Episode #195: Japanese Leaders Needed Now

Rising in a company in Japan requires talent, but this is often held hostage to time. Your age, longevity and seniority in the system are factors that often trump talent. The usual internal talent development programme is based on OJT (On The Job Training). This is fine if your boss is a great practitioner, communicator and coach. Not many of those floating around Japan.

There is also a degree of humility (or is it fear of failure?) in Japan that surprises the gaishikei foreign multi-national company foreign bosses. Inexplicably, they see potential rising stars decline promotions. When they ask why they are told because “they don't feel they are ready yet”. As we move along the demographic trend line of a declining youth population, every company will need more people willing to step up to replace those retiring. The “I am not ready” mentality needs to shift some gears.

Looking at how people rise in organisations in Japan there are some interesting tweaks. The Personal Development Plan is often a perfunctory process, that is done to keep the HR paper chase happy, rather than a time for self-reflection. Why don't staff and managers in particular see this process as a career booster? If we are working on a different elongated “I am not ready” time schedule, then there is not much connection between the idea of planning a career and having a career.

This glacial evolution of the leader in Japan has a tremendous consistency. Generations come up under the same basic regime and it seems like an endless loop. The lack of role models for planning one's career means there isn't a well developed sense of how to influence your progression up the ranks. Taking on more complex stretch roles are avoided for fear of failure. Training isn't seen as a leverage point to boost one's capability and prepare for bigger accountability.

Patrons are the time-tested means of rising in the company. Attach yourself to a powerful individual and in return for total loyalty, you will be swept ever upward. Your rise is timed to the patron’s rise and not in your control.

Gaishikei companies however work off a different model. This is the usual routine of self-promotion, grabbing every chance to receive training and go for bigger assignments to prove one's capability to step up. So how can we help Japanese staff become leaders? How can we have those who are leaders already keep working on themselves to prepare for their next bigger role?

Coaching for these leaders assists them to broaden their thinking and as a means to challenge them to take some risks. The creation of an internal culture of failure, as a learning process, rather than a career killer is also important. When we ask people to step out of their comfort zones, there is an implicit social compact that they are permitted to fail. Doing something for the first time means we will be imperfect, but we will learn what works and what doesn't.

Often though, Japanese bosses brought up in the “no failure allowed” environment, don't understand or even agree with that compact. They immediately verbally whack their subordinates. Whacking people for errors in an experimental phase of anything is a guaranteed formula for canceling their creativity ticket. Is such middle management helping the company to move forward? Not at all.

The lead up to training is also an important preparatory stage that is often missed in Japan. The regular approach is for the boss to say " You have training on in two weeks, HR has the details". Japanese staff members receiving this type of briefing may wonder why they are being shipped off to training? Are they failing in their work and this is a form or correction? Is this part of an HR plot to ease them out of the company by establishing their poor performance can't be improved, even after giving them training?

Trainers regularly encounter the “hostage” personality who is anti the training, regardless of the content or the quality. They don't want to cooperate and assume the role of critic of whatever is being presented. Trust me - they are a nightmare.

If there was a proper conversation about how they had been selected because of their excellent work to date and because the company was investing in their future development, they might see the training opportunity a bit differently. If they had a coaching conversation with their boss that had them reflect on where they could do even better and to set some outcomes from the training, the motivation to participate would go right up and the outcomes would be much improved.

We need to work on the individuals and their bosses, if we want to build leadership bench strength. Culture, coaching, training and communication are all integral to getting the mix right. Those companies who work this out are going o do much better in retaining their staff and building leaders.

Action Steps

Create an environment that tolerates failure as part of the creative process
Coach High potentials to change their mind set about achieving their full potential
Don’t just provide training, provide the WHY of the training for them