April 3, 2025 • 11 mins
How your experience as an Expat in Austria influenced your approach to leadership and coaching? Sharon Ehrlich, CEO Performance Coach and Strategist for High-Performing Women shares her insight. https://livingwhileleading.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonehrlich1
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Like Tom Ray, I'm promoting successful business experts connecting people
throughout the world from my podcast studio in Brazil. Joining
us today from Vienna, Austria, Sharon Erlik, CEO, performance coach,
a strategist for high performing women. So, Sharon, how has
your experience as an expat in Austria influence your approach
(00:26):
to leadership and coaching.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, first, Tom, thank you for inviting me to your show.
To answer your question, I would say that being an
expat has given me the possibility to work with people
from all around the world. I'm not the only expat
who's living in Vienna, as I could imagine that Vienna
is the easternmost western European city in Europe, and so
(00:53):
it is a hub. And I have worked with teams
where you know nation you know fifteen have been represented,
which means that I've had to learn how to communicate
and make myself understood by people who were not native speakers.
I had to work with people who had a completely
different work ethic when you think about it. When I
(01:16):
came to Austria in nineteen ninety nine, the whole Eastern
Bloc had only been open for capitalism for a very
short period of time. So I was working with people
who had a different sort of life philosophy and a
different ideology that they were governed with, and how they
experienced working was completely different, and so I had to adapt.
(01:41):
I had to learn be incredibly flexible. And I think
the core message here is about communication and listening before
you speak, because we think that we're always understood, but
people don't always understand us because we're already lining up
our next sentence and sometimes you need to take a
(02:03):
breath and pause and let people have a chance to
react and respond.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now to your point, NA obviously is a cultural center,
has been for years, let's say, from a business standpoint,
has become more and more important. So when you have
all of these different melting pots, right, and then back
to what you said, understanding simple words like compliance becomes
(02:31):
something completely different. So you got your feet on the ground,
You've made your footprint, and you've evolved with that. So
you are and what you do and you're coaching. Is
it europe centric or is it global centric?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's actually global centric, but most of my clients are
in Europe. It just happens that way because of time zones,
and it makes a lot easier to do business. But
that being said, I recently had a client who was
in Australia. It was a big challenge for us to
find the time that we can talk to one another.
But linked In is a marvelous space to be on.
(03:10):
You know, if I post, I post two or three
times a week, So I wouldn't say that I'm incredibly active,
but actively enough so that I have a presence people watch.
We think that no one's looking at our post when
we do something, but those posts do get legs.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And one of the things is that we really find
that we have a reach that sort of underestimate our.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Own selves exactly, and especially when we look at vanity metrics.
We think that when we look at the metrics, that
tells the whole story, but it doesn't always tell the
entire story. And so I've had at least two instances
this year where clients have found me and I never
even told them. We act one time to something I
(03:54):
had done or posted online. And so, you know, I
think we're in We have an incredible amount of opportunity
being able to amplify our voices on all of the
different medium and having people have the possibility to find US.
But to answer your question, mostly people in Europe are
finding me.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And more to that point, I see on your LinkedIn
profile you help ambitious women conquer self doubt and unleash
their superpowers. Which really it's the coaching part. It's the
nurturing and having that understand it. Because Europe is full
of expats. The mobility of Europeans has changed dramatically, and
(04:38):
you know, Europeans are everywhere throughout Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So yeah, and you know what, if they work for
large concerns like you know, publicly traded companies like I did.
