Wat als ... alle superhelden in je organisatie zouden samenwerken

Veel organisaties hebben reeds de weg gekozen van competentie- en talentmanagement. Hierbij ontwikkelen ze vaak intensieve programma's om medewerkers te ondersteunen om competenties te ontwikkelen en op zoek te gaan naar passies, talenten, motivatoren,

De beste medewerkers (uw superhelden) namen elke opportuniteit om te leren vast  en zijn aan de slag gegaan om betere resultaten te behalen. ... en toch merken ze vaak dat er nog iets ontbreekt om de competitie te winnen.

Elke superheld werkt in team. Superman heeft Lois Lane, Batman heeft Robin, Catwoman en de trouwe butler Alfred Pennyworth... en zo kunnen we nog een tijdje doorgaan.

Wat als al uw getalenteerde, competente superhelden zouden samenwerken ?

• er zou meer innovatie zijn door de kennisdeling en gebundelde krachten
• processen zouden over afdelingen heen gestroomlijnd lopen
• kwaliteit van producten en diensten zou hoger liggen
• er zouden minder conflicten en absenteïsme zijn en motivatie zou hoger zijn. 
• onnodige kosten ten gevolge van slechte communicatie zouden vermeden worden
• u zou de concurrentie zeker voor kunnen blijven

en uw klant... die zou een fantastische, efficiënte leverancier zien van diensten of producten en zou telkens opnieuw voor u kiezen, want u levert snel, goedkoper en kwalitatiever dan uw concurrenten. 

Samenwerking is de sleutel om meer slagkracht te verwerven en uw groei te bevorderen. 

Wilt u meer weten over "De kracht van samenwerking" ? Schrijf u dan nu in voor ons avondseminarie op 19 december via www.deknappekoppen.be

Switching languages

Dear blog-readers. Over the last months there was a radio silence on my blog. Almost no articles were published and now I have sad news (for some). I will switch languages of my blog and from now on 90% of the articles will be in Dutch, since most of my customers are native Dutch speaking.

Thank you for being a loyal audience.

kind regards

Pim Vandijck

Change or (r)Evolution ?

Every day I hear people in organizations talk about Change. We have change managers, change agents, change programs, ... it seems like there is nothing else but change. And we all know, change is often associated with rather negative feelings, like shock, denial, frustration, depression, stress, anger, ... (check Kubler Ross curve to find more out about it). SInce organizations are always changing changing changing, employees always go through these emotions, which impacts their productivity.

Evolutions and Revolutions (the only difference between these two is that revolution are more enthousiast evolutions) are associated with emotions like hope. Hope for a new future, hope for a better life, hope for progress, ...

So next time you'd better start a revolution instead of yet another change program. Just be aware, revolutions require bigger commitment and engagement from everyone and that is why they last longer than any change program.

PS. Start by switching your jobtitle from Change Manager into Evolution Manager and behave upon it

Out most important skills for the future

Every year, around September, millions of children go back to school. They learn about math, how to read, history, geography, art, ... Luckily most children are eager to learn and absorbe what inspiring teachers tell them. But I believe this doesn't prepare them for the future. They need more.

Fact 1 : The amount of new technical information doubles every 2 year. This means for student starting a 4 year technical or college degree that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

Fact 2 : Simon Sinek states that technology is great. We can find tons of information on the internet, but, ... we learn most when we meet people. The personal contact between 2 people creates more trust between those people and more easily open ups our mind to learn from each other. The best online communities of practice, meet regularly in person, because this improves the connectivity between the people in the community.

These 2 facts bring me to the most important skills we should help our kids to develop :

• How to keep up-dated and constantly learn
• Connect with others IN PERSON

But, hey wait a minute... should we learn our kids to develop these skills, or should we encourage them to maintain these abilities, because as a father, I see every day that children already have these abilities, but they loose it sometimes on their way to certified wisdom (= college degree). 

