How Real Leaders Help Their People Grow Professionally and As a Person

How Real Leaders Help Their People Grow Professionally And As A Person

Alexander: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of The Effective Statistician. And today I’m super happy to have Aziza and Klaus here. And I know Aziza already for quite some time and she connected me also to Klaus. And A couple of months ago, recording this actually more at the end of the summer, and we had a discussion before the summer, we had a very good discussion about the impact statisticians can have.

And Aziza learned a lot from Klaus and Klaus learned a lot from Aziza. And so I think there’s there’s a Lots of beautiful insights into the discussion. And lots of great learnings for you as a listener to the effective statistician, but before we dive into the content, let me first. Introduce you to my two guests today [00:01:00] and ladies first, Aziza, maybe you can speak shortly about your background and where you’re now working.

Aziza: Yes. Thank you very much, Alexander. It’s really nice to be here in my favorite podcast. And it’s really great to have this episode with my former manager Klaus. And we will be talking about him later. But yes, I am Aziza and I am a statistician and I became a statistician because of Klaus.

And it’s really it’s really a pleasure to share my experience and I am working at the moment as a senior statistician in the nonclinical world of the pharma business. And I am responsible to support development team in the animal health business was a statistical consulting design of experiments and everything you can yeah, every concept that you can use and extract insights [00:02:00] from the data.

And I am enjoying this world. Pharma is really very beautiful world. In my opinion, because one learns a lot about the health care and about our bodies about how to stay healthy and how to contribute to health care. It’s really nice. And so this is. And this is my experience in development team as a statistician.

And before I joined Boehringer Ingelheim so now I’m in was Boehringer ingelheim. And before I was at Corning incorporated and it was Corning environmental technologies business. And I was a plant statistician there and reporting to Klaus, my manager there. And Which I’m very grateful for.

And I was there also in the role of consulting, statistical consulting and and yeah and was involved in a lot of projects and was also supporting Klaus with promoting Six [00:03:00] Sigma methodologies and has gained a lot of experiences there with Klaus. I come from the manufacturing world.

And now I’m gaining my experience in the development world.

Alexander: Thanks so much, Aziza. And yes, it’s always a pleasure to have listeners of the podcast as actual guests on the podcast. Let’s turn it over to Klaus. So you already got introduced as a manager at Corning. How long are you at Corning?

Klaus: Oh, it’s difficult to say, but it’s true. 34 years now very close to that in September. And I’m a statistician by education. So I studied at the University of Dortmund in the eighties and got my degree as a diploma there and got hired by a former one who studied there. Early 1990s and got into being a statistician as a manufacturing plant.

And yeah, that was something special. I didn’t realize that I want to stay [00:04:00] there a long period of time. It was an understanding, an experience at that point. Our manufacturing facility at that point, and still it is a ceramics technical company, which makes products for the automotive business.

And the thing which hooked me to, to the place a great deal was as, as planned statisticians that I was in the beginning, we were dealing with data that we saw directly where they occurred because the manufacturing floor is only 20, 30 meters away from my office. All the time when we have data accent, I could try to look at how the data gets get manufactured in the daily shifts business and that was fascinating to me at that point of time.

I stayed there. Corning is a technical company, an American technical company, which has a lot of good products in the area of glass and ceramics. Some of you may [00:05:00] know about Gorilla Glass, which is one of the famous products and well known products of Corning. Not manufactured in the place where I stay, but anyhow, it’s a technical oriented company.

And one other thing which hooked me there also was there were statisticians. in the States together with the one who hired me, Carlos Valtan. So there was, in this American based company, there was a tradition to have statistics being important and data being important. And I was introduced and mentored by a statistician there who made me aware you have to go through the data, you have to be, get your hands a little dirty.

Also, sometimes, Things like that. That was interesting in the early time frames. And then somehow it took me that I stayed there forever. And I probably will conclude my concrete career at the same plant. In the years after 2000, our plant got a chance to expand [00:06:00] and that was then in, I think it was 2015 or something like that, as either you may remind me, or 2018.

I don’t completely remember. We got the chance to expand my little department and I could hire Aziza as a certain member of our little group. It was 2017. 2017? Yeah. Long time ago. So Aziza joined my team was, I have one other technician reporting to me fr and there was in a timeframe where we, when we grew a lot with a new business part and that made us aware we need more resources.

And that for me was a great learning experience because getting somebody new into statistics was was something new to me. I was applying my statistical tool and was happy about that, but now I when Aziza joined us, we needed to clarify how to proceed there. And Aziza was very successful and I was successful having [00:07:00] Aziza for me.

And that’s. Was a great thing. Then when Aziza got the chance to go to Böhringer Inlnheim we hired a successor of her, Teresa, who is now with us two, nearly three years, and I’m very glad to see that she, with her skills, which are different to Aziza’s, also really makes a great progress of learning.

