To work or not to work from home?
As a leader you have the responsibility to create the best working conditions no matter what the ways of working are, whether from home or in the office.
Season’s Greetings
We wish you all all the best for the Festive Season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, something else or just enjoy the time off to relax.
Four tips to avoid people being fed up with your online meetings
Many people are fed up with online meetings even though they have become an essential part of collaboration in the "new normal". To avoid frustration be very conscious of the necessity when calling for a meeting. Let me explain ...
Working from home – does it really work?
Some leaders are convinced working from home is not productive. Others consider employees to be highly productive working from home. For me it’s best practice giving people the freedom to choose where to work from. Why? It’s about autonomy.
Purpose at work
Is the discussion around purpose at work just a fad? If you are interested in high engagement at all levels, you better act on it. Let me explain…
A customer’s voice about the Executive Coaching experience
Listen to the interview with Karl Knipfelberg, VP at Kion, talking about his experience working with Bernhard as his coach
The jab against the online meeting pandemic
Working from home has great benefits but also shadow sides - the meeting pandemic. Rethink your approach to planning and conducting online meetings. Apply an old trick with new technology effectively…
The missing element?
One effect of working from home is that the number of online meetings has exploded. Some leaders seem to overstep lines pushing even more meetings to stay in touch. Watch out for the impact…
AI should not replace good leadership
Artificial intelligence, used in a positive way, can help leaders to be more effective in what they do. It should never replace bad leadership, though, as in the example mentioned here.
Customer voices on our Online Coaching
People, understandably, can be sceptical about being coached online and not face-to-face, as it is a very personal, often intimate experience. Hear Alan Graff, one of our customers, how his perception changed when working through virtual connection with Bernhard.
The BOX – make digital conversations feel more natural
With the massive increase in online meetings and virtual coaching, the need to have something that allows real eye contact is even more relevant than ever.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: strengthen what members of virtual teams need most
The need for trust in virtual teams is even more crucial than for co-located ones. What do I do to foster it leading virtual teams? Learn more about why and how to develop trust ...
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: how can you best care for your people whilst we all distance physically
I am offering some tips to maintain or strengthen the social cohesion and personal connection in your team, i.e. simulate the coffee corner online
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: advanced facilitation of online meetings
In controversial discussion keeping an eye on everyone was and is crucial to the success. How does this work online when you screen-share and lose sight/ videos of the others ?
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: meet in a room, not on a flat screen
Today I want to share how you can enhance the feeling of meeting in a (virtual) room and not just seeing each other on a flat screen. Using your backgrounds effectively either with virtual images or physical ones …
The holographic meeting is nigh, or isn’t it?
News about holograpghic techonolgy for person to person virtual interaction. Closing the gap? Not yet, but intersting steps forward
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: how body language comes across in virtual meetings
Body language is important in meetings! How does that work online? Some tips to consciously include body language in online meetings. May be not obvious , but it is simple enough.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: unleash the creativity in your dispersed team as if you were in a face-to-face workshop
Brainstorming also works online. Here are a few options for how online brainstorming can become effective.
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: sketching during online meetings
Sketching in online meetings like on a flipchart in a room. Whiteboards are good but sketching with the mouse feels awkward. Using a additional tablet does the trick.
15 years and no end in sight!
To this day 15 years ago I left a well-paid corporate position at Unilever to start working as a coach! I short reflection on a purpose driven life, full of joy and success stories…
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: how can you be present when everyone is in their home-office?
How can you be present to your team whilst working from home? Online and off-line presence counts. Some tips..
Dealing with the challenges related to everyone working from home
Working from home poses several challenges. I am offering various tips from blogs I had written about remote /virtual work. Subjects covered are: Keeping motivation up Taking care of social cohesion Building resilience – your own and your team's Celebrating in the team What about technology?
Enhance the effectiveness of your online meetings
Another tip which can help you in creating focus in your online meetings to boost engagement and effectiveness. The ritual that can help you to enhance the effectiveness and focus in your online meetings! "Check-In"
My monthly tip for virtual leaders: Make online meetings engaging
Make online meetings engaging through involving participants in the preparation, facilitate with high interactivity and involve everyone by...
Empowerment with a coaching attitude
Empowerment has been around for a very long time. It's often missunderstood as straight delegation of tasks. To make it really work it requires leaders being a coach! Let me show you how...
