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It's all about you!


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It's all about you!
Gerhard Krude  CEO, Germany

Before you start leading a team - find out who you are (and not what you are for whatever reason want to be).


Well, it's all said before - I just can double or stress it - and add my personal perspective.

I remember quite well what 'Dilbert's boss thought one day on my calender: 'Half of being a manager is living with a vague feeling of uneasiness' (dilbert.com/strips/comic/2006-01-24/) . And I said to myself: This guy (Scott Adams) must have been invisibly sitting inside my office for the last few weeks...
What did the boss (or should I say I - at that time) wrong? (Maybe it helps if you really read the comic first - I still don't feal comfortable when I read it...):
He might have figured what's necessary. He assigned an engineer (however Wally is well known for being not too pationate about fulfilling his tasks) - and than he stopped following up unless it is about the time he is supposed to present results...
Wally cannot remember the project he was assigned to - and says what a developer under pressure always would say: 'Oh - in that case, it's almost done'.
What went wrong? The engineer acted the way he was supposed to - at least expected to do - didn't he?
And the manager - well he wasn't performing the way he is supposed to and (my projection) the way he was expecting from himself...

Surprise surprise - it didn't work out - and the manager knows he has to pay for it if he doesn't come up with a real good looking mock up or he - if his management isn't as limited as he is - will fail...

It makes completely no sense to act as a manager as long as you have to pretent.
Either you are what you are / or you will always fall back to what you are.

Leading a team means being yourself - on your own - surrounded by 'friendly fire' - amongst neirds - led by people pretending they understand - in the middle of nowhere: Unless you know who you are, and why you are doing what you are doing!
A very famous psychotherapist (Viktor Frankl - other than the rest of his family he survived several concentration camps) said a (for me) very important sentence: 'He who has a WHY can bear any HOW.'
Figure out who you are - WHY are you doing what are you doing - your motives - and then 'listen to your heart' - Fullstop

This's what it's all about!
You already know what to do and what's really important if you are connected - connected to yourself!
Connected to your WHY's and knowing about them.
- and if not: You might have 'the vague feeling of uneasiness' - which you also might believe is part of your job.


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