“To be quite honest, theories are not much help in practice”, she laughs. “You will encounter situations that were never discussed in the literature. It’s like parenting. Before you have children, you read all these tips in books and magazines, and you’re so sure you will do things a certain way. As the mother of a ten-year-old and a twelve-year-old, I can assure you: this does not work more often than it does work. Every child is different, every person is different, and everyone has a different ‘user manual’. You must always keep that in mind if you are in a leadership position.”
Mess
And in addition to different personalities, says Hülsheger, you must also be mindful of “cultural differences, the norms and values people grew up with, whether they have a family, and so on. I became very aware of this during the Covid-19 pandemic. We were all working from home and meeting on Zoom every week. It literally gave us a glimpse into each other’s lives. Every now and then, children would wander into the frame to ask their parents something or dance around in the background. And it wasn’t a problem at all. Sometimes my room was a mess, too. With toys spread everywhere. I recognised my own search for a new work-life balance in many colleagues. But we also have colleagues who live alone and suffered from lockdown loneliness. Some struggled to find a rhythm; they would work until two AM and then pick up work again in the afternoon. That didn’t seem healthy to me. As soon as it was possible, we gave people – particularly our youngest employees, the PhD students – the opportunity to come into work again.”
Meditation session
Hülsheger is a professor of Occupational Health Psychology whose research focuses on work stress and employee health and wellbeing. “I exercise yoga quite a lot and I like to meditate. I’ve thought about starting meetings with a two- or three-minute meditation session, but I don’t want to force my hobby onto other people. I do think it’s important to show them that there is more to life than work. I don’t bother my colleagues with questions on Friday evenings. I subscribe to ‘practice what you preach’.”
Obama
She brings up the subject of different leadership styles that have been described in the literature, from democratic to authentic and from strategic to servant leadership. “I’m very critical of it. You can’t just pigeonhole people like that. But if you made me choose, I would say that I try to be a humble and empowering leader. You do not always need to play the power card. When things go well, you are just part of the team, but I square my shoulders and take the lead when I have to. I think Barack and Michelle Obama are typical visionaries. I love how they do it. Rianne Letschert, the President of Maastricht University, also has a vision. And she is very charismatic.”
Experiment
Hülsheger has about 22 ‘subordinates’, but she will never refer to them that way. “I think of myself as a member of the team.” She became head of the section in December 2017. The umbrella department of Work and Social Psychology had grown too big for the head of the department to manage, so section heads were appointed. “I was the most senior staff member, so it made sense for me to do it. I also thought it would be fun. I saw it as a great opportunity to learn.” In the beginning, she was quite preoccupied with the fact that she was becoming the boss of her peers – how would they react? “But maybe the person struggling with it the most was me. I just needed some time to adjust.”
Personality tests
She passed up the UM leadership course she was offered. “My children were young, I was teaching, publishing articles, and I had just been appointed section head. I just didn’t have the time. But to be honest, I was also a bit sceptical about it. The people around me were often not very enthusiastic about the leadership courses they had taken, including courses outside of UM. They were critical of the material and felt like it wasn’t evidence-based. I think that’s bad. Don’t come to me with personality tests you created yourself. People in my discipline know how much effort and evidence-based knowledge should go into creating those tests.”
R&R
Head of Department Professor Fred Zijlstra showed her the ropes. “I observed how he handles difficult situations, like giving feedback or when you have multiple candidates that are eligible for promotion but only one position. I’m struggling with the new Recognition & Rewards programme in that sense. Often, multiple people deserve a promotion because they are excellent researchers, excellent teachers or great team players and did a lot for the organization, for example. But we can’t promote everyone, simply because there are not so many positions. This can be tough and we need to find other ways to reward people in these situations.”