Claudia Viohl, CEO and Chairperson of the board at E.ON, Czech Republic and Catrina Gemmerich, Managing Director of VIG Re Germany and Head of DACH and Nordics were guests of the final episode of the podcast series Women Leaders Beyond Borders hosted by Jaroslav Kramer.
You can watch the episode on YOUTUBE or listen to the episode on SPOTIFY and APPLE PODCAST.
There are some durable myths about the specific work qualities of women and men. This applies even on the C- level. Some might say, women are more suitable for some part of the job, men for the other. Are there noticeable differences in the male and female concept of managing a company? And do the women managers ever resort to pointing their male subordinates in a more appropriate direction?
Catrina's team is mostly made up of men.. „Frankly speaking, for me as a leader, but also as a female leader, I don't like to differentiate so much between what is male, what is female. It is about personalities, about how do we play the game together in succeeding as a team. I can only say that the topic of sensitivity, for example, but also feedback and understanding for each other, they are there and equally important – no matter if you are a male or female leader,” the VIG Re manager explains.
According to Claudia, it is important to have enough sensitivity in a boardroom. But she avoids generalizing. „Leadership is a very personal thing. You have to do it your way. You have to be authentic. It does not make sense when you do not feel good with a behaviour that you try to behave like that. People follow you if they have an impression, you do what you say and you are very authentic. That's why it is very important to have a diverse team,“ she suggests. In the matter of lecturing, she thinks that the role of the CEO is not to lecture either men or women. „It's not about teaching people. The way is to learn from each other and to see, okay, this works out, this is good, that is bad, and also to reflect on it.“
Claudia believes, the CEO role is a mission for a person partially skilled in psychology. „You have to be very much dedicated to it and you have to put your full power into it. You can't be a half leader. If you are responsible for a company, and not only for the results, but also for the developments and the people, you have to love it and you have to be ready to interact with people. If you do not like people, perhaps a CEO is not the right function, as it is not only about the strategy, it's also about the way how to develop the organization and help the people to grow and to deliver according your strategic plans.“
As Catrina suggests, learning is an issue primarily for the leader himself after all. „As a leader, you need to learn yourself on a daily basis, reflect, how have you engaged in this situation. Is this really how do you want to be in a particular situation with a team, but also with respect to other leaders and colleagues that you're interacting with? Having the ability to step back, zoom out and in is a capability that is extremely important. I believe, that situational leadership is extremely important because the world around us is never static.“
For these moments of broader reflection, summertime is a perfect period. We use summertime for strategic questions, more time for clients and business topics, but also to do a deeper sense check. Where do we stay as a team, how do we currently feel and how we define the way forward? These questions and reflection hold true for all genders, here it is about diversity in the minds. I think this is really personality based and not gender based,“ the VIG Re manager believes.
These moments of reflection are also maintained by Claudia Viohl at E.ON. „As a top management team, we have regular touch points to reflect on the strengths, on the weaknesses and what do we want to do different.“
Comentarios