Episodios

  • 367 How to Give Your First Major Presentation With Confidence

    367 How to Give Your First Major Presentation With Confidence
    Sep 7 2025
    At some stage in every career, the moment arrives: you’re asked to give a presentation. Early on, it may be a straightforward project update delivered to colleagues or a report shared with your manager. But as you advance, the scope expands. Suddenly you’re addressing a whole-company kickoff, an executive offsite, or even speaking on behalf of your firm or industry at a public event. That leap — from small team updates to high-stakes presentations — is steep. And so are the nerves that come with it. Why Presentations Trigger Nerves In front of colleagues, we often feel confident. But standing before the Board, or a large public audience, the pressure intensifies dramatically. Under the spotlight, it can feel less like support and more like interrogation. Your heart pounds, your palms sweat, your throat goes dry, and your stomach turns. These symptoms are the fight-or-flight response in action. Adrenaline surges through the body, shunting blood to large muscle groups and away from the stomach, leaving it unsettled. Your pulse races as your system prepares for action — even though you’re not about to sprint offstage or wrestle with the Board. And this nervousness isn’t unique to beginners. Frank Sinatra famously admitted he was always nervous before stepping on stage. Nerves, in other words, are normal. How to Calm the Body While you can’t prevent adrenaline entirely, you can manage it. Two simple techniques help: Deep breathing slows the heart rate and steadies your voice.Purposeful movement — pacing, stretching, walking privately — burns off nervous energy. These physical resets won’t eliminate the reaction, but they make it manageable. Why Preparation Matters More Than Slides The second, and often overlooked, antidote to nervousness is solid preparation. Yet many presenters make the same mistake: they obsess over perfecting the slide deck and neglect rehearsals. This imbalance undermines confidence and delivery. True preparation rests on three cornerstones: Know your audience. What do they want, and why are they there? A senior executive once gave a polished talk on personal branding, but the audience was almost entirely small-business staff. The mismatch meant her message fell flat.Define one clear message. Every strong presentation can be distilled into a single sentence. That sentence becomes your anchor, guiding the structure, supporting points, and conclusion.Plan your opening and closing. A compelling opening draws people in. A strong conclusion ensures your message sticks, even after the Q&A. You Are the Boss, Not the Slides Slides should support you, not control you. Too often, presenters become servants to their decks, filling them with text and losing the audience’s attention. I coached a senior Japanese auto executive preparing for an international car show. His PR team had created a detailed English script for each slide. It looked professional — but it was impossible for him to memorise and still deliver naturally. The solution was simple: we reduced each slide to one word. Each word acted as a trigger. He could then speak authentically, in his own voice, without being trapped by a memorised script. The difference was dramatic. From Fear to Focus The encouraging truth is that once you start speaking, adrenaline begins to subside. The spotlight feels less harsh, and your focus shifts away from your nerves and onto the audience. You begin to notice whether they’re engaged, nodding, or leaning in. With rehearsal and repetition, this transition happens faster. Over time, presentations lose their fear factor. They become opportunities to persuade, inspire, and lead. Key Takeaways How can you deliver your first major presentation with confidence? Accept that nerves are normal and manageable.Use breathing and movement to calm the body.Prepare with audience needs in mind.Build your talk around one clear message.Take control of your slides — don’t let them control you.Rehearse until delivery feels natural. By following these steps, presentations stop being ordeals to survive and become moments to make a genuine impact.
