'In my first months as CEO, I asked myself if I was in the right place'
Collaboration with a continuous search for knowledge and guaranteed autonomy for teams. This strategy is one of the main ingredients in the management recipe of Mirele Mautschke, CEO of DHL Express Brazil, a division of the global logistics company. "It’s not just because I’m CEO that I know everything. In fact, I don’t know much—I’m learning every day with my team," the executive said in the latest episode of CBN Professional, a podcast produced by Valor and CBN radio network. "What’s wrong with asking for help and showing vulnerability?"After nearly 20 years with the U.S. company—now in the hands of German investors—Ms. Mautschke admits that she didn’t build a leadership persona overnight and that the road to learning to be a leader was often challenging.An engineer by training, she joined DHL Express in 1998 as an operations analyst. Born in Jundiaí, a town 50 kilometers away from São Paulo, she never gave up living close to her parents and spent up to five hours a day commuting between her home and the office in São Paulo.From her entry-level position, she quickly moved up to coordinator and manager before becoming the country director in 2007 at the age of 33. In this role, she was responsible for 70% of the company’s employees and managed investments of approximately €8 million. Ten years later, she became the first woman to head DHL Express. "I came to the company by chance," she said. She was looking for a job to make ends meet when she came across a newspaper ad for engineers. "I went through the selection process and got in."Ms. Mautschke said she observed the routines of the managers around her to gain knowledge and climb the management ladder. "Inspiration was based not only on the good things they were doing but on what I thought I could do differently." Over time, she realized that what she liked about being a leader was to help to train and develop people. "Today, I can’t work without a team."But the moment she was promoted to CEO, insecurity set in. "As soon as I took the job, even though I’d been with the company for almost 20 years, it felt like I was in a completely different role, in a new company," she reveals. "For the first two months, I even asked myself if I was in the right place." Indeed, she faced what many managers call the "loneliness of power." "I was shocked, people isolate you," she said. "I looked for literature on the subject to find out why so many CEOs can feel that way."The comeback didn’t take long...
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