Meet the Interviewees of Season II
- Kristina Hüngsberg
- 20. Apr.
- 4 Min. Lesezeit
Aktualisiert: 22. Apr.
Leadership comes in many shapes.
Sometimes it looks like the classic corporate hierarchy: managing a team and being responsible for results. Sometimes it appears in less obvious forms, like leading a project, guiding colleagues without formal authority, or creating direction within a group of stakeholders.
In my own work as a consultant, I often experience leadership differently: influencing and guiding without formal authority.
That curiosity about how people step into leadership, especially when they move from being experts to becoming responsible for others, led me to the second season of Conversations That Lead.
In this series, I spoke with six professionals from different industries who are navigating this transition in their own way. Their contexts are very different, but the questions they face are surprisingly similar.
Here are the voices behind the conversations:
Viktoria Holler
Viktoria works as Regional Director in Elderly Care, sharing her story transitioning into a role leading experienced leaders.
Viktoria describes herself as a "cross-functional leader with a systems thinking approach." She successfully transitioned into a senior leadership role where she leads other experienced leaders.
What struck me in our conversation was her perspective on leadership as growth through responsibility. She approaches leadership with curiosity and vision.
As she explained:
"I don't lead by having all the answers. I lead by asking strategic questions, creating space for growth and drive organizational transformation."
Mirjam Egerbacher
Mirjam works in the construction industry as a group leader responsible for technical projects and has started onboarding new team members recently. Her leadership story highlights a challenge many new leaders experience: being thrown into leadership without much preparation or structural support from the organization.
Stepping into leadership meant suddenly being responsible not only for technical outcomes but also for guiding and integrating new team members, often without clear guidance on how to do so.
As she reflected during our conversation:
"I felt left alone; in the daily grind, you can't read all the many guides just to figure out onboarding."
Her perspective highlights one of the realities many first-time leaders face: learning how to lead while already in the middle of doing the job.
Marie-Theres Berger
Marie-Theres works as a communications lead in the pharmaceutical industry and is currently the youngest member of her senior leadership team.
Her reflections on leadership focused strongly on identity and confidence. For her, leadership requires being clear about who you are and being willing to speak up, even in rooms where you might initially feel out of place.
As she put it:
"It doesn't matter if I'm much younger; I have something to say at this table."
Her story highlights the importance of finding your voice as a leader, especially early in a leadership career.
David Kames
David works as Innovation Lead, operating within complex international innovation and manufacturing networks. His perspective on leadership centers around one key capability: listening.
For him, leadership is not about being the smartest person in the room, but about enabling others to grow and take ownership.
He describes this approach as helping people move from being “rookies” to becoming autonomous contributors:
"You can have a much larger impact by delegating and empowering others than by working alone."
In many ways, his perspective reflects a leadership style that focuses on building capability in others.
Katrin Schlemm
Katrin works as a national sales lead in the pharmaceutical industry, responsible for a decentralized team of fourteen people.
During our conversation, she spoke about leadership as a responsibility not only for business outcomes but also for the personal development of the people in her team.
She described leadership as balancing two dimensions: business performance and human empathy.
"My goal is to make people the best version of themselves so they can create value."
Her reflections show how leadership often involves navigating the tension between results and relationships.
Thomas Palecek
Thomas works in a functional leadership role within the logistics industry, leading a decentralized sales team.
He describes his leadership style as proactive, transparent, and hands-on. For him, leadership is not just about setting expectations. It is also about being accountable, creating clarity, and supporting the team in delivering on what has been agreed.
“I want to be seen as a supportive and accountable manager, who ensures actual execution towards what has been agreed.”
What stands out in his perspective is the strong focus on follow-through. He believes leadership becomes credible when discussions lead to concrete actions and when commitments consistently translate into results.
Different contexts, similar questions.
Although these six professionals work in very different industries (healthcare, construction, pharmaceuticals, logistics, and international relations), the conversations revealed many common themes.
Questions about identity, responsibility, and how to guide others while still learning yourself.
Over the coming weeks, I will share insights from these conversations and explore what the transition from expert to leader actually looks like in practice.
Because leadership rarely begins with a clear definition.
More often, it begins with a moment where someone realizes that their role has changed and that they now influence others in ways they hadn’t expected before.
