For more information, click here

The next 2.5-day “Brand Me” programme is now open for registration and will take place from 16-18 October 2012. For more info and the registration form click here or visit our website .

Evaluation from former participants of “Brand Me”

The feedback scores of “Brand Me: A Journey Through Choices for Talented Women” leave no room for misinterpretation. The average overall evaluation is 4,6 on a 5-point scale (where five is excellent) and the net promoter score (the likelihood that participants will recommend the programme) is 9,21 on a 10-point scale. Most rewarding of all is that “Brand Me” has caused quite a few prestigious companies to rethink their strategy on female talent!

Testimonials from former participants of “Brand Me”

What will “Brand Me” do for you?
“Brand Me” is a profound inquiry into your strengths and weaknesses and what they mean for your career, for your contribution to a more balanced leadership culture in your organisation.

After “Brand Me” you will

• have the confidence, the skills and a clear vision to assume a senior leadership role.
• have defined “your brand” and be able to enact it powerfully.
• be able to actively promote your successes without compromise or guilt.
• understand why you have to continuously invest more time in building your support team.
• have the participants from the programme as a core part of your network.
• possess enhanced visioning and influencing skills.

After “Brand Me” you will contribute to your professional environment

• by being an authentic role model for future female leaders.
• by acting as an ambassador for true inclusiveness.

Brand Me can be run as an in-house or multi-client programme. It can always be designed and tailored to meet your company’s specific challenges.  To find out more, please contact:

In spite of all the talk about ‘diversity’ and the paradigm change needed to be successful in the more complex world, senior teams – top 5 to the top 500 depending on the size of the company and the definition of ‘top’ – are very often still composed “of the same stuff” – they have gone through similar education and learning, and have a strong tendency to fall back on the paradigms, orthodoxies and behaviors that brought  the success of the last 10 years.

Bringing in ‘Other Voices’ – younger, more female, different opinions, other cultures than represented by the senior top-team, with the potential to move to the more senior circles of tomorrow – not only accelerates change, it also provides senior management with a ‘sanity check’ on their own efforts. It also constitutes a serious and meaningful development tool which brings respect from and motivation in a group on which you have to build the future of your organization anyway.

The ‘Other Voices’ approach can be applied in a wide range of projects:

• As part of or following up on more traditional leadership development programs for your high potentials. It brings them a real life taste of the dilemmas senior management is facing and provides you as senior management a cross-silo view from the next generation, a sanity check on the work of senior management, fuel to accelerate change and strong engagement from the next generation.
• Adding ‘Other Voices’-workshops – with high potentials, younger leaders with a more diverse background than the senior team – to the program you have developed for your senior teams (and letting the ‘others’ go through the same program as the seniors). Goal: widening the perspective, deepening the discussion. Finding overlap is encouraging, finding differences is equally important.

We have applied this approach in very different contexts and with very diverse purposes.

• Co-creating a values-driven aspiration and its consequences for management practices. A series of workshops for high potentials followed by a dialogue with senior management.
• As a tool to identify ‘orthodoxies’ (deeply held beliefs that can hinder progress) and in interaction with senior management identifying which ones should be overturned, redefined or kept alive because crucial in tomorrow’s value-creation processes.
• Making the organization more ‘customer centred ’ by applying ‘new rules of interaction’ connected to the next generation.
• Identifying ‘future facts’ as a basis to set the direction for future strategies of the organization.

For more information Get in touch with Bart

In this complexity, cause-and-effect relations are not easily identified and often only become clear afterwards. For many organizations traditional management approaches no longer work or have to be adapted. The number of variables and interactions is such that trusted tools used to meet command and control challenges are more and more falling short in generating optimal performance.  Co-creative approaches and management by values, empathy, judgment, the ability to connect and to coach are now needed more than ever.

Every individual is unique. But at one point we are all equal: we have much more talent to offer than we are mostly aware of. Coaching can help develop those talents as related to a specific need as an organization or as a coachee and add value to future developments.

(Leadership) coaching is a journey in which the coach travels together with the coachee, in relation to the development challenges he or she is facing. This journey leads to insight of what blockages interfere with authenticity and what energizes and vitalizes the authenticity of a person or a collective.

