A fresh perspective on management

To Magdalena, leadership isn’t about making a career; instead, it’s about her commitment to making an impact. As the manager of a team of 80 people, she’s built a culture female-driven alongside her seven female team leaders. Inspired by her own role models, she tackles her department's challenges using her own distinctive style for everyone’s benefit. "At ZEISS, my job isn’t just about work – it’s an opportunity for personal growth. This perspective has become second nature to me."

Magdalena’s tasks are complex and varied. She manages her department and actively helps solve problems as they arise on a daily basis. "I leave 20 percent of my calendar free every day for ad hoc tasks,” she explains, "and believe me they do come up!" In daily meetings with strategic partners or other ZEISS departments, she advises, networks and takes decisions which will affect the role of accounts payable within the company. How should the dynamics of ongoing change be managed? Digitalization and day-to-day operational processes at ZEISS require constant changes. “It's about integrating new aspects into the status quo without losing momentum," she explains. "We need to pivot quickly and adjust our priorities to deliver our best quality work."

Magdalena relies on clear, value-driven communications to achieve all this. "When a manager addresses challenges with appreciation, professionalism and support, it creates a ripple effect across the team," she explains. "Now that I can be a role model, I’m determined to motivate others and inspire positivity wherever possible." She occasionally addresses her team with an inspirational speech to set the course for the next steps in her plans for the department’s future.

For more than a decade, Magdalena has been a team member herself of the department she heads up today. But how she got there is not what she is most proud of: it’s the teamwork, the sense of togetherness and solidarity at the core of what they do that she’s most proud of. She knows that her positive, value-based leadership style has played a key role in fostering such an environment.

"I’m proud to say we’ve built a work environment where everyone feels respected, and their contributions are genuinely valued within a culture of partnership. This doesn’t happen by accident: it’s the result of hard work.”