Interview with Michaela Kettner - Turning Good Girls into Confident Rebel Leaders

If we want the world to change, we need a new type of Rebel Leaders to lead that change. We feature people who are leading the way. 

It would be great if we lived in a society where the most skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable person got the job. It would be easy to know what to do to boost your career. Expertise alone is not the biggest career boost. It depends on how you look at it, but it can be either the worst or best news for you. 

Michaela Kettner credits educating herself in psychology, communication, and public speaking to overcome mental struggles and to present herself in a confident and skillful way to get new opportunities. Now she helps others to do the same. 

You might have attended Michaela's workshop at Crush 2025. Let's catch up with Michaela's latest news. 

Tell us more about you, Michaela.
Michaela: Three months ago, I would have replied, “I am a manager at Fortum, I lead my own team there and as a side hustle, I support people as a career coach, podcaster and public speaker based on my insights from the corporate world and being a hiring manager myself.”

But life just confronted me with a turning point: My boss at Fortum kicked me out of the company due to an organizational change. It took me a couple of weeks to digest this, and I have now decided to see this as an opportunity. I am currently in the process of becoming an entrepreneur to do career coaching full-time!

Tell us how you are a Rebel Leader.
Michaela: I have been employed in the corporate world for over 10 years and have always had the feeling that most of the leaders (especially men) lack empathy and good communication skills to motivate people and provide them a space to grow.

When I became a manager and team lead myself, I wanted to make a difference. And it worked! I built up relationships with all my employees that were based on trust,
honesty and open communication – and I saw them thriving and delivering great results that were much appreciated by our stakeholders. The biggest reward for me was to hear from my team members that I have been “the best manager they ever had” and “never grew so much in their work before”.

At the same time, my own boss, an introvert Finnish middle-aged man, could not deal with my open and ‘revolutionary’ attitude. When the company announced structural changes and that some managers needed to leave, he decided that I would be one of them. Both my team and our stakeholders were totally shocked about this. Nobody understood the decision.

However, I have nothing to regret. The feedback from my team means the world to me and their measurable results shows me that I have done many things right as a leader. And why should I have played small and hold back just to comply with the expectations of my own boss, who was not even a good manager himself?!

After this experience, I have finally decided to combat bad leadership in the corporate world. I know how it feels to suffer under a bad boss, while you just wish for a person who recognizes your talents.

There are many good leadership coaches out there, but – let’s be honest – many managers have too big an ego to be willing to change something.

I also know that the job market is tough right now, but I have the vision that when highly-skilled people are confident about their strengths, know how to present themselves, know what good leadership looks like, and can choose their workplace accordingly.

This confidence and awareness are what I want to build up in people as a career coach. I don’t coach managers; I coach employees to make the best choice for themselves.

Bad leaders should not have a chance anymore to get or retain good talent, unless they finally change something.

As a coach and mentor, what patterns do you see holding women back the most, and what would you tell someone who feels stuck?

Michaela: Most of us have been raised to be a ‘good girl’, to not be too loud, aggressive, annoying, or arrogant.

And nowadays, at our workplace, we are afraid to be judged as ‘too complicated’ or ‘uncomfortable to work with’, if we open our mouths. We eventually hold back, even if our bosses or colleagues treat us in a way that is actually NOT okay, like keeping us small, not recognizing our efforts, or ignoring our opinions.

If you are stuck in such a situation, I recommend as a very first step to talk about it with a neutral person. This can be a coach, but also a friend, partner or family member. Get a second, independent opinion on the situation to reflect: Is it really you who is asking for too much? Or is the other person not doing a good job?

And once you are more confident about your own feelings, provide first feedback to this person: Describe the situation, describe how it makes you feel (without blaming) and provide a clear suggestion on how to do it differently. And actively follow up if your feedback is taken seriously.

And no, you are not annoying; you are standing up for yourself!

And if nothing changes, brainstorm possibilities to move to a different environment. This doesn’t mean you have to resign right away. But simply becoming open to alternative paths or workplaces can provide you with new opportunities over time.

