The Negev desert

Things can really get to you. Sometimes that happens a lot easier than normal. Last week I traveled, together with a group of entrepreneurs through the Negev-desert. You get simply overwhelmed by the rough and beautiful nature. Especially under the full moon and the crystal clear stars, which light up the entire desert.

Because the desert is a place where you are secluded from the usual context of daily life, it is a place where you can easily be affected by things from within yourself. Surrounded by very little stimulus, your soul starts to stir, your heart speaks clearly, and you cannot just ignore it, you have to face it. A revelation...

Leadership in permanent crisis

This is one of the leading titles of Harvard Business review Onpoint this summer 2012. We are used to think about leadership in periods of crises. You just have to endure, stay straight, bend a little, lead your team, and then land safely on the other side of the wild stream of crises. But we always thought that ‘on the other side’ there would be a more save country, a more relaxed phase and time. And that was so, for many decades.

Since 2010 we entered in a decade where both complexity of society, politics, media and global movements increase, as well as turbulence and crisis’s increase to a more permanent level.

This could worry us, but can also challenge us to grow in our leadership-competence and leadership character.

When all seems to be out of control:  - you have to give direction-

The ideal leader: a man or a woman?

Leaderships-training for women!

Module 1: ‘bezielend leiderschap’ starts November 1. 2012 van

Registration via www.xpand.eu

Over the last couple of years there has been increasingly more attention for female leadership. Governments have created programs and funds in order to develop diversity in the top segments, to help female talents to have more of a fair chance to rise to the top functions in business, politics, health-care etc, and to create more economic growth due to more participation of women on the job-market. Now, how do employees actually perceive female leaders, and are they generally better leaders than men? Some argue they are! Women are often better socially capable, are stronger in communication skills, and are more emphatic. Their EQ, in general, is higher, and exactly these competences often make them better managers, they argue. Others on the other hand believe that men are more capable in giving direction, that they make decisions a lot faster, and that they dare to take risks. In her research regarding gender and leadership Prof. Jana Stoker eventually came with an interesting conclusion. Various managers could be categorized into 4 groups...

Stress between work & family: preventing & tackling the problem

How great is it to be on a holiday! No alarm in the morning. Nonetheless, this morning I was standing on the schoolyard, and the schools have all started again. Excitement all around! What a pity, I thought… the definite goodbye to freedom, time and peace. The clock is back in charge. Are days are packed, and stress enters back into our lives. Deadlines! Before we are really aware of it, we find ourselves wanting too much. Or perhaps not necessarily wanting it all, but doing it anyway! Feeling rushed, exhausted. Thinking, can’t I arrange things differently?!

Focus on stress-management

Employees that are too stressed are less able to focus well on their work, sure. But, at the same time they also are less able to work on a healthy relationship with their children. Stress evokes irritation, emotional outbursts towards the partner, children, friends or colleagues. It brings forth a certain lack of concentration and eventually time-consuming errors. So, how can I reduce all the stress in my life, and therefore prevent emotional exhaustion? Or in these words: how can I combine work and parenthood with more joy and ease?

The art of the learning master-coaches

In our fast moving time people are searching en masse for wisdom. Especially regarding  the ‘how’ and the ‘what’, unfortunately too many are failing to ask the more fundamental question: ‘why’!  Therefore the ‘coaching-world’ is dealing with a very high percentage of the ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions. It is swarming with ‘secret-revealers’, ‘key-holders’ and ‘roadmap-trainers’. They all give you clever solution and  ready-made action-plans, under the motto: listen to me, I know what is best for you.

In our time it seems to me that the authenticity-ideal of the Renaissance and Enlightenment has spun out of control, and has manifested itself in something of a make ability- illusion/obsession. And sadly, many coaches seem to only confirm this illusion, they are ignoring a big blind-spot. They are ignoring the ‘Beschränkungen’ (the limitations), and on top of that they quite often appear to lack in the ‘art of dealing with reality’.  A huge blind-spot for deep and high layers within ‘the process of becoming a human’ (Abraham Herschl: to be human, is to become human)…

Mastery

Mirjam Sterk, member of the CDA, is leaving the Dutch parliament after 10 years. She says that she thinks that it is time for her to develop other areas, such as the governance of the media. In DWDD Prem Radhakishun responded to Sterk’s withdrawal: ’10 years is nothing! If you really want to gain influence and get to the top, you have to stay!’ In my opinion Prem has a point there, but at the same time I think that Mirjam’s choice is a logical and smart one.

Studies have shown that you have to work (train) for about 10.000 hours to grow into mastery in your profession (on the condition that you are focused on your core-competences, and that you are only able doing so for a maximum of 700 hours a year). This means that it takes approximately (at least) 14 years to grow into mastery.

Where does this leave Mirjam? With the analogy of the old guild-system Paul Donders and Chris Sommer (in their recently published book ‘Meesterschap’) divide the process of growing into mastery into the following different phases:

Christian Entrepreneurship

In the previous blog I have already briefly discussed CSR. So, how does that idea correspond with entrepreneurship that is based on Christian ethics and belief. For one, such entrepreneurship does know the same stadia of the Maslow Pyramid. Nonetheless, there is a significant difference here...

