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For a successful work relationship employees and employers have to express their preferences and expectations loud and clear!

Most of the time we just forget to precisely ask the key questions from the very beginning. This is often the case for established relationships as well.
It can lead to a lot of misperceptions and misunderstandings. It is always good to doublecheck whether the other side really understood what you wanted;)

Often I hear from business partners, candidates, clients and friends that they have no time for self development.
Their argument is: they have no time due to their task to develop others. But the best is to focus on your own development first. You will GIVE something NEW to your subordinates, peers, friends and bosses. Your new knowledge and skills will INSPIRE and GROW them much faster than you can imagine right now. Only if you will continue with your permanent self development you can GIVE something of real added value to OTHERS. Actually: THE BEST is to focus on your own development first.

As a recruiter I have seen thousands of candidates and clients, who are always comparing themselves to others.
They have to COMPARE themselves to other people to GET a JOB, or to WIN a candidate. But the key thing is, you are UNIQUE!
The more you compare yourself to what others have and you don’t the more you DESTROY yourself.
So my advice to you: Find your REAL PURPOSE! What do you really want to do and achieve? What DRIVES you? STOP comparing yourself to others. And if you do so you will be much happier! FIND your OWN PURPOSE and you will be a HAPPY PERFORMER in anything you do in LIFE!!!

There is one thing I always hear people do: they complain. Why are they complaining? The usual complaints are: “I have no time for my kids; I have no time for my sports; I have no time to drive my expensive cars!!! I am always so busy and I am working so much.“ Here is my take to anyone who is trying to have a great career: forget about it. There is no work-life-balance! It is a DECISION that you made. It’s your choices and priorities!!!
So, understand you have to PAY A PRICE and are you really ready to pay this price?! There are people they know, making a career means, that they aren’t going to be a true family guy. They are only going to be part-time daddies and they are okay to play that role. So, FIND YOUR ROLE! Making a career means: Being DISCIPLINED and CONSISTENT! A real consistent career means you SACRIFICE and completely give everything you’ve got. So make up your mind and never forget:: Be ready to pay the price, if you want to make a great career!

John Strelecky interviewed by Felix Heinicke
Last week I had the great opportunity to interview the best selling author John at the Zukunft Personal in Cologne. In his book “The Big Five for Life” he describes what is really important in life: Your personal goals! Talking with him about focus, honesty and contribution was a real pleasure. Thank you so much John, for giving me this opportunity!

From my point of you the character is much more important than the skill set. Everybody talks about cultural fit in the recruitment process. The real character fit for the current position and overall situation in your company is key for a good start, team integration and fruitful collaboration at work.
Make sure that you really understand what kind of character you need right now. Act accordingly!
If you do so, believe me your recruitment process will be focused, much faster and much more efficient.

You cannot change everything within one
moment. It’s not possible at all! So the key issue is: People can change only step-by-step. Give your people their own pace and their own time to change. Take care that your people follow you and you can change a lot of things.
Imagine you change one thing a day. How much can you change within 100 days?!
It’s just three months;) So be patient! Give your team time to change and adapt.
And they will follow you!

For more than 10 years I’ve been using: HR/ Human Resources. I keep asking myself: What does it mean to be a Resource?! A resource is something that you can USE; something that you can even ABUSE! You should always TAKE CARE of yourself, your skillset; YOUR NEEDS; your strong points and also your weak points. Consider yourself as a HUMAN INDIVIDUAL. You will find people who have NO PLAN in LIFE and no personal goals…
They are going to find themselves in job functions and situations where after 2, 5 or maybe even 10 years they start asking themselves: what the hell am I doing here?! So follow this rule:
DO IT YOUR WAY! This is the key and the best way work will work for you!

From my point of view those four points are crucial for your successful goal-achieving with your team!

1.DIVERSITY is very important for great team success. You need different MINDSETS to be really successful. The problem is when it gets blurry and fuzzy.
What is the direction?!
2.Build a MUTUAL TEAM MINDSET and you have done a big step towards success. Define a clear frame of the mutual mindset, how to behave towards each other; how to be productive.
3.FEEDBACK is so important…
Just right away deliver it; be honest; be clear with your feedback.
4.GROUP DYNAMICS: within a group; you have the ones who are the goal ACHIEVERS, but also the OTHERS, BLOCKING the goal. So you have to SEPERATE them. Fight for your TEAM&SUCCESS!

What are your points/thoughts/comments?

Big turnaround projects, HR reorganisation, replacing people, merging departments and reshaping businesses: That are all necessary things that have to be done from time to time. I highly recommend you to do it in the good times that you have the positive power and the right drive to do it. Focus on your good shape! You need real extra power for a long-lasting change whatever you want to change. Your chances to have a successful change will be much higher in case you execute your mission with positive energy and focused drive.

Do you really know your employees?
Believe me, one thing I saw in HR: The key reason why people are leaving you is: You do not know them! You don’t understand what they really want, what kind of career step they want to do right now. Maybe they want to do a switch?! So the BETTER your QUESTIONS that you ask them, the better you are going to get to know them. And you are going to truly understand what they want. And believe me that is going to be the BEST RETENTION TOOL possible! So if you want to retain people: ask them on a regular basis! What do they need now? Where do they need support? Be their LEADER and SUPPORT them.
This is the best for you to DEVELOP and GROW your company.
The deeper you ask the deeper your relationship with them is going to be, which is going to be key to your SUCCESS!

Where is YOUR focus? Focus on increasing your QUALITY time, wherever
you are: in business or in private. It is not possible to focus on both at the same time…
I’m quite often thinking on how to create better and more efficient meetings:
Business and private meeting OPTIMIZATION, about better feedback loops; thinking how to create BETTER&more efficient meetings…Well, I can see so many people, including myself-always mixing it up and in the end combining business and private life.
There are studies that proof that emotional INTELLIGENCE DRAMATICALLY drops when multitasking, which means the quality of your activity does drop as well! So, FOCUS ON ONE THING for BETTER RESULTS! And believe me: The PLEASURE will be yours – in business and private life;)