Your work centers around mindset and a successful self-presentation at work. What sparked your interest in this field, and how has your own mindset evolved through your journey?
Michaela: 15 years ago, I can say that I was a real nerd! I have studied physics, and in addition to this, I was super shy, and insecure and always preferred to hide behind books or a computer screen.

However, when I started my career in the corporate world, I felt invisible and it frustrated me, because other colleagues who were surely not more intelligent than me, but were showing up louder and with more confidence – got the praises, more responsibility, or a salary increase.

Luckily, at this point in time I had a very good boss who supported me. I became more confident and learnt to show up and speak up in meetings.

When I moved to Finland in 2019, I was able to present my skills and competencies in a very convincing way in job interviews, so that I quickly got into a well-paid position.

Then, I explored how many highly skilled people struggle either in their job search or to get a promotion at their workplace. And it’s not because they are not competent. But they are not able to show it.

They are like super-delicious food, that comes with unattractive packaging and is stored on a low, hidden shelf in a supermarket so that nobody would even think about buying it to taste how good it is.

There are limiting beliefs and self-doubts holding them back to ‘spotlighting’ themselves; therefore they easily get stuck under non-supportive leaders or are not seen by hiring managers at all. In addition, many people have a lack of charisma and communication skills – because nobody is teaching this to us in school or university.

However, I have studied a lot about psychology and Neuro-Linguistic Programming during the last years and there are specific tools to show up in a more charismatic way and present yourself well. Not in a manipulative sense, but for amplifying your ‘true self’ and the value you bring to this world.

Many women in our community are balancing ambition with self-doubt. What is one belief you had to let go of in order to grow?

Michaela: I grew up in a small town and my parents taught me that it is extremely important what others (our family, our friends, our neighbors and who not) think about me or us. I kept this with me for many years.

On the upside, I surely developed a great level of empathy, while on the downside, “What will other people think?!” became my biggest limiting belief whenever I tried to do something brave – or even just wanted to say my opinion in a meeting at work. “Would others judge me?! Will they think I am dumb?! Or just weird?!?!”

Moving to Finland made me tackle this limiting belief. I thought, “I am the foreigner here. People know that I am different anyway. So why not just be myself then?!”

In addition, I worked with a mental coach during the pandemic who showed me how to actively recognize and switch a limiting belief. Instead of thinking “What will others think of me?!”, my powerful mantra became “You can’t do something wrong with the right people”. If people judged me, they are not the right people for me. So why should I care?!

Why did you want to be part of Crush Movement, and what kind of things you are hoping to get out of it? 
Michaela: I have always worked in male-dominated jobs in the corporate world. It was always about ‘competition’ and ‘who is the best’.

When I came the first time to a Crush event, it felt completely different. There were so many successful women who have done amazing things in their careers – but at the same time there was this feeling of ‘sisterhood’, they were cheering up other women and providing them a space to show themselves.

This is what we need more of in this society! I really believe that this collaborative mindset can definitely challenge the patriarchy and improve the corporate working world to establish better leadership that is based on empathy, support and the recognition of individual talents.

What do you offer for Crush community, and where can we find you? 
Michaela: My vision is that people, especially women, are fully aware and confident about their skills and what value they bring to the table, so that they have the choice where and how they work – and don’t depend on a bad boss or an exploiting company to just give them a job.

I am currently setting up a holistic career-coaching programme that covers

• How to build up a stable self-confidence and your non-negotiables
• How to manage your own emotions and deal with a challenging environment
• How to communicate wisely based on specific tools from Neuro-Linguistic Programming
• How to present yourself for a promotion, collaboration or job application in a way that stands out

I will announce the program shortly on my website michaela-kettner.coach and on LinkedIn, where I am very active.

In plus of that, I am hosting the podcast “Spotlight your TRUE self” which has close to 100 episodes, that you can listen to for free on Spotify and Apple Podcasts about how to become more self-confident, stand out and boost your career!