A changed world...

It has been a while since my last post and my god how the world has changed.

I wrote to my friends a while back that it is sometimes hard to stand for what you believe in, especially in a business that revolved about profits and money. By now the world has realized that somehow this is not a sustainable way of doing business and ethics is back on the agenda.

As most of you know I work for a Dutch bank myself and an interesting book was published recently which has made bestseller list around the country. It is called "de prooi" (the prey in english) and is about how ABN Amro became what it is now. The journalist has managed to talk to all important persons involved and it is an interesting expose on the management team, advisory staff, consultants an investment bankers involved. It reads like a novel which makes it even more spectacular. How can an entire management team be so disfunctional???

Insights from books like this one, the credit crunch crisis, discussions about ethics and leaership have given me new energy. I feel the path ahead becoming clearer, although i cannot define it yet.

As for my personal life, I am experiencing a turbulent year. I enjoyed other people's life altering happiness very much. Kreta, who is getting married soon, Veronica and Joost, who has this amazing wedding in Peru, my friend Britt who is such a good mom to Sara (3 months old now), Jaklien who is getting married to the man of her dreams. In the end I turn out to be quite the romantic.

My belief that people enter your life for a reason has gotten stronger. So did the belief that if they want to leave, you have to let them. I try to keep my balance and reach harmony but 2008 has been nothing but turmoil. I still feel strong though, you live, you learn and did I learn some lessons this year.It all seems to come together though. I have never been more determined that this is the way it needs to go.

My energy levels got renewed during my trips to Corfu, Peru and Florida. My next trip will be London or India. I hope life is well.

My summer calendar

Summertime!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I am very excited about the next weeks. Very cool things coming up.

Next saturday: like every summer I am attending a festival, this time I am going to Dancevalley (exciting Line-up: Carl Cox, Tiesto, Gregor Salto, David & Toni Moreno and many many others) VERY excited!!!!!

In two weeks: I am going to visit Juliana in Corfu (Greece), very happy to get to spend time with her and enjoy the beaches of a Greek island. Hope that I can avoid the many Dutch though :-)

Most likely I will also go to Solar weekend festival, but am not sure yet.

Summer is good!!!

"intervision" at work

The bank that I work for, formerly known as THE Dutch bank, but nowadays a bit belgian, russian, chinese and many other things, believes in personal development. So much so that we get non-stop attention from all kind of trainers, mentors, psychologists etc. Today was again a day where we learnt how to focus on a problem and then really disect that problem and in the end learn from it.

It is interesting to see how much boday language really matters. As soon as questions became rough, the person in question made some kind of gesture to emphasize his thoughts. It also shows the power of psychology, how much is going on beneath the surface.

Learning to be a good coach/mentor/manager is difficult.
Self- leadership can be difficult.
Giving and receiving feedback is not easy.
I found it to be a long process that takes uo a lot of energy, but in the end it is rewarding.

Thoughts??

AIESEC 60 years, a book and an alumni event

Yesterday it was time for a national alumni event to celebrate AIESEC's 60th birthday. Held in a beautiful location at Amsterdam's Keizersgracht, some 500 people gathered not only for this birthday but also for a book. Eske, former member of AIESEC Amsterdam got it into his head that we wanted to write a book on leadership and youth. He pitched the idea to a publisher and it worked. Yesterday we all got a copy of this book.

I was reading trough it this morning and again so impressed. Some of my friends are in this book,Atma Mumbai is in this book, AIESEC is in this book and big names like Ruud Lubbers, Tex Gunning and Ben Verwaayen are in this book. Many elements of my life of the past 5 years come together in this book. Very proud of Eske for taking this initiative.

At moments like these I remember how special and amazing my time in AIESEC was and the people I met were. It is hard to think about these lessons in everyday life but at least I learnt them. The way I feel about leadership and good ways of doing business make me stand out. I already expressed earlier my struggles to combine a career in a world where everything revolves about money and my own beliefs and motivation. Nights like these at least make me wonder.

