What connects a small team building something new with a global organization employing thousands of people? Last week, I participated in a two-day SimuPro leadership simulation, exploring how business decisions, communication, and collaboration influence enterprise-wide performance. On Tuesday evening, I switched roles to co-host The Unspoken Truths About Change Management in 2026 with Cornelia Walter, exploring how organizational change affects the people experiencing it. H

Tokyo is one of the most structured environments I have ever experienced. From high above the city, I watched people moving like tiny dots between buildings. On the metro, thousands move together quietly. Streets are remarkably clean. Smoking is restricted to designated areas. There are rules, systems and social norms shaping how people move and behave. And then, right in the middle of all this order, you can walk into the forest surrounding Meiji Shrine and feel your pace ch

For the past two and a half years, I have been paying more attention to my physical health than at almost any other point in my life. Food. Movement. Sleep. Recovery. Not obsessively, but curiously. What works? What doesn't? What can I sustain? And lately, a different question started bothering me: What am I trying to be healthy for? What am I trying to be fit for? And more broadly: What are we performing for? Problem: Performance without Purpose For years, I thought physica

Since returning to Vienna, many conversations have started with questions about my summer. What was it like working remotely from Vietnam for six weeks? What did Japan teach me? Could I imagine living and working differently after all this? But sooner or later, someone turns the tables on me: “You spend your days partnering with people on their careers. So, tell me, Dilek, where do you think all this is going?” With AI changing everything, what should we prepare ourselves for

I have been writing almost every week for more than a year and a half. Then I stopped for three weeks. This was for a good reason, as many of you know. After six weeks of working from Vietnam and traveling through Japan, I came home to Vienna with lots of photographs and ideas, which I thought would be enough to start writing again effortlessly. They weren't. Opening my laptop and returning to something I had done every week required more effort than expected. For me, it was

For months, my family and I had been exploring a significant possibility for our future. We researched, visited places and compared alternatives until an idea started feeling like a plan. Then, circumstances changed. Something we had deliberately prepared for became uncertain. Disappointment came first. Then frustration and anger. Was the plan delayed, changing or disappearing? I simply didn't know. After writing about moving towards our goals in Da Nang and arriving somewher

I've always wondered whether the destination waiting for us might be very different from the one we imagined when we first began. Last week, I wrote that rhythm carries us from where we are to where we hope to be, one small step at a time. But what if reality turns out to be richer than we imagined? Ba Na Hills gave me my answer. Before we went, I had done my research. I knew we would visit the famous Golden Bridge, and I knew there was a French-inspired village on top of the

Last weekend, we spent four days exploring Da Nang, Hoi An, Ba Na Hills and Hue as a family. I left each place with a different observation about human performance! This article is the first of four reflections inspired by that journey. Like most family trips ours too began with some chaos, flight schedules, hotel check-ins, keeping two teenagers happy, deciding what to see first, adapting to a new city, and trying to make the most of four short days. By the end of our first

Mountains have never really been my happy place. Give me an endless coastline, the sound of waves, or the horizon, and I instantly feel at home. Until Sapa. Walking across a glass bridge above the clouds and standing on Vietnam's highest peak, I experienced something I had never quite felt before. My heart felt more open. My mind felt quieter. And suddenly, the problems I had been carrying no longer seemed as heavy. The problems hadn't changed. My reference frame had. Problem

Last weekend, my family and I spent two days exploring Ninh Binh, one of Vietnam's most breathtaking regions. We cycled through rice fields before the roads became busy. Climbed nearly 500 steps in the summer heat to Hang Múa. Floated through the peaceful waterways of Trang An. Explored ancient temples. Learned about Vietnam's history from our wonderful guide, Lana. Our internet package in Vietnam is limited. So, we checked our phones less. Instead, we talked more. Laughed mo

There is a question that has been following me during my first week in Hanoi. As a coach trying to understand what shapes the way we think, work, recover and perform, spending time in a different environment has given me a fresh perspective. I've been paying closer attention to time allocation, energy ROI, financial choices, and creating space to live, learn and reflect. Between coaching sessions, business meetings, a Vietnamese cooking class, discovering local supermarkets