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By Kirsten Ludowig and Til Knipper
 
When René Obermann takes the chair of Deutsche Telekom at the end of 2006, he is the youngest CEO of DAX-listed groups of companies of all times – many of his staff are older than he is. And when just a little earlier that same year, Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller inherits from her father Berthold the general management of the Swabian machine tool manufacturer Trumpf, she heads a company which employees are predominantly engineers and thus men. Both Obermann and Leibinger-Kammüller are suddenly boss, and both don't have an easy starting position: He is young, and she is a woman.

Young leading old; woman leading man – those are typical constellations between boss and workforce which might be explosive especially in the beginning. And an executive might easily panic if, on top of it, it's the first position with personnel responsibility, possibly immediately after graduation from university or only a few years after having started a job.

There are hardly classical careers any more like in public service with predictable promotional cycles. From one day to the next, there might be advancements; and especially young people get ever more frequently the chance to go up the career ladder. That's good news. The bad news: College or university studies hardly prepare anyone for such a role. The curriculum is missing subjects like the motivation of employees or conflict solution. Thus, even top-level qualifications will be no help.

You will only find out whether you have what it takes to be boss when you accept the leadership adventure – 100 percent, with all its highs and lows. And that not only includes the good feeling of meeting your staff's expectations and of growing with the task, but it also includes that feeling of helplessness when things are getting too much or too much is being expected.

Ask career consultant Doris Brenner how beginner's mistakes and tensions can be avoided, and you'll get a sobering response: "As a rule, no one gets through that time entirely unscathed." Especially young people coming directly from university or having been themselves for some time on the employees' side are inclined to overreact in their early period of being boss. They will tend to two extremes: They maneuver themselves into the role of either smooth softy or that of a despotic ruler.

The first type is "too nice, too mild-mannered, too intent on avoiding conflicts", explains Theo Knicker who teaches at Georg-Simon-Ohm College and also coaches executives. This is the type who really does not want to assume command, at least not right away. He'll find it unbearable at first to be sandwiched between his staff who want an open, fair management style, and his own superior who expects full commitment for the company. He'll have a hard time to transmit to his team the demands made by higher-level management and the resulting pressure. The second type, in turn, will be the mirror image from day one of his promotion; that is, he'll "behave like a savage", says Doris Brenner. The career consultant often made the experience that junior executives had taken excessively tough measures in the beginning and made decisions which are not understandable for others. Thus, when in doubt, they'll fire a person for even the minutest infraction. "They think they must be tough and show exactly such conduct because their team would otherwise play them up. "Typical warning signs for escalating power demonstrations: The boss controls permanently and leaves no leeway and freedom for fresh ideas and concepts. He feels that he must have everything and everybody under control and should not be allowed any weakness.

Those getting stuck in either of the two directions frequently came up the career ladder from within the company; i.e. having first been a colleague, they'll make boss. Either they are afraid not to be respected by their former pals and want to forestall it. Or they fear to fall out of favor with their former allies and accordingly prefer a "cushy-cushy atmosphere", as the purchasing consultant Gerd Kerkhoff calls it.

He himself had established and managed his first enterprise already at the age of 26. Today, he is heading a workforce of more than 200 people. "Many executives generally shy away from making clear announcements because those making clear announcements must expect to be put into the 'unpopular' category – which also happens when you bring up children." According to Kerkhoff, it is fundamental to provide unmistakable feedback with appropriate reasons given. "There's nothing worse than an employee asking him- or herself at the end of the day: What did the boss really want to say today?" Anyway, and as a rule, your offspring as well as your staff will be appeased again a few hours later.

The advantage when climbing the career ladder from colleague to boss: The employer is known, as well as the team. So "you know how company and people are ticking", says Theo Knicker, coach for executives. However, it will be necessary in any event to leave one's old role behind and find a middle road between being "too soft" and "too hard". A promotion always creates a certain distance to ex-colleagues; after all, the boss is not only on paper one rank higher, but now he also has the authority to issue directions to the team. He needs to delegate tasks and say what must be done and how. But that doesn't means that he or she must change from the formerly agreed upon informal way of address – using the you in German which is either informally 'Du' or formally 'Sie'. But the new boss should avoid to continue being the best pal because, if necessary, he must bang his fist on the table. Like Marco Knauf, founder of the start-up company True Fruits, who had to fire one of his staff from the very first tier who had already been rather a good friend for him.

