#35 TWO TO TANGO - The magic of working in tandem, with Nina Gillmann

Tandem solutions may not be mainstream yet, but at @MyCollective
we’re hearing more and more people talking about them - and our
community are parents who work in a really diverse range of
industries. Some of them have even formed a group for tandems, so
it was exciting for us to have @Nina Gillmann return to our
podcast. Nina is co-founder and CEO of @TWISE, a company that
creates tandem solutions and that has worked with many of our
participants.

The perspective that our work gives us on parents returning to
their careers post-baby has shown us that tandems are a really
important piece of the solution. They represent an innovative and
fluid working model that makes being a hands-on parent while
accelerating your career actually possible. “For parents with
really small children, working 25-30 hours per week is realistic
and that doesn’t fit with the expectations for a leadership
position, which is more like 50-70 hours per week,” Nina
explains. But if there are two of you, 50-70 hours becomes
realistic - AND you still have time for family.

For companies, there are lots of advantages:

two people = more skills, more ideas, more experience.
everything has already been vetted by two people, meaning less
work for their immediate manager and fewer mistakes.
managers and team leaders become drivers for diversity, making
them a real talent magnet.

Nina lists some interesting pluses for individuals in a tandem
too:
it broadens your skillset because “you have an expert at your
side who has it in his or her own best interest to teach you and
to transfer everything they know.”
  Pitching ideas as “we” instead of “I” is “a beautifully
subtle way for women to gain more visibility, more credibility
and more power.”
  When you can’t be at work, you know that the person
backfilling for you fully wants you to succeed - it’s their job
as well as yours!


Speaker: @Nina Gillmann - Co-founder and CEO, @TWISE

Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier - Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Nina Gillmann

#getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective #tandem
#jobsharing #leadership #motherhood #parenthood #diversity
#equality #changemakers #getinspiredpodcast #ImpulseSessions
#parentalleave #elternzeit