people are always on about themselves and what they did and how great they are.  They can linger long on their superior qualities and accomplishments but are rather parsimonious about recognizing the achievements of others. These people wonder why no one wants to help them and why they get so little cooperation.  Flattery is not appreciation.  It is a lie that is hoisted on its own petard pretty quickly. The fake praise alarm bells goes off inside our heads almost immediately we hear it, so it has zero impact, except to never trust the perpetrator.  Honest and sincere appreciation is what resonates with us.  The reason we know it is genuine is because of the way it is communicated to us.  General statements like “good job”, “well done” are in danger of setting off that mental “fake praise” alarm.  We need to dig in deeper to what was good.  When we select the action or behavior that was “good”, we now begin to make it real rather than dubious.  Concrete examples add truth to our words and resonate with the listener. Tell them exactly what they did that was good and it will be real.  Appreciate people as a habit and do it in some detail that makes it credible. We are the sum of our habits and that sum determines our success with others.  Habits can be learnt and cultivated at any stage in life. We will definitely have habits one way or another so why nor make a conscious choice to use these habits to be better with others for a smoother path and a happier life. Some actions items going forward for good habit cultivation: Don't complain to or about others Help others to want what you want Become persuasive by being a good listener Give honest, sincere appreciation THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my weekly podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts. In episode  seventy nine we are talking about DON'T READ IT. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

Breathing. How hard can that be when we are presenting?  Funnily enough we do crazy things and create problems where we don't need them.  Today we are going to look at how to make sure we have enough oxygen to the brain and enough wind power to drive the vocal chords. Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. The biggest and most powerful Japanese business federation is the Keidanren. It's chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi recently told a news conference that lifetime employment is no longer sustainable. The link between tenure and wages in japan is one of the strongest in the OECD countries.  With lifetime employment the firm is supposed to develop you throughout your career. However, more than two thirds of Japanese workers believe they need further training, which is double the OECD average.  Participation in lifelong learning in Japan is in the bottom quarter of OECD members.  Also the share of Japanese workers who find training useful for jobs is the lowest in the OECD.  In other news, Softbank has used at least five investment vehicles, including the one hundred billion dollar Vision fund to make its mobility investments.  Deep pockets and aggressive investing tactics and sweeping vision of the future of transportation give SoftBank and its founder Masayoshi Son and outsized influence in shaping the entire industry. The Vision Fund has more than thirty investment professionals who work to promote cooperation and integration among the portfolio companies, which they refer to as a family.  Finally, Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell one point two percent in fiscal two thousand and seventeen, a fourth straight year of decline.  The Environment Ministry said this was a result of increased  use of renewable energy.  Japan is targeting a twenty six per cent cut by twenty thirty.  So far they are at eight point four percent.   This is episode number eighty eight and we are talking about  What Is the Correct Breathing Method When Presenting    Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Breathing is such a natural act and normally, we don't pay it much attention.  Some how though, when we are giving a presentation, our breath control becomes a factor of success.  One component is our nerves, which are driving the chemical surge through the body, making our heart rate skyrocket, which speeds up our breathing pattern.    If we are not breathing properly, we can have mental white outs of the brain, because we are not getting enough oxygen.  We can't remember what it is we are supposed to say.  We get lost, become panicky and come across as disorganized, unconfident and flakey.   Voice is driven on the winds of breath exhalation and lack of breath power impacts audibility.  If we don't have good breath control, we can find ourselves squeaking out to the audience in this little voice that says, “I am not confident. I am not confident, I am not confident!”.   We might find that our lack of breath control results in our final words of our sentences just dropping away to nothing.  We often see speakers kill their key messages, by not supporting the key points with their words voiced with power and conviction.  There is no opportunity to punch out a strong message, because we are just vocally doing a disappearing act in front of the audience.   It could also be that we are becoming very breathy when we speak.  It sounds similar to people who have respiratory illnesses. They always seem to be gasping for breath.  Actually they are and so are speakers with no breath control. They simply can't pull in enough oxygen.   The lack of breath control gets transmitted to our cadence of when we speak.  A lack of air means we are confined to short breathy sentences and the lungs are only being filled in a very shallow fashion just from the top portion.   So how do we stop this and better instruct our instrument – our wonderful speaking voice?  I am going to pass on what I have learnt from nearly 50 years of karate training, where breath control is absolutely vital.  It is the same method used by singers.     Controlling our nerves is a key part of breath control, because if we don't, we are working at cross purposes with ourselves.  One of the techniques for controlling our nervousness is to go through some deep breathing exercises, before we go on stage in front of the audience.  We can do these seated or standing and they don't take very long. Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backand if you would like to improve your public speaking skills then take a look at our Successful Public speaking course.  This is a one day programme and the next course will he held on July eighth.  If you want to develop a very high level of speaker skill, then our two day High Impact Presentations course will do just that.  Japanese language versions are being held on July tenth and eleventh and later in the year on November thirteenth and fourteenth.  The English version will be held on July sixteenth and seventh .  The details can be found on our website at enjapan.dalecarnegie.com   Back to where we left off. Place both hands on your tummy and just touch lightly.  As you breath in, imagine you need to fill the lungs from the bottom most part of the diaphragm.  To help us do this we breath slowly and deeply and we can see if we are succeeding, because the hands on our tummy are starting to move forward.  This pushing out of the tummy is a good sign, it means we are doing the deep breath sequence correctly.  We reverse the process and slowly exhale and the hands are slowly drawn back in.  We need to do this slowly, because a bit too much force and speed here and we can become dizzy, as the flood of oxygen to the brain makes us feel lightheaded.   This diaphragm breathing is actually how we should be breathing all of the time and I recommend you start the practice and make it your default habit.  When we are in front of the audience, they cannot see the breathing rhythm, so there is no need to feel self-conscious.  Every breath we take starts at the lowest point of the diaphragm and we sense our tummy being pushed out and then being pulled back in. This is how we should be breathing while we are on stage.   Interestingly enough, if we lose the flow and suddenly, the breath begins from the very top of the chest, we will feel our pulse rate pick up, our chest tighten and our shoulders start to rise.  This might happen at first, before we can master this deep diaphragm breath control, but don't worry.  Just slow the breath down and concentrate on the lower diaphragm and trying to push your tummy out with each inhalation.  Once you do this, the cycle will re-institute itself and you will be getting plenty of air.  The key is to pick this up in rehearsal.   Correct breath control gives us the ability to make the tonal variations which keep command of our audience.  We can bring power to words and build to crescendos, when we want to emphasis particular key points.  It also helps us to relax and look super composed when we are standing in front of people. That confidence is contagious and our audience buys what we are saying.  And that is what we want isn't it.   Action Steps Get to the venue early and find a quiet, private place to do some breathing exercises Place the hands over the tummy and check if we are breathing from the lower diaphragm or not Make this method your default method of breathing from now on If you start to feel yourself lacking air, then re-set and concentrate on breathing from the lower diaphragm.   THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, enjapan.dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. Please leave me some feedback on YouTube, I would love to know how this show helped and what other topics you are interested in for me to cover.  Remember I am here as a free resource to help you, so just tell me how I can help you best. You might also enjoy my podcasts. Look for the Leadership Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series and The Sales Japan series wherever you get your podcasts.   In episode eighty nine we are talking about Presenting Our Sales Materials. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!