Culture

Active engagement in our local communities – an unachieved priority

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson October 15, 2025October 18, 2025in Busyness, collaborative narrative, courage, Culture, trust

What if.. people want to be actively engaged in their community.. and yet are not achieving that?

A study in the US that looked at what people privately share as their top personal priorities* and also to what degree do they subjectively feel they achieve against these. Below you see the top 10 results – source Populace, Success Index:
Misunderstanding the American Dream:

Of the individuals reported top 10 priorities – active engagement in their community scores lowest in terms of their feeling if they are achieving it in their lives.

From my other research I know active engagement in our local communities is important for our wellbeing, for building peaceful connections across divides, and for engagement into looking after our local environment. It matters.

My personal experience with community engagement? My observation is for me getting involved in my local community requires space such as small regular chunks of time, free attention to look around myself, and consistency in being present. It’s about familiarity and micro-steps in building trust. It’s quiet, not loud. Sometimes it feels pointless and annoying. The rewards are not what mainstream culture rewards, they are connection, the satisfaction of living into your integrity and fulfilling that priority number 1 of having a positive impact on others in small, hardly noticeable ways.

And maybe it is simply knowing you matter because you feel part of a place. Your community. Where people know you and treat you as part of the community, irrespective of differences you may have.

A shoutout here. This makes me proud to be affiliated with the new initiative PIONIERQUARTIER – which is an amazing team of experts and initiative looking at how to create community spaces with a lower threshold for how to become and stay engaged. 💫

If anything these data are an invitation to question any judgement if people are not engaged because they do not care about their local community, and wonder what if rather there is something in the way of making it happen? What if..?

(*note: these top personal priorities are often not expressed publicly as we self-silence and follow what we believe are societal norms, there is more to this in this study – for example actively engaging in our community is ranked at nr26 for how important supposedly ‘others’ think it is)

Source: If you like reports and data and original sources as much as I do. This is all from the Populace research report on ‘Success index’ (2023) and the conversation by Todd Rose: Populace

Source: I also can highly recommend a listen to Todd Rose talk about his data and the findings in this episode of the Mel Robbins podcast. So much also on belonging, values, trust, and our personal agency.

“Denken ist handeln” – it’s time to examine our thinking

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson October 18, 2023October 18, 2023in Abundance Mindset, Busyness, courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Enough, Strategy

Image: Artist Olaf Hajek 2003. Personal material from the Move On Weekend, Munich 2005, by The Boston Consulting Group.

“Denken ist handeln” takes me back to my first interaction with the large management consultancy I joined after my malaria PhD. That line, “Thinking is for action,” spoke to me. I love ruminating, researching, putting complex bits of information into a digestible big picture, spotting the inconsistencies, the patterns, the messages. I tend to hang out a little longer on the side of thinking than on the side of action.

Yet – today I ask.

What if our thought itself was incorrect?

What if our thought adapted to a world around us and is driven by external messages of “you are not enough until _____” and you fill that blank with an external validation: your school grades, your university, your job titles, your products, your material wealth, your nose shape, your wittiness, your number of likes and followers. A world that we have created and our brains told us this is the only way of doing things.

If there’s one thing that such thought does it keeps us pretty distracted, busy and insecure as our basic desire for worthiness depends on external factors. It turns our opinions into self-identities, as David Bohm writes. It makes conversations into dangerous battle-grounds, as differing opinions are seen as attacks on our inherent internal worthiness and right to belong.

It makes us distracted and complacent.

As I write this, the world is watching atrocities unfold in the Middle East. It feels a little like the final straw on the camels back. I observe we are in pain. Yet, I also sense a discomfort in a sense of how could this happen (again). And a sense of grief for what we realise we are losing. There is also an unsettling silence to not say a wrong thing.

For me this article in the Guardian by Patrick Wintour sums up what I believe is a relevant viewpoint and speaks in a broader sense on other topics such as the loneliness, the anxiety, the questions on how to care for each other and our planet better. His title captures it: “The danger of leaving things be”.

Can we break the cycle of complacency?

Can we channel the regret of what got us here today, into where we put our energy into action tomorrow?

From all the research into the topics of wholehearted, courageous leadership, moving from discussion to dialogue and ways of rethinking strategy and business, I land at these three areas of focus for myself:

Thought: Start with “you are enough”. Full stop. Then get really curious about a lot of other aspects of what we think of as normal and ‘has to be that way’. Ask yourself is it true?
Feeling: Seek out & soak in awe. You can find this witnessing moral beauty in others, music, dance, nature, art. Read words from those that inspire you, watch concert videos, go to an exhibition, dance in the kitchen. Awe connects when the world polarises.
Action: Shift from exploitation to exploration. I hold a deep desire to work with leaders and organisations (exploitation). That rarely allows real disruption and is slow, the logical consequence – it’s time to work with those leaders and organisations at the fringes (exploration).

