Leadership at its best.

Yesterday the time had come: the ILD Leadership Awards were presented for the 4th time at the Berlin Capital Club.

14 impressive leaders were nominated and were praised with great heart and conviction by their mentors. Emotional moments with lots of applause and respect. One of the participants said: “The whole room is filled with joy and appreciation like I have never experienced before, thank you ILD”. Everyone was a winner. The excitement was palpable and increased again when the winners were announced. Until that moment, the top-class jury did not know what the result of their secret, documented and independently verified election had been.

The following were awarded in the respective award categories, divided into medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and large companies (GUs):

• Future Leader GU: Maximilian Hille, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG)
• Impact Leader SME: Fabian Bannasch, EvoLogics GmbH
• Impact Leader GU: Patrick Gnauck, Berlin Transport GmbH
• Inspiring Leader SME: Eike Oertwig, Auto-Zellmann GmbH
• Inspiring Leader GU: Dr. Michael Pfeil, Merz Therapeutics

In addition, the following honorary prizes were awarded:

• Leadership Dynamics Special Award for social commitment & life’s work: Carmen Urrutia, Pankower Früchtchen
• Leadership Dynamics Special Award for social and personnel policy commitment & life’s work: Dr. Thomas Marquardt, ex-CHRO Infineon

Congratulations to all award winners and nominees. Thanks to the mentors for their suggested candidates. Thanks especially to the volunteer jury. Thanks to the Capital Club team for the excellent culinary delights and the excellent support again.

Please join us in congratulating our winners.

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Leadership Dynamics: For us, leadership effectiveness means “dynamic leadership”.

What does that mean? Is this another attempt to explain the complex topic of leadership using any models? Are leadership models with their reductions in complexity suitable for better leadership in practice? The question seems legitimate.
Our experience: In practice, leadership is highly individual. The influencing factors in the topic of leadership are too diverse for generic models: leadership personality, leadership culture, lack of understanding of leadership, diversity of the people you lead.

For us, leadership is an individual personality, competence and experience construct, based on the respective personality, motives, view of humanity, attitude, emotions and behavior of the leader.

There are also core issues of dynamics and impact. Whenever we were able to experience dynamic leadership in practice, it had a positive effect. Whenever a lack of courage, inconsistent actions, insistence on the status quo, political action and cultivated egoism counteract the dynamism and effectiveness in leadership, this usually has negative consequences.

The result for us was not to “try” to model or theory, but rather to describe from practice to practice what we mean by “effective leadership”: Leadership Dynamics. The word “dynamics” expresses constant movement and development.

1. A movement towards people, a passion for and empathy in dealing with people and thus a conscious design of the relationship
2. Get people moving with visions, the communication of purpose, meaning, benefits and emotional and illustrated stories.
3. A constant flexibility in leadership behavior that is adaptive and situational at the same time, which includes balanced demands, support, enablement and consistent action.
4. A movement in one’s own development, curiosity and the proactive striving to constantly reflect on oneself in order to improve and lead more effectively.

In “Effective Leadership” this means that I should know what impact I want to achieve, when and how: my impact intention. The next question is logical: In what context do I act?
But it is also important to have empathy to understand the people I want to have an impact on.
And finally the check: What effect did I actually achieve and how (effective result)? This results in the importance of self-reflection through honest, open and constructive feedback on how well and effectively I am really leading.

In this way, dynamics and impact strengthen our authenticity, our sovereignty in assuming the leadership role and in dealing with different leadership situations.

Leadership effectiveness

In the current business environment, effective leadership is critical to success. According to recent studies, leaders are faced with the challenge of navigating an increasingly uncertain and complex world.

The 2023 Harvard Business Publishing study highlights that today’s leaders must demonstrate a strong leadership character profile that includes traits such as courage, integrity and empathy to build trust, promote collaboration and lead people through uncertainty [Global Leadership Development Study – Harvard business publishing]

The ability to use and adapt digital technologies is also becoming increasingly important. According to McKinsey, leaders must be tech-savvy and have the ability to leverage digital developments to meet the needs of their business [Insights for future-ready leaders | McKinsey & Company].

In addition, DDI research shows that empathy is a key skill for preventing employee burnout and supporting team well-being. Another trend in leadership effectiveness is the need to effectively lead virtual and hybrid teams [Learn the key leadership trends for 2023. | DDI].

In summary, what we can say from the studies – and from our experience from consulting and coaching mandates – is that leadership effectiveness today requires a combination of strength of character, technical sophistication and a deep empathetic connection to teams. Leaders must be willing to continually evolve and adapt to succeed in today’s dynamic business world.

We would be happy to support you in this development process with our expertise at the Institute for Leadership Dynamics GmbH.