We inspire brave Leadership
Haben Sie sich jemals über die Führungsqualitäten des Weihnachtsmanns gewundert? Ever wondered about Santa’s Leadership skills?
Look no further! In our most hilarious podcast episode (yet) our colleagues Augustine Pasin & Elke Pichler discussed just that. Their verdict is not that favourable… Enjoy 16 minutes that will make you laugh
We at MagnoliaTree are overjoyed to welcome Elke Pichler as a new team member. She is an incredible asset and will be leading the MagnoliaTree Academy.
Welcome to Elke!
Elke Pichler is a consultant, trainer and coach. At MagnoliaTree she leads the MagnoliaTree Academy, about which we will publish more info soon. She is the founder of impactory, the largest Austrian donation platform and YTILI Fellow 2021/22.
In all her roles appreciation, curiosity and openness are guiding principles for her. She studied real estate management, business administration and business psychology, is a trained personality trainer and systemic coach. In these roles, she accompanies various organizations, lectures at universities and is a mentor for students and founders.
Nine out of ten workers say that stress at work harms their wellbeing and mental health. At the same time, three out of five workers cannot count on the support of their superiors when it comes to coping with stress. And this happens even though it is known that long-term stress usually leads to physical illnesses; Sometimes, it even causes a burn-out.
This statistic makes one thing very clear: The number one stress factor is work related, whether it’s the workload, the lack of job security or a lack of work-life balance.
And: According to The American Insitute of Stress which has been regularly conducting studies on the subject since 1998, stress has been undeniably increasing in recent decades. The fact that stress makes us sick is well known; so well known that in New York, Los Angeles, and other U. S. cities, police officers who have a heart attack on the job or off duty are compensated because heart attacks are considered to be work-related damage caused by stress.
But wouldn’t it be more sensible to minimize stressful working conditions as far as possible so that the 40% of workers no longer experience their job as awfully stressful?
According to the American Institute of Stress study, workplace stress costs $300 billion in lost productivity every year. At the latest now, leaders should understand why it is vital to address this issue and take action.
It should come quite naturally for every company to deal with stress-reducing factors and to take appropriate steps to eliminate them, where possible. Use a risk management concept to determine:
Above all, you should pay attention to this
Some of the factors that often lead to work-related stress are:
Working nonstop tires and exhausts employees. Everyone needs breaks to rest and recharge their batteries. Design the jobs you offer in such a way that a work-life balance is possible.
Give your employees more autonomy over their working hours and allow them to work remotely if they wish so.
Employees feel stressed when they are not clear about their duties and responsibilities. Therefore, create a clear governance structure where everyone knows who they report to and who is responsible for what. This will improve work efficiency and contribute to a more relaxed environment.
Communication plays a crucial role in any company. When employees are able to communicate smoothly with their colleagues and supervisors, this reduces stress considerably. Ensure that all communication channels within the company are working properly. This way, you can make sure that people at other levels will receive the correct information.
Involve your employees. A high level of employee commitment leads to higher productivity and satisfaction. Dedicated employees are committed to the goals and values of the company and are also motivated to contribute to the company’s success. In addition, employees need growth opportunities. If they do not exist, work morale and performance suffer and stress increases. Therefore, create recognition and reward programs.
It is well known that exercise and a healthy lifestyle are essential to reduce stress at work. Introduce corporate wellness programs for your employees, e. g. in the form of paid membership in fitness and meditation centers, healthy food in the canteen, or free check-ups.
Conflicts are inevitable and are part of our working lives. Reasons for a conflict may include promotion opportunities, salary disputes, feelings of lack of appreciation, and personal differences. Even if conflicts cannot be completely avoided, you can counteract and mitigate them by addressing the subject as quickly as possible instead of ignoring it. Looking the other way will only bring complications. But also avoid punitive reactions. Always try to solve conflicts positively and without negative reinforcement.
Noise is one of the primary causes of stress at work; high noise levels dramatically increase stress. Therefore, ensure a quiet environment and take precautions to keep the noise as low as possible. These include headphones with noise-cancelling, insulated walls and ceilings, or sound-absorbing partitions between workstations.
A work environment without support leads to stress and poor health. Ensure that employees are provided with adequate guidance by their supervisors or colleagues and foster a culture of collaboration and respect.
Schaffen Sie eine Create a corporate culture where all employees’ opinion is welcome. We need an environment where all questions can be asked and answered.
In addition to the measures mentioned above to reduce workplace stress by the companies themselves, each individual can, of course, take steps to cope better with stress.