I worked for IBM for many years. I worked for
Citrics for many, many years, you end up working with
folks who are incredibly ambitious and their careers take them everywhere, right,
you know, So you have people who haven't even lived
(05:03):
in their home countries for decades because every opportunity that
presents itself happens to be in a new country. And
they have the flexibility and the willingness to travel. And
people are very mobile. You know, I'm American, and I'm
always surprised at the lack of mobility that Americans still
(05:25):
have compared to Europeans. Europeans, who will you know, just
pick everything up and move across the border or move
across you know, the planet for work. And Americans will
do the same, you know, going from New York to
the West Coast. But it's not so often that you
hear of Americans that are just picking up everything and
moving to.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Another No, that's true. That that is and to the
point of Europeans, they have had that because there's been
so much business oriented transition and mobility for hundreds of years,
right you know, so you know, many of the countries
have gone out and done the basic footwork of finding
(06:06):
opportunities in the world and speaking various languages, which is
also something different.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Exactly exactly, well, you know what, I grew up in
New York, and when you're raised as a New Yorker,
you're raised to think that New York is the center
of the universe, you know. So we have we have
some big egos native New Yorkers. And you know, if
you knew English, this was enough. If you had Spanish,
it was a bonus. But we never needed to speak
any other languages. But when you think about in this
(06:37):
part of Europe that I'm living in, the borders are
very tight. You know, if we go in one and
a half hours in any direction, we might be in
another country.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Or three different countries.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and so that you know, that demands that people
at least have the flexibility, maybe not to be fluent
in languages, but to be able to do the most
basic things. I was working in Brontoslava and Slovakia for
two years. I was commuting. When I told my family, oh,
I'm commuting to Slovakia, they just couldn't understand. You know,
(07:11):
can you do that? Yes, actually I can, because.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
At that time it might have just been a train ride.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah it was. It was a one hour train ride away.
Commuting in New York exactly exactly. My sister commutes more
from New York to New Jersey where she lives. But
you know what, I also learned how to order a
cup of coffee in Slovakia, some basic launch. I would
never go as far as to say that I was
(07:37):
fluent in Slovakia, but for two years when I worked there,
I knew how to get what I needed when I
wanted a refreshment, or to be polite to say hello,
thank you, good morning. And this is the sort of
flexibility that you have to have when you're working in
this cross cultural working across borders. You have to be
(07:58):
open to that.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And that's open for a simple not as simple, but
a cup of coffee or a major career change. Yeah,
the process, it's a simple ordering coffee, but you have
to understand all the nuances, right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And you know, that's one of the things that leaders
look for when you're when people are talking about you
when you're not in the room, about the next promotion,
right and the next opportunity in stretch projects. They want
to understand how adaptable is that candidate for that? Nobody
is going to send anyone across the planet to work
(08:36):
someplace if you if you don't even demonstrate the minimum
amount of adaptability, right, well, you were in a company
that also had a planetary footprint.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So it's not even being in the room, it's being
having persons remember you wherever you are in the world
and thinking you could be a candidate for anywhere.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Absolutely, And that's why one of the things I talk
about very often, particularly when I'm coaching mid career women,
is the importance of having mentors and sponsors, right, because
you know, a mentor is one thing. A mentor is
someone who is you know, giving you their wisdom, teaching
you from their past experiences, advising you and guiding you.
(09:20):
The sponsor is the person who's talking about you when
you're not in the.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Room, right, right, And that involves a strategy, which you're
also a specialist, and so strategizing is probably i would
say more important, but it tends to.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Be absolutely absolutely, And so you know, having a sponsors
is equally, if not more important than having mentors. And
you need a lot of them, right, not just one,
right because as a single person, you can amplify your
your accomplishments and achievements in an organization only up to
(09:58):
a certain point, and then you need somebody else to
amplify your achievements for you so that other people in
the organization learn how great you are, and that usually
happens when you have a sponsor.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Well, how can our listeners find you to help themselves
amplify their career path?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, well your listeners can find me on my website
that is living while leading dot com, or they can
find me on LinkedIn. Sharon Erlick is my name. I'd
be happy to be followed by you and to follow
your listeners just to see what they're posting and check
them out online.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Very good. Well, thanks again for being here and sharing.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, lovely to be with you Tom.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And again so for our listeners you can find more
about it. It's Sharon Erlick. Your first name is s
H A R O N. The last name e H
R l I c H. Find her on LinkedIn and
her site, which is living while leading dot com Cafe
Networking is Braapfast by focus in my market intelligence and
(11:03):
agriculture market research specialist in Brazil. More information at f
O c U s m I dot com. Talk to Tom,
Talk to the World. Thanks for listening. Till the next
time here at Cafe and Networking Podcast
Like Tom Ray, I'm promoting successful business experts connecting people
throughout the world from my podcast studio in Brazil. Joining
us today from Vienna, Austria, Sharon Erlik, CEO, performance coach,
a strategist for high performing women. So, Sharon, how has
your experience as an expat in Austria influence your approach
(00:26):
to leadership and coaching.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, first, Tom, thank you for inviting me to your show.
