thebrokernews Podcast Episode 9: With Brigitte Roy and Thomas Gassenbauer from Cognizant on new leadership qualities

From military discipline to empathy in management: a podcast discussion with Thomas Gassenbauer and Brigitte Roy about new leadership qualities, personal development and the value of authentic relationships in professional life. Find out how modern leadership models are changing the world of work with curiosity and compassion.

At lofty heights above Zurich, in the Prime Tower, Thomas Gassenbauer, Country Manager of Cognizant Switzerland, and Brigitte Roy, strategist for partnerships and passionate behavioral scientist, reflect on the question: What does leadership mean today?

From decision-maker to enabler

“Leadership is not a title, but a responsibility,” says Thomas Gassenbauer. For him, the most important task of a manager is to create the framework in which others can be successful. Decisions should not be centralized, but delegated to where there is proximity to the customer.

His guiding principle: servant leadership. A term that he describes with a wink as a “buzzword”, but fills with a clear attitude: “If you as a manager don’t help your people to become better, you are just overhead.”

Authenticity instead of authority

Brigitte Roy describes her personal development as an interplay between adaptation and liberation: from the strict dress code of the financial world to the open culture of the tech industry. As a young manager, she adapted her appearance to signal authority – today she knows: “I come across most credibly when I am myself.”

Her management style today is characterized by humility and openness: “You have to accept that you don’t know everything – and that that’s okay.” This attitude makes it possible to grow together with the team and create space for creativity.

Well-being as a management task

Both emphasize how central the topic of wellbeing is to good leadership. Gassenbauer has developed a three-pillar model: Work, social environment and self-care. “Especially in stressful times, you often come last,” he says. This makes it all the more important to take routines for sleep, exercise and relaxation seriously.

Roy adds: “I manage my energy in the long term – mentally and physically. Creative tasks give me strength.” Being authentic at work – as a cook, a runner, a gamer, a parent, a foreigner, etc. – is not a risk, but a gift for herself and the team.

Learning from the next generation

The conversation reveals a great openness towards younger colleagues. “We have to listen to them,” says Roy. “Even younger, because they bring different perspectives, different priorities.” Gassenbauer adds: “Sometimes people ask me: what if we invest in them and they leave? I then ask back: What if we don’t and they stay?”

Both are actively involved in promoting young talent through internal programs, but also through involvement in mentoring and educational initiatives. It is particularly important to allay young people’s fears that they have not yet found their path. Careers don’t have to be linear – according to Roy, they can be “spiral-shaped”: from interest to interest, always growing.

A new culture of leadership

What Thomas Gassenbauer and Brigitte Roy have in common is the conviction that leadership in the future will have less to do with control and more to do with relationships. With the courage to be human. With the willingness to listen, to learn and to shape things together.

“Leadership doesn’t start with power,” says Gassenbauer. “It starts with responsibility.”

Binci Heeb

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