People in our age may start to think about the following question: what would I do in my second half of the life?
Just take an example: I worked in Telecommunication Industry for last 18 years and can hardly image to continue in that industry for next 18 years until I would be able to retire officially. Even if I would like to, my employer with best intention may not be able to keep me that long.
A colleague of mine, a highly capable female professional decided two years ago to be a Yoga teacher. And now she seems to be extremely happy with that decision.
During today’s lunch I opened this discussion with few colleagues. I started saying to a colleague: “You are maintaining an image of a perfect detective with you cool look, a long coat, analytical capability and communication skill.” He laughed: “There might be a market for coaching for second profession for the second half of the life for you. But detectives are absolutely not what I would do.”
People with our experiences are extremely valuable when we focus on our strengths. And generally education in its broadest scope can be one of the areas you might want to look for opportunities. In that industry your value will increase when you get older, provided that you never stop adapting and learning new things.
Another growth industry will be something I would call “how people spend their leisure time?”. Think about how often you go to massage in China compared how often you go massage in Germany. Productivity will grow, efficiency will increase. People will work generally less time with more results. They will generally have more money and have more idle time. What are they going to do with the extra time and extra money? There is a market from macro economy perspective.
Then we have some well known growth industries such as alternative energy and health care. If you are working in one of the related industries, you are lucky and can try to move to one of the hot spots for your second half of your professional life.
It is your life and you absolutely deserve the best out of it.
Showing posts with label Talent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Talent. Show all posts
Friday, October 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
How to Raise Children Effectively?
On Friday 12, my first daughter Sophia finished the high school (Abitur) at the German School Shanghai. The whole family went there for the celebration. Sophia got the best scores at the school and received in addition three awards in Physics, in arrangements for different activities and for the competition of best foreign schools.
After the celebration some parents came to my wife and me and asked: “How do you raise your children?” This was a very good question. Honestly we never thought about it before. It is like to ask a slim person, how she keeps her body slim. Most likely she just does not know, because she was slim for the entire life. Sophia got always the best scores.
But when we reflected our experience with Sophia’s education, we may want to mention one thing that contributed most to her success. Sophia tried to do a lot of things in early years including writing creative texts, designing web sites, playing theatre, playing piano, participating technical camps and participating reading competitions.
During the course of years, she some times shifted the interests. What so ever jumped into her mind, we always encouraged her to do. When she was successful, we were happy with her. When she wanted to do something else we said that’s fine to try something new. For selection of university and subjects we never had any preoccupation and instead asked her to explore herself what she really likes.
So what did we really do in her development? Not much. We leave her in free run, encourage her to try new things and play some role models ourselves. And we are extremely happy with the results and the little time we have invested.
After the celebration some parents came to my wife and me and asked: “How do you raise your children?” This was a very good question. Honestly we never thought about it before. It is like to ask a slim person, how she keeps her body slim. Most likely she just does not know, because she was slim for the entire life. Sophia got always the best scores.
But when we reflected our experience with Sophia’s education, we may want to mention one thing that contributed most to her success. Sophia tried to do a lot of things in early years including writing creative texts, designing web sites, playing theatre, playing piano, participating technical camps and participating reading competitions.
During the course of years, she some times shifted the interests. What so ever jumped into her mind, we always encouraged her to do. When she was successful, we were happy with her. When she wanted to do something else we said that’s fine to try something new. For selection of university and subjects we never had any preoccupation and instead asked her to explore herself what she really likes.
So what did we really do in her development? Not much. We leave her in free run, encourage her to try new things and play some role models ourselves. And we are extremely happy with the results and the little time we have invested.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Call for Creating a Culture of Talent Development
In many companies, talent development is considered privilege for elites. They invest only in the high potentials and leaders. The vast majority will be ignored for trainings or other development opportunities.
In contrast, some high performance companies take talent development more seriously. They invest more money to cover most of their employees, if not all. They apply the principles of sun shining: it should reach every corner on earth.
Recently I read two books by and about Barack Obama “Audacity of Hope” and “The Change We Can Believe in”. One of Obama’s policies is to take care of the majority of the American population in terms of education, health care, tax benefits, because those are the people who build the backbone of United Stated.
What is the backbone of a company? The 80% of people who actually do the work. Those people need to be developed. They are the real assets of a company whose value need to be increased, year over year.
There is an urgency to create a culture where talent development is on every one’s agenda and on management top priority. This is not only a long term issue. This is not only a strategic issue. It is short team and tactic. The whole surviving and striving of a company in today’s highly competitive environment are based on people, on their knowledge levels, skills and motivation to do and be the best they can.
In contrast, some high performance companies take talent development more seriously. They invest more money to cover most of their employees, if not all. They apply the principles of sun shining: it should reach every corner on earth.
