Leadership Espresso with Stefan Götz
In a world of constant change and complexity, true leadership isn’t about control— it’s about curiosity, clarity, and courage. Join Executive Coach Stefan Götz - www.stefan-goetz.com, as he helps accomplished leaders unlock their authentic leadership compass, inspire peak team performance, and achieve sustainable success—without sacrificing life beyond work. Whether you’re a seasoned executive or an emerging leader, this podcast will equip you with the mindset, strategies, and tools to lead with confidence, purpose, and impact.
Leadership Espresso with Stefan Götz
Humor, Heart & Leadership: Your Superpowers in Chaos: feat Dr. Dennis Hüttenmeister
What happens when conventional leadership approaches fail in the face of unprecedented challenges? Senior Vice President Dennis Hüttenmeister found himself building Europe's first lithium refinery just as COVID-19 lockdowns began and global supply chains collapsed. Starting with just a blank piece of paper and a handful of team members, he discovered that creating human connection would prove more valuable than any formal project management methodology.
Dennis shares his refreshingly authentic approach to navigating uncertainty by creating psychological safety and focusing on people's natural strengths. Rather than forcing standard processes, he implemented daily stand-ups where team members connected organically—even intentionally giving them space to bond without him present. Weekly one-on-ones became sacred time for development conversations that team members actively protected in their schedules. These seemingly small practices built the foundation of trust necessary for tackling massive technical challenges in a virtual environment.
Perhaps most revolutionary is Dennis's perspective on talent development. When confronted with a technical expert who wanted a leadership position primarily for financial reasons, Dennis challenged the conventional career ladder. "What I observe is when you're working in your expert role, I see you super happy, energized, intrinsically motivated," he told the team member. Instead of losing a brilliant specialist to a management track where they might struggle, Dennis created an alternative path recognizing their value while keeping them in their zone of genius. This human-centered approach reminds us that organizations thrive when they build positions around people's strengths rather than forcing people to conform to predefined roles. As Dennis puts it: "If someone starts to really glow from the inside, ultimately the company will also be happy with it." Discover how applying this philosophy creates environments where both people and projects flourish despite external chaos.
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https://open.spotify.com/show/4OT3BYzDHMafETOMgFEor3
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https://www.youtube.com/@Stefangoetz_Global_Leadership/videos
Connect with Stefan Götz on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefangoetz/
Check out Stefan's Executive and Team Coaching
https://www.stefan-goetz.com/
Welcome to another episode of the Leadership Espresso podcast. Today we have Dennis Hüttenmeister on the show. Welcome to the show, dennis. I know you are a Senior Vice President of Sales and Execution and being a world champion in vacuum induction technology, and today we want to know all about how you handle unpredictable, difficult situations in leadership.
Speaker 2:So welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Hey, hey, stefan, thank you for having me yeah, wonderful, let's jump right into it, as I really value your humor, the way you tackle difficult situations, and maybe you can just share one or two insights about how you go forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, what my job is here is basically managing all the special projects so not the normal products and also the large-scale stuff, so all the stuff that has the biggest potential to well, let's say, escalate.
Speaker 1:It sounds like business as normal, with lots of leaders.
Speaker 2:Well, that's true. Yes, normal with lots of leaders. Yeah, well, that's, that's true. Yes, uh, yeah, in the last years, I had the, the honor to to um be project manager for um, also in in a sister company to um, yeah, build up the first european lithium uh refinery, which we did in in eastern germany and uh, as you could imagine, uh starting in in late 2019. Uh, that that was quite right. Uh, with like two, two months into job, uh, we uh the covet started and then we had the, the ukraine crisis and war um impacting like everything that uh you could touch in in in the field of project management for these plants we managed.
Speaker 2:Some weeks ago, the first lithium hydroxide was produced. What did we do? We started off pretty much with a blank piece of paper. What did we do? We started off pretty much with a blank piece of paper and we needed to find a way in a very small company. I was employee number nine in this company at the time and today it's far more than 100.
