Leadership Beyond Greed: Japan turn around in corporate culture

Leadership Beyond Greed

Leadership Beyond Greed in today’s corporate world would be a … sparking topic. Leadership is all too often celebrated for its ability to generate results on paper – profits, story points, market share values, okrs, shareholder returns—while ignoring the very people who make these results possible. We live in an era where “growth” has almost become a cult religion while the humans behind this growth are excel rows rather than individuals with lives, dreams, and families.

Who cares if You can`t make it ?

It is precisely this hypocrisy the push on “teamwork” while promoting individual growth that drains people. Take Japan, for example. Japan people are often admired for their discipline, efficiency, and relentless work ethic. The cultural emphasis on loyalty and dedication to one’s company has produced impressive economic achievements.

The darker reality tells a different story: thousands of workers suffer from karoshi—death from overwork. No social life, untold „responsibility” to socialize with people at work and 'must’ like them. Here stands the paradox: a culture rooted in devotion and responsibility, twisted by corporate systems into a machine that consumes its own people. Japan teaches us both the risk of blind devotion to profit and the incredible potential of collective responsibility. If redirected, this same spirit could become a model for healthier, more human-centered leadership worldwide. It is even well seen to sleep in work cause it tells the manger you are working that much harder….

You know nothing Jon Snow, im the team leader now

This is very tiring giving our leadership always knowing better and do not accomodate our input or it is just discarded because 'someone vision is better’. Classic. It makes people just not care, cause why someone would… nobody listens anyway. How often our ideas are dismissed because above us has a differenti opinion. Is it better ? Thats a different story. Discussion could clear that out, is there ?

So where do we go from here?

Real leadership should not only be measured in annual reports or stock tickers; it must be seen in how leaders cultivate empathy, fairness, and dignity within their organizations. Unfortunetly we were learned to have a KPI for everything…. what You cannot measure You cannot manage…. maybe a satisfaction survey ? One without fear of beeing not fully anonymouse.

Leadership Beyond Greed – greed is short term

Greed is short-term. It inflates numbers while eroding trust, burns out employees while promising innovation collapses under its own weight. Empathy, by contrast, builds sustainability. When leaders listen – not just with their ears, but with genuine intent – they discover that people give more willingly when they feel heard and respected, rather than pressured into compliance. It is hard to not feel pressure after 6th day of working on a task that were estimated for 3 day… how Your managment handles that ? Is it making people feel good or bad ?

You can imagine it ergo You can do it ?

Imagine a workplace where leadership means safeguarding balance instead of sacrificing lives for the sake of quarterly gains. When the balance is off ? A model where success is not defined by how many hours your employees stayed in the office but by the quality of contributions they were able to make while still having time to live. The future of leadership lies not in maximizing output but in maximizing human potential. And this can only happen when organizations learn to place community above greed. Of course there is an issue that You would want to get people that You can maximize … more… .

Japan`s best ideas ?

Some examples from Japan showing how empathetic leadership and positive change take shape:

• Senior employees serve as mentors, guiding younger staff, sharing wisdom, even if they no longer perform productive work themselves.
• Many companies foster a formal mentorship system to ensure knowledge transfer and psychological safety for newcomers.
• Top management sometimes take public responsibility after mistakes, including salary cuts and visible acts of humility before affecting employee compensation.
• Companies invest in improving work-life balance, restricting overtime and encouraging real vacations to support employee health and happiness.
• Executive pay cuts and transparent communication signal that management shares hardship and prioritizes employees

The transformation is not unrealistic. It begins with seemingly simple acts: valuing rest as much as effort, rewarding collaboration rather than competition, promoting transparency over secrecy. It means choosing to lead like a gardener: nurturing, cultivating, patiently supporting growth rather than extracting until there is nothing left. It demands the courage to challenge the toxic cycles that generations before us normalized as “the way things are.”

The answer seems easy

If we can learn from Japan’s strength without repeating its mistakes, we can aspire to a new kind of leadership—one where dedication is balanced by care, and efficiency is balanced by compassion. A leadership that chooses not exploitation but enrichment. A leadership that makes companies not fortresses of profit but communities of purpose.

The truth is simple, though controversial: greed has reached its useful limit. The future demands something companies failed to value for too long—our shared humanity. And in choosing empathy, leaders can create not just healthier workplaces, but a brighter, more sustainable world