Now here’s the thing – if we are feeling regret mixed in with all those feelings, according to Dan Pink we have three choices: Delusion, Despair or Action. Let’s choose action.

Sources:

David Bohm: On Dialogue.
Dan Pink: The power of regret
Dacher Keltner: Awe, The transformative power of everyday wonders

Dear Family-Business Owner – your vulnerability is your superpower

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson November 3, 2022November 4, 2022in Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, trust, vulnerability

Whilst I was drafting this post – a number of stories crossed my newsfeed of owners of family businesses expressing their desire to hold on to their independence and with it financial vulnerability as well as the intense vulnerability experienced whilst leading their organisation. And yes, I believe if we look closely exactly that may be their superpower.

Big corporates always like a best practice to copy. Often they look at the other major players. Maybe it is time to look at the family-owned businesses if we start to shift away from short-term financial profit as the single measure of success and have to build cultures with leadership that creates trust, binds employees, and at the same time enables innovation, disruption, creation.

“We posit that compared to their non-family peers, the likely elevated levels of vulnerability felt by many family firm owners and managers will engender richer and more rewarding social exchanges with those stakeholders”
Hayward M, et. al., Journal of Family Business, 2022 (full source below)

A couple of newly published journal articles in the Journal of Family Business have dug into these topics in family-owned businesses. Here’s what I take-away from them. Family-owned businesses build trust and an excellent attrition of their employees (even binding family members over generations) due to the following:

The vulnerability and acute sense of responsibility family-owned business owners feel on a daily basis.
Truly caring for their employees and hence offering a safe internal culture that develops along with needs.
Their independence from shareholders and the ability to look at the long-term returns versus quarterly balance sheets.

The two papers are different in style – one looking at one family-owned firm as a case study and another looking at a model based on social exchange theory. Yet, their findings support each other, and also support what was shared in the book published by family-business owner Antje von Dewitz, Vaude, which I wrote about here (in German).

“According to employee statements, whether long- established members of the executive team or new employees, they refer to the importance of the family firm’s long-term orientation enabling enduring employment and innovation for generations.”
Rondi E, et al. Journal of Family Business, 2022 (full source below)

This what I take from this research.

As a family-business owner, I can only imagine that intense sense of vulnerability of being in service to the idea, the employees, the customers, the local community. From this research and the work in daring leadership, which explains how vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage, I invite you to lean in to this discomfort of vulnerability to use it as your superpower – learn all the skills to have courage as well as boundaries, self-compassion as tools to look after yourself.

If I was a startup building my culture – I would be looking at these type of businesses rather than trying to be like the big corporates, the next unicorn. Some really interesting work into this field is being led by the New Mittelstand movement in Germany, which I can only recommend investigating.

And for the big corporates – this only adds another data point to support the need for a change in leadership, culture and strategy. We have to revisit the detachment of business leaders from the pulsing heart of the business. This can only be done if we change our definition of business success away from short-term financial profits, away from strategy based on competitive advantage and succeeding on business metrics to instead looking to provide products, services, solutions that contribute to people, planet and profit.

Source:

One for all, all for one: A mutual gains perspective on HRM and innovation management practices in family firms. Emanuela Rondi, Ruth Überbacher, Leopold von Schlenk-Barnsdorf, Alfredo De Massis and Marcel Hülsbeck. Journal of Family Business Strategy 13 (2022) 100394

How vulnerability enriches family firm relationships: A social exchange perspective. Mathew Hayward, Richard Hunt, Danny Miller. Journal of Family Business Strategy 13 (2022) 100450

Wholehearted courageous leaders – looking for reasons to invest in top leadership skills?

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson October 11, 2022October 11, 2022in courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, trust, values, vulnerability

Lucy Kueng calls it ‘High Thinking, Low Ego’ and the consulting firm Kienbaum calls it ‘Brave Leadership’ —> for me it is the ability as a leader to focus on strategic priorities AND be a whole-hearted courageous leader.

Lucy Kueng presenting at the Swiss Board Day 2022, Kursaal Bern, picture by Anne-Marie Deans

A new Kienbaum report confirms once more this leadership style is associated with…

.. improved business performance

.. building courageous cultures

.. integrating paradox, ambiguous demands (eg people and business needs)

.. retaining and attracting talent

.. boosting transformation success

In addition, the work by Erika James and Lynne Perry Wooten shows ego is the quintessential problem getting in the way of crisis preparedness by top leadership in organisations.

