Monat: Januar 2019

OwnYourCareer so far Highlight topic for me at #NewWorkNow Symposium today at Siemens headquarters Mch, Wittelsbacher Platz

The session of Mirjam Hein (Product Owner of OwnYourCareer, Siemens HR), introduced the program, but the discussion fought fire quickly on the pros and cons of shifting responsibilities for people’s development from management to employees.
While #ownyourcareer is clearly introduced for encouraging employees to take chances and actively developing theirselves, a management perspective was brought in highlighting the importance to match employee development with business demands.

To me this brings to light the full spectrum of controverse views with regards to corporate development. And the tremendous importance of bringing people together for discussions like this one today.

Questions arise to me like:

– Can it be true, that only management knows the demand of the business?

– If so, how can we improve transparency of our business demands?

– If management knows demanded employee capabilities, are there ways to reach the goal without control and command?

– Creating attractive learning environments for the desired capabilities could be a way to go?

A whole different aspect has been neglected in our discussion from my point of view:

I’m convinced the reason we at Siemens strive for OwnYourCareer is to benefit from maximum potential of our staff!

Potentials have been neglected too long in our company. Now markets make us rethink and explore potentials of our employees, which these potentials might not necessarily match with the respective management ideas. However, if it is true, what our Top management keeps repeating: The future of our company depends on the Engagement of us employees, then: Let us refocus and make development of potentials the highest priority. But not forget to secondly create opportunities for these engaged employees for find the space in our company to maximum contribute with their individual potentials.

.. Now.. event going on. Got to prepare my Working out loud Session ;).

This week’s Leadership Challenge asks to not answer the phone while talking face to face with someone else.

I think it is important to be „non-dogmatic“ with every rule.
What is important to me is to show respect to people, no matter if they are in front of you or trying to call you. I believe, answering the phone during a f2f conversation can be ok, but key is how you moderate it.
E.g.
– „my dear friend in front of me, please excuse me for a second, I just have to arrange a time with the caller, to clarify an important issue“.
Or:

– „My dear friend in front of me – this call is of extreme importance for me and won’t be easy to reschedule – can I come back to you at a later time, because I need to talk on the phone now.“

Of course there are other occasions, where just
putting the phone silent or
rejecting the call with a template message like

– „I’ll call back“ or

– „please try later“

are ok and the best choice.

I believe by showing respect and reasoning once decision, any personal relationship will not suffer. In contrast I see an opportunity for it to even grow trust from the transparent reasoning offered.

Background and Links

– Leadership Challenge #LDSC19 is an initiative of employees of Siemens EM TS to support development of awesome leadership.

– Follow the Twitter Account @LDSC19 to receive weekly challenges for your leadership

– use #LDSC19 on Twitter or LinkedIn, or your favourite Plattform to exchange on your experience with the challenges.

– Join the Group LDSC19 on LinkedIn