Volkmar Völzke's BLOG

Did you know what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart did shortly after the death of his first son? He composed a symphony – within only 3 days!

I had the pleasure of listening to this symphony last weekend and found it incredible how one could create such a masterpiece in such a short time.

Before you think, "Yes, Mozart was just a genius," take a closer look at what I just described: What exactly is so ingenious about it that you couldn't do it in your field?

You may not compose symphonies, but you have other things that only you can do so well (and if not, it is time you acquire the necessary expertise).

Most of the successes of such outstanding people as Mozart do not come from "genius" (whatever that may be) but from ways of thinking and behaving, as well as habits that anyone can acquire. Here are three of them:

1. Momentum. People like Mozart don't fool around long with analyses of how it can and can't be. Instead, they go ahead and produce. Take a look around at outstanding people: the
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Do you and your team always have your priorities fully under control and never externally controlled? Do you always achieve what you want? Then you don’t need to read on.

All others (approx. 99.9 percent of you) who are repeatedly absorbed by the urgent things before the important things and who spend too much time on reactive activities should definitely take a look at the following. It could change your life.

The brain is a fascinating organ. Simply put, you can program your subconscious mind with your consciousness through strong emotions and continuous repetition. This programming is important because the subconscious mind is responsible for over 99 percent of our daily decisions. This mechanism causes you to do increasingly more of what you have done in the past, and this realization is crucial for your success.

Here’s an example: if you are used to spending most of your time as a leader solving urgent problems and extinguishing allegorical fires, then you will get more of that...

“You know, our people are not born salespeople,” said a CEO in a conversation about increasing sales.

You’ve probably heard such carelessly dropped sentences in your own environment—or even said them yourself: “I’m not like that!” or “We’ve never been good at that.”

The problem is that you are not defining the situation but rather your expectations for the future. If you believe that your team cannot sell, then that will be the case regardless of the people’s actual abilities.

Here’s the big thing: your identity, your team’s identity, and your entire company’s identity have been created over time, and what’s been created can be recreated and changed. But you have to work on it consistently. 

Here are three important steps to change your identity:

1. Find insight. You have to give yourself and your team the insight that we all create our paradigms and beliefs. Nobody is just “that way”; rather, we are all as we have defined ourselves to be. Most of us deprive ourselves of possibilit
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"Actually, you should fly in with the helicopter", one of my customers once said, alluding to the fact that I have to lead an extraordinary life if I heed all my own wisdom.

Some of my readers and customers get the impression I have everything under control and always know the best answers. After all, I'm always writing about how to be much more successful with teams and companies.

Today I'll tell you a secret: I fight every day just like everyone else to become better and lead a more fulfilling life. And that's certainly not always easy. My mindset acquired as a child is not always helpful.

Perhaps this insight will help you if you sometimes ask yourself why it is so difficult to take even small steps forward at times, while at other times big leaps can be made quite quickly.

As a reminder, here are the three most important insights that will get you through difficult times and give you the energy to hold on (and that every highly successful person uses):

1. Learning. The most suc
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A few weeks ago, I went hiking again on the Grand Saint Bernard; one of the most beautiful alpine passes in Switzerland.

This time I changed an important parameter: I took the train and the bus instead of the car. Although I've been there several times by car, this time the experience was different. For instance, we drove through a pretty village that you usually miss. I also finished the hike at a different place than at the beginning. And so on.

My point is this: we see other things, act differently and produce different results if we simply change the routes and means.

In many companies, I see too many routines far too fixed. The same results are produced over and over again. Just average. Outstanding things rarely happen when everything happens the same way each time.

Here are three simple ideas to push your team or the whole company out of the habitual track:

1. Habits. I've suggested it more than once: do something different every day. Examples: Take another route or other me
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There is a rather uncomfortable truth that is hard for many to digest: You have the exact life that you want and the exact level of success and failure that you want. 

Your subconscious mind will constantly make decisions for you that will bring you closer to your goals. Also, several studies show that we make about 95% of our decisions unconsciously. So we don't even notice when we make them. 

Therefore, if you do not have the success in business and life you dream of, then the reason is that you are constantly giving your subconscious mind the wrong goals. 

Don't worry: you're not alone. The connection between subconscious goals and level of success is true for every person, every team and even entire companies. 

The consequence: to be more successful and achieve different things than before, you will have to intervene in this subconscious control process. Usually, this requires intensive work, preferably with an external expert (coach, sparring partner). 

Here are three simple ...

When I talk to CEOs and other leaders about how they can achieve more with their team, the conversation most often turns to the same topic: mindset.

"The mindset of our people is not geared towards winning." Or:
"The employees are too satisfied with the status quo. There is no pressure." And:
"How can I change the mindset of my people?"

Those are just a few of the typical statements I hear too often.

After studying dozens of companies and conducting countless research on the subject, I can tell you three certain facts, which are crucial if you want to change the mindset of your people toward a winning team culture:

1. The key barrier. You are in your own way! Most leaders who want to create a winning team culture have to work on themselves first. Don't worry, that's perfectly normal. We ourselves are always the key to the success of a team. And that always starts with our own mindset.
2. Lacking awareness. There is hardly any awareness about the topic of mindset. Most people will look
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Most great ideas are confronted with enormous resistance - most of which is well-founded. How do the most successful nevertheless win time and again and implement their ideas? In the video I give some ideas by means of a prominent example.

Sometimes, I honestly get the feeling from some of the companies that I have visited have been imposed with a "laughter ban". Not only that: somehow everything in the work environment, including the tasks look tedious and almost painful. 

I hear conversations like this:

The next project? "We'll never make it!"

The sales targets? "The markets won't allow that! And the customers are all restraining themselves anyway!”

To strategically advance the company? "I'd love to, but because of all the problems I don't have the time!”

Do these examples sound familiar to you?

"Energy flows where focus goes" is coaching master Tony Robbins’s old saying. In other words, he means: If you only ever discuss the problems, as negatively as possible (and in some companies, it almost seems to be a competition), you will get more and more of them.

My suggestion: loosening up! How? Here are three ideas:

1. More questions. Instead of seeing a problem in everything, ask strong questions. Instead of "the m
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I have often written about the importance of language for your success: The words and expressions you use repeatedly influence not only your own success but also your environment.

An example: If you constantly react with "yes but" to suggestions, you send your own brain in search of reasons not to look at the suggestion in the first place. And sure enough, you will find these reasons!

Besides these language patterns, there are also very simple words and incredibly widespread phrases and send a message that can hamper success:

1. "Employees". If you want to have a winning team culture, i.e. more commitment, fun, and productivity, then you don't need people who are "employed". Or have you ever heard of "employees" in top-class sporting teams? What you need are "team members" who devote everything, have fun, and achieve results.
2. “I have no time.” We all have the same amount of time. So why is it then that some people get done massively more than the average? The truth is you always “ha
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