I attended an instructor led leadership training session a couple of weeks ago. The training was well-organized, the training material of good quality and the trainers applied various training methodologies such as presentation sessions and interactive group work activities. However, there was one thing that really struck me.
Leaders within organizations are tasked with taking time to know what burnout is, how to identify it, how to prevent it, and how to address it if it spotted. It may seem like that is a personal matter for the employee to tend to, however, there is evidence to the contrary. Organizations are, at the core, made up of people. Not taking care of them is like neglecting any process or element of the business. If you don’t address this problem which may be lurking in your workplace, it could cost the company capital, both human and financial.
We have already arrived there. Long lost are the days where achievement, wealth, and position relied solely on an individual, or entity’s, capacity to rival against another to obtain the optimum available resources for themselves. Such an orientation primarily defined material success in the industrial and post-industrial eras and had its remnants extended into the beginning of the 21st century. It served its purpose in the frame of reference of the predominant capitalist’s value-system that prevailed in societies. But as we already entered the knowledge economy, recognized by its rapid technological advances, globalization, and extended communications networking and infrastructure, we cannot help to become increasingly aware of rapidly changing trends that kick dust in the eyes of the rat-race that once was.
Money makes the world go round? No way. Motivation makes the world go round! Motivation is an invisible force hidden in every single one of us. It’s the fire in us that determines our actions and decides where we invest our time and energy. We are motivated to a greater or a lesser extent depending on our respective daily condition, the environment, and interests. At times of high motivation, even difficult tasks can be a piece of cake and we are able to achieve incredible things. What’s behind the motivation mechanism? How can we increase motivation based on scientifically substantiated findings? We will get to the bottom of these questions in our current blog.
Strategy is a term usually connected to top management, long-term planning, goals, and consulting. This view dominated strategic management in theory and practice since the middle of the last century. Strategy as practice, SAP in short, is a new approach that questions this dominance. In this blog we present to you what’s actually behind SAP.
Whatever the industry, there are certain elements that all high performance teams (HPTs) have in common. When building a HPT, the onus is not only on the employee but on leadership as well. In some regards, HPTs are born. In other ways they are selected, shaped and refined. Of course, a good working definition of what a HPT is and some prerequisites are necessary in order to achieve one. A high level of interpersonal skills are required to get the job done.
Leadership is a phenomenon that has interested people for hundreds of years. One rather outdated explanatory approach still plays a prominent role in practice and the media in particular: The so-called Great Man Theory. In this blog we present what this theory is all about and why it is time to look for alternative approaches.
Exchanging knowledge is a great way to learn from and with other people, generate innovative ideas and solve complex problems. In addition, we all bring a vast amount of knowledge and experience with us that can add tremendous value to each and every member of a team or group that participates in knowledge exchange sessions. However, the benefit of structured knowledge exchange sessions goes far beyond that. We are all human beings and thus it is also a great deal of fun meeting other people, sharing knowledge and enjoying the time while learning from each other.
Working in distributed teams is one of the major trends in the 21st century. Many technology start-ups are spearheading this development with teams distributed across different countries and time zones working on one and the same project. Traditional companies are heading in the same direction with an increasing share of employees working from home and international project teams collaborating across departments and sites. On top of this, corporate intranets are on the way to becoming the tool of choice for company internal collaboration.
Lean and Agile approaches are currently on everyone's lips. While Lean is still often associated with production optimization and the automotive industry, Agile appears to be closely linked to software development and IT. This understanding has, however, changed since Lean and Agile are successfully applied in areas such as Lean start-up, marketing and project management. In this blog, we would like to introduce you to both approaches and present a new learning model based on Lean and Agile or "Leagile Learning", which can be implemented quickly and efficiently.