Where to start? With yourself to do your inner work and your leadership team. Build courage skills – that is handling vulnerability, operating by your values, understanding the elements of trust and examine the stories you make up.

Here the sources of the referenced work:

Lucy Kueng’s book she published as open access: Hearts and Minds: Harnessing Leadership, Culture, and Talent to Really Go Digital. (2020)
Kienbaum’s new report: BRAVE LEADERSHIP – Turning Potential To Progress (2022) (note: in German)
Erika James & Lynne Perry Wooten new book: The Prepared Leader. (2022)

Generosity, Care and Curiosity – can we start there?

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson September 14, 2022October 18, 2022in courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, values, vulnerability

I had the real pleasure to give a keynote on the topic of “Speak Up & Psychological Safety” at an internal company event.

Preparing for this really made me distill down what this topic meant to me in its essence. What it meant in terms of the stories I have experienced. What it meant in combination with the experience I have from working in corporate cultures and my learnings around building courage and courageous cultures.

This is what I got to – forget for a moment all the fancy language, statistics and KPIs. Stop pointing the finger in all directions in terms of who is responsible to start generating this safe environment. And simply do this – start your interactions with others from a place of generosity, care and curiosity. Be the courageous listener so those around you can be heard with their ideas, opinions and feelings.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what takes to sit down and listen”
Winston Churchill

Because here’s the thing – I am confident we all are doing our best, carry our individual struggles and have a uniqueness that makes us shine. That includes ourselves. If we can keep that in mind and interact from a place of generosity, care and curiosity, this forms the starting point for us to be able to be Courageous.Enough.Together. And that is what we need in our businesses and our societies today.

Give it a try. See what happens and please do let me know if you feel inclined to share feedback.

Capturing my moment of vulnerability during the German version of the keynote (spot the numbering). Picture is used with permission and courtesy of the host Syngenta Stein R&D and the photographer Stephan Graf.

Is it getting busier in here? Busyness, uncertainty and the courage to slow down

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson July 20, 2022July 20, 2022in Abundance Mindset, Busyness, courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized

Is it getting busier in here? Busyness, uncertainty and the courage to slow down

Busy. The next meeting – online, offline, over coffee, with lunch, after dinner. Presentations, evaluations, process optimisations, digitalisation, implementations and reorganisations. Emails, instant messages, video calls, meetings.

You may feel frazzled but isn’t fast a great advantage? In a recent survey McKinsey¹ found that speed was associated with better outcomes – the positive effect was seen across all business dimensions, yet particularly in regards to operational resilience and innovation. Yet – here’s the thing – as separately reported McKinsey² senior business leaders reported feeling busy and overwhelmed whilst getting nothing done and the quality of interactions decreasing. I remember that feeling well from corporate settings – a constant stream of meetings, project revisions, KPI reporting – being busy with no tangible outcome for the business.

What is it about the connection here with speed versus busyness with little value added.

When McKinsey talks about an advantage for speed, if you dig into their report, you will find that the barriers reported as getting in the way of speed are silos, slow decision-making and lack of strategic clarity. So, I would argue that the advantage of organisations being ‘faster’ is not about doing more, quicker, and spinning madly. I believe it is about being intentionally focused and calm with a clear strategy, and with a culture that enables employees to take bold business decisions at the right moment and right level, with the right amount of information and with an appropriate amount of risk. This enables a felt speed – as the right activities and decisions get focused on and delivered upon.

The importance of strategic clarity as seen as one element required for speed – and increased operational resilience and innovation. The research by Leadership Expert Dorie Clark, who focuses on long-term strategic thinking, showed that business executives recognise the importance for long-term strategic thinking yet at the same time report to not have time to do so³. She took her research further to explore why they don’t have time, what is it with the busyness. Here’s the thing, as you will see in her concise Ted Talk⁴ the perceived busyness is often not about how much you have to do, but is associated with status, uncertainty and numbing (ie avoiding feeling our emotions). That means this busyness achieves the opposite to what would be desired, business leaders are staying busy to avoid decisions, or feeling discomfort and ambiguity.

So if you want leaders and a corporate culture, where leaders are calm and focused, whilst making courageous decisions based on strategic clarity and collaborating across silos – you want to build the ability to handle discomfort, ambiguity, paradox challenges whilst staying true to agreed upon values and being accountable for mistakes. You want leaders who are able to feel comfortable slowing down in able to speed up.

There are three areas to focus on:

1) At the individual level: Train for skills in courage and handling uncertainty. Start right at the top of the organisation with this. You have to slow down to make space, learn about vulnerability, values, trust and resilience. Become brave and kind leaders who pay attention.

2) At the corporate culture level: Create a corporate culture where it is safe for courageous decision-making. And remember, clear is kind. Culture is defined by a collection of norms, beliefs, values or artifacts. Take a close look at what you are rewarding and what people are held accountable for.

