Leading Without Fear of Mistakes: How to Empower Teams

My experience is that people make far fewer mistakes than they think.

People are much more accurate than they think they are.

I'm Xavi, VP of Customer Experience at Factorial.

I have 17 years of professional experience.

I currently lead a team of 300 people.

If you ask me what my skill is, it's solving problems that had an impact. in teams, in people, in life in general.

You may enter please sit down.

I feel so alone.

Can you look in the box and take something out?

Good question.

How can continuing your education help you advance your career?

Interesting question.

Advancing over time is closely linked to, I would say, to never stop learning.

And that point has been very important to me.

In fact, my career has taken many leaps and changes over time, Precisely because I managed to learn things I didn't know before.

And one of the clearest examples was: I started out as an civil engineer, in construction.

All sectors were in a bit of a crisis because the fact that the government was in crisis, that the public budget had been cut, was affecting the economy in general.

So that's when I decided to do the MBA to solve that problem, because people didn't understand what I did for a living.

When you go to talk to a recruiter, recruiters usually categorize you.

You are marketing, you are operations, you are finance, you are sales.

When you look at an engineer who used to manage public works, That profile does a little bit of everything.

It does the planning, execution, negotiates with the property, close the contracts.

So for them it was really confusing, and what was clear to me is I needed to make my profile a little more complete and also talk about the same language, because I didn't speak it, there wasn't any, I hadn't studied it either to understand what each of those pillars meant throughout my career professional until then. In order to do that, It was super important to be able to learn some new skills.

And to achieve that, I did an MBA, which completely changed my profile.

That allowed me to get in or open doors at sectors that would otherwise not have been able to do so.

That's what allowed me to jump into everything else.

When Ferrovial offered me professional continuity and a good project in exchange for leaving the training program.

For me, the decision had already been made.

That allowed me to move to the United States, learn many other things, have a vital experience abroad, which is something I hadn't had until then.

And then, back again, the whole part of my life in consulting, learn about a lot of industries, interact with really cool people smart aviation, utilities, aerospace industry It was an awesome experience.

A professional career must have a common thread that runs through it. sense, but that common thread does not necessarily have to be an industry, It's more about how you develop your skills.

If they had asked me about Xavi, the civil engineer who worked Construction, where are you going to end up?

Well, at that time I probably would have said linear growth. within the same industry.

If you had asked me about aviation, I would have definitely already I gave a different answer. Because I already knew that my professional development wasn't going to be dedicate myself to finance, dedicate myself to operations, or dedicate myself to a specific industry, but rather I am passionate about solve problems. And I go where there is a problem. which is interesting, regardless of the role and regardless of the industry.

And that is consistency.

But it's from my career, not necessarily from someone else's career.

And this is also the interesting part when it comes to understanding the people who are part of your teams, because each one has their own needs, their priorities, and we also need to help them understand what those are. because many people have not yet discovered them.

A plushie.

How did you go from a team of two to 75 people in the middle of a pandemic?

Without using the box? Great question.

This one is cool because it's a professional experience that I don't have.

I hoped to have because it's my job to manage a relatively small team. small in an industry that is quite slow, and I was lacking a little that point of continuing to grow professionally from the point from the perspective of knowledge.

And it's also true that my salary was a bit stagnant. the last year and a half or two years.

And that made me listen to one of my best friends from my master's degree who was in, that moment, in a startup that wasn't very well known.

But we're talking about 2019, called Glovo, now known all over the world.

I did some interviews, the first one with Human Resources, but I wasn't convinced.

I did the second one with the then CEO of Spain and Portugal, with Diego, and I was blown away by what he told me.

Diego is strategy, here it's expansion.

We need to expand Glovo throughout Spain.

Okay, so what's the strategy?

And there was one phrase that I still remember because it made me laugh so much, which is: Well, you're the Head of Strategy, so you tell me.

That was, let's say, a vote of confidence and at the same time quite a big challenge.

The cool part was: one, understanding what they were doing; two, understanding how they were doing it. doing, and for that I had to go to the operations department, which at that At that time, they were in charge of expansion.

And I asked them well, in terms of expansion, how much are you at?

How many cities are you launching?

About once a month.

