Sebastian Braun
Head of Power & Hydrogen Quant Analytics
Germany
The more autonomy we have, the more we tap into motivation that comes from within
I'm passionate about leveraging data and connecting models to create meaningful insights for the energy markets. I’ve been with ICIS for more than seven years, and today I lead a team of over 10 analysts who are shaping the development and operation of our energy market models across power, carbon and hydrogen.
For me, strong leadership starts with open communication and trust. I encourage my team to participate in decision-making processes and to shape their roles based on their interests and strengths. When people have the freedom to contribute and grow in areas they care about, they build confidence - and confidence fuels performance.
In an ideal world, we would only work on tasks that are fun, require creative thinking or help us build new capabilities. The reality is that some tasks are repetitive or less exciting. I try to keep those to a minimum, but more importantly, I believe in being open about the nature of our work and ensuring everyone shares responsibilities fairly. Transparency builds trust, and fairness strengthens teams.
My role is also to create space: space to think openly, to try new things and to innovate. When someone brings an idea forward, I support it with customer insights so they can refine it with real world impact in mind. Being open, honest and transparent builds trust, and trust is what empowers people to stretch into new areas.
Flexibility is essential. The more autonomy we have, the more we tap into motivation that comes from within. When work feels meaningful, enjoyable and impactful, we don’t see it as competing with life, we see it as part of a fuller, more balanced whole.