Hello, everybody. Um My name is Lauren Joseph and I am here with Mi Le and we are here from Mandu um A B to B Payments company. Um We are an early stage company, just a series A and we're headquartered in Berlin, um increasingly active throughout Europe.And so today we're talking about the culture of self determination and um it's an interesting one for us. We have 100 and 50 employees across 40 different nationalities and um 25 languages. So we, we have a lot on our plates and are excited to talk about it. Um So before we dive into the questions, it looks like a few people are still joining. So Mia will give it a second and um see who's here. All right. Um So yes, I'm I'm here as the chief people officer, but more importantly, we are going to be hearing from me who is our chief legal officer. And so with that me, I would love to have you introduce yourself for all of those listening.

Hello everyone. Thank you for your time to listen in today. My name is Mi Le. I'm the Chief legal Officer of Mondo as Lauren said, we are based in Berlin, uh a fintech B MP L provider, which was uh founded two years ago. So I'm gonna uh talk about this topic a little bit before that. I just wanna lay out how my journey towards managing a team went in the last years. So before I joined MDU, I had um a number of teams of varying size and of varying locations basically. Um So when I uh joined Mondo, I had been working for CLA for five years when I was working for Klarna. Uh I had um international teams internationally based in different time zones also. Um And in, yeah, indeed, in different locations, sometimes I would even lead a team remotely that was, of course, sometimes a challenge. And uh I also want to talk a little bit about my own experience about how that went of managing a team even remotely, but still making sure we would meet our deliverables and we would have, you know, meet our goals, basically. Um So, yeah, um happy to participate in the session today. Uh Lauren, I think you're on mute. Sorry.

Thank you. I think after 3.5 years, we would be a better practice than this. So as I said, um I've loved, you know, learning from you and hearing about your experiences at Klarna and previously, um because of all of those layers and textures to different team dynamics. Um And so with that, you know, for any of those listening, we do invite you to ask questions as they may come to mind. Um You know, we'd love to make it as interactive as possible, but we will also try to reserve time at the end. Um But please don't be shy. So, you know, stepping into the topic on hand today, self determination. Um What is it, you know, what is it particularly in a business context? Um And how is a culture of self determination different from what we might have come to know previously?

Yeah. So um I can only talk probably uh out of my own experience as a member of a team. That's usually my starting point. What did I appreciate? And what was making it difficult for me to perform my work? And I can say from my own experience that I really enjoyed having responsibility, I can even go back to my own childhood where I can say that I enjoyed that moment as well. When I was a child. When I suddenly had a responsibility with responsibility, you get accountability, which is really important for anyone who wants to uh have at least a feeling that he or she can make his or her own decisions and really decide what needs to be done. Uh What are uh the next steps? What can I do to achieve a certain goal? Um Self determination is um is uh something which comes from uh motivation. And I'm a strong believer in the idea of intrinsic motivation instead of extrinsic motivation. The as long as the motivation comes from yourself, um you know, great things can happen basically and a lot of things can be actually done. Um You know, like Reed Hastings was talking about bad apples. Uh I believe that if you manage a team without kind of controlling them or micromanaging uh too much, but putting a lot of trust in the ways of working and how they do the work.

Um then you can actually really make sure that those employees who are high performers and who are driven and ambitious can actually really thrive. You might need a different style of management. If you really wanna basically make sure that the bad apples, so to say they will deliver the work, but on the way, you will actually lose the high performance as well with this style. And I've made the experience that these days also with younger generations and with uh a younger workforce, basically, um if these generations do not appreciate a certain um management style, which is different from earlier times where it was really managing people. Whereas right now, this has evolved into a leaders, leading leading people or leadership role. Uh you will lose the high performance and they will just leave. Um So, yeah, this is basically my motivation to say, look, I don't want to micromanage, I want to provide guidance. I want to provide a vision an idea, uh what, which might help people, not necessarily always, but it might give them some extra guidance and uh advice to how they can do the work. II, I can try to enable, facilitate, make working conditions easier for them align on certain ways of working. But uh you know, the motivation will need to come from everyone in the team himself or herself.

And you touched a really, I think important point there on the, the distinction between leadership and management. Um And that when you're setting up a, you know, a culture, um not simply a project, not simply, you know, a team deadline, but a culture of self determination that leadership is so important. Um And I'd really love to hear, you know, I, I really admire how you've been able to instill that sense of self determination within your team at Mandu. Um I would love to hear about your experience actually doing that on a day, over day, practical matter, you know, for, for those who might have just joined, we have a really international team within Mondo um and a really diverse team. And so we can't fall back on an assumed shared context for us all. You know, we've got 100 and 50 different stories, personalities, um languages, people, you name it. And, you know, we have to create some of that context for people to then have a shared culture and a shared working style. And so those are all, you know, just more texture to the experience.

And I would really love to hear, you know, what you've done to make this work for you and work for your team on a daily basis.

Right. So I think one important aspect is to uh first uh when you get a team together, so sort of that you align on certain team practices and the ways of working. So everyone knows what to expect and everyone knows what the order will be on a weekly basis, on a daily basis. I know that every team is also slightly different, there are different needs, there are different projects and the different, you know, needs to work together. Also, uh I'm leading a legal and compliance team, which means that, you know, we will have a row of bigger projects, basically not so many smaller projects, daily projects like may maybe tech teams which have maybe certain smaller tasks. We usually have big projects. Uh I still uh do daily stand ups, for example. Uh And now people have asked me what's the point of doing daily stand ups if you only have very big projects? Um So the idea of these daily stand ups is not so much to kind of really talk too much about the long term goals or the long term projects and the vision and so on, but really quickly align on anything which is a blocker here. I see myself as a role of someone who needs to remove certain blockers which can make the lives and the work of my team difficult.

It can be um maybe uh an extra communication which needs to be done with someone at the management side or it needs to be uh a contact which I have to establish with some external stakeholder can be uh various uh forms of blockers where I'm happy to help resolve these blockers.

Uh But also it's really important to kind of signal to the team. I am accessible as a leader. You can discuss with me anything which needs to be discussed. Sometimes we have one minute daily stand ups, sometimes we have 15 minute daily stand ups. We still try to keep it short. Uh Because the idea of the daily stand up is really just very quickly align. Sometimes we just say hi and we say bye. Um And that's, that's the, that's the, you know, then that's fine. Everyone is happy to have said good morning and goodbye. Uh And then go on with the work. We also have different uh other uh team practices as well, but as uh to come back, come back to your question, Lauren. So it's important to have an alignment and a consensus on the ways of working. How are we going to do our work? And to also listen to anyone who might have concerns concerning these team practices from my experience. Um Certain team practices have proved very well. We have sometimes also removed certain team practices again because we thought, OK, there's no point doing this. You need to be open to adjust and adapt. Also. It really depends on each individual team member. You need to be flexible about this as well. Some people don't like certain team practices also and then you, you align with them and say, OK, let's do it differently then.

Um But yeah, so this is basically what I've been trying to do, like always be accessible, always be ready to have a quick sync alignment, meeting, um react quickly, make quick decisions if needed or remove blockers and give guidance if needed. Uh And yeah, that's about it.

No. And importantly, you have that social connection too that, you know, for our team. And I think for many teams out there, we, you know, we can't rely on seeing one another face to face on a daily basis. And so, you know, if the daily stand up includes a hello and a goodbye and a few jokes that's time well spent. Um and it helps create that shared context once again and a shared team culture. Um I have

for you sorry to interrupt, but for you as a Chief people officer, uh I would be interested what your experience was kind of in interacting with um management of your previous companies to maybe also convince them of the idea, you know, sometimes leadership can be better done with the idea of self determination rather than with micromanagement, what were the hurdles you had and the discussions you had sometimes with certain leaders,

you know, I think honestly when people are nervous about change and it could be a change from that which they're coming from, you know, it, it helps to have data, data goes far, you know, and if you have good examples of things that have worked for you and good examples of things that have worked for others out there.

Um It brings some comfort and, you know, the other thing that I, I like to come back to, you know, I've built my career in the start up space or at least the, the fun part of it. Um And, you know, the beauty of a start up is that you, you have the opportunity to shape and, you know, we're building something new, not just a product, but a team, a dynamic and, you know, we're, we're figuring out what works best for us. And when I've spoken with leaders who might be nervous of a particular change, what's helpful to point out is how do we bring this back to say, the product level, you know, people practices our product in real life and, you know, one continuous improvement in adaptation if we test something and it doesn't work, change it, it's, you know, it's not set in stone.

We, we have that power to continue to evolve and to continue to grow. Um And we might just be surprised what we learned from ourselves, but nothing is undoable in that sense. And so, and that, you know, is a nice segue to actually touch on some of mandus leadership principles which you've touched on already continuous learning, continuous adaptation and iteration and the humility to recognize when you need to do the both, even as a leader. Um Yeah, but I'd like to.