It was also great to talk to some long lost friends. Joost, who flew over from London especially for this. I had no idea who to talk to first since I knew almost everyone in the room.

It was a very good night.

For Dutch readers:
"Jij maakt het verschil- inspiratie en leiderschap voor the next generation, Eske Scavenius en Patrice van Riemsijk"

One of my favourite authors:Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent and columnist for The Independent is a personal favourite of mine. He raises issues concerning the Middle East with a clear voice, razorsharp arguments and a sense of dignity.
I borrowed some of his work here to illustrate his style.

On Lebanon and Bush:

I am not sure what was the worse part of this week. Living in Lebanon? Or reading the outrageous words of George Bush? Several times, I have asked myself this question: have words lost their meaning?

(....)

and I opened my newspaper and what did I read?
That George Bush declared in Jerusalem that "al-Qa'ida, Hizbollah and Hamas will be defeated, as Muslims across the region recognise the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice of their cause".

Where does the madness end? Where do words lose their meaning? Al-Qa'ida is not being defeated. Hizbollah has just won a domestic war in Lebanon, as total as Hamas's war in Gaza. Afghanistan and Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza are hell disasters – I need no apology to quote Churchill's description of 1948 Palestine yet again – and this foolish, stupid, vicious man is lying to the world yet again.

He holds a "closed door" meeting with Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara – a man stupendously unfit to run any Middle East "peace", which is presumably why the meeting had to be "closed door" – but tells the world of the blessings of Israeli democracy. As if the Palestinians benefit from a democracy which is continuing to take from them the land which they have owned for generations.

Do we really have to accept this? Bush tells us that "we consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights resolutions against the freest democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the world".

The truth is that it is a source of shame that the United States continues to give unfettered permission to Israel to steal Palestinian land – which is why it should be a source of shame (to Washington) that the UN passes human rights resolutions against America's only real ally in the region.

And what is Washington doing in the country where I live? It has sent one of its top generals to see the Lebanese army commander, signalling – a growing Fisk suspicion, this – that it has abandoned its support for the Lebanese government. The Americans promise more equipment for the Lebanese army.

Yes, always more equipment, more guns, more bullets to the Middle Eastern armies though – I have to say yet again (and I repeat that I do not like armies) – the Lebanese army saved us all this week. Its commander-in-chief, General Michel Sleiman, will become the next president and the Americans will support him and feel safe, as they always do, with a general in charge. "Chehabism", as the Lebanese would say, has returned.

For more information:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/

Women, careers and the glass ceiling

Last week I attended a networking event about women and top management organized by Booz & co (former Booz Allen & Hamilton). Guest speaker was Mirjam de Blecourt, partner at Baker & Mckenzie, the international law firm. She was quite an inspiring woman, very tall (around 1.80m, blond, on killer heels wearing a little black dress). It was however not only her outfit that left an impression.

Talking about quota she stated that "men don't care that their neighbour got them a job or put a good word in for them, why should we". In the Netherlands there is a discussion on quota for boardroom positions. Some think that instating a law that says 40% of the management board should be female, will benefit diversity. Opponents argue that this will only lead to the creation of "empty" positions and not contribute to the issue at hand.

Back to Mirjam de Blecourt, her main message was that more women need to be in top positions for other women to reach them. Looking at ABN Amro's reality or Fortis' reality, the future is not promising. Not only is the banking industry one of the old boys networks home base but the entire executive committee of Fortis consists of men. In the board however there is 1 (!!!)women.

I work for global markets, which is also largely male territory. I fould that almost all of the cliches are true. Sexual remarks are made on a daily basis, people do take you less seriously and it is hard to find your place amongst your colleagues.

Since the Booz & co meeting I am more convinced that I should contribute in some way to this issue. This post on my blog is my first attempt. For sure, I think this is a debate that should be kept alive.

tu peux mieux avoir des remords que des regrets....