Best Leadershipjapan Podcasts (2024)

1
318 Be Both Busy and Organised In Japan 10:05

6d ago10:05

10:05

Focus is under constant attack. The speed of business makes longer term planning a dubious endeavor. Projecting 5 years forward sounds reasonable. That is until you go back 5 years and look at all the changes that have taken place through technology, societal attitudinal changes, business realities and logistics. The leader is supposed to be defini…

1
317 Sales Is A Process In Japan 13:17

13d ago13:17

13:17

Because the vast majority of people in sales have no idea what they are doing, they are making it up as they go along. Wouldn’t it be better to have a roadmap to progress the making of a sale? This roadmap will keep us on track and not allow the buyer to take us off on a tangent that leads to nowhere. Foundering around with no central direction was…

1
316 Inspire Your Audience 10:53

20d ago10:53

10:53

At the start of our class on High Impact Presentations, we ask the participants to think about what type of impression they would like to have linger with their audience, after their presentation has been completed. How about you? When people are filing out of the venue, what things would you like to hear about your presentation, if you were able t…

1
315 Don't Fear Failure 11:00

27d ago11:00

11:00

For decades I drove myself hard, based on a fundamental fallacy. Fear of a future of living in a cardboard box haunted me. I pushed hard so that cardboard box and I would never become well acquainted. You see homeless people in Japan and other countries living that way and it is a reality for them, that they never chose. It happened to them anyway.…

1
314 Technical Salespeople Need Good Presentation Skills In Japan 13:35

1M ago13:35

13:35

Knowledge of the specifications, functionality, inner workings are all fine and dandy but not enough anymore. Increasingly technically specialised people are being asked to deal with people other than their normal counterparts. Once upon a time, the engineers spoke with other engineers on the buyer side and that was about it. A nerdy lovefest on th…

1
Salespeople Bitchiness 12:58

1M ago12:58

12:58

Sales is a tough enough job without having additional complications. Clients can be very demanding, often we depend on logistics departments and production divisions, to get the purchase to the buyer. We can’t control the quality, but we have total responsibility, as far as the client is concerned. There is the constant pressure of producing revenu…

1
Chasing Buyer “No” Replies 13:56

2M ago13:56

13:56

Everyone hates to be rejected, but not many people have this as a fundamental aspect of their work. We ask colleagues for help and they assist, we ask our bosses for advice and they provide it. Buyers though are a different case. They can easily find a million reasons not to buy and unashamedly tell us “no”. The rejection itself is not so much the …

1
What The Pro Public Speakers Do 14:14

2M ago14:14

14:14

When you see someone do a very good presentation, your faith in public speaking humanity is restored. There are so many poor examples of people killing their personal and professional brands with poor public speaking skills, it is refreshing to see talks done well. It is not that hard really, if you know what you are doing and if you rehearse and p…

1
How To Defeat Imposter Syndrome As A Presenter 15:01

2M ago15:01

15:01

We don’t get the chance to do so many public presentations in business, so it becomes a hard skill set to build or maintain. The internal presentations we give at work tend to be very mundane. Often we are just reporting on the numbers and why they aren’t where they are supposed to be or where we to date are with the project. These are normally rat…

1
Create Raving Fans When Presenting In Japan 15:06

2M ago15:06

15:06

We can speak to a group. Then there is another level, where we try to totally captivate our audience. What makes the difference? The content could even be the same, but in the hands of one person it is dry and delivered in a boring manner. Someone else can take the same basic materials and really bring it to life. We see this with music. The same l…

1
Real World Business Negotiating In Japan 13:20

3M ago13:20

13:20

We have many images of negotiation thanks to the media. It could be movie scenes of tough negotiators or reports on political negotiations with lunatic led rogue states. Most of these representations however have very little relevance in the real world of business. A lot of the work done on negotiations focuses on “tactics”. This is completely unde…

1
Be Careful of Client White Noise 13:04

3M ago13:04

13:04

Sales people are always under pressure to meet their targets. In high pressure situations, this creates certain behaviours that are not in tune with the client’s best interests. We know we should listen carefully to what the client wants, before we attempt to suggest any solution for the buyer’s needs. We know that by asking well designed questions…