Recently I read two books by and about Barack Obama “Audacity of Hope” and “The Change We Can Believe in”. One of Obama’s policies is to take care of the majority of the American population in terms of education, health care, tax benefits, because those are the people who build the backbone of United Stated.
What is the backbone of a company? The 80% of people who actually do the work. Those people need to be developed. They are the real assets of a company whose value need to be increased, year over year.
There is an urgency to create a culture where talent development is on every one’s agenda and on management top priority. This is not only a long term issue. This is not only a strategic issue. It is short team and tactic. The whole surviving and striving of a company in today’s highly competitive environment are based on people, on their knowledge levels, skills and motivation to do and be the best they can.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Select Your Leaders Wisely
A Company is NOT run under the principles of democracy. And the leaders are selected top down rather than bottom up. So what is your freedom to choose your leaders, your managers or your bosses?
You freedom to choose the leaders is by the time you decide to accept a job, an assignment or a project, because at that time the leader is already appointed. But you can only choose, if you have developed valid options. And I believe you will always have options, if you are a talent.
What are your criteria to select your leaders? The most important qualities of a good leader are integrity, character and judgement. However, too often the company’s leaders are selected based on the relationship and loyalty to their bosses.
Therefore you have the responsibility to carefully select your leaders before you accept a job. This is your power to influence and your right to exercise. When enough talents are doing so, it will become a voting system for selecting leaders from bottom up, because if not enough good people like you follow the unqualified leader, then he will lose power and eventually disappear.
Every one has the ability to change the world, just by changing his thoughts, actions and behaviours. You, me and many others are able to collectively improve the leadership culture in the corporate life. We should do it, because we deserve the best leaders.
You freedom to choose the leaders is by the time you decide to accept a job, an assignment or a project, because at that time the leader is already appointed. But you can only choose, if you have developed valid options. And I believe you will always have options, if you are a talent.
What are your criteria to select your leaders? The most important qualities of a good leader are integrity, character and judgement. However, too often the company’s leaders are selected based on the relationship and loyalty to their bosses.
Therefore you have the responsibility to carefully select your leaders before you accept a job. This is your power to influence and your right to exercise. When enough talents are doing so, it will become a voting system for selecting leaders from bottom up, because if not enough good people like you follow the unqualified leader, then he will lose power and eventually disappear.
Every one has the ability to change the world, just by changing his thoughts, actions and behaviours. You, me and many others are able to collectively improve the leadership culture in the corporate life. We should do it, because we deserve the best leaders.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Good Manager and Bad Manager
On the shuttle bus back to home my human resource colleagues and I discussed about what is the definition of a good or bad manager. I offered the following definition that surprised them and also myself. See if you would agree or disagree:
Good managers make from bad employees good employees.
Bad managers make from good employees bad employees.
Let me give you an example. Some years ago I was about to hire an employee and before the final decision I called his current manager and asked, how would he rate this employee’s performance from the scale 1 to 5 with 1 the highest. He said 3 to 4 the best cases. He told me the reasons about his judgment and I listen carefully. Finally, I asked him what he would recommend me to do to make this employee grade 1 by end of this year. He hesitated and said: “You do not really want to do so.” Meaning, he is hopeless, do not even try.
At the end I trusted my instinct and hired him. First, I figured out, what he is really good at. Second, I figured out, what would motivate him. Then I called him for a meeting and told him: “I see in you great potential to grow in the organization, because you always create a positive environment. When you focus on your strengths and do the things you can do best, I see for you the possibility to take over my job, when I move on.”
During the whole year I tried to reinstall his reputation by giving him responsibilities he could handle well and he liked to do. We had constant feedback sessions about how to improve the performance and the perception of other people. By end of the year, his achievements are recognized by a lot of people, including my boss. This employee got a deserved promotion.
I remember a statement by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Treat them as they are, they will become worse. Treat them as they should be, they will become better.”
Good managers make from bad employees good employees.
Bad managers make from good employees bad employees.
Let me give you an example. Some years ago I was about to hire an employee and before the final decision I called his current manager and asked, how would he rate this employee’s performance from the scale 1 to 5 with 1 the highest. He said 3 to 4 the best cases. He told me the reasons about his judgment and I listen carefully. Finally, I asked him what he would recommend me to do to make this employee grade 1 by end of this year. He hesitated and said: “You do not really want to do so.” Meaning, he is hopeless, do not even try.
At the end I trusted my instinct and hired him. First, I figured out, what he is really good at. Second, I figured out, what would motivate him. Then I called him for a meeting and told him: “I see in you great potential to grow in the organization, because you always create a positive environment. When you focus on your strengths and do the things you can do best, I see for you the possibility to take over my job, when I move on.”
