Luke Verwey has been running Nielsen Japan for a little over a year and I wanted to ask him about his experiences. He has worked in a number of countries in South East Asia and has the capacity to compare and contrast with his experiences here.
His three tips for new leaders, based on his new leader experiences are:
1. Listen. Feedback from within the team comes, but in subtle ways here, so it is easy to miss it. Miss it twice and it stops coming, to your detriment.
2. Be careful of sweeping statement about "Japan" and how things work here. The culture of a team and the sub-cultures within teams, can vary tremendously. Don't imagine they are all the same.
3. Learning. Learning about the culture and language helps immensely to understand how things work in Japan. Get out of Tokyo and travel around Japan to gain deeper perspectives.
