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Is your boss a psychopath?
We all know colleagues, bosses or people in management positions who misuse their role to pressure others, act in aggressive ways or even disparage subordinates. Maybe we ourselves know the challenge of acting kind despite tight timelines, bad quality in contribution of team members and colleagues as well as sleep deprivation. But somewhere in that mix of ‚people being people’ there are some who seem to enjoy the misuse of the power that comes with their role. How can you tell with whom you are dealing? Let‘s start with a definition first. For simplification, let’s say there are 2 groups: There are normal people acting under pressure – resulting in…
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Don’t consult your people for leadership
“What a shitty weather”, he complains while his car is fighting through wind and rain out of the city heading to this place in the middle of nowhere. The navigation system points to a spot along the lonely road. His assisstant had sent him the coordinates with the information to take a warm jacket. His boss requested him to come. Something about leadership – if he remembers correctly. But why on a Saturday? and why at this place? Through the fog, a parking lot unfolds. He reduces the speed and turns right. His colleagues are already there. Nice. Now he needs to spend a weekend with the same people he…
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How weakness could be our strongest teambuilding (Part 1)
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Contradictory leadership skills
„What are the most important leadership skills?“, I challenge my team. Amongst several valid skills ‚empathy‘ and ‚resilience‘ come up. As we discuss what each one means to us, we are realizing that these two skills can become quite contradictory. But before we look deeper into that matter, let’s understand what each skill means. Empathy – n. the ability to imagine and understand the thoughts, perspective, and emotions of another person. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095750102;jsessionid=299D66408E0C979792F904B31354D677 We use empathy in client and staff meetings to understand the perspective of the other party. We comprehend or even feel the emotions of the other person. In consequence, we act according to the situation in the room.…
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Why should I even head for a career?
The best is yet to come
Your career is fueled by a learner’s mindset
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You need to love the process over the result
„This project is hell“, my colleague concludes. Many months the whole team is working hard. Some meetings are okay, most of the meetings are hard – sarcasm raises to a peak to deal with the daily nonsense. A few years later, 50% of the team is still doing a career in consulting, and the other 50% went into a more regular job. If everybody was happy at this point, the decisions were fine. But unfortunately, the cap in learning curve and slower promotion cycles in a corporate position hit hard on the colleagues choosing this new path. As I have seen these pathways again and again, I was wondering what…
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Is your boss a psychopath?
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Be aware: you are being copied!
“Bye bye”, my colleagues closes the meeting in a quite melodic way. I need to smile. He just copied tone and text from his boss. Probably unconscious. He just imitated what he had heard like a million times. Although we all want to be unique, it is quite human to mimic people with whom we interact often. This is how we are created. Children learn by mimicking their parents. Later they copy teachers, their peers or their sports mates. There is no offense in acting similar to the people around us. This is also true when it comes to leadership. As leaders we don’t need to tell our people how…
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Why you don’t have to be a boss lady to do a career
“I don’t like to turn into a stereotype boss lady”, my mentee sighs. “That is not me. And I feel, I have to become such a person to do a career.” This conversation happened over 10 years ago – and it stuck with me. Why do people – and mostly women – believe that it is necessary to turn into something that they are not in order to achieve an undefined thing like ‘a career’!? I guess, it has a lot to do with role models. Women who did their careers in the 90s and early 00s were often quite similar to one another – leading to a limited variety…
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What do you want?
Wanna keep your job?
Why are you such an asshole?
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How my mindset influences my skillset
“I am such a looser.” “Everyone else gets the tasks done – but I am again running detours.” “Of course, this bad luck happened to me. As always.” Do you know any of this negative self talk? If you ever say these sentences aloud, chances are high that your inner talk is filled with messages of self-doubt. Have you ever wondered why you think this way? Our brain is amazing: once we start thinking certain messages, our brain learns that we need this information and builds its network accordingly. It gives us quick access to certain thoughts until they become routines and we need less energy to access them. Unfortunately,…
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Why does my boss earn so much money?
Is it opportunistic to take that new job? Or: When loyalty becomes a toxic value.
Small stuff matters
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Your detours write history
Every good storyline evolves around a person who needs to overcome challenges – a big loss, an unfortunate turn in life, a challenge too big to overcome alone. We get intrigued by those kind of stories and suffer with the main cast until the (happy) end. Yet, in our own lives, we are quite upset once even a single little step doesn’t work – the delayed promotion, the reduced bonus, the unfair feedback. In movies, we can acknowledge how obstacles strengthen the hero of the story. In our own lives, we cannot even accept a little hurdle. We feel that the missed chance to get to the one great university…
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Grief is a sneaky bitch
This crisis kills my empathy
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Your passion is welcome at work
“Are my passions relevant for my job?” “What if Excel isn’t my hobby?” “What does it mean to bring my whole self to my workplace?” Maybe you are familiar with those questions. Since school we get taught that there are topics for which we are graded – and only these topics seem relevant for getting a job. Consequently, we devide our life in school and hobbies – and later in life in work and hobbies. Unfortunately, during this process we miss to find out which passions actually drive us. We somehow feel unfulfilled in our day-to-day job but we cannot articulate where the reason is. Hence, many people start questioning…
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What should I do next?
„What should I do next?“, the applicant asks. „What does my CV need?“ Although I highly value that people want to get good degrees and the entry ticket into certain jobs, I am wondering whether these are the wise questions to ask!? Because ‚your CV‘ is a reflection of your life and the time you spent in certain tasks (job, univeristy, family). And I am wondering whether ‚someone‘ should tell you how to spend your life. And even if it might be smart to ask good mentors for advice, the question must be asked when you will stop asking ‚what does my CV need‘? What isn’t transparent to students and…
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