During the whole year I tried to reinstall his reputation by giving him responsibilities he could handle well and he liked to do. We had constant feedback sessions about how to improve the performance and the perception of other people. By end of the year, his achievements are recognized by a lot of people, including my boss. This employee got a deserved promotion.
I remember a statement by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Treat them as they are, they will become worse. Treat them as they should be, they will become better.”
Monday, May 4, 2009
Leaders, Experts and Running Dogs
In a large company, there are three eminent ways to position yourself: leader, expert or running dog. And there are other 80% of people who positioned themselves some where in between, they can be put in any position, moved around, sent to any location and laid off, when necessary.
Leaders
Definition: one who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.
Advantages: Leaders live up their dreams, they create constantly gaps between themselves and their followers. They are innovative, positive, full of energy. They drive themselves, others and the company to some places where they never have been before.
Risks: Some times they can drive other people crazy and themselves to get a heart attack. Another risk is described by a Chinese proverb: we can not have two tigers on one mountain. I have seen again and again: a new leader stepped in and the old one have to leave. As a leader, you often have to be prepared for new challenges.
Experts
Definition: one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject (Merriam Webster Online)
Advantages: who ever the leader is in a group, experts always have the save harbor, because all leaders need people to work, to produce results, to develop products, to create marketing materials, to sell and to deliver. And experts do not form any threats to a leader. They have no chance or ambition to replace the leader.
Risks: When market or technology shift, expertise can become obsolete. So open your eyes and mind and continuously renew and improve your expert areas.
Running dogs:
Definition: one who blindly follows someone else's orders (Merriam Webster Online)
Advantages: Running dogs are much better off than their reputation. As long as the leader is in charge, running dogs are more than save. Since they usually do not have strong characteristics, they are protected by the leaders. Running dogs have usually high level of skills. They are generalists who can do any type of works pretty well.
Risks: When the leader leaves, running dogs are likely to lose their jobs, since they did not develop skills to survive without the leader. And some times they have opportunity to be promoted, when their leader step up. In this case, there is a chance of failure, since they never know how to lead and drive others.
How are you positioned in your company, a leader, an expert or a running dog? Or some where in between? Do you want to change your positioning or do to want to strengthen your positioning? See also Your Value as Expatriate.
Leaders
Definition: one who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.
Advantages: Leaders live up their dreams, they create constantly gaps between themselves and their followers. They are innovative, positive, full of energy. They drive themselves, others and the company to some places where they never have been before.
Risks: Some times they can drive other people crazy and themselves to get a heart attack. Another risk is described by a Chinese proverb: we can not have two tigers on one mountain. I have seen again and again: a new leader stepped in and the old one have to leave. As a leader, you often have to be prepared for new challenges.
Experts
Definition: one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject (Merriam Webster Online)
Advantages: who ever the leader is in a group, experts always have the save harbor, because all leaders need people to work, to produce results, to develop products, to create marketing materials, to sell and to deliver. And experts do not form any threats to a leader. They have no chance or ambition to replace the leader.
Risks: When market or technology shift, expertise can become obsolete. So open your eyes and mind and continuously renew and improve your expert areas.
Running dogs:
Definition: one who blindly follows someone else's orders (Merriam Webster Online)
Advantages: Running dogs are much better off than their reputation. As long as the leader is in charge, running dogs are more than save. Since they usually do not have strong characteristics, they are protected by the leaders. Running dogs have usually high level of skills. They are generalists who can do any type of works pretty well.
Risks: When the leader leaves, running dogs are likely to lose their jobs, since they did not develop skills to survive without the leader. And some times they have opportunity to be promoted, when their leader step up. In this case, there is a chance of failure, since they never know how to lead and drive others.
How are you positioned in your company, a leader, an expert or a running dog? Or some where in between? Do you want to change your positioning or do to want to strengthen your positioning? See also Your Value as Expatriate.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Strategic Talent Development
Let me start with a conversation between an employee and his boss about strategic talent development.
Employee: “I would like to participate a workshop about strategic talent development on Wednesday at 7:00pm and it costs 250 RMB. Can you approve?”
Boss: “I understand your personal interest in it, but I do not see any relationship with your current assignment.”
Employee: “But it is exactly what strategic talent development all about: preparing for future assignments. And the cost is minimal.”
Boss: “In fairness to all employees I will not approve. It is not a matter of cost, but a matter of principle.”
Employee: “I do not really understand it.” He went there and paid himself…
Sounds familiar?
The workshop did really happen. It was organized by AHK Shanghai for yesterday evening. The Lecturer was Katrin Braun, managing director from Machwürth Team International Asia. (She shares something common with me. We went to the same university RWTH Aachen at almost the same time. The world is small.)
