distinctive leadership | ralf schwartz

Steven Pinker: Language as a Window into Human Nature [Video]

Funny, and quite useful RSA video: people sometimes say what they don't mean, and are angry if we do not understand them!

Helpful for managers and their daily business / talk.

Bertrand Russell's Message to us all

Via openculture.

Great @weddady-Tweets Addressing our Western Leaders and People

This morning from 05:36-05:47hrs I retweeted (via @mediaclinique, deviations due to 140chr limitation) some tweets of @weddady (link to the original via resp. '@weddady')
- because they together form a great speech addressing our western governments, leaders, and people:

RT @weddady
Western leaders spoke for yrs about Liberty, yet they're unheard of when massacres r ongong

RT @weddady
Before #Libya #Tunisia #Egypt #Yemen why would youth trust anything Western leaders say if they abandon them @ their darkest hour?

RT @weddady
Example gov of #France REFUSED to even condemn Ben Ali's massacre, now that he's gone,they're all over #Tunisia. who's to trust em?

RT @weddady
the incrimination game works both ways. these times offer historical opp. to build healthy ppl 2 ppl relations

RT @weddady
What's @ stake isn't whether Kaddafi will stay or leave,or any dictator,but relations the west will have with #MENA AFTER

RT @weddady
Western governments (no exceptions) have been less than enthusiastic in supp. this new generation in #MENA, monumental mistake

RT @weddady
My advice to Western governments is that this is a HISTORICAL opp. to build healthy relations w ppl's of #MENA, don't waste it.

RT @weddady
A common view..RT @bassamj western governments are considering which side to be on, barrel of oil or humanity.. #Libya

RT @weddady
instead of getting stuck in the ways of the past, the West will gain a lot more by embracing the change

We all must think about these few words.
Finally it is about time for some action now, my dear leaders and people of the (so called) free world!

(In case you want to learn more about the revolutions, please follow @weddady, @monaeltahawy, @nolanjazeera, @Ghonim, @Dima_Khatib.)

Addendum

15:42hrs > Notruf aus Libyen (German) about: Mapping Violence Against Pro-Democracy Protests in Libya, kulturkampf.

Guttenbergsche Unschärfe-Halluzination

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg ist eine Erfindung unserer überforderten Gehirne, zu verstehen, was die Menschen, die sich Politiker nennen, mit uns machen, die wir uns Bürger nennen.
Zu Guttenberg ist eine Halluzination.

Zu Guttenberg ist eine unscharfe Projektion unserer kruden Vorstellungen von einem Politiker-Siegfried, der uns nicht nur vor Kriemhild, sondern vor allen Drachen dort draussen retten können sollte. Ein Held, wie das Volk ihn sich wünscht.

Zu Guttenberg muß unscharfer, kleinster Nenner unserer Sehnsüchte sein, wie sonst wären all seine Vornamen, wie sonst wäre seine aufgemalte Helmfrisur zu erklären?

Unsere Sehnsüchte - ob der Merkels, Seehofers, Westerwelles - schufen einen Körper und ein Gesicht, einem Model nicht unähnlich, jedoch mit adlig-inzestuösem Einschlag, leicht debilem Lächeln, um ihn nicht zu sehr vom Vorbilde, unserer selbst, zu entfernen.

Wir gaben ihm die Bekleidung eines James Bond, die Waffen und unterschiedlichen Verkleidungen des aus der Rippe der Barbie geschaffenen Ken und die entsprechende Frau. Ihn selbst machten wir mit Hornbrille ein wenig klüger.

Wir gaben ihm alles, was wir uns nur wünschen konnten. Wir wollten beherrscht werden vom Äußeren eines großen Mannes - damit hätten wir leben können. Längst hatten wir uns daran gewöhnt, daß die meisten sauberer, gepflegter, geschmackvoller gekleidet sind als wir selbst.

Wollten jedoch nicht akzeptieren, er sei vollkommen makellos. Zu weit wuchs unsere Schöpfung über unseren Alltag hinaus, zu sehr schwebte er auf dem Time Square, in Talk Shows, verselbständigte sich, war ihm die Karriere seiner Frau wichtiger als wir, die wir ihn geschaffen hatten.

Zu sehr machte er sich schon lustig über uns, dankte nicht mehr uns, seinen Schöpfern, sondern befreite sich aus unseren Visionen und Hoffnungen, wandte sich gegen uns, verheimlichte uns gar den Tod unserer Söhne und Töchter, setzte unser Fleisch und Blut auf's Spiel und wollte es unter den Teppich der Geschichte kehren.

Nun schicken wir ihn zurück ins Glied, werden sie nicht mehr los unsere Schöpfung, das Monster aus Lehm geschaffen. Zu nah war er der Sonne, zu hell sein Licht, zu sehr sein Ehrgeiz uns entglitten.

Allein wir sind gottgleich, schaffen die, die wir verdienen.

