In this interview, we ask Desiree Jonek , co-founder of WoMentor and the author of the brand new paper “5 effective measures to navigate the shift to an inclusive and performing corporate culture “, 3 big questions about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI):
According to Deloitte University Press, 86% of companies have identified developing new leaders as an “urgent” need. And upon closer inspection, it’s clear to see why.
When it comes to managers’ performance, alarmingly, the norm seems to be incompetence. In a recent study, Gallup found that companies fail to choose suitable candidates for management roles a staggering 82% of the time. Now to be fair, there are not many qualified potential people to choose from in the first place.
In another report, Gallup revealed that only 1 in 10 people possess requisite management talents, such as the ability to build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency. And of those who do end up becoming managers, their talent is seldom nurtured.
A survey by Career Builders found that a whopping 58% of managers receive little-to-no management training. Alas, most bosses aren’t necessarily good at making the people around them better. And how this plays out in workplaces across the planet is disheartening.
For instance, a Harvard Business Review study uncovered that 58% of people trust strangers more than their bosses. So arguably, they are more willing to let their children get into an Uber driven by a complete stranger than they are to let them work with their boss. In light of these findings, it’s no surprise that most employees—upwards of 80% according to some of the most comprehensive studies—are disengaged, looking for other jobs, and ditching traditional employment to pursue entrepreneurship.
As it happens, the modern workplace is overrun by bosses who aren’t qualified to lead. Reflect on your career for a moment by thinking about the best boss you worked for, as well as the worst boss you worked for. Once you’ve visualized them, ask yourself: whose leadership style do you strive to emulate?
If you picked the best boss you worked for, then you have an innate understanding of the complex problem at hand, as well as its embarrassingly simple solution.
On one side, it’s heartening to see organizations worldwide upgrade from simple Corporate Social Responsibility commitments to more holistic and comprehensive Environmental, Social, and Governance commitments, as well as aspire to B-Corp status.
Glimpses of a positive-sum thriving future are visible through the cracks of the prevailing zero-sum failing system. A full year before we plunged into the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, made this urgent appeal to his contemporaries at the 2019 Business Roundtable Forum:
“The purpose of business now transcends shareholders. We need a reinvented system focused on employees, customers, communities, and the planet.”
Benioff believes that companies should use their power to advance meaningful causes. And chief among them is the fight against climate change. In doing so, he joins a small but rising list of industry captains—including Patagonia Founder Yves Chouinard, who made headlines for relinquishing his entire stake in the company to fight climate change—who speak up about the necessary structural changes required to stand a chance against the world’s most pressing issue.
So on one side, it seems that leaders have their hearts in the right places as far as environmental sustainability is concerned. But on the other, a peculiar problem is intensifying: organizations are living shorter and shorter lives. Consider that in 1958, the average age of an S&P 500 company was a healthy 61 years. But in 2023, that number is down to a mere 18 years.
In fact, McKinsey calculates that most S&P 500 companies will disappear by 2027. I suspect that this rate of decay has a lot to do with the aforementioned issue of bad bosses. As I wrote about extensively in my pandemic-inspired book, “Leadership, Reinvented,” during times of change and crises, people don’t “step up”—they actually “fall back” and “sink” to the level of their values, training, and preparation.
Given that most managers are incompetent and that our world is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, the problem becomes clearer: overwhelmed and incompetent bosses are reverting to and doubling down on a counterproductive style of management—a remnant of the early Industrial Revolutions, known in the leadership literature as “Dominance.”
Dominance-oriented leadership it’s a one-size-fits-all style of management which relies on force and intimidation to induce fear. Below are common traits of this leadership style:
Dominance-oriented leaders are inclined to enjoy giving orders, intimidating subordinates, overly relying on reward and punishment, and prioritizing the organization’s needs over those it employs. The one critical problem with this management style is that it doesn’t replicate.
And so, in the truest sense of the word, it’s an unsustainable approach to managing. After all, think back to the bad boss you visualized earlier—you’re actively choosing not to replicate their management style.