Coaching helps leaders to embody and incorporate the future corporate challenges and goals, today. Executive Learning Partnership has developed a coaching practice in line with our philosophy around Next Generation Leadership.

We offer new insights, approaches and tools to, for example, increase a manager’s effectiveness, to aid retention (from the organization’s perspective), to give awareness to new opportunities, or to reflect on work-life balance. Or we offer coaching for the first 100 days in a new job, where it is important to maintain the favorable first impression and score quick results.

Together with our partners we have created a high level network of experienced coaches supporting leaders and their organisations to connect to a new future, to overcome blockages and to face challenges with energy and connected to one’s own authenticity.

Our coaching practice is coordinated by Jan Willem Kirpestein PhD and Hélène Propsma.  You can contact them through our offices in Amsterdam and Leuven. Together with them you can  tailor the coaching approach – including finding the right coach with the right background -  to your specific demand.

For more information Get in touch with Jan Willem

In a non-descript, grey and often wet corner of East Manchester, just off the ring motorway, you will find a large furniture shop with the not especially inspiring name of ‘Housing Units’.[1] There are many other stores in the Greater Manchester area from which to furnish a house, but there is something unusual about a visit to Housing Units. If you stand at the bottom of the main staircase for a few minutes and watch people descending they will, almost without exception, smile at you. So what possibly could be going on upstairs to make people so happy? A lingerie display with real live models? George Clooney and Brad Pitt doing guided tours? ‘Mood enhancing’ drugs being handed out?

Whatever it is, you feel positive because you’ve just had several strangers look you in the eye and smile warmly. In fact, it has reminded you that earlier, when you approached the front door of the shop, two distinguished looking gentlemen in full uniform of top hat and tails greeted you with a smile and a genuine “good morning sir”, or “good afternoon madam” and held the door open for you. Most importantly, these are not the infamous ‘Pan-Am smiles’[2] where the mouth is smiling, but the eyes are cold (so called, because it was reputed that Pan-Am staff had the phoniest smiles of any airline).

After an enjoyable walk around the top floor, you decide to head back down. There, in large letters, at eye level above the stairs is the quote “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours”.[3] It is this amusing aphorism that raises a smile in most people who read it, and causes them to immediately share their pleasure with any gloomy people they pass in the next minute or so. Behaviour breeds behaviour, and the mood is subtly, but noticeably lifted.

Is this just a bit of fun, or does it have a positively correlated impact on consumer behaviour (or as they would say it Manchester; does it make the punters buy more stuff)? Erik du Pleiss, author of “The Branded Mind, What neuroscience really tells us about the puzzle of the brain and the brand”, [4] would recognise the effect. Du Pleiss has taught neuromarketing at Copenhagen Business School, but is not a flag-waving advocate of the discipline; in fact he has a healthy scepticism for some of the recent inflated claims made, and even goes so far as to describe many as ‘hype’ or ‘neurobullshitting’. He does however, revisit the research with a critical eye and bridge his findings to psychology, biology and business. His conclusions are as relevant to leaders trying to engage their people in strategy and change as they are to branding, selling or marketing.

So why is making people smile or connect with strangers good for business? In his book, Du Pleiss helps us understand how positive (or negative) experiences stay embedded in our emotional memories and resurface when it comes to decision making. He builds on the findings of António Damásio [5] who challenged the orthodoxy that decision making can be thought of as emotional versus rational. He said that they are inextricably interlinked, because of the way our brains are built. The critical point is that our decisions are made rationally, but are influenced strongly by our memory. Emotions cause us to remember events with more intensity. When we recall such an emotionally-amplified experience, it gives extra weighting to help us decide whether to repeat, ignore or avoid similar situations. Demasio calls these feelings somatic markers. (The word comes from soma; Greek for body). Negative somatic markers manifest themselves as an unpleasant gut feeling when a troubling experience is recalled, whilst the reward centres of our brain can be stimulated when a positive emotion is triggered. Often we will not be conscious of these automatic signals, but they do help us quickly filter possible alternatives. Some options will be rejected immediately. Others will invite closer attention by our rational brain. Importantly, he concludes: “There is still room for using a cost / benefit analysis and proper deductive competence, but only after the automated step drastically reduces the number of options.” In summary; it seems that emotions speed up our decision making by reducing the number of options we have to weigh up.

Many people who visit the Housing Units store are browsing. They will probably visit several other similar shops to compare products and prices. It is likely they will also look online. However, the emotional memory of warm staff and friendly shoppers will give a small but important competitive advantage when it comes to the rational choice of where to spend money. Also, those who had visited to buy something anyway are more likely to feel comfortable in the store, stay a little longer and perhaps make an additional purchase.

So how does this relate to leadership and the need to engage others in a vision? Shall we just smile lots and try and make everyone happy? That may help; though if you have bad news or a tough message to deliver and are grinning like the proverbial village idiot, don’t be surprised if the reaction is not all you hoped for. We have known for a long time that there must be congruence in your message if it is to have real and lasting impact, but now we are starting to understand why.

Later in his book, Du Pleiss explores how Electroencephalography (EEG) is used to measure the effectiveness of adverts. Advances in equipment and speed of testing mean that large samples (hundreds of people) are now giving data that can be used to understand why some messages stick and why others drift away. A great example is that of the well known Dove ‘Evolution’ advert. Follow-up surveys identified this as a hugely powerful campaign; it is engaging, emotionally resonant, and a powerful communicator of the core idea that we should be encouraging real, rather than artificial, beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCH8UypKZtI&feature=related

Du Pleiss writes: “Data from the company EmSense [6] provide a powerful illustration of the journey viewers take. Figure 18.3 demonstrates, while the model is being ‘made up’, positive emotion actually rises (which is not something viewers report verbally). There is also a crescendo of both positive emotion and cognition at the moment it is revealed that the film is about the making of an ad; as understanding blossoms and the cleverness of the idea is apparent. This is crucial to the overall positive reception the film generates. However, it is also clear that as the implications of the moment sink in, positive emotions decline as the point of the ad is considered, which is what gives the communication such power.”

The message for leaders attempting to engage their people is clear: To ensure a message lands with an audience and sticks in their minds, it is not enough to create just a positive experience and a powerful emotional narrative. Neither is it sufficient to concentrate your efforts on building a robust and compelling intellectual message. The intellectual and emotional agendas (the logos and pathos) need to be aligned, mutually-reinforcing and synchronised.

A final example from Erik du Pleiss is about a company who so nearly got it right, but missed an important nuance. A very well known advert from Skoda UK in 2007/8 saw a new model, the Fabia, built entirely from cake. It is a very enjoyable advert, with a fun storyline and resonating music. It triggers many positive emotions, and was found by surveys to very powerfully endorse the Skoda brand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhfEGKc7PLQ

However those same surveys found the branding of the car’s name, Fabia, to be much weaker, despite it being on screen for more time than the Skoda badge. Eye tracking technology helped identify the reason. Although the Skoda badge is on screen for less than 1 second, it dominates the screen and acts as a magnet for attention whilst being fixed to the front of the car / cake. It was also preceded by a shot where glue / icing was being applied, priming the viewer to expect something important to arrive in the next frame. Contrast this with the closing shot when the word ‘Fabia’ is visible for a full 5 seconds. However, the scene is so busy with much to look at, that eye tracking showed people’s attention was dispersed, fleeting and unfocused.

How often, when we are trying to communicate a critical message do we use ‘communication tools’ that inadvertently misdirect attention from what is really important. (A previous blog adds more on this topic). Even if we use them skilfully, are we clear if we would prefer people to remember ‘Skoda’ or ‘Fabia’ and craft our slides accordingly? Are the emotional and intellectual peaks timed to arrive together to multiply their impact and ensure the message sticks?

So next time you go shopping, or are at work, and are met by cheery and authentic smiles (or in some places surly indifference), remind yourselves that these moments are somatic markers that may have a lasting impact on your decisions. And also remind yourself that your behaviour will be creating such markers for others. Go on… Smile… The world will not only smile with you now, but may just give you credit long into the future.

-Michael Newman-

REFERENCES

1. www.housingunits.co.uk

2. The originator of the term ‘Pan-Am smile’ is unknown, but it is named after the defunct airline’s gesture of welcome. “This smile depends only on the zygomaticus major corner-tightening muscle and has also been called the “Botox smile” because, like the cosmetic treatment, it leaves the muscles at the corners of the eyes motionless.” Reported in a study by Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at the University of California in Berkeley.

