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Creative Advertising, Brand Building and the Singularity of Rosalía
What does artistic singularity have to do with creative advertising effectiveness? More than most organisations are willing to admit. The recent BRIT Awards performance by Rosalía and Björk — a bold orchestral staging of Berghain — was not only a cultural moment. It was a reminder of what happens when coherence, risk and identity align. Her…
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When Leadership Working Conditions triumphs Competence
Common reasoning is that leadership is a trait of the person; a matter of personality, experience, ability and competence. If a manger doesn’t function, personal reasons often are sought, management coaching or a leadership course prescribed. A short course in for example transformational has been proven to increase leadership effectiveness. But what if the…
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Think Outside the Box? Why the Best Work Happens Inside
Go beyond the slogan “think outside the box”: why precise constraints turn originality into outcomes—and how to build new solutions to old problems inside the right frame. “Think outside the box” is more than a heroic phrase; it is a seductive one. It promises escape—from constraints, from legacy systems, from the tedium of old…
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People-Oriented or Goal-Oriented? The Wrong Question in Leadership
Task-oriented vs relationship-oriented leadership is an evergreen in management debate. We still often ask leaders: Are you more focused on people, or on results? But research suggests this is a misleading dichotomy. Task-oriented and relationship-oriented leadership are not opposites. In fact, they tend to be strongly correlated. Good leaders usually do both. Judge and Piccolo…
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Feedback in Leadership: A Routine, Not an Afterthought
Feedback is often celebrated as a universal cure for organizational and individual shortcomings. And there is good reason: research consistently shows that well-designed, task-focused feedback improves performance. A classic meta-analysis of 607 effects found a moderate average gain (d≈0.41), though it also revealed an important caveat — poorly delivered feedback can not only fall…
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Courageous Leadership: The number 1 Foundation of Organizational courage
A recent summary of IBM’s 2025 CEO study highlighted five defining leadership trends for this year. Among them: Courageous Leadership. IBM and the executives they interviewed describe courage as essential in a world where economics and technology move faster than facts can be gathered. Waiting for perfect certainty is no longer an option. Leaders…
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Leading change: 11 principles with impact
Understanding organizational change management Leading change is an essential aspect of being a leader today. There are many theories about how organizations change. The one I return to most is also among the oldest: Kurt Lewin’s Force Field Theory. Lewin describes any current state of an organization as relatively stable (Phase 1). Real change requires…