5+4+3 = successful team leader

Now we have just reached the third week of our exciting virtual journey. Today we discussed a lot about role models and leadership. We started our session with a quick review on the most important insights of the last week to consolidate them. Then it started. Do you know who your role models are? That is not an easy question, or is it? In the beginning everyone presented their role models and after that we talked about our heroes in smaller groups. Hereby many of us realized that our role models are often not necessarily have to be popular persons, they simply can be members of our family.

This week, we also talked about our superpowers which are part of each of us.                   This power can be specified in more details by a short test.                                                 It concerns the  languages of love.

More information about this topic can be found here. To get to know which                       of the 5 love languages applies to most of you, we would kindly like to encourage you to take this test. Please note that the 5 languages of love can apply to your private life as well as in a professional environment. In addition, it is very interesting to know that they are also used in marketing campaigns.

Another fascinating topic to discuss are the  categories of leadership styles.       They can also be considered as superpowers.

A team works best if every leadership style is represented. Wouldn’t you really like to know which category you belong to? If so, please find another short test here, to tell which leadership style represents your personality best.

Our guest speaker for the second part of our session today, Stuart Sandlin, Senior VP, Hapag-Lloyd, Americas, shared with us his thoughts on being a good team leader. While working in Hamburg, he noticed how important it is to adapt your leadership style to your team. He told his employees to address him using the informal German „Du“, not the formal „Sie”, on his first day there. His team was taken aback because they were not used to that from senior management.             Stuart realized that there are many differences between leading a U.S. team and a German team.

He certainly stands out as being a true leader to his employees. A former Joachim Herz Azubi, that interned in Atlanta and who got to work with him, confirmed this to our group.

His incredibly motivated and therefore motivational presence probably comes from his two rules:

1. Say „ YES “ more often than you say „ NO “
2. Replacing „ BUT “ with „ AND ” to make your statements more positive

Stuart’s mental model of the „  -legged-stool “ shows what to always keep in mind as a leader. The right direction, motivation, the right skills, and knowledge are what makes a team strong and efficient.

The ability to be open, to trust your team members and to do thorough work is vital as well. For Stuart it goes without saying that he will challenge, but also encourage his employees.

His many ideas and approaches around leadership are enough to fill a book at this point. We anticipate its release and look forward to be first to read it.