Category Archives: Articles

Believe In The Power Of The Reality You Want

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by Anja Uitdehaag

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It cannot be no other way. This is not philosophy, this is physics.” – Albert Einstein

We are what we tell ourselves we are. When we are talking to ourselves, we are talking to our subconscious mind. If I continuously tell myself I am stupid, unworthy, and ugly, then I am placing these ideas into my subconscious and making it believe these ideas are true. They become a confirmation. Imagine what happens if I focus my subconscious mind on positive outcomes? I can shape my own destiny and achieve marvelous success and happiness… This is called “autosuggestion”. Continue reading →

Me? ….. A Brand?

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by Anja Uitdehaag

Personal branding was popularized by an article by Tom Peters first published in Fast Company Magazine (“A Brand Called You”) over 10 years ago. He starts out the article by writing, “Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” Continue reading →

Lindsay’s In Business: Running

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by Lindsay Uittenbogaard

I’d run my own business before.  In fact, it was the first thing I did when I finished University. I started the UK’s first city-to-city car pool agency for students in 1992.  Crazy actually.  No concept awareness, no funding, no experience, no internet (but we did get a fax machine – woo!) I loved the novelty and the challenge of it. But after 4 years, 17,000 members, EU funding, 7 voluntary staff and sponsorship from Vauxhall Motors – at 10 pounds membership a year, it just wasn’t viable. I was exhausted and oh so disappointed.

After that, I went from small-business marketing in Australia, to a general management position in Scotland, and then someone said, “Hey, I need someone for a communications consultancy job in the Netherlands and you could be that person!” So off I went to start work at Shell in 2001. As I set out on what was to be a fascinating whole new life, I started discovering what large organizations were really about. Continue reading →

Workplace Bullying

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by Anja Uitdehaag

Let’s have a look at some – shocking! – statistics:

According to a 2010 online poll by the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), a Washington state think Tank, workplace bullying

  • affects more than 1/3 of employees;
  • 56% of employees reported that bullying came from bosses;
  • 33% said bullying came from coworkers;
  • 11% said bullying came from the bottom up, employees to their superiors;
  • 69% of bullies are male, and 57% of the time they have female targets;
  • 31% of bullies are female, and 68% of the time they have female targets;
  • Early results from an online WBI survey revealed 87% of employers reacted by denying, defending, discounting or rationalizing the abuse.

As the above statistics show, workplace bullying is happening everywhere. Continue reading →

Lindsay’s In Business: The Starting Point

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by Lindsay Uittenbogaard

So I’m finally sitting in a meeting room with my boss. I hadn’t been able to talk with her for a few weeks now (which was getting pretty frustrating), so what I wanted to get out of the discussion had been changing quite a bit. She waits for me to take the lead. I decide to take a meta-level approach.

“I’m glad we have chance to talk. It feels like we’ve been… kind of … at odds with each other,” I confessed. “Maybe it’s me – I’m so keen to see progress and push forward in a ‘dynamic’ way that when the brakes go on, it’s difficult to understand. Then, at the same time, it seems you’re holding things back to prioritise ‘excellence’ in our work. Should we be rethinking those values together?” Continue reading →

Are You Winning The E-mail Battle?

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by Tarek Beram

How do other people organize their working lives? Did you ever wonder about that? I mean, how do others manage the endless flow of incoming emails and on-going flow of things to do? In the time of apps and after the arrival of the cloud, how does a modern person stay in control of own time and efforts? I believe most people get so used to the way they operate they don’t stop to consider alternatives.

Messaging is still dominating the business live. Then electronic calendar is the norm now. Then you have your own thoughts and ideas that you want to do something about. Then comes up the tasks or errands as a result of discussions or interactions. It’s a vortex of to-dos that you choose to spend time and effort on and either you’re on top of the vortex or you’re not. Continue reading →

I Am Feeling Vulnerable!

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by Anja Uitdehaag

At work, we are programmed to act as if we know what we are doing, even in moments when we have no clue.

Managers and employees often act from the shared belief that being vulnerable at work is not acceptable, that it will result in perceptions of incompetence, lack of confidence and consequently a poor performance review.

We are often afraid to be vulnerable because it is associated with weakness. However it is a commonly experienced human feeling. None of us are exempt from feeling vulnerable at times. Continue reading →

When Office Politics Are At Odds With Your Personal Values

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by River Ho Rathore

Just yesterday, I came across a Harvard Business Review article titled “Great Leaders Embrace Office Politics”. Written by Michael Wenderoth, the article describes how, in the real world, our success is determined less by merit and more by perceptions and political skills. Michael’s writing is pragmatic and draws insights from top executives’ actual experiences, even his own. It also reminded me of the many warnings I have received about playing the office politics game. “It is there in every office. You cannot eliminate it, so you might as well play it,”  a number of colleagues, relatives and friends have told me so over the years. Continue reading →

Self Confidence: More Important Than You Think!

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by Mine Batiyel

How do I define art? Art is a language and like any other language it is a vehicle of communication i.e. self-expression of ideas and most inner/deep feelings. Language is an important aspect of any culture and cultures tend by nature to limit one’s freedom in one way or another. Here is where art comes in – it provides freedom of expression without any limitation or boundaries and provides ample opportunity for imagination and creativity. It is hence highly therapeutic.

However, like in business life, in art we also go through the same ups and downs, the good days and the bad days, disappointing end results and great ones. The good old “competencies” of the business life will either ensure you pull through or you give up. Continue reading →

Don’t believe everything you think

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by Anja Uitdehaag

A couple of weeks ago, we had a celebration dinner together with an ex-colleague. She got, in my opinion, a very well deserved promotion since she is incredibly smart, hardworking, and talented. I truly believe in her abilities and her values. I see it, I hear it and I feel it every time I talk to her.

I was surprised to hear that she doesn’t always feel the same.

She expressed the fear of being “found out” one day to be lacking the skills and intelligence she is perceived to have.

At the same time I felt like watching myself in a mirror. I also tend to diminish the significance of my achievements and attribute them to luck, a helping hand or other forces outside my control, rather than my own effort, dedication, and even intelligence. Continue reading →