Our Blog
Our blog’s inspiration comes from the work we do, the knowledge shared between our clients and us. It is dedicated to effective leadership.
“Fear of losing vs fear of winning: two sides of the same coin?”
I am privileged to closely follow the destiny of one of Switzerland’s leading football teams. Of course, the Swiss championship should progress before it competes with the English Premier League or the Italian, German, Spanish or French competitions. But, it can be...
“By 2014 Generation Y will have grown to represent 50% of the global workforce!”
Type “2014 Generation Workplace” on Google and various reports and articles will appear about the fact that, in 2014, the Millennium Generation will represent around 50% of the workforce in the World. And soon after, the “Digital Natives” (also called “Z” or “C” for...
"I had no choice…"
Linda Perrat is one of the most amazing coaches I know. I meet her when unusual challenges take place, at personal or professional level in my life and always leave her Parisian office/apartment looking positively at options about the future. Ever since I met her, she...
"Yes but we are a B2B company and this B2C stuff doesn’t apply to us!"
How many times have we heard this excuse when working with large businesses entrenched into their orthodoxies? This goes back for me, as far as 1988 when taking my MBA at IMD when some of my friends who had started their career in the industry dismissed marketing and...
“What the children of Panyee have to tell us about challenging orthodoxies”
I am always proud when hearing one of my partners explaining to a client that his/her background is “atypical” for someone working in our industry… Ben Clayton-Jolly has spent years as an officer in the British Army in the Parachute Regiment… He now runs Inspiring...
"Delegation, Oxytocin and Con Men" by Michael Newman
Whether your business calls it delegation or empowerment, the ability of leaders to effectively hand over work to others is a critical part of their role. Whilst most of us do it, often successfully, there are very few of us who would not want to improve. It is...
"Broadcasting is not Engaging"
Year after year, for the past ten years, my partners and I have run an average of fifteen “Conventions” per year for our clients. Such large gatherings of leaders are usually the moment in the year where the Board seeks to communicate on “The State of the Union” and...
"In Praise of the Handshake"
When asked by a new client to describe the Enablers Network, I usually explain that we are no conventional, pyramidal organization but far more an organic and connected community. In our team, seniority is not superiority; we have no contractual agreement between us...
“Do you create the conditions for your team to hold truly strategic conversations?”
Two years ago, I was invited by my daughter's school in order to hold a conversation with the younger pupils, as they were reported to be increasingly stressed by all the things they heard and saw from their parents during the worst moments of the financial crisis....
Powerpoint, Neuroscience and Magic by Michael Newman
Earlier this week I had reason to remember a Management Meeting of a team I was coaching. I had asked this particular team to have a normal meeting so I could observe their dynamics, behaviours and processes. Inevitably there came a time when one of them wanted to use...
“Co-creating, co-piloting, co-opetition: Why is “co” the new buzzword?”
The open source phenomenon is profoundly changing the rules of the game in several businesses (publishing, software, business schools, medical research, toys industry with LEGO, healthcare and cosmetics with P&G, car manufacturing with Local Motors and big brands...
“People don’t buy what you do! They buy why you do it!!!”
Simon Sinek[1] proposes a simple and elegant model: the golden circle. When talking (as everybody today) about Apple, he challenges its competitors: “Apple is just another computer company… They have the same access to the same talents, the same agencies, the same...
Fear of loosing or fear of winning?
Sports coaches know it: the fear of loosing is a powerful stressor for athletes and they do their best to keep them out of it. In an earlier post, as well as in our book[1], I commented on the picture below (inspired from the works of Daniel Goleman, Henri Laborit or...
“What the Catholic Church can teach us in terms of being disrupted?”
Alan Moore and Gerd Leonhard[1] came up with a great metaphor in terms of illustrating the concept of disruption: The Catholic Church and Gutenberg’s invention… The clip here below summarizes the situation before and after the printing press invention in a short and...
“What can we learn from Wilhelm Tell’s sons?”
I was born a Belgian (with a Colombian grandmother which explains my hot temper I guess) and became Swiss at the age of 30 (I lived here since I was 2). My heart is “green & yellow” (from my wife’s Brazilian origin). So please do not take the following text as a...
“Those who can do, those who can’t… teach”
My rebellious side fell in love with this quote of G. B. Shaw, brought by Nick McRoberts[1]. We now have wonderful Enablers “intelligent fibers” shirts (Rhodia FiBras) on which the wise words are proudly worn. There is be a profound need for evolution in the world of...
“Why the Enablers Network looks more like the Barbarians than the Real Madrid”
Given the potential impact of the work we are invited to do, I am frequently asked by the clients we meet for the first time, to explain how we are organized. My shortest reply is that we are closer to “The Barbarians F.C.” than to the Real Madrid… A study from...
“Walking the thin line of Authenticity!”
When I recently showed, as an example of connected leadership, the moving video of Leonhard Bernstein conducting his orchestra[1], two participants objected, on the ground that the famous master Karajan’s style was, to say the least, far more directive, and that it...
"Planning our 2011 Leadership Journey…"
Sergio Chaia is the C.E.O. of Nextel in Brazil which he has profoundly transformed during his tenure. During a lunch in São-Paulo, four months ago, he was challenging me: “We all need to define our Essence! By so doing, we become unique and clearly positioned both in...
"Improvisation takes a lot of preparation: What Samba Schools can teach us about leadership"
Jimmy is professor of Strategic Marketing in São-Paulo (USP and ESPM). He is a dedicated member of the "Vai-Vai" samba school and has decided to bring lessons from this world to the corporate world… “Is samba serious or just leisure?” The “gringos” (non Brazilians) as...
"G.D.P. vs J.D.V.", an original explanation of the Resonating focus
Heartfelt thank you, once again, to Doug Dean a Strategic Marketing Guru (whom I met when we both did our MBA in IMD, now based in Hong-Kong), for sharing another inspiring speech he watched on TED.com. It shows Chip Conley, owner of a Motel chain interestingly called...
“Engaging Leadership” has been written for leaders who are about to engage their organisations in change."