In my previous article, I wrote about how I became a salesperson without understanding English or knowing whom to ask for help or how to ask, and how it took me six years before I finally began to understand things. This time, I would like to return to the subject of leadership. I want to tell you about my boss, Mr. Otaka, who hired me in New York back then.
He was a Japanese trader who was considered a legend on Wall Street at the time. He traded non-U.S. stocks, or international equities, primarily stocks from Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, but he also handled South African gold mining stocks and stocks from the Philippines and Mexico. He had demonstrated his skills at Wall Street securities firms such as Drexel Burnham Lambert, First Boston, and Lehman Brothers, and had moved to DLJ at the request of its founder. As I mentioned previously, he had actually rejected me once when I interviewed with him in Japan.
He was an understanding boss. But as for whether he was a dependable manager, at the time I thought he was “unreliable.” That was because whenever I went to him with a problem, he never gave me an answer. Instead, he asked me questions.
For example, when I brought him an incorrect trade ticket or gave him the wrong number of shares, the Tokyo office would call to inform us of the mistake, and I would get scolded a lot. But Mr. Otaka in New York never scolded me. What exactly had the client said on the phone? Had I confirmed the details with the client? Had I repeated the information back? What did I do after hanging up? What was I thinking at that moment? He would ask me one factual question after another.
Strangely enough, when he questioned me that way, I could recall with surprising clarity exactly what I had done and what I had been thinking. As I talked, I began to recognize for myself where I had made the mistake. I also naturally began to understand how I could have prevented it. Through this process, I learned that what mattered was becoming someone who could recognize my own mistakes before the Tokyo office called to scold me. In the words of Kazuo Inamori, this is “deliberate attention” (Yui Chui).
When I didn’t understand a stock and repeatedly went to ask the analysts questions, until eventually they stopped paying attention to me, it was Mr. Otaka who stepped in to help. Here again, he began by asking questions. What exactly did I already know about this stock? Then he asked me to explain what the latest news meant. How did that information connect with what I already knew, and how might the stock price develop as a result? And what should I be asking the analysts? Little by little, the gaps in my knowledge and the questions I needed to ask became clear.
Now I understand. My boss was a former trader, so he had no experience in the equity research sales work I was responsible for. I was the person who knew that job best. I think he trusted that the best answer must therefore lie within me. Or perhaps he asked me questions precisely because he didn’t know how research sales worked.
The process was always the same. I would go to him for advice, and he would ask me questions. I would think through the answers. Then I would bring him my proposed solution and ask, “Do you think this is okay?” He would respond, “Do you think it’s okay?” I would answer, “Yes, I think so.” Even when I lacked confidence, I would go ahead and try it. Because I had come up with the answer myself, the responsibility was mine even if things didn’t work out. So I had to think through many things, summon my courage, and sometimes simply close my eyes and take action.
If I had not worked under this boss, I might never have ended up teaching the next generation of leaders the skills of coaching-based servant leadership, as I do today.
Expectations of Leadership in Japan
I think most people in Japan, when they hear the word “leadership,” imagine someone who provides answers and leads others forward. Subordinates learn those answers so they can apply them the next time. However, in today’s rapidly changing workplace, individuals possess a great deal of information that only they have access to. The person with the best answer is often the individual doing the work. Therefore, the value a manager can add, particularly when that manager is not on the front lines, lies in using the information that person possesses to ask questions that help eliminate risks.
A leader should not simply wield authority and say, “Do this.” Instead, the leader should present an overall vision. As long as an employee’s ideas align with that vision, the leader should examine each idea together with the employee and, if it seems to be moving in a good direction, encourage them by saying, “Let’s give it a try.” Through this process, those ideas can be developed and expanded into strategies. Unless a leader can have these conversations in an atmosphere where people feel safe speaking openly, work cannot move forward flexibly and quickly. Google’s research has also reported that the most important factor influencing team performance is “psychological safety.”
In one of the leadership courses I teach, a participant once told me something interesting. He said he thought he could adopt an autocratic or democratic leadership style depending on the situation, but that servant leadership required him to develop greater personal capacity and maturity. I think he was absolutely right. Servant leadership is a very advanced form of leadership. And leaders with that kind of personal capacity are precisely the ones who can adopt different leadership styles depending on the time, place, and circumstances.
When I think about leadership, the person who serves as my most important guiding influence is Kazuo Inamori. I joined Seiwajyuku New York in 2009, and it has now been 17 years. Today, I serve as the Lead Representative Organizer of Seishinjyuku New York.
Inamori-sensei adopted different leadership styles depending on the situation. The leadership required to drive a new business forward is different from the leadership needed to develop people within an existing business. And he certainly demonstrated servant leadership as well.
In one of his lectures, Inamori-sensei shared an example. When a salesperson returned from a sales visit and reported, “I couldn’t get the order,” he did not simply listen to the result and leave it at that. How did the conversation begin? What was the customer’s facial expression? At what point did the customer ask a question? How did the salesperson respond? What did they discuss before parting ways? He would carefully ask about each fact, one by one. As the salesperson answered these questions, they would begin to recognize for themselves what they should have done at that moment. It was exactly the same approach Mr. Otaka had used with me.
In today’s world, where change is rapid and the information held by each individual has value, this servant leadership approach is particularly important. That is why, while keeping Inamori-sensei’s teachings at the center of my thinking, I also wanted to write about my experiences with Mr. Otaka on Wall Street in the 1990s.
Back in the 1990s, I thought he was an unreliable boss. But now I believe Mr. Otaka was ahead of his time. Last year, I even went on a ten-day cruise with Mr. Otaka and his wife.
Let me leave you with a question.
Is your boss someone who gives you the answers? Or someone who waits for you to find the answers yourself?