    Más Menos
    10 m
  • 366 Win the Deal: Negotiating in Japan Without Losing the Relationship (Part Two)

    366 Win the Deal: Negotiating in Japan Without Losing the Relationship (Part Two)
    Aug 31 2025
    Negotiating in Japan is never just about numbers on a contract. It is about trust, credibility, and ensuring that the relationship remains intact long after the ink is dry. Unlike in Western business settings, where aggressive tactics or rapid deals are often admired, in Japan negotiations unfold slowly, with harmony and continuity as the guiding principles. The key is to combine negotiation frameworks such as BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) with cultural sensitivity. By doing so, foreign executives and domestic leaders alike can win deals without damaging vital long-term partnerships. Q1: Why is preparation the secret weapon in Japanese business negotiations? Preparation is the sharpest tool in the negotiation kit. Before talks begin, we must clearly define what is negotiable, what is off-limits, and what represents both our ideal and realistic outcomes. Most importantly, we must set our fallback position — the minimum acceptable deal before we consider walking away. In Japan, this process must also include anticipating the other side’s goals. What would they see as their ideal outcome? What is their fallback or “exit strategy”? By mapping both sides in advance, we avoid being blindsided during discussions. Unlike the United States, where executives may improvise and pivot quickly in meetings, Japanese negotiators value deep preparation and expect the same from us. Mini-summary: Success in Japan starts with preparation — knowing both sides’ fallback positions makes us credible and ready. Q2: What is BATNA and why is it critical in Japanese negotiations? BATNA — Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement — defines the point where we walk away. It is our exit strategy, our fallback, our protection against endless concessions. Without BATNA, we risk chasing the deal at any cost, eroding trust and weakening future negotiations. In Japan, patience is prized. If the buyer senses desperation, they may push harder. By quietly knowing our walk-away line, we project confidence. This is not about issuing ultimatums; it is about ensuring we never undermine our long-term credibility in the market. Companies in industries such as pharmaceuticals, finance, and manufacturing use BATNA as a discipline to negotiate firmly while still respecting relationships. Mini-summary: A clear BATNA prevents over-conceding and signals quiet strength to Japanese counterparts. Q3: Why does silence carry so much power in Japanese business culture? Silence is a natural rhythm in Japanese communication, but it is often unnerving for Western negotiators. In the U.S. or Europe, gaps in conversation create anxiety, prompting businesspeople to rush in with concessions, discounts, or extra details. In Japan, however, silence conveys thoughtfulness, patience, and respect. By sitting calmly in the silence, we allow the other side to feel the weight of the pause. They may reveal information, shift position, or even concede. Silence, when embraced as a tactic, is a strategic advantage. This is not empty stillness — it is strategic patience, and it is one of the most overlooked tools in Japanese business negotiations. Mini-summary: Silence in Japan is not a void — it is a negotiation tool that rewards patience and composure. Q4: How does decision-making authority work inside Japanese companies? In Western firms, the person across the table often has authority to close the deal. In Japan, authority is distributed. Decisions require ringi-sho consensus documents, hanko seals, and alignment across departments. The person negotiating may not have final authority but instead acts as a bridge inside their organisation. We can mirror this by using the “higher authority” tactic ourselves. Saying, “I need to check with senior management,” is not seen as weak here. It reflects the reality of collective approval. This delay can buy time, cool heated discussions, and adapt to the slower, deliberate pace of Japanese corporate decision-making. Mini-summary: Authority in Japan is collective — deferring upwards is normal and effective in negotiations. Q5: What negotiation tactics are most common in Japan? Japanese negotiations often feature specific tactics that foreign executives must anticipate: Ultimatums — final deal-or-no-deal conditions that must be defused with alternatives.Persuasion through value-adds — sweeteners, incentives, or extras that cost us little but feel significant to the client.Time pressure — deadlines that push for faster decisions.Delays or inactivity — slowing responses to build pressure on us.Add-ons at the end — last-minute requests after the main “yes” is agreed, which are often easier to accept than renegotiate. Recognising these tactics helps us avoid being cornered. More importantly, by preparing our own “value-add concessions” and “low-cost, high-value incentives,” we can shape the flow of the negotiation rather than react to it....
