overworked and under-familied to advance "overworked & under-familied"

It seems ironic that I was just working long hours away from my family to finish up a paper titled, “Overworked and under-familied?”

But other than the computer system failure in Dusseldorf airport on my way over, my recent 25-hour visit with my coauthor, Professor Susanne Braun, at Durham University Business School was a very efficient, productive, and fun time! Durham has several renowned leadership scholars such as Bob Lord and Olga Epitropaki, as well as several super OCB and proactivity folks–just what our paper needed. The town itself is also an idyllic English vision–complete with a castle, cathedral, and several pubs where you can accidentally stumble upon quiz night…

Now I’m looking forward to seeing some of these scholars again in Korfu for our upcoming Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium (where I met many of them last year), as well as finishing up and submitting this paper. Thanks again, Susanne and Durham Business School!

No funny business: Leadership soft skills for a digital, dispersed, and diverse age

I’m delighted to share that I just won a Lehrkredit teaching innovation grant to develop and lead a new course on soft skills for our future leaders at the University of Zurich.

Such a course is increasingly necessary in light of the rising rates of digital disruptions, computer-mediated-communication, and employee diversity, as soft skills like humor separate humans from robots and are critical for successfully interacting with people with diverse backgrounds and interests. This interdisciplinary course will blend science and practice with an all-star line-up of guest lecturers (e.g., Swiss comedian Fabian Unteregger).

Master's students will get the first chance to participate in this course in Fall 2019, after which it will be offered once more for master’s students (in Spring 2020) and again for PhD students (in Fall 2020).

Leadership Excellence & Gender Symposium with Thought-Leaders @Purdue

After a 3 day symposium filled with talks, discussions, break-out groups, and socials with an intimate group of 50 or so scholars and practitioners, I am reinvigorated with purpose, creativity (and criticism) of the persistent and pervasive gender inequality (as well as the research we conduct to improve the state of the science and practice).

A few thoughts and reflections:

• Thanks for the organization by the Purdue team and to my colleagues for their engaged participation! It takes a village. And resources. Bravo & danke!
• I am increasingly skeptical of the causal claims people make (or should make in order to inform practice and policy) in the areas of gender and diversity (Thanks, John, for recruiting me into your endogeneity army!). We need this sort of evidence to stir the pot and stimulate the snail's pace of progress towards gender parity!
• Since we as humans are so biased and inefficient in our decisions and in the management and selection of our talent, I also find it difficult to understand why nudges aren't being used to their full potential (e.g., see Dr. Iris Bohnet's (Harvard) "What Works: Gender Equality by Design."). 
• Isn't gender equality in unpaid labor just as important as gender equality and inclusion in paid labor? After all, paternity leave is just as important for women's careers as it is for men's involvement in their child(ren)'s lives and development. Let's not limit equality to half the population or one domain of life and lose sight of the bigger picture.
• Thanks to Professor Kevin Leicht, who reminded me of the ever-increasing social and economic inequality between classes. Let's not get wrapped up in making the privileged more privileged. After all, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." - Mahatma Ghandi

Game, Set, Match.

Discussing gender and leadership at the Organizational Behavior brownbag in Lausanne, Switzerland.