Addendum

17:34 Uhr > Guttenbergs Erklärung «eine Brüskierung der Öffentlichkeit», tagesanzeiger.
19:07 Uhr > Wetten, dass Guttenberg seinen Doktortitel behalten darf, NachDenkSeiten.
21:44 Uhr > Minister Vorübergehend, sprengsatz.

20. Februar > 14:15 Uhr > Das Wissenschaftsplagiat, Thomas Stadtler.

Zahlt die Automobilindustrie die Abwrackprämie nun zurück?

Interessante Sicht der Dinge, wenn Vorstandschefs von Konzernen wie VW oder Siemens nun vor Selbstzufriedenheit warnen. Schließlich waren sie selbst so selbstzufrieden in ihren Elfenbeintürmen, daß sie 5.000 Millionen Euro Abwrackprämie zu brauchen meinten, um überleben zu können.
Wenn das nicht Selbstzufriedenheit (gepaart mit grenzenloser Dummheit und Kurzsichtigkeit) war, dann weiß ich es nicht.

Nun, vielleicht haben sie wirklich etwas gelernt dabei. Selbsterkenntnis ist bekanntlich der erste Schritt zur Besserung.

Der beste Beweis dessen wäre natürlich, sie würden uns die Abwrackprämie zurücküberweisen. Aber soviel Einsicht und Corporate Social Responsibility kann man wohl nicht verlangen, oder?

Nokia CEO: "We stand on a Burning Platform!" - Yep! For some Years now!

In a letter to Nokia employees their CEO, Stephen Elop, wrote:

"Hello there,

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform's edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a "burning platform," and he needed to make a choice.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times – his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a "burning platform" caused a radical change in his behaviour.

We too, are standing on a "burning platform," and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.

..."

Read the full letter at brandrepublic.

A great picture - but not telling the whole truth. Nokia is standing on that burning platform ever since Apple introduced (not launched) their first iPhone (which was the 'loud explosion').

Everybody around the world could have (I don't say anybody did to that detail) imagined what that could mean to the good old telephone manufacturers living more or less successfully in their ivory towers masked as established and grown lazy corporate headquarters enjoying their bonusses and past successes - everybody except themselves.

A typical and ubiquitous leadership problem: managers hope, and wait, and fear - until it is too late. And then they wake up from their long, long Sleeping Beauty sleep and have to realize the platform is burning.

It has been burning for years, and management could have known, had they listened to constructive criticism from co-workers, to the beginner's mind of outsiders, to customer's new individuality, independence, and impatience!

Not every market is that lucky to get to hear 'loud explosions' of its business models. They just grow obsolete, because nobody from the board really cares.

That is the fine art of leadership: to know what is happening, what will happen, how to anticipate the future, how to even create it - instead of having to be woken up. Because if you have to be woken up, you have been asleep before (plain logic).

(What you may do against that? Easy:
01 - Awake!
02 - Grow!
03 - Inspire (the Next)!

For emergencies please have a look at TalkTank
or call +49 170 20 20 701.)

Too much Ego will Kill Your Talent!

Via yhabhur.

Multinationals Enable Dictatorship!

Yes, I mean it. And, yes, I really do mean enable in all its denotations! Multinationals Enable Dictatorship!

Think about it for a moment: of course the common dictator needs an infrastructure, streets, railway, airtraffic, energy, food, telecommunications, media to efficiently exploit the country and its people.

He - of course - does not find the wanted quality in his own country, because all decent corporations already left. He has to get those guys which would sell their own grandmother to make some profit, you know them from the Egyptian experience.

He then builds something he calls a country or state with the support, knowledge and experience of those corporations (we - of course - never would have become customers of had we known what they are really up to).

And to keep his people under control he desperately needs more multinationals - to efficiently optimize his surveillance society.

Aaand he desperately needs those multinationals to lobby at their home governments about the fact that employment will be at risk, if they do not quietly agree to sell tools of oppression to the dictatorships around the world.

Right in this multinational contest for the dictator's favor governments around the corrupted western world flatter him by holding state receptions, dinners, and summits.

And now imagine all those corporations, all those business leaders, all those politicians would have said NO! in the first place (instead of: if we don't sell to him the others will)! Imagine a dictator without the infrastructure, without the weapons, and without the tools of oppression! Ha! Imagine him without his friends in management boards and governments around the world!

He would be the real-life dwarf he is! He never would have succeeded. He never would have become the dictator he is now!

By making him king, a giant in his country, a billionaire, the ambitious but short-sighted multinationals, the business leaders, the share holders, the political leaders around the world dwarf themselves, their countries, their people, their morale and ethics.

I pity them all!
And I pity us all, because we gave them the positions to enable dictatorship - whereever they want to - even at home. Thinkk about that for a moment!

Addendum

11:22hrs > Great! German's in the front row again! > Deutsche Waffen für Ägypten, mdr.

Schwache Frauen, schwache Männer

Wiedermal schwatzen wir, wie progressiv wir selbst sind und wie rückständig die anderen, wenn es um die Freiheit anderer Völker, die Rolle der Frau in fernen Ländern, die Verneinung von Diktatoren in unseren Interessenslagen geht. Wir sind es nicht!

