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...