Body level
The level of Mind
The level of the Soul
Even if we follow all the well-meant advice and implement it, we can never altogether avoid stress; this makes it even more important to recognize stress as part of our lives. But don’t forget one thing:
Sources:
https://www.stress.org
Mind the Workplace Report, 2021
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/work-related-stress#what-are-the-main-work-related-stressors
Leaders are transitioning to the ‘new normal,’ but how do we create a nurturing work environment for our blended WFH & in-person workforce?
Sabine Gromer, Founder, MagnoliaTree Consulting and Sylvain Newton, Founder, Newton Consulting talked on 18th November 2021 during the FRED Nexus Event about this matter.
As the first studies come in, the looming performance cliff becomes overt: While total hours worked increased by roughly 30% during a COVID-induced work-from-home period, average output did not significantly change, and productivity fell by about 20%.
While many organizations save costs by reducing office space, they are simply not prepared for the consequences. Hyperactivity, a state of freeze, or a focus on benign issues are not leading to a focused and positive structure to give stability in this radical shift of the way we work.
Leadership advisors Sylvain Newton and Sabine Gromer lead through this immersive and interactive FRED NeXus event. They shared their first-hand insights and offered opportunities to exchange ideas and impulses for creating a better work environment for the future (blended) workforce, and a more productive, aligned, loyal and engaged employee-base.
On October 8, 2021, Sabine Gromer of MagnoliaTree spoke with Donna Hicks about Dignity as part of FRED Week 2021.
Lines befit the zeitgeist. Donna and Sabine both believe that Dignity holds the answer for much of this illumination. Donna Hicks dedicated her book Leading with dignity to “ all the dignity agents out there who know we could do better”.
On Friday they had a dialogue about Donna’s findings.
Dr. Hicks was Deputy Director of the Program on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution (PICAR) at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She worked extensively on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and as a member of the third party in numerous unofficial diplomatic efforts. In addition to her work in the Middle East, Dr. Hicks founded and co-directed a ten-year project in Sri Lanka.
She has also worked on the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Colombia and conducted several US/Cuba dialogues. She is the Vice President of Ara Pacis, an Italian non-governmental organization based in Rome. They are currently involved in a dignity restoration project in Syria and Libya. Dr. Hicks was a consultant to the British Broadcasting Company where she co-facilitated encounters between victims and perpetrators of the Northern Irish conflict with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The encounters were made into 3 television programs, Facing the Truth, which were aired throughout the United Kingdom and on BBC World.
Dr. Hicks has taught courses in conflict resolution at Harvard, Clark, and Columbia Universities and conducts trainings and educational seminars in the US and abroad on the role dignity plays in healing and reconciling relationships in conflict as well as dignity leadership training. She consults to corporations, schools, churches, and non-governmental organization. She is the author of the book, Dignity: It’s Essential Role in Resolving Conflict, published in 2011 by Yale University Press. Her second book, Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, was published by Yale University Press in August 2018.
Shortened Version
We women are particularly familiar with prejudices; they accompany us from the cradle to the casket. Prejudices are the reason why women are still rare in leadership positions. Erasing prejudice is a slow process because pigeonholing, and shallow categorization is an important part of our evolutionary history. Even in our newest technologies, bias can be found. Algorithms, which increasingly influence and determine our lives, are a major barrier on the way to a prejudice-free(er) future.
WE ALL THINK IN CATEGORIZATIONS because the automatic classification of people and situations has a distinct evolutionary benefit: It simplifies decision-making processes and thus saves mental capacity and enables us to respond swiftly to recognizable scenarios. However, the biggest danger in categorizing people is it isn’t always fair. Afterall, we only recently learned the difference between structural and unconscious biases. Both are attitudes and beliefs that lie outside our consciousness.
We live in a new digital age, and era of computers and artificial intelligence (AI). All social media platforms, most search engines and news websites are built on algorithms. AI systems are used, among other things, in most image recognition systems used by large companies, such as the image captioning AI used by Facebook, which recognizes whether a person, animal or object is in an image. It not only identifies people in pictures, but also recognizes whether the person is smiling, wearing accessories, standing or sitting, and the total number of people in a group picture. There is little doubt about the power of AI systems. The data analysis and pattern recognition enabled by Deep Learning enables AI to diagnose early-stage cancer with greater accuracy than human doctors. AI can save lives, change lives, but also destroy lives. And therein lies the problem. Above all, AI has one effect: it allows confirmation bias to grow uncontrolled and unchecked and shows us the world as we like it. Every day it confirms our beliefs, opinions, and preferences. We live in a perpetual echo chamber that is designed, coordinated, and updated constantly by AI. Worst of all it’s fun. That is terrifying.
