In this interview, Lucilla Talamazzi shares lessons from her career in both multinationals and startups, from Pronovias to Back2Life. She highlights the role of corporate culture as an anchor during times of transformation, the importance of dedicating time to the team to build trust, and how adaptability becomes essential to evolve without losing your essence.
Navigating in a storm
Taking the helm in the middle of the storm:Do you need the rest of the crew?
This is fantastic.Obviously, the crew is essential, and the more time you prioritize spending time with the team, the easier it is to manage moments of crisis,where you need to leverage on the trust you have in your teams to help, guide, and make the right and better decisions with them and for them.
I've been very lucky, I've had fantastic teams with a strong sense of cohesion, and this is very important, they're always very united with each other and we were always together.
Obviously, this didn't happen overnight; it was a gradual evolution.
I am not the same person I was at the beginning,when I had the pleasure of driving the first team, compared to now, because you learn a lot.
And this evolution made me realize again that I need to spend time with the team, to build trust, to create mutual respect.
And when you find yourself in a crisis situation, that's when you need to use all of this background you've created to appear calm, to make the best decisions,to put things into perspective, and therefore not necessarily to minimize the situation,but, logically, not appear overwhelmed by the waves. At the same time,be resilient, because it is obvious that within the same team there are different abilities,different ways of dealing with crises and therefore what is required,obviously, the role of the leader is to present themselves calmly in order to have an impact on these people who may be experiencing more anxiety and change or crises.
So it's a crucial role, and you have a greater impact on these people when a relationship based on trust and mutual respect has been established.
So, we must certainly regard resilience and then, as I was saying first, cohesion, because cohesion allows a team to stay together,and manage situations better, even those involving making the best decisions, because the best decisions are also made when you're not alone, with the help of the team, which is ultimately responsible for executing or providing all the information you need to easily make the best decisions quickly.
So definitely the entire crew, in a crisis, in a storm and even without it.
Navigating in a storm
Taking the helm in the middle of the storm:Do you need the rest of the crew?
This is fantastic.Obviously, the crew is essential, and the more time you prioritize spending time with the team, the easier it is to manage moments of crisis,where you need to leverage on the trust you have in your teams to help, guide, and make the right and better decisions with them and for them.
I've been very lucky, I've had fantastic teams with a strong sense of cohesion, and this is very important, they're always very united with each other and we were always together.
Obviously, this didn't happen overnight; it was a gradual evolution.
I am not the same person I was at the beginning,when I had the pleasure of driving the first team, compared to now, because you learn a lot.
And this evolution made me realize again that I need to spend time with the team, to build trust, to create mutual respect.
And when you find yourself in a crisis situation, that's when you need to use all of this background you've created to appear calm, to make the best decisions,to put things into perspective, and therefore not necessarily to minimize the situation,but, logically, not appear overwhelmed by the waves. At the same time,be resilient, because it is obvious that within the same team there are different abilities,different ways of dealing with crises and therefore what is required,obviously, the role of the leader is to present themselves calmly in order to have an impact on these people who may be experiencing more anxiety and change or crises.
So it's a crucial role, and you have a greater impact on these people when a relationship based on trust and mutual respect has been established.
So, we must certainly regard resilience and then, as I was saying first, cohesion, because cohesion allows a team to stay together,and manage situations better, even those involving making the best decisions, because the best decisions are also made when you're not alone, with the help of the team, which is ultimately responsible for executing or providing all the information you need to easily make the best decisions quickly.
So definitely the entire crew, in a crisis, in a storm and even without it.
