On Thursday, December 10, the companies ManpowerGroup and Assert International had the honor of hosting an online regional panel on “Leadership Through the Prism of Regional positions”.
The panel moderators were Marta Forai, Regional Senior HR Partner Assert and Aleksandar Plavšin, Corporate Affairs Consultant, ManpowerGroup. Panelists who spoke about leadership from the perspective of regional positions were:
Aleksandra Triantafyllidou, People & Culture Manager, IKEA SEE
Ljubiša Mitof-Višurski, General Manager Adriatic Countries, Abbvie
Branimir Muidža, General Manager, Heidelberg Cement Croatia and B&H
During the first part of the panel, participants had the opportunity to hear the views of the panelists on topics that pose challenges for regional leaders, with an emphasis on current global trends. Ljubiša emphasized that the mobility of regional leaders in the age of digitalization is desirable because direct contact still has no substitute for achieving motivation and strengthening the team. Alexandra continued the topic of mobility with her position on the importance of building trust among people, regardless of the spatial distance of the teams. Speaking about trust, she emphasized three key points: authenticity, creating a win-win relationship and the “logic” of business relations, as well as that it is crucial for leaders to develop the skill of “listening more than talking”. Branimir pointed out the importance of transparency of communication to all stakeholders and shareholders, but that the information we transmit should be accurate, simple, understandable and easy to pass on. This is especially important for leadership positions because it is the managers who should be the role models for the company’s employees.
The key messages from the webinar are:
A productive regional leader should have a high level of social intelligence that allows him to create a meaningful and effective compromise between global corporate culture, local business culture, but the values and culture of team members.
The predisposition for good coordination is transparency in management, i.e. that the whole team knows the goals towards which the business is directed, but also a clear division of roles, which should lead to mutual trust, as one of the key factors of successful business cooperation.
A good leader strives to turn differences into opportunities, because different perspectives on certain business activities can help find the best possible solutions.
Business transformation is a constant, and after a pandemic it can be concluded that many things are in question. It is up to the leaders to choose the way to adapt to further business evolution, and what is certain is that regional management should be focused on the paradigm of balance of digitalization and “human centric” approach.
