Services
Individual & Group Talks
Executive Talk | Critical Talk | Group Talk
Seminars & Workshops
Power Talk | To Walk the Talk | Heart-to-Heart Talk | Straight Talk
Individual and Group Talks
executive talk
Leadership at the highest level of an organization can be both inspiring and daunting. Above all, it is an exercise of responsibility. How do you cope with everything that is happening around you, especially the overwhelming demands of day-to-day operations? How do you focus on what’s good for business without losing track of your own values and goals? And how do you manage your power, influence and relationships in all directions and levels of the organization? In order to meet all these demands and to reflect upon these issues, you might need a place and time for serious talk.
I coach C-level executives in middle and large size organizations, in both the private and public sectors. I offer a safe place where you can strengthen your leadership and take ownership of your own situation and context. During our partnership, I will both support you and challenge you, back you and question you. Because you are one and the same, I offer serious talk about everything that matters to you, both at home and at work. I place at your disposal my experience and knowledge in the fields of leadership, organizational theory, philosophy, ethics and psychology to strengthen your leverage and widen your field of action.
I offer you my support during any crucial time of your professional or private life.
critical talk
Socrates has famously said: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. A tough statement, but isn’t it true? Our lives are often dictated by other people’s ideas and values – by assumptions about what is right and good and which we have not critically examined. One day, you might want to pause and start asking crucial questions. What are the premises that guide my thoughts and actions? What are my basic assumptions about life, love, work and death? How can I lead an ethical life and what are its implications?
Philosophical praxis or counselling is a conversational form in which we critically examine the theories that shape your life. It is neither coaching or therapy but an examination of your convictions or assumptions with the help of philosophical tools or theories. Philosophical praxis is more proactive than reactive. It focuses less on explanations about what has happened and more on an in-depth exploration of what really matters to you, enabling you to take more ownership of your life.
I’m a philosophical practitioner and member of the Swedish Society of Philosophical Praxis.
group talk
The philosopher Martin Buber says: “In the beginning was relationship.” Relationships are the foundation of social life and determine how your teams will be able to solve operational and strategic challenges.
Group processes are complex because human beings are complex. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says that humans are emotional beings with reason, not rational beings with emotions. When people come together to collaborate, a host of complex social interactions play out; interactions between the unconscious and the conscious, between the rational and the emotional. In all of this, the risk of misunderstandings cannot be underestimated. Qualified facilitation is a must in order to secure a dialogical setting where every participant feels socially safe and can thus contribute constructively and creatively to the common endeavor.
My group talk services include management team development, change management and conflict resolution. In all these areas, I am at your disposal to facilitate conversations about what is truly important and meaningful. No pep talks needed.
Seminars and Workshops
Power talks (on ethics and leadership)
Leadership is a pervasive concept that arouses many fantasies. Who does not want to be a leader? But how does leadership look like in real life, when it is practiced by “real people” and at all levels of the organization? And what is the relationship between leadership and ethics, i.e. the relationship between the exercise of power and influence, and the moral considerations needed to protect people’s best interests?
This workshop will offer insights into these questions and provides the opportunity for participants to reflect on their own values and moral practice. In addition, I address a question that is not often brought to the table, namely the shadow side of leadership. For the more power and influence you yield, the greater the risk of misusing it. This risk is real, irrespective of industry, organization or cultural context. The workshop also provides guidance on how companies and institutions can protect themselves against such misuse of power and become more resilient against other forms of fraud and corruption.
to walk the talk (on ethical stress)
Ethical stress can be defined as the experienced discrepancy between how work is actually carried out and how it should be carried out according to the dictates of professional conscience. Such a stress can surface in workplaces where professionals, especially health-care professionals, cannot carry out their work according to their professional work ethic due to institutional constraints.
This seminar explores the phenomenon of ethical stress and provides participants an opportunity to see how the problem can be addressed concretely. During the seminar, a presentation of research findings on the topic will be combined with perspectives from philosophy, literature and art. Providing information and inspiration for an in-depth workplace discussion of the subject can contribute to addressing the issue more effectively.
heart-to-heart talk (on the value of failure)
No normal person can wish to fail. But failure is a recurring phenomenon in life that often hides unexpected learnings and the seeds of a much better restart.
In a culture geared for performance and success there is little room for mistakes, let alone failures. History shows, however, that many significant discoveries, inventions and ground-breaking initiatives were preceded by monumental failures. That is why failures should not be looked upon as taboos but rather be examined and considered as important milestones in personal and collective processes.
During this seminar I start by sharing my own experiences of failure and continue by presenting psychological, philosophical and historical perspectives on the value of these experiences. The participants will be challenged to look back at their own failures in order to formulate the hard-won insights from times of adversity. No small talk here.
straight talk (Challenging conversations)
Initiating difficult conversations is challenging but should be an integral part of a manager’s tasks. Such conversations are often characterized by an emotional charge, a lack of trust between the interlocutors and the sensitive nature of the subject. That is why they are often avoided, even if they are crucial for the future of the team or the whole organization.
The ability to successfully manage a difficult conversation depends on the manager’s mindset and preparation. During this workshop, the participants will learn the basics of effective communication and will be given the possibility to train conversational skills. The workshop is designed as a “conversational boot camp” where we work with the participants’ own examples and scenarios.