So it’s it’s nice for me to have people like Aziza or Teresa coming from education from a university with a lot of dedication to learn becoming that interested in statistics. So I think that’s when Aziza says I made her a statistician. I think it was herself making her a statistician with the dedication, the openness to learn something interesting and statistics can be interesting.

Alexander: I love what you’re saying. Yeah. I think our job offers us so many opportunities to learn. And if we stay eager to learn and hungry to [00:08:00] Investigate further. That’s a great opportunity to grow. Let me dive a little bit deeper into this learning experience. Because I think that is something that I’m looking forward to.

Every supervisor that’s currently listening here, and every person that has a supervisor, which most of you probably have, unless you’re self employed then your clients are probably your supervisors, but they’re not usually as good supervisors as a real supervisor. But see so Aziza, what have you learned from Klaus as a supervisor?

Aziza: Yeah, so he’s a supervisor and he’s more than just a name. Klaus is my inspiring manager and inspiring person mentor and the driving force behind my career, as I always mentioned. And he is actually the one who helped me to find out my passion. And my passion is statistics. It’s the world statistics.

He was the one who [00:09:00] was. Who introduced me my dream job. And I remember the first day at Corning, I was so nervous. I didn’t know about anything about the job, about what will I will be expected. And I didn’t know what my tasks will be. And and I, from the time I had an interview, I was Buying some books and trying to learn a lot of things about statistics because I am not I’m not specialized in statistics, but I have a degree from master’s in mathematics.

I studied mathematics and I didn’t have any specialization. I didn’t, I don’t have statistics specialty and I was nervous and and I, my first day was February 2nd, 2017. And I remember being greeted by a gentleman who warmly welcomed me at Corning and guided me through a labyrinth type of corridor.

And I showed my workspace and he introduced me to our friendly friendly colleague [00:10:00] and took time to discuss my learnings from the time I’ve been interviewed because I wanted to show how, what I learned and I was, because didn’t know what I will be expected to do.

And I tried to to tell a little bit about what I studied during the time that I had. And It, which the concepts that include Six Sigma and statistics and some data visualizations. And yeah. And it was the first time, and I didn’t know, but Klaus was so gentle and I he introduced me.

He took time to explain me everything, and he was passion. He had a lot of passions with me. And just taking a baby and make the baby walk. I remember, and this was like I, my, my dream place to be for me, who has no experience in industry and always was at university and studying and this whole pure theoretical concepts that I’ve been taught and the exams it was for me, it’s a D it was different world [00:11:00] and he showed me the world of industry and the world of statistics, and basically step by step.

And I worked at Corning for five years and during the five years, I never felt treated unfairly. I was always sure, confident in everything what I was doing because Klaus was always supporting me as a good manager. And and someday I even wrote an article on LinkedIn, maybe you also read about it.

I was so inspired by Klaus. It was like, I think it was my fifth year in his department and I was. Taking like sitting and thinking about Klaus how much this person is inspiring and how much he puts efforts in really teaching and all his contributions to the industry and in the and in applying statistics and really contributing to his To his job [00:12:00] and all his education was so inspiring and I just wrote about an article about him.

And so what makes Klaus is special. Klaus has a very special way of of respecting people in my opinion, and he’s very gentle and he he, I remember he took times to really go through theoretical concepts and And I would learn some concepts of statistics and come and discuss them with him.

And it was a dedicated one hour learning session. And I remember I found I found some courses online and because I didn’t have any statistical background. So I had to speed up with some of the concepts. And I used to come and sit and Klaus used to take time for me. He was one of the.

Most busy people in my in our organization but he took time and and I think this shared passion for [00:13:00] learning is what made us a great team. And after working for the industry I even saw that he went to back for a long time, he went back to study to, at university and he was doing a program, a data science program, which was very inspiring.

Firing for me. And and so he was the manager who was alwa also ready to get out of the comfort zone and and change the dynamic and try to be always updated and help others. More than that, he is very humble person and the one of his personal characteristics that I liked most.

He’s a very authentic and he’s dedicated and sincerely cares about the company. And sometimes he works nonstop and forgets even to drink during the meetings. And then during the meetings, he realizes that he that he needs some water and he says, To the colleagues. Oh, I think I have to drink a drop of water [00:14:00] before I continue.

So that was that’s something that I always saw in him when he’s in meetings his days were, are all full with meetings and he’s so dedicated and really takes time. And and I saw a lot of care from his side to, and dedication to the company. And And Klaus is also was a manager who never lets you down.

Who he also introduced me to different teams and he used to say, Hey hey colleagues, please meet Aziza. And I remember it was at the beginning of my career at Corning and he introduced me to different teams and say please meet Aziza. And if you find any interesting projects or interesting activities consider her.

She doesn’t have to be the second Klaus. And I, for me, I used to call myself sometimes mini Klaus because it was for me. Yeah. I used to like to call myself mini Klaus because [00:15:00] it was for me a dream, to become like him. And yeah, I maybe I didn’t become the second the mini Klaus, but I Everything, what I learned from him is guiding me through throughout my career, my even my personal life.

