Maybe you read about it too. Oliver Blume, arguably Germany’s most powerful CEO, who holds the dual role of CEO of Porsche and the VW Group and is thus boss to more than 650,000 employees, recently went camping together with his employees and their partners at the Le Mans race track. He could have booked a room at one of the nearby hotels. But no — the 55-year-old chose to spend two nights with his wife in the roof tent of a 911 Porsche.
I find this story so remarkable because we know from studies that success and steep career trajectories carry the risk of making people self-righteous and pretentious. After years of experiencing and achieving so much, the thinking often goes: “Camping in a tiny tent on the roof of a car? No thanks, I’m really too old, too rich, too accomplished for that now…”
At the same time, we know that power and a top management position tend to make people lonely, because anyone who holds power is, at the same time, also intimidating. Most leaders still see themselves as incredibly nice and approachable. But for the people whose careers and jobs depend on them, they’re above all a source of respect bordering on fear. That’s why a leader first needs to be aware that they come across as “scary” to others, and second, needs to make many genuine efforts to close that distance.
Leadership at eye level is therefore crucial, and many people assume that an open-door policy achieves this. But watch out — that phrase already implies two things:
- You have a door!
- People have to come to you!
Anyone who wants psychological safety is therefore better off following:
Leadership Lesson No. 1: Don’t take yourself so goddamn seriously.
A good test for this is whether the boss can laugh at themselves. You know how it goes: the boss obviously makes a small mistake or a funny slip of the tongue, someone picks up on it and pokes a bit of fun, but the boss immediately feels attacked and turns serious. That was the last time anyone tried to laugh together with the boss. And yet humor creates so much closeness and positive emotion.
After the weekend with Oliver Blume, the HR department sent out a survey to employees. The feedback was overwhelming, and people wrote about how meaningful it was for them that their CEO camped with them, stood in line for breakfast in shorts and sandals right alongside them, and was, in a totally relaxed way, simply part of the Porsche family.
By the way, Oliver Blume also doesn’t place much value on formalities or his title. No one has to call him Dr. Blume. Quite the opposite — most people just call him Oli.
This post was published by Wolfgang Jenewein on LinkedIn on 07/05/2023. View the original post