Speaker 2:So basically, there were no structures, there was no one to ask OK, how do we do that normally? So we had to find a way and we did, fortunately, and um, what I think helped a lot during that time is not taking like everything too seriously. Um, there will be impacts from it from all sides and uh, that's it. That's how it is. And in the upfront talk there was a quote that I said I talked to like a very cool guy who has like years and years and years of experience in plant management or plant project management, and what he said is in the end there's always a plant, so don't worry, it'll work in the end, don't worry there will be a plant, so don't worry, it'll work in the end.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, there will be a plant, there will be a plant. So I guess you were the right person, uh, to tackle that task. So maybe you can describe in that setting you know, starting war in the Ukraine, covid coming in, you know, starting with a new company, probably with a new technology as well. So I guess, with lots of projects, there would be a long list of things not working and things to handle. So what is your approach.
Speaker 2:Basically, the first thing I found out is I did like a super fancy project management training course and so on, and I found out, yeah, there's nothing I can use. Wow, super, not helpful. So, yeah, I need to find a way. Okay, how do I do that then, if none of the normal approaches is somehow applicable? And so I thought, okay, I have to recruit people. Okay, but there is a lockdown. How do I recruit people when I can't see the people? Um, yeah, well, uh, obviously, teams was coming in. That helped a lot. Um, but still, like everyone knows that there there's kind of a hurdle or a barrier when, when, when you talk through teams. So at some point there there needed to be personal contact. And what I really focused on was well, yeah, of course, the hard facts need to be there. When I need someone to do mechanical stuff should be an industrial mechanical engineer. If I need electrical stuff, of course, course. So, yeah, these things must be there. But then I focus a lot on how is the the fit between these people? Do I believe that they, um, yeah, they fit together, that they can become a team, um, even if the normal team building stuff, like having the people together, go on a dinner or something, have them together for lunch. All is just not existing, yeah. So I really try to focus on okay, how can I make that? At the same time, I try to select people along the way. Okay, how do I eliminate blind spots? So what's their experience? So is that the same or is that different?
Speaker 2:And I came out with a team of, in the beginning, three engineers, so we were only four in the team at that time for pretty large investments, but we were meant to do the onus engineering and we needed to find other people to carry out the majority of the work. Yeah, so then we tried to team the people and we need to find a way to have this coffee machine talks going on. And, yeah, so we implemented stand-ups in the morning. So every morning there would be a stand-up. And it worked out so well that the people started to dial in 15 minutes early to talk about everything. So that was really cool.
Speaker 2:Then I found out that if the boss is there quote unquote then normally there was somehow a feeling that, okay, now we're starting with a meeting. So I started giving them the room and not dialing early to have like, okay, that's their safe space, let's say, so they can do their whatever they want to talk about stuff. And I really dialed in at half past eight so I gave them this room and that was cool because sometimes it was they talked about all kinds of private stuff. Other times they talked through the topics and when I dialed in it was, yeah, we had this topic, but we already solved it.
Speaker 1:That was also pretty cool, uh, yeah so it's like uh, leading with giving space yeah, that's that I.
Speaker 2:I feel that if you want a team to to work, then you need to give them space. It's uh something that they need to be safe, and of course, I hope that they also felt safe when I'm around. But of course it's a bit different when they're with themselves. And I tried to give them this room. And then I said, okay, also want to like develop the people. I want to like see where, okay, where can I develop them?
Speaker 2:And, um, of course, same thought uh, safety, you cannot do this, uh, in front of everyone. So, um, well, I didn't want to um, so I started doing one-on-one calls once a week with everyone. Yeah, um so, and and that was also a room, it wasn't like pre-casted or something so I said, okay, if you have topics, go ahead. If I have topics, I tell you we can talk about everything. If you have a private thing that you want to talk about, we'll talk about that. If there's professional things to talk about, we talk about that. If we're done after five minutes, fine. If we need more time, then let's see where we go or we continue later. So try to have it very open. And, yeah, I found that the people really liked that and they really actively searched for it. So when there was like too much workload and two weeks in a row we couldn't, then they really asked okay, but this week we need to do the call. What was your?
