Volkmar Völzke's BLOG

This is the last article I will write for you. I give up. Even after creating and distributing countless blog posts, I see mediocrity and low standards everywhere. I still see people acting as if some other authority led them to their destiny. I see CEOs who are indecisive and hiding. I see ambiguity and fuzziness.

So, I give up!

But wait, today is April 1 - Fools Day!

Therefore, no, I'm not giving up, I'm continuing my journey towards excellence and top performance even further. Why? Because that's my mission. And because it is often rewarding and fun!

Will you support me on this journey? Then define ONE item today that you could move a little towards excellence TODAY.

Yes, today! What of your own behaviors can you change or where can you influence another person to make a step forward and move something from mediocre to outstanding?

Don't overthink it. Pick ONE thing and get started. Here are some ideas that can help you light the fire:

1. Service. Your life consists of small...

From one of the best leadership and success gurus, Brian Tracy, comes this simple thought model to 10x your success: if you just improve yourself by one-tenth of a percent (which is one thousandth), you will be 10x as good in a few years. The underlying reason is the power of the compound effect.

You can be 10x more productive, 10x happier, and 10x wealthier.

Whatever you focus on improving, you can generate this dramatic positive change by just an incremental change each day.

And here comes the point: couldn’t you improve much more each day? Let’s say one percent? The effects will be even more breathtaking.

Now you may ask, if this is so easy, why are more people and businesses not living this philosophy? The answer: because it is easy to understand, but amazingly difficult to execute. Why? Because we need to change habits. Each day. Little by little.

However, to give you hope, here are three powerful ideas you can apply to yourself and your team to 10x your...

A common challenge for my leadership coaching clients is weak communication. Even among experienced leaders, I notice a high barrier when it comes to producing short videos and writing articles. Both are extremely relevant to effective communication.

I will take up the video topic another time. Today, let's take care of writing articles in less than 30 minutes, from a "blank slate".

It starts in your own head: for many executives, article writing is an unpleasant and energy-sapping task. The root cause is usually a lack of process and, related to that, the idea that writing an article takes hours or even days.

Building on my experience of writing now about 1000 blog and magazine articles, I have developed a process that allows writing a roughly one-page article (about 300-400 words) in under 30 min, starting from scratch.

Here is the 10 step process to article writing:

1. Pick a rough topic (e.g., "How can everyone make faster decisions?").
2. Determine the target audience: who exactly...

As a leader, you have the choice between two fundamentally different approaches to achieving your goals:

First, you can inspire your co-workers to be hungry for your ultimate goals, your vision, your route to success, so that they will be keen to get there with you.

Or second, you can implement a bunch of policies, rules, and processes to keep your co-workers on the route that you have determined to be best.

Here’s the thing: There is not much space between these two alternatives. 

Having a great vision, but restrictive policies, makes people cynical. Having neither bold goals nor any policies and rules leads to chaos.

Most organizations opt—often unconsciously—for more policies and less vision.

Managers feel safer implementing the next Six Sigma framework or another set of rules than taking the risk of setting clear goals and leaving it to their people to find the best route. The former requires solid management; the latter, real leadership.

Too many policies...

Every person and every team that wants to achieve more than in the past can't avoid it: they have to work on productivity.

Because if you produce the same quantity and quality of results as before, you will hardly be able to increase your success. This sounds totally obvious, but is often completely neglected. 

For some, it is also almost indecent to talk too heavily about productivity: "Aren't we already maximally productive?" is often the unspoken question. Or: "We first have to improve the process chain or this or that. Otherwise, I can't do anything about it!"

All excuses! Because productivity starts in your own mind. Always! We all have enormous productivity potential. And it's usually not so much in how we work, but rather in what we work on. At the end of the day, 90% of productivity is hidden in our focus on what's really important.

Here are three helpful questions (that hardly anyone asks) you can use to catapult yourself and your team to significantly higher...

The first hundred days are a sort of magical period: after a hundred days, a new president should have put a stick in the ground and made some important decisions. After the first hundred days in a new job, you should be clear about what you want to achieve, know the main stakeholders, and already made something different than your predecessor. 

Consequently, during these first hundred days, we feel energised, motivated, empowered. We feel as if we can make a real difference. Because we can. 

The sad truth is that the energy and inspiration often decline after this period.You probably know this effect from any major project: after some hype, the engagement decreases and routine settles in, sometimes even frustration. Obstacles that we surmounted with ease in the beginning seem to be insurmountable some weeks later. 

How do you keep the fire burning? Start your first 100 days today!

No matter where you currently are, even if you have worked 20 years in the same job, I...

When I talk to CEOs and division heads (for example, in my coaching sessions), I sometimes have the impression that the budgeting process eats up too much of their time and energy, typically in the fall. As a former large company divisional controller, I can tell you a thing or two about it (and I see the same tendency in medium-sized companies, too).

The problem is that budgeting is 100% unproductive when measured against the company's purpose (mission) and vision (because hardly any company will make "outstanding budgeting" part of its mission or vision).

In other words, managers - and usually many other people involved - are working on something that is a "waste" in the traditional sense. In addition, the budgeting process often replaces strategy discussion. Not only do we then not have a strong business strategy, but also high opportunity costs.

Why does something like this happen? In my experience, there are three main reasons. In the following, I also share what you can do...

You and your team are probably back from summer vacation, and you are getting up to full speed again, right? Just to remind you: September has started, and you have less than 4 months until the end of the year. You want to reach your goals (or have exceeded your previous year results), right? 

The problem is that many people, teams, and whole companies need far too long to get back on track.

And before they notice it, September and the third quarter are almost over. The same applies to the reaction after setbacks: speed counts! 

This is not an exaggeration: the problem of many people and teams is that they have far too long “switching times” between different states. The most successful people and organizations are extremely fast when pursuing new goals and responding to changes. 

Here are three techniques of “over-achievers” that you can apply today: 

1. Invite your team (or even the entire company, physically or via video streaming) and...

I’m sure you know the answer to the old question “How do you eat an elephant?”. Here it is: “One bite at a time!” 

As simple as this sounds, very few people – and in particular business leaders – get the reverse meaning in this answer:

By taking small steps in the right direction, you will ultimately achieve big results – no matter your goals. 

Let me give you some examples: If you learn a new sales technique every day, you will ultimately become better at sales. If you do a workout once week, you will become healthier. 

This sounds easy, right? Why, then, are so few people applying this method of small step improvements? The reason is three common traps: 

1. Slow progress initially. Yes, it’s true, after the first few steps, you will hardly see any progress. It’s tough for everybody to stay on course without clear, positive feedback in terms of results.
2. Out of the comfort zone. Many activities for...

I while ago, I performed a seminar for the association Executives International in Switzerland. The topic: “How to double your results – in half of the time!” The feedback was outstanding.

Since many people find this topic one of the most important of all (who has too much time?), I’d like to give you three ideas you can apply today to get more done in less time:

1. Clarify your key result areas. At which subject areas do you create the most value? You can answer this question for your private and your professional life. Then, schedule your tasks in a way that you spend 80 percent of your time on these activities. This requires some habit changes.
2. Reduce time thieves. These are people, meetings, and events which do not or only contribute a little to the achievement of your goals in the key result areas. As a rule of thumb, most executives can reduce their time in meetings by half. You should at least spend 50 percent of your time under own control.
3. Work in...