Caught up in Dominance cycles, most companies—whether on the S&P 500 or FTSE Eurofirst 300—haven’t committed to comprehensive measures to fight climate change, such as running net zero carbon operations. Staring into the abyss of time, afraid, the managers of these companies are making the grave mistake of prioritizing greater profits.
All the while, they’re exacerbating the very problem that will upend their business. Intimidation can beget compliance, but relationships based on Dominance are less stable. Getting out of unstable survival mode involves looking to the opposite approach to Dominance, namely, Prestige.
This style of management involves the sharing of expertise or know-how to gain respect. Prestige-oriented leaders are servant leaders who care about relationships with their team, avoid intimidation and coercion, strive to be role models, use soft power to influence subordinates, and create more organizational leaders. Below are common traits of this leadership style:
Compared to Dominance, Prestige is more tedious to manifest, for it requires substantial tailoring to the needs of individuals. But the caveat is that of the two, Prestige is the only style that is widely and willingly replicated. In this way, it’s the only sustainable option. But putting aside the question of ease, Prestige is actually better for business.
A ten-year examination of stock market returns for the 20 best-ranked public companies on Glassdoor reveals that 60% have beaten the S&P 500, and 91% have had positive returns. And behold, Fortune’s Top 100 best companies to work at also outperformed the S&P 500 over the past decade. The top company, Adobe, beat the market by 9.5% each year and returned 1762% during this time.
And according to the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, companies that promote a culture of health, safety, and well-being also outperformed the market by 2% per year, with a weighted return on equity of 264% (compared with the S&P 500 return of 243%). It turns out that exceptional places to work create outstanding returns for their shareholders. So while Prestige may be a more challenging path to the top, it’s absolutely worth doing.
Are there situations where a Dominance-oriented leader performs better than a Prestige-oriented leader? Yes. A top-down, dominant approach can be efficient when a solid plan is in place, and a highly coordinated, unified effort is needed to deliver it.
A dominant leader can make each part of a company adhere to clearly defined actions, and can save time through quick and firm decision-making. But all this assumes that there is a healthy relationship between managers and employees, and that good communication and buy-in have taken place.
Which, as we know, is simply not the case in the modern workplace. One way to rethink the Prestige-Dominance dichotomy is as a permission-based blend—the privilege of successful Prestige orientation is the earned ability to switch to Dominance as the needs of the organization and its people change.
For Human Resources and Learning & Development professionals, the business case is clear. And it needs to be communicated to managers across the organization—potential managers, newly minted managers, and C-Suite alike: lead with Prestige. Early in my career, a mentor advised me that a leader’s true purpose is to “develop new leaders.”
A coordinated contingent of Prestige-oriented leaders is critical to navigating our world away from impending environmental catastrophe and toward a sustainable positive-sum future. And this global effort depends on every organization’s ability to develop new leaders.
Keynote Speaker
Hamza Khan is a best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur, and globally-renowned keynote speaker whose TEDx talk “Stop Managing, Start Leading” has been viewed over two million times.
The world’s leading organizations trust him to enhance modern leadership, inspire purposeful productivity, nurture lasting resilience, and navigate constant change.
our L&D Consultants Marina Begic, Nicole Altenberger and Alina Helmlinger have experienced quite a bit over the past few months. Here they describe how it all came about, what exactly they did there, and what’s awaiting next for them…
In late November 2021, we were invited by a client to participate in an RFP for 4 regional meetings – an event of sales executives. Since this was a newly acquired company that we hadn’t worked with before, we didn’t think our chances were particularly high. In most tenders there is time pressure, we know that. Despite the end of the year, the high implementation risk (first major f2f events after Corona) and the usual pre-Christmas stress, we accepted the challenge. After all, this is exactly our playground 😉
At the pitch, we were able to convince them with an innovative presentation using an e-learning tool and a concept based on the 70-20-10 model, where the focus is on maximum practical benefit and integrated transfer assurance.
