Interview by Declan Noone
With this new series, we would like to introduce the next generation of positive & mindful leaders, taking positive action for flourishing work environments.
We start with Maria Vidal Serra, Consultant at Deloitte Human Capital Advisory Services.
Maria, tell us more about your background.
With a background in Marketing and communications, most of my professional experience has been within the THS (Tourism and Hospitality Services industry), in which I have played a key role in the repositioning of a medium-size, family-owned hotel company. Repositioning a brand of this type of company means working on a cultural transformation, aligning purpose and standards of service and ensuring quality customer experience through the development of the company’s employees. My experience prompted me to pursue my passion within human capital, where I now work as a consultant for Deloitte Human Capital Advisory Services.
What are your current roles and tasks?
I’m working as senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, in the Human Capital business unit, being part of the OT&T (Organization Transformation and Talent) team. I’m responsible for implementation (of methodology, tools, team management and stakeholder alignment) in the projects I participate in.
I’m currently working in a Change Management project for a FMCG company leader in the Latin American region. The company is going through a digital transformation project, based on the implementation of SAP4HANA and 50 additional satellites, which will transform around 250 core processes across 8 countries, pushing the business toward what we call “Industry 4.0”.
I’m the project manager, with a team of 3 consultants. We are currently giving support to the team working on the project and designing the roll out change management
What leadership philosophy do you have and why?
I would say my philosophy is to lead by example. To do this, there are three principles by which I work and lead:
Authenticity: no matter what we work on, I aim to be true to myself, and to encourage and empower the team to do the same, embracing diversity, and taking advantage of each member’s natural talent.
- Commitment: I am a committed person, to the project, the team, and the team’s development
- Generating a positive work environment: I aim to make people feel involved, engage them in the project and make them aware of how they, in their specific piece of work, contribute to the global success of the project we work on.
Finally, I like to take a leadership approach based on team members’ development, taking into account the different levels each of them are at, and ensuring they are challenged continuously to become better professionals.
What has inspired your leadership approach?
I try to be observant and reflexive, so that I can learn from what I see in others. When it comes to leadership, my inspiration has come mostly from the leaders I have had, including both the great and the bad examples of leadership that I’ve witnessed.
The ability of leaders to make an impact on big audiences and in one to one interactions has inspired me to become a better professional and a better example for the teams that I lead.
Lessons learnt: be coherent with what you think, consistent with what you say, and consequent with your actions. As a leader, you are always in your team’s spotlight, therefore, no matter what you do, always be transparent and honest, and never expect someone to do anything that you would not do yourself.
I have also been inspired by some books, a key title is Find Your Whyby Simon Sinek. I am very aligned with his thinking on how action comes from within, and how it is critically important to share our purpose in what we do so that we may achieve true alignment with each other.
What challenges have you found in your new role?
Working in consultancy exposes you to different projects in different industries, where you have to work constantly with stakeholders who are different in terms of their cultures, backgrounds and generations.
The biggest challenge in this regard is to “make an impact” for your client while adapting to their very different situations, maintaining the team’s engagement, helping them to grow in their career paths, developing the different skills required for given projects… and doing all of this as fast and as best as you can.
What leadership challenges have you faced?
The greatest challenge I have faced has been leading a team of three people of different ages, very different levels of experience and different professional backgrounds (an engineer, a psychologist and an economist). Leading a team of diverse professionals carried its own inherent challenges. However, those challenges were magnified and complicated by the members’ different ages, and levels of experience, making it difficult to manage, and to achieve the level of alignment, engagement and quality of outcome that the project required.
What Human Centred tools are you using on any of the projects you are involved in?
I use a leadership approach based on coaching,
I try to have a feedback session with the team every 3– 4 weeks to strengthen our base for how we work together. This helps me to grow as a leader and also as a professional.
Many times I use the GROW model to guide the team in thinking about and reflecting on how they might solve or propose solutions to the situations we could face.
What tools do you use on a daily or weekly basis to help your team and reflect on your leadership approach?
I try to give the team direction, but also to give them the autonomy to work by themselves on coming up with solutions, proposals, and to identify short-term goals which we frequently review together.
What do you do to manage your own performance and personal wellbeing? And why?
We have weekly meetings to keep track of how we are doing with a given project and where we are with tasks. To monitor my own performance, I ask for feedback from the client from my team members and from my leaders.
For my own wellbeing, I feel the need to partake in sporting activities at least two or three times a week, and I exercise in the morning so that I’m full of energy when I get to work.
What is that you enjoy the most about your role as a leader?
Helping people grow and helping them to perform at their best.
The feeling of shared success. It is the shared feeling everyone gets when we achieve something together, knowing we were all a part of.
Making the team feel engaged with the challenge
Your top tips: What message or key take away do you want to share with new and aspiring leaders? What is your big ‘lesson learned’ that you feel would help someone who is about to assume a new leadership role?
Be reflexive and empathic.
- The more reflexive you are, the more effective you are. Measuring the environment before acting will always help you to minimize risks and error and to be more accurate and effective in your actions no matter what their purposes are.
- Be empathic, and truly empathic. Practising empathy will always work to your benefit. It will help you no matter what your purpose is, whether you wish to convince someone you’re negotiating with, or to achieve alignment with someone in your team. If you have the ability to truly emphasize with a person, you’ll be able to convince them by drawing from their reality, which always founds the most powerful argument.
- Last but not least: Listen more than you speak, you will always learn more from listening to others than from listening to yourself.
