Dr. Dominic Lindner, Autor bei agile Companies

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Help! My boss is unbearable and a narcissist!

Employees don’t leave companies, they leave bosses! I already said that 2019 an article from T3N : The magazine quotes you Gallup Report : Quite often, bosses are the reason employees quit. Almost 70% of the factors that contribute to professional dissatisfaction are directly related to the superior. If you are also thinking about changing jobs because of the manager, because her boss is unbearable or a narcissist, then you should continue reading this article. In the first step, I would like to discuss such unbearable behavior and then examine whether a termination is really the only solution. The behavior of bosses Unfortunately, a study shows that the number of personality disorders is increasing massively, especially at management level. A survey of the German Graduate School of Management and Law of almost 850 executives shows that over 300 people exhibited a high level of personality disorder. Lawyers (36%), managers (27%)…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

How software became our team leader – use of queues and boards in virtual teams

To promote self-organization and transparency, there are now numerous software tools that are already used frequently. Communication and collaboration via software is an essential success factor, especially in virtual teams. Self-organization is probably the most important success factor, especially in complex environments with capricious customers, and specialists also demand more and more participation in decisions in the company. Recently (2019) Xing asked over 17,000 of its members about salaries And a primary result is that every tenth XING user would change jobs for more meaningful work with greater self-organization. According to the study, Generation Y in particular places more value on meaning in their job than on the “pure paycheck at the end of the month”. Managers are responsible for ensuring the performance and motivation of distributed teams. How the motivation is ensured I have shown in another article. Today I would like to go into what the correct use…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

What does a Scrum Master do?

Scrum has been spreading more and more in German companies over the past few years. And this also opens up positions for so-called Scrum Masters (SM) at the same time. However, the actual tasks of these leaders are often drastically underestimated even by the people involved. Because as an SM, the range of tasks is much broader than simply “facilitating” your own team. In this article I would like to explain exactly how the function, the responsibilities and the scope of duties of a Scrum Master look like. Range of tasks of a Scrum Master In many job positions there are precise descriptions, responsibilities and requirements that relate to a specific activity. In the case of Scrum Masters, however, it looks a little different. You should be understood more as an all-rounder who, together with the product owner and the development team, make up the Sarum team. The Scrum Master…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

My new job as a manager – then came Corona

I’ve been in the job since 2015 and have worked my way up from a consultant to a team leader and now to a division manager. I’ve always had ambitious goals and wanted to be in a position like this. That’s why I’ve learned a lot from my managers and have always observed them and asked a lot of questions since I started my career. I wanted to be prepared for the day when I was a leader myself. I noticed that I started at a time when things were only going uphill. A typical phenomenon of Generation Y, who grew up in times of high security and growth. The statistics show that Germany has been growing steadily since I started my career. So in my time since 2015 I have learned many strategies for growth and also geared my doctoral thesis towards them. Now I am a manager myself…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

What does a product owner do?

When working in the Scrum team, there are different positions that have to be filled and each of which is assigned different responsibilities. One of them describes the des Product owner . As manager of the product backlog, he leads the development team and is responsible for increasing the value of the product. In this article, I would like to describe in more detail what a product owner does in his daily work. The Product Owner in the Scrum Team hierarchy Within Scrum, the product owner can be found in the area of project and product management. Since the Scrum model is designed to break down large tasks into smaller sub-tasks and thus convert complex problems into more easily resolvable individual problems, the product owner’s task here is to closely monitor the development of the project. This means, for example, that you have to regularly optimize and adapt the long-term…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Narcissism – The Dark Triad

You surely know one or even several such people for whom empathy and compassion seem to be a foreign word. And yet it is not uncommon for this type of person to get through life more successfully and usually reach higher and influential positions at work. Experts call this mix of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy the “dark triad”. The three specific personality disorders often occur in everyday professional life among executives who, through their unscrupulousness and prioritizing their own goals and needs over those of their fellow men, literally free themselves the way to high career positions. In this part of the series of articles, this time the focus is on the characteristics of the narcissism walk. What exactly does the term “dark triad” mean? Before I get into this article, however, narcissism and in order to include the first of the three personality disorders, I would like to begin…

Cloud computing 21. March 2021

Digital sovereignty in companies through open source?

More and more companies are using technologies and are constantly expanding them with individual functions that increasingly support processes in companies. The data obtained in this way are often worth protecting and critical for the company. The non-transparent storage of the data therefore creates a risk for companies. As early as in the coalition agreement, the governing parties commit themselves to preserving and regaining technological sovereignty. The focus is on alternatives to current US providers, which often offer cloud and software solutions without sufficient transparency. Due to the fact that we will become more and more dependent on technologies in the future, the sovereignty over their administration should lie in the hands of the German entrepreneurs. This article shows current risks in the cooperation with large US providers and explains the use of open source software as an alternative solution for creating digital sovereignty. Risk 1: Vendor LockIn The reason…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Machiavellianism – The Dark Triad

You surely know one or even several such people for whom empathy and compassion seem to be a foreign word. And yet it is not uncommon for this type of person to get through life more successfully and usually reach higher and influential positions at work. Experts call this mix of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy the “dark triad”. The three specific personality disorders often occur in everyday professional life among executives who, through their unscrupulousness and prioritizing their own goals and needs over those of their fellow men, literally free themselves the way to high career positions. In this part of the series of articles, this time the focus is on the characteristics of the Machiavellianism walk. What exactly does the term “dark triad” mean? Before I get into this article, however, Machiavellianism and in order to include the second of the three personality disorders, I would like to begin…

Bachelor thesis / master thesis 21. March 2021

Tips for writing good texts

I wrote a lot of text during my doctorate and texts are very important, especially in an academic context. In the following I have summarized my findings from 5 years of doctorate. It may help one or the other. language It is our ability to generate and understand language that makes us special. Our perception in society also determines our language. Of course, other forms of life such as animals also coordinate with each other, but this language is used more for mere information and is nowhere near as deep and complex as human language. Reading tip: Meaning of language Language can arouse emotions and control the reader’s impression of the text. From open to populist – anything is possible. My findings are: Avoid superlatives and unambiguous statements (all companies)Use open languageAvoid causal relationshipsIntroduction of clear terms, subsequent definition and permanent use of the uniform termPut terms in the right…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Psychopathy – The Dark Triad

You surely know one or even several such people for whom empathy and compassion seem to be a foreign word. And yet it is not uncommon for this type of person to get through life more successfully and usually reach higher and influential positions at work. Experts call this mix of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy the “dark triad”. The three specific personality disorders often occur in everyday professional life among executives who, through their unscrupulousness and prioritizing their own goals and needs over those of their fellow men, literally free themselves the way to high career positions. In this part of the series of articles, this time the focus is on the characteristics of the Psychopathy walk. What exactly does the term “dark triad” mean? However, before I go into more detail in this article Psychopathy and to include the third of the three personality disorders, I would like to…