3. Quote attributed to Zig Ziglar, American author, salesman and motivational speaker.

4.  Erik du Pleiss. The Branded Mind, What neuroscience really tells us about the puzzle of the brain and the brand, Kogan Page, 2011

5. António Damásio is a behavioural neurologist and author of:

Descartes’ Error: Emotion, reason and the human brain, Avon, 1995.

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness, Harcourt Brace, 1999

6. EmSense provides “…marketers with a window into the mind of the consumer with a scientifically validated, quantitatively based means of bio-sensory measurement.” www.emsense.com

Keep me informed

Female art does not exist

“Female art does not exist, only art made by women”, said Leonardo da Vinci. Because, he goes on, painting is born from the mind, so art is not a matter of gender, but of the mind instead. One cannot find many female artists from earlier centuries. Give it a try, after listing names such as Camille Claudel, Frida Kahlo, Charlie Toorop and sometimes Helen Schjerbeck, most people cannot go on. Our modern times know more female artists, but we have had to come a long way. Until late in the 19^th century, successful women had access to the male world of the arts, as “the wife of”, as “the lover of”, or as “the daughter of an artist or gallery owner”. They were childless and the road towards recognition was in general very long and sinuous. Particularly when women left the beaten track. “Woman must confine herself to those subjects which are allied to her sphere…children, animals, fruit, flowers, etc. But when a woman desires to paint large-sized pictures, she is lost”, wrote the painter Marie-Elisabeth Boulanger Cavé in the late nineteenth century. Artist Anna Merritt sighed: “the main obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife. Just reflect what a wife does for an artist”. Those women who did become famous are mostly those women who were very professional, also technically and who developed their own style. Almost none of them were married or had children. Almost without exception they got rejected at academies, which were male strongholds, and they had to find their own way, beyond existing structures, often through private tuition. Their stubbornness and determination led them to success but often also to insanity, as can be seen in Camille Claudel’s life.  The artistic world often precludes social developments and the art produced by female artists today can count on just as much recognition as the art of their male colleagues. Gender is not an issue anymore in arts… but the drudgery in the corporate world continues.

In our opinion, it does not make much sense to keep pointing the finger at men, politicians, to replace CEO badges for Sheo badges, to question quota and to buy large advertisement space. The problem is deeply rooted and asks for a more fundamental approach than the plea for quota and the creation of networks for women. These initiatives seem to strengthen the root causes for inequality rather than addressing them.

Patching up is not sufficient anymore

Using diversity is one of the most essential challenges organizations and leaders face at the beginning of the 21^st century. Differences can pay off, as long as we provide the right context and have the audacity to go deep into the undercurrent, where the source of the solution lies. Unfortunately most diversity programmes are no more than superficial actions that only ripple the water.

It is as if the paradigms about organizing are shifting, like tectonic plates. The movement of these plates in the foundations of the old pyramid organizations we built, generates fissures, and these fissures creep up. Patching up does not help anymore and structural changes are needed in the way organizations are built and structured. Our economy has changed from an industrial economy towards a knowledge economy. The word is often used, but its true meaning and consequences are far from visible in the way we organize. In a knowledge economy, it is not just about efficiency and faster production, it is also about quality, flexibility and a differentiating capacity through innovation and sustainability. It is a far more fluid environment that asks for organization types where differences are free to scratch and complement, where differences no longer need to be lifted, but instead lead to innovations through new combinations. Power and leadership get a different meaning at the end of the previous century, since everyone has become “smart”, or at least, we are more and more aware of it. Our customers are “smart”, our employees at all levels are “smart”, our competitors are “smart” and our suppliers are “smart”. An omnipotent leader who oversees and manages to lead… is an illusion. In a knowledge economy an organization is above all a collective of people who want to create instead of an intense people coop with production quota. It is precisely for creation in the large sense of the word that “the difference” is a source of inspiration and expansion. An industrial economy is an economy where all contributions happen in unison, whilst a knowledge and innovation economy benefits from a variety in contributions, preferably with a different orientation. Times have changed.