Here our agile mdi mindset was really beneficial. After receiving the confirmation that we won the project, we were asked to start the planning right before Christmas – which was also new for us 😉
The detailed program was developed in close coordination with an internal project team and adapted to the current needs of the Western Europe+Canada and Africa+Middle East regions. The conference program was developed around the following guiding themes:
Leadership
High Performing Teams
Coaching
Here we were able to apply our experience from years of international rollouts and demonstrate our leadership development expertise. It was important for us and the international project team to always keep the key themes in mind, while at the same time considering the needs of the regions. To this end, regular project meetings were held with international and regional working groups during the cocreation phase, which lasted approximately 4-5 months. A quick response, high passion and motivation of all participants characterized the cooperation.
In the end, we had an exciting 2-day program filled with keynotes, panel discussions and goal-oriented activities- in addition to content inputs, there was also an experience factor.
In the course of working with up to a total of 100 people, we were not only able to get to know the needs of the clients very well, but also the corporate culture. Thus, content and activities were created with and by all project members. The goal was to involve the target group as much as possible, both in the cocreation phase and then on stage itself.
The overall concept was developed with three levels of impact in mind:
Head
Hands
Heart
The interaction of these three levels of impact can be seen in this graphic.
The guiding themes of all events were identical, but based on cultural, corporate and situational backgrounds, the agenda was customized and tailored to the group of people on site.
The project was designed to address the following leadership learning objectives:
A varied agenda with a mix of diverse methods provided the framework for exciting exchanges and experiential values:
Although, it was the same client and there was a common theme and goal, it was exciting for us to observe the importance of individualization for the two regions Western Europe+Canada and Middle East+Africa. To achieve maximum impact, the “Heart” impact level was addressed more in Dubai and “Head” in Madrid. Both had a lot of “Hand” in common.
What was even more striking with the target group of sales executives was the competition factor. Not only did the content of the event have to be perfectly aligned with the current needs of the respective region under the global guiding themes, but it also had to be entertaining and produce clear winners. For this target group, we not only added competition components to the activities, but also designed a business rally
Here is a brief summary of our main activities:
An interactive and entertaining activity that makes aspects of “high performance teams” tangible (in the sense of: own experience beats theory). It bridges the gap between “knowing” (logic) and “feeling” (emotional understanding), so that the inspiration to act (practical relevance) makes sense in the upcoming event elements (panel discussion, leadership camp). The focus is on generating experience, as a course has to be completed in different roles (leader, follower, observer) – with varying degrees of difficulty.
This activity focused on learning the purpose of coaching and the benefits of coaching conversations. To raise awareness of coaching as a leadership tool and peer-to-peer empowerment and to get a “hands-on mindset” by having the opportunity to coach yourself in a small setting of 4 people, with the support of self-created card sets, with appropriate, challenging and pointed coaching questions. Participants are given the opportunity and the right framework for self-reflection as a leader.
Based on a scavenger hunt, company-relevant content was transformed into an entertaining and fast-paced business rally. The leader supports their groups to apply skills to address leadership challenges (behaviors from the CDF supported by experiential learning). The fun factor is supported with the help of a fictional frame story and with a competitive situation, ambition came out in all participants.
This activity is about deriving the content into actionable and concrete action steps (action steps in the areas of leadership, coaching and high performing teams). The goal is to achieve a definition of actions and key results for the next few months within a region. This 2-hour workation is used intensively and the results are presented in plenary – which are quite impressive. With this last activity all participants are motivated to start the implementation in their respective countries.
We are highly motivated after these energetic events and thankful that face-to-face events are possible again. Looking back, “Teamwork makes the dream work” – and the intensive preparation time more than paid off. It was great to see how the thread of content ran through both regions – we took individual wishes into account and can therefore look back on two successful events. The cooperation of all participants as well as the co-creation with the content experts made a state-of-the-art event possible.
From the Team MDI we were actively supported by: Helena Gia Gutierrez, (Moderation Madrid), Peter Grabuschnig (Activity Manager Dubai & Madrid), Alina Olar (Project Management), Marilena Maris (Key-Notes), Ursula Weixlbaumer-Norz (Business Rally)
This is also reflected in a Net Promoter Score, a recommendation rate of 81%.
