Many people think that working in a family business is easy, but it can actually be a big challenge. Before working in Express Transports, my family-owned business, I worked in different companies, but didn’t learn leadership skills in any of them. 

I started in the company as a move coordinator in 2015, but after two years I was facing big responsibilities in managing positions, along with my brother Stefan. For us, the key actions have been: 

1. Work hard and start at the bottom. We couldn’t lead our team without knowing what a move coordinator does or the challenges a packer faces.

2. Always be open to new ideas and give your staff the power to innovate.

3. Never stop learning—this goes for us and also our employees. Participating in training is vital in our company.

4. Teamwork is our most important tool.

5. Communication is the key for delivering a great service, but also within our team. We are a company that values horizontal communication.

6. Trust your employees and empower them.

Of course, the journey hasn’t been easy. Gaining our employees’ trust has been hard work. But values such as empathy, patience and humility have helped along the way. Also, having Dieter Krumdiek—our dad and the company’s founder—besides us was vital. Since the first day we started working with him, he was really open and promoted our new ideas. He has been a big role model.

Last but not least, travelling to conferences and hearing other colleagues’ experiences has helped a lot. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to meet at least once a year with industry partners who have more experience or have faced other difficulties. Listening and learning from each other is key during our meetings.

We know we still have a lot to learn, but we are excited to see ourselves and the company grow.