Building meaningful relationships

Monique Adams As we read about people who have high positions in different industries, one can’t help but wonder where these people come from and how they started. Careers had a talk with Dennis Schroeder.Born in a small rural village in Germany, Schroeder reflects on his upbringing.He remembers the people in his community being straightforward and down-to-earth, something that has endowed him with a practical sense of approaching challenges in life.When he started university, he began to further explore his personal and professional goals as well as new ideas – first in Germany and later abroad.“Since my late 20s, I worked mainly in higher education management, development and international relations in Sri Lanka, Iran, India, Afghanistan and Bhutan with different German and international organisations.” He emphasises that his professional path has never moved along a straight line and that he experimented quite a bit with different roles in different contexts.“Somewhere in the middle, I had the wonderful opportunity to do a second Masters in public administration at Harvard University, where I met many inspiring people, found my calling and decided to work on the intersection of arts, culture and international relations,” he said. “Here I made many amazing friends, particularly from the continent, and began to envision my professional future somewhere in Africa.”Strategy developmentAs the director of the Goethe-Institut, he is responsible for not only long-term strategy development but for the institute’s day-to-day business, as well as synchronisation and communication within and beyond the organisation.Schroeder prepared himself for this new appointment through conversations with people either from Namibia or foreigners who spent time here or know the region well. He read as much as possible about the country and its history and the complex relationship between Germany and Namibia. When Careers asked him what his day-to-day workload looks like, he said that he considers these early months as his introduction to his new professional environment. “Currently, I am in my on-boarding phase. This means I am exercising leadership from the perspective of a ‘learner’, not a ‘knower’,” he said. He meets a lot of interesting people from various backgrounds and learns about past collaborations while still looking into future possibilities for joint projects.In every career, you have lessons that teach you something that will help you in the long run. For Schroeder, spending most of his professional life in challenging political environments, he found that in times of crisis, science, culture and innovation are alternative channels of diplomacy that can remain open between states and national groups with contrary interests.And in times of peace and reconciliation, science, culture and innovation anticipate problems and challenge isolationist positions.“One challenge, for example, was manoeuvring through the complicated political landscape during my time in Iran – which eventually turned into an accomplishment with becoming the largest facilitator of international educational and scientific partnerships in the country,” he said.Schroeder spent 2019 in Bhutan supporting the start-up phase of the Think Tank on Happiness and Public Policy. “My experience in a country that has happiness for its citizens as a goal in the constitution was a life-changing one,” he said.Blending arts and cultureWhile in Namibia, what he hopes to do differently is create opportunities to blend arts and culture within areas such as entrepreneurship, public health, conservation, behavioural science and sustainable development. He said he is fond of the constant inspiration he gets and is especially looking forward to learning about new ideas from future partners. “I wish to spend six meaningful years in Windhoek and leave with a positive impact on the country’s cultural landscape and on the relationship between our people.“My advice to aspiring young people is to be open-minded. Don’t let fears or what others think of you stand in your way. Your dreams, discipline, determination, empathy and a good grasp of reality are the foundation of success,” Schroeder said.

Building meaningful relationships

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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Building meaningful relationships

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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