No Behavior Need be Enigmatic
You cannot divine attitude of anyone from behavior alone, whether you are familiar with his or her culture of not. Yet whenever a non-Japanese CEO tells me he is concerned about the attitude or mindset of Japanese people it is usually because he or she trying to do just that.
Provoke Your People
If you want to achieve dramatic change in mindset and behavior, the fastest way is through provocation. By provocation, I mean deliberately evoking a visceral emotional response in others. There is nothing wrong with provocation if you do it right. It’s just that, as a leader, you ought to be provocative, but never a provocateur—the […]
Master the Matrix
While I sometimes hear CEOs complain about their lack of authority in a matrix organization, the most successful CEOs I know never do. They have all mastered the matrix, wield tremendous authority, and influence their own and the business’s advantage despite the ambiguities inherent to a matrix organization. If you are the CEO of a […]
No One is Indispensable
The success of any business rarely depends on any key manager or executive. It is only the mistaken belief in the indispensability of an executive that masks and suppresses the talent of others. Your leadership bench is often hiding in plain sight.
Three Success Factors for Robust Strategy
All strategic plans are perfect on paper in a theoretical static world. However, no strategic plan ever survives confrontation with the ever-changing realities of business and your perception of them. A robust strategy is one that can adapt rapidly to change in the environment as well as to change in your understanding of that environment. […]
Cultivating Boldness
The scarcest resource in a business today is not talent, money, or technical ability, but rather independent thought and the courage to act on it.
The Simplest Explanation is the Most Likely
The simplest explanation is most likely the right one. Occam’s Razor holds true not just for science but for international business as well—even in Japan. At a recent CEO forum of mostly non-Japanese and ex-pat business leaders in Tokyo, an American CEO wanted advice from peers in the room on overcoming the challenges of putative […]
[:en]Practices That Accelerate Leadership Success[:ja]リーダーシップの成功を加速させるための習慣[:]
[:en]Below are my list of the top twenty-one practices that accelerate your success as a leader based on the most successful business leaders I know.
[:en]Throw Your Lot in[:ja]誰の側に立つか[:]
[:en]On the morning of March 11, 2011, I picked out a tie, checked myself in the mirror, and then left the house to go to Tokyo without knowing that I would never again leave that house the same way. It was only hours later that the massive 3/11 earthquake struck Japan and its deadly tsunami […]
[:en]3 Pillars of Change Traction[:ja]変革を牽引する３つの柱[:]
[:en]If you want traction for change among individuals in your organization, it is only when there are clear standards of performance or behavior, accountability to meet them, and support to help people succeed that a change can take hold. In my experience, a deficit in any one of these three will alter the way any […]
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