Purpose-driven leadership with Julia von Winterfeldt

What does leadership mean to you? How are you as a leader embracing new ways of doing work? After a prestigious career including being GM at AKQA, a Managing Director at Accenture, and an international career with Sapient Publicis, Julia von Winterfeldt felt like a new kind of leadership was necessary. One that valued humans above numbers. I took a deep dive with Julia on what purpose-driven leadership looks like, the importance of learning how to communicate critique the right way, and the best leadership traits she learned from the US, UK, and Germany.

I’ve jotted down all key takeaways for you below so you don’t need to scribble along as you listen. And don’t forget to download the leadership checklist featuring Julia’s key insights at the very end!

Julia is a change evangelist, digital expert, leadership activist, human leader, strategy consultant, yoga teacher, systemic coach, and founder. She started SOULWORX in 2015 to help organizations reassess their purpose, consider new transformative plays, and ignite long-lasting positive change, driving growth and innovation. Julia believes purpose is an aspirational reason for being that is grounded in humanity and which inspires a call to action. Prior to SOULWORX, Julia was GM at AKQA. She also took on the role as Managing Director at Accenture Interactive ASG, after an international career with Sapient Publicis.

She was named a Top 5 Business Women, Germany in the field of Communications in 2015 and 2016, one of 29 female Global Trailblazers 2017 by Refinery29 and TheFemaleQuotient, and is an avid speaker and moderator on future of work and new leadership.

Learn more about Julia: SOULWORX | Humans of New Work

Julia has always been ahead of the curve – from being part of the team that set the first pixel on the Adidas website to understanding that leadership is about more than the bottom line.

How to find out what leadership means to you

• Discern if you agree with the critique you receive: Julia was often told she was too nice and for the people. Yet she decided that for her that was signs of good, not bad, leadership.
• Embrace the new: Don’t just get stuck with the way it’s always been done. Explore if there are new ways of working out there that resonate with you.

In her very first leadership position, Julia was thrown in the deep end and had to learn a lot quickly, leading a team that grew from 0 to 35 team members.

How to lead a quickly-growing team:

• Don’t be shy: Julia sometimes wasn’t sure if she was doing was right and had doubts she didn’t show. Be more open with what’s going on.
• Take more risks: Julia would advise her younger self to go forward and just do it. Everything will still fall into place. And if something does go wrong, even that can be overcome.

During her agency time in New York, Julia miscalculated and accidently sunk significant costs for the company. Come performance management review time, she got “failed”. But more than just being seen as a bad leader, it got to Julia more how she was talked with.

How to communicate critique:

• Treat them as an individual, not a clog in the machine: If you do believe in the individual and believe that that individual is someone who you value, then you would have a completely different type of conversation.
• Think about the long term impact: Consider how you treating them and the words you use will impact how you work together in the future.
• Consider the risk they took: Remember they put themselves on the line in the hope that things would go the way that they had planned.

Julia was in leadership positions in the US, UK, and Germany and learned to form a blend of the different styles.

How to use the best leadership traits from around the world:

• Genuinely care for how people are: Julia found leaders asking in the US, “How are you doing?”, was genuine interest in understanding the other person and how they were doing.
• Keep it light: In the UK, Julia found leaders joked more, especially about themselves, which made it easier to break down barriers and for others to relate to them.
• Get to the facts: Germans tend to be very factual, which stems from to wanting to understand what it’s all about, which helps make nuanced decisions.

Julia founded SOULWORX to help companies reinvent themselves and look with them at the cultural side of what has to change so that they can be relevant in future.

How to lead with purpose:

• Define your why: Think about what you’re really trying to achieve. And Julia points it cannot be money. That’s a result, not a reason for existing.
• Make it personal: it’s important for the individual to understand what is his or her purpose in being in this role and what does this person really want to achieve through this role or what does it want bring to expression through this role is a better way of saying it.