Transiting into Leadership: Insights on Gender, Inclusion, and Growth

“I’m part of the Munich Re weather team”, was a riveting entrance into the conversation with Nikolina Mezulic, Head of Strategy and Business Development, Global Parametric Weather department at Munich Re. 

“Maybe I can share an example with you,” she chuckled, “If you are a business owner of a solar or wind energy park, you have certain obligations to deliver renewable energy. However, if there is no wind or sun, there is no production, and you might not be able to meet your delivery and be penalised. With Munich Re, we safeguard you in such instances against financial loss.” 

When Nikolina joined Munich Re, a leading global reinsurer, she managed business development with her portfolio dealing mainly in energy, commodities, and agriculture. As they had worked through their portfolio, Nikolina and her team noticed a gap in the market where other industries such as real estate, construction, and retail could also suffer from non-catastrophic weather conditions. 

“We had really no paying customers, no inroads into these industries we identified; and my team was designated to try and develop these new segments to replicate the success we had from energy and agriculture,” she shares. The opportunity to connect to different people around the world inspires Nikolina, and such instances where she can connect to different stakeholders to discuss ideas and thoughts was a core reason of her joining the insurance industry where there is no physical product, but instead a bespoke solution built around a person and their needs.

Building her team and owning her portfolio 

As the world globalised and moved, Munich Re had always been keeping up to date with trends in digitalisation, AI, climate change and more. This has helped the organisation, as a 140-year-old incumbent, to stay relevant . This allowed Nikolina to constantly find new opportunities on her professional journey, be in a new project, reinventing her role, or in her current position – building her own team and a whole new business unit. 

With a mixture of existing reports and vacant seats to fill when Nikolina stepped into her leadership role, it was important for her to spend the first three months on her new role to focus on understanding, restructuring, and building up her team for long term growth. 

“It was important that I had the buy-in from my team; that they understood their importance to the success of the business and company, as well as the direction we want to go in order to achieve good results.” Nikolina shared, recalling the long discussions with her team to transit them into their new scopes. For her, this was also an exercise in drawing firm boundaries to move forward and creating a clean slate to build the team’s portfolio, preparing herself for the resistance and potential fallout she might receive. 

Nikolina astutely understood that her role as the manager is to motivate her team, especially with an intangible product where helping her team shine would in turn highlight their products and organisation more than anything. Reflecting on her transition, Nikolina shares that it was probably the toughest part of her first leadership role, but also something incredible fulfilling in her professional journey thus far. “I can see and feel that the team are content in their roles, they know why they are doing certain things and what they need to do.”

“The programme really emphasises on taking some time away from technical skills and focusing on something that we often ignore. Especially when we are at this age where we are looking to jump up and get up running, we don’t often take a step back to think about these equally important aspects,” she shared. With focus on finding her authentic self, Nikolina had the safe space as INSEAD’s Aspiring Women Leaders Programme to define what success, her career, and her personal life each meant to her, as well as releasing any misconceptions of what and how a leader needs to be. 

“There is no right or wrong when it comes to ambition, and there is no blueprint you must follow to be successful.” In sharing the space with the diverse cohort of participants, she heard many different stories and experiences; thoroughly expanding her perspective. 

As Nikolina stepped into her leadership responsibilities a few months later, she took a moment for introspection and observation – observing managers around her and understanding how they deal with different situations, however it was important to her to find her own authenticity and leadership style instead of blindly implementing tactics from other leaders. “To be comfortable with yourself, your ideas, your thoughts and importantly to be comfortable to share them is something that I would define as being authentic,” she shares. 

“When you step into a role, it feels very insecure and there is this period of time where you feel lonely because you don’t have team members anymore, you have peers who have their own team,” she reflected. To overcome this period, Nikolina found that taking a moment to reflect on the concepts discussed during the programme was incredibly helpful. For her, the extended learning journey was still ongoing at that point of time, and the presence of her coach and peer group was also instrumental in helping her tackle her new challenges.

Leadership and Gender

The insurance, and wider finance industry has always been portrayed with a gender imbalance, and it was so when Nikolina joined Munich Re, with most of the leadership positions taken by men. Despite being aware that performance over gender is the core reason for her promotion opportunities, the lack of representation did come to her mind, especially in moments of self-doubt; having only seen certain type of people, profiles, and behaviours in management roles. 

“It’s more than just employing or putting a female person in a leadership position; it’s about ensuring the diversity of thought.” Nikolina reflects, sharing that it perhaps is a combination of many things from regulatory quotas, increasing social understanding, as well as pressure from clients holding organisations accountable to DEI commitment. 

“There is always this concept that men form clubs, and women don’t.” Musing about generalised statements, she shares that it is important to be aware that such catchphrases could be a product of their time, sharing that she was surprised that it proved to be untrue when she joined the workforce. 

Having worked with seasoned managers of all genders, Nikolina counts herself lucky to have the supportive managers as well as sponsors and mentors to build her up. “Sometimes you can only do so much on your own, especially when the doors are closed, and you are not part of the discussion. It is important to have someone who will mention you and advocate for you behind closed doors,” she shares. In fact, her recent development into her team lead role was a tangible target that she had worked on together with her managers and sponsors. 

Settling into her new role, she believes that it is important to demonstrate her capabilities and lead her team to success before setting her sights even further. “There will be new opportunities for growth, maybe more responsibilities, a larger team, transiting to something bigger and more impactful? I don’t have a specific end-goal but an aspiration to create a bigger impact on this company,” she shared.

Women Empowerment 

Having worked for several years, she has met several women in different stages of life and career and is acutely aware that there are women in unique working positions or struggling to be promoted due to a variety of reasons from motherhood, family care requirements, and more. “When I was in the early phase of my career, I reminded myself that it’s important to remember these issues once I came into a position where I can actually change something.” 

“And it can be something incredibly simple – for example with part-time workers or mothers who need to leave to pick up their children from childcare, it’s a simple thing as a manager to act and react in a supportive manner to set an example.” Nikolina shared, noting that a flexible environment to deliver their work is more important to her than keeping a schedule. 

She shared that gender inclusivity changes can happen on a multi-pronged approach such as providing opportunities, removing biases in the recruitment process, sponsoring and mentoring, and importantly, changing the mindsets and providing educational opportunities. 

Media representation has always shown men as aggressive in the workplace and it shows a positive light, however when women behave in a similar aggressive manner, they do tend to be dragged negatively. Having also experienced the hiring process when building her team, Nikolina noticed a behavioural difference between female and male candidates, where women tend to underrepresent their skills and abilities.