Inspira2 por La Salle - Desayuno Canal CEO 2022 | David Cabero y Carles Llinàs

In a moment of global disruption, data is less important—it is important, but less so—and many of the big decisions are made by intuition. When you grow higher in the structure as a leader, you're supposed to hide your emotions; if you don't, you won't advance. No, because you are straight, organized. But that's not true. Decisions and leadership are a matter of the heart, and decisions are made with the heart. What we seek are reasons to explain what the heart tells us; we have to justify the decision we've made. What we often understand by reason in our historical moment is a reason very reduced to the instrumental or technical element. So it's a calculation of means: what means do I need to achieve such an end? But it's as if the end were left out of the rational calculation, abandoned to emotion. I believe that is dangerous. The ends are also important to meditate on. Intuition is important, but we must meditate on the ends and give them a foundation. Without acquired habits, decisions can be made reasonable. I have learned that when certain things happen, you have to make a decision, but the world will not be the same; you'll never find the same variables. That is part of improving decisions, not abandoning past ones. Not abandoning doesn't mean not realizing you were wrong, but you must be aware that the decision was made under specific conditions and with the knowledge available at that time. Therefore, regret regarding professional decisions is almost absurd. Mistakes are beautiful; weaknesses come from strengths. Being very close and caring about people is a strength, but it can lead to a weakness when, for example, the best decision for everyone is to restructure a business unit, but you postpone it because the decision is impacted by the emotion of the personal contact. You need to triangulate and talk to others, because they can tell you what will happen. Instead of visualizing the worst moment—communicating to 60 people that they will lose their jobs—you should visualize what happens if you don't do it. The organization pushes you in a direction, and you fight but not enough because you think there are three areas: the circle of control (what you can change), the circle of influence (what you can influence), and the circle of frustration (what you think you cannot change). Sometimes you confuse frustration with influence; you can influence more than you think. If you don't fight for your convictions, you are wrong. I can change my decisions and my habits by taking different actions. Here there is a factor that is not mere emotion nor pure rational calculation, but accumulated experience that allows learning from mistakes. Executives are not born executives; you start at the bottom and rise. The work your team does today you did 20 years ago. As we become generalists, we often don't change our mindset. You need to give space for the team to decide, let them make mistakes, but not tell them everything from the start. The Achilles' heel is the awareness of the role of the executive as a generalist, and not listening, not accepting contradiction. The executive wants to be right, but the important thing is not to have reason but to listen, and if you don't have it, accept it and take another decision. What matters is that the decision is effective. The question is: what are the long-term consequences of this decision? It's as simple as that, but it requires spending time to reflect, to stop and examine analogous cases from other moments.