MBA Performance Leadership: Paula Möhring – Transformation with attitude
2025-12-01 The 31-year-old mechanical engineer from Hamburg shows how closely change and leadership qualities are linked. She works in the strategic division of Hamburger Energiewerke – and is studying for an MBA in Performance Leadership at Leuphana Professional School alongside her job. She chose this program because it combines management theory with psychological expertise. Prospective students can apply until January 31, 2026.
Paula Möhring's path to leadership began earlier than she had expected: fresh out of university, she took on her first management tasks as a consultant and quickly realized how demanding leadership really is. “Technically, I could explain everything. But getting a team on board for change is something else. You need psychological understanding for that,” sums up the 31-year-old. This realization became the starting point for her personal development: away from pure expertise and toward genuine leadership.
To gain a deeper understanding of the psychological side of leadership, she decided to pursue a part-time MBA in Performance Leadership at Leuphana Professional School. The program combines business content with coaching, communication skills, self-management, and emotional intelligence—a profile that immediately convinced her.
Her professional career began in the traditional manner with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in Aachen, followed by an international double master's degree at KIT and in Lisbon, supplemented by stays in Brazil. For five years, she worked as a climate neutrality consultant, supporting municipal utilities and political actors in decarbonizing their heat supply. But at some point, she felt that consulting alone was no longer enough for her: “I had the feeling that I couldn't make enough of a difference as a consultant. I wanted to shape things from the inside out.”
Today, she is doing just that: in Hamburg, she is working on the decarbonization of one of Europe's largest heating networks. By 2030, two large coal-fired power plants are to be replaced – a project that will redefine the city's energy future. But Paula Möhring knows that technical concepts are not enough. “Change needs people to carry it forward,” she says.
One experience in particular changed her: training in emotional intelligence. The students in the MBA Performance Leadership program discussed a highly sensitive political topic – and each had to summarize what the other person had said until the other person felt truly understood. “That was a moment when I experienced what real empathy can do. The exercise changed my view of leadership,” says the student. For her, leadership today is less a role than an attitude.
She uses what she has learned every day in her work. Her knowledge of accounting and controlling strengthens her strategic thinking, but even more important are her leadership skills: “The methods I learned and tested in many role-playing exercises for conducting conversations and coaching are very helpful in my daily work. The tools create space for solutions that are truly supported.”
For Paula Möhring, one thing is certain: technical transformation fails if the human component is missing. In ten years, she sees herself continuing to be a designer—at the interface of technology, psychology, and social change: “For me, it's valuable to have found a job that can help shape society. It feels meaningful.”