When it really matters, old reflexes and deep convictions are part of the structure of a system that was built to be led by men. Will an organization ever become more than its archetype? There is a strong original identity and that identity is in most cases strongly masculine. Margaret Wheatley, professor at the Brigham Young University, points out the choice of words in these impressive fortifications. Activities are described as “campaigns”, “the war for talent”, “an offensive strategy”, “beating the competition”. It might be that these systems are more easily led by men because they create a context in which women cannot function well, simply because it is not a language that fits the female values. This is an interesting hypothesis. Let us first take a look at the environment in which these organizations operate. The very existence of an organization does not lie in the corporate office, it lies outside the walls. What happens out there will hence have to influence the way the organization works. Unfortunately, it has been shown far too often that companies without windows on the outside world become institutions where rule upon rule is introduced in order to keep alive an illusion of internal control. Internally all is well, but it kills the organization. When we take a really honest look outside, it seems we have missed something lately. We have missed the exponentially increased extent to which women determine the market. Times have changed.

Women are the market

On a sunny Saturday morning I find myself walking through town with my daughters. There is a market and more than 90% of those around are women. In every shop I see women pay and when I see a rare man helplessly peek from behind a changing room curtain a woman approaches him with a handful of garments. This Saturday morning observation reveals something we seem to be unaware of. Women have become an ever more important group of consumers, their income rises faster than that of men, business travelers are increasingly female, women reward female-friendly marketing, women are the market. Their disposable income and their role in purchase decisions increases. Look at the furniture industry, for instance, a line of business that is almost completely managed by older, white men. Market research shows that almost 94% of the products are bought by women. Women’s share in purchasing decisions in other sectors is equally high: holidays 89%, kitchen appliances 88%, newly built houses 75%, cars 60% (and influencing the purchase decision 80%). I do not take these numbers as absolute numbers, but it cannot be denied that there is a trend. The economist Henriette Prast said that “men associate money with earning it, women with spending it”.

The success of putting women at the top through quota and encouragement programmes, however, seems to be very limited. Even when there are already a few women at the top, the influx of more women lags far behind. It would be premature to conclude that more women at the top automatically leads to another style of managing and leading. To the contrary, it can get worse because they are holier than the pope. We are then led to think that things are happening in the right direction whilst in reality it is nothing more than a gender swap at the top, which still thinks along the same lines but pronounces them less in the board room.

-Eric Koenen-

In the next issues of Leaders in Dialogue, Eric’s article continues and looks at the “cats & dogs dilemma”, the quota question and how diversity can be anchored in the organization.

Eric is partner at The Diversity Company, with whom ELP collaborates in its projects around inclusion and diversity. In this context ELP developed “Brand Me: A Journey Through Choices for Talented Women”, a personal development programme specifically aimed at high potential women. You can read more at www.brandme.org.

Keep me informed

The Spring Project is a not-for-profit initiative of ‘Caring Influentials’ and their sponsoring organizations in the financial sector who are committed to co-create a more sustainable future for the financial industry. The Spring Project is initiated and supported by Executive Learning Partnershipand the Foundation “Encounter of World Views”, with support of The Duisenberg School of Finance,Deloitte, European Leadership Platform, the Stewardship Foundation and VODW.

No one inside (or outside) the financial industry will easily forget 2008 and 2009. Huge write-downs, decades-old banks disappearing in a matter of days, financial institutions were kept alive by governments. In 2011, we are living through the aftershocks with the Euro-crisis. The crisis that unfolded was not just a financial or economic crisis, but also a breakdown of trust, values and ethics.

Getting on top of this crisis was the first step. It was followed by a sense of individual and collective reflection: “where did we go wrong”; “how do we prevent this from happening again?” “is this a failure on institutional and system level,  and/or a failure of our individual values and behaviours”?

Questions like these formed the basis of The Spring Project. The ‘Caring Influentials’ – participating executives and stakeholders – share the view that the near financial meltdown should not be followed by a return to the relative comfort of “business as usual”.

A changing regulatory framework is only part of the answer. The crisis in the financial system is not only a crisis of the system as well as a crisis of ethics, culture and behaviour as well as management principles and practices. A changing regulatory framework is only as strong as the values and behaviour of the people inside the framework. A clear guiding compass, a values-based aspiration, is needed to chart course towards a desirable destination.

This aspiration and its applied consequences will be created by participants and “other voices” from outside the sector in a series of six interactive, participatory meetings and online interaction. The outcomes and findings of the Spring Project will be shared with and valued by a wider audience through the Internet and amplified through media-partners. All findings and results will be summarized in a collectively created “white paper”. The Spring Project will be concluded with The Spring Project Conference in Amsterdam in the spring of 2012. Also the Duisenberg School of Finance will incorporate the outcomes of the project into its Curriculum, helping to shape the next generation financial leaders.

To receive more information about this initiative please contact:

Programme Director Jan Willem Kirpestein

Project Coordinator Bart Gijsbertsen.

The Spring Project: Co-creating a next generation ‘values-driven aspiration’ and its applied consequences for management practices, culture and behaviour in the financial industry.

The Spring Project is a not-for-profit initiative of ‘Caring Influentials’ and their sponsoring organizations in the financial sector who are committed to co-create a more sustainable future for the financial industry. The Spring Project is initiated and supported by Executive Learning Partnership and the Foundation “Encounter of World Views”, with support of Duisenberg school of finance, Deloitte, European Leadership Platform,the Stewardship Foundation and VODW.

No one inside (or outside) the financial industry will easily forget 2008 and 2009. Huge write-downs, decades-old banks disappearing in a matter of days, financial institutions were kept alive by governments. In 2011, we are living through the aftershocks with the Euro-crisis. The crisis that unfolded was not just a financial or economic crisis, but also a breakdown of trust, values and ethics.

Getting on top of this crisis was the first step. It was followed by a sense of individual and collective reflection: “where did we go wrong”; “how do we prevent this from happening again?” “is this a failure on institutional and system level,  and/or a failure of our individual values and behaviours”?

Questions like these formed the basis of The Spring Project. The ‘Caring Influentials’ – participating executives and stakeholders – share the view that the near financial meltdown should not be followed by a return to the relative comfort of “business as usual”.

A changing regulatory framework is only part of the answer. The crisis in the financial system is not only a crisis of the system as well as a crisis of ethics, culture and behaviour as well as management principles and practices. A changing regulatory framework is only as strong as the values and behaviour of the people inside the framework. A clear guiding compass, a values-based aspiration, is needed to chart course towards a desirable destination.

This aspiration and its applied consequences will be created by participants and “other voices” from outside the sector in a series of six interactive, participatory meetings and online interaction. The outcomes and findings of the Spring Project will be shared with and valued by a wider audience through the Internet and amplified through media-partners. All findings and results will be summarized in a collectively created “white paper”. The Spring Project will be concluded with The Spring Project Conference in Amsterdam in the spring of 2012. Also Duisenberg school of finance will incorporate the outcomes of the project into its Curriculum, helping to shape the next generation financial leaders.

To receive more information about this initiative please contact:

Programme Director Jan Willem Kirpestein

Project CoordinatorBart Gijsbertsen.

Click here to view the debate (starting from min. 15:30).

Ann De Jaeger runs the leadership programme “Brand Me – A journey through choices for talented women” (www.brandme.org). Brand Me is a 2.5-day leadership programme designed for talented and ambitious women about to assume a senior role. Over the last 7 years Ann has done intensive research on female leadership, especially into what it is that women need to know and master in order to be successful in senior roles in mainly “male” dominated cultures. Ann converted her research into a unique leadership program “Brand Me” that helps truly motivated and talented women succeed at the top of the organizations.

In his introductionary speech Berend Jan challenged participants in conversations by stating that in today’s rapidly changing world, traditional (“1.0”) management approaches are not particularly effective at stimulating creativity and passion amongst customers and employees. A development towards a new leadership style (“2.0”) is gaining momentum. In his lively presentation Berend Jan showed that a 2.0 approach leverages new ways of interacting that are brought about by the principles of the increased connectivity of the “Web” that we all experience. Most Leadership Development, Business Schools and Executive Education programmes are still caught in the old paradigm, churning out 1.0 managers rather than 2.0 leaders. Berend-Jan Hilberts together with participants examined how leaders and organizations can expand their approaches to incorporate 2.0 principles and practices for increased success in a complex world.