[Music]
nine years ago in November 2009 I got
the best award I could ever get I was
nominated engineer of the year I am
engineer by heart and I am a son of an
engineer
my wife Kaka is as well a
telecommunications engineer so you could
imagine the excitement I got I was
engineer of the year so I couldn’t wait
to run to my house to tell the news in
fact it was my ego and I went home to
tell the news to my family
I asked them Kay come to the living room
and even before saying hello how are you
good afternoon I said from my pedestal
of pride I am engineer of the year and
my son my thoughts on that at the time
was 15 he asked me Wow so you are the
best engineer of all the engineers and I
said well it’s just the
telecommunications engineers and he said
but it’s of all the telecommunications
engineers of the world they say well
it’s of the telecommunications engineers
of a Spain and so we said well that I
so to some extent he put my feet on the
ground today I’m going to share with you
the importance what I’ve learned about
the importance of connecting with your
loved ones to be a better leader and in
my 30 years of experience in leadership
position and the last five as a CEO of a
very large global business with over
20,000 employees around the globe what
I’ve realized is the importance of half
the balanced perspective between what is
happening in life and the other things
on everything you do and the ones that
are best placed to provide you help to
have the balanced perspective are the
ones that are closest to you my son in
fact helped me to realize that it was
good to be the engineer of the year but
that was in the context of the whole
population of engineers of the world and
today sharing that opportunity with all
of you is what makes me feel that I can
give you a very humble advice make sure
that you stay connected that you build
develop and you never lose the
connection to your loved ones to the
ones that are closest to you in the last
month have been reflecting in those
years of experience also I have been
observing some of the other business
leaders I know and I have written a book
about the three things that I believe
that they found I call then dimensions
that will make you a better leader
evangelist the Vangelis dimension
engagement dimension execution dimension
the Evangelist dimension is about
creating a vision it’s about ensuring
that you have the ambition
you want to achieve and we are able to
inspire others to make them feel part of
it you take a family context it could be
having a amazing trip somewhere so it
could be okay what is going to be so
cool of all of us going together – let’s
say Venice that is the Evangelist
dimension on the engagement dimension it
is about connecting with your
stakeholders
it could be customers that could be
employees
it could be ambassadors when you look to
the family context how you find that in
the business space you make that vision
relevant to them and you do the same in
your family environment so you have a
teenager who will love to go party and
you have another one who really enjoys
the sport how do you make sure that in
that vision of the trip they both find
opportunities to really connect to that
vision evangelists engagement and
execution execution is about making
things happen
it’s delivering that vision flawlessly
is making sure that stuff is done in the
family environment it is having the
flight tickets right is having nice
rooms in a hotel that is well located so
what I’ve seen is that you have to
master getting well balanced and
integrated those three dimensions to be
a better leader
I met leaders who are brilliant
evangelists people who are really can
articulate the vision of the business of
their organization
I met very strong leaders executing
their plans but also I’ve seen a number
of people good number of people failing
on their engagement dimension and this
is what I want to touch today that
dimension and especially focus on the
connection having an strong connection
with your loved ones and
to make a little bit of his room into
the relationship with my four kids
why because connecting having a great
connection with my kids have helped me
to be happier to have more energy and
with that I was able to work better to
stay more focus and to have more fun and
why this is important because we have
one life in my experience there is no
such thing called work-life balance and
I have a lot of mentoring conversations
and chats with other CEOs about this and
I discover a degree of frustration
something that was painful because of
the pressure that that sentence has put
in their lives and is because we present
work and life as two opposite things and
they are not they are part of the same
reality otherwise does it mean that when
we are at work we are not living would
that mean that if you are in the office
your life stops for that time it will be
really sad because of the amount of time
we dedicate to work so the actual
challenge is how we spend our time and
how we define the priorities to allocate
it I remember a chat I was having with
the Richer that was myself director at
that time and rich I was saying you know
Louise I feel bad I feel bad because I
think I don’t spend enough time with my
kids and I told him richer is not only
about the quantity the amount of time to
dedicate it is also about the quality of
that time it’s ensuring that you are
hundred percent 100
percent all in when you are with them
I’m not going to ask how many times we
find ourselves just reading our messages
on our mobile devices while we are
listening to others that experience of