Speaker 2:intention behind these calls all, and what was your intention behind these calls? Um, I like to, um, I think it's been in the thought of servant leadership to um, have them, um, yeah, to support them as good as possible, and that that is. That is on two sides, that is, in the professional advancement or in the professional development, like in the actual task to be done. If there's a question, um, there needs to be a room to discuss it. Um, but also like what, what's, what's their goal in professional life? So, where do they want to go? And, um, I found it helpful for them and also for for, because it's yeah, of course, I develop also when I do that to openly talk about OK, where do you, where do you want to go, and what's your, what's your driver behind that? Why do you want to go there?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I remember a situation that you had with someone who wanted to grow, but the setting was interesting and how you turned it around. Maybe you want to share about this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a situation with a guy in my team. He wanted to develop into a leadership role and he was long years in a leadership. He managed a production shop and before that so he was an engineer in my team and before that I gave them some smaller jobs with partial management of the project and I found out that that didn't turn out so super good. I tried to develop with him and help him in the situation. After I gave him feedback, I also felt that in the situation he wasn't too happy with it, felt that in the situation he wasn't like too happy with it. Yeah, on the other hand, when he was in his like deep expertise, um, and he couldn't dive in like level 200 deep, then he really he glowed. It was like you really saw him smiling all day this is what we call an expert, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then he was super, super good in this expert role and I couldn't say that I was super happy with him in the leadership role. So I told him. I said okay, why do you want to go into this leadership role? And he said yeah, I also want to earn more money. I said, said, okay, wrong answer. Then, uh, well, not surprisingly that there was uh silence. Okay, let let let me explain why I said that. And I said um, okay, let me explain why I said that. And I said told him directly.
Speaker 2:What I observe is that when you're working in your expert role, I see you super happy, I see you energized, I see you like you're really intrinsically motivated. Yeah, when I expose you to these leadership roles, then I don't see that there's so much energy in it. Also, you burden yourself with more work because it's somehow I observe it as hard for you that you give work away and you like let other people do the stuff, and that's something that's super, super important. When you want to go into a leadership role, you cannot do everything on your own. That's the reason why you you're there. You have to lead other people. You have to find, like, the flight level and not the digging deep to work.
Speaker 2:And I told him okay, what I can do for you is like find internal, find ways that in your leadership or in your sorry, in your expert, you can also earn more money. I see you as the top expert here for this topic and so I talked internally with other colleagues how we can develop him in this direction and also gave him the question as I said, if you really want to go into a leadership position, I will support you, of course, but maybe just take the thought for a week or two and think about if you really want to lead, transform your daily work from managing with data to managing people, and if you're really, really happy with that. And I told him why am I saying this? I'm not saying this because I don't want to help him in the leadership position or whatever.
Speaker 2:I'm really, really convinced that if someone, from the company perspective and also from the perspective of the people if you find a position where the people start to really glow from the inside, that they're intrinsically motivated and that they are happy with, ultimately the company will also be happy with it, because they will develop more value to the company and they will be more happy in their job and they will stay longer in the company and they will start like from every perspective, it's the better way to find the best place for someone that really fits to their career and like not have have career tracks that you have to follow in order to make more money. So, uh, it's more like the the position has to like fit to the guy and not the guy to the position.
Speaker 1:I think that's an interesting thought, um, about talent development. Typically, we have a position to fill in a company and we're looking for someone inside or outside to fill that position. But when you come from a human-centric approach, where you value people, where you see people want to contribute and, as you put it, people are glowing, I think what you focus on and what you bring us to the table is that we are in the leadership position. We shall focus on the people to make them or to inspire them, or to bring them in a position to glow yeah, and when people glowing, then automatically you know they will contribute and contribution will then ultimately you will see they will contribute and contribution will then ultimately receive them P-0.
Speaker 1:Yes. So I'd be interested to know were there any conflicts, or what happens when something happens, I mean when there is the CFO saying, no, we can't allow us to put up more money. Or how do you handle conflict situations?
