Today we would like to introduce you to a new partner from our network. She has a lot of soft skills, plans, ideas and methods for us, which we would like to bring closer to you. But at the beginning a little about her person:
Her name is Jutta Jerlich, she was born in Austria and currently works as a lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology. We got to know Jutta in the context of a joint initiative, the “Schule-ist-Leben” project, in 2020. After an online meeting, she wrote to us with the wish to get to know each other. And, as it is often the case, it didn’t take long before we found ourselves in an initial online conversation with her.
She described her background, her experiences and her motivation for contacting us.
She was born in a small town called Bruck an der Mur. She grew up in a family of four. Her mother was a teacher, which shaped a significant part of her career, she says. During her school years at the Gymnasium, where her mother also taught, it was not possible for her to “step out of line.” That is, to do things that other teenagers try once, skipping school, for example. As a child, she never liked being away from home, she says. She first discovered her love of travel on her graduation trip to Greece at the age of 17.
Since then, Jutta has traveled the world a lot. After her studies in business administration, she specialized in high-tech marketing. She traveled to the United States, South America and Japan. During her four-year stay in Nagoya, Japan, she worked, among other things, as a lecturer for five different universities. During this time, she was particularly impressed by the mutual respect and helpfulness of the people. For example, it is not customary to make loud phone calls in public places. On the other hand, she learned during a survey of her students that it is customary in Japan to call a person a friend only after an intensive acquaintance of at least ten years. This makes it much more difficult to make friends or get to know new people outside of an existing circle of friends.
In addition to her travels and continued education and training, she was also active in business. Unfortunately, these ventures were not only crowned with success. It was these experiences, as well as working in different companies, that brought her essential insights and questions about the difference between success and failure in business. She became aware that the existing structure of hierarchical management often brings more challenges than benefits.
Driven by these unpleasant experiences, she began her search for new methods. Her concern is to bring technically skilled people and companies into a social context. This resulted, within the last few years, in the “5 stops to success”, which she teaches today in her programs. A particular concern of her work is to cultivate a new communication culture for companies and founders. It is important to her that everyone is heard and that there is fundamental agreement on values and common goals. In this way, she opens the way for her students to explore their own limits and, above all, to grow beyond them. More than that, she is concerned with experiencing one’s own freedom, how it feels to do on your own initiative and with your full heart, rather than only because of external constraints or the mind. She speaks of the “inner voice” and of listening to oneself.
In addition to her lectures, she also shares her insights in private coaching sessions as well as public videos and events. In her series of events, “FuckUp Nights,” she offers a stage not only to young founders but also to failed start-up projects. She often noticed that the most common reason for the failure of a project is the lack of communication within the core team.
Jutta is currently in the process of building a worldwide movement, the “collaboration and cocreation community”. What exactly this is about and what the “5 stops to success” are, you will soon hear more about in our new video interview with Jutta Jerlich, which will be available on Zauberfrau.TV and our WirWelt channels. There will also be more from Jutta even before then, namely in our upcoming online event on Sunday, December 19 from 6pm. So, make sure you get a seat now – it’s worth tuning in: Soft Skills in Hard Times
Foto credit: Mike Flam
Business-photography.ch
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