3) At the corporate strategy level: Really focus the corporate strategy to avoid noise, ensure there is alignment with your purpose and values. Understand your stakeholders.

In 2021, the consulting firm Kienbaum did a study⁵ investigating courage in the workplace – their research led them to define a leader as courageous as being both ‘determined’ and ‘value-driven’ (Entschlossenheit & Werteorientierung). Despite confirming the positive correlation of courage with business performance – they found that only 12% of participants in their study displayed courage as measured by their definition.

The good news is that courage and the ability to handle uncertainty can be developed as leadership skills. I support leaders develop Daring Leadership, Abundance Mindset and Collaborative Narratives as the cornerstone for courageous and innovative organisations.

Sources:

Trust doesn’t need a strategy – it requires common values and skill development.

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson June 7, 2022July 20, 2022in Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, trust, Uncategorized

Up until recently I was responsible for corporate strategy, I remember a project not too long ago together with one of the large management consulting firms looking at best practices in corporate strategy development and strategic planning. We spent hours digging into the details of different models and recommendations. Clearly, I felt it had an important role and I am still convinced particularly by the relevance of strategic thinking.

I also believe in the importance of trust in business and society – today more than ever. Only midway in life, did I learn what trust entails and recognised the importance these skills can have in a business setting.

And at the same time – I do not want to see the two put together for CEOs to create an adaptive trust strategy(1).

Why?

Strategies are about controlling uncertainty and decision-making, they are done for a business intention and to provide guidance for what to do and more importantly what not to do, to focus attention and priorities so a group of people are working towards common goals. They have been used by big management consultancies in business in relation to scarcity and competition for resources, to ‘speed up’ natural competition and evolution and involve trade-offs.

Trust on the other hand is not about control. It is not about certainty. It is not a limited resource to be competed for. It is about letting go and being able to let go because of common values, acting reliably and in integrity with defined values, holding accountability, clarity of competencies and boundaries. That is not in an adaptive or planned way – but every time, in every interaction big or small. And when it goes wrong, you make amends and repair with integrity.

Trust is exactly the glue required to enable interactions when there is uncertainty and ambiguity, when you make something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions, which you have no control over.

If I do not recommend a strategy, what do I recommend?

The starting point seems to be reminding ourselves of our humanity, our vulnerability and the common values we stand for. As Halla Tomasdottir said so well just the other day:

“Imagine common sense emerging as a governing philosophy. Humanity at the heart of leadership. A future built upon common values.
It’s on each and every one of us to make it so.”
Halla Tomasdottir, LinkedIn 31 May 2022

Further to that, we can move to include skills development around trust in our education systems, executive education and leadership trainings. There are frameworks on the elements of trust, which allow an understanding of what it requires to build and maintain trust.

And to be clear we have to be careful how we integrate product and service delivery within a trust measure as the report I wrote about here does – without reliably delivering a safe product, then even a great leadership team with common values and a great skill set around trust will not make up for the lack of delivery.

In conclusion. Trust is not a finite resource. Not one company has to win or beat others on a devised trustworthiness scale, it has to be inherent to our behaviours and choices as investors, CEOs, leaders and consumers.

(1) Source: The Evolving Role of Today’s CEO: BCG Weekly Brief, May 31 2022

Trust – it has a business value, yet is volatile. Can a new ‘Trust Index’ be the answer for leaders to navigate the topic?

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson May 22, 2022July 20, 2022in courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, trust, Uncategorized, values, vulnerability

BCG, the strategy consulting firm, is going deep into the topic of Trust at this year’s WEF in Davos and have published a new report, in which they present a newly developed trust index. You can find the full report here.

Five immediate reflections below to the report, as I find there are interesting details hidden in this big scale research and at the same time it raises questions:

1. Good news for those of us who believe trust is important. They find a strong correlation of their way to assess trust with above-average total shareholder return, better post-crisis performance and higher ESGC scores – so investors will also be paying attention. But oops – a “significant portion of the largest companies received consistently low-trust scores” – plenty to do then!

2. The overall finding confirms how fickle trust is – slow to build, quick to destroy. It is very variable which firms were in the top 100 list over a time span of 4 years. But those who do stay show strength in looking after their people, good governance, strength in collaboration and innovation. And unsurprisingly they deliver on their products and promises. I’d love to see the list of these 20 companies and look closer at how their leadership team looked within that time span.

3. A whole report on trust without talking about care, integrity, values. These topics are hidden to a certain degree within BCG’s indicator of ‘Fairness’. Yet is still surprising given how these are weighted in other trust frameworks to not see them get more coverage. I disagree with this being purely ‘systemic trust’. Personally, I believe there needs to be more courage to include these more ambiguous and hard to measure aspects of trust and leadership.

