The happiness subject has been fascinating me for a long time but more and more lately, realizing how differently wired we are and how differently we interpret it. Of course, I know happiness means something else for each of us however I have found three very interesting angles and thought of sharing them with you.
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I strongly believe prolonged fear and anxiety (caused nowadays by the COVID-19 virus) might be more damaging than the virus itself. No one says not to think about it, ignore it or not to stay vigilant, but over-stressing about it does not help anyone.
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Mindfulness is a word which has been uttered increasingly often, in a lot of diverse and unexpected places. Not too long ago it was something that was whispered and reluctantly received by westerners, due to its association with the practice of meditation.
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One of the leading global learning and innovation communities in the world, Singularity University is now present in Romania with the launch of the SingularityU Chapter in Bucharest.
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You might not notice through all the negative news cluttering our lives but there are schools throughout Romania where profound changes are taking place in the way the next generations are educated. And behind these changes you will find school principals who have taken it upon themselves to improve and transform the schools they are running so that education happens in a different way.
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Many of us feel we are at a point in our lives when the presence of meaning at work has become essential. Not that it didn’t matter earlier, but as we have “grown up” a bit more, especially since many of us have achieved a decent level of financial well-being, we’ve come to realize happiness and non-financial well-being haven’t always come in the same “package”.
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As in the previous years, the challenge of finding the right employees is still one of the main priorities for companies, no matter the industry they are active in or the quality of their employees. According to a Gallup survey this situation is growing worse by the year.
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Living through the marvel of the Enescu Festival these past few days, I started to reflect on what positive leadership means: action, willingness to do good and humbleness among others.
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One of the topics introduced at our last leadership development program in June was self-awareness. Research shows that it is among the top 5 executive coaching topics (and often the first of interest).
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Some quick highlights from our executive education program in July.
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Adam Leonard from Google and one of the speakers of our event answers some questions about flow, the benefits it brings and the challenges people face when trying to get into a flow state.
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Dr. Srini Pillay, Keynote Speaker at our Executive Program answers a couple of questions about anxiety, burnout and some of the main topics he will be talking about during his presentations
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Join us between June 6-8, in Bucharest, for our 3-day executive development program with Dr. Srini Pillay, Harvard Medical School, Adam Leonard, Google and Radu Manolescu, K.M.Trust & Partners.
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The latest news from our company. Our partner team expands in order to implement our growth strategy and Radu Manolescu is a finalist at EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018.
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December is usually a good month to put thoughts and things in order, to analyze the year that has passed and reflect on the next one and on its challenges. While running on a weekend, I had some revelations on what would a compassion & kindness training would actually imply. So this is one of them. It is related to teambuildings and why I believe teambuildings done as they are done in most cases, is a waste of time and money.
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Andrei Costache and Basav Ray Chaudhuri have joined the company as partners alongside Radu Manolescu, Founder & Managing Partner. Heike Kuenzel, Co-Founder remains Non-Executive Partner.
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As recruiters, both in K.M.Trust (our executive search & leadership consulting firm) and Key2Success (our mid-management recruitment firm), we receive almost daily requests from people considering a career move or in need of career advice.
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Despite the fact 99% of the people I meet complain about stress and about feeling often overwhelmed, the majority still focuses on physical fitness to reduce stress - which is great and does a lot in this direction yet not enough.
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Feedback – a sensitive subject at both ends. A difficult thing to do but among the most efficient in developing a culture of respect and trust.
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A while ago, during an introspective discussion with my coach, I realized once more that time is among the very few things that cannot be bought. And more precisely quality time…
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On May 23rd we hosted a one-day executive program in Bucharest, the first in a series of events with top business schools executives centered on our mission: helping companies live their values.
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Two years ago, I wrote an article about “the end of Executive Search as we know it” mentioning the fact that I considered that even the name of the industry was inappropriate while the value for the customer has actually never been just “search” but way more than that.
