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The Vocabulary of Expertise

Schuster, bleib bei deinem Leisten!
Shoemaker, stay with your last. The dictionary DWDS explains: do only what you understand something about.

Das Ei will klüger sein als die Henne.
The egg wants to be cleverer than the hen. It is said of a young person who wants to teach older and more experienced people.

Sind Sie vom Fach?
Are you from the field? The question asks whether someone is a trained specialist.

Er versteht sein Handwerk.
He understands his craft. It is praise for anyone who has mastered the work, not only for craftsmen.

der Quereinsteiger
The lateral entrant. Someone who enters a profession without its usual training.

Who Chooses the Operating Method

In 2024 the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, the journal of the German medical profession, published a legal article on who may instruct whom among hospital doctors. The chief physician may give detailed instructions to junior doctors in training. That right shrinks as they gain expertise. “The more qualified the subordinate doctors are, the smaller the room” for instructions. If a senior physician masters an operating method that meets the medical standard, the chief may not require her to use the method the chief prefers. The author, a lawyer, describes this as the legal position. It is an interpretation, not a statute.

The Coach and the Sporting Director

In January 2020 Hansi Flick, head coach of Bayern Munich, publicly called for new players. The club’s sporting director, Hasan Salihamidžić, answered: Ich bin einfach kein Freund von medialer Kaderplanung. I am simply not a fan of planning the squad through the media. Disagreements between the two continued through the 2020–21 season. The club’s board disapproved of Flick’s one-sided communication. On 17 April 2021 Flick announced that he wanted to leave his contract in the summer.

The Vocabulary of Territory

Das ist nicht meine Baustelle. — That is not my construction site. It is not my area.

über jemandes Kopf hinweg — over someone’s head, without asking or informing that person

hineinregieren — to govern into something, to interfere from outside in an unwanted way

federführend — holding the pen, having the lead responsibility, as in das federführende Ministerium

der Zuständigkeitsbereich — the area of responsibility

das Silodenken — silo thinking

der Bereichsegoismus — departmental selfishness

Accept Solutions Other Than Your Own

The Bundeswehr’s regulation A-2600/1 on Innere Führung says: Führung muss Handlungsspielräume, Mitwirkung und Mitverantwortung ermöglichen. Leadership must allow room for action, participation and shared responsibility. Superiors must therefore lead mainly by mission, Führen mit Auftrag. The next sentence reads: Dabei müssen sie gegebenenfalls andere als die eigenen Lösungsansätze akzeptieren. In doing so, they must where necessary accept solutions other than their own. The regulation adds that only a person who was informed in time and in full, and who understands the purpose of the task, is able and willing to act in the spirit of the mission.

It Is Wrong to Order Details

German fire brigades work under the service regulation FwDV 100 on leadership in operations. Its 1999 edition defines Auftragstaktik, mission tactics, as a concept of leadership that leaves the crews as much freedom as possible in carrying out the task. Entscheidend ist das Erreichen des vorgegebenen Ziels. What counts is reaching the given goal. The order may be limited to a clear statement of that goal. The regulation also says: Es ist falsch, Einzelheiten zu befehlen, die die nachgeordneten Führungskräfte an Ort und Stelle besser übersehen. It is wrong to order details that the subordinate leaders on the spot can judge better.

Where the Stores Decide

Götz Werner and three partners founded the drugstore chain dm in 1973. Werner’s first store was in Karlsruhe. He gave his stores great independence. The store managers could decide on the product range and the staff schedules, and in part on pay. In a 2018 interview Werner said that a leader today must no longer be a Direktor but an Evokator, one who calls forth. Der Direktor weiß alles besser, gibt die Direktiven. The director knows everything better and gives the directives. Die Kollegin schaut nicht zum Vorgesetzten, sondern zum Kunden. The employee looks not to the superior, but to the customer. Werner died in February 2022, at the age of 78.

The Vocabulary of Being Watched

gängeln — to keep someone in leading strings, to patronize constantly. It comes from an old verb meaning “to make walk.”

bevormunden — to treat someone as a ward

jemanden an der kurzen Leine halten — to keep someone on a short leash

jemandem über die Schulter schauen — to look over someone’s shoulder

das Mikromanagement — micromanagement

der Kontrollfreak — the control freak

He Does Not Overstep His Competence

In April 2020, few scientists in Germany were listened to as closely as the virologist Christian Drosten. On 27 April, the news site t-online published an opinion piece listing reasons why he had become a hero against his will. Point five read: Er überschreitet seine Kompetenzen nicht. He does not overstep his competence. The author explained that, as Drosten kept saying, science makes no political decisions and has no democratic mandate. Drosten wird nicht müde, das zu betonen, und hält sich daran. Drosten never tires of stressing this, and he keeps to it. Wenn er etwas nicht beurteilen kann, dann scheut er sich nicht, das zuzugeben. When he cannot judge something, he is not afraid to say so.

In Their Own Responsibility

The school law of North Rhine-Westphalia describes the teacher’s freedom and its frame in one sentence. Teachers teach, educate, advise, assess and supervise their students in eigener Verantwortung, on their own responsibility, im Rahmen, within the framework, of the educational goals, the applicable laws and regulations, the orders of the school authorities and the decisions of the school’s conferences. In Hesse, the principal may intervene in the teaching of a fully trained teacher only when a rule has been broken. After the shock of the first PISA study in 2000, the states committed to applying national educational standards from the 2004–05 school year. The standards fix what students must be able to do at the end. They are meant to give schools and teachers greater freedom in choosing and arranging the content.