    Más Menos
    11 m
  • 365 Win the Deal In Japan Without Losing the Relationship Part One

    365 Win the Deal In Japan Without Losing the Relationship Part One
    Aug 24 2025
    Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model. This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value. Think about your own business? How many business partners do you have where this would apply? For the vast majority of cases we are not after a single sale. We are thinking about LTV – the life time value of the customer. We are focused on the proportion of our time spent hunting for new business as opposed to farming the existing business. Where do you think the trust barometer would be located, if we started “outwitting” our clients in our negotiations? Especially in Japan, where trust is such a crucial element and everyone is focused on long term relationships. So success in negotiating in Japan will be very different and it will definitely be a win-win approach. Fine, but do you have a consistent process to apply to your negotiations? Often we do it the hard way without a roadmap or we forget parts of the process. We are all rank amateurs anyway, because the amount of negotiating we do is limited and the size of the deals are usually modest. Have we got the basics covered? Here are four steps we need to cover: Analysis We begin by clarifying our own position. What is it we want to achieve and then we identify alternatives we can live with, if we can’t achieve all that we wish. We also look for ways to add value in areas other than price. Price is only one lever in a negotiation although most people get stuck on the idea it is the only lever. We want to understand the client’s positions and interests and the background reasons driving their approach. This is especially useful when looking for alternative solutions, as we might have something that is valuable to them, but not a great impost to us. We also should look to reframe the conversation to avoid confrontation. There are trigger words which can rapidly inject emotion into a logical discussion and we need to know what those words are for the opposite party. We can then phrase things in ways which is not incendiary. Presentation When we do public speaking we know that if we rehearse what we are going to say, it will go much better. When the American political leaders have their famous televised debates, they practice taking difficult questions so that they will appear unruffled and credible in their answers. Doing the same thing before a negotiation makes sense doesn’t it. Have well prepared what you are going to say and how you will say it. Have a colleague hit you with “toughies” – questions you would rather not have to face thank you very much. “More sweat in rehearsal, less blood in negotiating” should be the mantra. Like lawyers do when getting ready to go to court, we should also prepare the opposite sides case, the client’s case, as though it were our own. This gives us an insight into the likely approach they will take and we are then much better prepared to deal with it. Price isn’t the only thing so we should be ready to present added value alternatives to simple numbers. Because we have rehearsed their position, we can more effectively link our solution to the client’s positions and interests. Bargaining At some point there will be a gap between offer and acceptance and this is when we start trading things we want, for things they want. Bargaining down at the bazaar, in the souk, at the local flea market and in the B2B business world are entirely different. Our object is a sale with a nice regular, perpetual re-order attached to it, rather than “a one and done” outcome. So at the start we decide our ideal, realistic and fallback positions. We do this through the prism of our current demand, local and global business conditions, future business trends, price point profitability and our cash burn through rate. Negotiating tactics will be applied to us but the key is to respond logically rather than react emotionally. Easier said than done! However if we did our preparation well then we should be rock solid. We should be looking for win-win so we are trying to make it easy to agree with us and hard to disagree. Agreement Japan isn't much for legal contracts compared to the West. Most of our business is done without any contracts, as we agree verbally and then carry out our word and they carry out theirs. If we are talking about huge amounts of money however, then absolutely contacts will be needed. So even if a formal contract is not involved, we need some specification of all points of agreement. Put every key item in writing, be it the form of a quotation, invoice or just an email capturing the joint understanding of what is going to happen going forward and how much money is involved. To make it very clear, create a checklist and schedule for fulfillment. These four steps are not rocket science, but remember we are mostly ...
    Más Menos
    12 m
  • 364 You Can’t Win A Knife Fight With A Slide Deck

    364 You Can’t Win A Knife Fight With A Slide Deck
    Aug 17 2025
    Presenting isn’t always adoration, adulation, regard and agreement. Sometimes, we have to go into hostile territory with a message that is not welcomed, appreciated or believed. Think meetings with the Board, the unions, shareholders, angry consumers and when you have sharp elbowed rivals in the room. It is rare to be ambushed at a presentation in Japan and suddenly find yourself confronting a hostile version of the Mexican wave, as the assembled unwashed and disgruntled take turns to lay into you. Usually, we know in advance this is going to get hot and uncomfortable. We still have our message to get across but we have to make some adjustments to head off trouble. The essence of the issue is disbelief. The audience, for whatever reasons, simply don’t believe what you are telling them or they just don’t trust you, regardless of what you tell them. The first casualty of this type of speaking engagement has to be big, bold statements. In less tense situations we might be throwing these types of statement around with gay abandon and not face much resistance from the audience. If what we have said gets brought up in the Q&A, we bat it away without breaking into a sweat. No problem, we have this one! In more fraught circumstances, those big statements will get us hammered, maybe even as soon as they are issued, with no regard for waiting for the Q&A, as the interrogation gets underway immediately. By the way, if there is an intervention by someone in the audience, we should redirect them