Contact:
katrin.braun@mwteam.com
http://www.mticonsultancy.com/
She addressed the differences between leadership and soft skills training in China and in Europe. The resonance was very positive, proven by a lot of questions and after workshop networking. A great success.
Employee: “I would like to participate a workshop about strategic talent development on Wednesday at 7:00pm and it costs 250 RMB. Can you approve?”
Boss: “I understand your personal interest in it, but I do not see any relationship with your current assignment.”
Employee: “But it is exactly what strategic talent development all about: preparing for future assignments. And the cost is minimal.”
Boss: “In fairness to all employees I will not approve. It is not a matter of cost, but a matter of principle.”
Employee: “I do not really understand it.” He went there and paid himself…
Sounds familiar?
The workshop did really happen. It was organized by AHK Shanghai for yesterday evening. The Lecturer was Katrin Braun, managing director from Machwürth Team International Asia. (She shares something common with me. We went to the same university RWTH Aachen at almost the same time. The world is small.)
Contact:katrin.braun@mwteam.com
http://www.mticonsultancy.com/
She addressed the differences between leadership and soft skills training in China and in Europe. The resonance was very positive, proven by a lot of questions and after workshop networking. A great success.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Where are the Talents?
What is the biggest challenge in an economic down turn? Loosing Talents! It sounds a bit contradictory, because you may think that now we have more talents to compete for fewer positions. True. However, you might overlook the fact that talents always have options. And by the way, real talents require high standards of environment. They will not tolerant for mediocre working process, the type of work and of course the boss, exactly because they have options.
Let me ask you a question. In your last reorganization, when people felt uncertain, which people tented to leave first? Of cause the good ones. They are always alert, look for the best path for their career and they take quickly actions. Well, how do you identify the best talents in your organization?
Talents know how to position themselves as experts in some specific area. These people's names will immediately jump into your mind, when you think about a certain term. For example, who is doing marketing in your company? Who will you ask, when you have PC problems? etc. These people's job title may be different than their area of experts, but they are the ones people looking for advice. Just to name another example, people come to me, when there is an issue on leadership challenge.
There are no static talents. Real talents constantly develop themselves, reposition themselves, whenever the needs of the market (inside or outside) shift. They are learning and most likely also by providing value to others and by solving problems for others. Since these people are extremely useful. So it happened that they end up with 2 to 5 job offers during reorganization. Their problem is actually to make tough decision among all the good options, while many others will end up with no job offer at all.
Now, how do you, as a boss, attract those talents?
1) Position yourselves as some one who loves to be around with smart people, you do not mind that there are people working for you who are more capable than you. Question for you: do you have the gut, inner security and wisdom to do so?
2) Fully recognize their specific working style and try to meet their individual requirements, including working time, ways of communication and salary expectation etc.
3) Understand and meet their development needs. Where do they want to go, career, emotion, spiritual, life style? What are their values? Can you fully accept, recognize and support them?
4) Give them a lot of freedom.
If you do all these continuously, you will be overloaded with talents. And you are automatically positioning yourself as a "leadership talent" who will never have difficulty to find a job again.
Let me ask you a question. In your last reorganization, when people felt uncertain, which people tented to leave first? Of cause the good ones. They are always alert, look for the best path for their career and they take quickly actions. Well, how do you identify the best talents in your organization?
Talents know how to position themselves as experts in some specific area. These people's names will immediately jump into your mind, when you think about a certain term. For example, who is doing marketing in your company? Who will you ask, when you have PC problems? etc. These people's job title may be different than their area of experts, but they are the ones people looking for advice. Just to name another example, people come to me, when there is an issue on leadership challenge.
There are no static talents. Real talents constantly develop themselves, reposition themselves, whenever the needs of the market (inside or outside) shift. They are learning and most likely also by providing value to others and by solving problems for others. Since these people are extremely useful. So it happened that they end up with 2 to 5 job offers during reorganization. Their problem is actually to make tough decision among all the good options, while many others will end up with no job offer at all.
Now, how do you, as a boss, attract those talents?
1) Position yourselves as some one who loves to be around with smart people, you do not mind that there are people working for you who are more capable than you. Question for you: do you have the gut, inner security and wisdom to do so?
2) Fully recognize their specific working style and try to meet their individual requirements, including working time, ways of communication and salary expectation etc.
3) Understand and meet their development needs. Where do they want to go, career, emotion, spiritual, life style? What are their values? Can you fully accept, recognize and support them?
4) Give them a lot of freedom.
If you do all these continuously, you will be overloaded with talents. And you are automatically positioning yourself as a "leadership talent" who will never have difficulty to find a job again.
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