Algorithmic biases are a completely new dimension, and we will not be able to avoid having to deal with them more closely. Artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping all our lives and we need to ask ourselves two questions in particular:
In many large companies, fundamentally important decisions, such as personnel decisions, are supported by artificial intelligence. For example, AI pre-selects who will be invited for interviews. The knowledge of the algorithms that carry such decisions can be fed by flawed, unrepresentative, and prejudiced past experiences. This has the potential to inhibit positive future development towards an unbiased future. Explained less abstractly, when an algorithm decides who should be shortlisted for an advertised executive position, it preemptively eliminates people with immigrant backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women because it relies on data-based empirical values. For an algorithm, middle-aged white men are a safe choice. AI systems cannot address ethical and social concerns unless they are programmed accordingly. And that’s exactly what’s lacking in the male-dominated IT industry.
AI bias is generally unintentional. Artificial intelligence is not evil. But the consequences of its decisions can be significant: poor customer service, lower sales and revenue, unfair and even illegal actions. And: they can even lead to potentially dangerous conditions.
YouTube Tipp: Lo and Behold Clip – The Evolution of AI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ChGhnbCy6g
In a conversation with director Werner Herzog about the dangers of AI, Tesla founder and AI skeptic Elon Musk gave a compelling example: Suppose an artificial intelligence was tasked with maximizing the value of an investment portfolio. Suppose also that the system’s creators did not clearly specify how to achieve that goal. Theoretically, in this case, the machine intelligence could invest more in defense stocks, triggering a war in the worst-case scenario.
The greatest danger of AI-systems is the “Blackbox Problem” — we are now unable to fully understand why the algorithms behind AI work the way they do.
Our brain is the most vital, but at the same time the most complex and enigmatic of our organs. Artificial intelligence, which represents the pinnacle of human technological development, is – despite us creating it – in many ways a mystery. We do know a great deal about our brains, and we can predict with some certainty how they will respond to various stimuli. Likewise, we can know with some certainty what results an AI algorithm will produce given certain inputs. The mystery facing scientists and researchers is not that of the output, but how it is generated. This lack of knowledge about the inner workings of the “black box” of artificial intelligence is the biggest hurdle in AI development and will be with us for a long time, if not forever.
The widespread use of artificial intelligence will be a particular challenge for humanity. Organizations that use AI will need to disclose the human decisions behind the design of their AI systems, as well as what ethical and social concerns they have considered, and how well they have monitored the results of those systems for traces of bias or discrimination. We need models we can trust. Achieving transparency in AI systems is critical. And we need one thing above all else: more diversity in computer science.
But what does that mean in concrete terms? What can I do?
Film recommendation on the topic
In the documentary Coded Bias, filmmaker Shalini Kantayya follows computer scientist Joy Buolamwini of the M.I.T Media Lab and data scientists, mathematicians, and watchdog groups around the world to expose the discrimination caused by facial recognition algorithms that are now prevalent in all aspects of daily life. This documentary can be seen on Netflix.
“When you think of A.I., it’s forward-looking, but A.I. is based on data, and data is a reflection of our history.”
Joy Buolamwini
Shortened Version
Changes are part of life and will accompany us from the cradle to our deathbed. Nothing stays as it is. Everything changes. That is the way of things. Nevertheless, we find ourselves in a new era of change. Everywhere there is a call for it, It must come quickly, and it must work. But hasty and ill-considered changes usually fail. In my view, the difference between change that successfully supports us in our challenges – leading us down new, hopeful paths – and change that feeds on the old and the worn-outdepends to a great extent on whether dignity is the foundation of the change process.
Lasting change is, above all, inner work. It is necessary to recognize problems in advance and prepare to face difficulty. We may have to ask ourselves unpleasant questions and deal with the consequences of our personal decisions on surroundings, relationships, and work-life. Only when we have done this can effective change processes be set in motion. Everything but this type of prepared, dignified change are useless shams.
Because recognizing a problem and visualizing its consequences are not simple processes, we should ideally be accompanied by experts – often in the form of coaching. With an expert at our side – and dignity as a compass in our hands – leadership can be revolutionized to a standard suitable for the 21st century. Sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, are necessary solutions to our biggest problem: the climate crisis.