Corporate social responsibility

Throughout the entire market corporate social responsibility has become more and more important. And for that matter, within pretty much all markets all over the world.

After the WOII economic growth has been perceived as a stabilizing movement that was important for peace between the European countries. Eventually it has led to the fact that European citizens generally are enjoying a lifestyle that includes pretty much all the steps of the Maslow pyramid, but furthermore it has led to the consequence that this way of life has penetrated in more or less all our social structures (including business-structures). Take for instance the car-industry. During the sixties the focus was on mass-production. Cars were produces in stock. There were only a very limited amount of variations and options. During the eighties and the nineties we’ve witnessed an enormous increase in models, options, motors, etc. Today a client can select nearly all the car-components online. And with some producers it is possible to follow the entire production-process online. This obviously implies a huge involvement of the clients. Another interesting comparison can be drawn in regard to the telephone. With first the cell-phone and now the smart-phone – with all its possibilities and Apps – the costumer is really choosing, creating and developing his own product. Successful products are responding to the fact that the customers are living in the top of the Maslow pyramid, and hence have the need of self-development. Or in other words, successful companies are those who have created a strategy that response to its customers desire for continuous self-development.

Deafening silence !

Don’t you often wish that all the noise from around you, as well as from inside of you, would stop for a moment? That you could be in harmony with yourself. To just have nothing on your mind for a minute. Is there such a thing?

For one, psychology indicates that this works differently for woman than it does for man. But I know that man can wholeheartedly enjoy it. However, a certain ambiance is an absolute must. It is not possible to achieve such a ‘state of silence’ at your workplace, at the coffee-corner, or at similar locations. In ordinary life it is all too much about you, there are simply too many incentives, and what to think of the wide range of responsibilities...

Living the Benedictine way

Two weeks ago on a Saturday night I was on my way home. In Stellenbosch I received a call informing me that my flight to Amsterdam was cancelled.  Fortunately they immediately booked me on another flight via Johannesburg and then onto Amsterdam, however this was 24 hrs later. On the one hand this was a big disappointment - especially for those at home - but soon the bright side of it all became apparent. Again one more day in this beautiful environment. There was nothing I could change and so I could easily accept it and turn it into a positive experience. This was not difficult at all. It gave me the opportunity to consciously experience this day without any obligations as a true gift.

In my daily life I actually experience every day as a new gift. In the morning I start with a ritual - a short meditation - to greet the day with silence and contemplation. At the end of each day I usually close off with listening to a short version of a Celtic compline - each night a different one - and an evening prayer. A good start and a worthy closure. In between those two moments my day unfolds with a lot of variety. A healthy rhythm gives structure to my daily life and helps me to stay on top of the hectic realities. I do not always succeed, but it surely does help.  

Resignation: tragedy or possibility?

It is striking that when hiring employees a lot of attention goes out to the application process. The importance to get the right person for the right job is recognized. However, too often the importance of a resignation process is underestimated. Legal bickering and/or negative, emotional energy can be prevented by coaching employees with care and respect towards their resignation.

As a leader you cannot escape it: within your career, sooner or later you will have to deliver a resignation message because of economical recession or because the person in question is ineffective in their role. Especially now, in times of financial crisis, downsizing and reorganization are taking place within organizations. Healthy leadership implicates a healthy HR-policy with clear procedures. In practical terms this means that as a leader you have thought about a careful and respectful resignation procedure.

How can you develop a procedure that shows care & respect?
5 questions that can help you along:

South Africa

Albert Hoekstra and I are sitting in the ‘Koopmanshuis’ in Stellenbosch (R.S.A.). It is currently about 35 degrees Celsius. So, it is rather warm, especially compared to the minus 18 that is lately turning Europe into a freezer. Which is, by the way, the reason that we found ourselves sitting here. We’ve added an extra day to our amazing and inspiring journey through South Africa. We had to, since nearly no airplanes were able to fly from and to Schiphol (Amsterdam).

Next to learning patience, it means an extra day to think and to evaluate the journey. This was the second xpand visit to South Africa, and a way to discover how we could participate in building this fantastic country. A country of 47 million people, 11 languages, and a long and at times difficult history, great challenges, and amazing people.

Managers build a team, leaders build a community

Being a manager means you are responsible for the effectiveness of your organization. Quite a responsibility! How much can be won by just organizing better and more efficient? How much energy is constantly lost due to poor communication and working chaotically past each other. And what to think of the many poorly prepared meetings, which are often for about 50% useless. In short, there is plenty to ponder about for all our excellent managers out there. It is evident that they are absolutely needed, on all levels.

All that though, is just one side of the coin. Managers have to build a team, with whom they effectively realize projects. This is not enough nonetheless to captivate and bind talent. Who, anno 2012, wants to find, acquire, develop and keep ‘the talent’ has to have leaders, next to the mere managers.