And they told me: well, three or four every month I mean, okay, if they've been able to do four, four cities a week and they've It worked, let's put together a plan to launch in four cities. every week, and we're going to put together a team so that it can do that.

When I returned to the operations team that was doing the expansion and told them that, They called me crazy.

This cannot be done.

And then I went to talk to finance, where there was some concern. because expansion into other markets, when done it was rushed, and it turned out to be costly for the company.

In other words, I had a problem, which was that it wasn't self-sustaining, and there was a lot of talk about that. with Glovo's CFO, Edu, and I proposed, "Look, this is my expansion plan." These are the reasons why we are expanding to the entire this list of cities.

And I know this concerns you, so i promise you that we will to undertake a self-sustaining expansion, such that if the company at any time moment there is a problem and it means that we have to stop that expansion, the only thing we have to do is relocate people.

But everything we've opened won't consume your resources.

And that conversation was really cool because the phrase Edu used in that The conversation was: "Coming from you, I believe it." And under those conditions, do whatever you want. And whatever you want. was to expand Spain and Portugal from 100 locations to 460 locations in two years and move on to an expansion team that, when I arrived, consisted of just one person. to a team of 75 professionals.

And then how do you convince companies that don't believe your product is a good fit for them?

So they let you try, and they let you iterate and evolve?

That's also quite interesting, how to convince someone.

Tell them: Well, if you don't believe in this Let us try, and we will show you that it can be done.

And hey, if we can't, there won't be any cost to you.

We've got you covered.

I would say that at that time I didn't have a reputation for being able to do that.

What's more, it shows that you have a clear vision of things.

When I joined, the first thing I did was bury myself in everything and crunch the numbers myself. That also makes a big difference.

When you show this proactivity from the start, It completely changes your paradigm of what you think about that person, and if later you demonstrate that your ideas are appropriate in other unrelated areas, In other words, I didn't prove that I knew how to do an expansion, but I did prove that I knew how to keep track of the numbers, had good ideas, that I was able to help improve my fellow students, the director of operations, the commercial director in negotiations that we also had a good understanding that we knew how to manage the different stakeholders we had.

This ultimately creates an environment of trust.

If what you say is going to happen actually happens.

If the commitment you have previously made, both in terms of what they are the results we are going to get or what the deviations are and why, and that makes sense and people see that happening and that you're in control of what you're doing, It's much easier to be allowed to do bigger and bigger things and things every time.

More risky, because in reality it's not that risky if you know what you're doing. that the person will have it under control. And that completely changes the paradigm.

What else do you have here?

A ball of yarn.

How do you build? That's a good one.

How do you build trust so that the team isn't afraid to fail?

This starts from the beginning.

From the moment you join a team, the way you address them, the way you ask them for things and you react when things don't go as you expect and when you already you have a larger team.

The first message when they join the team is also super important. The fact that the person ultimately responsible for that team I dedicate time to you, it makes you feel valued from the start.

The thing is, you can do this when your computer is of a reasonable size.

And I did these one-to-ones at the beginning until I had a team of 120 people.

From then on, onboarding new employees takes up so many hours.

It's practically impossible to do a one-on-one, and then you have it. to do more as a group, which is what I do now.

But it is important that you convey the message.

There is nothing more impressive than the CEO, VP, or CEO of a company.

Come on, sit down with them for 30, 15, or 40 minutes, however long it takes. and explains a little bit about where things are headed, why, and what the the part you will play in a team and tell me why.

That equipment is important.

That level of motivation is very difficult to get from anything else.

It was important for me to understand who they are, why they come to work with us, what they expect, what the what they want to achieve.

Tell them why their team is important to me and to the company. and give them that boost of motivation, right?

That is the starting point, and in that message it is extremely important to convey to them that Making mistakes is natural.

If you want people to be able to work, you have to give people the ability to make decisions.

Making decisions involves taking risks, and taking risks means that sometimes you will make mistakes.

And when you make a mistake, it's okay.

But the important thing is to realize that you've made a mistake.

When you realize you've made a mistake, it's important to communicate it. because you don't want someone else to make the same mistake.

Once you have communicated the mistake, the next thing to do is to take another decision on how to correct it.

