Monkeys should be fed or shot!

“Monkey business” is a popular game in hierarchical organisations: the aim of the game is to delegate tasks from the bottom to the top wherever possible. Managers find themselves having to deal with the fact that tasks originally delegated to subordinates end up back on their desks. In isolated cases, this may be because they delegated incorrectly in the first place or asked too much of their subordinates. However, it is often simply part of the monkey business.

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Communication is considerably more complex than “simply saying what you mean.” What matters is how we say something and what we mean by it – and this differs from one person to the next. Given that language is a learned social behaviour, how we talk and listen is deeply influenced by cultural experience. However, we often feel that the way we communicate is “natural” and, as a consequence, we tend to evaluate and interpret what others say in our own language.

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What is one of the most powerful career levers? No, it is not specialist knowledge, nor a solid understanding of the business at hand, nor your qualification (and most certainly not your fourth, fifth or sixth qualification, dear ladies!), nor your diligence, nor your good looks.

In addition to successful self-marketing, the answer is creative and strategic networking. But what does “creative and strategic networking” actually mean? If the term brings to mind people who pull out and distribute their business cards at every opportunity, boring drinks parties, or 3000 Facebook friends, it is easy to understand that you don’t really want to engage with the topic.

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