Coaching im internationalen Kontext - Erfahrungen und Einblicke
Möchten Sie Einblicke in die internationale Arbeit eines Coaches bekommen? Anhand realer Gegebenheiten erfahren Sie mehr über die Herausforderungen und die lessons learned meiner internationalen Coaching Praxis!
Die Ausgabe 2/2009 des Coaching-Magazin zum Thema “Mehr Coaching wagen” ist erschienen. Auf den Seiten 27-30 finden Sie meinen Artikel - Coaching im internationalen Kontext - Erfahrungen und Einblicke. Hier zum Download!
Sitting now in a house - that was build by my grand-grand father - on an African island. Having lunch with my ex nanny Zohra (the flower).
I ask her: how old are you?
She answers: I don’t know.
Amel: Why not? How can you not know how old you are?
Zohra: Why should it matter? I am living my life and one day I will die, why should knowing my age matters anyway? Others will come after me and live their life, it’s a circle.
This conversation made me contemplative for some moments …
In western countries people tend to “hide” their age because being young is the desired state. You should never ask – especially women – about their age! In the Arab world it is even desired for a woman to become old. You get more respect the older you are! Personally I enjoy that. Everything is getting better so far. I am more experienced, more mature, have fewer complexes, better s… and so one. I definitely do not want to be 18 again.
We can also ask this question for companies. The common understanding is that the older a company gets the better. Why actually? Steve Jobs said in a speech in Stanford: Death is the change agent of life. Perhaps it is time nowadays for some companies to die and leave space for new ones to emerge.
Perhaps it is nicer for people to be old and for companies to be young! Or even to forget about age, it does not matter after all ☺
Common sense but not common practice!
Obama’s example in this video is definitely a role model for me. Many people are moaning he is not doing enough, but which “werstern” president have quoted different religions and a Hadith from Islam in such an important speech. It is an important lesson for people working in a diverse environment, you can reach people hurts by connecting to their culture, it needs little effort and has a huge impact.
Video: President Obama quotes Hadith in Speech
common sense but not common practice!
Nobody knows about the future. Communities may help you learn from the unknown.
Today’s crisis has a major characteristic: no body knows what is going to happen in the future. From a philosophical view – we never knew what is going to happen, but we could at least pretend to know in the past.
7 years ago I did write an article on communities of practice as a powerful organizational form and intervention - after many frustrating experiences with an IT approach to knowledge management. In today’s environment they may become very useful. It is vital for every organization, in complex or even chaotic situations with many unknowns, to develop a leadership community that exchanges information, knowhow, views, and scenarios and stays alert to what is happening. Read the rest of this entry »
Deanne und die Mandeln … Lösung der Wirtschaftskrise?!
Wir bereiteten eine kleine Feier, ich wollte einen traditionellen tunesischen Kuchen mit Mandeln backen. Deanne*, unser wunderbares und lustiges amerikanisches Aupair, half mir Mandeln zu schälen, manchmal fiel eine Mandel auf dem Boden, die dann auf einem extra Stapel landete. Am Ende stand Deanne auf und wollte diesen Stapel in den Mülleimer werfen. Meine Mutter, zu Besuch aus Tunesien, hat fast eine Herzattacke gehabt, sprang auf, nahm die Mandeln, wusch sie und tat sie zu den anderen. Es war ein andauender „Kultur-Kampf“ um das Nicht-Wegwerfen von Lebensmitteln – in Tunesien nimmt man das Brot was auf dem Boden fällt auf und küsst es, als Entschuldigung. Read the rest of this entry »
What does good Leadership really mean in the current crisis?
Obviously you have to get costs under control, but leadership in turbulent times is much more than that if you want to secure the future. Read the rest of this entry »
When the first baby laughed for the first time,
the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about,
and that was the beginning of fairies.
And now when every new baby is born
its first laugh becomes a fairy.
So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.
