Trust My Secret Weapon

[Music]

would you marry someone without dating

them first

how much time do you spend with your

partner and how much time do you spend

with your colleagues

so wouldn’t you date your colleagues

before committing to the job

at the end of the day it’s all about

belonging

starts with trust and this is not easy

to learn

at least not for me it all started when

i was

six years old living in brussels my

father being a diplomat

all my friends came from many different

backgrounds and countries

i spoke english and french even before i

spoke german actually

i loved the multicultural and diverse

environment we were living in

we all belonged even though we could

have

not been any more different and then

suddenly

we moved to germany to a small and

little-known

city called hamstead right at the east

border to back then west germany

in the middle of nowhere basically

imagine the smooth

transition i found myself

in a very close environment people being

reserved and

seem to be afraid of the new and the

unknown i mean who isn’t

i certainly was too but rather excited

knowing what the world can offer however

i stood out and i hated it

it uprooted me i lost everything that

was familiar and it was thrown into a

world where

suddenly i did not fit where i did not

belong

i was not the high school princess and i

certainly was not popular

i remember once running home from school

with lots of liquid glue in my

long curly hair and some classmates

found it funny to play a joke on me

one of many however

i decided to see this experience as a

gift to make the best out of it while

trusting myself and trusting things will

be better

because i was denied group adaptation i

was thrown back upon myself

i learned to be comfortable at being

alone i learned resilience

i learned self-motivation i learned

positivity

i cultivated my passions like

photography where

i would get completely absorbed in the

activity i would spend hours in the dark

room

exploring creating developing

and all of this helped me to establish

the trust in myself which

made me strong at a very early age and

which i’m actually very grateful for

not having to adapt to a group being

free of group cohesion

i was free to being myself i rebel at

heart

i do not go with the flow i learned too

much to the beat of my own drums

and yet still just because i can

perfectly be myself

doesn’t mean that i always wanted to i

did not know exactly where my place was

in the world and

also i wasn’t sure where to find it not

just my people but also my thing

i had to go back to my known

international and diverse group of

people and decided to move to london a

city full of diversity

back to my roots trusting that i will

belong

and then i got lucky once again

i got my first job in a consulting firm

and for me this was not just a job it

felt almost like a family

my colleagues were and many still are my

friends

and it felt that way because you know we

all identified with similar

values because of the culture and by

company culture i do not mean what

companies put on

some walls or fancy websites i mean

their people

the habits they live and breathe how

they operate

interact in real life we were a group of

like-minded people and

i loved it i had found an environment

where i felt

i could be my best give my best

and i thrived so after nearly ten years

in london i decided to move back to

germany this time to berlin

only two hours away from hampshire but

one of the most vibrant and

international cities in europe the ceo

of a sas company recruited me

i got the job and it turned out that i

got what i wanted but not what i needed

the job title was great and the culture

wasn’t

it was a nightmare and once again i did

not fit in

i was right back being six years old

excluded

and unidentified i could not believe to

have made such a mistake

not to look and speak to the people i’d

be working on a daily payless basis with

turns out we had nothing in common at

all least of all our values

it drained my energy and my passion i

cried myself to sleep

it pushed me to limits and my resilience

got tested to the extreme

it was excruciating and crippling

so i have felt the power and catalyst

function of a cultural fit in the

workplace

to find my people and so my rebel nature

kicked in and

this is how at last i found my thing

my mission to help people find the right

work environment

to thrive in so why is the company

culture so paramount

why do you need to understand and get a

fee for it before you start the job

in a partnership you’re dating potential

candidates

and in order to understand many things

but

mainly do you share the same values and

aspirations

common aligned values are the pillars

for trust in order to engage

in a commitment ideally you share the

same values and aspirations

why because you have a shared purpose

you can be yourself

i know the other person generally

understands and supports you

having a common goal in the same way

the right company culture is supportive

in the way you develop your skills and

thrive in the environment to accelerate

your learnings and develop your

capabilities

simply a place that has your best

interests at heart

and makes you flourish as a person

as well as an employee learning and

developing

trust is a fundamental that is needed

privately but also professionally in the

last years

we’ve seen an increase in staff turnover

in people not being happy at work

70 of young professionals leave their

first job within the first 18 months

and of those remaining more than 60

percent are not motivated

so as a result companies like

productivity

employee engagement and risk bad reviews

to make matters worse the war from

talent increases this dilemma as

companies employ people

knowing they don’t fit but they still

employ them because they need to fill

the position so this vicious

cycle will only end once all parties

have understood the importance that both

employer and employee

need to trust that there is the right

fit

so with this war on talent my secret

weapon is again trust

what does both have similar values and a

vision that binds trust in order for

both to flourish

a company’s culture is not what stands

on the mission statements

it’s about the people they employ as

these are the ones executing the values

don’t look at the statements speak to

the people

then you can trust to choose the right

environment for you

and it’s certainly no secret that covet

is going to fundamentally change the

ways of working

in the immediate future with such

changes

being long lasting the increase in

remote working

less time to live and breathe the

relationships in person

more autonomy trust is and will be what

applies everyone together

authentic and efficient communication

throughout all hierarchy levels about

the company’s purpose

and its values will determine whether or

not a company attracts the right talent

which ultimately determines its success

so you know for me it’s not a

coincidence

that i have found and built a company to

which is trust a core component

it is something that strongly and

dominantly underpins my life

it’s running like a theme through my

life and each and every crucial moment

in it

it is something i build on privately and

professionally

but for me to found it to grow it and to

yeah manage all these challenges as an

entrepreneur

i needed to trust or i need to you know

myself and also my purpose trust in

myself

not this also the trust and belief that

i’m supported

even facing unbearable situations

not only in the professional world trust

goes for the most stressing and tiring

times i always believe

that trust is my secret weapon because

it powers me it gives me

or guides me in times of adversity

uncertainty and most powerfully it moves

me to act

despite of fear

despite of fear the hardest and most

unbearable lesson

for me personally was during the time

when my father was dying

i just had been promoted at my job i was

ecstatic really

i was in dc for training which was

supposed to last several months

and yes after a few days my mother

called

that my father my hero our support

system was in coma

dying and everyone around me was simply

in shock

my mother could not speak and my sister

was beside herself

the rug had been taken away from

underneath me and i was feeling as if i

was

in a free fall to the ground carrying

not only my sadness but also those of my

mother and sister

at that moment i had to trust

not only myself that i would handle the

situation but also

trust that i could be the support system

as

the older sister so

why my heart was pounding and i was

crying inside

i stayed focused on how i could stay

strong and help my family get through

this

i experienced the hard way that with

trust and courage

to act despite of fear i can create

my present and my future so trust

belonging and faith in my view are

essential

and existential not just to survive but

also

to thrive the way to get there can be

difficult

it can literally feel like a war forcing

yourself to go against the enemy in your

head

all i know is that i’m a hopelessly

average

human but equipped with trust and

purpose

so this was my path and this is my story

however thank god everyone is unique so

who works for me might not work for you

what applies to each and every one

though is that at the end of the day

when our life comes to an end and we

asked

what we have made of this gift this one

precious life there’s only one possible

answer

everything i’ve made everything that was

possible for me

to be the best version of myself if

there’s one thing

i would like you to take away from this

talk it is the message

contained in rabbi nachman’s words

if you do not live what is within you

what is within you will destroy you

if you live what is within you

what is within you will protect you