What Is Imagicals?

Full of energy, Hadewig says: “Imagicals is a low-threshold leadership tool to encourage personal self-reflection and engage groups in conversation.
 
“Imagicals can be used both for spontaneous interaction and more meaningful work. It is an all-in-one concept that you can use organically to connect with yourself and with others. It can be used both by those seeking to improve their personal leadership as well as in professional leadership programs. It builds bridges in all circumstances. The game can also be played outside of work in order to recognize how you behave in different circumstances, whether at home, on the soccer field, or at the supermarket. Come into conversation with all sides of yourself and those around you.”

 

 

Vision of leadership

 

Hadewig works from a clear vision of leadership in which the self plays an important role. She says, “Whatever you are working on, whatever circumstances you find yourself in, you are always taking yourself with you. If you want to grow in personal and professional leadership, you must be in connection with yourself, with your head and with your heart. That is exactly where Imagicals helps. Imagicals also connects the two sides of the brain with each other: the logic, the ratio in the questions on the cards, and the creative, associative ability through the image on other side of the cards.”
 
Nick adds, “Many leaders like to talk. The challenge for these leaders is to listen and reflect deeply. Philosophers say that questions get you further and answers make you quiet. With questions you can tap into your deeper feelings. Therein lies a power, which takes you further on both a personal and professional level.”
 
It’s about those questions and the conversations around them that Imagicals addresses. Nick sometimes notices that people stop asking questions; they assume there are no more to be asked. However, he says, “The answers to questions change all the time, so the job of leaders is to look for new answers by asking more questions. The cards make you think about questions you may have never asked before, or to which you have never put the answer into words for yourself. You can open up dialogue with yourself and with others.”

 

 

The Essence of Leadership

 

In Nick’s view, the essence of leadership is, ultimately, “developing people so that they can impact organizations and societies. When you leave an organization, your colleagues don’t remember the new organizational structure you put in place or the great products or services you helped develop. What people do remember is the ways you helped them become the best of themselves. Greek philosophers chiseled ‘know thyself’ in stone at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Therefore, my leadership philosophy is also that leaders of organizations and teams always begin with leading yourself.
 
“So how do you do that? It’s in the things you do: how you listen, engage, inspire, mobilize, reflect. How you indicate that you don’t have the answers either. How you find answers together. It is about progress, improvement, setting things in motion so that people get moving. Leading the business is leading the change.”
 
Hadewig adds, “As a leader, you yourself are the instrument to develop the talents of your team and your organization. The task of leadership is to create a safe environment so that colleagues can become the best version of themselves. By showing your own vulnerability, you give others the space to do the same. Vulnerability is sometimes associated with heaviness, weakness, therapy, trauma. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The goal is always to look forward, to develop. The cards are an accessible way to start this conversation. The cards have depth, for sure, but also use them spontaneously; it doesn’t have to be heavy. Give the cards your own twist and experiment!”

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How did Imagicals come to be?

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In 2015 Hadewig coined the word Imagicals to mean images with text that put you in wonder mode, allowing you to be surprised. She says, “I had Imagicals registered because I knew intuitively that I wanted to do something with it. That it has now come to the point where I have actually compiled this leadership tool is a gift from the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, my calendar was empty; I became silent myself. At once I knew what Imagicals should be, what it should look like.
 
“I gave away the first version of Imagicals to others, not out of philanthropy but out of my deep belief in the Buddhist saying that what you really give, you will get back twice over. I give the cards as personal gifts to people around me, and what I get back is an abundance of responses of how people are helped by the cards, which touches me deeply. That’s how we pass on connection. Nick came up with the idea for creating an international version that included different cards, and so the desire we have had for ages to do something together around leadership became a reality.”
 

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Questions and Images

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The Imagicals game consists of open-ended, in-depth questions that we have collected from our years of experience with leadership programs and team or coaching projects. In addition, the game consists of visual images. Images stimulate our brain’s right hemisphere, where our associative ability and creative power reside. The images on the cards have been carefully selected to accompany the questions in collaboration with three photographers. Click here to learn more about our photographers, their favorite images, and what Imagicals means to them.

 

What can Nick and Hadewig do for you?

 

 
Imagicals will inspire people and support changes in mindsets.

We provide leadership programs in which renewal and movement is the goal. Feel free to contact Hadewig directly if you would like to discuss these themes in greater detail. Getting started directly with Imagicals? You will find an order button on the site.

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