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In the first part of our article we talked about how you can generate a development program that is tailored to the strengths and areas for leadership growth with the help of a thorough assessment of an individual. Let’s now look at how to develop this plan further.
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In our January newsletter we talked about the importance of a “Customized Retention” methodology. This month we will discuss about another key adaptability feature of the employers of choice or of those soon to become one - “Customized Individual Development”.
Read moreIf you force a grasshopper into a jar and fasten the lid, the grasshopper eventually shortens its jump after hitting the lid enough times.
Read moreRobbie Baxter helps companies reinvent their businesses by shifting relationships with customers from transactional to long-term membership. Leaders in this approach, like Amazon and Netflix, are successful and resilient because they clearly identify a problem customers want solved and promise to continuously solve it over the long haul. Though the exact solution may change, the promise stays the same.
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I was fortunate to get in touch with the Blue Ocean strategy concept in 2006 when at INSEAD and was so excited by it as I immersed myself for several weeks into thinking about how to apply it for ‘internal customer/employee’ engagement, with benefits for both my firm and my clients.
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It was only a while ago no one could imagine google would compete with the major car makers, Waze would disrupt other major traffic management businesses, Uber would partner with NASA for the soon to appear flying cars and so on…
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Research shows that 80+% of the people who apply to executive recruiters when looking for a new job receive no response, whether by phone call or even email. Of course, there are reasons for this and just a few people outside of the industry know them.
Read moreA decent article about salary negotiation. A key aspect - keep the constructive, common sensed attitude during negotiations.
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Last year in October during a valuation executive programme with prof. Kevin Kaiser from INSEAD we had the chance to discuss about leadership teams behaviors and long term value creation, my “obsession” for many years.
Read moreMost companies have ethics and compliance policies that get reviewed and signed annually by all employees. “Employees are charged with conducting their business affairs in accordance with the highest ethical standards,” reads one such example. “Moral as well as legal obligations will be fulfilled in a manner which will reflect pride on the Company’s name.” Of course, that policy comes directly from Enron. Clearly it takes more than a compliance policy or Values Statement to sustain a truly ethical workplace.
Read moreWhen we hear about unethical executives whose careers and companies have gone down in flames, it’s sadly unsurprising. Hubris and greed have a way of catching up with people, who then lose the power and wealth they’ve so fervently pursued. But is the opposite also true? Do highly principled leaders and their organizations perform especially well?
Read moreHere in L.A., it’s kind of insane that a great kindergarten requires a competitive application and tuitions that exceed most colleges. I started asking myself, given the fact that most elementary schools haven’t changed in decades (maybe longer), what do I want my kids to learn? How would I reinvent elementary school during an exponential era?
Read moreTransition to general management is a challenging process that could be a life changer for most. There are many additional and different competences a general manager needs to have in order to be successful: stakeholder management, governmental relations, investor relations, cross cultural leadership, organizational behavior, strategy, global economy understanding, technological trends, long term value creation, etc.
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During my transition period as a CEO, I encountered two major challenges: First of all I moved from banking to leasing industry.
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VUCA - short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity - seems to be the word du jour, thrown around whenever we don’t know what to make of a situation. Overhyped?
Read moreThis is the third interview - part of a series - investigating the challenges and joys of transitioning to a CEO role. Florin Popa, GM Star Brands Algeria, has been kind enough to answer our questions. Previously, Florin Popa was CBD Director Balkans for P&G.
All interviews are moderated by Radu Manolescu, Founder and Managing Partner, K.M.Trust and lead of the Values Driven Exponential Leadership Programme.
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This is the second interview - part of a series - investigating the challenges and joys of transitioning to a general management role. Kostas Loukas, General Manager Public Sector, Microsoft Central & Eastern Europe, has been kind enough to answer.
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This is the first interview - part of a series - investigating the challenges and joys of transitioning to a CEO role. Dimitris Nikolakis, CEO Druckfarben Romania since 2014, has been kind enough to answer our questions.
