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It is a great pleasure to see The Leaders Workbook (El Manual de los Lideres) available in Spanish. 10 months after the initial publishing in November 2010, the Spanish version is the second language to be published. It is quite an humbling experience, I must admit.

You can buy the book at Amazon.com. Just follow the link. For bulk orders and distribution, please contact us using the contact page on this website.

I just came by this YouTube clip, clearly showing the often neglected importance of the first follower.

Please take a moment to watch the clip (less than three minutes), and then share your comments below.

Have you ever been that first dancing guy? How did that feel? Did you ever try to be that second dancer, the first follower? How did you feel about that? And how did it feel later, when the third follower, and then the crowd, joined?

Japan is in some real challenges these days, with the earth quake making the nuclear reactor ready to melt-down, and the tsunami flooding the land and leaving behind chaos and havoc. These are the days when Japan need clear leadership. And these are the days when we see just that - clear operative leadership combined with years of preparations and planning.

Japan is situated in one of the areas that are stricken by earth quakes regularly. A location that has taught the Japanese people to prepare for the devastation and uncertainty only a catastrophe can create. One example of such preparations are the the building regulations. All buildings constructed today (well, since the 1960s) are to comply with the worlds probably strictest rules and regulations for construction. Rules made into force by laws both in the 1960s, and by adaptations and adjustments after the Kobe quake in 1995.

Looking at the past days of events, there are no wonder why the Japanese implemented strict regulations and laws to make sure buildings could survive an earthquake. We all understand that. We endorse it, and we praise the Japanese for being so forthcoming.

Why is this related to leadership?

Disaster strikes. Period. We just don’t know when it strikes. Good leadership is to know disaster will strike. Great leadership is to prepare, plan and do what is reasonable to reduce the risk. Before the disaster strikes.

The Japanese prepared. They made sure to be as ready as they could possibly be. Not only the leaders, but everyone. Pictures of school kids preparing for earth quakes with special hats have shown us that the Japanese take this seriously.

What is more - good leadership accepts the disaster, and try to save their own but. Great leadership set in place the plans they have prepared, adopt as necessary, and get hands-on when the disaster come crashing. And continue to solve the issues as they arise - they know that before it get better, it will get worse.

Sitting on the other side of the world, some question remains - what can we all learn from this? How can a disaster like the earthquake make us all better leaders? How can we use our competence, knowledge and resources to help Japan today, and prepare ourself to handle our own disasters tomorrow?

Kai Roer, the author of The Leader's Workbook, was featured in an interview at Freado today.

You can read the interview here!

At the entrance of a new year, many of us make promises to change our life. Eat more healthy, to workout more, to work less, to spend more time with family and friends, to stop smoking, to enjoy life more - the alternatives are vast, and many succeed.

If there is one thing I would like to challenge you into doing this year - it is to set aside 10 minutes every working day to reflect. Make it a habit! Choose a specific time each day, and block it out in your calendar if you have to in order to not being disturbed. Turn off your phone, don’t check your e-mail - as a matter of fact, turn off the computer.

Some ideas as to places to reflect are:

• if commuting, use the time when traveling
• take some time during lunch-break
• lock yourself in your office
• take a walk around the block (and you get some other nice benefits too)
• spend 10 minutes in bed before you fall a sleep, or when you wake up in the morning (this one is not easy for me...)
• if you workout (you do right?) make sure to leave your phone in the locker, and spend the time in the gym reflecting. This one also works wonders if you run, cycle, swim or use any other form for sport where you can think.

Now that you have some ideas about where and when to reflect, the challenge is to know what to reflect about. This is quite easy too - the goal of your reflection is to make you better at what you do - being a better leader, a better co-worker, a better person. The Leaders Workbook comes with 22 different topics to reflect upon - including topics like Inspiration, Mentoring, Mental Health, Presentation Skills and more.

Share your favourite topics of reflection in the comments below, or on the Facebook page (see badge to the right). The more ideas we share with each others, the better we become!