This is the end…

Each project has to have clear beginning, milestones and end. Well, maybe except continuous improvement process. We have reached the final stage of the LEAD program last Friday. Presentations done, hands shaken, certificates handed over, champagne opened and consumed. This is it. Now, the only thing we have to do, is to implement all we have learned into our life. Piece of cake!

Once again – big thanks to our trainers (since site is public, I am not listing names) for all the know-how they shared with us. Thanks also to you all, for having a look here once in a while and keeping me motivated.

Following the initial sentence of this entry – the blog get’s closed. I am not going to prolong domain rental nor update content here any more. This is the end.

Daniel

Career Anchor

Right… so we are getting really close to the end of our program. In few days we are going to meet each other for the last time and summarize what we have learned by presenting us to very important people, which will honour us by their presence. But that’s not all. Reading the invitation for the closing workshop, I found one term, which was not known to me – career anchor. Since I’ve got head, fingers and google, I decided to dig a bit in that topic and it seems very interesting. Here is what I found…

Win-Win Negotiation. Finding a fair compromise.

Do you feel that someone is continually taking advantage of you? Do you seem to have to fight your corner aggressively, or ally with others, to win the resources you need? Or do you struggle to get what you want from people whose help you need, but over whom you have little direct authority? If so, you may need to brush up your win-win negotiation skills.

The Big Change

So, time for third country and third Bosch office… I wonder if I’m gonna miss beach, palm trees, sun 300 days a year, open and helpful people, great food and even better wine, spectacular landscapes of Alentejo, historical North, nation-wide football addiction, easy going way of life, no-violence state and so many other things? I guess at least a bit. OK, lets be honest – I miss it all already! Next entry will be done from Goethe’s land and it won’t be soon probably. Don’t you worry, Victoria is now on board and I believe she will keep the show running. Take care!

Collaborating in teams

I don’t know how about you, but I liked that module very much. No doubt it was the best so far. In terms of both – content of the training and also after-hours activities. Discussions were sometimes very heavy and there were moments, when I was seriously afraid that Alexey won’t stand me any more and use his not-so-small hands to make me change my mind. Luckily group decision was the right one, so I saved my life again. Inside the post there are some pictures, so you want forget. And BTW, I have seen the video tape from Dusan. Some of you totally missed the life point – Hollywood is waiting ;-) And no, I still don’t have presentations video from Andrea.

Leadership by the New Generation

Bridging the Gap Between Younger and Older Leaders.
Different generations, different approaches?
Picture this scenario: the leader of a long-established team in your organization has retired, and his replacement is a young manager straight out of business school. She’s anxious to get going – with fresh ideas and fresh enthusiasm – and your CEO hopes that she’ll bring some new life and energy into the company.

Do you delegate?

Well, here is another interseting editorial by mindtools.com. Enjoy reading

www.lead3rd.org

Well, address of this page wasn’t exactly the easiest and the most clever so far… Therefore I’ve invested some resources into proper domain. So, since today on, the new address is available. Old one should work as well. Remember www.lead3rd.org.

cheers – D.

Forget desert. Let’s think BIG. Moon is the challenge!

You are a member of a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. However, due to mechanical difficulties, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the rendezvous point. During reentry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip.

Sorry…

I am so lazy busy, that I really can not push myself to go forward…

Six Sigma, DMAIC, Prince2, PMI, TQM, 5S, KAI ZEN, FMEA, TCO …

It’s has been long time since anything happened here, but now I am back and almost ready for sth new. This time I decided to touch the subject of seminar before the seminar itself. So, as you could suspect, it’s gonna be about project (and process) management. Those things are really interesting and I believe it is worth of having closer look on them. During the seminar we will learn the Bosch way as well as some general rules. They will tell us about the team, priorities, milestones etc. But also outside Bosch there are some systems, or if you prefer philosophies, which offer quite a different ways of project (process) management. After I am done, all what is in the headline should be crystal clear for everyone (although I know it is crystal clear for some of us already). OK, most of it. Some I just made up ;-)

Stay tuned, the first part should go online after the weekend.

Achmed, the dead terrorist

Maybe you have wondered last time, why Dirk and also myself behaved sorta strange, repeating silence, I kill you! Well, this is all about Achmed. Go inside and have a look. This is youtube video and it does work in our corporate network (trusted sites, cookies enabled and so on).

Ladder of inference – don’t jump to conclusions too fast Mr. Hurricane!