to ask that question in the Q&A, which is where we will handle all questions. This stops your flow being interrupted and the proceedings being hijacked. We need to be more circumspect about the claims we make. We need to introduce ideas surrounded and buffered by evidence. Instead of saying, “this is how it is”, we need to say, “according to the research, this is how it is” or “according to the experts, this is how it is”. We swiftly and subtly slip off to the side of the attack and let the third-party reference take it between the eyes, rather than ourselves. We need to wrap up our statements in cotton wool and preface them with comments like, “as far as we know…”, “according to the latest information…”, “to the best of our knowledge…”. In this way, we are not holding ourselves up as the oracle, the all-knowing, all seeing sage, unburdened by limitations of self-awareness. We are making ourselves a small target, harder to attack and providing many escape loopholes to leap though, should we need to. We need to lead with context and background. Making statements and drawing conclusions, before we get to the evidence part, is ritualistic suicide as a speaker facing a hostile crowd. We need to take a note from the pages of the Japanese language grammatical structure. Unlike English and most European languages, in Japanese the verb comes at the very end of the sentence. This is a great metaphor for doling out the evidence first before we get to the punchline. In Japanese, we don’t know if the sentence is past, present or future oriented, if it is negative or positive, until we get to the end of the sentence. That means we have to sit there and absorb all of the context, background and evidence before we can make a judgment about whether we agree with what is being said or not. This is what we should do with a hostile audience – load them up on the details, the data, the evidence, the testimonials, the expert statements, before we venture forth with what we believe to be true. We deliver this deluge of facts piecemeal, so that the audience is taking in the information, processing it in their own minds and jumping to conclusions about what they have just heard. Our object is that the conclusion they have jumped to is the very same one that we have reached, based on the same information. It is almost impossible to disagree with our context. They may not agree with our conclusions from our understanding of the context, but the context itself is usually inviolable. Before we go into Q&A we must publicly announce the amount of time available for questions. It is going to get heated and we don’t want to appear like a cowardly scoundrel beating a hasty retreat, because we can’t take the rigour of investigation of what we are saying. By having stated the time available at the start, we can simply refer to it later and say, “we have now reached the end of the fifteen minutes for question time” and go into wrapping up the evening with our final close. Hostilities may commence immediately we begin to speak, so we have to be mentally ready for that. We also need to switch our presenting tactics to account for the pushback which will come. By making ourselves as small a target as possible, it becomes much harder for any enemies in the audience to successfully attack us. If they are going after you, they are definitely not your ...
    Más Menos
    11 m
  • 363 The Truth About Death by Overwork in Japan

    363 The Truth About Death by Overwork in Japan
    Aug 11 2025
    So many sad cases of people dying here in Japan from what is called karoshi and the media constantly talks about death through overwork. This is nonsense and the media are doing us all a disservice. This is fake news. The cases of physical work killing you are almost exclusively limited to situations where physical strain has induced a cardiac arrest or a cerebral incident resulting in a stroke. In Japan, that cause of death from overwork rarely happens. The vast majority of cases of karoshi death are related to suicide by the employee. This is a reaction to mental and physical exhaustion and the associated stress that piles up, until it totally overwhelming. So the real source of death from karaoshi is stress, not physically working too hard. Just where is that stress coming from? It is coming from two sources: the individual’s inability to deal with the stress of long hours, long commutes, and no time for recovery, driving them to depression and ending their own precious lives. The other source is management incompetence, to allow that amount of stress to be experienced by their staff in the first place. It is compounded by power harassment of those who struggle to keep up with the output requirements. In my view, management irresponsibility is the prime killer. If there were no cases of exceptional stress buildup, then the staff wouldn’t need remedial actions at all. The long hours worked, long hours of public transport commutation and high amounts of pressure from bosses are the real problems. The hundreds of extra hours of overtime worked are being logged for no justifiable reason. In many previous cases, such as Dentsu, the company tried to hide the extent of the hours being worked. Management was party to the process, all the while knowing it was wrong. They were also aware of previous cases where people cracked under the strain of too little sleep and permanent tiredness and took their own life. They knew this was a possibility, but did nothing to alter the work flows. This is criminal and that is what the courts found. Dentsu was fined 500,000 yen by the judicial system. However, was justice served? The young woman involved was 24 years old when she jumped off the roof of the Dentsu dormitory, to kill herself and end her stress and depression. Many would consider a fine of 500,000 yen insignificant. The management didn’t control the work flow. If there was so much work on, why didn’t they bring in either more full time staff or part-time or contract workers to help? This is what bosses are paid to do – get through the work and apply the required resources to do that. The system didn’t see it that way. Presumably, they expected the staff to put in the ridiculous hours to save the company the money needed for salaries for new or additional staff. We can talk about there being a culture of long hours in Japan and it is true. Dentsu was picked out in the 1970s by Time Magazine as a company of fearless samurai salarymen, toiling ridiculous hours for their bosses, so this is not a new development. They were held up as a model to contrast with their flabby Western