All posts filed under: Workplace

Person standing in front of a crashed, weathered airplane wreck on a desolate landscape.

When Failure Gets a Standing Ovation (And Why Knowing When to Quit Might Save You)

Published by Trotzendorff

The room in that unas­sum­ing, almost ugly office build­ing smelled like spilled beer and sweat. Con­crete walls, neon lights, cables run­ning along the ceil­ing, a cheap PA sys­tem hum­ming some­where in the cor­ner. Peo­ple leaned against each oth­er on fold­ing chairs, scrolling through their phones, wait­ing for the next per­son who would walk on stage and say the one thing we are all trained not to admit: »I failed.«

A tree-lined path in autumn with vibrant orange leaves forming a canopy, a lone person walking in the distance through the mist.

Autumn Is a Masterclass in Transitions: How to Navigate Everyday Shifts at Work

Published by Trotzendorff

The light tilts, the col­ors deep­en, pave­ments shine after quick show­ers. Autumn moves the city from one state to anoth­er with­out fuss or apol­o­gy. That same cur­rent runs through our work­days: from tiny thresh­olds to big­ger cross­ings it’s all about the art of leav­ing one thing clean­ly and arriv­ing well at the next. These tran­si­tions come in all sizes — from the eye­­lash-thin switch between two tasks that lasts a heart­beat to the long arcs that reshape teams, com­pa­nies, and peo­ple over months, some­times years.

Why We Crave Strong Leaders in Crisis — And Why That Might Be a Problem

Published by Trotzendorff

1. The Pat­tern: Cri­sis Hits, and We Look Up Take a moment and think back to the last time you felt tru­ly uncer­tain — maybe dur­ing a glob­al pan­dem­ic, a major reor­ga­ni­za­tion at work, or a per­son­al cri­sis. Chances are, you found your­self grav­i­tat­ing toward some­one who seemed to have all the answers. A boss. A polit­i­cal fig­ure. A loud voice in a crowd­ed room.

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: