We did it! Our first international career hangout took place on 16th April, with Roel Huisman, CEO of ING DiBa Austria. He visited us and talked with eight young people about his career, work life and how he got there. Eight AIESEC students from Austria, Germany, Mexico, Turkey and Serbia asked Roel Huisman questions about his career, success, and leadership.
His advice: “Go beyond your current comfort levels.”
Huisman’s secret to success is to try “to be sustainably happy in your life, then you’re successful”, he reveals to us. During the hangout, Roel Huisman gave a number of tips for a successful career: Be hungry! Learn! Be positive, be authentic and grab your opportunities. Take your time to look for chances, but do your jobs properly and don’t just quit when the going gets tough and don’t switch jobs too often.
Our hangout guests asked him, how he stays calm in stressful situations. “Have your filters right, ignore all the irrelevant stuff, otherwise you will go insane.” Be sharp in what you are doing, explain what you are doing, and why you are doing it. In other words:Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Leadership was in important issue to our hangout participants: “You can help other people to develop and to grow. Get the right people to do the right tasks -that’s a real leadership quality.”, Huisman states. To become a good leader you have to be easy to reach for your people and able to motivate them. Stay in touch with what they are doing and inspire them with clear goals and a vision.
The ING DiBa Austria CEO also talked about the consequences of the financial crisis to banks and where he sees their future. On a more personal level, he told about how he deals with pressure and if he prefers planning over a gut-feeling.
Roel Huisman spent his whole career at the ING Group, starting as a trainee at ING Netherlands and worked his way up to CEO of ING DiBa Austria, through jobs in eCommerce, IT Sourcing and Payments.
Check out our previous hangouts with Sebastian Kurz, Eser Ari-Akbaba, Wolfgang Anzengruber and Niko Alm.
For those who missed our Hangout with Roel Huisman – just watch it: