You would imagine martial arts masters to look dangerous. Somehow we expect a fierce and grave personality. Maybe we have seen too many martial arts movies. Maybe we don’t understand Mizu no kokoro. Fact is:...
Recently I got asked: “What is the most valuable lesson from martial training for your career as a manager?” The things I believe I have learned in those 25+ years briefly flashed through my mind....
I like a healthy dose of self-criticism (more on that later). That is probably why it took me quite a while to discover the following anti-pattern: certain coworkers seem to show loads of self-criticism. They...
Sun Tzu is arguably the most well known eastern strategist. His famous book “The art of war” has almost become a part of pop culture. The book holds thirteen chapters full of advice on...
One of the blogs about Karate I love to read is Jesse Enkamp’s. Jesse – unlike me – manages to explain complex concepts using simple sentences. Great Managers and Karate Masters Recently he posted...
Tons of books have been written on leadership. There are dozens of styles and concepts, each with a nice name tag attached. Maybe that is why so many managers are confused about ground rules...
A memory A few years back I watched a documentary about an entry exam for the sports university in Cologne. A middle-aged gymnastics professor commented on an exercise performed by a young man: “It...
With the ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ movements middle management positions have become increasingly difficult. As a middle manager you are in the sandwich in every way. Most stressful is that you have to navigate 3...
It’s a strange thing to be in the middle of my life. The urge to say ‘Mommy and daddy, look what I can do already’ has long now subsided. Instead I am beginning to...
Hello World! As this is my first blog post I might as well explain the title ‘Kikentai Management’. ‘Ki Ken Tai Ichi’ is a japanese phrase commonly used in the context of sword fighting...
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