Very often I hear from leaders that they consider videoconferencing the ultimate way of interacting remotely and be present. This is true if you still rely on visual tools as the one and only form of expressing your presence. Research shows that the selection of technology…
In recent years virtual leadership has matured from an exception to being almost the norm in international organisations. Many conversations I have with leaders who are more and more exposed to virtual leadership show that different mindsets are necessary to be effective in a virtual context.…
How often have you experienced bosses you worked for giving you the impression that their behaviour was not really authentic but more of a simulated role they have learned in some of their training courses. How strong was your followership to those bosses? In the…
Although high IQ is a must have to be successful in your job, a high EQ, emotional intelligence, is the factor to separate the wheat from the chaff in outstanding performance. The concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been spread widely since the mid 1990’s…
For decades we have been told that the principles of effective motivation are being build on the simple carrot-and-stick model. Generations of leaders have followed these principles in trying to create motivation in people working for them. Even though, over the years, motivational principles contained…
Leading at a distance, being a virtual leader, is becoming the norm in international organizations. Yet research shows that less than 30% of virtual leaders are perceived as being effective and successful. I am sure no leader in that position is happy with such an…
Feedback on behaviour and performance is a crucial step in developing people. This is more than the annual performance appraisal: when done on a regular basis it helps people to stay focused on their personal development and growth. Traditionally employees are appraised on a…
Working with virtual teams is a common place in multinational organisations these days. As we all know, next to motivation, loyalty between the local organisation and the virtual team can become a challenge for the people working in your virtual team. This challenge of staying loyal…
Are you familiar with VUCA? Do you wonder what this four letter acronym means? If you know what it is, just skip the following paragraph and continue reading further down. The usage of the term VUCA began in the 1990s. It originates from military vocabulary…
In today's organisational reality leaders in medium to large companies name complexity and virtuality of their work as the key challenges. Especially working in a virtual context is becoming much more dominant and the norm in international business settings. The real challenge is, however, that…
Have you ever been in a meeting and were completely surprised by that colleague who never seems to contribute anything but suddenly presents the team with a great idea or solution to a problem? … or … are you actually that person who prefers to…
... and how to get people out of it Those who have been following the events in Greece over the last months and maybe even years may have noticed that a rather strange mentality seems to have developed. Everybody in Europe and especially the economically…
The recent Charlie Hebdo affair in Paris has brought the topic of free speech into the news. It has reawakened the debate about the balance in free society between the right to say what one wants to say and the duty of not causing deliberate…
For the first time, the ICF (International Coach Federation) Germany organised a two-day Summer-University in August 2013 with a focus on the latest results of neuroscience and what leaders and coaches could learn from these. Over the course of two days eight key speakers, experts in the…
Works on the subject of leadership weigh down bookstore shelves the world over. Tomes tell you how to be a 30-second manager, how to inspire your employees like Churchill, and the three keys to "strength-based leadership." Everyone has been writing about leadership, in fact, except…
Communicating in difficult times, 5 things to ask yourself and 4 steps to enhance your effectiveness We are living in times when leading people and organisations can be a very challenging job. We have to make tough calls with budgets, people and programmes - tougher…
Tools for self assessment related to working in virtual teams How do you select the team leader for an important project that is spread over several geographical locations? Or how do you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a leader of a virtual team so…
by Carmen Nobel When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either dividing the market into product categories, such as function or price, or dividing the customer base into target demographics, such as age,…
Urgency can be a positive force in companies, says leadership expert and HBS professor emeritus John P. Kotter. His new book, A Sense of Urgency (Harvard Business Press), makes that conviction clear. Our excerpt describes how leaders might skillfully transform a crisis into an organizational…
Right now a lot of leaders have been through and are emerging from a major crisis. Considering how the global situation looked from the outset it was not clear how or if at all companies would survive and with them their employees including their leaders.…
Interview with Professor Dr. Dr. Gerhard Roth Professor Dr. Dr. Gerhard Roth is Neurobiologist and Director of the Institute for Brain Research at Bremen University, Germany. He is also President (Rektor) of the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst, and President of the German National Academic Foundation. He published…
Working across cultures has been challenging for most managers, not only in Research and Development. However, development teams face a special challenge when companies have outsourced some of the manufacturing to low cost regions but keep their development organisations in Europe. For them, working across…
