Susan Smith Kuczmarski

Coming from a small town of 3,500 people in Oregon, Susan Smith Kuczmarski was thrilled to experience a life rich with different languages, people, cultures, and traditions in Vienna. In addition to living with a local family, Susan did everything she could to become an “insider” in Vienna. This fascination with culture has permeated her career and inspired her training as a cultural anthropologist. Today, Susan focuses her research and writing on values-based leadership and family bonding and has authored five (soon to be six) books on these subjects. In addition to consulting and public speaking, Susan teaches an executive leadership course at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Read on to find out how the lessons and values learned abroad continue to impact Susan’s work today.

IES Abroad: As a student at Colorado College, why did you choose to study abroad in Vienna?

Susan Smith Kuczmarski: I was attracted to the field of international relations when I arrived at Colorado College in 1969. My advisor at Colorado College was Fred Sondermann. He had a huge personal and academic impact on me. As a 13-year-old, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1939. Fred was a scholar as well as a great teacher. He co-authored a well-known textbook, Theory and Practice of International Relations. He was legendary for being a great raconteur. He possessed a seemingly inexhaustible supply of funny and interesting stories, and he loved telling jokes. I had taken a foreign policy class from Fred as well as German 101. The IES Abroad Vienna program let students approach language study via their own fluency point, and this ideally met my needs. I could read but not speak German well, and the Vienna program challenged and changed all this. I was also interested in traveling in Western Europe, Eastern European Soviet bloc countries, and Russia. Vienna had an ideal central European geographic location for these travel adventures. It seemed like a perfect fit. It spoke to me on all these levels.

IES Abroad: What are one or two influential memories from your year in Vienna?

SSK: I stayed with an older couple, Frau and Herr Strachwitz, who had fled Hungary in the mid-1950s before the Soviet occupation of Budapest. Most students in the Vienna program had this type of living arrangement (with a hausfrau and hausherr), but mine was an exacting personal connection. Dina von Strachwitz, who frequently gave me blank journals as a gift, foreshadowing my writing interest, wrote the travel articles for a Vienna newspaper—and Mr. Strachwitz had a day job but spent evenings clipping news about art and artists, his true love, in their library. In the morning, after zwei semmel mit aprikosenmarmelad (two rolls with apricot jam), I spoke several hours with Frau Strachwitz in German, which improved my speaking abilities immeasurably. And to this day, I love art, love reading about artists and their work, and have invested in it when possible.

Vienna was a completely different and rich learning experience, filled with new occurrences, palaces, people, cultures, music, theater, geographies, galleries, and languages. I had grown up in a small town (Stayton, aka, the Green Bean capital of the world!) of 3,500 people in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Vienna offered an unending cultural panorama, and I soaked it up every day.

IES Abroad: How did studying in Vienna influence your decision to train as a cultural anthropologist and your career today?

SSK: Looking back, the year in Vienna had a huge impact on my professional passion, career path, creativity, and global perspective. The theme of understanding “culture” permeates my professional career. I currently teach “How Values and Norms Impact Culture and Leadership” in the executive course, “Creating and Leading a Culture of Innovation," at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, I have done extensive research on how leadership skills are learned. I teach seminars to corporate, non-profit, and education groups on the characteristics of successful leadership. My leadership training courses champion six leadership qualities: humility, transparency, compassion, inclusiveness, collaboration, and values-based decisiveness. I encourage students to nurture a leader’s skill set, which to me includes serving others, knowing self, finding common ground, letting creativity reign, and rooting for others.  

There are many links to Vienna. My year abroad was marked by travel and exploration, including trips to the Balkan countries, Turkey, and most every Western and Eastern European country, with the exception of Albania, where no visas were allowed because of the U.S. aggression in Vietnam, (so we were told). Sponsored by IES Abroad, and led by the knowledgeable Dr. Balakian, I took side trips to Russia, Poland, East Berlin, and Finland – all affording first-hand cultural observation and interaction with their respective people, cultural patterns, and differences. In my current teaching at Kellogg, I encourage students to define culture as “how we do things in a particular place.” Culture is a human product. It is in our heads and our hearts. It arises from shared knowledge. It is self-reinforcing and difficult to change. It is a powerful, invisible force.