Eye contact is key in online conversations
My monthly tip for virtual leaders - February It is a fact that we need eye contact - at least to some degree - when we want to have a trustful conversation and good connection with someone we communicate with. In face-to-face settings that is…
Food for thought: “The Leadership Crisis”
the world needs a new type of leadership which is a mix of courage and humility to deal with the world’s challenges present and ahead. Organisations in which these leaders are positioned must have a moral compass with a strong social element
Can annual appraisals be enjoyable even? Part IV
Make appraisals mot effective by converting them into a continuous developmental experience for your direct report
Can annual appraisals be enjoyable even? Part III
Appraisals done well intrinsic motivation will increase. To make a feedback conversation most effective 9 aspects should be considered
Can annual appraisals be enjoyable even? Part II
appraisal conversations done well require preparartion! A lot of managers don’t pay enough attention to that
Can annual appraisals be enjoyable even? Part I
Research into intrinsic motivation shows very clearly the value of appraisal conversations when done well. I will share how this can work best
Join our discussion about the best ways to motivate remote team members
The Virtual Leaders Lounge is (y)our place for informal exchange and learning Next session is on 26th November! Business leaders of virtual teams and our virtual working strategist share tips around what works and what doesn’t to motivate virtual team members. SIGN-UP now for a…
Leaders benefit in virtual coaching
Quite some Leaders have initially shown reluctance to have deeper reflections in a virtual setting. My clients were surprised how easy the work via a virtual platform was and how good the rapport, the quality of our relationship. When it works, the benefits of virtual coaching great: 1) A greater flexibility in scheduling 2) One can do it even during a business trip. 3) As your coach I can be available on much shorter notice And whilst the benefits speak for themselves, I will address the obstacles and how to overcome them in practice.
Virtual Leadership effectiveness: 4 success factors
In this blog I want to focus on the most important factors I consider necessary for virtual leaders to be effective and successful. Presence is one fo the 4 keys, synchronos or asynchronos
Fostering bonding in a virtual team
The simulated coffee corner effect for virtual teams When we, as the leader, start a new team, we like to do everything possible to make it a success and still an enjoyable experience. In order to enable a team to perform well high quality relations…
My way of celebrating with my virtual team
I already posted this a while back, but thought it would be good to repeat, as more and more teams around the world are facing the situation that they work in dispersed locations and barely -if ever- meet with their colleagues. But there is ...…
How can you lead the “old dogs” in your team?
Effective tips for young leaders leading people who have been in place for a while Over the last few months a number of young leaders have approached me asking for support in their new leadership role. They had been newly appointed taking on a team…
New thinking for coaching Agile Teams
Effective team coaching has to focus more on the distributed competencies in the collective Depending on the industry, most companies experience what it means to operate in a [tooltip text="Volatility-Uncertainty-Complexity-Ambiguity"]VUCA[/tooltip] driven market. In order to keep up with these dynamics and uncertainties organisations are changing…
Enhancing employee engagement and motivation
My tested and proven ways to grow and sustain increased engagement of people in organisations The following ideas and tips are based on the assumption that intrinsic motivation is one of the key contributing factors for employee engagement. Intrinsic motivation comes from within a person and…
The Virtual Leaders Lounge (VLL) – your place for informal exchange and learning – next on 30th September
Meet other leaders with us online for an informal exchange about challenges and best practices related to leadership! The topic this time Best practices to develop deep connections in your team to boost performance. Leaders of virtual teams share what works and what doesn’t. SIGN-UP now…
Get your point across to non-expert senior managers
How to communicate as a subject matter expert and to influence senior decision makers effectively? If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that occasionally I share insights from my work as a coach. In such blogs I cover themes which have…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – final part 8 – Awareness for team dynamics
Virtual teams can suffer from critical dynamics going unnoticed Awareness for team dynamics is another competency for effective virtual leaders. This post is closing the series of essential competencies for virtual leaders. With this last one on team dynamics I would like to present you…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 7 – Talent development
Human beings long for development Virtual team members should not be left in the no man’s land. So, caring about their development is also an important competency. Here we are again with the next, and sixth, competency I would like to present. And again I…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 6 – Direction and Meaning
Strong intrinsic motivation is essential to virtual teams Direction and meaning are essential triggers, and a key competency for effective virtual leaders. With this post I am continuing the series as announced in the opening blog post 5 weeks ago: I will present the fifth…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 5 – Intercultural Sensitivity
Leading teams spread across cultures requires intercultural sensitivity from their leaders Continuing the series of virtual leader competencies, I will present and share my experience on how you can develop intercultural sensitivity further to increase your effectiveness. The first 3 competencies, should you have missed…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 4 – Productive relationships
Effective team work depends on productive relationships This, therefore, has to be a key competency as well for virtual leaders. Here we are again with the next, the third, competency for virtual leaders which I would like to present and share some thoughts on how…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 3 – Effective Communication
Leadership is mostly about communication. So, effective communication is also a key competency for virtual leaders. This is now post #3 of an 8-post-series on the subject after the introduction and the one on self-leadership. And today, I would like to present you the second…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 2 – Self leadership
Self leadership is a key competency for sustainable and impactful leadership in a virtual context As announced in the opening blog post of this series this is the first of seven competencies I want to present, and reflect on how you can develop this further…
Advancing your leadership in the virtual world – Part 1 – Introduction
THE 7 key competencies which make you highly effective as a virtual leader Looking into larger organisations and how their structures have evolved over the past years I see the dispersion of functions and their teams across sites, national or global, as the norm. As a response…
