Anne Theiss wrote a book while she was pregnant with and then nursing her baby – her new novel, “Die Abwertung der Mütter – Wie überholte Familienpolitik uns den Wohlstand kostet” (The Devaluation of Mothers – How outdated family policies are costing us our prosperity) hit bookstores this September. 

But she was a very different parent to her older child. “My daughter has a cognitive handicap,” she explains in this podcast. “So I went very quickly to – I am the most important person for the child. No one even asked if I want I go back to work anymore, or what my wishes are. I had to be there for my child.” 

That social pressure on women to be the number one parent and stay at home remains widespread in Germany, argues Theiss. “The socialisation is so strong to be at home, to be as a woman with your child – we are often quite insecure whether going back to work as the right thing,” she says. 

That comes as a huge cost. It robs companies of highly skilled labour – and the country of a vital sector of its workforce. “It’s a really strange thing,” she says, “because in Germany we are so proud of our innovation, but when it comes to mothers, we totally forget the potential.” 

Change needs to come at every level, from us as individuals, to companies, to politics. So she suggests not one, but three calls to action: 

👉 individuals: “Do whatever you like, and go for it!” Remember that by making that choice, you will be a role model and inspiration to other young women too. 

👉 companies: Communicate. Don’t just say that you’re parent-friendly, but really talk to the mothers in your company, both before and after they’ve given birth. 

👉 politics: Invest in the daycare system! (And if that means eradicating Ehegattensplitting – or joint taxation for anyone outside Germany – then so be it…)

Another highlight for me was being able to attend Anne’s book launch and hearing her mention @MyCollective as one of the drivers of positive change. Let’s make the world better together 🥰💪

Speaker: @Anne Theiss – Author & Speaker @Burda Media

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Tom Ziora

#getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective #leadership #motherhood #parenthood #communication #changemakers #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions#parentalleave #elternzeit

Isabel Hochgesand’s meteoric career took her from Managing Director and Procurement VP at Procter&Gamble to Chief Procurement Officer at global skincare company Beiersdorf. She says she “didn’t have any career goals when [she] started“ – but when her role was moved abroad and friends pressured her to stay with her partner, something shifted. “This was the first time I felt a bit of a revolution within me.” 

Ever since then, she took the path less trodden. In 2001, she turned down a highly sought-after position in Geneva for a location-free job in Frankfurt to be with her husband. “I was first the guinea-pig and then the role model for working location-free,” she says. So she made the option available to others, and built „the best, closely-knit virtual team.” 

She shared some great leadership and life lessons – my main takeaways: 

👉 Embrace innovative working models, such as job tandems. “Best for parents who want to work part-time and also progress in their career and development.” For companies it’s also a way to retain talent and boost motivation and loyalty.

👉 Don’t bow to societal pressure. In the U.S., Isabel’s 4 months maternity leave was considered long – in Germany people felt it was too short. Expectations differ from country to country and even from person to person, so don’t sweat it. 

👉 The importance of networks. Isabel has created networks for women and stresses the importance of peer coaching. Since we do both at MyCollective, it was great to hear this from someone with her experience 🥰

👉 Be confident! After our podcast, she told me that she recently had two women apply for a job in her team – both returning from parental leave and aiming for higher positions. She was really impressed by their confidence – and then realised that they came straight out of the MyCollective programme ❤️❤️❤️ 

I’m so happy that Beiersdorf’s collaboration with MyCollective includes all parental leavers all over the world – if anyone from Beiersdorf reading this is on parental leave and wants to join the programme, please let me know! 

PS: Our programmes are also open for DADs! As we all know, the more dads take parental leave, the more it normalises a return to a career for everyone. We also have a close cooperation with @Volker Baisch and his Väternetzwerk conpadres – and since he is also active with Beiersdorf’s @DAD.icated network, the circle closes here. #ChangingTheNarrative really is a collaboration!

Speaker: @Isabel Hochgesand – Chief Procurement Officer @Beiersdorf AG

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Isabel Hochgesand 

#getinspired #podcast #MyCollective #femaleleadership #womeninpower #equality #flexiblework #newwork #diversity #changemakers #equalopportunity #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions #parenthood #parentalleave #elternzeit

„The underlying concept of our modern, very fast communication tools is to lower the transactional cost per bit of communication.” 

Christoph Magnussen calls himself “the New Work guy” – he helps people use New Work tools to improve collaboration and communication, making their work lives more “user-friendly” in the process. 

Of course, the concept of New Work has been around for a while – and Christoph actually sat down to talk to Frithjof Bergmann, its originator. “We agreed on one very simple thing: we have technology that can help us to organise work in a different way,” he says in this podcast. 

