“It takes a great deal of sensitivity to confront someone with the fact that you’ve noticed certain similarities between them and other – often prominent – people. When I first met one of our ARGOnauts, my mind immediately wandered between Lt. Frank Drebin from The Naked Gun and Capt. Roger Over (Airplane!). While I waited in vain for slapstick interludes, I was at least not disappointed in terms of humor. However, I have not yet shared my perception of this resemblance with ARGO’s unofficial Leslie Nielsen (Attention: prize draw!) – having been burned by such attributions before:

If you hold an idealized image of yourself and base it on the tiniest similarities to reference figures of the “sexiest men alive” variety, comparisons can quickly lead to disillusionment. That’s exactly what happened in 2024, when I experienced an initially friendly approach from a participant during a workshop. With the words, ‘May I give you a compliment?’ the participant immediately had my full attention. My expectations shot through the roof – the perfect setup for disappointment. And it got worse…

The dubious compliment materialized in the statement that I bear an uncanny resemblance to the actor Ron Perlman. As a reminder: this is the actor who very convincingly portrayed a prehistoric human in the film Quest for Fire. The same Ron Perlman who played Salvatore in The Name of the Rose in a wonderfully repulsive way, and who ultimately made film history as Hellboy.

When I replied that I could hardly take that as a compliment, he said, ‘Okay, then maybe Oliver Kahn instead.’

What more can one say!

Calling things by their proper names is important; doing so with sensitivity makes it valuable – and dealing with feedback in a resilient way is also important as an ARGOnaut!”

ARGO trains and coaches on topics such as feedback, team cooperation, and resilience – and we have plenty of opportunities to practice this ourselves ;)!