Esteemed IIC Partners member, Eblinger & Partner Executive Search, brought together an accomplished panel at the 25hours Hotel in Vienna to gain insights into their everyday work and hear their best practices and experiences of a new way of leading.

The panelists included Jenny Seitner, Sabine Mlnarsky, Gerold Idinger and Martin Giesswein under the moderation of Charlotte Eblinger-Mitterlechner.

Excellent leaders adapt to and evolve with shifting market conditions, working hard to address the needs of both the employees and the company. And right now, the work setting is in focus. 

How should employees be brought back to the office? Do you need clear rules and guidelines? How can teamwork be rethought? And what role does the “purpose” play? 

These were just a few of the questions posed to the panel as they wrestled with one of the top challenges facing leaders today.

Here is what we learned:

1. Give your employees a reason to leave home and meet with colleagues. Design in-person meetings that are driven by a clear purpose that fits your team or company.

2. Be creative about where to host in-person meetings — it doesn’t always need to be in the office.

3. Undertake meaningful shared activities, such as charitable work. But here’s the kicker. Let your employees decide how they want to spend their time for CSR activities. Don’t decide as a leader. Let the employees find their charity.

4. Host honest, open exchanges in which listening is the primary goal.  Issues should be shared and discussed instead of just ‘solved’ by the leader alone. As a manager, do not place too great a claim on immediate solutions and omniscience.

5. Conduct regular retrospective meetings to highlight and learn from successes and failures. Once a month is usually a good cadence.

6. Plan team meetings with a fixed topic for coming together: further education and development or team building and fun.

7. The technical know-how of executives is essential, especially for remote leadership, and supporting technology should always be “state of the art”. Legacy systems can be a considerable barrier to collaboration.

8. Encourage employees to be open to change. Building a culture of innovation and continual evolution is not easy! It takes time and well-planned effort. 

Thank you to the incredible panelists for sharing their experiences and insights.

It is vital for us all to keep learning from each other and optimizing our approaches so we can keep employee happiness and purposeful leadership at the center of everything we do.

Learn more about Eblinger & Partner, and we look forward to sharing updates from their next event!