Leadership rarely starts with a plan. Often it begins with saying yes to an opportunity before you feel fully ready. Magdaléna Wavle, Chief People & Culture Officer at Česká spořitelna, shares her journey from banking to Microsoft and back, how she leads with trust and adapts her style to the moment, and why the biggest barriers are often the ones in our own heads. She also offers practical advice for women preparing to step into leadership. Read her story.
My first career steps were in banking, then I moved to Microsoft and telecommunications industry. Now I'm back in banking again. Over the years I have had the chance to work in HR, operations, marketing, and business. I have been very fortunate to encounter many different opportunities in my life. I always say that it is up to us whether we seize them or not. Early in my career, I was given the opportunity to manage a team. That was when I realized how much I love creating impact through people. You can achieve much more as a team than you can as an individual. Over time, I also found more and more satisfaction in helping people grow. My moves into new roles were not driven by status, but rather by opportunities to learn and grow. From that perspective, the meaning of career growth has remained the same for me.
Part of leadership reflects who we are and what matters to us, and that does not change very much. What changes is the system we are part of. I do see a difference between leading people directly, leading leaders, and leading part of an organization. Your role shifts slightly. I like to believe that I am an authentic leader. I lead with trust, align people around a shared direction, and believe that we need to have fun together as well. I also do not think we should rely on just one leadership style. Different situations call for different approaches. When you are creating a strategy with your team, you should be highly inclusive. In a crisis, there is little room for discussion—you simply need to direct people to the emergency exit. As leaders, we should be able to adapt our style to the situation.
I must say that throughout my journey, I have received tremendous support from both men and women. They believed in me and often opened up new opportunities for me. I have also worked for large corporations, and I now realize how much progress they have made in diversity, equity, and inclusion. For a long time, I took that for granted. I have also seen that diverse teams, including boards, deliver results differently, and their dynamics are very different too. Yet women are still underrepresented in senior leadership. I try to help change this by mentoring others and taking part in important networks such as the Inspire Impact Network.
My most recent lesson was that you simply cannot skip some of the steps needed to achieve a result. Sometimes the process exists for a reason, and you cannot cut corners. I was working with my new team on our mission, strategy, and priorities. I wanted to make each team member accountable for one of the priorities that cut across multiple teams. This caused so much confusion within the team that I had to set the plan aside for now. I realized that this approach had worked with my previous team—but only after we had worked together for two years. So I need to give this team time and return to the idea once we are in a different place. But I truly believe we will get there.
What has always mattered to me—and what I try to bring to my teams—is trust, openness, fairness, teamwork, and optimism. I cannot tolerate dishonesty. I also believe it is essential to talk openly about mistakes so that we can all learn from them and do even better next time.
At Česká spořitelna we have a long tradition of working with people at every stage of their careers, ranging from student trainees all the way to highly skilled and experienced C-level executives. Everyone encounters various challenges at each step of the career and can sometimes use a helping hand, a second brain, or a mentor. We feel that events such as this one are a great format for sharing these kinds of insights.
I hope everyone leaves the conference with new ideas and lessons learned. Not only for their professional career but maybe for other opportunities beyond work as well. Maybe the attendees will find the final nudge to go for a project they have always wanted to start or to send that CV for a position they thought they were not yet ready for.
I think the world is full of opportunities; my barriers were often in my own head. It is normal to doubt ourselves sometimes, but we should not overdo it. Women, in particular, may feel that they need to be 100% ready before applying for the next role, but the reality is that this is not necessary at all. You need to leave some room to grow—so just go for it! I try to ask myself, “What is the worst that can happen?” The answer is usually far better than regretting later that I did not try.
Be yourself, find support around you, and seek out a mentor, coach, and sponsor. Keep an open mind about the many possibilities ahead; do not limit yourself to just a few. Be curious and keep learning—always. Be prepared to stop doing some things yourself. Instead, think about what each team member does well and how to place them in the right role or give them the right assignment so they can perform at their best.
I am not sure whether it is underrated, but in a turbulent world, listening is becoming increasingly important. It means hearing what lies behind what our people say and understanding their motivations. A leader’s role is not to have all the answers, but to find them together with the team. After all, team members are often the real experts.
AI will change how we do things; it is a powerful tool. What will remain essential is simply being human. I would put empathy, creativity, and the ability to navigate uncertainty at the forefront. And trust.