that wildlife it makes very important
that we have that connection right so
what can we do well I decided to bring
here three tips that my wife and I we
have been using over the years to have
and to develop a stronger connection
with our kiss the completely much apply
to anything we do in life the first one
is about create special moments that
time in which you build and develop the
connections the relationships it could
be that you are just reading a tale when
they go to bed it could be that you
attend and you watch them playing
football or field hockey
it could be cooking together or it could
be planning a trip our last family trip
was going to Cardiff to watch our team
playing the final of the Champions
League last year and when you create
those special moments for me there was
one amazing moment which was dinners and
we used to have dinners probably later
than what other people would like or
would recommend because it was like 10
p.m. and those dinners were the moment
in which we talked about what was the
best thing of the day and the worst
thing of the day and I remember my kids
rise in their hands like in a
competition to be able to share his or
has a story or her story and in those
moments you learn you learn all them
but you all should you learn about
yourself and this has helped me a lot
when I had needed to come back to them
in challenging moments so that we kept
that connection and that has helped me
as a business leader you can also create
the special moments you can create the
special moments for your team and you
can also encourage them to live their
lives fully create the special moments
the second one is share what matters to
you and I had a chat with Sarah who was
the marketing director of the unit we
had in France and she was telling well I
cannot get my kids to open up I asked
them hey how are you fine hey how was
school yeah okay so he was really
concerned because he was hardly knowing
anything about their lives so I asked
her how much do you share with them how
much do they know about your work about
your challenges about your successes
about your concerns because if you think
that they are not interested or even
that they they really don’t understand
maybe they think the same they think
yeah you are not interested either you
don’t understand they have an experience
in 1998 when I took the responsibility
of doing a turnaround of the business
that was losing money
I explained my job to my kids say well
my job is to turn red numbers into black
numbers of course they have no financial
education at the time and probably they
didn’t capture very
well what meant that or the complexity
of the task but they knew what mattered
to me they knew that this was important
and from time to time they came to see
and say hey daddy did you manage to make
the numbers black and it really
encouraged me to go after that target
even with more energy probably also it
encouraged them to be more open and to
tell us more stories about the schools
the reports of their friends now that
they are older we keep sharing and
asking for opinions to each other it
could be about a new job opportunity or
it could be as these days about what do
you think of the flat we are planning to
move in what you build when they are
young is the basis to create an
environment of trust and confidence as a
business leader you can also share what
matters what matters to you and you can
build that environment around with your
team but also you can be curious about
the people you are working with what are
their motivations what is in their heart
be doing what is in their mind and that
is the opportunity of creating a
different environment as a business
leader create a special moment share
what matters to you and the third one is
make clear choices
I found myself several times struggling
of not being brave enough to really make
a very clear decision against the
priorities that I have defined well my
daughter was three years old she was
having a function festival in her school
and I didn’t go to that festival at the
end of the scholar gear
because I had a meeting that Friday in
my office and I was all day regretting
not having gone to the festival so I
learned that you have to make choices
conscious choices if you if you want to
go to the festival make it clear in your
office and say that I will catch up on
my emails on Monday I am going to be
there and these decisions these choices
they really work in that connection when
I was when I decided to leave my work
last year after 18 years in the same
company it was quite emotional and I was
moved because my kids now a little bit
grown up they decided they took the
decision they made a choice to be with
us the same weekend of the week I
announced I was living yes so that we
could be all together when you make
choices as a business leader you can
help also people to make choices you can
create tools for them so that you can
having things like flexible working it
made easier for them to really make
those choices so make sure that you
master your three dimensions the
Vangelis engagement and execution
remember to focus on the engagement I
mentioned because I learned that by
connecting better with your loved ones
you will be a better leader and you can
do it with those special moments
you can do it sharing what matters to
you or you can do it making clear
choices
but you have to take care of that
engagement I mention and I wish you that
when you get that precious award that
I’m sure that you will get you have a 15
years old kid close to you who are able
to put back your feet on the ground
thank you [Applause]
