Episode #571: Joe Biden’s Lessons On Destroying Your Leadership Credibility For Japan CEOs

Being an Aussie I don’t have the right to select the next US President or get involved in American politics. I will steer clear of this minefield and concentrate on what we can all learn from the Biden train wreck. One moment he is a contender and in an instant he is struggling to hold on to power. Why? Because he gave a rambling speech in his debate with Donald Trump, viewed by over 50 million Americans. He was prepped for this debate by his handlers and yet it was a debacle.

What happens in business? If you are the CEO of a listed company, there is a lot of public scrutiny of what you say and how well you say it. If the company is not listed, then the internal team are studying the CEO to gauge how the firm is faring and if their jobs safe or what are the chances to do well within this company.

One of the young people I know who has just finished university and has entered his company mentioned how shocked he was to hear the President speak in public for the first time. Usually new entrants are vetted by HR and their initial supervisor, so their opportunities to hear the big boss are few and far between, until they have joined up. His feedback was an instant concern that he had chosen the wrong firm. The President’s inability to make a competent professional speech was a coffee stain moment. We all know that old saw about if the tray you pull down on your flight has coffee stains left there from a previous flight, it means this airline can’t be trusted and they are probably not maintaining the engines properly.

We judge firms by what we see. If the leader is a shambles on their feet speaking to the troops, then doubts light up immediately. What is remarkable, though, is how few CEOs are excellent speakers. I attend a lot of public speeches by corporate leaders here, covering a range of nationalities, and it is rare to hear a leader acquit themselves professionally.

Recently, I was shocked to see a local leader of a major global firm have to read his self-introduction to convince the voting audience to elect him to the organisation’s committee. This gentleman wasn’t some fresh faced kid. I am guessing early fifties. That means he has been in business for around thirty years and yet he can’t even get up and promote himself for selection to a prestigious position on the committee. I doubt he is anymore effective in rallying the staff around his vision for the future of the organisation. He was bad, but the other contenders weren’t impressive either.

All of us in Japan face a growing nightmare of Darwinian proportions as we compete for a diminishing resource of capable staff, in particular those who can speak English. Being able to rally the team is only going to become more critical as the recruiters start hitting our people like sharks in a feeding frenzy. They will be luring people way and picking up 40% placement fees of first year salaries on the way through. The substantial financial rewards for this very average group of individuals is way out of proportion to their actual business competencies and abilities. That doesn’t matter though, because all they have to do is be a better siren to your people than you are and lure them across to greener pastures.

Most CEOs are in that position because they were technical people who made it to the top or they have been in management positions and have shown capabilities to get things done in their previous postings. Japan is different and a track record overseas is not a real currency here. The ability to adapt yourself to how things are done here and to be effective with a Japanese workforce are the critical make or break skills.
Communication skills are at a premium and it is more difficult here because the number of people who can understand English at a high level is limited. Few of these foreign CEOs have sufficient Japanese skills to be effective. To get a combo of Japanese fluency and high level speaking skills is an even more demanding recipe for local success. I know plenty of foreigners here who are fluent in Japanese, but I don’t know so many who can carry a crowd, who can be persuasive and effective in Japanese.

Nevertheless, as Joe Biden has demonstrated, if you can’t make it as an effective communicator, your whole claim to the crown is in doubt. What do I do about the unfortunate CEO who had to read his own self-introduction? I would like to suggest that he do High Impact Presentations with us and learn how to give a talk and be a success. This is a sensitive conversation, because I am saying he is a dud and we all have ego. The key for CEOs is to realise that there is no point in letting your ego restrain your ability to become better as a presenter. Communication skills are only going to get more important, particularly storytelling. None of us want to be on the wrong side of the demarcation line between competency and longevity and train wreck and removal.