Highlighting Co-Leadership: The Leadership Paths of Irene and Daniela
We warmly welcome you to the newest edition of our enlightening blog series on Co-Leadership. Today, we are eager to share the story of our fourth Co-Leadership duo, Daniela Wollinger and Irene Baldassari. Over the past year, in their roles as Head of Support Center Co-Lead Middle Europe, they have exemplified the efficacy of shared leadership. Based in Vienna (Austria), their journey offers invaluable insights into the Co-Leadership model. Dive into their journey and garner insights from their unique Co-Leadership lessons they've acquired on their path.
Why Co-Leadership?
From Daniela's perspective, she was pleased to share responsibilities with Irene, considering her Co-Lead role isn't a full-time commitment. This strategic move ensured they could collectively fulfill all the needs of their 600 members of the Support Center Middle Europe.
In Irene's perspective, she was motivated by a variety of factors. Among these were the combination of additional assignments, an effective collaboration with another Co-Lead, and the opportunity to incorporate more Lines of Business (LoBs) within her operation.
Daniela and Irene present another variation of the Co-Leadership model in action. Despite being full-time employed, both serve as Co-Leads of the Support Center Middle Europe on a part-time basis. Beyond their shared leadership roles, they each have distinct responsibilities within SAP. While Daniela holds the position of Proactive Support Lead for SAP SuccessFactors HCM in the Technical Support (Customer Support) department, Irene fulfills the role of Knowledge Lead for FIN/GRC (Public Cloud ERP) in the same department.
How do you delegate work & responsibilities?
Daniela explained that their approach to the task distribution is determined by mutual agreement. Their weekly calls and daily check-ins serve as platforms for discussing upcoming tasks, deciding who will take responsibility for each, or determining if they will collaboratively manage them.
From Irene's perspective on delegating work and responsibilities, their successful Co-Leadership involves short-term alignment, establishing trust, embracing shared values, and maintaining regular, timely synchronization.
How did you navigate the process of determining and dividing your responsibilities as Co-Leaders?
Daniela shared that her longstanding professional relationship with Irene, spanning over 23 years across multiple roles, has provided them the opportunity to become well-versed with each other's work styles, methods, and individual strengths and weaknesses. This familiarity eliminates any challenges in their shared leadership, allowing them to represent a single voice even when an assignment is taken on by only one of them. They hold brief informal check-ins to share feedback or discuss topics, and whenever feasible, they are together on calls.
From Irene's viewpoint, the process of delegating responsibilities in their Co-Leadership role hinges on transparent communication, joint discussion and agreement on the general direction or vision, fostering trust, and a shared set of values.
The Impact of Co-Leadership
In Daniela's viewpoint, even though they function as Co-Leads and speaking in a unified voice, they have different ideas, perspectives, and experiences. They coach each other through tough situations, offering a supportive ear for each other's challenges. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find someone at the same level to discuss particularly confidential topics. But, by having a Co-Lead, you gain someone with comparable knowledge and insight to engage in deeper conversation.
βIn my opinion this is a huge advantage to bring in diversity and inclusion.β (Daniela Wollinger)
Irene highlighted several beneficial changes stemming from their Co-Leadership journey, such as the ability to combine more talents. Additionally, having a substitute when one of them is unavailable offers an operational advantage, and finally, the growth and access to a larger professional network also provides significant benefits.
How did you overcome challenges within your Co-Leadership?
βI love working with Irene. Although we know each other for more than 2 decades it was a new experience to work in this role together. Irene is a great peer and Co-Lead. I learn nearly every day something new out of this Co-Leadership role.β
Daniela provided us some insights into how they navigated through challenges in their Co-Leadership role. She explained that, whenever they couldn't reach consensus on a particular topic or issue, they established a rotating decision-maker system between both. Above all, communication is a key element of their Co-Leadership, as it does in many other roles as well. Their combined experience, both being SAP internal Coaches and having been People Managers for over 20 years, consistently guided them towards reaching agreements.
Finally, Irene added that open conversation is the most effective strategy for tackling challenges. Additionally, she endorses the Co-Leadership model, but highlighted the necessity of ensuring compatibility between the personalities involved.
We greatly appreciate Daniela and Irene for sharing their valuable time and insights! π
In the following weeks our blog post series will give insights to different scenarios for Co-Leadership at SAP, the benefits associated for the leaders and the organization as well as some practical guidance that might encourage other people to consider Co-Leadership. Explore the list of previously published articles for your reading pleasure:
#1 What is Co-Leadership? Co-Leadership as a Pathway to New Work? SAP Community / LinkedIn
#2 Our first Co-Leadership Duo β Melanie & Mathias SAP Community / LinkedIn
#3 Pairing up for Success: Story of Rebekka and Simon SAP Community / LinkedIn
#4 Co-Leadership Spotlight: Unveiling the Leadership Journey of Elena and Jens SAP Community / LinkedIn