All change processes are preceded by a vision or a wish. This is the beginning of the inner house building. Similar to architects, I ask three questions at the beginning of building a project:
From my experience in accompanying change processes, three qualities are essential for dignified change.
Appreciation
It is important to recognize and appreciate one’s own value as well as the value of others and their position. Appreciation should always be rooted in sincerity.
Interaction/Relationship
Ask yourself the following questions: What do my relationships look like? Are they secure? Do I have trust? Am I being seen and heard? Is my counterpart present in the decision making process? Are my boundaries being respected? Am I respecting the boundaries of others? Security of connections is of critical importance in one’s life, but also in change processes.
Inner Attitude
Inner attitude is about balance and perception – both towards myself and towards others. How do I see my counterpart? Smaller or bigger than me? How do I see myself towards others? Smaller or bigger than my counterpart? It is important to always meet each other at eye level, no matter in which position we see ourselves or others. Strengthening our inner attitude can set a lot in motion. But it always brings us to an inner (adult) place where our full resources are available to us.
Since change is natural and we cannot avoid it anyway, it makes sense to accept it instead of fighting it – to change our attitude and, above all, to approach it with dignity.
In this way it is possible to
Get actively involved in the change process. Think, what can I actively contribute? Find a place where you can actively contribute. Ask yourself, what do I want to keep? What do I want to change? What is the opportunity in doing so?
Even though we sometimes can’t control the event, we have power over our reaction to it. Often much more than we realize. It is this reaction of ours that has a decisive effect on the outcome. The event itself plays a subordinate role. Or to say it with the words of Viktor Frankl: Between stimulus and reaction there is a space. In this space we have the freedom and the power to choose our reaction.
Think about what story you want to be a part of, how do you want your legacy to be remembered?. Then start writing it and living it. The story you writeis far more important than any story someone writes about you. Use the paradigm of a self-fulfilling prophecy! Tell stories that you would like to see turned into reality.
Listen to your intuition. Most of the time we know very well when a change is about to happen. The sooner we listen to our inner mood and give it space, the easier it will be for us to make a change. A walk or 5 minutes of silence a day can make you feel better and create space for your inner voice to sing.
Don’t put off pending changes, uild necessary resources. DO nourish and recover from one change before tackling the next one, but don’t let this process drag on. Procrastination saps valuable energy.
Soon our coaching sessions can be held in the new MagnoliaTree Refuge in Vienna directly on the Danube in a beautiful cabane.
For quite some time we have been looking for a suitable coaching space that is well located but at the same time in pleasant and inspiring surroundings. The newly built cabanas at the Kuchelauer Hafen, directly on the banks of the Danube, in Vienna’s 19th district on the border to Klosterneuburg, meet exactly these criteria and we can soon call ourselves proud owners and invite you to work with us there. The Kuchelau harbor is a Danube outpost in the north of Vienna. The harbor is just over 1.5 kilometers long and about 50-80 meters wide. It has an excellent water quality and therefore invites you to swim. Vacation feeling directly in front of the door, has a high recreational value for many people. Not only the water offers peace and relaxation, but also numerous hiking and biking trails are in the immediate vicinity; including a “wine hiking trail” that leads to numerous Heurigen.
Cabane is a term used in the eastern part of Austria in the bathing industry, which should not be confused with changing rooms. It was originally used to refer to cabins or rooms in summer pools that were accessible by bathers outside of the pool’s opening hours. The newly built cabanas make use of this original idea, charm and positive association – in fact, however, these are multimodal spaces that satisfy a current office, meeting architecture and creative work environment, but at the same time are suitable as restful places of retreat.
We are very happy to be able to conduct our individual coaching sessions and intensive coaching in this enriching atmosphere.
Every era has its buzzwords. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DE&I for short, is currently very popular. As entrepreneurs, we feel a certain pressure to take DE&I measures, but do we actually understand what is meant by it and what it is all for? Is it more than a hyped trend and do DE&I measures taken in organizations and companies actually bring tangible benefits that go beyond mere image politics? Let’s take a fresh look at DE&I.
Until recently, the common reaction was, “Wow! Your company has a diversity and inclusion program?” Since then the question has changed to “What? Your company DOESN’T have a diversity and inclusion program?”
Sabine Gromer, Founder of MagnoliaTree
We all use buzz words in our everyday speech, sometimes we don’t even know the definition of these words (at least not exactly). Let us explain some of the key “buzz” terms that will show up throughout this article.
Di|ver|si|ty; difference, multiplicity. Diversity refers, among other things, to economic, cultural and social diversity in human societies. In the business context, we understand this to mean diversity and difference in teams. Diversity management focuses on increasing success through deliberately diverse teams.