Was nutzen all die schönen Gleichbehandlungsgesetze, wenn wir bei der Hälfte der Bevölkerung versagen, sie gleichzubehandeln?

Was denkt der durchschnittliche Politiker oder Manager, wenn er nach Hause kommt und dort seiner Frau von diesem 'himmelschreienden Blödsinn' erzählt, daß 'irgendwelche Idioten da draussen doch tatsächlich eine Frauenquote wollen'?

Was denkt wohl seine Frau in diesem Moment? Die Frau, die für seine durchschnittliche Karriere ihre eigene aufgegeben hat? Die Frau, die mit ihren Ideen, ihrer Leidenschaft, ihrer Kompetenz so manchen Mann auf die Plätze verweisen und unser Land und unsere Wirtschaft zu blühenderen Landschaften führen könnte als die Männer es wahrhaben wollen?

Oder denkt sie, gut, daß ich meine Ruhe habe? Er sorgt für mich, er schlägt mich nicht. Er sagt nicht, er liebe mich, aber er behandelt mich immer gut?

Was nur fühlen die Frauen, in diesen Haushalten, Ehen, Unternehmen, in denen jeden Tag jede Frau eine Ohrfeige bekommt, weil sie einfach nicht entsprechend ihre Potentials gewürdigt wird? Sie keine Chancengleichheit erfährt, sie immer noch viel weniger verdient als gleichrangige Männer?

Wie fühlen sich die Männer, die Manager, die sich nicht auf einen fairen Wettbewerb einlassen, die zu klein und mickrig sind, sich sportiv der Frau zu stellen? Männer, die erst die Drohung der Quote am Horizont benötigen?

Männer, die überhaupt keine Männer mehr sind. Ohne Mut, ohne Rückgrat, ohne Willen, über sich hinauszuwachsen. Ohne Ehrgeiz, sich an der Frau intellektuell, emotional, empathisch zu reiben. Sich mit ihr zu messen. Mit ihr gemeinsam die Welt, die Ehe, das Unternehmen, die Gesellschaft und Kultur in eine nachhaltigere, menschenwürdigere zu verwandeln.

Und diese Politiker und Wirtschaftsbosse sollen und wollen unsere Vorbilder sein? Sie wollen uns in eine bessere Zukunft führen? Sie wollen von uns gewählt und entlohnt werden? Sie sollten ganz schnell in diesem 21. Jahrhundert ankommen!

Leadership Lessons on #egypt: Independence is infinite! You will not lose Yours by Giving it to Your People!

Revolutions like in Egypt show us the best - or worst - in countries, companies, people, societies, and of course leaders. And we can learn a lot by just observing what happens, or not.

I don't want to blame (or judge on) specific countries, companies or leaders - the later mentioned are just pars pro toto.

Country and company leaders tend to take away independence and individuality from their people - in order to secure stability or to stay successful. This is a philosophy deep embedded in our DNA: control your surrounding and your back, control your followers, ensure the status quo by doing so - a philosophy of dominance, a philosophy of ancient times, its success story coming to an abrupt end at the turn of the (last) century.

Digitalization, the web, and mobility maximize human's new individuality, independence, and impatience with unprecedented power - as we learn in Egypt, Tunesia or Jordan, as wikileaks shows us, or our reaction to the politician's ridiculous ideas on internet censorship, freedom of speech, or even citizen's involvement in democracy.

Leaders must leap-frog ahead into the future - not into the past. Leaders must follow one small rule: treat others like you yourself would like to be treated. Sounds naive, sounds simplistic - but think about it and you will understand its beautiful truth:

In which company would you prefer to work? At Google and Twitter, supporting the Egyptian movement? Or at vodafone, choking the same movement? Or Siemens and Nokia, which built censorship in Iran? (see #egypt: Hypocrite of the Year Award for vodafone's 'power to you' campaign)

With which of those corporations would you like to be associated? A country or corporation facilitating and challenging independence, freedom, and and a future for all - or one choking it?

Where would you imagine being more enthusiastic, more involved and motivated? More committed? Where would you like to work, live, pay your taxes?

Heading which of those corporations or countries would you like to be famous for? The Apple or the Microsoft of this world? The Iceland and Scandinavia or the Egypt, Tunesia, and China of our world?

What do you think, by which leader your people would prefer to be lead?

You may love a corporation or country where people do what they are told, never questioning orders, never reflect your morale or ethics.

What do you think, my dear business leader or politician, where you yourself will be better off in the long run? In a creative, innovative, passionably striving-to-grow country or corporation, or in a chicken-hearted, sheepish, performing way below average one?

Seize the day - not your lordship!

Addendum

Please enjoy also Alan Friedman's Davos Is Silent as Egypt Burns in the Atlantic and Ten Things You're Not Allowed to Say at Davos, by Umair Haque at HBR.