nine years ago in November 2009 I got
the best award I could ever get I was
nominated engineer of the year I am
engineer by heart and I am a son of an
engineer
my wife Kaka is as well a
telecommunications engineer so you could
imagine the excitement I got I was
engineer of the year so I couldn’t wait
to run to my house to tell the news in
fact it was my ego and I went home to
tell the news to my family
I asked them Kay come to the living room
and even before saying hello how are you
good afternoon I said from my pedestal
of pride I am engineer of the year and
my son my thoughts on that at the time
was 15 he asked me Wow so you are the
best engineer of all the engineers and I
said well it’s just the
telecommunications engineers and he said
but it’s of all the telecommunications
engineers of the world they say well
it’s of the telecommunications engineers
of a Spain and so we said well that I
so to some extent he put my feet on the
ground today I’m going to share with you
the importance what I’ve learned about
the importance of connecting with your
loved ones to be a better leader and in
my 30 years of experience in leadership
position and the last five as a CEO of a
very large global business with over
20,000 employees around the globe what
I’ve realized is the importance of half
the balanced perspective between what is
happening in life and the other things
on everything you do and the ones that
are best placed to provide you help to
have the balanced perspective are the
ones that are closest to you my son in
fact helped me to realize that it was
good to be the engineer of the year but
that was in the context of the whole
population of engineers of the world and
today sharing that opportunity with all
of you is what makes me feel that I can
give you a very humble advice make sure
that you stay connected that you build
develop and you never lose the
connection to your loved ones to the
ones that are closest to you in the last
month have been reflecting in those
years of experience also I have been
observing some of the other business
leaders I know and I have written a book
about the three things that I believe
that they found I call then dimensions
that will make you a better leader
evangelist the Vangelis dimension
engagement dimension execution dimension
the Evangelist dimension is about
creating a vision it’s about ensuring
that you have the ambition
you want to achieve and we are able to
inspire others to make them feel part of
it you take a family context it could be
having a amazing trip somewhere so it
could be okay what is going to be so
cool of all of us going together – let’s
say Venice that is the Evangelist
dimension on the engagement dimension it
is about connecting with your
stakeholders
it could be customers that could be
employees
it could be ambassadors when you look to
the family context how you find that in
the business space you make that vision
relevant to them and you do the same in
your family environment so you have a
teenager who will love to go party and
you have another one who really enjoys
the sport how do you make sure that in
that vision of the trip they both find
opportunities to really connect to that
vision evangelists engagement and
execution execution is about making
things happen
it’s delivering that vision flawlessly
is making sure that stuff is done in the
family environment it is having the
flight tickets right is having nice
rooms in a hotel that is well located so
what I’ve seen is that you have to
master getting well balanced and
integrated those three dimensions to be
a better leader
I met leaders who are brilliant
evangelists people who are really can
articulate the vision of the business of
their organization
I met very strong leaders executing
their plans but also I’ve seen a number
of people good number of people failing
on their engagement dimension and this
is what I want to touch today that
dimension and especially focus on the
connection having an strong connection
with your loved ones and
to make a little bit of his room into
the relationship with my four kids
why because connecting having a great
connection with my kids have helped me
to be happier to have more energy and
with that I was able to work better to
stay more focus and to have more fun and
why this is important because we have
one life in my experience there is no
such thing called work-life balance and
I have a lot of mentoring conversations
and chats with other CEOs about this and
I discover a degree of frustration
something that was painful because of
the pressure that that sentence has put
in their lives and is because we present
work and life as two opposite things and
they are not they are part of the same
reality otherwise does it mean that when
we are at work we are not living would
that mean that if you are in the office
your life stops for that time it will be
really sad because of the amount of time
we dedicate to work so the actual
challenge is how we spend our time and
how we define the priorities to allocate
it I remember a chat I was having with
the Richer that was myself director at
that time and rich I was saying you know
Louise I feel bad I feel bad because I
think I don’t spend enough time with my
kids and I told him richer is not only
about the quantity the amount of time to
dedicate it is also about the quality of
that time it’s ensuring that you are
hundred percent 100
percent all in when you are with them
I’m not going to ask how many times we
find ourselves just reading our messages
on our mobile devices while we are
listening to others that experience of
that wildlife it makes very important