All interviews are moderated by Radu Manolescu, Founder and Managing Partner, K.M.Trust and lead of the Values Driven Exponential Leadership Programme.
Read moreWhat are the arguments for and against selecting a CEO from inside the company versus recruiting one from another company?
Read moreFollowing our June interview with Dan Bulucea - Google’s New Business Development for APAC - on leadership, naturally, our discussion returned to what makes great leadership. What are those specific situations and contexts that help build better leaders? It turns out, unsurprisingly, that it has to do with education.
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Established, powerful companies are disappearing at an alarming rate - some estimates put this rate at 30% in 5 year's time (according to Simon Kaluza - SAP MD for CEE). This disruption mainly comes from technological advancements that make your company or your product obsolete - just think of Kodak, Nokia or Motorola.
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This the first interview of a series of talks with great leaders, with strong moral values, on life, leadership, education and technology. We are very happy to interview Dan who has built the first Google office in Romania.
Read moreIn an effort to make CEOs act like they have skin in the game - the past 30 years have brought a mindshift in shareholders’ thinking about CEO compensation: they moved from cash only compensation to incentive compensation with stock options and other equity incentives. It seemed a sensible choice at the time - to tie compensation to performance.
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This is by no means an exhaustive view or even a scientifically ranked TED Talks leadership top. It’s a collection of insightful talks, drawing parallels from various fields, that have the surprise element able to shift your thinking.
Read moreIf you want to create a successful, hyper-growth company you've got to get one thing right – hiring. To kick off my series of blogs on "Hiring, Culture, and Experimentation", I had a chance to catch up with Jeff Holden, the current Chief Product Officer of Uber.
Read moreAlthough corporate governance is a hot topic in boardrooms today, it is a relatively new field of study. Its roots can be traced back to the seminal work of Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means in the 1930s, but the field as we now know it emerged only in the 1970s.
Read moreNow that meditation has hit the cover of TIME, the Wisdom 2.0 conference has brought meditating executives to the headlines, and figures from Arianna Huffington to 50 Cent do the practice, a bit of backlash was inevitable.
Read moreIf you have room in your head for only one nugget of leadership wisdom, make it this one: the most powerfully motivating condition people experience at work is making progress at something that is personally meaningful. If your job involves leading others, the implications are clear: the most important thing you can do each day is to help your team members experience progress at meaningful work.
Read moreResearch shows that in leaderless groups, leaders emerge by quickly synchronizing their brain waves with followers through high quality conversations. Simply put, synchrony is a neural process where the frequency and scale of brain waves of people become in sync.
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It was October 2009 when we had our Global Shareholders Meeting of IIC Partners in Beijing. During a debate I challenged some of my colleagues’ views about the future of our industry and even about its name: Executive Search - which I have to admit I find to be completely obsolete in our times.
Read moreAn analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).
Read moreFor the first time a “one-year” MBA has topped the list of the world’s best business school courses.
Read moreAny company that aspires to succeed in the tougher business environment of the 1990s must first resolve a basic dilemma: success in the marketplace increasingly depends on learning, yet most people don’t know how to learn.
Read moreThis article is part of DBA, a new series on Mashable about running a business that features insights from leaders in entrepreneurship, venture capital and management.
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Savvy CEOs and executives know that interview questions like, "What's your biggest strength?" and, "What's your biggest weakness?" aren't as telling as they seem. That's why they steer clear of these cliché queries and instead ask more meaningful ones.
Read moreA high performer can deliver 400% more productivity than the average performer.
Read moreWhat motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn't just money. But it's not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our work.
Read moreHow much should people earn? Even if resources were unlimited, it would be difficult to stipulate your ideal salary. Intuitively, one would think that higher pay should produce better results, but scientific evidence indicates that the link between compensation, motivation and performance is much more complex.
