Anita’s Key to Success for International Cooperation
This blog is an excerpt from our new podcast! You can find the entire podcast episode here.
Anita’s Key to Success for International Cooperation
In our new video podcast format, “Voices of Leadership – an MDI Spotlight Series,” we regularly bring leadership experts in front of the camera to talk to them about their passions in leadership development.
This time, we spoke with Anita Jinju Wimmer, an international leader and expert. She talked about her career, shared more about her patented concept “Female Leadership Essentials,” and revealed her tips for (female) leaders.
We discussed AI in leadership contexts, lessons learned from international collaboration, and much more! Read this blog post to learn more about our conversation.
Anita’s “aha” moment in international cooperation
First, we learn about Anita’s career – she talks about growing up in Indonesia and how her intercultural background has shaped her. She particularly remembers her experience in Nigeria:
“Although I am intercultural myself, it was an ‘aha’ moment for me to realize that I had to adapt to a completely new culture.”
Opportunities and challenges of “Female Leadership Essentials”
Regarding her patented concept “Female Leadership Essentials,” Anita explains that it took a program by female leaders for female leaders. Her work is based on existing leadership studies and also combines her personal professional experience as a leader.
Anita’s concept includes these four main modules:
- Leadership Mindset, because leadership is first and foremost a mindset
- Self Leadership – Leadership starts with yourself
- Leadership Tools – Tailored specifically to the needs and challenges of women
- Authentic Leadership – Aligning leadership style and career goals with your own passions and values.
Her focus is on the topic of authenticity: “My advice to all women – be authentic. If you are more masculine, be masculine, and if you are more feminine, be feminine.” Anita is also passionate about helping women find out what they really want and what values they represent in order to be authentic and lead.
Anita describes it as a challenge that decision-makers in companies are mostly male and unwilling to adapt to new ways of thinking.
“There is still a lot of work to be done.”
Staying on the ball with AI
“With every change, there are three groups of people – those who refuse to change, those who go along with it but don’t actively participate, and those who drive change forward.” In her current projects, Anita actively supports executives in making better use of artificial intelligence for themselves and their companies.
Here, too, Anita sees the conservative attitude of many male executives as a challenge. According to her, it is difficult to convince them of the importance of AI and get them to participate. In addition, executives need to invest much more time to stay on the ball:
“AI is like a different culture or language that we have to approach differently. It’s important to be open and willing to continue learning.”
How Anita masters difficult training dynamics
Two factors are important here: authenticity and listening with interest. For Anita, difficult training dynamics are an important challenge that helps her grow and learn more. Ultimately, she recommends calming your own emotions when dealing with conflict situations and approaching the other person with openness and empathy.
Conclusion
In our conversation with Anita, it became clear that authentic leadership is the key to successful international cooperation. With her concept “Female Leadership Essentials,” she empowers women to follow their own path and live their values clearly.
She shows that those who remain open, listen, and stay true to their own values can convince others, shape change, and turn challenges into opportunities.
Want to hear the whole podcast? Click here for the YouTube video and Spotify link! Follow us to make sure you don’t miss any more conversations with leadership experts.
Jana Wölfl
Marketing Assistant
Jana Wölfl is a marketing assistant at MDI and works on our blog. She has already been responsible for several areas of marketing, such as designing our new website and administering our personalist.at portal.