1
Spellbinding Speech Endings 14:55

3M ago14:55

14:55

It is rare to see a presentation completed well, be it inside the organization, to the client or to a larger audience. The energy often quickly drops away, the voice just fades right out and there is no clear signal that this is the end. The audience is unsure whether to applaud or if there is more coming. Everyone is stuck in limbo wondering what …

1
Selling Into Each Region Is Different In Japan 13:22

3M ago13:22

13:22

Japan is a big small place. It is about the same size as the UK, but is covered in mountains, the latter making up 70% of the land area. We have very few of those horizon stretching field vistas like they have in England. This mountainous aspect has led to quite strong sub-regional differences here, especially reflected in language, customs and cui…

1
How To Present As A Team When Selling 10:44

3M ago10:44

10:44

In business, we are asked to present as a team. We may be pitching for new business and the presentation requires different specialist areas of expertise. This is quite different to doing something on your own, where you are the star and have full control over what is going on. One of the big mistakes with amateur presenters is they don’t rehearse.…

1
313 Taking Questions When Presenting In Japan 11:32

4M ago11:32

11:32

The Question and Answer component of talks are a fixture that we don’t normally analyse for structure possibilities. Having an audience interested enough in your topic to ask questions is a heartening occurrence. When we are planning the talk though, we may just neglect to factor this Q&A element into our planning. We may have considered what some …

1
312 Productivity Will Determine Japan's Future 12:05

4M ago12:05

12:05

During the “bubble years” of surging economic growth, Japan could not keep up with the supply of workers for the 3K jobs – kitsui, kitanai, kiken or difficult, dirty, dangerous undertakings. The 1985 Plaza Accord released a genie out of the bottle in the form of a very strong yen, which made everything, everywhere seems dirt cheap. Japanese people …

1
311 Value Triumphs All In Sales In Japan 12:00

4M ago12:00

12:00

We believe in our product and we are very knowledgeable about the facts, details, specs, etc. We launch straight into our presentation of the details with the buyer. Next, they want to negotiate the price. Do we see the connection here, between our sales approach and the result, the entire catastrophe? The reality is often salespeople are slogging …

1
310 Your Good Old Days Storytelling Is Dull In Japan 11:49

4M ago11:49

11:49

Gaining credibility as a speaker is obviously important. We often do this by sharing our own experiences. However, having too much focus on us and away from the interests of the audience is a fine line we must tread carefully. When we get this wrong, a lot of valuable speaking time gets taken up and we face the danger of losing the attention of our…

1
309 English Speaking Japanese Staff Have Disappeared 13:29

5M ago13:29

13:29

Japan seems to be going in opposing directions at the same time, when it comes to the supply of internationalised staff suitable for foreign companies. The statistics show a peak in 2004 of 83,000 Japanese students venturing off-shore. This dropped to a low of 57,500 in 2011 and since that point has climbed back above 60,000. Just to put that in co…

1
308 Eradicate That Japan Sales Buyer "Existing Supplier" Nonsense 13:51

5M ago13:51

13:51

Japan loves the Devil they know over the Angel they don’t know. Change here is hard to achieve in any field, because of the inbuilt fear of mistakes and failure. This country takes risk aversion to the highest heights in business. There are no rewards for salaried employees to take risk. There are massive career downsides though, if things go wrong…

1
307 When Senior Executives Presentations Are Exposed In Public In Japan 12:03

5M ago12:03

12:03

Speech contests and debating contests are usually for younger people at school or university. It is not often you see the most senior people from major corporations going head-to-head in a public setting. I was at an event where there was a vote to take place for some prestigious seats on the board of a non-profit. If the number of applicants equal…

1
306 The Leader Must Resolve Internal Conflicts In The Team 13:01

5M ago13:01

13:01

Business is more fast paced that ever before in human history. Technology boasting massive computing and communication power is held in our palm. It accompanies us on life’s journey, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, everywhere we go. We are working in the flattest organisations ever designed, often at home on our own a few days a week or in noisy…

