I need a vacation! On vacation, the demands and questions of everyday life should fade into the background. Especially in times of crisis this is not so easy. Some people find it generally difficult to leave their everyday life and especially their work behind them. What does it take for a “real” vacation feeling? The […]
We all know them. Whether in politics or business, whether at work or in the private sphere. Everywhere we meet people with narcissistic personalities. Some famous examples are the politician Silvio Berlusconi, the writer Thomas Mann, the football player Christiano Ronaldo and the designer Coco Chanel. But how does a narcissistic personality develop? […]
Why it can do us good to just stare at the wall sometimes Perhaps the title of this article directly stirs up resistance in you? – “Boredom? Pah! I wish I could afford to be bored, but I’m way too busy for that!” Or: “The only time I get bored is when the plane still […]
Having arrived at your destination after a long effort: what do you experience then? A feeling of satisfaction or standstill and stagnation? It can be both … […]
Sometimes its time for a fresh start – we tell you when its time to go. […]
Leaders should be both: self-confident and clear, but also approachable. Such self-confidence does not come from a modular system of coaching tools; our narcissism is deeply rooted in our personality. We present two important skills that distinguish healthy self-confidence from destructive narcissism. […]
Even if the crisis is not over – we can already learn a lot from the past few weeks. […]
Personality is not a product of chance. It is not a random bundle of characteristics that differentiates us from one another. Whether introverted or extraverted, whether spirited or balanced: we have all developed a personality which, according to Allport (1959), can be described, in addition to genetic aspects, as a “unique adaptation” to our individual […]
Employees should act as self-employed persons in the company. Independent, agile work with short coordination channels. This requires flat hierarchies. Or perhaps this trend can even be spun further: is an anarchic form of organization also conceivable in the future? […]
How to answer the question whether you should rather do coaching or therapy and what is behind the term “Psychodynamic Coaching”. […]
Conflicts are exhausting and stressful for most of us. And that is why we like to avoid them. Professional conflicts in particular are sometimes sat out for a long time, until the fronts have hardened considerably and a way out seems almost impossible. But there is one… […]
We are not always able to perceive our counterpart as he or she really is. Subjective distortions have a great influence on how we communicate and interact with our colleagues, employees and superiors. Transference and counter-transference – two central concepts from psychoanalytic business coaching – try to track down these distortions. […]
In times of Corona many entrepreneurs find themselves with the challenge of having to work from home for the first time. Executives, employees, self-employed people – we all see ourselves forced to organise ourselves from home. Apart from questions of how to handle childcare while working from home, there is often a lack of a […]
Work-related stress and exhaustion symptoms increase: from 2014 to 2018, the number of cases of incapacity to work due to burnout rose by more than 10% (Statista, 2019). Many employees would like to see a slowdown in the world of work. But what has led to the increase in burnout? […]
Understanding and regulating stress is becoming more and more important in our times, because chronic stress has a lasting damaging effect on the immune system and on the general mental and physical condition. Our physical reaction to stress is an instinctive and cognitively little influenceable physical state. However, it is possible to identify personal stressors […]
In management circles the phenomenon is well known – the more powerful and empowered one is, the more often decisions have to be made and responsibility for them has to be taken. No matter how many meetings, phone calls or e-mails a topic has been discussed, nobody can take the responsibility for the decision away […]
Understanding and regulating stress is becoming increasingly important in our times, because chronic stress has a lasting damaging effect on the immune system and on the general mental and physical condition. Our physical reaction to stress is an instinctive and cognitively little influenceable physical state. However, it is possible to identify personal stressors and reduce […]
You may also know the feeling that you envy a colleague when he or she has just been promoted, is allowed to lead a new project, or has received a higher salary. You imagine how proud and great the other person must feel. Almost automatically, you compare yourself with this colleague who has something to […]
The call that precedes us Germans: we are orderly, punctual and hard-working. Or in the words of the psychologist Gottfried Barth: “We Germans tend to be compulsive.” In times of the Corona crisis, these tendencies are perhaps even more evident, whether in the hoarding of toilet paper or noodle packs, or perhaps in some places […]
Ever since the New York psychoanalyst Herbert Freudenberger coined the term burnout to describe typical reactions of overwork of initially highly motivated employees, it has been used to describe particular exhaustion syndromes at work. In his first article, published in 1974, Freudenberger combined experiences from therapeutic practice with personal observations. […]
An online presence is more than digital marketing and much more than just a good ranking in a search engine. Well-used digitalisation and digital communication can save livelihoods and retain customers in the current crisis. […]
Opinions are divided on the subject of climate change. As the journalist N. Rich showed in his small volume “Loosing the Earth”, we have known about the devastating consequences of global warming since the 1980s. And since the summer of 2019 at the latest, the topic has also received a great deal of attention in […]
Five million Germans suffer from depression – before the Corona pandemic. The German Depression League (DDL) is now warning of an increase in mental health problems as a result of the crisis. Factors such as social isolation, the increase in unemployment and short-time work, bankruptcies and the associated existential fears are likely to be a […]
In a company, not only business plans but also people always come together. They bring along different attitudes, opinions, perspectives and standards. If we do not succeed in reflecting these in ourselves and others, misunderstandings and conflicts are often the result. […]
