Learning How To Lead: Lessons from Susanne Rey

(watch the full interview here)

With a passion for leadership and personal growth, Susanne Rey has travelled a distinctive path.

Leaving a respected position in the corporate world, she leapt into entrepreneurship, driven by a desire to motivate people to pursue better leadership within organisations, and in their own businesses.

Through her experiences in international business and her encounters with leaders, she has gained valuable insights that she now shares to guide others in becoming better leaders and creating better workplaces.

In 2019, Mentor Lane had the pleasure of interviewing Susanne, which you can watch above. Here are 6 lessons we took from that conversation, and how you can implement them into your own leadership style.

Lesson 1: When Learning Stops, Growth Stops

Despite having a secure, high-paying corporate job with excellent career progression, Susanne found herself unhappy. Not because she didn’t like the work, but because she wasn’t learning anything new. She’d stopped growing, and her passion for her work had stopped with it.

Learning is one of her core values, and not being able to fulfil that led her to do something drastic. She quit her job with nothing lined up, and decided to start her own business.

For many people, this is what stagnation looks like. You stop learning, you stop growing, and every day becomes the same, blending one into the next. If this sounds like you, it might be time to take a serious look at what you’re doing and whether you want to make a change.

Being a good leader involves helping others learn. Encourage them to grow, seek out new opportunities to put their skills to the test, and see how much more involved they become in their work.

Lesson 2: Purpose Matters More Than Position

No fancy title or amount of money could have made Sussanne enjoy her work at that time, because those weren’t the things driving her. In her words: “I wasn’t fulfilling my core values anymore. Money, as we know, only motivates to a certain point. I needed a new purpose and a challenge.”

There comes a point where the money and job security aren’t motivating you anymore. And it can happen at any point in your career, not just at the top of the ladder.

If you’re not finding purpose in your work or your life, you’re not going to achieve the things you’re capable of. Sussanne saw this, and though she was taking a leap of faith at the time, she knew what she didn’t want, and she knew who she wanted to be.

Of course, learning might not be what drives you. It could be a need to be creative, or to stay physically active. Regardless, it’s important to understand what that thing is, and integrate it into your life, as it gives meaning to everything you do.

As a leader, being able to recognise this in others is important. If someone isn’t feeling fulfilled in their position, they could end up in the same position as Susanne. Burnt out, unhappy, and unfulfilled. And someone who isn’t finding meaning in the things they’re doing isn’t going to stay around for long.

Lesson 3: Leadership Is About Inspiring Belief

Susanne believes that leadership is about inspiring belief in others. To help them see the big picture, and share in the belief that you have.

Of course, the first challenge is that you have to have a vision. Many companies don’t have a clear vision, and it’s a huge reason why employees leave. Why would you stay in a place you can’t envision having a place in your future?

Susanne points us to the story of a janitor at NASA:

Before the first moon landing, the US President visited NASA and asked a janitor, “What do you do here?” The janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

That’s leadership. When everyone, no matter their role, understands they are part of something important. Every piece of the puzzle matters.

Too many leaders fall into the trap of thinking only certain people matter, leading them to misunderstanding where skills and talents lie. In reality, everyone has a part to play, no matter how small, and with the right leadership, even a janitor can feel fulfilled in their role.

So how do you inspire belief? There’s no one right way, but you do need a vision. Take some time to think about where you’re leading people. Do you know where you’re heading? Your job as a leader is to create that vision, then connect it with the thing that motivates each of the people you’re leading.

This isn’t something that can be done quickly, but when it’s achieved, you’ll have a unified organisation where everyone understands the mission and values it.

Lesson 4: Giving Is Just as Important as Receiving

One of the things we found most surprising is Susanne’s generosity. As a leader and mentor, she often gives her knowledge and time away freely, living by the rule “the more you give, the more you receive.”

In a mentorship, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking “What am I getting out of this?” But once you add money into the equation, there becomes an expectation about how the mentorship should be handled, and it becomes difficult to break out of that.

Many mentors find that they learn as much from their mentees as their mentee learns from them. There is a natural give and take in mentorship that makes it incredibly fulfilling. You get to pass on your knowledge to someone else, and they return with brilliant ideas, insights, and new challenges for you to think about.

However, it’s important not to confuse leading with commanding. Sussan is very careful not to say “you must do this” to her mentees. Instead, she outlines what her experience was, and lets them decide their own path based on that insight.

This approach fosters confidence, self-awareness, and authenticity, allowing mentees to grow into leaders who make choices aligned with their own values rather than simply copying someone else’s blueprint for success.

Lesson 5: Diverse Perspectives Make Stronger Leaders

Susanne’s leadership journey has been shaped by learning from an extraordinary range of people, from startup innovators to leaders in global corporations. She believes that exposure to different industries, cultures, and ways of thinking is one of the most powerful tools a leader can have.

It’s easy to see how her conversations with Randi Zuckerberg, who helped Facebook grow from five people in a small space to over 5,000 employees, could give Susanne insight into scaling with purpose, managing a fast-growing company, and handling the leadership challenges that come with it.

Likewise, learning from Stedman Graham, a thought leader on authentic leadership, will have challenged her views on leadership and helped her grow into the person she is today.

By engaging with people whose experiences differ from her own, Susanne has broadened her perspective, challenged her assumptions, and sharpened her adaptability.

But the real lesson here is knowing how to learn from everything. Not every one has access to people like Randi Zuckerberg, but there will be people in your life that encourage you, places you go that inspire, and things you will do that will teach you. By exposing yourself to as many different people and experiences as possible, you open yourself up to new ideas and insights that you would never have had before.

Are You Ready to Become a Better Leader?

Some leaders are born, while others learn to lead by putting themselves out there, pushing through failure, and continually aiming for better.

For Susanne, great leadership is ultimately about connection, inspiring others to see and believe in a shared vision, and then empowering them to play their part in bringing it to life. In a rapidly changing world, that kind of authentic, purpose-driven leadership will always succeed.

Of course, there is a better way to become that kind of leader. Find someone to learn from!

Mentor Lane connects you with the kind of mentors who can empower your leadership journey. With a network of experienced mentors throughout Germany, we pair people with mentors who have already achieved what you’re aiming for. If you’re ready to stop wondering how to get there and start making it happen,

sign up for Mentor Lane today