We thank you for your trust and are already looking forward to the roll-out in the regions – Bangkok, here we come 🙂
Digital Business Development Expertin und Senior L&D Consultant
Marina has been working on new, effective learning methods and the future of corporate learning for over 15 years. In her current role, she is responsible for Digital Business Development at MDI, where her focus is not driven by the current buzzwords, but primarily on the feasibility of digital transformation for clients such as Erste Group, Lenzing, Semperit, Deutsche Bahn, Andritz AG, Uniqa, Mayr-Melnhof, Frequentis, RHIM. Her greatest strength is bringing loose ends together, which she impressively demonstrates time and time again with her big picture view and multi-dimensional approach. Her greatest passion is to provide learners not only with an experience, but also with real, lasting value for their real challenges.
Senior L&D Consultant
Since 2020 Nicole has been accompanying leaders and companies from all over the world on their journey and supports them in the creation and tailoring of suitable training and development measures. This highly diversified work has resulted in numerous different settings, in which she has had the opportunity to learn the most effective and target-oriented methods. In doing so, the personal learning experience has not been neglected either. Her clients include companies such as Agrana, Albelli, Coca-Cola, Erste Group, Frequentis, Migros, OMV, Rewe, RHI Magnesita, Swarovski, Voestalpine, Wienerberger. Her interest in the area of Learning & Development was deepened during her studies in “Business Consultancy International” and substantiated by relevant work experience within an internationally active group. Already at a young age Nicole Altenberger is one of the top Learning & Development Consultants at MDI and runs her own team.
L&D Consultant
Since 2021, Alina has been working as an L&D Consultant at MDI and supports clients from various industries in the customized design of various management development programs and trainings. In addition to her practical knowledge and the experience she has already gained in the field of development, she can draw on sound theoretical knowledge from her Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources Management and her Master’s degree in Organizational and Personnel Development, which she successfully completed in June 2022. Alina maintains her balance, especially in challenging situations, and manages to reconcile the interests of different stakeholders in complex projects, enabling her to design tailor-made HR solutions that are aligned with the needs of her customers.
We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:
– we have just the right thing for your needs!
Virtual reality for leadership development on the rise
It’s high time we use VR learning in leadership development.
That’s why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality.
The new “VR for Leaders” portfolio includes solutions for recruiting, assessment and leadership development.
The most important issue for L&D leaders right now is not just introducing new technologies to improve engagement and enable virtual delivery of programs, but rather using new technologies that will make a real difference for your teams.
Sending leaders into space may sound a bit like a stretch, but sending your teams into a completely foreign environment could be the best thing you’ve ever done for your talents.
Because it’s
Immersive learning can help organizations address some of today’s key leadership challenges, such as identifying soft skills, retaining talent, and improving employee engagement.
VR learning can be
The pandemic has pushed HR to find ways to solve the problem of distance learning, as well as ways to still
These issues are not new, and long before COVID came along, HR and L&D leaders were wondering if it was really still necessary to get on a plane, take two to four days out of the office, stay in a hotel, and get everyone together to do a team-building exercise?”
The new leadership trainings offer an immersive environment that feels real to participants, as well as
Through machine learning, artificial intelligence and validated psychometrics, the multiple immersive applications enable leaders to learn by doing, not just seeing or hearing. So virtual reality makes content come alive, not just digital!
We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:
– we have just the right thing for your needs!
In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve specific goals, a project team led by the Learning & Development department defined multi-modular development programs and educational catalogs.
With the spread of e-learning, development programs were enriched with blended learning elements. With home offices, learning experience platforms and the need for lifelong learning, it is time for an agile mindset and toolset to take hold in leadership development as well.
L&D-driven training programs with a transfer concept will continue to exist, but no longer as a core component, but as a supplement to a development concept starting from the learner. The transfer of learning, which is at least theoretically held in high regard, is also part of the ‘waterfall view’ of traditional project management.
