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Attention: trap ahead!
“I have sooooooo much to do.” I would love to get a dollar each time I hear this sentence of people in leadership roles. Of course I get it: asside from people really having a lot to do, this sentence is a certain way of communicating a level of importance . But as a coach, I’m a bit concerned that a leader is telling this story to himself/herself. Because let’s face it: you are paid for having ‘so much to do’. This is not even your leadership role. Here is what concerns me: If you are telling people around you that you are already packed with topics, you won’t get…
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What social work on sunday morning at 6am taught me
Grief is a sneaky bitch
Turning bad experiences into valuable lessons
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What to do when a team member quits
“I need to leave the team”, she sighs. After training her the past year in different roles, I have offered her a leadership position in the team. And while she was thinking about it, she realized that she needed to focus on another role in her life. And that role is not in my team. I have mixed feelings: I am more than proud that she thought deeply and made a decision (these are the type of people I want in my team!) all while I am sad because I will not work with her in the future anymore. Did people quit in your team, too? It is very easy…
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Attention: trap ahead!
I am not too stupid, I am just grieving
Sometimes life sucks
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How to survive the journey of becoming a cool boss
‘Every boss is an asshole’, she claims loudly. Having several managers at the table, the rebuke comes instantly. A discussion unfolds whether bosses have the capacity to be nice or if a certain career molds people inevitably into assholes. All agree that at least some sort of toughness can be seen in every leader they know and that there is the risk of bad behavior. As I have heard similar statements quite often, I am wondering whether there is a piece of explanation why especially women do not thrive for leadership positions. Might they fear to loose their integrity? And on the scale of ‘being an asshole-type of boss’, I…
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How to … appreciate people
Finding passion
Your list of „Why not“ kills your career
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Why the next promotion is not a goal
I am chatting with a friend about goals. “My next goal is the promotion in a year from now”, she says. I am nodding. Sounds reasonable. There are these job profiles which make goal-setting easy – there is always an upcoming promotion. A system that mimics the trained sequence of school and university deletes the necessity of finding a ‘why’ for continuing the job. You don’t have to think for yourself. You can just follow the beaten path. I am wondering if this is one of the reasons why you find so many uninspired and uninspiring people in hierarchical companies with clear career paths. I am wondering if this missing…
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Do you have ‘career DNA’?
‘I messed up’ – how you turn your messy leadership moments in fruitful team culture
Screaming at people is not an option
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RoL – return on love
„Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.“ The Bible, Ecclesiastes 11:1 The picture of shipping grain across the sea implies uncertainty. Back in the days, you couldn’t know whether your ship will reach it’s destination. You didn’t know whether the grain was still good when reaching the harbor; or if the goods were valuable at the market. After many weeks, your sailors would return and you would find out what you get in return – Spices? Salt? Fine linen? … or just some average payback? Despite the risk of not getting a return, people continued sending grain over the sea, trusting that…
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Why being UNHAPPY is actually great
What do you want?
My bonus shows I am undervalued
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Consider LOVE in business
That client with all his problems … the colleague who always speaks negative about his job … the back talk about you that kills your mood … the hustle of being successful (somehow) and getting to the next level … that deal that really requires your weekend to work on … – the list is endless. And you know every shade of it. Memes parodying the extremes of doing a career while every party is filled with the ‘heroic’ stories of self-exploitation. And still, people stay in their careers not really knowing why. Unfortunately, these people become the visionless leaders that every juniors knows and fears. But how can a…
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What social work on sunday morning at 6am taught me
What is your superpower?
When silence kills your team spirit
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How to handle a missed promotion
Promotion time! And everyone has been promoted except for you! At least, it feels that way. How can you handle such a moment in your career? First of all, stay silent about your disappointment in business – especially if the emotional rollercoaster is still ongoing. In the heat of your emotions you might make statements which you regret once you have thought about it for a while. Therefore, take some time, walk through your emotions with friends and family and let the high peak pass through. Once you feel, you can think clearly again, evaluate your situation. Here are some questions to consider: Why did you miss the promotion? To…
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Who is your heir?
While doing a career we can be so focussed on our own success that we hardly think of the next generation. But this one-way-street thinking incorporates the risk of missing valuable support along your career journey. This support comes two-fold: first of all, you need people who fill in your position once you move on to your next step. And secondly, a hungry next generation pushes you to progress as it generates a healthy competition that ensures that you don’t become lazy (which you don’t want to become anyway). Ideally, this next generation is part of your network and wants to see you bloom as you want to see them…
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Finding passion
Are you smarter than a 4-year-old?
Your narrative determines success or failure – but differently what you expect
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Your narrative determines success or failure – but differently what you expect
The project is intense. Everyone delivers at their best. You deliver at your best. You walk every extra mile – for the client, for the team, for your career. Mostly, you get positive feedback. But one of your deliverables gets rejected. The feedback feels horrible. Instead of walking on and putting the one negative feedback in perspective to all the affirming ones, your mind plays a trick on you. The feedback regarding your work somehow transfers to you as a person. The sentence „the deliverable is not good enough“ echoes into a „you are not good enough“ – getting louder and louder. If the self-talk isn’t stopped at this point,…
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Deal with your pain to become a more successful leader
How to start a consulting career in time of crisis
The best is yet to come
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Do you dare to dream?
“My dream always was to build a sailing boat”, he smiles. “And I have already created the design with a well-known yacht architect.” As we start discussing about design elements of boats and how life led these two people together, I let the moment sink in. This is exactely the type of talk that I have missed so much during ‘lock down’. Not meeting new people also means not meeting new ideas. And while you don’t feel the absensce of those ideas on your couch, it is more than deliberating when talking to people and exploring their thoughts and dreams. Just a day earlier, a lady tells me her story…