Read moreI don’t look through stacks of resumes anymore. I hate paper. I do everything online. There has been for many decades, a mysterious Wizard of Oz-type viewpoint of the recruiting world that I think is somewhat misappropriated. People seem to be truly fascinated by what goes on behind the curtain, when in reality, recruiters aren’t running the covert operation many think.
Read moreIt wasn’t the “Thrilla in Manila,” but a bout between two Harvard heavyweights grabbed headlines this summer nonetheless. In one corner, you had Clayton Christensen, the dean of disruption, who slammed HBX for being conventional and vulnerable.
Read moreI can't seem to fully get my head around the role of a CEO. Basically the CEO sets the strategy, vision and makes sure everyone is on the same page. May have meetings with other partners etc. Brainstorm ideas with other execs. Talk to investors. Recruiting / Editing the team.
Read moreIt turns out offering CEOs huge bonuses to boost shareholder returns doesn’t actually work, according to a new study from Cornell University.
Read moreIf you’re running a large company, don’t expect the public to like you. Soaring executive pay packages, continuing rounds of layoffs, and the memory of ethical failures at firms like Enron, WorldCom, and Hewlett-Packard have raised public animosity toward corporate executives as never before.
Read moreLists of top business schools usually take in a bunch of factors — like graduate pay, the institution's academic record and its reputation with employers.
Read moreOn February 5th, Brian Williams admitted on his own news program that he had misrepresented the facts around a dramatic story he reported from Iraq in 2003. He had placed himself at the center of an RPG missile attack on a helicopter which he had not been on.
Read moreThe energy company's bankruptcy in 2001 after allegations of massive accounting fraud wiped out $78 billion in stock market value and led to the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Read moreCan ethics be quantified? Or, better yet, can a lack of ethics be quantified?
Read moreMartin Shkreli earned the epithet of “the most hated man on the internet” after he bought the rights to a life-saving-HIV-related drug and subsequently increased the price by 5,000%.
Read moreThe former Chief Executive of a charity set up to support children with cancer and their families has been sentenced to one year in jail for stealing thousands from the business.
Read moreOver the past year I have had great opportunities to interview for positions at companies I respect, and some I didn’t. I wanted to share my experiences to help others looking to go down this job path and some general interviewing tips.
Read moreBuilding candidate engagement is where the battle is at. As technology gives us more and more access to great talent in the market (whether that be through Boolean searching, LinkedIn or any other social network), the game is changing. We can see who has jobs that may interest us and, even when approached about jobs, very rarely do recruiters talk about the culture and the employer value proposition (EVP) of the organisations they represent.
Read moreEveryone loves a bargain, especially when that bargain turns out to be free and the results of it can help to improve your efficiency and your productivity when using LinkedIn!
Read moreThis week, Facebook announced a change to the way their messaging systems work, which has the potential to significantly impact recruiting on Facebook.
Read moreThe scandal at Toshiba has got Japan’s government worried that investors will lose confidence in the country. Japan has its own problems with antiquated oversight of top managers but companies have cooked the books throughout history and worldwide.
Read moreCompanies with bad reputations face increased recruiting costs due to the greater difficulty to source, offer and on-‐board new hires. This is particularly true when recruiting females and more experienced workers.
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Tinand cont de incidentele rasunatoare in care au fost implicate unele companii care au dus pana la disparitia unora dintre ele ( si as mentiona aici Barrings Bank, Lehman Brothers, Enron, Arthur Andersen dar si Volkswagen) ne putem intreba ce leaderi si angajati trebuie sa aducem in companii.
Read moreCiprian Oprea, 43 de ani, fondatorul companiei Milca, visează să cucerească Europa cu uşile de garaj și rulourile pentru ferestre MCA.
Read moreUniversităţile din Marea Britanie, cele mai appreciate de tinerii români care vor să studieze în străinătate, continuă ascensiunea în clasamentul celor mai bune universităţi din lume, publicat de Times Higher Education.
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