In the meantime, Youtube, Netflix, etc. have enabled demand-driven, tailored and up-to-date learning. For example, if you want to learn to change the wheel of a micro-scooter, you can get immediately actionable offers on the Internet. Many programs learn as they go and suggest to learners, with AI support, what they will need next. Agile leadership development means enabling timely, appropriate learning experiences for ongoing leadership learning needs and is driven by five characteristics:
1. Iteration
Agile methods such as Scrum or OKR are based on the principle of checking in regular, rather shorter intervals: “Where do we stand and where do we want to go?” The same principle makes sense in L&D: For example, reviewing once per quarter based on target competencies and results:
The learner as designer: in the past, companies mainly saw the L&D department as primarily responsible for operational learning. Today, it proves to be more efficient if the learners themselves take the main responsibility. L&D can support by making particularly attractive parts of the “learning ocean” accessible through research and negotiation with learning providers and can also ensure that the corporate culture and strategy are supported through pre-selection of content.
Planned training programs with consistent participants fit less in the agile learning world than in traditional learning environments. And in the trainings, the methodology also changes towards
The consistent orientation towards the learner and the intensive involvement in the design of the learning process also increases commitment.
3. Meaningful learning motivation
Learners are no longer sent to seminars. The focus is on intrinsic motivation. In other words, learners know why they are learning something at a particular time in a particular way. Usually because they themselves have identified a challenge that they now want to overcome.
When the L&D department wants to promote a learning project, it focuses primarily on the “why.” What are the opportunities, what is the benefit of what has been learned? If employees understand for themselves that an agile learning culture brings more advantages than disadvantages for them, then the ball will keep rolling. In this way, a sustainable, agile learning culture can be built that is not lived by push from the outside, but pull from within.
The meaningfulness of lifelong learning for leaders means that no quarter goes by without a need to learn. As a result, learning is a process in which 3 sub-steps are repeated on a regular basis:
Define target competencies and learning outcomes: Learners define the target competencies together with their own leaders, L&D and, in some cases, colleagues and customers. A distinction can be made between two time horizons:
Long-term: this is a set of competencies valid for e.g. 2 years for the current function description. This long-term set of competencies is adjusted once a year for the next two years.
Short-term: effectiveness is increased by focusing on only a few competencies and expected learning outcomes within a quarter, e.g., 3 in total.
Learning objectives are defined as either intended learning outcomes or competencies. The recommended formulation is the future completed at the end of the quarter, “I will have learned X.” This envisioned image exerts motivational traction for the learning process.
Learning and measuring progress during the quarter: During the quarter, learners have a variety of asynchronous and synchronous learning opportunities available to them:
Asynchronous offerings are e-learnings, learning videos, or learning audios from inside and outside the organization.
Synchronous offerings are face-to-face events and virtual measures such as webinars, master classes, etc., usually with the possibility of direct exchange among learners and with the trainer or coach.
Since learning preferences vary, it is largely up to the learner to decide which offerings, at what intensity, and at what times are best suited. Some prefer to learn via audio files while doing sports, others need personal exchange with colleagues or a trainer. Since many things are constantly changing anyway, learning is understood as a continuous process for which a certain time and financial budget is dedicated.
Those who see learning as a project could run the risk of valuable time being lost between projects and the learning projects themselves losing relevance even before they have been completed.
Measuring progress is done through check-in meetings with yourself and a learning partner. Many learning platforms offer an automatic reminder, but a recurring appointment in Outlook is also sufficient. Intermediate grading in percentages helps visualize progress, making it more present.
Diagnose competencies at the end of the quarter, review and adjust intended learning outcomes: At the end of the quarter, learners take a final grading before the learning cycle begins again with the definition of new intended learning outcomes. Average goal attainment is less important than the process of continuous learning. It promotes motivation when the learning trend is made visible across quarters. Gamification of the entire learning journey with bonus games, treasure hunts, and continuous feedback will contribute to the joy of learning especially for younger learners.