4. Measuring topics has pro’s and con’s. The BRAVING Trust framework from Dare to Lead^TM also comes with an assessment. So yes a Trust Index will draw attention to strengths/weaknesses and allow a degree of comparison. Yet if it is handled as primarily a KPI on a dashboard to ‘perform’ against, rather than truly integrate it into leadership behaviour, it may turn into exactly that – a performance. And I would not be surprised if that could send your trust-index score shooting right down..

5. Finally – did I miss it? What about looking a little closer at governance and the leaders. Did those with high scores have a stable consistent leadership team, that built and maintained trust by operating with clear values and integrity? How does it match with BCGs diversity score or their innovation rankings?

My work on the topic of ‘Trust’ is based on the research findings by Dr. Brené Brown and the work by Charles Feltman, and I continually integrate additional research and findings. For sure I will be following this ongoing work by BCG closely.

Most importantly – this research confirms the significance and value of investing in trust. Trust is a skill that can be learnt. It has to be maintained with continuous attention to the elements that define trust and addressing what gets in the way of trust in a safe manner. Trust will only be meaningful if leadership from the top truly stands behind their purpose, lives their values with empathy and with humility holds a true stakeholder focus which goes beyond ego, profit and financial returns.

My conclusion? Before adding a new KPI to the dashboard, I would take the money to invest in leadership skills such as those for Daring Leadership, ensure values have clear behaviours to operate by, and have the courage to move from a narrow profit-/performance-based dashboard to a wider collaborative, stakeholder and long-term perspective of success.

Source: What AI Reveals About Trust in the World’s Largest Companies, May 2022, BCG

Mutig voran – die Unternehmerin Antje von Dewitz zeigt auf, wie wir uns mit einer Vision und Vertrauen den Herausforderungen stellen können

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson May 19, 2022July 20, 2022in courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Strategy, trust, Uncategorized, values

In meinem Ansatz geht es um ein Führungsverständnis und eine Kultur, welche auf Mut, Empathie, Werten und Vertrauen basiert (Daring Leadership); mit einer Haltung, das wir genug haben, um die Offenheit für Innovation zu ermöglichen (Abundance Mindset); sowie über die Notwendigkeit von echter Kollaboration, um gemeinsam Lösungen zu ermöglichen (Collaborative Narratives).

Doch gibt es Beispiele, das es möglich ist in einem Unternehmen folgendes zu erreichen: Vertrauensorganisation als Kultur leben, Infrastruktur bereitstellen um Diversität zu fördern, Nachhaltigkeit im gesamten Unternehmen verankern trotz Widerstände, und langfristig zu wirtschaften anstatt kurzfristige Gewinne vorzuziehen? Ja! Und ich kann folgendes Buch sehr empfehlen: “Mut steht uns gut!” von Antje von Dewitz. Bei der Übernahme des Familienunternehmens hat sie nicht auf Trends und externen Druck gewartet, sondern ist als Unternehmerin und Mensch mutig ihrer Vision gefolgt und hat diese umgesetzt.

Ich folge dem gesunden Menschenverstand. Wir haben ein positives Menschenbild. Wir glauben daran, dass die Menschen, die hier arbeiten, gerne hier arbeiten und ihr Bestes einbringen wollen.
Antje von Dewitz, Interview im Manager Magazin 20.10.2020 hier

Bereits in den letzten Jahren wurde ich durch Artikel und Podcasts auf die Arbeit von Antje von Dewitz als Geschäftsführerin des Familienunternehmens Vaude aufmerksam. Doch erst jetzt kam ich dazu ihr Buch zu lesen. Es hat mich tiefst beeindruckt.

In dem Buch teilt Antje von Dewitz was sie als Unternehmerin bzgl. Vision, Vertrauen, Diversität und Nachhaltigkeit bei der Übernahme des von ihrem Vater gegründeten Unternehmen Vaude gemacht hat. Das wichtige dabei – sie hat es gemacht. Sie ist mit ihrem Team und den Mitarbeitern durch die Höhen und Tiefen der Umsetzung einer Vision und neuen Unternehmenskultur gegangen, um wirklich durchgehend nachhaltig zu werden. Im Buch teilt sie was sie auf diesem Weg gelernt hat und warum es sich rentiert. Rollenmodelle wie diese brauchen wir, um Mut und Hoffnung zu schöpfen für andere Unternehmen und die Zukunft.

