ESTIEM LEADERSHIP LESSONS TAKEN TO CORPORATE LEVEL

Remembering the 55th issue

Brian Tracy once said ”Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems”. When I think of ESTIEMers, I think of problem solvers - we solve cases, build new strategies and are not afraid to fail. ESTIEM is the place that taught me to never stop asking myself “why” and make people around me do the same, make them be problem solvers rather than problem describers.

Unfortunately, the ESTIEM journey is not endless, at some point we have to make the step towards the not-so-open-minded world. This world, and in particular the corporate world, often differs from what we are used to in ESTIEM – a friendly, open atmosphere where innovations are driven and welcome. Indeed, it is not a world everyone fits in, but even being so different from your wild “work hard, play hard” days in ESTIEM, you can use the knowledge you gained during your active ESTIEM years’ to become a leader in your organisation. Here are a few examples from my corporate experience as a former ESTIEMer.

likely you will stand up. It is definitely not because ESTIEMers feel uncomfortable sitting, but they feel eager to share their opinions openly – a skill many employees lack and many managers would kill for. Trust me, no fake news!

It may sound so natural to you – we solve cases in everyday situations, at university, during trainings, but still the majority of employees find it hard to structure the information given, create a business case or solve one. During T.I.M.E.S events and even during Board and Leader years, Council and Coordination Meetings and other events, we are forced to challenge each other and provide elaborate solutions, while not making it too complicated.

Think cases, think teams … you know the rest.

What a great leader should be first is a great person. You will lead people, not computers, and you should be there for them. Whether you have been in the ESTIEM board, a leader of a P/C/I or an event organizer, you have probably dealt with issues within your team like uniting people from different backgrounds and interests. In the end, you have to make it work so that everyone enjoys working in your team and feels understood. You should also win their respect. While there are a number of articles, videos, trainings and so on on how to be a good leader, the best way to learn is by practicing, by maybe even failing at a project, getting feedback from team members and, in the end, by improving. Becoming a better version of yourself is an everyday task that pays off.

Operational tasks or any task that lasts too long or are simply not what we imagined them to be can make us feel down, unless we know how to turn this daily routine into something interesting. Improvising on the field, being innovative, being the change maker is fun. I cannot imagine that an ESTIEMer that had to deal with 20 tired and mentally exhausted people at a workshop cannot be innovative in any situation.

Just like Council Meetings where we stand up for what we believe is right or wrong, or to take the responsibility, in corporations there are events, meetings, conventions where someone asks if anyone is willing to ask a question or come to the stage. Of cause I do not have data to prove this, but I believe if you are an ESTIEMer, it is way more

5. You know how to have fun

Yes, I just used the word fun in an article related to work in corporations. If you use your skills to get people together, have fun and network with your colleagues, it can be much more pleasant to get to work. Especially in big corporations, you can use their global platform to manage sustainable friendships from all over the globe.

All these observations do not come from books I have read, they are all from my experience as an intern/ employee at Continental Japan, Nestle Bulgaria and currently back to Continental in Frankfurt. I was never afraid of the different cultures, companies and industries because I had the most important skill of all – adaptation. In the end, all the things I talked about lead to you being the adaptive, open-minded leader of tomorrow.

As Gandhi once said: ”The future depends on what we do in the present”, so I would advise you to go on every ESTIEM event you like, travel, open your mind for new ideas and eventually you will end up being the change maker within a corporation, startup, NGO or anywhere else you want to be. Your leadership skills are being developed even while doing Haka, even while reading this article.

A proof that ESTIEMers are the leaders of today and tomorrow – picture from Continental Corporations’ Quality convention in Berlin in June 2018, where 6 ESTIEMers have participated as Heads/Managers, interns and partners of the organisation

From left to right: Joris Hoogerdijk, Sissi Simeonova, Paul Evans, Christoph Hagedorn, Jukka-Matti Turtiainen, Andreas Flodström

Sebastian Geese Local Group Siegen