Author Archives: Eva-Maria Hempe

🎊 My New Year’s resolution: Catalyse gratitude and empowerment

Last year I read about a teacher who asked all her students to write something they like about each of the other kids in class, collected the answers and then gave each kid “their” answers. Hearing what others liked about them, gave all the kids just such a huge confidence boost. And not just kidsContinue reading “🎊 My New Year’s resolution: Catalyse gratitude and empowerment”

“She has a family, she won’t leave”

One of my friends was working as a postdoc at the time. She had small kids and her husband was also an academic. While academia is prestigious, salaries are not great. Given that and the fact that she had kids, my friend’s university felt that they did not need to promote her (despite her beingContinue reading ““She has a family, she won’t leave””

💼 “I want the best person for the job, no matter if it’s a man or a woman” – are you sure?

The claim above is often made in connotation with the claim that there are just no suitable women. But what if the measure of what’s suitable is skewed? In a reserach paper, MIT professor Danielle Li found when studying a large North American retail chain, that despite on average women received higher performance ratings, theyContinue reading “💼 “I want the best person for the job, no matter if it’s a man or a woman” – are you sure?”

“You shoud either have a supportive partner or no partner. There is no third option.”

Ich hab diesen Satz letztens auf LinkedIn gelesen und während er einen wahren Kern enthält, find ich ihn zu sehr zugespitzt. Natürlich ist es essentiell einen “supportive partner” zu haben, aber das heisst nicht dass der/ die andere bedingungslos alles mittragen und unterstützen muss. Der/ die andere ist immer noch ein Mensch mit eigenen BedürfnissenContinue reading ““You shoud either have a supportive partner or no partner. There is no third option.””

Cowards write emails, leaders pick up the phone

The other day I received an email from someone higher up in an organization I worked with at the time. This email contained several incorrect assumptions and apparently was very urgent. My feeling when I got this email was actually disappointment – I had expected more of the sender. I had even defended this personContinue reading “Cowards write emails, leaders pick up the phone”

The human factor in the digital transformation – and it looks pretty grim

An interesting study by Dell wit some pretty shocking numbers– 56% of respondents said that they do not always have the energy/ motivation to put the digital transformation into action at work– 69% of respondents are worried that they do not have the necessary competencies for a digital transformation– 60% said that corporate culture limits employee-driven innovation–Continue reading “The human factor in the digital transformation – and it looks pretty grim”

Why do we waste so much time on them vs. us, when we are acutally stronger together?

🚣 These are the old boathouses of the Cambridge University crews in Ely, where we went pretty much every day for our water training sessions. On the right in blue, the boathouse of the men (2 crews), on the right NOT the boathouse of the women (3 crews – as the women’s club also includedContinue reading “Why do we waste so much time on them vs. us, when we are acutally stronger together?”

😲 “Es gibt keinen guten Stress” – Wirklich?

Stress ist erstmal ein physiologische, also eine körperliche Reaktion darauf dass etwas das dir wichtig ist auf dem Spiel steht. Und diese Reaktion verstärkt einfach deinen bestehenden Mindset – der kann Bedrohung/ Ueberforderung sein (schlechter Stress) oder eben auch Herausforderung (guter Stress). Wenn dir die Geburtstagsparty von Tante Käthe eh egal ist weil du sieContinue reading “😲 “Es gibt keinen guten Stress” – Wirklich?”