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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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Deal with your pain to become a more successful leader
My bonus shows I am undervalued
How to handle a missed promotion
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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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Why being UNHAPPY is actually great
Why leading a few is harder than leading many
Will your tombstone inspire others?
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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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STOP! Don’t do a career!
What is your superpower?
Wanna keep your job?
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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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Who is your minister of honor?
Do you dare to dream?
STOP! Don’t do a career!
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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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I am not too stupid, I am just grieving
How to handle a missed promotion
UNFAIR!
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Millennial? Don’t get hooked by this trait
Teamdinner. We are chatting about the new generation of employees. Millennials. Entitled, bold, naive, excited, world-changer and pleasure-seeker at the same time. What do they have in common? They long for appreciation and praise. It seems that it is the one language they really understand. ‘Well done. You are the best’ resonates within them big time. Unfortunately, this trait sets them up for manipulation quite easily. If someone performs better when they get appreciated, managers can press that button on any occasion. If the team member doesn’t know where he or she wants to go, they will follow the praise path. Ideally, this path leads more or less to a…
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Who is your heir?
UNFAIR!
Your career is fueled by a learner’s mindset
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Why should I even head for a career?
Whenever I ask women what ‘career’ means to them, I hear ‘personal development’, ‘having impact’, ‘developing others’ and further more. What is never a driver is ‘money’, ‘power’ or ‘status’. Interestingly, most coroporate careers offer exactly that: status, power and money. They are tightly connected to the hierarchy levels within the ranks. And ‘running through these ranks or ‘climbing the ladder’ is the general definition of doing a career. As this system has been designed by men for men, it is no surprise that there are little incentives that are attractive for women. Unfortunately, a lot of women do not pursue a career because the immediate gratification seems irrelevant to…
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How often do I have to call my mentee?
Why the next promotion is not a goal
This is how to build a great team out of nothing
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Is it opportunistic to take that new job? Or: When loyalty becomes a toxic value.
I can recall many conversations in which the behavior of colleagues – especially younger colleagues – got labeled with being ‘opportunistic’. For example, when they asked for a new project opportunity, said ‘no’ to extra work or even switched companies for a new offer quite quickly. The word ‘opportunistic’ has different shades, but in these moments it was used in the bad sense of the word – with the slight touch of betrayal and unethical behaviour. As I knew a lot of these people very well, I knew that they had what you call a ‘good heart’. They did not act out of bad motives. For them, having the choice…
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Why leading a few is harder than leading many
Build the workplace of your dreams
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Why you should always have a notice of termination ready
Like every morning, he is opening his word document, adjusts the date and saves his termination notice. He never turns it in. But the feeling of being ready to leave any time relaxes his mind when the pressure gets on in the project. It‘s his daily reminder that each job and task is temporary and that the power of ending any business situation is in his hands. Feeling in control and being aware that there are always options is an important factor when it comes down to feeling well at work. Maybe you know the feeling of being stuck. It quickly turns into a damned and doomed scenario where it…
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How to handle a missed promotion
Revive your magic spell
Your narrative determines success or failure – but differently what you expect
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‘I messed up’ – how you turn your messy leadership moments in fruitful team culture
A few weeks ago, I messed up in a team meeting on a Friday afternoon. I was tired of the week. I was at my worst. I was unfair to my own team. When I took some time on Saturday to reflect on the week, I realized what had happened. During my tiredness, the worst side of my ego took over and I let my own team feel as loosers. When I saw what I had done, I was angry at myself, unhappy and shocked. Instead of building a cool cuture where everyone thrives, one selfish comment attacked so much trust and teamspirit. As I could not call my team…
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Why the next promotion is not a goal
This crisis kills my empathy
Spread the Passion