counterparts. These long hours weren’t needed then and are not needed now. It is being driven by a pathetic white collar culture of low productivity. The work expands to fit the time in Japan as per Parkinson’s Law and so working hours elongate to suit. If bosses were capable, they would be seeking improvements in productivity to get through the work in less time. Is Japan not capable of being highly productive? The kaizen and kamban production systems in manufacturing are well known in the West as methods of achieving maximum efficiency by blue collar workers. The irony is that one hundred meters away, staff in corporate offices are working at super low levels of efficiency for the same company – the contrast is large. How can the same senior managers entertain these two contradictory ideas in their minds, at the same time? No problem for them because they have compartmentalised the situations. “This is how we do it around here and so we will keep it going just as it is. The factory system is different to an office, so there is no relevancy”. That is simply lazy thinking. Efficiency in process, in workload distribution, in systems sequencing, in checking methods, in approvals are all areas that can be applied to office work as well. What is being kept alive by mediocre company leaders in the way of standard Japanese corporate practices? Here is a list of leadership crimes for which no one is ever reprimanded. No clear daily prioritised individual goals, poor time management, meetings too numerous and too long. Painfully slow decision-making required to get everyone on board. Disengaged staff turning up to get paid and not motivated to be bothered to innovate. Poor communication, no real coaching, demotivating performance ...
    Más Menos
    12 m
  • 362 One Pitch, No Matter How Genius, Never Works in Japan

    362 One Pitch, No Matter How Genius, Never Works in Japan
    Aug 7 2025
    Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan. Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not ever be present in the meeting. Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buying decision. In the case of Western companies, the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after everyone has had their say. In Japan there is a lot of groundwork needed so that the final decision is a rubber stamp exercise, because the actual decision has already been taken. Nevertheless, we turn up for the meeting and the buyer side has a number of representatives sitting in the room. Often it will be me facing across the table to five to ten buyers. Where do we start? Well the meishi or business card exchange is a critical step. Those hip, modern folk who have dispensed with the humble paper business card are at a massive disadvantage. From the meishi we can immediately understand exactly who is in the room. We can determine their function and rank instantly and this is very, very helpful. Before we know how to present to their team, we have to analyse the people in their team. A buyer team will often comprise multiple layers. We might have some functional interests represented such as: Executive BuyerFinancial BuyerUser BuyerTechnical BuyerOur Champion Each one has different drivers for making buying decisions. We can mentally list them in order from those with a long range vision to those with shorter range views. In the case of the Executive Buyers they are thinking about their strategic vision, the future opportunity and growth potential. For the Financial Buyers their attention will be turned to items such as cost, terms, flexibility and preserving cash flow. User Buyers will be interested in the detailed features, ease of use and reliability. Technical Buyers are looking at efficiency, practicality and capacity. Our Champion, the person driving the decision on the buyer side, will be concerned about relationships, influence and recognition. This sounds daunting enough, but just to spice things up a bit, there are also the buyer personality styles. The Amiables take their time, don’t rush into things and are concerned about the impact on the people from the decision. The Drivers (often the CEO) are the “time is money” types who are always in a hurry, can make an immediate decision and solely focus on the outcomes. The Analtyicals (often the CFO or the Technical Buyer) are comfortable with numbers to three decimal places, are keen on the micro detail and want tons of data to support their decision. The Expressives (often the Head of Sales and Marketing) want the big picture, do not want to get immersed in the weeds and want to have a big party to celebrate the success, at the end. So their role within the company and their individual personality styles will be key factors to fully understand when we present. Just when you thought we were getting a handle on the complexity of the task, there are also going to be attitudinal differences. It will vary according to the individual and even their mood on that day at that time. Different people will be hostile, resistant, discontent, ambivalent, favourable, supportive, enthusiastic. We are not finished yet with the layers of complexity. There will also be different levels of expertise in a team. Different experiences, education, biases, problems, goals, expertise and culture. Before we present, we need to know who is going to be in the meeting and try to understand what will be driving their reaction to what we are going to say. We need to work on our Champion beforehand where possible and yet we may not know this breakdown completely beforehand. We will have to start placing people into different sectors once we get into the meeting room. Have I talked you out of presenting to buyer teams yet? It is a bit overwhelming isn’t it when you break it all down into its component parts, but harden up baby, you have to move forward anyway. Your Champion will have fed you the problems they are facing, you will have analysed them and this meeting is to present the solution phase of the sale. We need a presenting structure which will be well regarded by the majority of people in the room. We need an opening to grab their attention. They will various things buzzing around in their brains competing with your message, so you need to blast way in to get everyone to listen to you. A startling piece of news or data is always good to grab attention. Next we need a statement of need for change. You can list up the enterprises which have gone to the wall because they couldn’t make the changes needed to adjust to the demands of the market. Suggesting this is a fate awaiting many more is a good step to get ...
