Annemarie Steen

Playful Leadership for thriving in uncertainty

Playful leadership is a leadership style that incorporates elements of curiosity, exploration, creativity, and a positive approach into the way leaders interact with their teams and manage their organizations. It involves using techniques and strategies inspired by the principles of play to foster a positive work environment, encourage innovation, enhance collaboration, and boost employee engagement.

It’s important to note that playful leadership doesn’t mean being unserious or lacking in discipline. Instead, it’s about incorporating elements of play and creativity into the leadership style in a way that benefits both the team and the organization as a whole.

Playful Leadership principles to foster a culture of innovation and to thrive in uncertainty, according to Annemarie;
Presence,
Listening deeply,
Adaptability, saying
YES to exploring options and embrace failure as How Fascinating! moments
Focus positive (and reframe your limiting beliefs)
Uplift and manage energy and
Learn continuously from a growth mindset

Annemarie has been awarded “Best visiting lecturer” at the Estonian Business School for her course on Creative and Playful Leadership for MBA Master students, that she has been teaching for 8 years.

Making meaningful connections

Making new connections and enhancing existing ones is why we attend events. However, for a lot of people making new connections can be challenging for several reasons. Social anxiety, fear of judgement or rejection, lack of confidence, introversion, technology distraction, culture differences, limited time or crowd dynamics.

Annemarie lowers the barriers and with her interactive talk she invites her audience into deeply connecting experiences in a playful way. By being authentic and present, by listening deeply, by finding (unusual) common grounds and share slightly out of comfortzone co-creative experiences.

Long after the event is over people will remember the experience and have made lasting connections.

A smile is the shortest distance between two people (Victor Borge)
In an hour of play, you learn more about a person than in a year of conversation (Plato).

Play-Break for well-being, creativity and productivity

While facing uncertainty herself during Covid Lockdown, Annemarie applied her own teachings by asking herself a powerful Creative Question that enabled her to take action on a few ideas. She not only challenged her own limiting beliefs but her ideas turned into a new business: Play-Break.
The concept of playbreaks is rooted in the understanding that regular short breaks (micro-moments of recovery) from work can actually enhance creativity, productivity and well-being. It’s a way to prevent burnout, maintain focus, and promote a balanced and healthy work routine. Integrating playbreaks into the workday acknowledges the importance of self-care and the benefits of incorporating moments of joy and playfulness into daily life.

Annemarie’s keynote about Play-Break will not only be inspiring and informative, she is actively inviting her audience to experience different Play-Breaks to discover their own playtype. This will bring a lot of positive energy to the room and actionable ideas on how to integrate the concept of playbreaks in daily routine.