Als Antje von Dewitz 2009 das Familienunternehmen übernommen hat, hatte sie eine klare Vision – mit Bezug auf starken Produkten, einer Werteorientierung und konsequenter Rücksicht auf Mensch und Natur. Sie hatte sich bereits vor der Übernahme in ihrer Forschung mit der Rolle von Vertrauen und der Motivation von Mitarbeitern auseinandergesetzt. Für mich beschreibt der folgende Auszug ihre Elementare Erkenntnis, die hinter allem steht, um ihre Vision zu erreichen.

Unser nachhaltiger Weg stellt uns (Vaude) immer wieder vor scheinbar unüberwindbare Hindernisse［…］Als Pioniere müssen wir immer wieder kreativ werden und miteinander eine machbare Lösung finden.
Diesen Einsatz, der viel Kraft und Erfindungsgeist erfordert und schwer messbar ist, kann ich nicht von Mitarbeitenden erwarten, die sich fremdbestimmt fühlen und ihr eigenes Leben dem Unternehmen unterordnen müssen. Für diesen Weg brauchen wir den ganzen Menschen mit Herz, Seele und Verstand und seiner ganzen Energie.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Ich teile diese Einsicht, und bin überzeugt, dass wir mit Blick auf den aktuellen Herausforderungen dringend an der Unternehmenskultur, Werten und Haltung arbeiten müssen, um Kreativität zu ermöglichen und mit kollaborativen Ansätzen Lösungen zu finden.

Antje von Dewitz hatte also eine Vision und wusste auch. “Unser Führungsverständnis und Unternehmenskultur sollte sehr bewusst und durchgängig auf Vertrauen und Wertschätzung aufbauen”. Später hat sie auch die Notwendigkeit, die Werte schriftlich festzuhalten, gesehen um damit die Position des Unternehmens klarzumachen. Für demokratische Werte einstehen, dabei auch die Stimme zu erheben und Haltung zu zeigen.

Sie hat viel investiert, um dieses Führungsverständnis und die Unternehmenskultur über viele Jahre gemeinsam mit den Führungskräften und Mitarbeitern aufzubauen. Das Buch beschreibt gut, nach welchen Ansätzen sie mit externer Unterstützung vorgeht und besonders wichtig, dass es eine Investition ist, welche kontinuierliche Weiterentwicklung und Zeit braucht. Nicht jede Führungsperson konnte/wollte sich mit entwickeln, so gab es auch Abgänge. Es gab zudem natürlich Rückschläge, kritische Meinungen, negative Erfahrungen.

［…］Genau das unvermeidliche Ringen mit Zielkonflikten, Authenzität und eine klare Wertehaltung eine Strahlkraft entwickeln, die anzieht, Hoffnung erzeugt und nicht zuletzt Vertrauen schafft.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Ein paar Beispiele zu den Änderungen, welche im Buch genannt sind: “Führungskräfte von Richtungsweiser und Entscheider… hinzu Rahmengeber, Vermittler und Begleiter”; “Leistung wird nicht nach Anwesenheit, sondern nach den Ergebnissen gemessen”; “Keine Besprechungen nach siebzehn Uhr angesetzt werden”; “weniger Belastung durch Überstunden” , “Schlichte Erkenntnis, dass wir mit möglichst gemischten Teams am Besten aufgestellt sind für die Zukunft”, “Verschiedene Hintergründe, Erfahrungen, desto unterschiedlichere Blickwinkel und nachhaltigere Lösungsansätze und Strategien”.

Wir lernten, dass schwarz-weisse Sichtweisen und Lösungen uns nicht voranbringen, sondern wir gemeinsam und abteilungsübergreifend um eine pragmatische Lösung ringen mussten.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Das Fundament des positiven Menschenbilds, die Vertrauensorganisation in der gelernt wird wie man mit Ungewissheit, unterschiedlichen Meinungen, Hindernissen umgeht, ist für mich ein Beispiel von ‘Daring Leadership’. Das heisst, es geht um Neugierde, Offenheit, Empathie und Abstand nehmen von defensivem Verhalten, also ‘Armored Leadership’. Diese Fähigkeiten zu lernen, stärken und kontinuierlich fortführen kann geübt werden, gelernt werden, und immer wieder mit Vision, Werte und Haltung in den Vordergrund gerufen werden.

