The usual advice is to get off the tools and concentrate on being the leader and focus your energies getting leverage from the team who work for you. This makes a lot of sense because as the leader we are supremely busy these days and the pace of business in only speeding up and growing more complex. It also depends on how big your company is. When you get large numbers of people working for you, then the chance of doing anything other than attending meetings basically dries up. And this is exactly the problem.

Without noticing it we have been consumed by the beast and we now live in its belly. We are surrounded on all sides by our own team members. We might meet clients, but usually they are not our client and belong to one of the troops. We are there for ceremonial purposes and not to seal the deal. We live at the margins of the business and we are gradually separated from knowing what is really going on.

Some leaders may protest and tell me they know what is going on because their Division Heads, their direct reports, tell them. I would answer that what your Division Heads are telling you is what they want you know and that may not necessarily be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It may be difficult, but where possible I would recommend keeping a couple of clients for yourself. That way you keep your hand in with the market, the issues, the problems, the ups and downs of the flow of business. You are getting this news unfiltered and your clients are telling you like it is, with no sugar coating. More than couple of clients will be logistically very hard. We can all probably manage a couple and the intelligence we hear from these sources will be very valuable. We can also evaluate more effectively what our own staff are telling us.

There is no doubt that the boss hears the bad news last, because everyone is hell bent on covering it up for as long as possible. But as the boss we operate on a different plane. We know we have the power, money and resources to fix problems and the faster we find out about the issue the less costly it is for us to fix it. So we have staff motivations and our own going in different directions.

There is nothing worse than thinking our systems are certainly correct, to only find out that is not the case. We assume things are being put in place as part of the overall ecosystem, but actually there can be gaps. We don’t discover these gaps fast enough when we rely on others to tell us about the gap. In fact, think back to the last time someone on the team told you about the gap compared to when you unearthed it yourself? I am struggling to remember when that happened because it is so rare. The snapper there is if no one is volunteering this information then how do we discover it?

This is where keeping your hand in the game comes in handy. We are more likely to see problems or imperfections is we remain part of the process. I was reminded of this recently. I had been teaching our High Impact Presentations Course which has two days in the classroom, then a follow-up half day, a twenty eight week self-paced programme so that the class participants don’t forget what they learned and a monthly Professional Ongoing Education class.

As I was talking about these things at the very end of the class, I saw some blank faces. That set off a warning siren in my head to check how we keep people informed about the follow-up programme. And not just for this programme, but for all of them. If I hadn't been teaching that class, I may not have found this gap at all or for many months. We try to really work on providing added value beyond the class content, but all of this effort is wasted if people don’t know about it.

I think I have systems in place to make sure the communication is working smoothly, but sometimes it isn’t and I have to fix it. The scary part is I only ever fix the gaps I know about and what happens to all the gaps I don’t know about? There is a cost to being on the tools but also some clear benefits. So take a look at your work and see where you can keep a hand it without the work devouring you.

Large organisations have many willing hands. Often, the quality of the people employed is very high, and the firm has the deep pockets sufficient to attract and retain them. Leading smaller firms is more challenging. There is a large degree of multi-tasking going on, as the workload gets spread across the troops. Everyone is busy, busy, busy and that especially applies to the boss. Time is in short supply, so corners are cut, elements are skipped and the quality of work produced can be an issue.

The temptation is for the boss to concentrate on their meetings with their direct reports, as individual one-on-one get togethers. The time left over for regular meetings of the leadership team can be compromised quite easily. It is never blatant. The direct reports don’t rise up and storm the barricades chanting “death to more meetings”. Instead, the scheduling process becomes the enemy of progress, as trying to get a number of busy people together to coordinate availability can be the death knell of the meeting. The boss is usually the one with the worst schedule openings.

You might have tried to circumvent the issue by not over scheduling the number or frequency of the meetings. Maybe they are held fortnightly, in the belief that getting everyone together will be easier. Often, though, this proves to be a false hope and something always comes up to ensure not everyone can make it. When you have a small leadership team, the point of the meeting becomes compromised.

The purpose of the leadership team meeting all together is to make sure information is being shared and that alignment of purpose and execution of the business is going on in an effective manner. I belong to Tokyo Rotary Club and Rotary itself was founded to connect disparate industry representatives together, so that we wouldn’t be locked into our Guilds and become insular. The leadership team meeting has the same objective, to get people together to talk and share what is going on in their sections with everyone else. It is so easy to become wrapped up in what you are doing and to forget to let others know what is going on with your area of responsibility.

