117: Campbell Hanley, Managing Director, Weber Shandwick, Japan

Originally from Australia, Mr. Campbell Hanley is presently the
Managing Director of Weber Shandwick, Japan. After graduating
from university, Mr. Hanley was looking to go to a country that
was non-English speaking, which led him to Japan. Since then, Mr.
Hanley has worked with various organizations, the latest being
Weber Shandwick for the last 8 years.


 


Engaging people in the workplace is important as employees are
more likely to be loyal and not quit on a whim. Mr. Hanley tries
to ensure consistency and fairness in the workplace. He tries to
make sure he is calm and reacts the same way to things, so people
can predict his behaviours and reactions. He also emphasizes
being authentic in giving honest feedback to people and ensuring
his staff knows the things that they are doing well. Mr. Hanley
tries to have breakfast or lunch with a different staff member
every week. This is usually a short, informal meeting outside the
office to try and get to know staff one-on-one. Mr. Hanley says
these meetings make him more approachable, and he finds out many
things during these sessions and sometimes can catch problems
early.


 


He talks about innovation as well, and says that if people care
about the business, they want to build a better, more innovative
workplace. Mr. Hanley says that they have a suggestion box set up
in the office to gather feedback, highlight problems or
suggestions. He ensures anonymity by sharing the website of this
anonymous suggestion box. The staff are digitally literate and
thus they know that they are truly anonymous and there is no way
to track who has made the suggestions. This is to ensure they
know that they are anonymous, and the company gets accurate
feedback. He also ensures that the staff know that they would not
be penalized for anything they say in this suggestion box.  


 


Advice that Mr. Hanley would give would be to be patient. He also
emphasizes good communication. He has three points that he
suggests to people coming into Japan.


Trust their instincts

Trust their employees

Have a group of advisors or counsel on your side



 


Mr. Hanley advises people that first come into Japan to trust
their instincts. Sometimes he feels foreign leaders shy away from
sharing their views or ideas on business plans as they are
concerned about offending the locals. He advises them to trust
their instincts and their business experiences and knowledge in
such cases. He also recommends placing trust in the Japanese
employees and understanding that hard work, loyalty, and teamwork
is in their culture and many times there isn’t a hidden agenda to
their hard work. Lastly, he advises to have a few people that you
can trust on your side in case the first two fail.