“Statt in die Verteidigungshaltung zu gehen, wenn mich meine Führungskraft kritisiert, nachzufragen, was genau gemeint ist, oder statt Inhaltsschlachten zu führen, einfach mal zu fragen, was ist eigentlich los oder das Gegenüber gerade braucht”.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Was neben dem ‘WIE’ in ihrem Buch beeindruckt, ist ‘WAS’ sie damit konsequent angepackt hat:

die Unternehmenskultur kontinuierlich angepasst und gelebt mit Bezug auf Führungsverständnis, Vertrauensorganisation, Werten, Diversität
die Nachhaltigkeit in Produkten, dem Arbeitsstandort, der Kantine und sogar einem Mobilitätskonzept verankert
das Geschäftsmodell/Strategie und das klassische Wachstum in Frage gestellt, und den Mut gehabt, es neu zu denken, neues zu probieren und neu zu bewerten was Erfolg ist
das Stakeholder Management, so haben sie sich kollaborativ mit unterschiedlichsten Parteien an den Tisch gesetzt um Themen anzugehen, anstatt auf Grund von Wettbewerb defensiv in einem starren ‘Gegeneinander’ zu agieren
das gesellschaftliche Engagement, sie haben sich mit der Einbindung und Integration von Geflüchteten in den Arbeitsmarkt befasst und ermöglicht.

Ich bin überzeugt der ganzheitliche Ansatz bringt den Erfolg bei einer Transformation wie dieser. Und Erfolge haben sie gesehen.

Wir schaffen es, Lösungen zu finden, wo alles nach Scheitern aussieht. Für mich ist diese Haltung ein Schlüssel dafür, dass wir lösungsorientiert, gestaltungsfähig, und innovationsstark sind.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Und rentiert sich die Mühe der Vision und der Unternehmenskultur nachzugehen? Ein paar konkrete Gründe nennt Antje von Dewitz im Buch, welche erlebt wurden und werden:

Spürbare Leidenschaft, Loyalität und Energie für das Unternehmen und die gemeinsamen Ziele
Niedrige Krankheits- und Fluktuationsquote
Recht hohe interne Weiterentwicklungsmöglichkeiten
Selten Probleme Stellen zu besetzen, trotz der provinziellen Lage
Eine Vielzahl von Initiativbewerbungen, weil sich Menschen mit der Firmenphilosophie identifizieren
Eine selbstbestärkende Kultur: Viele Menschen mit starkem Urvertrauen angestellt, welche mit ihrer positiven und offenen Einstellung die Organisation und Kultur weiter von innen stärken
Nicht in alten Mustern verhaftet, sondern beweglich und kreativ
Begegnen einander unabhängig von Geschlecht oder Nationalität vertrauensvoll und auf Augenhöhe und lernen zunehmend, unsere Verschiedenartigkeit als Stärke zu schätzen.
Immer wieder in der Lage, gemeinsam zukunftsfähige Lösungen zu erarbeiten, und das macht viel spass

Mein Fazit: Es geht. Es lohnt sich. Es macht spass. Mit Mut, Vertrauen und Kollaboration gemeinsam die Hindernisse unserer Zeit anzugehen.

Für mich sind ‘Daring Leadership, Abundance Mindset und Collaborative Narratives’ der Schritt dahin. Ein Familienunternehmen hat die Unabhängigkeit langfristig einer Vision zu folgen, doch müssen wir dies auch in den grossen börsennotierten Unternehmen ermöglichen und als Investoren, Startups als Erfolg anerkennen.

Zum Schluss von Antje von Dewitz der Aufruf deiner Vision zu folgen:

Wenn viele Menschen am richtigen Platz sind, dann kann das die Welt ein Stück besser machen.
Dann lohnt es sich in meinen Augen erst recht, den Mut zu haben, sich einfach trotzdem auf den Weg zu machen, einfach mal einen ersten kleinen Schritt zu wagen. ［…］Den Blick nicht auf die Hindernisse, sondern auf das Machbare zu lenken.
Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag

Quelle: Antje von Dewitz, Mut steht uns gut!, 2020 Benevento Verlag (Keine Affiliation oder Sponsoring)

Longing for divinity – what Bittersweet has to do with our workplaces and daring leadership

Posted by Anne-Marie Deanson April 13, 2022July 20, 2022in courage, Culture, Daring Leadership, Enough, trust, Uncategorized, values, vulnerability

During this great resignation employees are leaving workplaces and listing ‘Uncaring leaders’ as their number one reason (source: McKinsey – Gone for now, or gone for good? ). People are desperate for meaning, values, purpose, kindness and leaders who care.

What if we have to go a step further, and consider that employees are desperately seeking both guidance as well as safe story stewardship for their longing for divinity and wholeness. And with no where else to go they are now searching for this in the workplace.

Let’s go a little back in time. Since I read the book “The Gifts of Imperfection” many years ago, I have had an ongoing quest in the back of my mind regarding ‘Faith’ – what is it to me, where do I find it, how do I cultivate it? This came as a result of one of Dr. Brené Brown’s findings in the book that the most wholehearted people cultivate faith in their lives, making her include guidepost #6: Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith. This has nothing to do with a religion and Brené Brown offers following definition for faith.

Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.
The Gifts of imperfection, Dr. Brené Brown.

More recently Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor talked in her book Whole Brain Living about how our ‘character 4’ on our right brain side already knows about the deep connection we all share. Also the work by Dr. Martha Beck explores how to let go of culturally-derived values, and follow the longing for warmth and yearnings to stay in our own integrity.

Now with Susan Cain just publishing her newest book “Bittersweet” (published April 2022), I have been provided a further addition to the thinking on our inherent longing for that more beautiful place.

I am an avid fan of the work by Glennon Doyle and how she has cut loose from culturally imposed rules of how things “should” be and writes about it so beautifully in her books (Carry on Warrior, Love Warrior, Untamed). So I was very excited to see that Susan Cain went into a conversation about the findings in her book Bittersweet with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle on their podcast We can do hard Things.

It is a beautiful and stirring conversation – do listen to it yourselves – and it resulted in this post. They talk about how that longing or yearning that we feel in those moments of beauty and sadness remind us of the better world that could be, that it ideally makes us stretch together to build such a world even if we never fully reach it. It reminds us that this feeling of longing and bittersweet is a moment that connects us with each other. This really brought for me the point of faith or a longing for divinity together.

Ok – so that’s all great, but what about the workplace?

In the podcast, they also speak about relationships and refer to a finding from Esther Perel to which I went and found this reference in a another article: “In our modern world, we have the unrealistic expectation that our relationships will fill in for the divine, offering wholeness, transcendence and unconditional love”.

So let’s come back to the workplace – I wonder, did the time at home in the pandemic make us realise that we will not find divinity within our relationships? And so now we are off searching for it in our workplace? And that is why if we are not cared for, looked after, if we are made to feel morally compromised, constantly put in competitive situations to go against each other then employees are leaving or burnt-out or certainly not going to be in a best position for healthy striving.

Why is this important? Because we have to have conversations about it – and as it is even more ambiguous and wishy-washy and touchy-feely than even talking about emotions, I fear many organisations will avoid going there. And at the moment business schools are hardly building strong skills and competencies in this area.

For leaders ready to look at this a bit closer, we do have starting points.

The work by Dr. Brené Brown, published in her book Dare to Lead, showed that courageous, wholehearted leaders have in common that they truly care for and connect with their employees. In daring leadership I work to build courageous, wholehearted leaders and work cultures. And I continue to see this as an important first step for leaders – as it teaches what courage is, how to rumble with vulnerability, why values with behaviours are important, what the elements of trust are and how distancing from the stories our minds make up we can gain resilience. So it means skills to sit with uncertainty are built, there is space for the conversations and for being a learner, not a knower.

The Dare to Lead^TM program includes how grief gets in the way of LivingBIG, that is the belief every person is doing the best they can, yet it handles the topic of grief with a lot of caution. And I see grief as part of sorrow and bittersweet, about something that is lost and what it may make us yearn for and stretch for with action.

This is where I believe we have to dig deeper and not shy away from conversations around the bittersweet, grief, nostalgia, beauty. These play a critical part of connecting us with our humanity, our longing, our faith and those emotions awe and wonder. It can put us in communion with each other. Taking from Brené Brown’s newest book Atlas of the Heart – we have to become more confident as story stewards to one another.

If you are looking for something concrete to do:

Develop your own thoughts, skills and awareness (you can start with books mentioned in this post)
Get leaders trained to enable safe workspaces, where vulnerability and uncertainty is allowed (eg. the Dare to Lead^TM program)
Business schools – do include new programs so leaders come away with empathy and humility
Start incorporating and become aware of beauty in your life and workplaces

Although my thoughts here are around the workplace, I believe it is imperative that our education systems and our local governments step up in their responsibilities to engage and enable dialogue on our societies’ values, our moral compass, our desire for communion and connection with each other. As really I am not convinced we want these beautiful, soft issues of humanity to be cared for by large corporate conglomerates.

I leave you with some words from Susan Cain in her conversation with The House of Beautiful Business:

I think it’s possible to admit – not just admit, but embrace – all the bounty of what spiritual longing actually is. That’s completely consistent with deep agnosticism. But we’ve lost sight of that.
House of Beautiful Business. LONGING IS THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR MOONSHOTS, AND ALL OUR LOVE

And if you wonder where I am with my personal quest for faith. I continue to rumble with it, explore, learn and give myself grace whilst doing so. Currently it rests for me around my gratitude practice, the mantra Martha Beck offers “I deserve to live in peace”, my reading of the Tao Te Ching and it’s call to Non-Action, and the Buddhist high virtues of: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity.

(Clear is kind: I provide links so you can find my sources and find publications. I have no affiliation with any of these external sites or any return from doing so.)