Japan leaders
What do leaders in Japan need to do?
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Stuart Walkley
30 Mar 2011
A great friend of mine, Hiromi Nezaki, with whom I worked in Japan during the 1990s, has remained a consultant coach there working throughout the country with many of the major companies. Inevitably her concerns are enormous at the moment around the whole issue of leadership in Japan. In her recent email to me she commented with the controlled emotion and understatement typical of Japanese people:
"We are not totally sure what this will affect in business in Japan this year. Although we all know that we are tested how to overcome the challenge."
The task is far greater than those facing almost any of us in our typical business world and the meaning behind the words "disaster", "meltdown", "devastation" and "crisis" take on far greater significant and urgency, challenging our all-too-glib use of such words.
Leaders often come to the fore during a crisis; they almost seemed programmed to show themselves to be masterful, decisive, inspiring and motivation. "Cometh the hour, cometh the man". But hold back, before we throw ourselves into action-mode, let's look at what is really needed at such a time.
The first piece of advice to leaders during a crisis is simply to be there. Visibility is key. Frankly what is said or done at such a time is seldom remembered, but what matters is actually being there and staying there. It's not as easy as it sounds. We may all be tempted to "take to flight" , to excuse ourselves from the scene of destruction.
Equally we may simply throw ourselves into action, scurrying around rebuilding, exhausting ourselves and others in our round of ceaseless activity. But nothing speaks louder than the personal commitment of a leader to be there, to stick with it through thick and thin and to do nothing except be there. It is part of that contemporary leadership aspiration to be the 'nearby leader'.
It can be tempting as well to offer comfort or reassurance. We can find ourselves saying the most inane things "do not worry", or "time is a great healer" or "things will get better". Who, frankly, are you comforting? For the person faced with the catastrophic events time will never fully heal, worry will remain, and things will not get better. So saying it is simply deluding yourself and bringing yourself false hope. You fool no-one except possibly yourself.
Leadership during a crisis is not about offering "comfort" where none can be given - it is much more about being able to remain next to someone, alongside them when no comfort can be given. It's awkward, even painful at times because as a leader what you are doing is sharing a reality and one that offers so little. Trying to help people "move on" is far too unrealistic and premature. This is not a time to "move on", it's a time to stay facing that bleakness. Leaders instead of offering trite words and false reassurance need to show that they can be a container for anxiety that is being experienced, felt at such a deep level.
Managing one's own feelings as a leader and recognising the feelings of others is critical for the "servant king" style of leader who wants more than anything to be alongside those around them.
Leaders tend to see themselves as being "in front" in organisations - taking the decisions, leading the way. It can be hard, therefore, to find oneself instead unable to take that forward position - time to understand, therefore, that leadership is as much about being alongside or even behind people rather than ahead. So, not spirited discussions, no heroic speeches, no exhortation to new routes ahead. Not yet and not for the foreseeable future. Instead a more gentle leadership, humbler and humbled. The route ahead may well be embodied in that Latin paradox and the Emperor Augustus's advice "Festina Lente" (hasten slowly). Have a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose, but take it slowly and gently.
Most of all, leaders must avoid heading off in new leadership directions hoping others will follow behind. Instead this is a time for leaders to wait patiently and take others with them, not behind them. Build consensus, gently but firmly and move forward collectively.
We talk rather easily about calmness under pressure and the crisis in Japan brings a new sharpness to these words. It is hard to stay calm without appearing either traumatised or complacent, but the calmness needed by leaders is that ability to manage personal anxiety and the concerns of others and to stay focused on what needs to be done if they are to avoid stupid mistakes or knee-jerk reactions inspired by an ill-informed media to a simplistic political mantra. Being "your own person" and making decisions carefully and in a balanced way becomes so difficult under pressure when what everyone appears to want is the "solution" the quick fix or magical resolution of the crisis.
There is no magic, and no curative balm. Leaders instead must show the humility to listen to others, to wait upon them, and the intellectual and emotional honesty to stand naked before the world, as Lear stood naked and blinded in the dreadful nihilism of King Lear.
