Episode #572: The Leader Is The Face Of The Business In Japan

I meet a lot of CEOs in Japan. I am always out there networking and looking for clients. If they cannot become a client, then I try to encourage them to be a guest on my podcast Japan’s Top Business Interviews. I get two groups in particular who will refuse the offer – women and Scandinavians. They say that women are more reticent about putting themselves forward than men and my own unscientific survey would seem to bear that out. If a man only has 60% of the qualifications for a job, he will raise his hand whereas a woman will only do so, if she has 90%. This is what I guess is happening with my invitation to come on the podcast and talk about one topic - leading in Japan. The women are lacking in confidence to talk about the subject, because they are not feeling they are perfect enough.

The Scandinavians I know here tell me that their culture is to not push yourself forward and to stay in the background. Their podcast guest refusal rate stands out, so I guess this is what is happening with their thinking. So far, 213 leaders have managed to spend an hour with me talking about leading in Japan for the weekly podcast, so I am finding enough of those in agreement. It isn’t as if I cannot get guests, because no one wants to join me on video and audio to talk about leadership.

I think both groups reflect a misunderstanding of what their leader role is in Japan. The leader here is the face of the business and particularly in this social media age, we need to be masters of this new universe. I get it. Taking your photo or even worse – video – is not something we all welcome. We are very self-conscious about how lacking we are in terms of being photogenic or how awkward we look on video and when we hear our own voice, we shudder. In life, I have found I am particularly unable to be photogenic, so I totally sympathise. You know when you take that group shot and when you get it back you look for yourself – it is always a disappointment for me.

In this modern world of work, however, we are all in a life and death struggle to attract a declining demographic of young people and mid-careers hires to join us. We must be competitive, and that means we need to be getting some clear messages out into the world about who we are and what are our values. We need to be good communicators and also add our image to go with the words. If we can speak the words on video and audio even better.

I have been told by numerous guests on my podcast that they found that they were successful in attracting new staff who had checked them and seen the video interview. I can believe that, because the nature of the interview is very authentic and no one so far has succeeded in pushing forth a fake version of themselves to fool the masses. I don’t say much during the interview and just let the guests talk. Occasionally, I will dig down on a point to go a bit deeper, but the bulk of the time is theirs. People watching the interview get a very clear picture of the boss and then can decide if this is the type of place where they want to work.

Clients also check us out and they are making decisions about us too in terms of do they want to have a relationship with our company. They want to know who we are and what we stand for. This is an important chance for the CEO to become active and provide the content the buyers are looking for. They want to know who the boss is and what they are like. Hiding in the background is not a clever option. It is much better to work on mastering the medium.
Looking straight down the barrel of the camera lens is not that easy and for many people, it is a formidable obstacle. Video is difficult to come across naturally, I find. Using teleprompters is not easy either and getting the right rhythm is a challenge for me. I always have trouble with photo shoots because I manage to look like a dork more often than not. I was watching something on TikTok where a male model was demonstrating how to move and stand, to get the right shot and I realised I have no ability to do that. Fortunately, Tia Haygood, who is my local photographer here, manages to make me look presentable enough to squeak by.

What I have found is that the more you do it, the better you become, and refusing to participate is a guarantee that you will never master the medium. The CEO shouldn’t be hiding. Instead, they should be pushing their message forward at every opportunity. So find Tia if you are in Tokyo and work on your official portrait shots to use on social media and on your website. Get a videographer like Rionne McAvoy, who I use from Japan Media Services, involved to help you with creating quality videos. I have been using Tia and Rionne for years and I trust their work, which is why I am mentioning them if you are looking for help locally here in Japan.

The point is the leader has to lead from the front and be the face of the business. We need to break down any potential barriers to getting staff or clients. Get the photos, the video, the audio, go on podcasts, do the interviews – do every possible thing you can to control the image you are projecting. If you can’t speak confidently or coherently, then come and do some training with us and we will fix that for you. There are no excuses anymore because there are plenty of people around to help.