“Your initiatives give us a moment of fresh air!” In this interview, Astrik Gabrielyan, Talent Manager Europe at Orange shares her perspective on having a reversed role as a Talent in our leadership program, on how she recognises  and develops emerging leaders, cultural adaptation and much more!

Your career background consists of a psychology degree, 16 years of professional experience with 11 years in HR, Design, and implementation of HR programs (Talent management, Career development, Performance Management, Learning and Development). How have these programs been applied to your own career? How has Orange developed since you joined the organisation 10 years ago in Armenia?

When my experience with Orange started in Armenia in 2009, it was a start-up company that we created from scratch. We had one year to recruit a team and build up a network and technical aspects. Each of us created our roles, processes, and procedures. Even the French executives noted it was an unbelievable project.

The start-up process is unique because it allows space for creativity and is a major stage for learning by doing and designing on the go. It also matches my character well, because I love this process of creation, deployment, and results: making the abstract idea into a project with concrete measurable results.

One of the first work experiences I had was in a special bookstore in Yerevan, Armenia, dedicated to art, history and contemporary literature, where I was a sales consultant. Starting a career with customer service jobs – sales or anything that directly interacts with the customer – is an important stage for developing interpersonal competencies and shaping a sensibility to understand the needs of your stakeholders. It was a perfect job also because one of my hobbies is reading and to do my job well it was required to read those interesting books.

You have an international life and career, in which you accompany high potentials based in six different European countries to become leaders all the while you yourself live in another country. What is it like to help leaders develop internationally?

It’s incredibly inspirational, enriching and challenging at the same time. In order to support someone, first you need to understand the person and his/her individual need, and that’s where one has to be open and careful to decode the behaviours, way of communication, gestures, humour, that are all different culturally. My background in Psychology helps me a lot.

I believe, any job that you do should be about giving and receiving, mutually growing. You need to give your best to the role and then you can receive a result. That is the way you learn and grow.

Any job that you do should be about giving
and receiving. You need to give to this job, to the roll
and then you receive. That is the way you learn and grow.

You therefore are constantly facing cultural diversity and different mindsets. How do you adapt your life to better understand another culture?

Everything starts with one’s intentions and beliefs. If you are open to learning and discovering new cultures, then it gives you energy, otherwise it’ll be quite a challenge.

I think my Armenian background is of help either. Geographically and historically, Armenia is on the crossroads, we are neither Europe nor Asia and thus have values and behaviours from both sides. At the same time, we have strong relations and historical links with Russia, a Slavic culture, and Iran to our south, an oriental culture. This historical background gives Armenians who are attentive to it sensitivity to different diverse cultures.

Your workstyle comprises: taking a role of catalyst in the projects and ability to create links and synergies between different kind of stakeholders. Could you tell us about some of your achievements that have given you such recognition?

In my daily role, I do talent identification, development, and coaching. Plus, I deploy different projects linked to our strategic priorities: e.g. career engagement, mentoring. These projects involve managing a community across eight countries. I need to synchronise eight different mindsets and ways of thinking, and even eight different holiday seasons!

We develop young talents to become leaders. For example, in 2018, we had 12 talents from eight countries; all representing different domains, and who did not know each other when selected. We combined them into one team with six months to work on a business subject given by the sponsors. My role as a project manager is to synchronize all stakeholders and to create an atmosphere in which everyone is aware of their role, the project mission and engaged in delivering the expected results, at the same time I need to make sure they grow individually and as a team.

You specialise in leadership coaching. How do you identify future leaders? What qualities do they embody?

In all companies and businesses, we imagine common traits of leaders. Someone who has strategic vision, who can lead, motivate and engage. At the same time, each company has their own model of leadership. Yet, the model of a leader is ever evolving in this fast pace world. Learning abilities, open and curious mind-set, or being a change agent, are becoming more and more demanded competencies and take a key place in the leadership model.

Learning abilities, open and curious mindset or being a change agent, are becoming more and more demanded competencies and take a key place in the leadership model.

You are now participating in the 5th edition of our Women Talent Pool Program (WTP). What do you hope to take away from this program?

As a talent manager usually, I match my talents with the program that would best fit their development plan. Yet this year, I was nicely surprised when my manager told me it was my turn. It’s a great recognition for me.

WIL is a place to learn, to get inspired, enlarge my network, and to share. WIL is a valuable platform to meet already successful women who are an inspiration in terms of leadership. Seeing strong women leaders who are succeeding, conveys the idea and feeling that I can do it also.

It is also an opportunity to exchange with professionals from other internationally recognized companies, like Lenovo, Microsoft, UNESCO, or the European Parliament. These exchanges have been inspiring because part of my interest is to discover how other companies are dealing with common global challenges. I try to get this inspiration online, but it is different when you meet the concrete person from another company culture and discover how else the work could be done. Your initiatives give us a moment of fresh air!

Seeing strong women leaders who are succeeding, conveys the idea and feeling that I can do it also.

Lastly, we like to conclude our interview with a question from the Proust questionnaire: What is the quality you like most in female leaders? Why?

There is this humoristic quote: “What can a woman make from nothing? A hat, a salad, and a scandal.” Well, maybe it’s not the most correct quote to be cited, but this notion shows the infinite range and richness of female creativity.

Female leaders often use their intuition to be creative and adapting. In leadership roles, you must find answers and solutions, that do not go from A to C but from A to Z. This is what is different for women. I have seen this in practice and do not need neuroscience to confirm that.

Read more about Astrik here!