5. Use of current learning technology
In the meantime, the use of e-learning to supplement other learning formats has become a common practice. There are hundreds of learning platforms on the market that aim to support different learning scenarios. LMS are mostly used to provide web-based learning content, track learning progress and facilitate communication.
Current developments are moving in the direction of learning experience platforms that use artificial intelligence to make learning suggestions to the learner based on his or her past queries. Internet applications such as Amazon, Booking.com, etc. observe user behavior and thus make suggestions that are as accurate as possible. AI is helping to get to know users better and better. It becomes more convenient for users because they are supported in their routines.
At the same time, atypical learning experiences should be maintained, since deeper learning involves confusion and breaking away from old concepts.
The original german article was written for Magazin Training by
CEO , MDI Management Development International
Gunther Fürstberger is a management trainer, book author and CEO of MDI, a global leadership development institute and managing director of Metaforum. His core competence is leadership in the digital transformation. He gained his own leadership experience as HR manager of McDonald’s Central Europe/Central Asia, among others.
Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on “The Future of Workplace Learning”.
Fast and targeted learning, especially for leaders, is becoming increasingly important in an intensifying digital and agile world. Therefore, Marina shared her personal learnings with us in Part 1: “Digitization Boost” and Part 2: “Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!”
By the way, we’ll soon continue with part 4!
If you would like to exchange thoughts and ideas about “Agile Leadership Development”, please send us a request. We are looking forward to you and your valuable impulses!
An international survey by the Corporate Leadership Council reveals that around two-thirds of respondents see the role of personnel development (PE) as having no effective impact on business results, because the measures do not match actual needs and because the company’s challenges are not addressed in a timely manner.
The pandemic has accelerated the need to acquire new skills and competencies. As a result, the role of HR developers becomes even more central than before. Investing in employee development in the workplace would thus have to be a must-do of corporate strategy. According to Mc Kinsey, however, the budget for qualification measures fell during the pandemic for 21 percent of respondents (in Germany, according to the degreed study, even 41%).
Personnel developers must move much closer to the strategy and the situational needs of the company’s employees. In the future, personnel developers will have the following two main roles:
Learningabler
Trusted Guide
As learning enablers (or technological gatekeepers), they create suitable spaces and provide methods, formats and tools to ensure that knowledge gets to where it is needed quickly and efficiently.
The even more important role is that of the trusted guide or learning curator.
Trusted Guides are human filters, they are competent, trustworthy people through whom we can get fast, competent and straightforward help, who support us in obtaining and verifying relevant information.
The Learning and Development department must become the first GO-TO address for these challenges.
Personnel developers can act as trusted guides directly on topics for which they themselves are passionate, or indirectly in the empowerment of other internal trusted guides.
and with the support of the methodology specialists in the Learning & Development departments, recommend content that can be drawn from different situations and create settings and learning paths that meet the needs of the target groups and enable social exchange
On the one hand, these can be experts or, in particular, leaders. Successful leaders create trust and framework conditions through open spaces and networks so that employees can take responsibility for shaping the company’s development.
Inflexible prefabricated learning programs, which are planned and rolled out for two years in advance after a one-year development period, simply no longer meet these requirements.
In addition, 100% suitable content is not always available on the market, and sometimes adaptation is required. To produce the content, you often lack the resources, the time or the skills.
In the future, curation will therefore become increasingly essential, as the focus will be on merging existing content with new experiences. Or, in other words, on the personalization of knowledge, i.e. the adaptation of content to one’s own needs, the needs of a department, a company, an industry in the open knowledge mindset (freely available and editable knowledge).
The market needs more flexible learning platforms for this purpose
which are not only concerned with searching for and collecting their own content – and subsequently producing content – but also with filtering, organizing and enriching it with other content, i.e. curating. Open Sesame and Microsoft Viva are already moving in this direction, but their potential is far from exhausted.
We will therefore need a combination of agile, supportive learning technology and a new functional understanding of L&D departments supported by trusted guides in order to meet the current and future challenges of learning & development.