The boss has to drive this process, and this is where we meet the first big hurdle. The boss is always the busiest person and the one who most often cancels the meeting because their schedule changes so frequently. In a small company, the boss will not only be liaising with the Mothership back home, leading the team locally, talking to their direct reports one-on-one, checking on the company finances, tracking the revenue achievement and keeping a close eye on HR issues, they will also be dealing directly with clients. As we all know, that meeting with the client will take priority over a meeting of the section heads.

This is why the boss is the hardest one to pin down for the meeting. When the boss is also the scheduler and driver to hold the meeting, things drift very easily. Before you know it, the leadership team hasn’t met for weeks. Time flies at the best of times and unless this leadership team meeting is made a priority, then there will never be a regular cadence for the get together of the section heads.

It is always a good practice to look for a day and a time when things are less frantic. I know that for many of us, that would be a very good question: “just precisely when is it not frantic around here?”. Everything is relative, so look for a fortnightly cadence which will give the meeting enough regularity to make it relevant, without the time drifting too much.

Next pick a time of the day when it will work best. This might even be a bento lunch together, because lunch times are usually a less scheduled time during the day for most of us. Because of the morning rush hour phenomenon, breakfasts are a lot more complex to pull off. Getting the kids off to school, fighting for space on the train to get to work, exhausts everyone too, so early is rarely good. Evenings are difficult too because people want to get home and they are tired after a hard day at work, so the collective brainpower available is down.

There is never an easy time to hold these meetings, but unless a strong will is enlisted, they just won’t happen. Make them over lunch, make them every fortnight, and make them a high priority. Will this work perfectly every month? I

severely doubt it, but at least the strike rate will improve and better coordination and team building will occur compared to the usual chaos.

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We recently completed an in-house Leadership Training for Managers programme for a local Japanese firm. The President founded the firm as a spin-out from a well-established international accounting company many years ago and has successfully grown the organisation. He is now considering succession planning and aims to develop his senior leadership team. He had an internal survey conducted on the training programme, which he then shared with the trainer who delivered the course and myself.

Survey results on training can sometimes be challenging, and this case was no different. Some participants felt the training was too long, while others thought it was too short. Some found the content very challenging, and others not challenging enough. As is often the case, the majority were neutral, while we mainly received strong feedback from the outliers.

However, there were some particularly intriguing comments. A few participants mentioned that they found the training exhausting, claiming it impacted their ability to perform their work after the sessions. The core training involved weekly 3.5-hour sessions over seven weeks. Concentrating on new content, which differs from daily tasks, can certainly be demanding.

Several participants also noted that the programme contained a lot of content, which is true – it is a course with substantial material. However, I wouldn’t describe any of the content as particularly complex. Dale Carnegie training is highly practical and addresses real-world needs rather than being theoretical. New concepts require the brain to engage, which some participants found challenging. We also employ the Socratic method, encouraging self-discovery through questioning.

This approach differs from the standard Japanese educational method, which still leans on Confucian principles of memorisation and rote learning. Our approach often surprises new participants, who arrive prepared to take notes on whatever the instructor says. Instead, we plant seeds of information, prompting participants to reflect on their beliefs, experiences, and ideas. When they share their thoughts, we ask them to explain their reasoning. This is much more demanding than simply reproducing what the teacher says, so it’s no surprise it can be tiring.

Some participants also mentioned fatigue from needing to speak up during the sessions. We incorporate extensive group discussions, often in small groups where there is nowhere to hide; everyone has to actively share their ideas and experiences. They can’t be passive, sitting silently – they need to think on their feet and articulate their ideas. This can be mentally taxing, as there is pressure to communicate clearly without appearing unprepared. Many also discover they are not naturally succinct, logical, or well-organised communicators, which can add a level of stress. They may observe peers expressing themselves well and feel a gap in their own skills, creating additional pressure. They also realise they haven’t engaged their minds this way in some time, so it can feel like dusting off mental cobwebs.

When I go to the gym, I push my muscles to lift heavier weights and increase repetitions. This is tiring and sometimes even painful. Challenging the brain is similar – it can be tough if you’re not doing it regularly. Many leaders in this team have been performing routine tasks that they have already mastered, so they haven’t faced much challenge in their work so far. Their focus has been on managing their teams, and the broader aspects of leadership have been outside their experience. This training has been an eye-opener, revealing what leadership should entail.

The idea that training should not be mentally taxing is interesting. Growth requires stepping out of your Comfort Zone and engaging with challenging content and new methodologies. This is how we grow. Expecting to progress without stepping beyond what’s familiar is a quaint notion. If we continue to do what we have always done, in the same way we have always done it, we will achieve the same results we have always achieved. Stepping up means trying new things or taking on different tasks – both of which are challenging and tiring. And that’s exactly how it should be.