An apt summary of what leadership entails, can be found on the INSEAD website: “Leadership is a lifelong journey that begins with self-awareness”. This journey includes looking at the prerequisites for the ability to lead, including authenticity, clear values and focused and deliberate action. Leading requires access to the ‘rational brain’. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for reasoning, thinking, decision-making, empathy and planning. It is critical to understand that access to our rational brain is blocked when our physiological stress responses are triggered and that, as a result, leading – yourself and others – becomes physically impossible. This is a very important fact, because it implies that there is no room to develop personal and […]

Diversity and people’s ‘natural’ tendencies are not a winning combination. For example, we all know that, by default, we tend to hire people that are like us. When aiming to build more diverse teams, this is one of the first things to tackle. Inclusion is the essential next step. Without it, teams will not be able to benefit from their diverse nature. Amongst other things, inclusion requires actively overwriting implicit bias by identifying each individual’s qualities and providing an environment where everyone can thrive. The way we look at performance of employees is key in this respect. Here’s why. When Winston Churchill said: “Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common… Celebrate it every day”, he captured […]