And conveying that, which is something I always tell them, You all have your piece of the puzzle, and I hope you treat it as if it were It's your own business, and I hope you make decisions accordingly. and that you take them yourselves, or at least bring them back. your managers the options if you don't know which one is best, and if you make a decision and get it wrong, Raise your hand so we can come and help you, because we are a team, of hundreds of people.

Someone will be able to help you out.

This message is extremely important to me, and I am starting from day one.

And then what you have to do is stick to it, because it's not enough just to tell them, look, it'll be great, it'll be really cool.

You can do this, and we won't blame you.

And then if it happens, crush them. That doesn't make any sense.

You have to stick to it and be tolerant because people will make mistakes.

But my experience is that people make far fewer mistakes. than they themselves think.

People are much more accurate than they think they are. and no one better than the person who is dealing with a specific issue to take a specific decision on that issue.

The other part is understanding people or getting to know people from a motivational point of view, which is what motivates the person.

But for me, it's important to understand what work-life balance means. Where each person stands in terms of achieving that balance, That balance between work and life is different.

It's different because there are people who value their free time, there are people who values their weekends.

Some people value being able to arrive later.

But then they say, "Look, I'm coming in later because I want to take I'll take the kids to school, but then in the afternoon I'll stay for a while.

More because I'm more productive there.

There are people who, on the other hand, just want to be able to work remotely for two weeks because they live elsewhere or have relatives in another country and then they want to go there.

There are people who say no, and for me what is sacred are on weekends, during the week you can tell me whatever you want, but on weekends I won't be as available.

I'll just do one check or none at all.

And understanding that, what it means to know everyone, At least always to your direct reports, if possible.

Your limits too, because it's important to not only understand the people who work directly with you, but also everyone else on the team.

For me, that's really important, creating a really positive environment if you're able to do it well, as I say, very complicated, especially in times like these, when schedules are so hectic and everyone is rushing around.

But I think you need to have quality time and I would recommend everyone to make an effort because it makes us better people and have better teams.

Okay, sounds good. I'd even say it's a Boeing. and I'd say it's probably a 737, but hey, that's just for geeks.

How did you go from being public enemy number one to proving yourself as trustworthy to the team? [Laughter] That's a good one.

Well, I don't think I was public enemy number one, but there definitely was a point of mistrust.

I joined Vueling in 2016 because I was hired by the CFO.

From that moment on, Sonia Jerez took charge of financial control operations. Basically because there were some large deviations within the Operations department, and it was unclear why.

And when we talk about large deviations, we are talking about deviations of millions of euros in a month.

Sure, you walk in and you're the finance person who sits at Operations.

In quotation marks, also known as "the spy." Breaking that has its elements.

Because in the end, what people see at first is the guy on the third floor.

Who came here to see what is happening and he is going to expose us in front of everyone during the monthly closing review, right?

And getting rid of that label is complicated.

For me, the most important part is once again a matter of building trust.

But here it's about building trust with the various directors and managers.

Operations, in the sense that: you are not here to shame them when there is a problem, but rather to help them solve problems.

Help them identify problems and understand why we have those problems.

What they are and include any elements that may help to resolve them, to demonstrate that what you are going to do is collaborate, not audit.

And when you create that situation of trust, in the end what happens is that people open up and you have an open book, and then you have access to much more information and allows you to manage things much better.

If you have more information, you can get ahead of things.

You can be more proactive, less reactive, and mitigate potential problems before they arise.

What we need to look for is how we can collaborate and improve things while not hindering other people's way.

So, what we need to do here is: how can I help you?

How do you win over all the teams that aren't your team?

In other words, treat them as if they were your team, especially if you have a position that is somewhat cross-functional, you will have very different teams.

There is always friction between different teams from different origins or of a different nature. This is normal.

In other words, between the sales team and the finance team, between the Operations team and the Marketing team.

People bump into each other and they're like rocks.

Over time, that clash smooths them out and they end up coming out like a stone that looks like a mirror it is so beautiful.

Ultimately, it comes down to the ways of working that have an impact.

And here, what we need to do is figure out how to refine those ideas and that way of managing day-to-day operations.

But to do that, you need to create a foundation of trust where people are willing to open up and share everything

Both what they control and can teach in a presentation and what they do not control.

