• Highheels

    Screaming at people is not an option

    “Don’t you ever do this again”, the manager screams into the telephone. What sounds like a scene in a 90s wallstreet movie is still happening today in the corporate world. Less frequent for sure – but there are still people around who believe that screaming in business is a valid way of communication. The aggressor surely feels superior using his loud voice to intimidate the oponent (aka the team member or colleague) and stop an unwanted conversation or reply. The consequence almost always is a hurt relationship that soon will break if there is no apology. Let’s examine why someone uses screaming as a communication tool. The effect of having…

  • Highheels

    Why you need to defend your team culture

    Your team culture is important. It is the very reason why people join, perform better than expected or leave once they don’t feel they want to contribute anymore. But did you know that a good team culture needs defense? Let‘s assume, you have established the following team culture: 1. Everyone greets in the morning 2. Everyone helps one another 3. There is no backtalk accepted In order to establish this culture, you will need to speak explicitly about these three points in team meetings. You will give details why these behaviors are important so that everyone in the team understands why they should do the effort of behaving that way.…

  • Highheels

    Are you smarter than a 4-year-old?

    Researchers asked 4-year-olds to do a puzzle. After they succeeded they asked them to choose: either do the same puzzle again or try a harder one. Even at the age of 4, several kids decided to go for the safer option for success and repeated the first puzzle. While you would think that you would most definitely have choosen the harder puzzle, let’s take this game into today‘s reality. What tasks do you pick at work? How often do you face a new problem? And how often do you opt in for a new way of solving the problem instead of repeating successful ways of the past? When it is…

  • Highheels

    What do you want?

    “What do you want?” – the question haunts me ever since my coaching trainer asked it. It seems an easy question at first. You would assume that one knows what he/she wants. But do you really? I want to have a loving family. I want to have a lots of friends. I want to be rich. I want to look healthy. I want to be successful. I want … The list can be continued. But as you dive into just one topic, you soon realize that everything of that list needs a certain investment. Every single aspect requires time, dedication and focus from you. Let’s take one example: A loving…

  • Highheels

    Your positive attitude is fake

    “Your positivity is fake”, is an accusation that people with a confident mindset might hear regularly. This sentence often comes with the argument that life isn’t always sunny and that the negative aspects need to be named aswell. But do they? Is there a global requirement that requests to name all aspects in all situations? For sure, there are moments of important decisions when all aspects need to be taken into consideration but this is not a general requirement when adressing an issue in the company, project or team. Actually, it is quite hindering when you want to take the next step with your team. As a leader, you have…

  • Highheels

    How weakness could be our strongest teambuilding (Part 2)

    So, now that you want to change (see Part 1 of this article), let’s examine in Part 2, how can you change your company culture. Culture is naturally created from the top. That means, whereever you are the ‘top’, you can shape culture. If you ‘only’ have an intern you can lead, than this is your playfield. Actually, it is the best playfield you can get as you can try and learn without hurting too many people. Culture shaping always starts with shaping yourself. If back biting and proclaiming colleagues a ‘lame duck’ is normal behaviour for you, you won’t find anyone who trusts you. You might feel superior –…

  • Showing appreciation in virtual teams

    In this podcast you get inspiration on how appreciation is perceived, how it looks like in a virtual team setting and what is relevant when appreciating people. Each section contains a coaching question. Take some time to reflect for yourself, how you want to appreciate your team based on the inout given in this episode.

  • Highheels

    How weakness could be our strongest teambuilding (Part 1)

    “I would never go back to that company”, a friend tells me. “There is a culture where you cannot share your real emotions. You are forced to play cool at all times. This is toxic.” I nod silently. Although the professional business environment certainly encourages less emotions than other work places, there is a tendency in some company cultures to extinct emotional up and downs in order to not seem ‘weak’. To be precise: not ‘weak’ towards clients or competitors, but even within the same team the competiveness can be so challenging that grief, sleepless nights and illnesses are hidden. In consequence, colleagues who hit bad luck in life are…

  • Laugh yourself successful

    Can you remember how you felt after a good laughter with friends and colleagues? The energy provided by a heartful laughter elevates your team and your mood. Especially when working in virtual teams, a common moment of shared laughter can move mountains in a project. In this podcast, you get some ideas what you can do to get into laughing again.