Last week, I participated in a “Corporate Strategy Retreat –Workshop” of the B. Grimm Group of Companies. About 25 senior managers from various companies of the business group were present. Harald Link, the CEO, opened the meeting with an introduction of each and every participant to the audience. He described briefly everyone’s major contribution to [...]

After too a long night at the computer, together with my former master’s student, finalizing a journal article for submission to the editorial board, my eyes began to shut at a time around 3:10 am. Few time after waking up the next morning, I find myself sitting in an ICE train towards my home town. [...]

Dear Friends,
Today, September 9,2009, we are launching our blog TheCareGuys. We, that is Heinz Landau and Stephan Polomski, will share with you some of our experiences on caring leadership. In order to get a more diverse view on this topic, we will invite from time to time guest bloggers from our personal network who will [...]

When Frank Sinatra sang these lines, he meant New York and his career path – to be a number one, top of the list – just the feeling of having it achieved to be at the summit and celebrate oneself happily and loudly. – When Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was experiencing the feeling of standing [...]

Recently, I read an article in a business magazine where a seasoned CEO was asked what his three most significant lessons learned over his career were. That made me think what I would have answered, if I were confronted with this question.
Those people who know me will not be surprised that I will cite three [...]

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2009, the trust among general public (including employees) of corporate CEO’s and leaders is at it’s lowest point since the barometer started 10 years ago. Not surprisingly.
I started to think and read of what it is that drives trust as a leader and what it means being an [...]

At Merck Thailand, we used to have a vision and a mission statement where the satisfaction of employees as well as customers was explicitly mentioned. In order to know where we are standing regarding the progress of the implementation of our mission and vision, we decided to carry out every six months an Employee Satisfaction [...]

Who does not know this inner impulse seeing somebody obviously in need and then addressing him: “May I help you?” Or more sublime: “Do you have enough support”. Or less sublime: “Why don’t you do it this way.” Or even: “I show you the right way.” And finally: “I will help you.”
So, what exactly is [...]

Leadership is an everyday task – not only in your business context, but also in your private life. It is about keeping your commitments you made to your customers, your colleagues, your managers, your friends or to your kids.

Einstein said: „Although it is possible to describe everything in life scientifically, it would not make sense. Even more: it would be absolutely meaningless – as if one would try to describe a symphony of Beethoven as a variation of differing acoustic waves and their differing compression.”
So, what is resonance?
In the technical sense and much [...]

I just came across a great article in The McKinsey Quarterly 2009, Number 2 titled “The irrational side of change management” where  authors Carolyn Aiken and Scott Keller point out common pitfalls in change management. However, there is also a valuable lesson to be learned for leadership communication in general.
Many leaders seem to be unaware [...]

Even senior managers – this is what I experience – misunderstand employer branding as a mere recruiting tool designed with the purpose of “selling” the employer to selected candidates. In this perceptive landscape the employment becomes a product sold by the company as employer. In this landscape a working contract – money for my time, [...]