Speaker 2:I mean, the good thing in this company is that it was an immensely growing company. The good thing in this company is that it was an immensely growing company and in growing companies there's so many things that are open and there's so much development going on and so many screws not fixed. Let's say that with the right approach or with the right arguments, let's say you can make positions. And what we did with him is like I said, okay, this project will be over at some time, but the knowledge of this guy who, like, basically engineered all of this, will be super valuable. So in the end, what we want is someone to be like the head expert when it comes to how to make this stuff, how to make this process work. And so I said, okay, let's maybe have a position of like chief, something not chief but but senior, something engineer. And so to maybe give him a small team of other experts where the focus is not so much on the management of these people, but to have just a bit more force, a bit more broth to make things happen. And yeah, we started doing this, and that also opened up possibilities for higher salary. It wasn't like really management, really leadership, that he had to do. It was he could still focus on his job and yeah, so we made this position for him. So in this case it was somehow easy, and In bigger corporations, of course, that's more complicated because it's more structured.
Speaker 2:You have these certain tracks and I think corporations need to think new somehow. I mean, there's corporations who do that. I think IBM started quite some years ago having this I think they call it fellow program where they do exactly that. They found out that and it's basically exactly the same thing they found out that if they promote the best expert to the leadership position of his team, he gets unhappy because he can't do what he likes to do and what he's good at. And then they found out that these people leave for their competitors that sell them more for their old job. So, um, sure, they had a shitty manager and they lost their top expert. Yeah, but just some euros. Why? Yeah, there's no reason in that. And, um, yeah, they found out and they build up like this whole track, and I think at ibm it was uh at the time that you could earn as much money as, um, a c-level person.
Speaker 2:Well, maybe not the ceo, but uh others, um, in that fellow program right, um, and that really uh increased the retention rate a lot, yeah yeah, now to, to, to sum up or to somehow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, now to sum up or to somehow. Now we live in times where Trump one day he raises tariffs and another day he shortens them. Elon Musk approaches this or that way. How are you, how does that impact your business and how do you, what is your way of dealing with that?
Speaker 2:Well, there's the hard stuff. When you want to export to US makes it harder. But in the end, when you're convinced that your product is the better one and you can convince the customers of doing that, okay. But if there's a running project and you already sold for a certain price, that gets interesting and that's where you I think, in the end, you need to be honest and you need to tell your customers okay, we didn't plan for that. We can try everything we can to somehow manage through that and find ways, but yeah, it is what it is and you have to manage it and no reason to get frustrated about it. It is what it is in the end and it will turn out somehow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it comes again to the, to this one mentor let's call this guy who told you in the end there will be a band. Yeah, so it's. I think it's. We waste so much time and focusing on external factors rather than just getting things fixed. And as engineers, I mean, we try, we're trained to fix things. Yeah and uh. What I truly value about your approach is that you fix things by believing in people. You give them the space to grow, you give them connection that makes them feel heard and seen. So there's no wishy-washy around it. There's no. It's a very powerful, authentic, big-hearted approach to people and getting things done.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:In the end, there will be a plan.
Speaker 2:In the end, there will be a plan. I think, well, I tell people a lot that I cannot do it without them. They are the experts. I can, like get the gravel out the way and the get like stones out of their way, yeah, uh, in the end they need to, they. They need to do what they are, that they are better at I am than I am, and, um, they are the expert and at the same time, for me, this also means responsibility and accountability, so they are responsible for their work package. If there's things coming in their way, that's my job to get rid of these things. I want to make an atmosphere and want to make a atmosphere and want to make a place for them where they can work freely. My job is to make this space and to manage everything around it. That's what I'm good at. They need to trust me that I do what I can do well and I trust them that they do what they can do well and I trust them that they do what they can do well.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I like this approach. It's about making space for them to work freely so they can focus on what they can do best, and this will benefit everyone. It will benefit the client, it will benefit our company, it will benefit our P&L and the end. It sounds a bit weird these days, but everybody's going to be happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a horrible thing to think about.
Speaker 1:No, dennis, thank you so much for this time. It is to be continued, certainly, and thank you for sharing your time, your insights about this human-centric, happy approach.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much. It was a fun time.