Out of all people I worked with, Nora had the biggest impact on my professional development – first as a peer and later on as my line manager during our time in Booking.com. And what can I say? Nora has been the most experienced, the most inspiring, the most challenging and probably the best manager I ever worked with. She taught our team the difference between management and leadership, she raised the bar for us and cared deeply about everybody’s development and career paths.
What I remember the most is that she sets clear expectations for everyone, including herself, and never shies away from difficult decisions. With integrity, clear communication and humanity Nora makes the small world around her a better place. I am sure that everybody who works with Nora will benefit from it on many different levels.
Matthias Borngrebe, Localisation Manager at JP Morgan Chase & Co, Berlin, Germany
Nora is definitely one of the best leaders I’ve ever met. She managed me directly at Booking.com and I always felt she was both my partner and my support in more challenging situations. She gave me great advise that helped me grow not only in my professional, but also personal life and I still remember and practise the things she taught me. What I always appreciated about Nora is that on the one hand she is a very warm and kind person, but on the other can be challenging when needed and she doesn’t settle for just okay, but would always push you (in a nice way) to deliver the excellent.
Agnieszka Lekszycka, Strategy Lead at Aloha Camp, Warsaw, Poland
Nora was my manager, and she showed the difference between managing vs. leading. Her guidance in warm and supportive manner, with honesty and deep listening, but without redundancy helped me grow as both a young team leader in a global company and a person. Nora gave me the understanding of what it means to follow your inner values and how essential it is to listen to your gut feeling. It rooted deeply, and some years later it helped me to decide to change the career towards landscape architecture and gardening.
Liene Vanaga-Rode, Landscape Architect – Intern at ALPS atelier landscaping public, private spaces, Riga, Latvia
Nora helped me during my interim assignments as Team Lead with all the challenges that such opportunities bring by sharing her broad knowledge and experience with me, making sure that I could develop the right skills, setting clear expectations and her open and friendly communication style.
She did this by fostering a learn and grow mentality, clear and helpful feedback and being a hands-off manager that is nevertheless always approachable when needed. During that time she had several Team Leads in her team as Regional Manager and also impressed with strong relationship and team building skills. She is very engaged and motivated with strong values and always remains positive and solution oriented.
It was a pleasure to work with her and the resulting professional and personal growth that I was able to experience has lasting effects to the present day.
Anja Heinen-Klebes, Senior Localisation Specialist at Booking.com, Berlin, Germany