YES. I’m fit for leadership roles.

Who are tomorrow’s executives? Will the principle of seniority continue to apply in the future, or are young professionals on the advance? More than any generation before, today’s young talent exhibits great flexibility and digital savvy. We are loaded with new ideas and also carry winds of change. I’m certain that good leadership is not a matter of age. Of course, years of professional experience can help in more quickly identifying problems and areas for improvement – but we young professionals are often more open for innovations and changes. More than ever, companies rely on us digital natives for staying on top of things, in terms of both technology and informatics.

Promoting young talent from within the company

The textile industry, in particular, has had a constant shortage of professionals for many years now. Textile companies often find themselves desperate participants in the war for talent. What can – or should – companies do if they are struggling to fill professional and managerial positions with qualified staff? They purposefully need to provide us with the opportunity to practice and develop our skills as junior executives now. In the future, flexible structures, cross-generational HR management, creative freedom and transparency will become much more significant. The principle of seniority should gradually be replaced by the principle of merit. This will allow companies to tap the huge potential of employees of any age, gender and background.

The CHT Group is already setting the example in this area – promoting its young talent in areas such as leadership with various development programmes for potential executives. JUMP is a development programme designed for the youngest team, lab and department managers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Cultivating leaders

At the beginning of 2020, I had the opportunity to participate in the development programme JUMP. I was delighted! After all, I had already been coordinating operations as team and lab manager in the laboratory of the Textile Auxiliary Solutions since 2019. I was very eager and excited – also about meeting other young CHT managers from the DACH region, sharing ideas and seeing the CHT leadership team become more closely connected. The first of the programme’s four modules was able to take place face-to-face in the German city of Reutlingen – fortunately! This allowed me to make many new acquaintances in person, including the CHT ambassadors Sophia Hennige and Kerstin Mitzka (whose Success Stories you should definitely read, as well!). Due to the pandemic, the remaining three modules had to be conducted virtually. That was quite a challenge! But our trainer, Christine Dilmaghani, did an incredible job making the webinars interactive and exciting. Even today, I’m still inspired by her poised, creative and motivating approach!

What is JUMP all about?

The first module covers the managerial role and includes management basics and a ground-breaking motive analysis. What really impressed me was learning that each individual acts according to distinct motives. I now regularly recognise behaviours linked to motives, not only in the work context but also in my personal environment. The second module dealt with communication skills and focussed on various business-related discussions as well as on language itself. The different guidelines for scenarios such as feedback meetings, employee reviews, development talks and reprimands are of great value to me. Such meetings can be very difficult, since misunderstandings can easily arise. Now I’m equipped with useful tools that help make it easier to prepare for these discussions. The third module was about conflict management, addressing issues such as one’s own behaviour in a conflict, escalation dynamics and conflict talks. I never realised how many different styles of conflict resolution existed – and that you can respond to each style in a specific way. The different question techniques for conflict situations are also really helpful. The fourth, and final, module concerned motivation as a leadership task and provided participants with motivation structures and road maps. This module brought things full circle, demonstrating that the people we communicate with always have specific motivation types as well, and thus can be motivated on an individual basis. If employees receive the right motivation, their potential for development is tremendous. In summary, I can definitely say that I have learned a lot from this programme. THANKS for having me, JUMP!

Sandra Inauen
Coordinator / Team Lead for Technical Service Textile Auxiliaries
“YES. My day-to-day work is dynamic and diverse.”