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