The Austrian Post development initiative

With its Excellence Programme, Austrian Post offers a development initiative designed to prepare motivated talents for leadership and responsibility roles within the company. In addition to workshops, coaching sessions and networking opportunities, participants also interview senior leaders, who share their leadership lessons to support the talents on their career paths.

Sonja Aboulez (Head of Business Unit Parcel Austria) shares her insights:

Do you have a tip for aspiring future leaders? Or perhaps a piece of advice you wish you had received 15 years ago?

Just one? (laughs) I wish I had realised earlier that, as an emerging leader, you don’t need to know everything or make every decision on your own. You’re not a leader because you can do everything better than everyone else – ideally, you’re a leader because you have a strategic perspective, can orchestrate individual elements into a coherent whole, recognise talent, and want to develop people and deploy them in a way that allows them to thrive.

It’s also very helpful to proactively seek out mentors or coaches as early as possible, rather than waiting to be “discovered” as a superstar talent. It’s important to approach people and, for example, tell them that you find their role interesting and would like to learn more about it. I can’t imagine anyone being unwilling to share more about their work over a coffee. This can really help broaden your perspective, contribute to your visibility, and perhaps even lead to a mentor–mentee relationship.
You can also actively shape your personal image by considering what decision-makers say about you when you’re not in the room.

It’s equally important to speak up when you want to try something new – to show that you’re keen to develop further. Waiting to be “discovered” isn’t enough. Consistently delivering strong performance is important, but it’s just as important to know where you want to develop and to ask for feedback and support. All of this naturally increases your visibility within an organisation. If I’m visible because of my performance and my willingness to grow, that can only be beneficial for my career. It’s worth thinking about what you want to be known for within a team or organisation. What is my personal brand? What do I want people to say about me when I’m not in the room?

I’ve also noticed that women, in particular, often feel they need to complete an extra course or additional training before they feel 100% qualified for a new role. Men, on the other hand, tend to apply when they feel only 60% qualified. Especially for women, it’s important to step forward and say: “I’m ready – and I want this.”

What does a typical working day look like for Sonja Aboulez?

I’m not an early riser compared to many colleagues at Austrian Post. My alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m., and I start the day with a first coffee while checking my emails. I don’t usually have meetings before 9 a.m., and my schedule then runs until 6 p.m. – sometimes even 7 p.m.

I spend a lot of time in meetings, but it’s important to me not to attend meetings just because they’re limited to BE1 leaders if someone else is more knowledgeable on the topic. I trust my team to take on those meetings. I believe I’m good at delegating and I absolutely dislike micromanagement. I rely on my team to do what they’re good at – and often better than I could myself.

It’s also very important to me to engage with customers and meet them regularly, which is why I enjoy travelling. Next week, for example, I’ll be travelling to Poland for a series of strategic meetings with customers and potential new customers.

Do you have any role models in leadership or management?

The leaders who impressed me most were those who gave their teams an advance of trust and plenty of freedom to create something new – while always having their backs and standing by them when things became challenging. Leaders who didn’t claim the team’s successes as their own, but allowed others to shine. Leaders who created an environment in which individual employees’ creativity could flourish and where a genuine joy in shaping and building was palpable. Over the course of my career, there were a few leaders who truly succeeded in building strong, high-performing teams – diverse teams, not just collections of mini-me’s.

In a leadership role, it’s essential to bring others into the spotlight, let them shine, and not always be the one standing on stage. I’m convinced that a leader’s role is to develop people and talent and to support them in contributing their best possible input to the team’s success. It’s wonderful when a department produces as many talents and future leaders as possible – for the team and for the company. I believe it’s absolutely essential for a team’s success to bring in people who are better at their roles than you are yourself. I, for example, am definitely not a maths or Excel genius – but I have a real Excel wizard on my team and colleagues who can do mental arithmetic far faster than I can. I bring other strengths to the table. What matters is that everyone in a team can perform at their best, based on their individual strengths.