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| Dr. Michael Wiehen |
It is the 3
rd
of September 2012, the start of a new semester, the summer break is over and we
are confronted by a new challenging week of the
MBA program: Leadership practice
week!
Throughout
the program, you are faced with repeated tough questions. Questions like, what
are your core values? What kind of leader are you? How do you lead a team? It
is a self-critical analysis of where you are and where you would like to be.
John Kerrick
is back from the USA, he shares his personal story with us on how he achieved
his five year dream and how he visualised it. He encourages us to reflect daily
on all activities we encounter and supports us through his personal coaching and how to achieve and lead personal change. He accompanies us
this week through our challenges, observes and motivates...and I can still hear
him sing a Jimmy Hendricks song.
Another
interesting visitor all the way from sunny India this week is Subroto Bagchi
(Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of MindTree Inc.). We learn to deal with
complex challenges leaders face, self-awareness, ethics in business and the
platform and purpose: Your life in two dimensions. We get interactive and our colleagues are put to the test as a project manager to en-act a real life situation with
demanding obstacles. A group of terrorists are high-jacking a passenger plane,
the media is invasive, the relatives on the ground are hysterical, a mother is
about to give birth on the plane and needs a doctor and the terrorists are
demanding. There are various other ‘alpha’ characters such as the trigger
friendly army officer and the head of police who is resistant to co-operate and
dislikes the PR lady. The Doctor is unwilling to help and the newspaper editor
with the most crucial knowledge and information is not asked and keeps quite.
Our week
long practice journey continues with ethics and responsibility with Professor
Müthel and guest lectures on ethics in business from the Managing Director
Sabine Hansen of Amprop and Dr. Michael Wiehen, founder of TransparencyInternational. Both give us insights into bribery and difficult business decisions. Professor Müthel tells us about her ‘wild pigs’ she
encountered in her professional career and we share our ‘wild pig’ experiences.
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| Thomas Kraus |
Sometimes
it feels like we are students of Hogwarts, as Thomas Kraus (CEO, TNT Express
Germany) takes us on a journey with his fluffy Owl. His theme is Leadership in
Practice! He shares his journey of his most useful business tools, which helped
him during his professional career. He makes us
reflect: Why are you living and working the way you are? Who would you happily
follow as a leader? He reminds us that failures is success inside out and to
always look at the facts when you are stuck and remove all emotion. Change
always happens, it is the attitude you have towards it. Finally we are
confronted with sticky tape, magazines and 15 minutes to answer the question:
what leader am I today? And the leader I aspire to be. We all wish to make an
impact and the magazines are passed around, torn out, glued on, stuck together!
Many have happiness, giving back to society, family, creating wealth and
empowering messages of success. The question lingers: What impact do you wish
to make in this world?
Saturday,
it is 8:30am as the bus departs to Bendorf Sayn. The feeling is that of excitement
and nervousness...we all know it is getting physical. General Kretschmer is
ready to welcome us and his troops of professional army guides. After being
allocated in teams, we hike to our destination: Kletterwald Sayn. We are
in the forest of mixed trees in which the third highest German tree reaches 55
meters. We are in the middle of the woods and around us are obstacles that lead
us from one tree platform to the next. All obstacle courses are named by
mountain ranges; from Kilimanjaro to the Himalaya mountain tops. This task is a
challenge; it is excellent training for your body and mind. If you are afraid
of heights, good luck! Learn how to balance, boost your self-confidence,
enhance team efforts and encouragement and align yourself with nature again. What
a great experience. I see myself storm ahead, whilst others seem to linger in a
meditative state when facing the obstacles. I am getting encouragement and
tip’s how to use my arms and legs. Big lesson here is: learn your
boundaries and know yourself plus this is a team effort, you cannot walk or swing it all alone.
It is
amazing how much you can learn in just one week! With a smirk on my face, I
fall into a deep sleep.