Digital Business Development Expertin und Senior L&D Consultant
Marina has been working on new, effective learning methods and the future of corporate learning for over 15 years. In her current role, she is responsible for Digital Business Development at MDI, where her focus is not driven by the current buzzwords, but primarily on the feasibility of digital transformation for clients such as Erste Group, Lenzing, Semperit, Deutsche Bahn, Andritz AG, Uniqa, Mayr-Melnhof, Frequentis, RHIM. Her greatest strength is bringing loose ends together, which she impressively demonstrates time and time again with her big picture view and multi-dimensional approach. Her greatest passion is to provide learners not only with an experience, but also with real, lasting value for their real challenges.
Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert
Since my time at university, I have been working on how learning should be stimulated and how (digital) learning spaces should be designed in order to be able to develop competencies and skills efficiently, self-determinedly and effectively. I am particularly interested in the interplay between (analog) social learning processes and methods and digital tools and relevant content, which in most cases can already be found on the internet. My passion is to help people to give back autonomy over their learning, to develop information competence and to be able to make well-informed decisions. To take advantage of the supposed abundance of information on the Internet and find the relevant gems for themselves and pass them on to others. I share how I got to this point in my podcast.
We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:
– we have just the right thing for your needs!
Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger
Society for Business Psychology and Organizational Dynamics
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is stable, the personnel is well qualified for the tasks through school and professional training. All leaders are “masters of their trade”, have essentially all the necessary knowledge and are thus predestined to act as “superiors” in the respective department. Personnel development is limited to training and continuing education, and even this is the exception rather than the rule. Discussions with employees are event-driven, and structured employee appraisals do not actually take place in practice. Further training events for very specific target groups are “prescribed” and centrally controlled.
In the mid-1980s, training needs are surveyed – if at all – by well thought-out training needs surveys using questionnaires sent to all managers. The human resources department evaluates these and prepares a preliminary training budget. Budget planning is then decided for the entire company; changes and budget reductions are reported back to the divisions and departments. After this, the specific training and development measures are planned and implemented by the end of the year. The remaining planned measures are postponed to the next year or are no longer current. Short-term training needs are covered by reallocations or cannot be realized.
The case study is constructed. However, it shows the cycle of two to three years from training needs assessment to implementation and evaluation.
Our case study – TECHNIK AG is still operating successfully in the market. It is now divided into numerous subsidiaries and cooperates with numerous partner companies and start-ups.
The environment is VUCA
The year 2020, with the COVID pandemic, has once again reinforced the rapid pace and dynamics of changed and changing conditions.
Statements, such as “speed kills” and “the big will not eat the small, but the fast will eat the slow”[1], are no longer slogans [but] reality.
[1] Based on Eberhard von Kuenheim [*1928] Chairman of the Board of Management [1970-1993] and Chairman of the Supervisory Board [1993-1999] of BMW AG.
Rapid and flexible cycles in target management [agreement – delegation – implementation – review / evaluation], virtual leadership, networking, etc. are changing the world of work and thus teamwork management at all levels and in all areas. TECHNIK AG has already converted performance management to quarterly cycles and coordination takes place in “daily standings”, weekly and monthly team meetings and individual discussions between leaders and team members.
Talent and competence management is still lagging behind somewhat and still opts for the more classic methods of assessing the current situation – apart from a few exceptions and “experiments” – by means of standardized appraisal interviews and assessment centers or potential analyses. However, all those responsible in the company are aware that agile talent and competence management will become a critical factor for success in the future.
Exactly the opposite is the case. Only through precise planning as well as a goal-oriented and consistent approach can the benefits of agile management be exploited.
Target management must not be a “one-time” thing at the beginning of the fiscal year”, but must be an integral part of “daily business” at all levels.
However, the application of the various, small-scale methods of competence development, such as micro-learning, learning nuggets, e-learnings, webinars, intensive coaching elements, etc., requires a continuous assessment of the current situation. This includes the competencies relevant to the requirements [personal, communicative, methodological, special, technical and management competencies].
is also due to the fact that the investment costs are to be used efficiently and the “return on investment” is to be made at the earliest possible point in time.