From: James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan
Tiny hands and tiny feet
Someone new for you to meet
Our daughter Leyla
February 25th, 2009.
Worauf achten Sie, wenn Sie ein Unternehmen betreten? Oder wenn Sie sich irgendwo bewerben? Auf das Verhalten des Portiers, das Lächeln des zukünftigen Bosses?
Eine viel zuverlässigere Quelle zu „how business get done around here“, also zu Unternehmenskultur sind Kantinenbesuche. Der Schriftsteller Wladimir Kaminer hat 6 Kantinen getestet: „Die Kantine der Allianz war qualitativ sehr gut, aber die Atmosphäre etwas trocken. Die Kantine der Commerzbank ist sehr chic, wobei es dort eine gehobene und eine fürs Fußvolk gibt. Ich glaube mir hat Porsche a besten gefallen…haben alle miteinander gesprochen, das war sehr familiär“ (Auszug aus Interview mit FTD, 12.12.2008)
Sie können sich beim nächsten Kantinen Besuch überlegen, welche Werte hier vermittelt werden und wie sie mit Ihren eigenen Werten zusammen passen, also ein „fit-check“ der besonderen Art!
Mögliche Forschungs-Fragen:
• Wie sieht die Einrichtung aus und was vermittelt sie emotional (Kälte, Herzlichkeit, Cool sein etc.)?
• Wie sitzen die Menschen? Reden sie miteinander? Sieht man eindeutig Klicken? Sitzen die Menschen immer am gleichen Platz (bei mehrmaligen Besuchen)?
• Merkt man Status Unterschiede, Angestellte und Arbeiter z.Bsp. sitzen getrennt?
• Wie wird man angesprochen, wie liebevoll oder schlampig wird das Essen aufgetischt, welches Qualitätsbewusstsein wird hier gelebt?
• Gibt es extra Essen für Soja, Laktose, Erdnuss oder Gluten Allergiker? 
Viel Spaß beim Forschen!!!
Common sense but not common practice!
How to make decisions in such a chaotic situation?
Today’s finance and somehow also world crisis is challenging for many leaders. The tools they have learned, the experiences they have made are no longer helpful. Reading the newspaper every morning, you find tons of reports about top manager who are paralyzed with fear, even panicking, mainly because they just do not know what to do. They do not know what impact their decisions will have. To put it in a nutshell they lost all CONTROL!
Today’s situation is not just complicated or complex - it is chaotic. The turbulence is extremely high; there are no cause-and effect-relationships – so no point for looking for right versus wrong answers. The number of unknowable is increasing and everybody is under pressure to make decisions but we all lack time to think. Which results in high tension, pressure and even burn out. It is however a great chance to learn. I do not want to sound sarcastic, but we – as systemic consultants and researcher in the field – are preaching since many years that leading in complex and chaotic situations will become the norm and that leaders should start practicing. Today you can start. How? Read the rest of this entry »
Martin (CEO) called on the phone Friday 5pm:
Martin: “I need to talk to you, I want to make a decision if I want to continue working with my CFO or not! You know him, what do you think?”
Amel: “If you ask me if you should fire him or not, I am not going to give you an answer. However lets talk about what is going on in your mind right now. I can help you make your own decision based on your criteria and observation and reflect with you consequences for the business and for the organization.”
During our conversation, we found out the following main issues:
• Martin was not happy with the performance of the CFO nor was the top team. The CFO did not follow up on decisions made by the board if he did not agree personally, he would say yes and then act differently upon his convictions.
• We also found out that the CFO who was part of the organization since 25 years was hoping to become CEO himself, he never accepted Martin – an outside newcomer - as a boss. And the two were too different in their styles. Martin was suffering because of this lack of acceptance.
• The CFO had a lot of fans and high acceptance within the organization, Martin was afraid if he would fire him, that he will have an “internal rebellion” perhaps even sabotage and the organization was in a difficult turn around situation. Read the rest of this entry »