All posts filed under: Psychology

The «Real Men» Dilemma: Why Leaders Struggle to Say «I Don’t Know»

Published by Trotzendorff

Lead­er­ship has long been entwined with tra­di­tion­al mas­cu­line norms. The ide­al leader is often seen as deci­sive, strong, in con­trol, and emo­tion­al­ly sto­ic – traits stereo­typ­i­cal­ly cod­ed as male. In fact, clas­sic research found peo­ple implic­it­ly asso­ciate lead­er­ship with being male («think man­ag­er, think male»). Many orga­ni­za­tions still oper­ate like a «mas­culin­i­ty con­test» cul­ture. Some core unwrit­ten rules of this old-school mas­cu­line code include:

Inequality is a Choice—And We Keep Making the Wrong One

Published by Trotzendorff

In three weeks, Ger­many will vote. When I decide where to place my vote, one thing mat­ters most: Which par­ty rep­re­sents a vision of soci­ety that acknowl­edges a fun­da­men­tal truth—who we become is large­ly shaped by cir­cum­stances beyond our con­trol. Our intel­li­gence, resilience, and tal­ents may feel per­son­al, but they are, to a sig­nif­i­cant extent, the result of fac­tors we nev­er chose: our genet­ics, the qual­i­ty of our edu­ca­tion, the finan­cial secu­ri­ty of our par­ents, the coun­try we were born in. Even our abil­i­ty to work hard and per­se­vere is shaped by ear­ly child­hood expe­ri­ences and social conditioning.

Lessons from Trial and Error: Building a Better Team Culture

Published by Trotzendorff

Lead­er­ship is a jour­ney of tri­al and error. Over the years, I’ve exper­i­ment­ed with count­less ideas to make work bet­ter for my team. Many didn’t work—and that’s okay. But today, I want to share three things that did. These small adjust­ments might not seem rev­o­lu­tion­ary, but they’ve stood the test of time. And they have made a difference.

Into the quiet corners of everyday life

Published by Trotzendorff

For twen­ty years, my iden­ti­ty was inter­twined with my pro­fes­sion as a journalist—a career that, by its very nature, thrusts you into the spot­light. I embraced this pub­lic role whole­heart­ed­ly, not just as an indi­vid­ual or a jour­nal­ist, but as what we called a per­son­al brand. This approach felt not only nat­ur­al but nec­es­sary. Yet, over time, a grow­ing real­iza­tion dawned on me: per­haps I was­n’t as pro­fes­sion­al in my jour­nal­is­tic role as I had believed.