10 People who have Uplifted and Inspired me in 2020

I guess most people can agree on the notion that 2020 will go down in history as one of the, well, shittier years of this century. All the more it′s worthwhile to go over one′s year from a very personal perspective to identify those events, and more importantly: people, who have made the last twelve months rewarding and meaningful – in spite of Covid-19 and all the other proceedings, from peculiar to outright dreadful. Accordingly, here′s a list of individuals (sometimes: groups) who′ve contributed to making this a good year for me, and oftentimes many others.

1) Alex Edmans

Alex is a Professor of Finance and the Academic Director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at London Business School. In 2020, after years of publishing insightful research papers and giving exciting TEDx talks, Alex has finally published his first book, Grow the Pie. To me, it′s one of the most thoughtful and convincing pieces of writing about the idea that doing good (ethically) and doing well (financially) does not constitute a predicament for organizations – when managed the right way.

2) Amy Wrzesniewski

Amy is the Michael H. Jordan Professor of Management at the Yale School of Management. She′s one of the world′s foremost experts on meaningful work, having originated and/or substantiated important concepts in organizational psychology, such as job crafting and orientations towards one′s work (jobs, careers, callings). When taking an honest look at my own work with organizations here in Germany and elsewhere as a speaker and consultant, it is her ideas and frameworks that I cite and talk about most frequently.

3) Antonia Goetsch

Antonia is the new editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Manager, the German edition of the Harvard Business Review. While I′ve been a fan of the contents for years, the look-and-feel has always seemed somewhat aged from my point of view. Antonia and her team have superbly managed to revamp the magazine.

4) Bernd Slaghuis

Bernd is one of Germany′s premier business coaches and, in this capacity, also is the co-author of my most recent book. Working with him has been a stable source of serenity over the course of this volatile year.

5) Frank Martela

Frank is a researcher from Finland who′s work revolves around the intersection of philosophy and positive psychology. His book A Wonderful Life has been my most uplifting reading experience of the year.

6) German Chapter of International Coach Federation (ICF)

Ok, so technically, this is a whole bunch of people, but they deserve more than an honorable mention on this list. Apart from teaching at my business school, I′ve given some 30 external talks and workshops over the course of the year, most of them in a virtual environment, naturally. I′ve had the honor of being a panelist and giving the closing keynote at ICF Germany′s coaching convention 2020 – and it probably has been the most well-organized and energetic virtual conference I′ve participated in this year.

7) Kamala Harris

"I′m speaking!" – ′nuff said.

8) Laura Schuepphaus

I′m picking Laura in place of the many awesome students I got to teach this year. Over the course of the Fall semester, ISM has tried (and successfully managed) to maintain an on-site teaching regime for the larger part of the student body. But of course, this means at times, we′ve had to integrate students who could not be on site due to the fact that they were self-quarantining. I vividly remember a full day of teaching organizational psychology in class, Laura being with us while quarantining at home, via her laptop camera. Also, her bachelor thesis on the perceived quality of leadership during internships was crafted so well that we able to publish some key results in of Germany′s premier journals on business psychology. 

9) Lisa Sansom

Lisa is an alumna of Penn′s Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program (she took part a couple of years before I joined the program in 2013/14). Ever since, she′s been a avid builder of (and key contributor to) the program′s alumni network. Lisa is an epitome of a "most valuable human being", someone who constantly and selflessly works to shine a light on other′s peoples′ work.

10) Thomas Jensen & Holger Huebner + Team

Thomas and Holger are the co-founders of the world-famous Wacken Open Air (W:O:A), the premier heavy metal festival on this planet. Just like anyone who′s working in the music and event business, their organization has seen a very rough year. Even before the onset of the corona crisis, early in 2020, they had to cancel Wacken Winter Nights, a smaller, medieval-themed version of the W:O:A, due to the notoriously stormy weather in Northern Germany. When it became clear the main festival in early August couldn’t take place either, this dealt a heavy blow to the global headbanger′s community. I′m not going to lie to you: I′ve cried now and the when listening to some of the bands I got to see in earlier years.

But, unlike most other event organizers, Thomas, Holger, and their team have not resorted to grieving (at least not for long). Instead, in a matter of only a few weeks, they managed to come up with Wacken World Wide, a free three-day virtual version of the event: a mixture of streams from previous years, exclusive live concerts that were streamed from a mixed reality stage created especially for this event, and interviews with artists, among other treats. While it certainly wasn′t "the real thing", this was as good as it can get in a year like this. Thank you, guys!

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Nico is a professor of organizational psychology at International School of Management, Dortmund/Germany. From 2010-18, he worked for Bertelsmann, Europe′s premier media group, most recently serving as VP Employer Branding & Talent Acquisition.