Nor would you want everyone to know, right?EThe moments when they messed up and made a bad decision, Well, the company has suffered a financial loss, and that happens in many companies.

Especially those from southern European cultures.

There's a lot of this "I try to cover up my mistakes as much as possible." I think it's more a cultural issue in these countries themselves than in the companies per se, but it is transferred.

So, when you manage to create an environment of trust because they see that you are someone who genuinely wants to help them do their job better, You see the good and the bad, and you can start to understand what isn't working and propose solutions that make the good better and the bad less bad.

The worst thing you can do with that information is to expose it publicly.

So, with that information, you need to know what part of that information must be communicated to the finance team.

What part of that information do you have to manage on your own?

The Operations Department?

In the end, it's also a learning experience for human relationships in general.

Well, but there isn't that much difference between, say, work relationships and other relationships.

In relationships with people, You have the power to say, "Well, I don't want to see this anymore, and I'm leaving." It doesn't happen at work. That's the difference.

But when it comes to dealing with them, treat others as you would treat others as you would like them to treat you.

But genuinely ask, "How are you?" That point shows that you care about people and later people really appreciate it.

In other words, the attitude you have every day from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.

Sleeping changes the lives of many people.

This point of being a little more human changes things.

Well, you've already dragged me in here Wow, a Formula One car, a Ferrari.

How do you manage a team that wants to grow at full speed?

Understanding the team is key, and in this case, I guess that's what we can link to another part from my experience, which was in consulting.

It was an extremely young and talented team.

They were very enthusiastic people, They worked for hours on end, and they had the ability to have contact with managers and directors of publicly traded companies or firms belonging to international groups.

So that makes them feel like they're worth a lot because their opinions and analysis contribute to places where very important decisions are made.

What documents do you generate at the age of 24, or what analyses do you generate that end up going to the CEO of a company?

It makes you feel like you're the best thing in the universe.

There, it was extremely important to be two things: in a way, the older brother, because we are talking about people, well, they've grown up or learned a lot of things very quickly.

They've seen many industries, their opinions are taken into account by very senior people who have very large teams.

And at the same time, be the team leader and make decisions about it.

And that means that sometimes team members' expectations aren't being met, especially those who are eager to grow.

Those who have that need to grow quickly, or how you manage someone who has the expectation and says, "no, no, I want to be a director consulting firm before I turn 30, and to do that I have to do ABCDE in these timings, because otherwise it won't work." Oh wow, I see that that didn't happen here.

In the moment, I got frustrated and considered leaving.

How are you able to redirect conversations?

To make them understand that the fact that just because they came up with the perfect career path, doesn't mean they cannot get there, it really comes down to who they are.

It's more about demonstrating that you have learned over time, rather than just the timings, that you have focused on your career.

And above all, the point where you can't wait for all the stars to align with your expectations all the time, and sometimes things don't work out that way.

It's important to understand why not, and see what you can do to change it.

If you truly believe that something else should have happened.

Because it is also true that many people continue to do the same thing all the time. time, waiting for a different effect.

And this doesn't usually happen.

If you keep doing the same thing, the same thing usually happens.

Let's see, let's see.

Princess Leia.

Star Wars.

What do you think makes a good leader?

To start with, you have to have a human side.

In other words, it has to be someone with technical skills, In other words, it will be very difficult for you to be a good team leader if you are not capable of to contribute to your team in some way.

That doesn't mean you have to learn specific technical skills, but to be able to give guidance toward the solution.

That part is important, but for me, an important part of being a good leader is empathetic and understands what are the things that motivate your team, listen to them.

One of the first things I did when I arrived at Factorial was to to get to where I am now, it was having a team of 100 people.

I knew I couldn't talk to all 100, it was going to be very difficult.

But I asked to be seated randomly with 40 of them during the first week.

And when I did that, the feedback was devastating.

Of all the things that needed to be changed in terms of salaries, in terms of recognition, in terms of how the performance is executed, how promotions are run, and that also gives you a bit of an idea what your priorities and schedule should be.

It was very important to me that the team knew that the company's values were important for them as well, and also for evaluating them.

And I did something that seemed very silly, but I had the values of Factorial printed out. and hung them on the walls. In the performance review, which until at that time, only results were measured.

