Katja Loose, an experienced business trainer, will open Summer School’s 2015 study program. Her master-class “Decision Making under Pressure” promises to be a very substantive and useful beginning. In this interview Katja sheds some light on her workshop and calls on participants to get ready for a session characterized by openness and honesty.
Mrs. Loose, you will have the honor of opening the Summer School session with your master-class “Decision Making under Pressure”. How do you plan to shake the audience up? Do you have something special prepared?
Pressure is a very personal and subjectively biased feeling. In certain circumstances, one person feels pressure while someone else might feel encouraged. The question is: How does pressure weigh upon a decision, or let me put it in another way: What should I know about myself to keep pressure in balance? In my experience it is most important to develop a good level of self-knowledge to handle pressure. At that point I will take the audience onto a journey that will make them reflect upon key questions that should be answered to bring self-knowledge to an optimal level.
What will your master-class mostly be based on?
Since the audience will consist of young and ambitious people, we will focus on individual self-perception and self-reflection as they relate to career concerns and the individual’s career-vision. For example participants will go even more consciously into the rest of the program if they stop to think, first, about their individual worth.
What will be the format of the master-class?
It will be a mix: presentation about career issues, and tools to be reflected upon and discussed with a partner. Furthermore there will be a small creative part (however nobody needs to be a creative talentJ).
How you did you get involved in these issues?
For more than ten years I worked as an HR Manager in leading companies. Apart from many lessons learned I arrived at two important findings: Most people can`t describe what they are up to in their jobs since they cannot put what they do into words. The other point is, that especially in Germany we love to focus on our weaknesses and on the weaknesses of our employees. But: We should rather focus on the talents of ourselves and our associates, and the strengths. To assess our potential we all should know our talents and take those as far as we can instead of trying to reduce our weaknesses. This is a waste of time and energy and irresponsible regarding both human and economic factors. Consequently, I started to focus my research even more on talent, career, attitude and human potential and brought these factors together with my years of working experience.
What are some difficult decisions you have had to make?
An important decision was (and sometimes still is) to find the right balance between family & friends and work. I tried different models regarding time and family-roles and at times felt very insecure. When I think back to the special peaks of that time, I wish that I had known somebody who could help me to find my personal career path and model and who could offer clues regarding all issues related to this perception. I made a lot of decisions under heavy pressure.
What should Summer School participants be prepared for before attending your master-class?
Just bring an open mind, a positive attitude, a willingness to get into an honest discussion with others, and yourself.
Support us!
All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.
Share this post
Interested in co-operating with us?
We are open to co-operation from writers and businesses alike. You can reach us on our email at [email protected]/[email protected] and we will get back to you as quick as we can.