The assessment of the current situation is the basis for recommendations for further development and clear development target agreements, which – analogous to target performance management – are evaluated, for example, on a quarterly basis:
The graphic shows the control loop of agile competence management, with the starting point of the site assessment (Standortbestimmung) in the form of the agile competence evaluation. (Kompetenzentwicklung) The result of the competence target/actual comparison (Erfolgskontrolle) leads to recommendations for further development. (Feedback) These are to be converted into concrete learning objectives, which form the basis of competence development
is the monitoring of the success and effectiveness of the learning content. The methods used for this purpose include self-assessments, specific test procedures, work samples, and even [interim] examinations as part of training courses. The feedback between manager and team member is the starting point for further competence evaluation and the continuous learning process can start again.
The role image of team members continues to develop “from employees to co-entrepreneurs“. For the area of competence development, this means increased self-responsibility for their own development and career. Continuous learning will [have to] become a matter of course for all employees.
In this article on “Leading hybrid and virtual teams successfully”, Anita Berger writes about the latest developments. For many leaders and their teams, the form of leadership and cooperation has shifted to the virtual space due to home offices. Another facet is the hybrid setting, where one part of the team works at the location and another part in the home office. There are challenges and opportunities associated with these forms in equal measure.
This valuable contribution is full of practical tips for all those who want to take the opportunity to look at the topics of collaboration, communication and leadership and reflect on what they want to continue to do or what they want to focus on more in the future.
The saying of the American tennis star Arthur Ashe
“Start where you are! Use what you have! Do what you can!”
certainly provides a very pragmatic guide here for how to proceed. Your task is to lead by example, to moderate a constructive exchange and to strengthen learning from and with each other. Build on your experience, your strengths and qualities and those of the team. It is about being pragmatic, not perfect. The key is to learn from doing. Create clarity regarding tasks, responsibilities, scope for action, expected work results and the decision-making processes.
2. Design the communication processes and ensure the flow of information
2.1 Focus on “K D I”
Use everything that also makes effective and efficient face-to-face meetings and focus on K D I!
KDI stands for:
2.2 Clarity
Ensure clarity on the following questions:
Create a structure for your meetings to ensure that the participants can prepare themselves accordingly.
2.3 Discipline & Focus
2.4 Interpersonal interaction
Up to now, there was usually the possibility of face-to-face interaction in addition to virtual meetings. Therefore, the focus in these virtual meetings was often “on the matter/topic”. Since the possibility of face-to-face interaction is currently very limited, dedicate time and virtual space to interpersonal interaction.
3. Strengthening team identity and team spirit in virtual or hybrid settings
It is also possible to strengthen team identity and team spirit in virtual or hybrid settings. This requires openness and the courage to try out new things.
A particular challenge that has arisen in recent months is the onboarding of new colleagues in the virtual/hybrid setting.
It is crucial to seek contact with new colleagues and express that you are looking forward to meeting them. Try to provide answers to as many questions as possible. It is helpful to change perspectives, i.e. consciously put yourself in the shoes of the newcomer and try to understand what he or she is thinking about when starting in the new organisation. For example, write a welcome letter.
At the same time, it is essential to inform the existing team in the best possible way,
What is needed in the virtual or hybrid context is planning, preparation, discipline and intensive and ongoing dialogue. In addition, the support of a mentor is conducive to social integration.
Use the impulses from this article on the following topics
to feel encouraged to continue what is working well or to identify areas of action on which you want to focus more in the future.
Executive Coach, Consultant, Trainer & Managing Partner MDI
Anita Berger is an executive coach, consultant and trainer specialised in leadership development in the VUCA world, facilitation of transformation processes and international human resources management. She is a shareholder and partner of MDI and has been working for more than 20 years in management and leadership positions (as HR Director Coca-Cola Hellenic and HR Manager Konica Minolta Business Solutions) in various industries, from medium-sized to large international corporations. Her numerous blog posts deal with current issues on: Leading virtual and hybrid teams, digital onboarding, agile change management and “Can social skills be trained virtually?”.