I began evaluating my entire team based on results and alignment with values.

Believe me, the impact was like, wow! It made people see that you don't have to be rewards you only for reaching your monthly goal or reaching your quarterly goal, but it is just as important that you get there. like how you get there.

If you achieve your goal by stepping on everyone around you That's not how we want to operate, at least not in this team.

If we had to choose three skills, listening would be one of them.

Communication is the other one.

It's difficult to be a good leader without good communication skills, and then taking strategic decisions.

For me, those three skills are the three main skills that than to have a good leader.

Convey intensity, calmness, nervousness or chaos will cause your team to feel more or less pressure, whether it is more or less intense, more or less chaotic.

And you generate that, and you can even generate it nonverbally.

That point is also important to understand.

Be able to convey the point that: the situation is under control, You must have demonstrated this before.

In other words, it will be difficult to relieve the pressure on the team.

If you have not demonstrated that you have the situation under control and know calibrate that point of intensity.

You can't skip it even if things are chaotic or you're in an intense moment, conveying that we are moving in the direction we had planned.

Planned, if we go. Not while the team is here.

My first recommendation to anyone is: to your team don't lie to them, you have to tell them the truth and how you do it is important.

How you convey information is important.

In other words, if things aren't working, you have to say that they aren't working, but we have a plan for that, and if we have one, what is that plan?

Convey calmness with that plan.

Show that you have a path, a route, and that you are following it and that there is something in the end, that's what makes people stay.

Even more than stability itself. Because that is also stability.

That is, things that change over time if they change and have A sense of change is also stability.

Stability is not immobility.

That point is important to me.

A leader is someone who is capable of generating that feeling of tranquility, of stability, if we can call it that, to their teams.

Another important quality in a leader is the ability to be available even if it's just for little bit, for their teams.

And there's one thing I implemented that was a suggestion from the Team Leads from Factorial's Account Management team, which takes place on the last Friday of every month.

There are three hours in my schedule that are free for you to block out.

So people from my team can block 20-minutes to talk about whatever they want.

They always fill up. It's an interesting detail.

They're always full, but the topics are really varied.

As a leader, you are fortunate to have what I consider to be a responsibility, to be able to devote part of the time to help people in the organization feel special.

And that's engagement too.

Spending 30 minutes with someone who is in the call center so he can tell you about his problems.

If the tool works, how are customers rating it? and what ideas you have for improvement.

You can't do it with everyone, because you don't have the time to do it.

But if you do it enough, you still have to devote time to it.

Ten hours a month or even less, let's say four or five hours a month of doing this, and you do it at different points in the organization, people feel special, and that feeling is contagious.

And that is also culture. And that also changes perceptions.

Let's see what's around here.

The M for Metro.

At the age of 24, you had to lead a team of 230 people.

How did you earn their trust as the youngest member?

The youngest and most inexperienced.

Because I was leaving college, you enter this world, they give you responsibility as acting production manager on three different plays, three different subway stations, each with a manager different, who could be your father, because we're talking about people with a lot of experience, 50 years or so, the average age range Sure, you're a 24-year-old kid, you know. I mean, I could easily be his son.

And it turns out that you're his boss.

Technically speaking.

But they have an understanding of how things are done.

You can try to assert yourself there, but you're headed for failure.

You know what?

And here's one point: how do you earn trust?

And we come back again to how you generate that trust and how you earn people's trust, and you have to find a way to do that.

My approach was: "I can't compete with those people, nor can I pretend to tell them how to do things.

But there are things that managers and foremen are not capable of doing or seeing. because they do not have the appropriate training.

And there, for example, is a rather interesting anecdote.

On line nine, where we were building a subway station, you have to imagine the work was halfway done, we were building the station lobby and something called screens, which are the walls, which are build from the ground up when you start and that when you dig, they're usually already there.

That's what should happen.

Well, there was one missing.

Big problem, because that means that until it is executed, This cannot continue to execute different elements within the work. and therefore there is a delay.

So what I did right there and then was.

Let's see, bring me the plans.

And they brought me the plans for what should theoretically be built there.

I made a sketch and said yes, yes, yes, yes.

Let's do this, Edu. Okay, fine.

You ask for it, we build it.