And he taught me not only to grow as a professional, but also as a person. And I do believe when one has a good manager who makes you think about certain scenarios and a very Yeah, in a very holistic way. I think one can learn a lot and I still apply yeah, those those methods that Klaus taught me in my career and yeah, that helps me.

Alexander: Awesome, Aziza. I a lot of raving about lots of very good aspects. I think there, if you’re now listening as a supervisor, I think there’s a lot of gold in what Aziza [00:16:00] just taught thought and said about what a good manager looks like. So I would encourage you as a listener to just scroll back and think about all the learnings from what Aziza just mentioned, being helpful, taking time introducing you to others help with the learning always back people up have a people mindset.

always understand how you create value for the company and so much more. There’s one thing that you mentioned that I would like to have a little bit of a double click on because it’s a buzzword and then I’ll hand over to Klaus to comment on it.

Aziza: Yeah.

Alexander: You mentioned Klaus is authentic and I would love to know, can you tell maybe a story where that authenticity comes through?

Aziza: Yeah. So authenticity being authentic [00:17:00] Klaus it and in, in many different scenarios and moments and and knowing his personality. I absolutely can can say Klaus is very authentic person. So being authentic for me means that you tell, you always try to be honest, try to tell the truth and try to as a statistician we can create our own stories.

And we can, which can be really dangerous, we know, and and what what makes that makes our work I think is more valuable or our performance as a statistician valuable is when we are authentic and authentic being authentic means when you are delivering results then you tell what are the what are the different outcomes of this results.

To me, it means that, okay, I’m delivering you some results but be aware of [00:18:00] this. In, in the case of Klaus I saw him in many meetings when he was mentioning marking, yes, we can do that, but Please take into account that this could happen. This is the risk. And he was standing up in the meeting and saying it loud without any without any fear.

And He wasn’t none of the leadership levels were stopping him to stand up and say what he thinks as a statistician. And to me, it means that he is honest with his job and he’s authentic. And I would if I was a leader of the company, then I would really value that properties of statistician.

Alexander: Love it. Yeah, I think lots of statisticians can relate to that, that it needs, that you speak about. What’s the data really says, and also what it doesn’t say, [00:19:00] the limitations in it, and what can you conclude and what you can’t conclude. And you can tell that irrespective of who is in the room. So close! Yes.

Yes. Yes. After having this raving review from Aziza maybe you can speak a little bit to what you learned from her. We talked a lot about your relationship and I can. tell myself that I learned a lot from people around me, from supervisors, from mentors, from colleagues and also from people that reported to me.

So what was your learning experience and working together with Aziza?

Klaus: Yeah, thank you for that opportunity. With respect to learning from Aziza, She mentioned that we took the time to to give her the chance to get introduced to the statistics theory. And I have to admit, this is basic statistics.

Not very far [00:20:00] advanced in the first place. But I think the fundamental things are very important. That gave me the chance to learn again to recap what I thought many years before. And that definitely by talking to to Aziza and trying to explain some of the basic concepts, I really learned it.

And as as every trainer, though you learn the most as a trainer because you. really need to make sense of what you are talking about. And that helped me a lot to reconfirm and again, think about statistics concepts myself a lot. Also I was impressed by Aziza’s theoretical way of thinking, which was different to me.

I’m not so much a theoretical thinker like Aziza is. And I think that impressed me with her. And yeah, we work together in this case that I explained to her, how is our manufacturing process going on. I always start. I [00:21:00] often stress the linkage between the statistical concept and the and the application at hand in our product, in our manufacturing process may be properties of our product or may be performance and process steps so that you have to understand this here and it has to fit together.

And sometimes, you have to have special special ways of doing things. I would like to add one thing to the talk of Aziza, which came into my mind a few minutes ago or a few things on that. Aziza said I was able to stand up and give her time and support her. And there’s one benefit I have in my organization is.

We are an old family work. Our company has our plant has something like between 500 and thousand workers depending on time period. But the people in the in the organizations, there are many people who like me have been very long together. And if you are very long in an organization [00:22:00] together, you can only survive if you are honest and fair to each other.

So that is a baseline for being authentic. So I am not afraid of speaking up to this group of people and saying my opinion, even if I know that I have a different opinion. I try then to understand in which responsibility they come from if they are for another department and for that reason have a different responsibility of that I don’t have.

And so I think that having this kind of environment was also very good for me. And it gave me the chance to take time with Aziza and and say, okay you need some time to learn our product. You need some time to learn statistics. And and I felt always that The success that Aziza and every other person in my group is in the, having in their [00:23:00] job is my success.

I am I’m not telling that I made the work that Aziza did, but I I’m proud if I see that Aziza or now Teveza present something and people feel, oh, that is great. That is interesting. And really that is my focus as a supervisor that I that I can proudly say this person working for me has done something great and even something I could not have done.