Here it is. Famous ladder of inference, by some creative members of our group called also ladder of influence or even ladder of innocence (?!?!). By the time it was presented to us, I found it kinda fuzzy. But now, when I really went thru again and did some net research it turned to be slightly different. I believe it is great tool for self control and it could also be great early warning system for your daily actions. Inside the post I will try to remind you what it’s all about. Due to copyright issues I did graphics myself – sorry for that.

Innovative time management approach ;-)

“I Swear By Apollo” – Being Accountable to Yourself In Leadership

“I swear by Apollo”… so starts the Oath of Hippocrates, an oath of ethical, professional behavior sworn by all new physicians – a promise to practice good medicine to the best of their ability, for the good of their patients. It essentially boils down to a commitment to “do no harm”. Wouldn’t it be great to have such an oath for leaders – an oath of personal accountability, not just for business outcomes and for leading others, but for leading oneself. I am reminded of the proverb “Physician, heal thyself”, suggesting that one should take care of one’s own faults first before correcting the faults of others – so I add to the above: Leader, lead thyself.

Left? Right? Which is right?

Here is a prove that even within your own brain you can not avoid conflicts. Have a look at chart below and say out loud the colour of the word – not the word itself. Good luck ;-)

YELLOW   BLUE   ORANGE

BLACK    RED    GREEN

PURPLE   YELLOW   RED

ORANGE   GREEN   BLACK

BLUE   RED   PURPLE

GREEN   BLUE   ORANGE

Pretty tricky huh? Takes a while to tell yor brain halfes that they should not cooperate ;-)

Conflict is the problem. Confrontation is the cure.

Here is a small editorial found on the net. Quite different approach, but still worth to have a look on. Enjoy reading…

нетworking

So, next module is over. We have learnt origins of word networking as well as how to say NO. We know what time thieves are and how to deal with them (right Lutz?). We know all possible conflict scenarios and I bet, that some of us just can’t wait to raise new conflict just to find out which scenario would be the best to solve it. We also know, that some of us have kinda women-magnet inside, and this does not refer to me. I hope soon you will be presented first part of Passions of Vienna, I just have to figure out, how to make it password protected within blog. If not possible I will do it on separate site. All requests for pictures are welcome, but after Wednesday, when I am back in the office. So far that’s it. Greets from Barcelona. Your beloved, selfish and chaotic author.

A Name To Every Leader

Probably I shoudn’t (re)publish it. Probably this is not politicaly correct. Probably I might push one’s feeling. Probably… ;-)

Maxim

You know what they say about IT guys? When one is asking for a loan of 500€, the other will respond: ok, here you go 512, to make it even. So, Maxim is exactly opposite. I couldn’t hear that he was talking about hardware/software once! Pretty unusual ;-) He is another representative of Russian Federation. Sometimes I wonder why don’t we speak Russian on our LEAD ;-)

Peer groups

Do you still remember that we are divided into peer groups? To be honest – I forgot. It came back to my mind when I started some peer-to-peer software on my PC at home ;-)

But that’s not all, we were given a task to

Is it (going to be) you?

I just couldn’t resist… ;-)

Alexey

Power tools is amazing branch. They sell their stuff everywhere on this planet. This is really impressive, but has some disadvantages I guess… at least when I look at Alexey yaaaawning and trying to fight jet-leg. At 3 pm. Strong, honest and calm. This is what I think ;-) His place could be an interestign idea for winter holidays.

Janez

Heart brought to you at the top of his palm. Open, honest and without complexes. Great story supplier. He as well came from Slovenia, where he leads quite big group of people in one of our factories. Ready for any kind of challange.

Being a leader – different approaches

Old story about glass half-full and half-empty and different way of perception;-)

Zuzana

She is the one, who has to pick up the phone when khem…. annoyed customer is calling to share his feelings. She works for TT in Slovakia. Zuzana, as well as Marcela, prefers shopping than having a beer. Well, on the other hand, what can be so impressive in Austrian beer for Slovakians? Not much I guess ;-)

Dusan

Silent water. Pro poker face during the day and soul of the group in the evening. Supporter of change as a weapon against boredom. And he’s right. In this point at least. His origins are back in tiny and beautiful country squeezed between Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. Sharp comments and sober observations. Mature nature and great sense of humor.

