NEWS: CoachingOurselves Co-Founder, Phil LeNir, launches his book in Japan

Written by Phil LeNir, President of CoachingOurselves
 
When asked to make a speech I tend to swing between extreme shyness, worrying that every word I utter makes me seem like a complete rube, to simply talking without any thought as to what may come out of my mouth. Either way, I’m rarely mistaken for being erudite.
 
So when I went to Japan to launch my book about CoachingOurselves, and the translator asked for my speech several days before, it was a blessing in disguise. Now I simply had to deal with trying to conjure up some insights that might be of interest to an expected audience of Japanese middle managers.
 
About a year ago Nao Shigemitsu, co-founder of J-Feel, the CoachingOurselves partner in Japan, suggested the story of how the CoachingOurselves philosophy to learning and development had evolved out of my own experiences as a middle manager could be of great interest to the middle managers of Japan.
 
I came to understand that the middle managers in Japan were feeling particularly downtrodden as a result of the depressed economic situation, and changing social and business norms. Lifetime employment is a thing of the past, yet companies have been slow to change their habits and expectations. This makes the already difficult job of a middle manager far more challenging.
 
Nao suggested we co-author a book in Japan, but rather than focus on the CoachingOurselves methodology, we would tell the story of how CoachingOurselves came into being. In Japan it was becoming quite popular for business books to tell a story and highlight experiences from which others could learn.
 
Our book is the story of how I, a Canadian middle manager, found my way through management challenges created by the dot.com crash with some advice and help from Professor Mintzberg. This is not the story of a change that came from above, or outside, but from inside middle managers themselves, and then spreads middle-out rather than bottom-up or top-down. My story offers at least one small ray of hope on a way through the difficult situation for a middle manager in Japan.
 
There was one obvious problem, my command of the Japanese language was seriously lacking. Non-existent to be honest. "No problem" Nao said, to my surprise, I could write down my story, be interviewed over Skype by the editor with a translator, and piece by piece we would craft the story of CoachingOurselves in Japanese.
 
And so one year later we are launching the book, and I am struggling to write down some sort of speech. Well, after many false starts it all seemed to come together, and in the end our launch was a great success.
 
Set in Maruzen, the largest business book store of Tokyo, our publisher Diamond organized a fantastic event. We had a good sized crowd, including a large contingent of Fujitsu SSL CoachingOurselves alumni. Everyone greatly appreciated the message ("I am a human being, not a human resource!") and many asked us to sign their copy of the book.
 
I would like to especially thank Sahoko Inoue for her endless patience as I struggled to articulate my story, perceptions and feelings that led to this powerful new approach to helping managers improve their practice of management, and organizations transform and strengthen themselves.
 
Phil LeNir,
President, CoachingOurselves International Inc.