Finding a passion in life can motivate us to become better versions of ourselves. Meet Carolin Knobelspies, Senior Vice President of Operations for Everise, who shares how her passion for athletics helped prepare her for the rigours of corporate life.
Carolin Knobelspies was born and raised in a small city in Southern Germany. While growing up, she learned to play tennis at an early age and immediately fell in love with the sport. Inspired by Steffi Graf and and Boris Becker, her childhood years revolved around playing tennis. Carolin even recalls how she was able to win one set against Steffi Graf at the age of 11.
“Tennis was my life growing up, my inspiration was Steffi Graf and Boris Becker. So many kids started playing tennis when Steffi Graf and Boris Becker were winning tournaments. I’ve played against Steffi Graf when I was 11 years old, and she was 13 years old. She’s a year and a half older than I am, and I won one set against her earlier on, but it completely turned.”
Carolin learned important lessons from her time playing tennis. The disciplines she developed as a young athlete helped her become a better student and an organized individual. She took these lessons to heart and carried them into adulthood, where she now applies these practices while performing her responsibilities in the business world.
"What I’ve learned from being an athlete all my life is how well it prepares you for the business world because as a student, you go to school in the morning, you practice, you train in the afternoon. You have to be very, very disciplined, you have to be very very focused, and that’s very applicable in the business world too."
Now part of our leadership team in Everise, Carolin has since found many other passions in her role as the Senior Vice President of Operations, but the qualities she gained from tennis lives on in her leadership. She views change and difficulties as challenges that motivate her to become a leader and a better version of herself.
“I have a lot of passion, I can work through a lot of change, ambiguity, and difficult situations do not push me back. It motivates me to work through those. Being a good leader, especially in the BPO industry, you need to be able to work with so many levels of employees.”
Carolin's leadership mindset revolves around empathy and understanding. Her people-first values resonate in her ability to understand the challenges of working in a corporate environment, and she believes that people should treat each other with the same level of respect regardless of status or position.
"They’re still learning being part of a corporate environment, and you have to be able to partner and work with the CEO of companies, so you have to be able to really adjust to various levels. What I’ve found to be most successful for me is that we really shouldn’t be treating an agent handling our transactions any different from the CEO of a company or board of directors."
Carolin's leadership journey reminds us to find our passions in life. Her qualities as a leader align with our core values, and her story motivates us to strengthen our people-first culture. We are proud and happy to have Carolin as part of our Everise family.
At Everise, we ensure that we put the spotlight on the people behind our success. That’s why we are featuring employees from different walks of life and shedding a little light on the people of Everise.
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