Good leaders are not born ready. They need to be trained and developed as soon as possible so that in the future, they are prepared to take on such responsibility. The inspiration for leading a successful business should come from the top, teaching how to inspire and develop people to connect with this purpose and work together towards this cause. With this in mind, FI Group, a consultancy specialized in managing fiscal and financial incentives for R&D, is heavily investing in its Leadership Development Program (LDP) in a strategic partnership with Pande, a company that is a reference in the value creation process for brands that consider organizational culture as a relevant part of their strategy.
With its first edition organized in 2020, the need for the development of this program arose due to the exponential growth that the consultancy had been experiencing in recent years. ‘Investing in leadership has always been a priority for us and, beyond developing them, we knew the importance of taking care of these talents so that they could assume this role. Therefore, we decided to dedicate ourselves to this partnership so that we could have greater confidence and accuracy in preparing the future leaders,’ explains Vanessa de Lima Pereira Montagnoli, human resources manager.
Under the command of the Organizational Human Development area of FI Group, the PDL was built based on three pillars: understanding, developing, and inspiring. In the first one, there is a detailed analysis of which professionals show aptitude to become excellent leaders in the short and medium term. Based on this study, the second stage of development begins, where these ‘candidates’ are coordinated and supervised in intense preparation in this direction. To reinforce this process, the pillar of inspiration comes in, fostering this care from the company’s managers and directors so that, together, they take care of people to adapt to routines and become true leaders.
Throughout this journey, Pande’s support was extremely important, especially in the last two pillars. “We conducted a deep and detailed diagnosis to understand the profile and skills of talents at FI Group and, with this, together with their HR department and feedback from the leaders themselves on this issue, we were able to identify each of their moments and how to guide them through these stages in the best way,” points out Luciane Lamour, consulting director at Pande.
This proactive listening was one of the most important points for the success of the PDL. This is because, according to Luciane, there was a significant internal challenge regarding the management of teams from different generations, as each had different purposes, goals, and ambitions. Identifying this need was a key point in greater clarity of the individual moments of talents and how to strategically develop them in this direction.
One of the biggest challenges faced in this program, according to Vanessa, involved Generation Z professionals. With little ambition to be leaders, it was necessary to provide a more in-depth and humanized care to reverse the image that many of them had about this position – which many associated with a draining, stressful, and dysfunctional chair – to a role where they could connect with people, inspire them, and transform them in their careers.
More prone to higher levels of stress and anxiety at work, leadership is a position that normally is not of interest to them. Reversing this idea is not something simple and depends on an organizational culture strongly based on this individual understanding of expectations and ambitions and, above all, integrating them with other generations so that they are inspired to learn from each other in order to develop this purpose in each one.
Fortunately, there have been plenty of success stories in this transformation. Laís Leoncini, who has a degree in chemical engineering, joined FI as an intern 10 years ago, and from an early stage, she reports that her managers always emphasized that she should have expertise in the products and invested in this knowledge for her development. “They always dedicated themselves to teach and prepare me to be a future leader. I had very rapid growth inside, facing opportunities that made me develop and, today, inspire my team and future leaders so that together, we can achieve even better results,” she emphasizes.
For Laís, one of the biggest challenges she faces today as a leader is also related to Generation Z, making them motivated and engaged in this cause. However, there are those who have already joined this journey.
Giovanna Moraes, also graduated in chemical engineering, is a member of this generation and, today, a leader in the company. “I joined FI Group as an intern and noticed early on a great deal of attention from them in this development. It is a fact that many millennials value freedom and flexibility, and here, these factors have always been provided, through a more flexible structure that allowed me to develop the skills of a good leader, focusing on humanized management, empathy, and positive impact on the personal and professional development of each,” she recalls.
Guilherme Augusto shares the same opinion. Graduated in systems analysis, he started three years ago as an intern and recently took on the role of leader. When he started in this position, he confesses that he had fears that he was not ready, lacked confidence in the face of such responsibility.
But over time, the company’s actions involving him in the routine of clients and with people of different thoughts and views made him change his perspective and see that he had the ability to be there. “The program made me see my strengths and improve where necessary, learning to communicate assertively and make decisions so that I could lead others. They have always been here for me helping me, developing emotional intelligence and empathy, and I am extremely grateful for this opportunity,” he celebrates.
A good leader is someone who inspires and transforms. Someone who does not perform these functions only in a bureaucratic sense, but truly engages in the cause, connecting on an emotional level with these professionals, creating and fostering this career growth. After all, without people, no business works.
Working with leadership is complex, and many companies do not give proper importance to this development. This should be a continuous and anticipated development, closely monitoring the work of each individual, looking at results and improvement trends in the face of lifelong learning. It is a dynamic process where uncertainty is the only certainty, and flexibility and dynamism are essential tools for building excellent leaders.
