Change your Story. Change your World.
Leaders, Baum der Hoffung © Otmar Brettschneider This article is right for you if you can whole-heartedly agree that communication to convince and give direction to your teams and other stakeholders is far more than the typical company speak via bullet points in a presentation, dry memos or hyperbolic missives. Persuasion and influence is needed to connect with customers, to motivate yourself and others to reach goals, and to facilitate change. Stories are the key to the hearts and minds of your customers and your workforce. Stories express how and why life changes, patterns of living and very personal and emotional experiences. Stories can change the way we think, act, and feel. They can form the foundation of an entire corporate culture, and they have the power to break down barriers and turn bad situations around. Stories can illustrate our ideas and capture our imagination. Human beings [...]
Strengths-Spotting: Enjoy Your ‘Popeye’ Moments
Leaders, What comes to your mind first, when you think of strengths? Well, for me it is “Popeye” – one of my favorite cartoon characters. He would do anything to overcome obstacles to first and foremost please Olive Oyl. His love of spinach which he eats in large quantities to boost his strength is legendary (though we know now that the exceptionally high iron content in spinach is a misconception). “Popeye” said that he was strong to the finish, ‘cause he eats his spinach. What makes you strong? What are the strengths in your team? How often do you do strengths-spotting? Is strengths-spotting already an integral part of your daily leadership activities? Have a “Popeye” Moment and find out more about your individual key strengths by investing 5 minutes to complete this free online assessment: http://inspiredexecutives.pro.viasurvey.org Let me share some important background information on strengths-spotting with you. Martin Seligman, the [...]
Believing in Change
Leaders, Aristotle taught us that „without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.“ Yet, astonishingly enough, it has become so much harder to make genuine human connections and establish trust – crucial prerequisites for successful change. Let me give you an example: My little niece finally started school last Fall. She had been excited about it all summer; kindergarten had become boring, and she felt a strong craving for something new that would give her a chance to learn and be like her big sister. Her first test was fantastic. She is a smart, bright, and creative girl who is able to articulate herself very clearly. She does know what she wants. To our big surprise – her second test was a disaster. Her parents needed to sign a notification that had to be returned to her teacher. Yikes. When I asked her “What was [...]
When did you last flirt and celebrate with the world?
Leaders, Nothing great has been and nothing great can be accomplished without Passion. G.W.F. Hegel (1770 – 1831), German philosopher Passion is a key topic with all my coaching clients at some point in our process. Professionals require passion to be able to inspire and motivate themselves and their teams. And by doing so, they create engagement, commitment, and direction. What is passion? For me, passion is a very strong feeling about a person or a thing, an idea, hope, dream, or possibility that your mind naturally gravitates to. It’s positive affinity towards something or someone that creates enthusiasm or unusual excitement. In the workplace, passion can provide you with a sense of fulfillment and enjoyment.Over-emphasizing your passions, e.g. by becoming a workaholic, can lead to obsessive behaviors and painfully impact your relationships. Not enough passion can lead to a state of indifference and a lack of sense of purpose [...]
Feedback is Everywhere
Leaders, As it’s time to prepare for the mid-term performance evaluations with your teams, I thought it might be worthwhile sharing as to what could enhance the effectiveness of your feedback discussions. I will talk about formal and informal feedback in this blog post. Giving feedback can be one of the hardest leadership tasks. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t found one that is harder during my managerial career. Anxiety easily comes into play: You don’t want to injure the relationship, you might fear an emotional reaction of your team member or you might be afraid that the data that you used for the evaluation will be questioned; and you might be cautious because of the potential impact of your feedback. This spring, I designed and facilitated a leadership development workshop for a client, an international Switzerland-based company in the financial services industry. Around 50 line managers participated; they had [...]
Anger Management: Take control and express yourself
„Whenever anger comes up, take out a mirror and look at yourself. When you are angry, you are not very beautiful.“ Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames Recently, my little 6-year-old niece, had a fit of rage. She burst out with fury out of the blue when she was at my parents’. She cried, yelled, and screamed at my mum who could not calm her down. She worked herself up without any obvious reason. My dad who was disturbed by the noise, came out of his study, and was deeply moved to see my mum in tears, and asked his granddaughter “What is going on, sweetheart? What is this dispute about?” My niece just said “Grandpa, I do not know what to do with my anger.” And my dad answered in a very strict tone “When you are irked, peeved or angry, the first thing you do [...]