Articles by / Margarita Areteou
/ New Chapter
New year, new me, new chapter. I am shifting gears. I am going solo. I am setting out on a brand new professional (ad)venture moving to Transformation Consulting and Business Executive Trainings.
I am following my heart, my instinct, my gut, my natural skills, my desires. In the attached article, I talk more about how I came to this decision. From 'till death do us part' in the corporate world to going solo at 51.
I have been schooled at some amazing companies - each offering me something new and different from the previous. I have grown through every role I have ever undertaken. I have worked alongside and learnt from wise managers and worthy colleagues. I have become a better professional because of the people I had around me.
/ What's your plan they ask me...I don't have one, I tell them!
People ask me "What's your Go-To-Market plan? How are you going to scale up?". They're quite surprised when I answer...Actually...I don't really have a plan...
I've done quite a few Go-To-Market plans for the companies I've worked for having passed through marketing... And yet now, when I have to do it for myself, I haven't done so. Not because I don't know how to but because I'm chilled. It's that simple. I am stress-free and an optimist.
/ At 50...
It’s time. The big 5 - Ohhh has arrived and with half a century on my shoulders, I will share my @50 thoughts.
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At 50, what I have achieved professionally - first and foremost - are calm and balance. (I say professionally because with 2 teenage boys calm and balance are not my top-of-mind words to describe where I am at the moment '🤣)
/ Leveraging your Generalist Superpowers
My name is Margarita and I am a generalist.
Having been a generalist for many years (and a happy one too!) I have found one task quite challenging: What's my USP? How do I sell/market myself? If I had that 10-second, one-in-a-lifetime elevator pitch moment to land the perfect role, how on earth would I position myself? Unlike other professions, I don't have a label to easily describe myself : "I am an accountant", "I am a developer" or "I am Cloud Solution Architect". I think people would laugh if I introduced myself as "Hi there, actually, I am a very experienced generalist".
So let's break it down.
/ Don't rush to become a manager
I guess like most junior corporate rookies, becoming a people manager was like the ultimate goal. I thought that becoming a manager at a young age was a sign of success. A significant step up the hierarchical corporate ladder.
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It took me 38 life years to become a manager or 16 in professional years. And yet even at the age of 38, I was not prepared. My company had neither trained me nor even prepped me in the slightest to become a manager, let alone a good one.
/ Embracing Gen Z & A in the workplace
Given the mostly negative conversations I've had with friends around Gen Zs in the workplace along with some firsthand experience interviewing Gen Zs, I must admit that until recently, I was truly skeptical about whether I would want to hire them!
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Rather than whining about and so easily criticising this new generation, we should adapt the workplace to welcome and embrace these amazing, differently wired, new-age digital natives to allow them to show us the way forward.
/ Beyond Superheroes: The value of admiring smaller traits
At work as well as in one's personal life, isn't it just great to be surrounded by people whom you admire? Admiration is a 'strong' word and so when you ask yourself 'What do I admire in my friends?' don't necessarily go looking for super grandiose qualities.
Maybe it's their humour, maybe it's their calmness, maybe it's that they are always there for you, maybe it's the safeness they create, maybe it's their passion about something they do or care for, maybe it's how cheerful they always are, maybe it's how clumsy yet successful they are. It doesn't have to be an extravagant reason. They don't have to be superheroes in order for you to admire them.
/ To conform or not to conform? That is the question?
Many times over the years, I was told that my style, my looks don’t come across as very senior and/or corporate. My style - they told me - is playful rather than senior. A colleague whom I dearly value once pulled me aside and told me 'Margarita, look…whether you like it or not, your big hair, big earrings, tattoos, you're posts about jumping off planes and climbing Kilimanjaro are not going to get you very far up the corporate ladder'. This was in fact his friendly and honest advise. He had just been on a 2-day in-person training course on 'unconscious bias'.