The corona crisis and the associated requirement for social distancing demands a high degree of flexible adaptation from entrepreneurs, their colleagues and from their employees – not only in terms of working conditions, but also in terms of professional interpersonal relationships. Wherever it is possible or necessary due to quarantine, the office will be moved […]
Most of us have never experienced such radical cuts in our lives. It is now about coping: we have to cope with our fears, but also with the serious consequences that the measures to contain the Covid-19 virus have on our everyday life and our freedom of movement. […]
Due to the corona crisis, many managers are currently confronted with multiple challenges and must now deal with these changed conditions on an economic, social and health level. In addition to rapid assessments, this requires decisions to be made at various levels, as well as the communication, implementation and possibly revision of instructions for action. […]
Stress is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system and, if stress becomes chronic, it is one of the most dangerous diseases in the western world. Self-exploitation plays an important role. […]
Companies are shaped, managed and structured by people. The principles described in our last article on the existence of an unconscious, can be found not only inside oneself or between individuals, but also as collective dynamics in teams. You will find some ideas on this topic in this article. […]
One cannot not communicate – Paul Watzlawick’s sentence has become common knowledge. It is more or less clear to all of us that we communicate constantly and often not just what we say. But how exactly does non-verbal and unconscious communication work? How can the unconscious level of communication be deciphered, understood and above all […]
Forewarned is forearmed, is an old expression, but in terms of our behaviour concerning our health, arming ourselves against potential risks to our health, does not seem so easy. We know that stress makes us ill, but this knowledge often does not lead to a healthy life-work balance. When clever and successful people choose an […]
If you really want to disqualify yourself as a boss: no problem, if you follow our tips consistently, you are guaranteed to lose the respect and motivation of your Team. […]
Among executives, it is said that the half-life period of a pay raise is three days. On the first day you are happy, on the second day you are used to it and on the third day you think about whether it could not have been more. Many psychological studies have shown that extrinsic motivation […]
Modern entrepreneurs know that the success of a company also depends strongly on the personality of the leader. In this article, we would like to introduce you to a few personality and leadership styles, their strengths and blind spots. Who knows, maybe you will recognize yourself in our descriptions? […]
Some rarely meet her, some know her as a constant companion: the experience of procrastination can be anything from irritating to tormenting. According to a recent study, only two percent of Germans never experience phases of postponement and avoidance. But what exactly is hidden behind the widespread phenomenon of procrastination? And how can it be […]
Also known as proactivity or initiative: the ability to work autonomously is desirable, if not required, in most jobs. Nevertheless, many managers are indecisive – when do I let my employees decide, plan and think, and when do I interfere? Having control over processes is often necessary and usually tempting…but it can also lead to […]
It is well known that the customer’s language is learnt in a joint conversation. The focus is on the aspect of acquiring a kind of knowledge that is not oriented to one’s own needs and wishes. How can the connection between language and knowledge be put to practical use in trade, but also in consulting? […]
A tragic accident surprisingly ripped the manager of a medium-sized electrical engineering company out of life at the age of 58. The patriarch had always wanted to do everything himself and would probably have led his compony into old age. Now he left behind a wife, three children and a company with about 400 employees. […]
Many clients have asked us about the differences between coaching and psychotherapy. The most important differences are summarized here in a table. […]
The 40-year-old pharmaceutical sales manager had run out of ideas. His company was running reasonably stable. He was able to make a good living from the earnings, but was still burdened by the repayment of a loan he had taken out a few years ago to set up the company. Professionally, he lacked the entrepreneurial […]
Good intentions only become reality with difficulty and change processes of all kind in companies often turn out to be difficult. Why is that? The author and coach at the Mind Institute would like to approach this question from a psychodynamic point of view. […]
Due to rapid changes in the market, companies and their members are constantly being urged to adapt to new requirements. Although such changes are often unavoidable in order to secure the competitiveness of the company, they are often met with great resistance from employees. In an otherwise smooth operational process, change is usually perceived as […]
In today’s rational world, work in the workplace is characterised by structured thinking. We have learned to analyse, set goals and work towards them according to priorities. Nevertheless, markets and business partners often behave differently than expected. We then perceive such behaviour as arbitrary and incomprehensible. The tasks set seem to overtax us. The behaviour […]
The demand for a successful error culture can be heard in most companies and yet dealing with errors and ignorance still seems to be a challenge for most of us. Why? What prevents professionally trained and intelligent colleagues from openly speaking up in meetings when they do not understand what colleagues have to say? […]
It was obvious to the logistics contractor that he was at the end of his rope. His private parcel delivery company with over 600 employees had lived well a few years ago. The services had unique selling points. In the context of increasing competition, he had now had to accept pressure on prices, so that […]
Practical example: When the managing director of a facility management company visited a psychological consultant at the Mind Institute for coaching, his company’s sick leave had risen to over 15%. The statistics of the company health insurance fund also provided evidence that mental illnesses in particular had increased by 25% in one year alone and […]
Agility, flexibility and willingness to change characterize a good manager in postmodern companies. But how do sustainable changes succeed? […]
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