Arjen van Berkum | Technology & Contract Management Evangelist

14 augustus 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

Empowering cultural behaviour as driver for diversity

Cultural fit

Put a group of people together and you will discover there are many corresponding and contradicting characteristics, believes and opinions in that one room. These can level, reinforce, but also sabotage a situation. If you want to strengthen your business, how can you ensure that the first two values, the ones that create synergy, will dominate within your organisation? It’s all about behaviour and the culture that is steering that behaviour.
Recently I read an article on Linkedin about Michael Jordan’s attitude as a ‘jerk’ and how that was actually empowering his team, not sabotaging it. The writer states that hiring for cultural fit is overrated. Is it? In sports you often hear outrageous behaviour from leading talents. What happened first, their success or their jerky, arrogant outbursts? So you could question what causes what in these cases. How does this work within companies?

29 juni 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

How to succeed as an authentic leader

10 do’s and don’ts for leadership success

Do you know who you are, what you believe and why you believe it? Are you able to be yourself in any given situation? Recently I read an article that contained a nice comparison for leaders that are facing their greatest challenge, namely integrating their personal and work lives:

Think of your life as a house. Can you knock down the walls between the rooms and be the same person in each of them?”

It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary, to walk your talk every step of the way. Especially when you still need to build your follower base. How can you find the inspiration to make an impact in the world as an authentic leader? Don’t strive to achieve success in tangible performances that are recognised in the external world. Strive for significance. Make a difference with your contribution: constantly build legacies by adding deep value to everyone you deal with. This is what makes good performers great leaders. Therefore self-awareness is a vital part of successful leadership.

Here are some principles that evolved from the values that I have ranked during my leadership journey.

15 juni 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

Recruitment becomes a marketing stunt

Recruitment is a Marketing stunt

When we think of our (potential) customers, especially about how we want to reach them, we right away start to think on marketing level. We contemplate about how we can steer our identity in a way it can influence our image and our reputation positively. We have ideas about our brand: who are we, who we want to be and how we want people to perceive us. We directly connect this with the changes our company culture needs, so it can help us shape the company we wished for. A distinct marketing plan will put all sorts of processes in motion that creates all this. Or at least, we aim for it. Now visualise replacing customers for employees in this situation.

26 mei 2015 by Arjen van Berkum Leave a Comment

The ingredients for building an innovation culture

In today’s dynamic business environment, every organisation must continuously change to stay competitive. How do you maintain the advantage on your competitors? If you can’t make it as a market leader, make sure you at least stay on par with competitors. How? It starts by thinking tactically and strategically from an innovative angle. You are never alone in an ecosystem. Competitors, customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders, they are all influenced by the way you act and the other way around. The dynamics of the environment that surrounds your business should be defining how you set up your processes. This ecosystem requires you to clearly position yourself. As an innovative business you should outline who you want to be and define how leading you want your role to be in the market. Looking at the innovation culture you want to build, what place in the ecosystem will suit your business best?

10 do’s and don’ts for leadership success

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