#6 Tone from the top - how one woman is using her leadership role to push for diversity and inclusion - and how you can too! Interview with Corinna Schittenhelm Board member @Schaeffler AG

More and more companies recognise the importance
of #diversity, and not just because investors are
increasingly looking at whether they meet ESG (Environmental,
Social & Governance) Criteria.  But here in Germany, we
still have a problem. And so #diversity is an agenda
that we have to keep pushing. Corinna
Schittenhelm understands this first-hand - she’s a female
executive in a traditionally male-dominated field: automotive and
industrial engineering. Corinna is a trailblazer for many of
us, and as Executive Board Member for Human Resources and
Sustainability at engineering giant Schaeffler she is
working to normalise #diversity in the workplace. That
includes things like ensuring
that #workingdads take #parentalleave too."Today
when I have those discussions, not only with women, also with men
- actually much more men, I really encourage them also to take
time off,” she explains in this podcast. “I think it’s really
important for both.” 


As we always say at MyCollective, parenting is
a #leadershipskill - and in her position at the top of a big
company, Corinna sees this too. "I’m also interested the
individual,” she says, "in their family needs, how they feel,
what they do, if they have special interests, and this really
human-centric view - you keep this when you have children, and
you have a family.” This is one of the reasons she advocates for
more men to devote time to parenting: “I think this is something
we would really need - that men also are courageous to show that
they have this human-centric view and that they are also
interested in other people and their needs and their character.
And not always driven so much by facts, figures, data, you know.
I think that would make them much more likeable!"



Speaker: Corinna Schittenhelm, Executive Board Member, Human
Resources and Sustainability at Schaeffler 


Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier -
Founder @MyCollective


Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach


Picture: Corinna Schittenhelm  


Graphic & Production: MyCollective