    Más Menos
    13 m
  • 361 Your Outfit Speaks First – Make It Say ‘Professional’

    361 Your Outfit Speaks First – Make It Say ‘Professional’
    Jul 27 2025
    How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter? Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan. Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance. Always up your formality level in dress terms in Japan, compared to how formal you think will be enough. This was a big shock for this Aussie boy from Brisbane, who spent a good chunk of his life wearing shorts and T-shirts or blue jeans and T-shirts. Tokyo is not Silicon Valley, where dress down is de rigueur and where suits have gone the way of the Dodo. This is a very well dressed, sophisticated capital city where serious money is spent on quality clothing. Business suits are a given when presenting. Not even coat and slacks in the Italian style, but business suits. The colour should be on the dark spectrum to fit in with the solemnity of your “aura and presence” as an expert, about to pontificate on your subject. A serious speaker in a light coloured suit is an oxymoron in Japan. Go dark. The suits don’t have to be the deepest black in colour, because darker greys and navies will work. Now the odd thing is this applies in summer too. The summer speech outfit will be a little lighter in colour than the winter suit, but not as light as the very light colours in summer suits. It doesn’t matter if they are three piece, double-breasted, or have one, two or three buttons. Needless to say the suit should fit well. I have a very old and dear friend who has, like me, been in constant battle with his weight. We take it off and then we put it all and more, back on again. Very frustrating of course, but a painful reality. The sight one day, of him giving a major speech, while only able to close the bottom suit button, rather than the top, was very sad. It said to the audience, “I am fat, in denial and have not bothered to adjust my suits to match this reality”. We all have our “fat suits” of course, for those occasions when we are losing the struggle against our expanding waistband, so that would be a good selection if you are carrying a few too many kilos. However, if even the reliable “fat suit” is now too tight, then go to the tailor and get it adjusted. Better to be paying a small amount of money for that, then telling the world you are a loser in the battle of the bulge. The shoes will be formal, brogues are good, shined within an inch of their lives and never “down at heel”. It would be rare to wear any other colour than black, because the suits are going to be dark. The belt obviously must match the colour of the shoes and be in good condition, not looking like you have worn it to death. I don’t even know why I mention this, except that I often see some Japanese gentlemen messing it up, getting the colour coordination wrong and displaying a belt clearly on its last legs. The socks should match with the colour of the slacks and when presenting, avoid fascinating contrast colours that herald your rebellious and exciting individuality. Save that funky revolution for the weekend. They should be over the calf rather than ankle length. When seated on stage, for say a panel discussion, there is nothing more alarming than the sight of a very hairy shin protruding from underneath the suit trousers. The shirt should be white, never coloured. I know this seems very limiting and lacking in imagination, but there is a biological reason for it. When we are on stage we can become nervous or the lighting on stage can really heat us up. The consequence is we begin to perspire, and the neck area is one location where this happens very quickly. That gorgeous Egyptian Giza 45 cotton shirt, in light blue, becomes a two-tone job, as soon as the sweat envelopes your collar and makes it turn dark blue. Now the audience is losing touch with what you are saying and are fascinated by your unfolding two-tone colour gradation of your shirt. For the same reason, NEVER take off your suit jacket. I am soaked under my jacket, by the end of a 40-minute talk, because I am pumping out so much energy and heat. If I had my jacket off, there would be a much darker colour running down the side of my body. By the way, there is nothing more unpleasant than seeing someone in a shirt, sporting a saturated armpit, raise their arm so the waterfall armpit becomes visible to the audience. Your tie collection may have some daring beauties but leave them at home. At one stage, I was sporting some very ferocious Versace ties, with very vibrant colour combinations and adventurous patterns. I never wore them for speeches though, because they were competing with my face, for the attention of the audience. Also, forget the power colours. You don’t need them, because your speech delivery should have power and authority to command the obedience of the assembled masses. The same daring do logic applies to pocket squares. Especially fluffy, elaborate and exuberant ...