This is where the idea of effective communication is so important. It has the power to transform our work lives – and we should absolutely use those tools in our private lives too, he says. Speaking from my own experience, I know that anyone who’s been on their school’s PTA or even a kids-birthday-whatsapp-group will know why „lowering the transactional cost per bit of communication“ is so important outside of work too 🙈

One of his tips is to use different channels depending on what you’re communicating. Keep kids-logistics-questions and love-language with your partner as separate conversations, even online. This could help divide the mental load of childcare and home-logistics more fairly between partners too, because that communications channel remains strictly practical. 

At work, he recommends asymmetrical communication, as he puts it. That means fewer hours that everyone spends together in zoom meetings – and more short and to-the-point messages, short videos or presentations that only take one person’s time to prepare, and that everyone else can then digest and act on relatively quickly. 

The overarching aim is always to use New Work tools to live and work better. Parents have always been trailblazers when it comes to flexible work, mostly out of necessity. So I love the idea of taking some of those work tools back our home lives too ❤️

Speaker: Christoph Magnussen – CEO & founder @Blackboat · Author · Speaker · Youtuber · Podcaster · Dad

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Christoph Magnussen 

#getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective #leadership #newwork #thenewworkguy #communication #flexiblework#changemakers #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions #parenthood #parentalleave #elternzeit

Antonella Mei-Pochtler has combined parenthood with an incredibly successful career – a linear trajectory first, taking her to the top management level at Boston Consulting Group – and then branching out into advisory boards and politics, as well as social engagement in the field of education.

„For me the question was always, how to live a rich life?” she tells me in this podcast. For her, a big part of that was managing expectations. „We always have to strike a balance of, how do I deal with these expectations, and how do I do the life in a way that I feel is most appropriate for what I feel comfortable with?“

Women (and men!) returning from parental leave today have the option of achieving that balance by working more flexibility than ever before. But Antonella cautions that anyone returning part-time and flexibly needs to ensure that not all of those part-time hours are spent working remotely. 

“If you want to get to the really interesting jobs that motivate you, that you are burning for, then you have to have a certain interaction with other people – and particularly also with the people who make career decisions,” she says.

Having said that, you’ll also be coming back from parental leave with valuable skills. „Leadership demands have become significantly more human- and team-centric,” she says. “To become an excellent leader you have to have the capability of empathy and understanding others. And this you definitely learn!” 

Speaker: Antonella Mei-Pochtler, Strategist, Supervisory Board Member @TUM Venture Labs, iSi Automotive & Plenitude, Head of @KofiAnnanAward for Innovation in Africa

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Antonella Mei-Pochtler

#getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective #leadership #femaleleadership #womeninpower #equality #flexiblework #newwork #diversity #changemakers #equalpay #equalopportunities #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions #parenthood #parentalleave #elternzeit

This was the podcast that turned me into a football fan ⚽️🙌💙

Ariane Hingst is arguably one of Germany’s most successful soccer players. In an international career spanning 15 years, she won four European Championships, two World Championships, three Olympic medals and the World Cup. But this being women’s football, “no one recognised us, there wasn’t money to be earned,” she says. 

Like most female professional footballers, Ariane had to work two other jobs – first as a bank clerk and then as a physiotherapist – to make ends meet. Today, most female players in the second and third leagues still have to work other jobs outside of football, often full-time — which would unthinkable in the male leagues. 

Ariane is working to change that for the next generation. In 2022, she joined a group of female entrepreneurs as co-founder of FC Viktoria Berlin, with the aim of transforming the sport. „Of course it’s about soccer, but it’s more than soccer,” she says. „We want to establish a brand, we want to have visibility for the players, we want to have diversity, and obviously female empowerment!” 

2022 was a big year for women’s football in Germany, with a record 18 million viewers tuning in to watch the European Championship final between England and Germany. But there are still hurdles, and I saw so many parallels between the challenges that female footballers are facing and the issues that we’re dealing with in the business world: 

👉 the need for new work models! Especially in the third league where the new talent is, and where players still have to juggle training with paid jobs; 

👉 the fight for equal pay – women shouldn’t be earning less for the same job; 

👉 understanding that parenthood doesn’t change us for the worse, but for the better. Parents have “resilience and a never-give-up mentality,” says Ariane. And the fact that your body changes? “It could also be a positive thing!” 

👉 the importance of role models – why we have to tell the stories of people who are blazing the trail, even if they’re not famous or top of their game. Their experiences pave the way for others. 

Speaker: Ariane Hingst, Co-Founder @FC Viktoria Berlin, Co-Trainer DFB

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach

Photo: Ariane Hingst

Graphic & Production: MyCollective

#Gamechanger #getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective #diversity #changemakers #womensfootball #football #soccer #equalpay #equalopportunities #leadership #equality #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions