You do a product or strategy workshop and your teammates aren’t sharing their thoughts?

You try to coach more and ask more questions and you’re wondering why your colleagues are not responding as engaged as they should or could?!
Well, maybe you’ll need to reflect your expectations and change your communication culture a bit (and don’t expect that it’ll be done overnight).

Many managers we are working with blame their colleagues being too “introvert” or “shy”. But what do those two words really mean and are they really appropriate?

The oxford dictionary defines being shy as nervous or embarrassed about meeting and speaking to other people. An introvert is: a quiet person who is more interested in their own thoughts and feelings than in spending time with other people. Some also say that introverts recharge their batteries on their own while extroverts do in company. So reserved behaviour doesnt necessarily mean your team is not...

Have you ever taken on the task of organizing a bachelorette party? They say it's fun, right? Well, I recently organized one for my best friend in Austria with a group of 12 people, and let me tell you, it was an adventure!

To be honest, the task was larger than expected - because in my imagination, it was supposed to be a easy-peasy. But suddenly it felt like I was managing a team of 12, each with their own preferences and ideas. So prioritizing took on an entirely new meaning. 

At the end it was a resounding success, and her joy was evident - perhaps even visible in the photo! The hard work and planning paid off, creating a celebration that she cherished.

So, how do you approach massive projects where you dont have any experience so far? How do you make yourself an overview?

My learnings from this project: 
- ask someone, who already managed something similar - Learning from their experiences can provide valuable guidance and help you navigate potential obstacles more...

Dear managers and specialists out there, please learn to get to the point - stop wasting others time and motivation. I’ll try it as well! :)

Think about that person in a meeting that always talks too much. The one that always needs to share another story aaand another story, filling every inch with filling words so nobody can interrupt their thinking flow…. Is it you? Or is it someone on your team?

I confess, I used to be that person - a communication mess, drowning in a sea of words without a clear direction. A member of my family is communicating like that and I copied it growing up. I talked a lot but failed to get to the point, often succumbing to the trap of excessive chatter. And the worst was - I even had a thinking process like that!
Fortunately my communication trainer mentors Chris Mulzer and Christian Pessing then pulled the plug in my twenties.

Here's the issue: Many of us often let discussions repeat, failing to get straight to the point. On a rational level,...

This year I decided to celebrate New Year's Eve in a small circle instead of as planned at the famous Berlin club Berghain. 

Well, many friends tried to convince me to join. It's not that Berghain isn't appealing or that big parties don't have their own charm. They offer a vibrant energy and a unique atmosphere. 

So you might wonder why i skipped?
This time I realized that my priorities are different. Its not that one option is better than the other - more that we should consciously decide for or against certain life situations.
As leaders, we often focus on the needs of our team, but sometimes forget to look at our own needs.

I think we should direct our lives towards personal responsibility. We need to look out for ourselves, reflect on our needs and act accordingly. 
The decisions we make in our private lives also have an impact on our professional lives. 
This year, I was more in the mood for a quiet, more intimate dinner with people I feel connected to. So that i...

The start of a new year has a symbolic meaning as a time of new beginnings and renewal. Many people often see the turn of the year as an opportunity to work on their goals with renewed energy and motivation.

So, following on from our theme from the last post, we're going to delve deeper into the distinction between an enabling belief and an inhibiting belief. 
Distinguishing between an empowering and an inhibiting belief often requires careful self-reflection.
Inhibiting beliefs can make you anxious, insecure or demotivated. They can cause you to withdraw, avoid risks or limit yourself. 

It's perfectly okay to have limiting beliefs. But if you want to develop yourself further, we will show you what you can do if you want to change a belief:
Create awareness - Take time to identify your beliefs. In the previous post, we described a few tips on how this can work.
Question your beliefs - Is that really the case? Really always? Really everyone? 
Formulate empowering beliefs -...

Beliefs are deeply rooted convictions that influence our thoughts, feelings and actions. During our lives, we develop them through experience, imprinting, education and culture. 
Beliefs can be empowering or inhibiting and influence how we perceive ourselves and what is happening around us. 
Depending on the set of beliefs we carry around, we evaluate situations we experience differently.

How can you identify your beliefs? 
Listen to your selftalk - How do you talk to yourself? What words do you choose when you have an inner monologue? Do you talk gently to yourself? Or are you very hard on yourself? 
Ask yourself - Ask yourself questions that focus on your beliefs. For example, ask yourself: "What do I believe about myself? About my abilities? How do i define my worth?" Write down your answers to recognize patterns.
Observe yourself - notice your emotional reactions to certain situations. Emotions are often linked to beliefs. For example, if you feel anger, fear or...

After our last post, have you tried changing your habits through positive frames?

""Future Pace"" is the secret weapon that can help you make even better progress.

This method involves consciously imagining and internalizing your goals and wishes as if they had already come true. You mentally transport yourself into the future and experience the fulfillment of your wishes in every detail.

Using the power of imagination

A central component of Future Pace is the conscious use of your imagination. By imagining how you have already achieved what you want, you send powerful signals to your subconscious. These signals act like a magnet that pulls you towards your goals.

Let's go through the 2 steps using an example:

1) Clearly and precisely create your goal: ""Starting next Monday, I will integrate warm-ups into my meetings to get my team and myself into a positive group energy.""

2) Visualize success: Close your eyes - What do you see? What do you hear? And what do...

Do you know the feeling of no longer wanting to do a certain behavior or wanting to do something more strongly?
I for example never really enjoyed reading, it was more like a task on my to-do-list.
In a rad turnaround, not a bookworm till now, I decided to flip the script and dive into the bookish adventure. The simple choice to kick off a book club with a friend of mine made reading more easy for me. So i changed my perspective by creating a frame of joy.

This is shouting at us: Change starts when you take a look at your habits and think of ways to make it easier for you to change your behavior.
We all have unpleasant tasks and challenging situations. But we can create a framework that makes it more pleasant for us to act on it.

For example:
- Put on music you like
- Do it together
- Prepare your favourite drink before you start
- Reward yourself with a task you like

Did you hear about the "Future Pace"-Method?
This technique is from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) used to mentally...

Team building events are a great way to strengthen cooperation, communication and trust within the team.

Many teams go for dinners and drinks, and this is even great. Sometimes it needs more to take the team bonding to the next level. At our last event, we accomplished that by jumping together from 13123,36 feet. 

A skydive is more than just a team event - it's an adventure that sends your team members on an emotional journey that strengthens their relationship with each other and the entire team. 

The event got cancelled 2 times - so the excitement increased.

Before the jump, the excitement was palpable and visible - from sweaty palms, to "panicked" laughter, to joking about calling the whole thing off. But it was clear to each and every one of us, we were going through this together. 

We were briefed on all the necessary safety measures and then it was off to 4000 meters in a very small plane.

The moment of the jump was a mixture of thrill and excitement. I mean ......

It has never been clearer to me how much effect my hair has on how I see myself and how others perceive me

When Fabiana cut her hair from long to short, she not only changed her external appearance, but also began a journey through the complex world of self-perception and the perception of others.

In many cultures and societies, certain standards of external appearance are considered accepted, ranging from gender roles and professional requirements to social expectations.

Long hair is often associated with femininity, while short hair tends to be considered masculine. 

These gender stereotypes can lead people to make assumptions about a person's personality based on their hair length, for example. 

Did Fabiana feel this? YES! Since Fabiana has shorter hair, she is thought to be more confident, tough, and brave. For her, the change was an expression of self-determination and liberation from social "norms".

What conclusions can we draw from this for you as a leader?...