Early bird...? ...or?

There are people who suggest that if you want to get more done, you should simply leave bed an hour earlier - in that way, you would worst case get 365 additional hours a year.
However, I am convinced that it is not a universal - for early birds is certainly excellent, for they can just go an hour earlier to bed at night, at which time they are not as effective. But for the night owls, I doubt that there will be any outcome - except perhaps the negative one that they will get one less hour of productive time at the end of the day.
So although I'm an early bird (at least in the morning), I am not blind to the fact that the advice is given by early birds to early birds without taking night owl habits much into account.
If I were to give the advice, I think that I would state it as

Expand your productive time by one waking hour instead of sleeping. 

Early birds can get up even earlier, Night owls go to bed later, and either can where necessary gain back the sleep on the time of day, where they are less productive.
But in any case it's a bad idea to unconditionally accept advice that lumps all recipients together in one barrel.
(Translated from Tidligt op og...? eller?, originally published March 30th, 2017)

Own your failure

The other day I came across a good piece of advice on failures and defeat. In all its simplicity, it goes like this:

You must take ownership of your failure.

This is to be understood in such a way that when you lose (and one can lose in many contexts), then there is no reason to see yourself as a victim, or to make excuses. You must, of course, try to understand why and come up with explanations so that it becomes possible to correct your actions next time - but basically you have to accept that you have lost and take the defeat on yourself. Only when we do this, we able to improve ourselves and thereby have a chance of avoiding to take ownership of more defeat, the next time we try to win.
(Translated from "Tag ejerskab over dit nederlag")

On the topic of leadership and navigation

Some time ago, I went to a lecture where the lecturer had a point that initially may seem slightly rebellious - that you, rather than being locked into existing management structures, should let the best and most competent person in a given situation lead - something that could appear to be dynamite in leadership teams if brought to life and thrown in there.

Image courtesy of pixabay / Pexels

But the presenter had a point - for as he exemplified it: if you are a bunch of people travelling from point A to point B, and some of you have local knowledge of some of the places where you need to pass - wouldn't you allow those who have local knowledge at that location, to show the way?
And it makes excellent sense - rather than leaving it to the owner of the car to find his way across Westminster, why not let the Londoner who's a passenger do it, instead of telling her to just sit in the back seat and keep quiet?
I think that one of the neglected disciplines of management is the art of finding the one who is the best suited in a given situation and properly empower this person.
(Translated from Noget om at lede og finde vej, originally published November 15th, 2014)

Pedestrian

I highly appreciate a management style known by the acronym MBWA - "Management By Walking Around" - which in all its simplicity is about the manager setting time aside to get around in her (or his) organization, talk to people and understand what is happening. As a matter of fact, I have never met very many managers who makes use of the method; for sure, they can stand on a stage in front of the employees and do one-way communication, but when for once they manage to come by the desks of the employees, it typically causes the reaction: "My goodness, there must be something terribly wrong since the manager comes here. "
If a leader does MBWA, I see several benefits. Firstly, the manager is better informed about what actually occupies people, but not least it significantly reduces the distance between the leader and the employees - and in good times it establishes a connection between the manager and the employees; a connection which can be extremely valuable in difficult situations.
But unfortunately, there are too few leaders who find time in their schedule to do it on a regular basis. Last time, I saw something similar to MBWA was actually back at the university where the rector had made it his routine to visit all departments in the week before Christmas to wish the students and staff happy holidays. Although once a year is not much, is it, after all - and unfortunately - more than what I experience as average.
(Translated from Fodgænger, originally published March 3rd, 2017).