Management Insights 2005 : 16 ideas for improving your effectiveness as an executive

This book provides an interdisciplinary approach to current management challenges and is intended as a source for inspiration and new ideas for the reader in his day to day responsibilities as an executive.

Every day I meet people in high-level executive positions. They ask me what they can learn at an academy for executives which they don't already know as a result of their many years of experience. My answer is that what you already know is exactly what you should think very carefully and critically about. Perhaps it's necessary to draw new lessons from this experience. One of the people attending a seminar at the academy replied to the question on what benefits he expected from the seminar: 'If at the end I feel I've learnt something new, then it will have been worthwhile being here. If however I come to the conclusion that, in spite of the semi- nar being rather arduous, it contained nothing new to me then I would be extremely disappointed. ' Facts about leadership are normally learnt on the job: you are influenced by the example set by executives higher up in the hierarchy but you be- lieve that any crucial success at work is a result of your own expert and decisive intervention in the workings of the company. The difference between causality and coincidence is clear. Sometimes you find yourself being involved in an outstanding financial success without having made any significant contribution to this success - this is coincidence. Never- theless you may well see success as a just reward for your own abilities and acts.