In our constantly changing world, empowering individuals equally, men and women, is key for success. We asked Teresa Martin-Retortillo, Executive President of IE Exponential Learning, to answer some questions about what it means tor her to be an empowered woman as well as how she manages to lead and build a successful and meaningful journey for hundreds of professionals who choose IE as their lifelong learning partner to improve in their professional careers. Finally, we asked her about the Global AMP, a program designed and focused on leadership in a world of disruptive change.
Teresa:
What does it mean for you to be an empowered woman and lead a group of successful professionals who help educate and advise leaders all around the world?
I believe education plays a key role in empowering individuals – both men and women – in delivering the impact they want to have in their organizations and communities. Through education and training, we can provide managers with the knowledge, skills, inspiration, confidence, and determination to not only take the right decisions for their business but also to create the career they choose for themselves. We aspire to create master learners, leaders who realize careers maybe be 60 years long and they need to become life-long learners if they want to have a meaningful impact.
This clarity of purpose and the undeniable benefit to others helps me and the team to continue working hard and taking risks to deliver on our ambition. Part of it comes from our own thrust to continue learning and analyzing the changing needs of successful managers.
Which are for you the key elements that have helped you become a Woman in Leadership?
In my personal case, I have a small number of factors that have facilitated my career as a woman in business:
– Close access to great role models: from my mother who worked as a lawyer and managed a household with four kids to a large number of Women partners and the International strategy-consulting firm I spent almost 20 years working at
– Sustained training and sponsorship: I have had the privilege to work at a global company where every other year we had to go to some sort of training. This fact together with a very real on the job learning with on-going feedback has given me the confidence to undertake ambitious projects and deliver them. However, I would probably not be where I am today if it had not been for some colleagues who really sponsored me in new work opportunities that provided room for growth and development
– Family support: from the outset, my partner has been supportive of my professional growth and together we have made family decisions that were always inclusive of our own personal and professional growth
Why do you believe, in your perspective, the Global AMP will help understand future leaders the underlying trends driving the future? Will the program will help them explore the threats and opportunities these brings?
We are in an unprecedented time in history with the beginning of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Those professionals with the right knowledge and skills set will be able to interpret what is going on around them with more accuracy and therefore will be able to take better decisions for their business.
The Global Advanced Management Program has been designed to provide leaders with a new understanding of the macro trends, the new business models, the new agile operations and as importantly, a profound shift in mindset to seize the opportunities around them. Often times, executive Education programs focus on the knowledge and skills, but forget that unless we support managers in also changing their ability to take risks, their leadership purpose, and their ability to gather courage and stand against the tide… little change will happen. We see the Global Advanced Management Program as a unique experience that develops both dimensions of a leader.
Finally, which advise will you give to your younger self and to all the women out there trying to succeed in this modern world on how to become a transformative and disruptive leader?
While the world is evolving, women are still lagging behind when it comes to leadership roles in business. In the recent Pew Research report, only 26 women are in CEO roles at Fortune 500 companies and yet our universities continue to graduate women and men in roughly same proportion. We know the talent is there and I see no shortage of intelligent, courageous and gifted women leaders. My advice would be simple:
– Build the confidence to do what you want to do: invest in finding your purpose and becoming really competent
– Make yourself visible: if people do not know what you are capable of, how can you attract the right kind of opportunities
– Keep on educating your family and partner to help them understand your aspirations
Teresa Martín-Retortillo is the Executive President of IE Exponential Learning. In her role, she manages the Executive Education unit and is in charge of driving innovation in all of its programs. Prior to joining IE, she was senior vice president of Strategy and Business Development for McGraw-Hill Education in NY, and a partner at Bain & Company out of Europe and USA. She is also a Non- Executive Director in two global companies.
In line with Teresa’s ideas and advices, IE Business School, in an alliance with Naseba, would like to help you begin your journey towards becoming a transformative and disruptive women leader that is prepared to innovate and succeed in the face of the new challenges ahead. IE will award two scholarships of 30%* for two women prepared to join the innovative Global Advanced Management Program.
Are you prepare to lead your organization towards innovation and success? Join us and BE THE DISRUPTER, NOT THE DISRUPTED.
*The selection of the winners will be based on profiles that best fit the program.
We are committed on empowering women all around the world and supporting them in their career journey. Please, do not hesitate to contact us to get more information about the Global Advanced Management Program. We would gladly give you more information on the program:
IE Dubai Center Office Location: Al Fattan Currency
Towers 2, Office 1305, DIFC (Dubai International Financial Center)
Dubai, United Arab Emirates