Leader Spotlight #6 - Iris Hormann

For my 6th spotlight, and my first internal spotlight at EF, Ming Chen, our Chief Culture Officer, introduced to me Iris Hormann, our President of Sales for EF’s International Language Campuses as “EF’s original superwoman”. Because of this lofty introduction, I had high expectations for our chat, and well, let’s just say she didn’t disappoint. This leader spotlight will showcase her journey to today, including her 25 years at EF and why she’s stayed so long, and her thoughts around the intersection between sports, business, and leadership.

As a kid with a dad who worked for NATO, she had an international upbringing, including moving from Germany to Norfolk, Virginia at the age of 10 – with little to no English proficiency. She was quickly labeled as the “German girl that needs to learn English”, and ironically, she reflected on how playing Pacman and Frogger (the video game hits of her time) with other kids helped her to ease into learning the language.

Through her story, she reiterated over and over again the importance of learning and speaking languages, from her own immersive experiences to even passing the baton to her 4 kids (including triplets) who all speak a handful of languages, including German, French, English, Dutch, Chinese, etc. Going back to her earlier days, when finishing her thesis at a German university, she heard about EF from a friend, and immediately fell in love with the product/vision. With no understanding of sales at the time, she took a chance, joined EF as a sales coordinator, and the rest is history.

Since then, Iris has moved globally for EF, managing different sales regions, all with increasing levels of responsibility. Germany, Boston, Zurich, London, Hong Kong – you name it, she’s been there. And boy, did she wow me with the stories over the years. Trying to write this piece while including all the details of our chat is quite hard, so here are a few stories that stood out to me:

• You may have noticed above I mentioned she has 4 kids, including triplets. Excluding Hong Kong, Iris and her husband raised their next generation remotely (kids stayed with dad in Germany, Iris moved across Europe), relying on what she called a "microcosm of support" from grandparents, godmothers, close friends, etc – absolutely amazing
• In terms of the triplets, she gave birth to them, was pregnant again five months later, and when she scheduled lunch with Alex Hult to tell him the news, he pitched her on the idea of relocating and leading a new London-based sales team, which, well, she accepted
• One morning, during a coffee chat with Eva Kockum, a longtime boss of hers, Iris said, “Eva, my landlord at Zurich is moving back to his house, and I don’t want to move around the lake again. I think it’s time to do something new.” To which Eva replied, “well, how flexible are you?” Three weeks later, Iris, her husband and four kids moved to Hong Kong to accommodate her overseeing APAC language campus sales
• When she was in Asia, she reminisced on her fond memories helping to run the Pyeongchang Olympics, including individually running with the torch through the Olympic games… how cool is that??

Now, she oversees sales in 50 countries for participants aged 6 to 99, is once again back in Zurich, and didn’t give anything away, but hinted about how these next few fiscal years could be some of the best that EF has seen.

One thing that became quite obvious through our conversations is her deep passion towards what her teams sell, and how impactful this can be for people who enroll on international language programs. When she saw her students go to the UK, learn English, dance the EF dance, “grow to be one”, she had an epiphany of “wow, this connection and growth is what I’ve been selling all these years”. Nowadays, she’s made it clear to everyone involved that you couldn’t take her out of a sales environment if you tried – shown through her presence at all in-person events, alongside the other front-line reps. 25 years in, I can quote her saying to me, “sales is where I’m rooted. I still love talking to the customer. I still love selling our product.”

Now, since she oversees a global territory, she can’t do all the selling herself, so naturally I asked her some keys to driving high performing teams, and for someone aspiring to be in leadership positions in the future, these were super impactful to me.

• Her advice to new sellers: reach out to top sellers, learn from them, pitch to them, let them offer their advice – simply soak it all in
• For new managers: “at least ask the question, then let their staff decide.” For example, when Alex Hult asked her to relocate to London after expecting her 4th kid in 13 months, the answer was most likely a no – but since he asked, Iris had an opportunity to say yes, which she did ??
• In terms of leaning into the EF culture – screw up, take additional risks and responsibilities, think the job or task is possible – “the word impossible doesn’t exist at EF”
• For team knowledge sharing, one thing I liked about her approach was that every month, her org hosts a “stars on stage” event – a 10-minute session where the top 3 sellers that month share what worked for them – a natural way to empower, educate and energize her teams

In terms of extracurriculars, Iris is a firm believer of the power of sports and the benefits that come of it, both in terms of individual and community benefits. She mentioned her love of being challenged, which can be seen through her handful of ultra-marathons, triathlons, ironman races, etc. Unfortunately, she suffered a skiing accident this winter, but already has her eyes set on a hyper-endurance bike race next summer – gosh, this woman can’t be stopped. Additionally, she stressed the emphasis on the interpersonal bonding power of sports she’s seen over the years. When she was in Asia, everywhere she went, she asked the people around her to bring her to their nicest pool – something they were always proud to show off, and she then invited others to exercise alongside her. She found this to be a brilliant way to cascade her passion and team spirit to others through sports, something I’ve always believed in growing up in a sports-focused environment.

So, outside of thinking of Iris as the “original superwoman of EF”, what do I want you to get out of this leader spotlight? Well, like many of my conclusions, I invite you to explore what your true passion is, then aggressively lean into it. Iris’s passion towards immersive language learning is completely organic and rooted in personal experiences, which offers exponential benefits when driving organizational success at the compounding scale. And finally – take that risk, move to that new city, step out of your comfort zone – it doesn’t have to be an Ironman in Taiwan like Iris, but you get the idea…