Isn't every kid curious to discover ? And isn't every kid able to make contact with another kid when they are on the same playground ? Yes they are. 

It is clear we'll have to keep learning all life long. So you'de better stay curious and eager to learn and get connected to interesting people you meet on your journey of life. This is to me the key to life of over growing wisdom. 

How to develop new employees step by step - free workbook

Too often I've seen new employees getting lost in the new organization. They were not properly introduced and didn't clearly knew what their manager expected from them.

The results of this unprofessional approach are
- loss of motivation
- good people leaving your company soon after they got hired
- loss of efficiency and money
- bad reputation on the market

To support you in shaping a well structured training plan for your new hires, I wrote this practical workbook that guides you step by step through the process to develop a solid trianing plan for your new hire.

Discover your free download of this workbook on www.d-comma.com

- English version : click here
- Dutch version : click here

For more information on this topic, don't hesitate to contact me on pim@d-comma.com

10 Tips to be a successful professional

Many smart people have written books on how to be a successful professional. Some of these books give us great insights, others can be used to fire up the stove. 

Based on my personal observations and literature study I would like to share my best tips with you :

1. When people nag all day about their job, they have 2 possibilities : Do something about it and take action, or stop nagging. Keeping on nagging about it and not taking any action, will not improve the situation !
2. Stop looking for excuses outside your own circle of influence. The greatest opportunities to improve your satisfaction are inside your circle of influence. (or with the words of Michael Jackson : "I'm starting with the man in the mirror to create change")
3. When things go wrong you can react in 2 different ways : You can start looking for someone to blame (= digging & living in the past) or you can use this situation to learn from it and avoid making the same mistake twice (= shaping a better future). I don't know what you prefer, but I definitely prefer to shape a future. I'm not an archeologist.
4. 99% of the people in organizations have good intentions. Perhaps they need better guidance to turn these intentions into results. The remaining 1% shouldn't have been hired.
5. If you are a manager, dare to take decisions. Employees hate it when managers don't dare to take decisions. Not daring to take decisions is like a yellow light ; should I brake or should I dare to speed up ? Employees don't like the uncertainty.
6. There is huge potential in your team. Delegate, coach, support and you'll discover talents you've never expected. 
7. Motivation starts within yourself. If you don't know how to motivate yourself, then don't expect anybody else to motivate you. Decide and discover what you want to do.
8. Put yourself constantly in your stretch zone. By doing so, you will force yourself to grow every day. Don't overstretch. You have plenty of time to grow and nobody will blame you if you are not a CEO of a multinational at the age of 27. 
9. Give constructive feedback to people and be open to receive feedback. Feedback is breakfast for champions. 
10. Surround yourself with people you can learn from. They will make you smarter as well. 

Maybe you don't agree on the above mentioned tips. I just want to share them with you and I can tell you they worked for me. 

But never forget : If it is to be, it is up to me !

What is your excuse for not being brave ?

I woke up early this morning and enjoyed the silence of our home to read a book by Seth Godin. There was one particular paragraph that struck me :

If it would be easy or normal to be brave, then everybody would be brave. 

When things go wrong, everybody has a gigantic list of excuses. And by using these excuses we say "It was impossible to be brave". My point is that we should STOP RIGHT NOW inventing excuses in advance in case things go wrong. We should SHOW BRAVENESS, BEFORE THINGS GO WRONG !

(free translation from Seth Godin's Linchpin - dutch version)

He is soooooo right. Sometimes I get a feeling certain managers have a huge talent at inventing all of these excuses and blaming others. But not only managers. People in general. And by writing this down, it reminds me of the difference between managers and leaders. 

Managers try to control things, and when things go wrong, they do damage control.

Leaders show braveness. They dare. They challenge life and they don't settle for mediocrity. They believe in what they do, take the blame on them when things go wrong and learn from their mistakes. 

People prefer leaders above managers, because they push us forward, instead of pulling us backwards. 

My question to you : What is your choice ? Do you manage your life, or do you lead your life ?