I helped someone a few days ago prepare for a big meeting with a bunch of Gen Yers, and made a Mind Map about what Gen Yers want from a leader. I remembered the time I recruited almost all of the Procurement Center for EMEA at P&G, about 200 young, charismatic, exceptional, but loud and ...
A new vision on things – or, how I stopped organizing and loved the bomb
I haven't posted in a while because lately, the whole purpose of this blog - organizing your life, having a clue about where you want to be - seemed to fade for me. I realized that, at this moment, this perspective might be doing me more harm than good. Perhaps, for me, it's time to organize ...
What you hate is what inspires change
I'm going through some confusing, yet change-prone times. It seems to come around every few years, a restlessness and need to re-define my life. Normally it includes hating what I've worked hard to earn, and a feeling that unless I do some big change around here, I'm not - ever! - going to be really ...
The Gratitude List
Dan Pink, in the book "A Whole New Mind", suggests having a "Gratitude List" on your birthday, with x things you are grateful for, if you turn x years old. The principle being that once you grow older, you learn to appreciate the things around you more, and you get more to thank for. I guess ...
The Devil’s Advocate: Corporate Life
I don't believe in safety nets. I flew on my own to the US, not having a job or a place to stay, not knowing where I would sleep the first night. And it went ok. I travelled alone by train to countries where people don't speak English, and found that sign language actually works. I trusted people ...
Mapping experience
Telling stories is so passe. Mapping is the new way to give back experience. Two insights. 1. Mapping experience is perhaps, the best and easiest way to give back knowledge. Mapping here is used as "translate into a common language" - like step by step algorythms, or "do this - get that" type of schemes. ...
The first steps of a transition
Since ages, I've loved transitions. The first days of falling in love; the changes of seasons; moving to a new place to live (ok, without the packing and unpacking); going back to school in autumn; and changing the job. Transitions spice up life. Without them, we would be caught in a neverending slumber. The only thing ...
Story Telling
Companies and buyers don't want to hear a pitch. They want to hear a story. And most often, the most credible story is your own. I've felt really compelled to read and reapply stories that start with "I was where you are now. And then I did x, y, and z, and managed to sell x much, ...
The Happiness Map
Some time ago I wrote a post about gratitude. It was inspired by a quick coaching talk I had with a peer student, who was unable to move forward in a creative process. He was frustrated and could move forward. When I asked what about the creative process he was grateful for, his tone changed, ...
Goal Setting – Magic Fairy exercise
This is a response to an exercise launched by Dragos Roua on his blog, yesterday. Don't worry, it's more than a "tag", so keep reading. Dragos pointed out that in the bedouin and magic fairy story, unless you really know what you want, you'll end up transformed in a toilet. Quite similar to Johnny Bravo saying ...
Dialogue
My life has become hectic in the past weeks, which brings me to the point of almost zero personal time. So I was wondering, what could I write, that would add value to you? Who are YOU, dear reader? I know there's some of you who drop by daily to read this little blog, and I'm thinking... - ...
Idea of the Week: Authenticity
This week, I found the same clue in several places. I've experienced it in my life, the hard way. So this makes it the Idea of the Week. Authenticity creates value. So where does this new secret of success (and, unlike Douglas Adams' computer, I'm not gonna say "42") come from? Source 1: How To Make My Blog ...
Build a Life Changing Habit
If you haven't read at least one article on New Year's Resolutions (yeah, I've got my own) in the past two weeks, you've been living on another planet. Or don't read blogs too often. Now, as the buzz on New Year's Resolutions wears off, phew, we can all go back to our usual life-consuming boredom. ...Can we? In ...
Life Management 101
I'm not a master of life. But at least I'm a hard learning apprentice. Here are some things I found along the way. I'm sure you've thought about them too. The hard part is getting to do them. This is a crash course on managing your life and bringing it closer to where you want. Call it effectiveness ...