1
305 Have You Upped Your Sales Game With 5G Speed? 15:40

6M ago15:40

15:40

The release of 5G or fifth generation mobile networks was launched in Japan in March 2020. Our old phones ran on a 4G standard and 5G faster is significantly faster than 4G. So what does that mean for salespeople across all industries? The capacity to upload heavier files, to be sent at lightening speed, grabs your attention. What are some of the h…

1
304 Never Fear The Q&A When Presenting In Japan 14:27

6M ago14:27

14:27

Obviously we all have some trepidation when it comes to Q&A, but Japan is quite far behind the rest of the advanced countries when it comes to public speaking. Let me put it on the table. The level of presentations here is abysmally low and excuses abound. People here talk about a “Japanese style” of doing public talks. This is their excuse for not…

1
303 Leaders Need To Recognise Their People's Work In Japan 13:18

6M ago13:18

13:18

The Spa magazine in Japan previously released the results of a survey of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose. Salaries are a function of …

1
302 Starting Your Sales Presentation With A Lie Is Idiocy In Japan 13:23

6M ago13:23

13:23

Riffraff inhabit all corners of the business world, but the sales profession suffers more than many others. Bankers do all sorts of evil things with our money. Stock brokers do all sorts of evil things with our money. Real estate agents tell one version of the truth to buyers. Government officials purloin our money. Everywhere you look, someone is …

1
Salespeople Don’t Care 12:18

7M ago12:18

12:18

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 the other morning, “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. Th…

1
How To Disagree Agreeably 13:51

7M ago13:51

13:51

It's inevitable - at some point disagreements are going to come up in the workplace. Power struggles, political plays, sectionalism, siloism – the list goes on regarding sources of organizational conflict. As we all know, disagreements can get heated quickly and it can be difficult to put aside our opinions and biases in order to handle the situati…

1
Presentation Effectiveness 20:49

7M ago20:49

20:49

We are such a judgmental lot aren’t we! We form opinions about people within seconds of seeing them, often even before we hear them speak. We judge their dress, their body language, their style, without knowing anything about them as a person. We are slow to unwind our first impression as well, so those first seconds of any interaction are vital. H…

1
Sales People Don’t Care 12:18

7M ago12:18

12:18

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 the other morning, “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. Th…

1
How To Work Well With Difficult People 10:16

8M ago10:16

10:16

People skills are really one of the key basics of leadership. Fortunately, leading is easy. Getting others to follow us is the tricky bit. I hope this isn’t new information, but not everyone is like you, so how do you get the team to follow you? Especially how to get others, who are so totally different from you, who are “difficult”, to follow you …

1
Develop Your Leadership SuperPower 23:04

8M ago23:04

23:04

Job descriptions, performance reviews, incentive schemes, recognition programmes are often box ticking activities in organisations, which often lead nowhere. Overviewing these various systems and their execution may make the managers feel like they are earning their keep, but are they really contributing all that much to the required outcomes? Coun…

1
What the Pro Public Speakers Do 14:14

8M ago14:14

14:14

When you see someone do a very good presentation, your faith in public speaking humanity is restored. There are so many poor examples of people killing their personal and professional brands with poor public speaking skills, it is refreshing to see talks done well. It is not that hard really, if you know what you are doing and if you rehearse and p…

1
Don’t Work For Idiots In Sales 14:06

9M ago14:06

14:06

Bullying, humiliation, ridiculous stretch targets, rubbish goods, stress, shame – a toxic cocktail often suffered in the sales environment. We often get into sales by accident. There are not many varsity business courses in sales. There is sales training available, provided by companies like ourselves, but often this is not offered by the employer.…

1
Elegantly Accepting Your Kudos 13:30

9M ago13:30

13:30

You want to promote your business or organisation, so that you can be more successful. A genius idea pops up amongst the brain trust over a few drinks after work – why don’t we enter the Business Awards? Someone has to win don’t they, so the odds are fair. Anyway, there is no downside is there? True but there can be, if you don’t fully think this t…

1
301 Your Face Is More Powerful Than Any Screen 11:13

9M ago11:13

11:13

We have all seen it. The presenters face is expressionless, wooden, devoid of emotion or life. It is usually well paired with a horrific monotone vocal delivery, to really kill off the audiencecompletely. Presenting is a serious business, so these presenters present a very serious physiognomy. Somehow, scowling is thought to be good too, to show th…