Poor naked wretched, wheresoe'er you are, that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm. How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, your looped and windowed raggedness defend you from seasons such as these? King Lear Act 3, 4, v 28
Stuart Walkley is director of Oakridge Training and Consulting. He can be contacted on +44 (0)1625 572474, at info@oakridgecentre.co.uk or via www.oakridgecentre.co.uk
S Walkley button.gif
Stuart Walkley
30 Mar 2011
A great friend of mine, Hiromi Nezaki, with whom I worked in Japan during the 1990s, has remained a consultant coach there working throughout the country with many of the major companies. Inevitably her concerns are enormous at the moment around the whole issue of leadership in Japan. In her recent email to me she commented with the controlled emotion and understatement typical of Japanese people:
"We are not totally sure what this will affect in business in Japan this year. Although we all know that we are tested how to overcome the challenge."
The task is far greater than those facing almost any of us in our typical business world and the meaning behind the words "disaster", "meltdown", "devastation" and "crisis" take on far greater significant and urgency, challenging our all-too-glib use of such words.
Leaders often come to the fore during a crisis; they almost seemed programmed to show themselves to be masterful, decisive, inspiring and motivation. "Cometh the hour, cometh the man". But hold back, before we throw ourselves into action-mode, let's look at what is really needed at such a time.
The first piece of advice to leaders during a crisis is simply to be there. Visibility is key. Frankly what is said or done at such a time is seldom remembered, but what matters is actually being there and staying there. It's not as easy as it sounds. We may all be tempted to "take to flight" , to excuse ourselves from the scene of destruction.
Equally we may simply throw ourselves into action, scurrying around rebuilding, exhausting ourselves and others in our round of ceaseless activity. But nothing speaks louder than the personal commitment of a leader to be there, to stick with it through thick and thin and to do nothing except be there. It is part of that contemporary leadership aspiration to be the 'nearby leader'.
It can be tempting as well to offer comfort or reassurance. We can find ourselves saying the most inane things "do not worry", or "time is a great healer" or "things will get better". Who, frankly, are you comforting? For the person faced with the catastrophic events time will never fully heal, worry will remain, and things will not get better. So saying it is simply deluding yourself and bringing yourself false hope. You fool no-one except possibly yourself.
Leadership during a crisis is not about offering "comfort" where none can be given - it is much more about being able to remain next to someone, alongside them when no comfort can be given. It's awkward, even painful at times because as a leader what you are doing is sharing a reality and one that offers so little. Trying to help people "move on" is far too unrealistic and premature. This is not a time to "move on", it's a time to stay facing that bleakness. Leaders instead of offering trite words and false reassurance need to show that they can be a container for anxiety that is being experienced, felt at such a deep level.
Managing one's own feelings as a leader and recognising the feelings of others is critical for the "servant king" style of leader who wants more than anything to be alongside those around them.
Leaders tend to see themselves as being "in front" in organisations - taking the decisions, leading the way. It can be hard, therefore, to find oneself instead unable to take that forward position - time to understand, therefore, that leadership is as much about being alongside or even behind people rather than ahead. So, not spirited discussions, no heroic speeches, no exhortation to new routes ahead. Not yet and not for the foreseeable future. Instead a more gentle leadership, humbler and humbled. The route ahead may well be embodied in that Latin paradox and the Emperor Augustus's advice "Festina Lente" (hasten slowly). Have a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose, but take it slowly and gently.
Most of all, leaders must avoid heading off in new leadership directions hoping others will follow behind. Instead this is a time for leaders to wait patiently and take others with them, not behind them. Build consensus, gently but firmly and move forward collectively.
We talk rather easily about calmness under pressure and the crisis in Japan brings a new sharpness to these words. It is hard to stay calm without appearing either traumatised or complacent, but the calmness needed by leaders is that ability to manage personal anxiety and the concerns of others and to stay focused on what needs to be done if they are to avoid stupid mistakes or knee-jerk reactions inspired by an ill-informed media to a simplistic political mantra. Being "your own person" and making decisions carefully and in a balanced way becomes so difficult under pressure when what everyone appears to want is the "solution" the quick fix or magical resolution of the crisis.
There is no magic, and no curative balm. Leaders instead must show the humility to listen to others, to wait upon them, and the intellectual and emotional honesty to stand naked before the world, as Lear stood naked and blinded in the dreadful nihilism of King Lear.
Poor naked wretched, wheresoe'er you are, that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm. How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, your looped and windowed raggedness defend you from seasons such as these? King Lear Act 3, 4, v 28
Stuart Walkley is director of Oakridge Training and Consulting. He can be contacted on +44 (0)1625 572474, at info@oakridgecentre.co.uk or via www.oakridgecentre.co.uk
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