There are over 177,000 books on leadership listed on Amazon today. That’s an amazing number. You immediately ask yourself why. Why so many books on leadership and how to become a leader.
The fact is there is a lack of effective leaders and it’s a global problem. If you read the leadership literature like I do, it is startling to hear various experts around the world say that we’re at a point of crisis. There just aren’t enough well-trained leaders.

Let’s consider some of the factors contributing to this crisis. Economies are growing with many emerging countries beginning to develop rather rapidly. Technological change is speeding things up and making more sophisticated and complex what used to be merely complicated. We have gone from industrialized economies to information economies in an incredibly short period of time. Everything seems to be interconnected making social, political, and economic issues less local and more global in impact. Think about medicine and science and how much just those two fields have changed in the last ten years.

Leaders are needed in every economic enterprise, at every level in all types of organizations, and in every area of the world.
This is an incredibly exciting, challenging and, sometimes, scary time. There is room for all of us to step up to becoming leaders right now wherever we work. 
That is what I love about J-TOP. It opens the doors for you to understand what it takes to become an effective leader and to learn some of the skills necessary for making that career journey successfully. 
I hope that we, J-TOP, motivate and inspire you because that’s what good leaders do.

So let’s review what some of those skills are that leadership development programs all around the world teach and that J-TOP exposes you to:

First, there is self-awareness. A leader is a learner. Each of us as individuals are the instruments of leadership. We need to learn about ourselves and know our values, be willing to identify our blind spots, and be prepared to change our attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. We need to be adaptable, flexible and nimble.

Second, leaders must be willing to speak up and share their opinions and expertise. Speaking up and being heard requires good communication skills. Speaking up requires confidence that one’s own perspective and experience are valuable.

Third, interpersonal skills are necessary so that you can have effective conversations and discussions, resolve conflict when it arises, and both give and receive feedback.

And fourth, motivational skills allow us as leaders to bring different people together and inspire them to want to struggle toward realizing a shared vision.
Vision and Mission ? YES, absolutely necessary.

We are in a time of revolution and WE are the revolutionaries. Let’s learn to be leaders together and make a difference in the world.

I am honored to be one of the J-TOP team that goes to Japan. I love Japan and I love working with you. Every year, I learn new things and spend many hours getting ready to share what I’ve learned recently about leadership. I’m sitting on my couch right now having spent the last four hours reading leadership books like “Being the Boss” by Linda Hill (terrific) and “Team of Teams” by retired General Stanley McChrystal (eye-opening. Glad I didn’t train as a Navy SEAL. I would never have made it.) 
You see, learning never ends. Isn’t that wonderful?