At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur Mila Meiffert for an exclusive interview with us. Mila is an Agile Coach at Otis Elevator Co, Consultant, Mentor, Entrepreneur and Change Enabler. Let’s read more about her incredible journey so far, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Mila:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I got my first master’s degree in International Economic Relations at the State University of Ukraine. After that my family and I moved to Germany, where I got my second Master of Science degree in Economics at the Humboldt University at Berlin. Business Administration has always been my topic of interest.
I started gathering first experiences in project management during my studies. In order to add to my skills and knowledge, I also completed courses in project management (ITIL, etc.).
As the digital transformation started taking over all business areas, I discovered for myself agile techniques in project management and found them quite exciting, as they delivered brilliant results.”
I started studying agile methodology and got certified as a Scrum Master and Product Owner and kept moving in this direction which is how I finally became an Agile Coach.
What made you passionate about ‘Coaching’?
Since I can remember, I enjoyed helping others. I was always a team player, not a sole leader, although I like to take the lead, if necessary. This side of my character influenced my career a lot.
I always loved what I was doing and being a project manager for almost 10 years gave me valuable experience and a lot of opportunities, but there was something missing all that time: flexibility and real teamwork.”
Now I can say I am really happy in the role of Agile Coach, as I help teams and organizations to reach the desired results by revealing and developing people’s capabilities and promoting an agile mindset.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
The results. It makes me happy to see how far we can get with my teams. I love both working with people individually and in teams and seeing their progress. It is never boring as you also constantly learn on the way.
Frequent retrospectives and self-reflection reveal great potential for progress and growth.”
And the best thing about it – you can use agile methods and principles also in your private life and see how efficient you can be even in your daily routine.
At some point you realize that it is way more than just your job – you are living this way and also helping others. So for me, it is kind of a mission.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
I don’t want to sound selfish, but it’s myself. My biggest motivation is to be a better version of myself, day by day. I’m sure that my family and friends are also profiting from this.
Please share with us, how do you motivate your clients?
First I need to know what their real need is. And quite often this is not what they communicate at the beginning. Once we discover the real need, I can offer a set of measures to achieve it.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
1) I take full responsibility for my life and what happens to me. Which means: never be a victim of circumstances. Remember that you can always change things.
2) I respect time. Time is a nonrenewable resource, therefore I always respect my time and the time of other people. I strive to always be on time and do not tolerate if someone comes late (frequently). I start and end my meetings in time and try to minimize their length, whenever possible.
3) I value people. Both in my job and in my private life. In order to build strong and trusting relationships, I need to show a real interest in people around me: who they are and not what they did or can do for me. This is something you cannot fake in the long run, as people can feel it, too. I take time to listen to them, never judge them and help them whenever I can, without expecting something in return.
What about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Getting great feedback. As I mentioned before, for me it is more than a job. I’m a lucky person: I don’t get too happy on Fridays or too sad on Sundays that the weekend is over and I have to get back to work.
I enjoy what I am doing and my results motivate me to go on. I really wish that for everybody.”
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
There is a very simple law of attraction suggesting that positive thoughts bring positive results.
Of course, there are days when something bad happens and you cannot stay positive, but generally, I always try to concentrate on good things that happen to me every day, even if it is just a cup of tasty coffee.
Try to notice small positive stuff all day long and you will be surprised how many good things actually happen to you. By doing this exercise regularly, your brain will get used to it at some point. This just works.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
For me it’s definitely the following:
(a) Love what you are doing, or do what you love. You cannot really succeed in something you don’t like.
(b) Take time for continuous growing and learning. It’s a “rolling stairs” principle. If you are not going up – you are rolling down.
(c) Make sure your life is in balance, that you have enough time for the people and things you love – family, hobbies, sport, etc.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
Try to get first experiences in your preferred area as early as you can. Theoretical knowledge could be very important, but it has no value without practice. I was working as a student and could try different jobs in order to understand what my passion really is.
Once you realize what your dream job is, speak to the people who already succeeded in this area, read their books, listen to their talks, etc. I am a big fan of mentoring programs, so if your company offers that, use this opportunity.
There is so much to be shared, but this conversation limits how much I can communicate on this platform. Students and young professionals are welcome to reach out to me on LinkedIn with their specific queries, I will be more than happy to help.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
