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Home office? Do your homework first!

March 8, 2013 Leave a Comment

Gabor Holch

People and companies start discovering that an office is not always the best place for work. On one hand, social and creative people feel stuck in an office environment, especially if it is a phalanx of tiny work stations. On the other, empty offices and work stations are on the ready for employees who never turn up, because they work at client sites, run from meeting to meeting or spend their lives in planes and airports.

Telecommuting (working from a chosen location such as home or a cafe) seems to be the solution. In some of the most developed economies of the world, close to a third of people work wherever they want to. But there are a couple of essentials to consider before a company can switch to a new way of working.

If done properly, a flexible work arrangement can make miracles to productivity, cost-efficiency and morale. Based on simple guidelines of corporate strategy building, here are the basic decisions to make before your company can take a leap into the future of employment.

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Motivating with Zero Budget

April 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

Gabor Holch

There are two conflicting views on motivation that I often meet in multinational companies and growing SMEs. They are both based on a misconception of how motivation works, and both can be damaging to the company:

ONE: Motivation is an internal and very abstract thing. You either have it or don’t, there is little the company can do.
TWO: Motivation equals money (plus cars, computers and other stuff).

The biggest damage is that leaders who hold either of these views will never try to unlock the real power of motivation. That is why, for the past 4 years, we have worked together with professionals and executives in training teams to work on the following problem:

“How can you improve motivation in your company with zero budget?”

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Q&A: Motivating employees in the IT industry

March 29, 2011 Leave a Comment

Question: “What are the motivation techniques mangers use in today’s changing world to keep IT employees motivated?” (Prashant, IT professional, UK)

Answer, Gabor Holch:

“In my experience, there is a dilemma in motivating IT professionals. On one hand you need strict procedures for service quality, but on the other hand IT staff often feels stifled by too many rules. For the same reason, compliance and morale are often low.

It is worth while putting some effort into mapping the strengths and weaknesses of the key employees and making sure they have the chance to grow towards their natural talent. Some of them will grow towards problem-solving, others towards supervision or client service.

In either case they contribute value to a growing organization.”

We use these tools for assessing the strengths weaknesses and growth potential of employees:

FitIn Psychometric Profiling

The Motivational Questionnaire

Do you have a question about leadership, business strategy or communication? Share it with us and we will share our experience of more than a 100 consulting projects worldwide.


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Q&A: Do Leaders need to be good story-tellers?

March 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

Question: “Is a leader’s storytelling skill an important tool for motivating and creating change in an organization?” (Kenneth, Executive Director in the medical industry, USA)

Answer, Gabor Holch:

“Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to transfer experience. However, there are limitations to it;

  • Being a good story-teller is the result of a number of personality traits and learned skills. Deciding to be a good story-teller is far from sufficient.
  • The story-teller needs to be clear what she/he wants to achieve and how the story will lead to the desired result.

Both of these limitations can be overcome with a bit of effort. A brief assessment or an hour of a chat with a professional will help the leader find its focus and personal communication style. As a result, storytelling will become an amazingly efficient and, very importantly, inexpensive tool to improve efficiency.

Do you have a question about leadership, business strategy or communication? Share it with us and we will share our experience of more than a 100 consulting projects worldwide.


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Can Managers Be Coaches? (Webinar)

March 20, 2011 Leave a Comment

Efficiency, commitment and vision can all benefit from internal coaching methods in a company. However, corporate managers cannot become internal coaches overnight.

[event_signup display_till="Apr 15, 2011" event_date="Apr 15, 2011 5-6:30 pm CST"  venue=Webinar (Online workshop)" charge="EUR 23 or RMB 200" event_name="Can Managers Be Coaches?"]

A coach listens, builds commitment and gives continuous feedback.

If done correctly, leaders can use coaching methods to give their teams a tremendous amount of support and energy.

However, managers are in a difficult position when using coaching methods, because neither the manager, nor the team sees their relationship as equals.

There are several challenges to managers becoming coaches to their teams:

  • The team sees its relationship with the manager as a top-down one.
  • People are used to receiving instructions, not encouragement and feedback.
  • Managers try to become coaches without having the necessary time and patience.
  • The team has little or no idea what coaching is all about.
  • No one is sure why coaching is required in the company.
  • And many more…

But that does not mean that managers should not use coaching at all. It only means that management and coaching both have their proper places in organizations.

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Learning Event: Getting Practical About Motivation

November 17, 2008 Leave a Comment

Being a leader is a challenge.

Promotion into a leadership position requires changes in thinking and habits, while still keeping the same high standards in technical expertise and the daily running of projects. Leaders of professional teams all over the world struggle with the same challenge in their development: their job does not leave them enough time to “take a step back” and look at the “big picture” of their team or organization.

You are not the only one who struggles with these challenges.

In spite of the pouring rain and the Friday traffic jam, an energetic and insightful group of HR experts congregated at the event co-hosted by Campanile Business Consulting and the Shanghai branch of global HR consultancy Active Selection. CBC GM Gabor Holch took participants through a number of basic concepts in motivational techniques, and how they can be used for the advantage of each company.

cbc-7nov08-1

Your colleagues, like each of us, constantly re-evaluate their life situation, including aspects of their work like:

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