Have you ever been in a job where your “shacho” or your immediate boss had no idea of where the company is heading and was unable to lead your team into action? That is one of the most commonly heard complaints in my recruiting practice.

I recently had a candidate come to see me who was wanting to leave his company because his boss was so focused on the immediate day-to-day operations as well as protecting his power and position in the short-term that the candidate had no confidence in his boss’ ability to lead their division towards growth and profitability. His exact words were, “my boss has no vision and I’m tired, not inspired”.

It is shocking how often I hear this. The flip-side of this is when I attempt to recruit people from companies that have visionary leadership. You can imagine the outcome…many of them don’t want to move because they are fully engaged with the vision of their company or their direct boss and they are working toward an inspiring goal.

If you’re a leader now, you’d better make damn sure that you know where your business is going (vision) and how you’re going to get them there (strategy and tactics). If you’re an aspiring leader don’t forget about those times you suffered from poor leadership and how you felt about your boss. I can imagine that you don’t want to become one of them when you get the chance to lead.

I’ll be covering this subject more in-depth in future postings. What’s important to remember is the danger of visionless leadership and its effect on an organization. Beware.

As we’re in the middle of a traditional holiday week in Japan I hope you’re all taking the time to really unplug from the daily demands of your work time and are engaging in activities that will fully take your mind off work. As a natural workaholic, I know how hard it is to fully unhook yourself from the demands of your work life, but I’ve been on the edge of full-blown burnout before and I make a point to regularly take a step away from work and have some fun.

And it’s not just “let’s party” fun–what’s most important is finding something that really allows you to disconnect from your daily routine, become fully focused on something else, and which gives you real and deep satisfaction. I’ve actually just enrolled in an elearning course for learning how to draw, which is something I’m terrible at but which I also enjoy and is a great way for me to take my mind off of work.

Having been close to burn-out from overwork, it is painful for me to see so many people in Tokyo so far out of balance in their lives. In fact, I had someone in my office the other day who told me of two of his co-workers who were hospitalized from the pressures put on them by their agency. This is a subject for a future post, but it is shocking how common this is.

I am all for working hard (and smart) but in order to be effective you need to take quality time off and refresh and renew yourself. Enjoy the week and I wish you all the best for the year ahead!

OK, here is a quick rant…USE THE PHONE! (End of rant) Sure, email is a revolutionary communication medium. I can’t imagine doing what I do without the marvels of one-way time-independent available anywhere communication via email. I love it.

The problem that I have is that so many people have become overly (if not exclusively) dependent on email as a way of communication that they outright avoid using the telephone.

I have to admit that there are times when I fall into the trap of using email when I really should be calling. I’m guilty too. When I realize I’ve fallen into the trap I know it’s generally from laziness or fear.

Sometimes I catch myself starting to write and email when I think to myself “Why don’t I call?” It has become a good habit to question my use of email, especially if its something that would be much better handled by calling, especially difficult situations.

I know that many people are stuck at a desk and sitting next to their co-workers or boss in an open-plan office so it’s hard to talk if it is not directly work-related (or even if it is and you have something to hide), but it seems like the majority of people have shifted to an over-dependence on email at the expense of more effective two-way communication by phone.

My theory is that many of us over-use email and under-use the telphone. What do you think? What is your communication style? I welcome your comments to this post.