To answer your question, I would say that being an
expat has given me the possibility to work with people
from all around the world. I'm not the only expat
who's living in Vienna, as I could imagine that Vienna
is the easternmost western European city in Europe, and so
(00:53):
it is a hub. And I have worked with teams
where you know nation you know fifteen have been represented,
which means that I've had to learn how to communicate
and make myself understood by people who were not native speakers.
I had to work with people who had a completely
different work ethic when you think about it. When I
(01:16):
came to Austria in nineteen ninety nine, the whole Eastern
Bloc had only been open for capitalism for a very
short period of time. So I was working with people
who had a different sort of life philosophy and a
different ideology that they were governed with, and how they
experienced working was completely different, and so I had to adapt.
(01:41):
I had to learn be incredibly flexible. And I think
the core message here is about communication and listening before
you speak, because we think that we're always understood, but
people don't always understand us because we're already lining up
our next sentence and sometimes you need to take a
(02:03):
breath and pause and let people have a chance to
react and respond.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Now to your point, NA obviously is a cultural center,
has been for years, let's say, from a business standpoint,
has become more and more important. So when you have
all of these different melting pots, right, and then back
to what you said, understanding simple words like compliance becomes
(02:31):
something completely different. So you got your feet on the ground,
You've made your footprint, and you've evolved with that. So
you are and what you do and you're coaching. Is
it europe centric or is it global centric?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's actually global centric, but most of my clients are
in Europe. It just happens that way because of time zones,
and it makes a lot easier to do business. But
that being said, I recently had a client who was
in Australia. It was a big challenge for us to
find the time that we can talk to one another.
But linked In is a marvelous space to be on.
(03:10):
You know, if I post, I post two or three
times a week, So I wouldn't say that I'm incredibly active,
but actively enough so that I have a presence people watch.
We think that no one's looking at our post when
we do something, but those posts do get legs.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And one of the things is that we really find
that we have a reach that sort of underestimate our.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Own selves exactly, and especially when we look at vanity metrics.
We think that when we look at the metrics, that
tells the whole story, but it doesn't always tell the
entire story. And so I've had at least two instances
this year where clients have found me and I never
even told them. We act one time to something I
(03:54):
had done or posted online. And so, you know, I
think we're in We have an incredible amount of opportunity
being able to amplify our voices on all of the
different medium and having people have the possibility to find US.
But to answer your question, mostly people in Europe are
finding me.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And more to that point, I see on your LinkedIn
profile you help ambitious women conquer self doubt and unleash
their superpowers. Which really it's the coaching part. It's the
nurturing and having that understand it. Because Europe is full
of expats. The mobility of Europeans has changed dramatically, and
(04:38):
you know, Europeans are everywhere throughout Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So yeah, and you know what, if they work for
large concerns like you know, publicly traded companies like I did.
