Being at work or doing business consumes a large part of our life. I often hear, that you should love what you do. Loving work? I hardly believe, this is reality for the majority. And it does not have to be! I am a real versatilist believing, there is not the ONE profession that you love. Instead I believe it is much more about liking what you do for work (purpose), where you work (environment) and with whom you work (atmosphere).
Different Kinds of Leadership
Many times, we relate leadership to our superiors at work. In fact, they should be and hopefully are good leaders. However, I believe the ability to lead does not come along with the position itself. It rather comes with experience gained outside business. I have gained different leadership experiences long before I started to work. Amongst them were being the class representative at school, the team captain of my football team, the student’s spokesperson at several stages and the manager of a football youth team. All these experiences helped me developing my own leadership style.
Trust-Based and Cooperative Leadership
As a global project manager, I have successfully carried out very large and locally distributed projects with well over 100 people and budgets of over 25 million euro. In these projects I have worked with people from IT as well as different other industries. I always brought groups of very diverse people together using my trust-based and cooperative leadership philosophy. This philosophy applies not only to business, but to any area in life. As a matter of fact, there is hardly any better area to develop leadership skills than team sports. There are many examples of great team captains or managers. Most of whom followed a trust-based, cooperative leadership approach naturally.
Principles of a Trust-Based Leadership Philosophy
- Start @ 100 % trust level
- Involve your team
- Make your team shine
- Care about your team
- Express your appreciation
- Set up your team like a sports team
- Focus on leading
- Grant 20% free time
- Give them the raise they ask for
- Add a bit of humor
Applying the Trust-Based Leadership Philosophy
In the tech talks video chats, I interview completely different people from many different places, different functions and different areas. Apart from talking about technology, we will also talk about leadership, their experiences and their advice. I am convinced, that a trust-based and cooperative leadership style will create a successful atmosphere. An atmosphere in which employees find purpose, feel well and hence, perform better. In the end, this is what makes people walk the extra mile or stay the extra hour for their leader. Read more …
Vast Experience in Outsourcing of IT Services
My experience with outsourcing of IT services goes back a long time. More than a decade ago I have lived in Chandigarh, India and experienced the professionalism of India’s powerful IT sector. At that time I worked for a software company called Maven Solutions. We took over software development for several companies in the US, Australia, Canada and Western Europe. Thanks to this experience I am able to see both sides of outsourcing IT services. This is a decisive advantage. Understanding the Indian (work) culture helps me to connect to people more directly and therefore master upcoming challenges much more efficiently. I never lost the connection to India as I have worked with Indian companies in different projects ever since. Whether these were about infrastructure operations, pure software development or application maintenance services – there is hardly any area I have not touched.
The right Mixture between Onsite, Nearshore and Offshore
In recent years I have managed different vendors for software development projects. This included pure Indian players as well western players with Indian subsidiaries. During this time I have worked a lot with Eastern European partners, especially from Romania. One thing became absolutely obvious. Especially for small and agile development projects the offshore approach to India is not always the most feasible. Instead, it really depends on the project’s size, setup and objective. I am convinced, that with the right mixture between onsite, nearshore and offshore almost every outsourcing initiative can be successful.
Guidance on Successful Outsourcing
I want to share advice, guidance and best practices on how to set up an outsourcing strategy. This includes outlining its potential, but also its limitations. There are many different approaches and as usual there is no one-size-fits-all approach. In the tech talk video chats, I will interview some industry experts from different countries about their experiences and recommendations. Read more …