Equi|ty; a state in which all members of a team are offered the same treatment and the same opportunities, regardless of their affiliation. To achieve eqity of opportunity, structural constraints must be reduced and, ideally, eliminated altogether. Equitable opportunity allows individuals to grow with all their abilities and potential. From our experience, true equitable opportunity is the most difficult goal to achieve. Therefore, it makes sense to think of equal opportunity as a path rather than a goal.
In|clu|sion; literally belonging, is the opposite of exclusion and calls for creating a work environment where all members feel welcome and every facet of their identity, especially their differences, are valued. Inclusion is when you can just be yourself.
It is now common to mention diversity, equity and inclusion in the same breath, whereas for a long time we spoke only of diversity and later of diversity and inclusion. Diversity, inclusion and equity are closely related. Their contents overlap, yet they are different concepts that do not mean one and the same thing.
Before you set DE&I measures, you need to understand these differences and the overlap. As on organization it is also vital to find your own definition of DE&I, taking into account your individual company culture.
Many companies see DE&I measures as a good opportunity to polish up their image. Putting a woman on the board or bringing a person with a migration background into a team may be seen as laudable actions from the outside but, believe us, a superficial approach not only changes little, it may even be more damaging in the long run than not taking any DE&I measures at all. Only when a DE&I strategy is understood, internalized and supported by all stakeholders, will it also bring sustainable benefits. A woman quota or a foreigner quota will bring little to no benefit. The system will overrule them and swallow them. In order to survive in an unchanged system, you will assimilate and thus not be able to develop your full potential.
A woman quota is not a DE&I measure.
First and foremost, it has to do with trust. Measures set for the wrong reasons break trust in both the company and the leadership. They also lead to internal disruption because they have a similar traumatizing effect on the workforce as reorganization and restructuring measures. From a purely financial point of view, such superficial measures also make no sense because they have no effect or, in the worst case, a negative effect, while at the same time being costly.
Many people believe they go through life without prejudice, standing objectively above things and neither consciously nor unconsciously discriminating. But as humans, we simply like to think in terms of pigeonholes, because the automatic classification of people and situations has a great (evolutionary) benefit: it simplifies our thinking and saves us a lot of energy. We have prejudices but we are usually not aware of them. Structural and unconscious prejudices are attitudes and beliefs that lie outside our consciousness. We distinguish between structural and unconscious prejudices. Structural prejudices are collective, system-defined prejudices that are usually not questioned. One example is from when the car industry tested with exclusively male dummies. This led women to be 47% more likely to be seriously injured in an accident and 17% more likely to die in an accident than men. In contrast, we understand unconscious bias to be individual, personal biases that we acquire over the course of our lives, effectively the footprint of structural bias on an individual. Even our technology does not act without values and prejudices. For more on this, read our article on the film Coded Bias.
If you still think you are completely unbiased, we recommend you take Harvard University’s Implicit Bias Test. Link.
We guarantee you, you too are biased.
A short movie on the topic: PURL
We understand. You need facts, figures, data and above all one thing: a marked benefit for your company. You are not a charity and it is not your job to change the world. Don’t worry, DE&I strategies do correlate with business value. In recent years, countless credible studies have been conducted that come up with proud numbers.
More:
So it’s clear. Diversity, equity and inclusion are much more than mere buzzwords. They can be a powerful tool and an incredible opportunity to successfully lead your company through a new era.
[1] Source: Juliet Bourke and Andrea Espedido, “Why Inclusive Leaders Are Good for Organizations, and How to Become One,” Harvard Business Review, March 29, 2019.
[2] Source: Cara C. Maurer and Israr Qureshi, “Not Just Good for Her: A Temporal Analysis of the Dynamic Relationship Between Representation of Women and Collective Employee Turnover,” Organization Studies (2019).
[3] Source: International Labour Organization, Women in Business and Management: The Business Case for Change (2019): p. 21.
[4] Source: Shelley Zalis, “Inclusive Ads Are Affecting Consumer Behavior, According to New Research,” Think with Google, November 2019.
[5] Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity
[6] Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/de/news/presse/neue-studie-belegt-zusammenhang-zwischen-diversitat-und-geschaftserfolg
[7] Source: https://peakon.com/de/blog/diversitaet-chancengerechtigkeit-und-inklusion/was-ist-diversitaet-inklusion-und-chancengerechtigkeit-am-arbeitsplatz/ with a link to Forrester: https://go.forrester.com