1
300 Leadership Tough Love Won’t Cut It Anymore 11:40

9M ago11:40

11:40

In a previous episode, I mentioned a Spa magazine survey in Japan of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of purpose. The Lehman Shock in 2008 opened…

1
299 Don’t Forget Your Customers 11:28

10M ago11:28

11:28

This is an old saying in sales and one we forget at our cost. We might have made the sale and then we keep moving forward. We get wrapped up in the intricacies of the getting other customers to commit and in the logistical details of delivering our previously sold service or product. Our schedule fills up quickly and we have filled it with the pres…

1
298 Clarifying Your Message When Presenting 13:01

10M ago13:01

13:01

The head of a pin isn’t much real estate is it? The metaphor for presenting is to have pin point accuracy around what you are presenting. Going straight to the slide deck production component dilutes our message concentration and takes us too broad. This should be the last element, rather than the first. The temptation though is to get into thinkin…

1
297 Soft Skills Are The Final Frontier 12:00

10M ago12:00

12:00

A number of years ago, I recall reading in Japan’s Spa magazine, the results of a survey they completed of 1,140 male full-time employees in their 40s, about what they hated about their jobs. The top four complaints were salaries have not risen because of decades of deflation; a sense of being underappreciated and undervalued and a lost sense of pu…

1
296 Sales Planning 12:00

10M ago12:00

12:00

“We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan”, is an old saw that is still true today. Despite an avalanche of tools to help us plan well, we still manage to do a lousy job of it. Another oldie goldie is “a good workman doesn’t blame his tools” and so this applies perfectly to the tech panoply we have at our fingertips. Having tools available and using …

1
273 The Relaxing Leader 12:12

10M ago12:12

12:12

In 2017 METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and industry), and the peak industry bodies the Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and industry launched their Premium Friday campaign, encouraging firms to allow their workers to depart early on the last Friday of each month. Approximately 70% of the Japanese economy is …

1
208: Dress For Presentation Success 15:13

11M ago15:13

15:13

There is an old saying about lies, damn lies and statistics. An often misquoted statistic in the presenting world is that 55% of your impression on an audience is based on how you are dressed. Some coaches are advising on this basis and it is only partially true. Professor Mehrabian’s research at UCLA did nominate that particular percentage, but he…

1
241: How To Take A Great Presentation Higher 11:17

11M ago11:17

11:17

When you hear an excellent presentation, it is easy to be well satisfied. When you are giving such a presentation and the audience are wolfing down your information, it is also easy to be self satisfied. The good is the enemy of the great we say, don’t we. The difficulty is when things are going so well, to know exactly how to take them to a higher…

1
250: Two Dimensions Needed When Presenting 10:48

11M ago10:48

10:48

When you hear an excellent presentation, it is easy to be well satisfied. When you are giving such a presentation and the audience are wolfing down your information, it is also easy to be self satisfied. The good is the enemy of the great we say, don’t we. The difficulty is when things are going so well, to know exactly how to take them to a higher…

1
247: Develop Persuasion Power 11:24

11M ago11:24

11:24

Being persuasive is not down to luck or accident, it is the result of good planning and execution. This is the problem. The vast majority of speakers do not prepare properly. The slide deck gets all the attention, the data gets lots of love, the logistics are thoroughly checked. The planning component? Not enough going into that effort unfortunatel…

1
259: Quieting The Crowd 13:57

12M ago13:57

13:57

When a presentation event unintentionally turns into comedic relief, you know you have a major credibility problem. Imagine it is after work, a cavernous hall filled with hundreds of people, the booze and small talk all free flowing. The MC attempts to introduce the main host of the event, to make some worthy remarks. The hum continues as people ar…

1
215: Sales And Your Mindset 11:57

12M ago11:57

11:57

In sales we can defeat ourselves, because our way of thinking isn’t positive enough. Consequently, we don’t challenge the status quo and we accept our lot, which usually doesn’t amount to much. There is a better way There are two players in this mental game of sales. The buyer and the seller and they are playing with entirely different strategies. …

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