WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM YOUR EMPLOYER REPRESENTING GENERATION Y?
I have been part of the workforce for 17 years, beginning my career with traditional values like working hard, climbing the corporate ladder, and seeking promotions and financial rewards. While the “working hard” part is unchanged, I reassessed my priorities. Now, having a meaningful purpose and making an impactful contribution are paramount. My own leadership values, which have been shaped over years of experience, are non-negotiable. A no-go for me is any environment that contradicts these values.
WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT VALUES TO YOU?
The values most important to me are open communication, empowerment, and psychological safety.
If we have an open communication, we make sure that everyone in the team understands the objectives and feels motivated to contribute fully. We also make ourselves accessible for feedback!
Empowerment means trusting team members with responsibilities, letting them be the owners of their topics and fostering collaboration. This is the part that made me understand: I am not alone, we deliver together!
I find psychological safety is the basis for high performance, allowing space for mistakes, learning, and essentially for innovation.
I consciously do my best to live these values and ask for feedback, whether this is also what the team feels. The best investment ever!
WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE AND WHAT DRIVES YOU?
My profound purpose is to unlock the potential of myself and my teams. This is what I try to do in every single project – honestly, this is my secret sauce. I am very driven by breaking down unnecessary silos and bringing together diverse minds. Throughout the numerous (digital) transformation projects I’ve been doing, I always found that it’s us, the humans, that can make thrive, or fail any new organisational change or fancy new tool at work – so it is best to make sure that we are at the centre of the transformation. If you get this right, you can build on any company or sector specific purpose – your teams will deliver.
WHAT DO YOU PREFER TO USE OR DO ONLINE ONLY – OR OFFLINE ONLY?
I enjoy reading my weekend newspapers in a paper format. For most other activities, I mix online and offline. Of course, nothing is as powerful as when we are physically together in a meeting: we have chemistry, between-the-lines communication and so much more fun. Also, I always decide to discuss a very private matter in person. But with the right methods and technology, I enjoy doing more and being more flexible by relying on online.
IS A WORK-LIFE BLEND REALITY FOR YOU?
Work-life blending is very much a reality for me. During the pandemic our kids busted our video calls and made our private and professional lives intertwining out of necessity. I appreciated this new vulnerability – I believe it helped us to build trust with our colleagues and I like to carry this on, even post-pandemic. I like to see people at work as a whole, and being a private person is part of it. Also, blend means for me flexibility. As a working mother, this is super important, and I am comfortable blending work and personal time as long as it accommodates everyone’s needs.
WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SOUL TRIBE?
Of course, my family is paramount, my husband and my son and the life we built in our chosen home, Switzerland.
Beyond my immediate family, I value my professional and personal tribes – groups of like-minded individuals connected by common purposes or journeys. I find the power of community is immense and very underrated in leadership positions. For me, investing time and effort into these relationships yields significant rewards. I truly believe together, we achieve more. I regularly share my experiences about my tribes on LinkedIn and enjoy vivid discussions.
WHAT DOES YOUTH AND A YOUTHFUL FEELING MEAN TO YOU?
Youthfulness for me is about appreciating the time behind us as experiences and staying hopeful and viewing time ahead as filled with endless opportunities. As a mother of a pre-teen, I am super inspired by the Gen Z focus on purpose. It’s fascinating how strong sense of respect they have for other humans and the planet. They really give us hope!
Youthfulness isn’t just about age but about maintaining a sense of curiosity, optimism, and openness to new experiences and ideas. The way we embrace change and seeing each day as a chance to grow and improve. In this sense, I want to stay forever in my youth.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE BIOHACK TO STAY YOUNG?
My two biohacks are trail running and no alcohol. Both are essential to my mental health, beyond the obvious physical benefits. I realised I am functioning better with a clear mind and focus, even though this isn’t generally easy in our busy lives which are full of distraction. Trail running 50 k distances in the summer mountains is my happy place. It taught me so many things beyond running: I break down long-term goals into small steps, just as I do while running long distances – one kilometre at a time. The journey, both professionally and a run, becomes more manageable and I remain perseverant.
Tünde Lukacs
Partner at EY / Speaker