/ Recruiting Tips from a non-HR person - Part 1
After 1.5 years of recruiting as a non-HR person, this 2-part series will be about how companies can create a distinguished RECRUITING EXPERIENCE that's appreciated and even praised by the candidates and at the same time effective for the internal stakeholders and participants.
/ Recruiting Tips from a non-HR person - Part 2
The end-to-end interview process should be treated and offered as an EXPERIENCE for the candidates. It should NOT constitute a recruiting TO-DO list action whereby we simply have to go through the drill of finding the most suitable candidate. We should be offering a 'wow' experience, one that the candidates can learn from and talk about.
/ Multinationals vs. local company - IMPACT
Working for a MN is like being on a football team but being a substitute, sitting on the bench, watching the main team of 11 do their thing and win the trophy. Yes, I participated in trainings, the physical workouts, all the prep, but at the end of day, I was on the bench. I didn't directly contribute to the win. But hey, I got my medal just like all the other players who were on the field and I celebrated feeling big and grand for alas…we won the trophy. But it was the others who drove the real impact. I was sitting on the bench.
/ Perfectly mediocre kids & proud of it!
Being a mum of 2, I often find myself part of discussions where parents proudly share their kids' achievements, the stellar scholar results, the scholarships, the top grades, the athletic awards, the amazing ballet performance etc.
I have parted from these chit chat groups not feeling very good about myself and my children. That failed parenting guilt trip.
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It took my a long while to reconcile with myself about my perfectly mediocre kids
/ On a job searching mission (Part I)
As global technology redundancies and multinational re-orgs recently came knocking on my door, it was time for me to polish up that rusty CV of mine sitting in some forgotten OneDrive folder. I had to lay out my plan for how I was going to go out there, to position and market myself in the wild wild west of recruitment and really nail it.
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And so it is MY TIME to search for a new job out there in the wide open ocean. This is my real-time story.
/ Job Searching mission - My learning journey
For those who find the job searching mission stressful, I say put the stress aside and enjoy the learnings this journey has to offer.
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When working nonstop for so many years (26 in my case!), we rarely have the time (or even if we do, we don't take advantage of it) to really step back and think about who we really are professionally and what we have to offer beyond the list of past job roles and skills acquired.
/ Job searching Mission Accomplished
Enter 2024. And with the new year (Happy New Year btw...), my job searching mission comes to a close. Epilogue time. Closing Act. Part 3 of 3. Mission Accomplished.
But because it's not just about the destination but about the journey, let me take you along on the final chapter of this job searching journey.
/ Mentoring our kids to understand their natural skills
My boys are now both teenagers. Markos is entering high school (3 more years of school left..how the hell did that happen so fast!!) so discussions around university studies and work opportunities are becoming more frequent and important.
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What I have come to realize is just how much luckier my kids are (vs. myself and my husband back in the days) to have 2 parents who have worked for 20+ years in multi-national corporate environments and who as a result can help them - through methodologies and learnings from our work - understand, see and surface their natural skills.
/ On work and motherhood...(my) life's lessons
There are 2 main themes to this article (my life's lessons):
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The first is about how NOT having any clue in which professional direction to go, how not knowing even WHAT you want does not mean doom .
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The second theme is about that boiling point where motherhood and work collide and explode.
/ High energy vs. strong points
For as long as I can remember, employees have been called upon to answer 2 questions: What are you 3 strong points and what are your 3 areas of development. ​What an uninsightful approach to truthfully discovering more about the person of interest. What a rigid and confining set of questions and uninspiring way to really get to know someone better.
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If you truly want to discover in-depth insights about the person in question, ask them about ENERGY.
/ The art of giving harsh feedback
Feedback needs to come from a kind place. Not my phrase. I read it somewhere and I decided to adopt this simple philosophy. This philosophy is very important to me.
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Feedback needs to be given with good intentions and good intentions do not exclude harsh feedback. The way you give feedback needs to clearly display this good intent. If wrongly conveyed, harsh feedback can easily come across as spiteful even revengeful and can only lead to immediate dismissal.
/ Being good at what you do is not enough. You need to self-promote
For the more introvert, quieter, low key employees it's hard to pluck up the courage to get out there and shout about the outstanding work you do. But it's necessary. Especially in big organizations. It's never enough for the few people directly involved with you to know and appreciate your work. It needs to go beyond, upwards and horizontally.
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Self-promotion should be a central pillar of your development plan. Not the formal company one but the plan that you have for yourself.
/ Virtual killed Chit Chat
The Office. I miss the office so much and I talk about going back with such excitement as if it were a holiday destination!! Not only do I want to start wearing 80% of my wardrobe again which has sat dormant in my closet for over a year, not only do I want to put some eye-liner after 1 year of absolute zero make-up and to wear anything but sneakers, but most of all I want to remember what it feels like to have human in-person interactions at work.
A virtual working world is a very different working world and after a year of home working, there are many downsides to the way we connect with our colleagues (or rather lack of). The most unfortunate for me is that Virtual killed Chit Chat.
/ Hybrid work: Structure vs. Flexibility
Recent research from Microsoft describes the 'Hybrid paradox' - the simultaneous desire to keep working remotely but also the need to go back to the office for in-person interactions. I myself can't wait to go back to the office to see, interact, work and chit chat with my colleagues. We are a social creature by nature so of course we crave for in-person interactions. But at the same time, we have also found comfort within the boundaries of our home. We have appreciated the luxury of not having to commute and like me, many of us have also appreciated the short lunch breaks we have with our kids as they come home from school.
/ Manage your manager? Or yourself?
There are countless types of managers and managerial styles. I have encountered many - managers that offered me nothing, others who feared conflict and thus added no value to anything or anyone, managers that really only cared about their personal agenda, managers who were intelligent but chaotic, managers with high expectations from everyone but gave nothing in return.
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When I mentor younger aspiring executives, I tell them something they don't expect to hear. It triggers thought and reflection ==> "You have more to learn from a bad manager than a good manager"
/ Setting yourself goals
On 8th February 2018 at 06:30 I reached the peak of Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa at 5,895m. Before that, I had never even climbed a hill, let alone a mountain. How the hell did I end up there you might ask? Well, this endeavour was the result of a new mentality I adopted of setting myself goals. I didn't exactly start off setting myself such extreme goals! Oh no! They started small, feasible and easily achievable, and then they grew.
/ "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"​
A classic HR interview question. Also typically part of development plan discussions. Now with the pandemic of course, this question bears a whole new meaning. But for the purpose of this discussion, I will take out the pandemic context. Let's go back to the pre-pandemic era.
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I always hated this question. In my cosmic galaxy of corporate theory, this has always been a bit of a pointless question, one that does not adhere neither to my life nor my business philosophy. Many times have I felt the urge to answer "I have absolutely no idea…and you know what? That’s what's exciting about it". And it’s true.
/ With age comes wisdom...and efficiency at work
Google 'over 50s at work' and you'll get results about age discrimination, how unemployment of the over-50s is rising, how worried the over-50s are about their job prospects etc.
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Yet, in thinking back to my professional decades, I can confidently say that my current 40-50 decade is by far my most productive one professionally.
/ Delivering Impact - Beyond the numbers
More often than not, impact at work is only ever measured in numbers. The obvious example is in Sales, where impact is typically acknowledged to be the over achievement of one's target.
But impact is so much more. In a healthy corporate environment, impact should go beyond a list of hard KPIs and this is what I want to explore here…going beyond the numbers. I want to discover the different shapes and forms of impact.
/ Impactful Presentations
Have you ever thought of how you come across in presentations? I do...I often try to see myself through the eyes and ears of my audience. And while in the early days of my professional life (and actually until quite recently) presenting in large meetings or public events was something I greatly feared - with my heart racing and adrenaline pumping - I have come to appreciate the art of presenting and decided I might as well enjoy it! I wanted to make those few minutes I had in front of my audience impactful and meaningful. No more wasting anyone's time.