There was a risk that I was wrong and we would have to undo everything that has been done, which would have caused a longer delay and financial loss.

But anyway, they came, they set it up, they scratched it, they concreted it, We continue with the work and obviously send the sketch with everything to the technical office.

After a month and a half, when it was done, We were already putting up the walls in front of the concrete.

Rosario, the girl who was in Technical Support, sends me a message.

He says to me, "We've been looking at the sketch you sent us. and it is oversized.

It could be optimized by doing this, changing this, and changing this." I mean Rosario, we're not going to optimize it because it's been paved for three weeks.

She says, "And what program did you use to calculate this?" I didn't calculate it with a program, I used logic.

If the wall next to it and the one next to that are like that.

I'll add more steel to this one.

The reinforcement will therefore hold.

She says, "Ah, okay, let's do it that way." Check.

Taking controlled risks within your area of expertise also unlocks and it shows, one, confidence in yourself. two, technical skills and abilities.

And you're bringing something to the team that they don't have.

That's also how you earn people's trust and respect.

The thing is, you have to make calculated decisions or take calculated risks.

Let's not become kamikazes now and take this literally.

That concern for things to keep flowing and evolving, And trying to minimize paralysis is also something that people value highly because things usually stop when there is a problem.

When you can start making progress by taking small decisions, that also changes people's perceptions and makes them value you more.

Value the work of other people as well because it evolves much faster.

And that's how I earned the respect of the managers and foremen on line nine.

Let's see what we have here. A compass.

The million-dollar question. Oops, we left it for last.

How can you keep your team and yourself motivated without losing sight of your goals? [Sighs] How do you keep the team motivated?

It is extremely important to understand what motivates them, what is important to them, What are your professional goals?

What are your personal goals?

How can you positively impact them?

And here's something my current boss does very well, which is ask a lot of questions to understand how your personal life links to your professional situation.

And there's another thing he does very well, which is trying to get ahead of himself to your needs.

And that, when you have a leader who tries to do this with you, it's crazy, because it's super, super, super cool.

That point of understanding people is important.

And then, obviously, you have to give them management autonomy, leadership skills, ability to make mistakes, decision-making.

The worst thing you can do to motivate someone is to give them mixed signals, when decisions have already been made.

That kills any leader you have below you.

And then there is the matter of creating an environment of transparency, openness, protection, where any topic can be discussed.

That makes the relationship flow in a way that it doesn't flow in other circumstances.

But if we talk about not losing sight of our goals, in the end, it's about achieving them. set goals that are ambitious enough to take people out of their comfort zone.

In other words, they cannot be objectives that can be maintained or feel comfortable reaching.

And at the same time, they can't be goals that are so crazy that they don't see the possibility or how to get there.

But if we're talking about keeping the team motivated, then the team has to be kept motivated.

Motivated, with a clear vision of where they are going.

You have to keep him motivated by celebrating victories. of the big ones and the small ones.

Let the team know that they are doing a good job.

It's important.

For me, it's much more important to discuss how not to demotivate people.

And there's one thing I haven't told you, or that I haven't told you all, which is: There are things that I have kept to myself throughout my professional life, things that have happened to me that could have really discouraged people and I have them saved because someday I plan to write a book, which will be titled, "How not to demotivate your team. 100 things you should avoid doing." In my life, there have been times when I wasn't sure about where to go or which way to go.

And for me, those three questions helped me the most.

The first question is: What are you good at?

There's something you're in the top 1% of the world at, for sure.

The second thing is: what do you like?

Are you passionate about it?

What is it that makes you wake up in the morning and say, "Wow, I really love this"?

And the third is: Where do you want to go?

And that goes hand in hand with a second part of that question, which is: "What are you willing to sacrifice?" Or invest to get there?" You have to answer them genuinely, and then every so often you have to start reflecting.

Asking yourself questions and answering them honestly allows you to make decisions. decisions without remorse.

For me, it's extremely important to be able to sleep peacefully every night with the decisions you make, and you can only do this if you are honest with yourself.

And if you tell people the truth, because if you don't, Having to remember lies every day is too complicated.

And these reflections are not just two-minute reflections.

It's not an action-reaction like the decisions you make every day.

You need to create a different context.

Otherwise, it won't work.