Before I elaborate more, a small disclaimer. I realize that the timing may differ depending on your location, and some of you may not have left the first wave yet.
When I watch the news, I hear the same conversations all over again. When I check the Whatsapp groups I’m part of, the discussion seems precisely the same as six months ago.… Read the rest
Giving a TED talk is definitely an experience where you get out of your comfort zone. For most of us, mere mortals, anyway.
It’s not just about the talk itself. I’ve been speaking to audiences before, some of them significantly larger than the live audience I spoke to two weeks ago. … Read the rest
When you give a TED talk, you get 18 minutes to share your message. You get on your red dot, and when you start your talk, a big clock you can’t miss starts counting down. The good news is that you know this so that you can prepare for it.
When I prepared for my TED talk, I had divided my text into eight blocks.… Read the rest
Showing up matters. Showing up is a critical component of being successful in life and work. Showing up has many components and can be seen both literally and in a symbolic way of speaking.
You can show up in person, with your presence, with the tools you have available to make yourself ‘heard’.… Read the rest
“Most people don’t dream anymore.”
A quote from the book ‘Good leaders ask great questions’ by John C. Maxwell. The author writes about the fact that many people have settled and gave up on the dreams they once had.
My question to you is whether you are still dreaming?
Are there any dreams you have not accomplished in your life that you would like to take on one day?… Read the rest
I love strategy. I studied strategy. I read and learn daily about strategy. I try to understand companies’ strategies and why they succeed or fail. Without a good strategy, you will never be successful. But a good strategy is not a guarantee for success.
Strategy is like playing chess. You’ll need to think a few steps ahead; otherwise, you’ll never win.… Read the rest
Yesterday evening Bayern Munich won the Champions League edition 2020. No worries, I’m not going to talk about football (soccer) in my blog. I’m just starting the blog of this week with a simple statement: the team that plays most like a TEAM wins.
You can build a team of stars, hoping that their quality, in the end, will prevail for the win, but more often than not, it’s the best team and not the group of best players going home with the trophy.… Read the rest
In my last two blog posts, I wrote about conditions that needed to be present for teams to maximize the potential for robust, sustainable, high performance.
First, a team needs to invest time to get to know each other well. Leaders need to build a foundation where team members trust each other.… Read the rest
Are you finding yourself in a healthy debate now and then? A fierce conversation between people who passionately fight for what they believe? Fierce to the extent that it may look to an outsider you’re fighting with your conversation partner. And when the conversation is over, you leave the room shoulder to shoulder as if nothing ever happened.… Read the rest
The past blogs I wrote primarily about self-development and awareness. Understanding self is the critical foundation for building better relationships at work and in our personal lives.
Those relationships only thrive when there’s trust between people. Without trust, no relationship, team, or business performs according to its potential. Billions (pick your currency) are wasted every year because there’s no trust between people.… Read the rest
Do we need more rebels? Or are we looking for something else?
If you read about leadership regularly, you must have seen the word rebel passing by. We are exposed to ‘corporate rebels,’ we learn about rebel leaders, and I’ve read the term authentic rebel on more than one occasion. Apparently, it’s refreshing to be a rebel these days.… Read the rest
“I don’t have time.” One of the most heard (or expressed) sentences during our busy lives. You are regularly exposed to these four words or use them yourself more often than not.
The problem is you actually do have time. … Read the rest
Mindset is a key differentiator between success or failure. Without the right mindset, it’s highly unlikely that we accomplish our dreams and ambitions. But mindset is not just a matter of ‘just do it’. We can influence our mindset and make it easier to achieve what we’ve set to achieve.
What will not change is that success always starts with a first step.… Read the rest
Why silence is such a powerful leadership tool
When Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, paused for 21 seconds (check it out here) before answering a question about the racial tensions in the United States, everybody talked about the pause, not the content of his answer. The pause made most people so uncomfortable that it became the focus of attention during the news reports following the press conference.… Read the rest
Moments define our lives. Fractions of seconds that determine how we live our lives. In some cases meaningless choices proving to be monumental decisions. Sometimes deliberate, sometimes pure coincidence. Our days are filled with moments. Most of them never stick. Some create lasting impact. What’s clear is that we remember moments, not days.… Read the rest
What if…?
One of the most powerful questions there is. And yet, a question we don’t often experiment with.
Asking ourselves ‘what if…’ may imply regrets regarding a decision in the past. Or it may mean we need to do something different in the future—both a possible change to our status quo.… Read the rest
In many countries, things are opening up again after the lockdown periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons why differ per country. Some countries are opening up again because they’re in control, and therefore they can release some of the tight measures. Other countries are not in control yet, but they feel the pressure to get the economy going again.… Read the rest
What will your future look like?
“Never waste a good crisis”, Winston Churchill once famously said. If COVID-19 has proven one thing to all of us, we need to be prepared for change at any point in time. Change always presents opportunities. The question is whether we’re open to it and ready to embrace and act on it.… Read the rest
Most of us have not seen anything like the impact the Coronavirus is having on the business we work at, or we may own. Not knowing whether what we’ve built up over so many years will survive, we need to come up with the right behaviors and actions to weather the storm and not drown.… Read the rest
How do we live our lives to the fullest?
How do we keep our teams loyal and engaged?
How do we keep our customers happy?
How do we maximize the potential of our companies?
How do we adapt and get better?
In the past two years, I’ve been on a journey to find the answers to these questions.… Read the rest