    Más Menos
    13 m
  • 360 Back Your Team Or You Break Their Trust

    360 Back Your Team Or You Break Their Trust
    Jul 21 2025
    We don’t run perfect organisations stocked with perfect people, led by perfect bosses. There are always going to be failings, inadequacies, mistakes, shortcomings and downright stupidity in play. If we manage to keep all of these within the castle walls, then that is one level of complexity. It is when we share these challenges with clients that we raise the temperature quite a few notches. How do you handle cases where your people have really upset a client? The service or product was delivered, but the client’s representative is really unhappy with one of your team. Often, being the boss, you are the last to find out what is going on. Japan, in particular, is excellent at hiding bad news from bosses. “The less the boss knows about the source of the trouble the better” is the mantra here. Japan is a zero mistake tolerance culture and so everyone has learnt to be circumspect about sharing the bad news around. The irony though is the boss is the one person with the capacity of power and money to fix a lot of issues. It gets easier to fix issues when you know about them early, rather than trying to sort things out later when the proportion of the problem has grown larger. I found this when I was working in retail banking here. Compliance violations occur and have to be dealt with. Usually, they are not fatal errors and the person committing them can recover, learn from the mistake and keep going. The bias toward hiding mistakes though creates problems in the work environment. That minor compliance violation has to be hidden, the perpetrator believes and this is when the problems really begin to kick in. The hiding part is the bigger issue. The problem is like a balloon that keeps inflating and inflating. You stick it away in your desk draw hoping no one will notice. Discouragingly, the problem gets bigger and bigger until it breaks out of the bounds of secrecy. It now looms large across the landscape at an immense threatening size. The genie once out of the bottle can’t be stuffed back in again. At the bank, people were getting fired for what were minor compliance violations because they tried to hide them. This was unnecessary, but that didn't change the effort to keep problems away from the boss. Why is that? The usual boss reaction to the trouble in Japan is yelling abuse. This somewhat hampers the effort to have more transparency. HR recording a black mark in their secret book of employee misdemeanors and crimes doesn’t help much either. So we are pretty much guaranteeing that when things go bad, the boss will only hear about it at the worst possible moment. This is usually when the window for a helpful intervention has been slammed air tight shut. There are always going to be two sides to the story and the boss’s job is to find out both. Sometimes the client’s representative can take a personal dislike to our guy or gal, or they can become emotional because they are under stress within their own organization. In Japan, they can be fervent about doing a perfect job. If perfection is your standard, then there are bound be shortfalls in delivery at some point. How do we sort this mess out without destroying the relationship with the client and killing the motivation of our own team member. Our team member can genuinely be trying to help the client, but may not have enough capability to do that to their satisfaction. These gaps are what test the loyalty of the team. If the boss hammers their staff member for causing the problem, the rest of the team carefully watches and works out that telling the boss bad news is a losing proposition. They will become experts at hiding trouble until it is too big to hide anymore. This is not an ideal outcome. So we have to back our people, apologise to the client, sort out monies involved with a partial or full refund if they are genuinely not satisfied. The boss’s job is to switch the brunt of client anger away from their subordinate to themselves, as the senior representative of the organisation, and also become the one to find a solution which satisfies the buyer. In Japan, that means bringing expensive gifts for the client, lots of deep, deep bowing in apology and listening sincerely to endless and unremitting tirades from grumpy clients. In Japan, they really labour the point. If there is going to be any on-going business, it can also mean switching that team member out of that project and bringing in a new person to be the contact point. The air needs to be cleaned up and that means reassigning those previously assigned to the project. This has to be communicated in a way so that the staff member understands we support them and we trust them. We are now in the modern business era in Japan of desperate recruiting and even more desperate retaining. Hanging on to people, even when there have been issues, becomes a much more delicate calculation than in the past. We have...
    Más Menos
    12 m