Episode 12: Preserving Purpose

A conversation with Susanna Krueger

In this episode of On the Balcony, Michael welcomes guest Susanna Krueger, a serial social entrepreneur and former CEO of Save the Children Germany, the oldest and largest independent child’s rights organization in the world. She’s here to engage with the final chapter of Ron Heifetz’s Leadership Without Easy Answers, entitled “The Personal Challenge,” which outlines a set of reflective questions you can ask yourself to better practice leadership around difficult adaptive work. Susanna begins the conversation by highlighting Heifetz’s point about the loneliness of leadership and how feelings of frustration or helplessness vis-a-vis massive complex challenges can be mirrored at the top and in the whole organization. She then discusses how engaging with purpose is a key aspect of the art of leadership and that this requires the skill of listening to people and asking them what the current opportunity for them is. Susanna illustrates this with the example of the international podcast she set up, which became a form of cultural engagement for the Save the Children community.

Next, Susanna discusses the flaws in international aid, particularly that it too often plays to what is in the aid-givers’ interests instead of asking what those in need really want. She suggests that a change to the framework of aid, particularly in the developmental space, is needed but can only be implemented by finding the right partners and allowing for flexibility and learning. Susanna also tackles the pressures on authority to fix and solve and the difficulty of living in the ambiguity of leading people while having to navigate your own course. She brings up Heifetz’s point that people project onto their leaders and highlights the importance of distinguishing oneself from one’s role through inner development, sharing some of the methods she uses to do so. And finally, Susanna discusses the new platform she is building with the aim of connecting people who want to invest in good causes with each other and projects with sustainable development goals.