“As a manager, I actively mentor and empower younger and less experienced female colleagues by providing guidance, creating growth opportunities and fostering an inclusive work environment”
protect women from spreading themselves too thin. Preparing them for leadership roles always needs to include a healthy sense of self‑interest because we want everyone to be active and successful in a sustainable way. Recently, I decided to offer an optional 10-week development programme for young talent at IU. We called it the ‘unicorn badge’ to signal that those who passed the programme would be uniquely qualified and that it would be fun to participate. We confronted the participants with complex IU challenges or case studies on a weekly basis and encouraged them to be creative, think outside the box and come up with radically new ideas. The personal growth achieved over the 10 weeks was remarkable and it became very clear who had potential to grow further in their career. My recipe for high-performing teams is this: hire for intellectually brilliant, diverse and amiable people. Set quality standards very high and allow them a great degree of freedom to overcome problems themselves and deploy resources as they see fit. With this approach, I have seen KPIs soar, efficiency go up and employee satisfaction go through the roof. PROMOTING DIVERSITY, ZERO TOLERANCE AND RECOGNITION In 2022, our diverse workforce, spanning 79 nations, was recognised and awarded by the Diversity Charter ( Charta der Vielfalt ) for its commitment to equal opportunities and diversity. We have been a signatory of the charter since 2019, further underscoring our dedication to social and political responsibility. To maintain a respectful and inclusive environment, we strictly adhere to a zero-tolerance policy that
service experience for students, to create a great ‘servicescape’ both on campus and online and to facilitate learning in an innovative and better way. In that sense, I would encourage young women to learn by observing successful services and companies outside the academic sphere, where you can gather valuable insights and accordingly shape a more enriching educational environment. DEVELOPING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH At IU, we constantly seek new challenges. Recent acquisitions of British and Canadian universities serve as perfect examples of our commitment to growth and continuous improvement. Integrating these schools into our group introduces lots of new and unstructured obstacles, providing the best learning opportunities. We encourage our talent to tackle these challenges and, at the same time, offer resources and autonomy to find their own creative solutions. This not only builds self-esteem and resilience, but also promotes independent thinking, creativity and the seeking out of new ideas and collaborators. Moreover, IU provides coaching and formalised training programmes: feedback from a coach you trust is a tremendous catalyst for personal growth. As a manager, I actively mentor and empower younger and less experienced female colleagues by providing guidance, creating growth opportunities and fostering an inclusive work environment where their ideas and contributions are valued and encouraged. Some women fall into the perfectionism trap easily, or have trouble delegating effectively. Both are keys to a successful leadership role and to
30 2023 • ISSUE 3 • Business Impact Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2023
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online