I worked for IBM for many years. I worked for
Citrics for many, many years, you end up working with
folks who are incredibly ambitious and their careers take them everywhere, right,
you know, So you have people who haven't even lived
(05:03):
in their home countries for decades because every opportunity that
presents itself happens to be in a new country. And
they have the flexibility and the willingness to travel. And
people are very mobile. You know, I'm American, and I'm
always surprised at the lack of mobility that Americans still
(05:25):
have compared to Europeans. Europeans, who will you know, just
pick everything up and move across the border or move
across you know, the planet for work. And Americans will
do the same, you know, going from New York to
the West Coast. But it's not so often that you
hear of Americans that are just picking up everything and
moving to.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Another No, that's true. That that is and to the
point of Europeans, they have had that because there's been
so much business oriented transition and mobility for hundreds of years,
right you know, so you know, many of the countries
have gone out and done the basic footwork of finding
(06:06):
opportunities in the world and speaking various languages, which is
also something different.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Exactly exactly, well, you know what, I grew up in
New York, and when you're raised as a New Yorker,
you're raised to think that New York is the center
of the universe, you know. So we have we have
some big egos native New Yorkers. And you know, if
you knew English, this was enough. If you had Spanish,
it was a bonus. But we never needed to speak
any other languages. But when you think about in this
(06:37):
part of Europe that I'm living in, the borders are
very tight. You know, if we go in one and
a half hours in any direction, we might be in
another country.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Or three different countries.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, and so that you know, that demands that people
at least have the flexibility, maybe not to be fluent
in languages, but to be able to do the most
basic things. I was working in Brontoslava and Slovakia for
two years. I was commuting. When I told my family, oh,
I'm commuting to Slovakia, they just couldn't understand. You know,
(07:11):
can you do that? Yes, actually I can, because.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
At that time it might have just been a train ride.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah it was. It was a one hour train ride away.
Commuting in New York exactly exactly. My sister commutes more
from New York to New Jersey where she lives. But
you know what, I also learned how to order a
cup of coffee in Slovakia, some basic launch. I would
never go as far as to say that I was
(07:37):
fluent in Slovakia, but for two years when I worked there,
I knew how to get what I needed when I
wanted a refreshment, or to be polite to say hello,
thank you, good morning. And this is the sort of
flexibility that you have to have when you're working in
this cross cultural working across borders. You have to be
(07:58):
open to that.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
And that's open for a simple not as simple, but
a cup of coffee or a major career change. Yeah,
the process, it's a simple ordering coffee, but you have
to understand all the nuances, right.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And you know, that's one of the things that leaders
look for when you're when people are talking about you
when you're not in the room, about the next promotion,
right and the next opportunity in stretch projects. They want
to understand how adaptable is that candidate for that? Nobody
is going to send anyone across the planet to work
(08:36):
someplace if you if you don't even demonstrate the minimum
amount of adaptability, right, well, you were in a company
that also had a planetary footprint.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
So it's not even being in the room, it's being
having persons remember you wherever you are in the world
and thinking you could be a candidate for anywhere.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Absolutely, And that's why one of the things I talk
about very often, particularly when I'm coaching mid career women,
is the importance of having mentors and sponsors, right, because
you know, a mentor is one thing. A mentor is
someone who is you know, giving you their wisdom, teaching
you from their past experiences, advising you and guiding you.
(09:20):
The sponsor is the person who's talking about you when
you're not in the.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Room, right, right, And that involves a strategy, which you're
also a specialist, and so strategizing is probably i would
say more important, but it tends to.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Be absolutely absolutely, And so you know, having a sponsors
is equally, if not more important than having mentors. And
you need a lot of them, right, not just one,
right because as a single person, you can amplify your
your accomplishments and achievements in an organization only up to
(09:58):
a certain point, and then you need somebody else to
amplify your achievements for you so that other people in
the organization learn how great you are, and that usually
happens when you have a sponsor.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Well, how can our listeners find you to help themselves
amplify their career path?
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Yeah, well your listeners can find me on my website
that is living while leading dot com, or they can
find me on LinkedIn. Sharon Erlick is my name. I'd
be happy to be followed by you and to follow
your listeners just to see what they're posting and check
them out online.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Very good. Well, thanks again for being here and sharing.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, lovely to be with you Tom.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And again so for our listeners you can find more
about it. It's Sharon Erlick. Your first name is s
H A R O N. The last name e H
R l I c H. Find her on LinkedIn and
her site, which is living while leading dot com Cafe
Networking is Braapfast by focus in my market intelligence and
(11:03):
agriculture market research specialist in Brazil. More information at f
O c U s m I dot com. Talk to Tom,
Talk to the World. Thanks for listening. Till the next
time here at Cafe and Networking Podcast
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