Corneliu

Man of misery mystery. Hard to find out when he is serious. Seems that he never is, but don’t believe your feelings. He is able to surprise you with very accurate riposte. Vienna’s barfly and blended scotch fan. Located in Romania, where he does something very important. They say it’s related with quality. Has no sense of humor at all.

Pavel

Here he comes! Pure energy and controversy. Always own opinion and original point of view. Bottomless barrel full of ideas and often-shocking society driver. Multiskilled, self confident (he says he’s too confident, but this is coquetry of course), sometimes hard-to-stop speaker. Comes from Russia, where he makes sure that power tools business is bringing us instant profit.

33

33 is the largest positive integer that can not be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers. It is also the smallest odd repdigit that’s not prime (unless we consider 1-digit integers to also be repdigits).

More about leading and leadership

Maybe it is just a luck, but I found quite good article exactly about we were learning on our last session. Really worth of wasting 10 minutes of your priceless time. Read full article inside this post.

Dirk

His life is quite an adventure based on traveling from Australia to Australia with small-but-efficient stop-over in Hungary. He loves to watch combat sports on television and this is not truth that he’s falling asleep while doing that. He is the biggest leader among us, being responsible for 200 people. Probably he could train some of us instead of participating in LEAD. As I said after interviewed him – maybe he is not a man of many words, but for sure he is man of action. Fan of scotch and motorcycling.

Author is back

Finally it’s over! No more sleeping in bed, which doesn’t belong to me. Finally it is +14 C instead of -10 C. Sun instead of clouds hanging 50 meters above head. Fresh air instead of city’s smog. Ocean… It’s good to be back home.

Thank you all for the Xmas emails, which I got during those days! We’ll see each other in four weeks right? Time is passing by without mercy ;-) I’ll try to have all of you posted here before that.

Back to work now.

Marcela

Comes from Slovakia, where makes Junkers go instantaneously forward and forward. As a product manager she handles all the country’s product strategy. She likes to help others (me) and laugh out loudly (probably as well of me). Prefers shopping than having a beer (!). If you like Ecco shoes remember – there is a factory in Slovakia, and they have outlet there – very cheap! Guess who can help you getting a pair… ;-)

Holidays!!!

Finally! Out of office on, suitcase packed, flights, cars, trains arranged, presents list sent to Santa, off we go.

Victoria

Power Lady of power tools. Represents Russia. Knows exactly how to do her job and not let others influence her way of thinking. Shy-less speaker and presenter. Focused manager and ribs taster. Margaret Thatcher seems to be smiling cheerleader when compared with her. Well, good to have her in our group and not against us ;-) Hope she will teach us some Russian…

Adrian

King of life. Able to have a dinner in 2 hours only! Probably the worst punishment for him would be to force him to dine in silence. And quick. He is a member of securitate security systems and works in very international environment. Based in Bucharest.  Patient and focused observer and listener, able to draw very accurate conclusions and ask right questions ad hoc. Professional shopper.

Anna

Her name is Kiss. Anna Kiss. Master of interviewing. You can hide nothing when she starts asking questions. And it looks so easy! She has several kinds of blood in her veins, but Romania is her home. Something is wrong interesting about her fingers – seems they are boneless. She use them also for taking some essential measures needed for succesful private life. If you will let her start telling the jokes, be aware that she will let you go only when she is not able to bring new joke every 15 seconds. Great sense of humor and professional approach.

Interview

When I got back to the office after our meeting I was so eager to interview someone… To prove myself that I really can do that without major flops and mistakes. But I realized again, that I am at lowest level in the organization, so I am having quite hard time finding someone who I could interview. I won’t give up anyway!

Lilia

Lilia is a beautiful creature coming from Russia. When she blinks her eyelids men’s hearts melts down in a second. She eats salad only and she prefers still water among all the cocktails. Marketing is her kingdom and she is THE person for that king of job. Talks with ease and passion. Presents smoothly, independent from the subject. Simply – power tool of marketing (of power tools).

Lutz

Let me introduce Lutz (do not smile – you will be next). Lutz is a man of strong arms and equally strong voice, which can easily wake up a dead man. His mind and opinions are not even a bit weaker! Comes from Germany, but somehow has chosen life in cosmopolitan city of Vienna. I wonder why ;-) He is a great host when we all are far from home. Lutz works for Bosch of course and he seems to me as a hard tough boss, but hey, that’s life ;-) In a nutshell – gladiator with heart as big as a vessel.

Ignition

Well, here it is. Blog. Frame is easy to do, but content could be an issue. You also will contribute, right?