Exactly. That's my impression also like um what, what it essentially boils down to is also that you are actually also listening to what your team is saying. So there's like feedback, not only in one direction, but also in both ways. And this is what's so great also about Mondo and I've experienced it in many other companies already where it was not the case, we really also have a 360 feedback cycle review in place, which is not to be taken for granted, right? But which also signals to the team. You know, someone listens to the team, someone is also open and interested to hear about their experiences with me as their manager basically. And you know, there's an opportunity for them to voice their concerns and voice their opinions. And I think that actually also makes a big difference in companies if they really do have a working 360 review in place.

Exactly. Um You learn and it's a huge, huge, huge signal to the team that we value your input and we're the leadership is not above review that it's an open exchange and an open dialogue. Um And for some context there, you know, we at Mandu, even though we are young, have implemented a proper biannual review process. So every six months, we make sure we're getting that feedback and that we're growing and developing within our roles here. Um And that our team is evolving to the best it can and not just relying on what we've learned previously. And so, you know, taking this, um we have had a unique opportunity to shape the culture and our working rhythms. Um And so I'm curious, you know, now as we're speaking to others who might be considering the same, what advice do you have for those who are looking to establish a, a real culture and experience of self determination within their team? Um You'd like to level up that, that line of leadership. Is there anything that you'd like them to take away um to learn from?

I think for those who are already managing people and having teams, I do think it's really important to also kind of, I, I know it sounds maybe a little bit basic, but it's really important to kind of hear out what the team wants and what, what each an individual team, each individual team member has in mind.

How in his or her own perspective, the best way of working would be like, you know, every person's uh uh preference can be different. And uh some people like to sing and align every day. Some other members of the team do, do not need so much uh singing and aligning and they might wanna kind of speak every two or three days. Uh I do find it important to find certain flexibility uh in, in this bilateral, let's say, interactions uh and to hear out what do you want and also what is your preferred mode of, you know, interacting with me? Um And then sometimes it's possible to kind of find a consensus which is kind of appealing to everyone, sometimes uh really for some, some members of the team, it's really important to do it in some way. And then you can also make an exception, be flexible about this uh be open for anyone who wants it differently. Because I think one important fact of self determination is also that this person really feels he or she can determine his or her own way of working. Um Because, you know, again, as I said, this feeling of self determination can lead to a lot of accountability and responsibility. And this is the main driver for you as a team manager to become to get good results overall.

Um And then I had another thought, but it kind of slipped my mind now.

No, I mean, and I think the key takeaway is that it really sounds like higher, well higher, right? But, you know, bring in the people who are going to take this on to own it and care about it as themselves and then teach them what they need to know to make decisions. Um And so, you know, it's, it's hard work but it's worth it. Um, looking at the time I'd love to see if anyone has any questions for me. Um, before, before we sidle you off here. Um, so if there are any questions, I of course, have a few more, but I do want to give that opportunity. All right. Um You know, then on that, I think for y you kind of some parting words, what have you learned about yourself, to be honest, over the last year plus um building your team at Mondo and really, you know, being very proactive and making sure that your team has that context, has you hired really well, really smart.

Um And you've let them shine and let them fly. So what do you learn for yourself?

Yeah. What I've learned is also that, you know, even though you might be the manager of a team that that is more on the organizational side, right? You have a certain responsibility concerning their development, their growth, you know, also the compensation. So of course, there is like an organizational structure which no one can deny and that's just a fact. But apart from that, you have a responsibility also towards the project where you involve the team. And here I found it really important that you create actually a discussion space with the team where anyone can see herself or himself as a peer. Because only this kind of uh so my experience at least has been that only if you create a structure like this where on a project level, everyone is equal and everyone can say his or her own thoughts and uh and uh participate and devolve, evolve and develop ideas, you can actually generate good ideas, right?

So if there's just a top down approach here by me saying, what steps need to be done and this needs to be done and these are the deliverables, this won't work in the long run. So what you need to have uh um you know, create is a democratic space basically with your team on the technical content, on the content you wanna drive on the projects you wanna drive. And, and of course, you know, uh at the same time, of course, you have this organizational layer but that as such is for the project itself, not important and not relevant. And uh these are main lessons I have taken away uh being a manager for uh several years now. Uh And that the team must have the same feeling as I have that, you know, we, we are here as a team and we can develop these projects together and we are jointly there and this is a team effort. Um And uh and then really that can make a whole uh difference as such

100% agreed. Needless to say, as, as the people, person, I like to see empowered people, feeling engaged and you've done a fabulous job with that. Um So we are, we are right at time. Um We promised we would be, but, you know, if anyone does have any follow up questions um or would just like to continue the conversation, please feel free to add either of us on linkedin, um Lauren Joseph Muli and we're both found at Mondo and um we'd love to keep in touch.

So thank you very much for your time and thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Bye bye bye

bye.