Actually, a true razor-edge affair – especially because there are almost always employees who had their hopes up high for getting the boss's job. That may lead to envy or frustration. "Especially when the new boss comes from the outside, the team will often think: Just great, we were all not good enough", says Gerd Kerkhoff. The newcomer will then be even more critically eyed from all sides. "The slightest mistake may render that situation very uncomfortable." There's only one thing that can be done: Seeking to talk, again and again. Talking, talking, talking – with the team as well as with every individual.

The constellations of young leading old and woman leading man are harboring conflict potentials. According to Theo Knicker, such a case may result in the "snail shell problem". "Older employees are sometimes sobered because they all too often made the experience that promises were not kept", he explains. "They find no reasons to motivate themselves, perhaps still render 50 percent of their performance and withdraw into their shells – just like snails."

A dynamic junior boss who is going up to his limits and also demands the same of others will soon hit walls. "The staff will think 'Just wait, we'll sit it out'; and they will act accordingly", says Knicker. He feels sorry whenever he sees young, gifted executives being put in their places. With Anja Nicolussi, who is heading a team of eleven software developers at IBM, especially the older ones in her team had been skeptical at first. Moreover, the mathematician had to stand her ground in a male-dominated team (see Portrait on page 23).

Even if it's hard: Wait and see and "put on the Columbo trench coat", as Knicker says. That'll be the best solution in this situation. Lieutenant Columbo of the U.S. TV series of the same name always seems a little helpless but is actually highly intelligent and solves his cases through acute observations. If you follow this plan, things will proceed as in politics: exploring majorities and doing lobbying work. That's how bosses will reach their goals the fastest.

Conditions have generally become more difficult for young bosses after the crisis year 2009 with its bankruptcies, job losses and many millions of euros or dollars being lost – more difficult actually than before the big bang in the economy. They are not responsible just for the workforce but for human beings. And these human beings are living more than ever with the fear of losing their job; they are angry and disappointed. "A lot of management boards ruthlessly gambled away the trust of their company's workforce", says Knicker. "Now, junior executives are supposed to fix it – a heavy burden." And it's particularly on the human level where junior executives have a lot of catching up to do. Sensitivity is required. And especially: a few years of job experience. One advantage: Up to a certain degree, you can grow into an executive function. That's not true for every job.

In the final analysis, only practical experience will show what good leadership amounts to in general and type-specifically, i.e. in dealing with the staff. Theo Knicker compares personnel management with skiing. That too needs to be learnt over the years – and directly on the ski slopes, under all weather conditions. First you take the blue run (easy), then the red (medium), and finally the black ski run (difficult). Knicker complains that, right from the start, many young executives are made to go down the black run and have no time to get used to the slope fast getting ever steeper.

Career climbers sooner or later will get to the point where they feel suddenly strained and unable to cope. Because some mistakes cannot be avoided. Especially in case of internal problems with structures or processes, there will be situations in which the higher up management board just issues orders to the executives and superiors down the line who, against their better judgment, must give their staff objectives and tasks which they themselves do not agree with. Especially in the current crisis, many companies are thoroughly shaken; and junior executives are forced to confront their teams with restructuring measures which had been decided at the highest level. That means: Any skier – good or bad – will have a much harder time not to fall on an icy ski run than under good snow and slope conditions. Career consultant Doris Brenner's recommendation is to struggle through: "That's where one usually learns the most."

Helpful can be preparatory and accompanying seminars, or a mentor. In the sheltered ambience of a seminar, new or future executives will have the chance to try themselves out. Major group companies generally have special departments and offer a vast spectrum of internal programs. At the chemical company BASF, for example, selected employees are prepared for their future executive work in so-called Development Centers. Small and medium-sized employers rarely have such offers. They fall back on external service providers.

A wealth of seminars offered on the German market renders it difficult, however, to separate the good from the bad offers. What will be a good seminar? "A mix of introductory theory and practice based on it", explains Brenner. A scientific part is intended to first teach principles of leadership and management and will then differentiate the various management styles – for example, patriarchal, democratic or also laissez faire. This first part will form the common basis. Every participant should then determine his or her current position and in self-reflection ask him- or herself the following questions: What is my idea of a good boss? What would I want from my boss? "I've always said that I will provide leadership and management in the way that I myself would want to experience it" – this is the maxim of purchasing consultant Gerd Kerkhoff.

Exercises and practical examples can be used to act out alternative behavior within the group. It is especially important for young executives to see the effects of certain actions or reactions. They will get a feeling for when they feel well and what fits their personality. In some ways, they will develop their own management style. In internal programs of major group companies, teaching corporate values and common management principles also plays an important role, as well as standards for staff performance appraisals or agreements on objectives. "Smaller companies are more likely to have a hands-on mentality. Here, executives have more freedom to arrange and organize", says Brenner.

It is important that junior executives don't feel left alone. It should be possible for them to contact coaches and mentors in the first six months after their promotion when tensions and problems come up in the day-to-day work. A staff member does bad work, or had lied or hit a wrong chord – what's to be done? "It's not a matter of telling somebody what to do", explains Brenner. "It's rather a limited-time aid for clarification; it's a matter of giving security and enabling the executive to act independently on his or her own – similar to how one would work with a child."

That's not always successful, however, says Theo Knicker. "I have the feeling that some seminars lapse too much into therapeutic matters. Plainly said, it'll go from assisted living with parents to assisted management. "But that's not feasible or even possible; after all, there are about 250 working days, and on average at best nine or ten seminar days. Also, one way or another, the executive faces his or her staff member alone in the actual situation. And then he'll have no button in the ear like those mothers and fathers on the German private TV channel RTL with its coaching show "The Super Nanny". "If the seminar before had only been pampering, failure will be programmed."

What's more: Leadership and management can be learnt, but there are limits. "I would say, 80 percent are business skills and 20 percent are personality", thus Knicker. Using skiing terms again: Even one thousand downhill runs on the same slope won't make any skier a German legend like Markus Wasmeier – or for Americans: it won't make any skier a second Bode Miller. There are simply people with a talent for being boss, that's what Doris Brenner also says. "Those people have natural authority, they can express themselves clearly, yet are able to put themselves into other people's position. They are authentic as a leadership personality."

And what also always counts, of course, are the basic principles of human social life: respect, tolerance, openness, trust. This is how Sheila Rietscher also describes her leadership style; she is head of the marketing department of the chinaware manufacturer Kahla. Such a style cannot be taught and cannot be learnt. Gerd Kerkhoff: "Nobody is really doing a seminar on managing a good partnership, right?" 

One trend in recent years has been the increase in positions without disciplinary responsibility. Tasks are becoming ever more complex; organizations ever bigger. Also growing is the number of teams and projects in which there must be one person who will have to say what's what. This type of 'boss' will technically lead the associated employees but cannot give any warning notices or decide on dismissals. "Such a position requires even more natural authority", says Doris Brenner. Because, when in doubt, there will be no possibility to demand work from the team members or to even impose sanctions. Frequently, these technical leadership positions are a preparatory station.

But not everybody wants to really lead – for example, Stephanie Bäcker of the recruiting service provider Access. After some hemming and hawing, she will no longer delegate but rather implement more on her own again in the future. And then there are people who have the technical know-how but cannot lead. Since they have the same potential as an executive, they must also be motivated and promoted. Many companies have come to see that meanwhile and have accordingly introduced so-called specialist or technical careers – in addition to the traditional executive hierarchy.

A second trend thus breaks with a fallacy which is very popular according to Doris Brenner: "Show me how many employees you are responsible for, and I'll show you how successful you are!" There will be the same recognition and the same salary on the individual levels. But a shift in ideas will also be necessary because there are no longer so many classical management positions, and companies must offer alternatives to their employees.

And how do major groups with thousands of employees find out who among their workforce is a specialist and who is cut out to be boss? "In a worldwide uniform process, we annually evaluate the current performance of an employee and his or her leadership potential – the latter is decisive for his or her career development", says Nicolas von Rosty. In interviews which the head of Executives Development at Siemens will conduct with selected employees, he pays particular attention to the criteria of learning ability, goal orientation, willingness to change, and motivation.

According to von Rosty, there are two types of people concerning the issue of learning ability: There are people who learn analytically and read books on their own or participate in e-learning programs. And there are people who predominantly acquire knowledge in dialog with others; for example, by asking questions. His experience has shown that the latter are frequently the ones who are suitable for an executive role. And that's so "because they are good communicators", he says. Whether someone has his/her sights firmly set could be relatively easily established, according to him, by the famous central thread in the CV and by the person's current performance appraisal.

The willingness to change is more difficult to establish; but it's important in the age of globalization and increasing competition. In this respect, von Rosty always asks the same sort of questions: "How do you contribute to the company? What do colleagues and superiors associate with your person? Markus Seidler, responsible at BMW for sales strategy and planning, could answer the questions: Together with his staff, he streamlined processes and proved exactly this required willingness to change.

But most exciting for von Rosty is to find out who has enough motivation to carry his team along. It's also about how many sacrifices one is willing to make for one's career. "Siemens is present in about 190 countries worldwide. Mobility thus plays a major role", he says. If an employee can only be used locally, that will prove to be a career obstacle.