Ivar Raav

My policy has been that if the client doesn’t share, I don’t share the names of the clients I work with. There are a few specific situations where I need to list ‘work done’ for procurement purposes, but mostly I leave out the organisations where I train, run a development programme, where I am a management consultant. Especially in public channels such as social media, your website, etc.

In my trainings, leaders are often surprised to learn that praise is not a good technique for leadership or for any kind of relationship with adults or children. After all, we are used to a lifetime of praise and seeking external recognition. How else? I was reminded of this theme again at the Song and Dance Festival at the weekend, where I heard such lines repeatedly: “You were such a good boy!”, “Good girls!”, “Good!”.

Last week, I spoke at a conference at the Estonian Training and Conference Centre for management assistants about motivation and inspiration. It was a lovely half hour with nice people!

I don’t think people can be motivated. But you can inspire people if you do what you do with passion and inspiration. Through it, we can unintentionally draw other people in as we shine and enjoy our own lives in our work and activities.

About a year ago, I met Sirje Kautsaari, the then director of Rapla Gymnasium, by chance during lunch on a conference day. We ended up at the same table. Our conversation turned into a passionate debate on education and leadership. Sirje’s idea that why not come and talk to young people about leadership, so that they would know how to make more accurate choices about their careers and leaders in their lives, sounded nice, but unrealistic.