IES Abroad: You have authored five award-winning books on values-based leadership and family bonding. What inspired your interest in these two seemingly different areas of expertise?

SSK: There is a French word, portmanteau. It is a large trunk or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal parts. It means that two separable aspects or qualities exist, best pictured side-by-side by opening the suitcase. Applied to my two different areas of expertise, I have a professional portmanteau composed of values-based leadership and family bonding. Unexpectedly, they fit together! There are a number of similarities. First, my research uncovered someone called the “caretaker” or champion of the soul of the family. The family soul is the “sticky glue” or that feeling of energy that bonds a group. A caretaker connects members, brings everyone closer, steps in during change and conflict, manages traditions and holiday events, and serves as a role model. Companies too have senior leaders, who serve as caretakers in remarkably similar ways. Second, I define the contemporary family more broadly. It is an all-inclusive group of evolving, loving connections, not just family members, but in-laws, special friends, co-workers, mentors, maybe a soul friend, and let’s not forget our beloved pets; similarly, companies have broadened their focus to include connections to the community, planet, and less-fortunate. And third, both families and companies require strengtheners or vitamins to fortify their group or organization. My research discovered six secrets to strengthen groups—humor, emotion, acceptance, renewal, togetherness, and struggle.

I have written five books, two on leadership and three on families. (I am currently working on a sixth book, “Praise: The Power of Recognition.”) Writing has always been a way for me to translate observations into learning, and my year abroad started this intellectual “habit”! As to what inspired these two professional themes, I had the good fortune of living with a close, complex family in Vienna. Also, when I traveled in Eastern Europe, I often stayed with a family instead of at a hostel or hotel. There was a two-way (i.e. host and visitor) excitement and celebratory tone to this arrangement. And while each family served a meal and simple accommodations, the value was in seeing how they lived and being included in their daily family life for a short while. As to leadership, I have always observed groups and how they are led – and Vienna and my travel during the year offered a constant data source. Finally, my interest in comparative and international education was most certainly nurtured in Vienna.

IES Abroad: What is one thing you learned while abroad that remains a constant in your life today?

SSK: If you look at the topics covered below in my leadership courses, you can see how my study abroad year in Vienna influenced my teaching, both content and style. The same core values of the IES Abroad program—awareness, self-discovery, community, culture, and service—are constant in my life, then and now, and include:

• Awareness—Who am I? What are my needs, strengths and weaknesses, and professional passions?
• Self-discovery—What are my personal values? How do I build a set of group values? What is my unique leadership style?

• Community—As leader, how do I build an effective team and create a sense of community?
• Culture—How do I facilitate cultural fit, retention and loyalty at work?
• Serving Others—How do I inspire others to bring out their core strengths and talents?

I believe that everyone has an "inner leader" if they want to discover and develop it. In my teaching, I hope to empower individuals and their teams to do great work and build leadership styles that build a sense of trust and community.

IES Abroad: You interact with many of today’s college students on a regular basis. What advice do you have for students considering studying abroad?

SSK: When I teach college students I spend time on how we get our values and what shapes them. There are four sources: family and childhood experiences, relationships with significant individuals, major life changes and learning experiences, and conflict and self-discovery. The IES Abroad experience feeds into each of these factors or sources—and experiences abroad have the potential to be life changing.

Sign-up for a study adventure in another country! Don’t hesitate. It will broaden your horizons. It will expose you to diversity. It will give you a global perspective. It will teach you many lessons about life, struggle, service, time, and deep listening. You will grow to be a more observant, transparent, inclusive, and giving person. Vienna spoke to me profoundly and at every level! Oh, I haven’t mentioned that I fell in love with four things that I find appealing today—its coffee houses, pastry shops, cafés, and wine cellars. “Prosit” (Cheers)!