that we have that connection right so
what can we do well I decided to bring
here three tips that my wife and I we
have been using over the years to have
and to develop a stronger connection
with our kiss the completely much apply
to anything we do in life the first one
is about create special moments that
time in which you build and develop the
connections the relationships it could
be that you are just reading a tale when
they go to bed it could be that you
attend and you watch them playing
football or field hockey
it could be cooking together or it could
be planning a trip our last family trip
was going to Cardiff to watch our team
playing the final of the Champions
League last year and when you create
those special moments for me there was
one amazing moment which was dinners and
we used to have dinners probably later
than what other people would like or
would recommend because it was like 10
p.m. and those dinners were the moment
in which we talked about what was the
best thing of the day and the worst
thing of the day and I remember my kids
rise in their hands like in a
competition to be able to share his or
has a story or her story and in those
moments you learn you learn all them
but you all should you learn about
yourself and this has helped me a lot
when I had needed to come back to them
in challenging moments so that we kept
that connection and that has helped me
as a business leader you can also create
the special moments you can create the
special moments for your team and you
can also encourage them to live their
lives fully create the special moments
the second one is share what matters to
you and I had a chat with Sarah who was
the marketing director of the unit we
had in France and she was telling well I
cannot get my kids to open up I asked
them hey how are you fine hey how was
school yeah okay so he was really
concerned because he was hardly knowing
anything about their lives so I asked
her how much do you share with them how
much do they know about your work about
your challenges about your successes
about your concerns because if you think
that they are not interested or even
that they they really don’t understand
maybe they think the same they think
yeah you are not interested either you
don’t understand they have an experience
in 1998 when I took the responsibility
of doing a turnaround of the business
that was losing money
I explained my job to my kids say well
my job is to turn red numbers into black
numbers of course they have no financial
education at the time and probably they
didn’t capture very
well what meant that or the complexity
of the task but they knew what mattered
to me they knew that this was important
and from time to time they came to see
and say hey daddy did you manage to make
the numbers black and it really
encouraged me to go after that target
even with more energy probably also it
encouraged them to be more open and to
tell us more stories about the schools
the reports of their friends now that
they are older we keep sharing and
asking for opinions to each other it
could be about a new job opportunity or
it could be as these days about what do
you think of the flat we are planning to
move in what you build when they are
young is the basis to create an
environment of trust and confidence as a
business leader you can also share what
matters what matters to you and you can
build that environment around with your
team but also you can be curious about
the people you are working with what are
their motivations what is in their heart
be doing what is in their mind and that
is the opportunity of creating a
different environment as a business
leader create a special moment share
what matters to you and the third one is
make clear choices
I found myself several times struggling
of not being brave enough to really make
a very clear decision against the
priorities that I have defined well my
daughter was three years old she was
having a function festival in her school
and I didn’t go to that festival at the
end of the scholar gear
because I had a meeting that Friday in
my office and I was all day regretting
not having gone to the festival so I
learned that you have to make choices
conscious choices if you if you want to
go to the festival make it clear in your
office and say that I will catch up on
my emails on Monday I am going to be
there and these decisions these choices
they really work in that connection when
I was when I decided to leave my work
last year after 18 years in the same
company it was quite emotional and I was
moved because my kids now a little bit
grown up they decided they took the
decision they made a choice to be with
us the same weekend of the week I
announced I was living yes so that we
could be all together when you make
choices as a business leader you can
help also people to make choices you can
create tools for them so that you can
having things like flexible working it
made easier for them to really make
those choices so make sure that you
master your three dimensions the
Vangelis engagement and execution
remember to focus on the engagement I
mentioned because I learned that by
connecting better with your loved ones
you will be a better leader and you can
do it with those special moments
you can do it sharing what matters to
you or you can do it making clear
choices
but you have to take care of that
engagement I mention and I wish you that
when you get that precious award that
I’m sure that you will get you have a 15
years old kid close to you who are able
to put back your feet on the ground
thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: