What role does care for our colleagues play in leadership?

Marie-Frederique Romain is one of the youngest female executives in the aviation industry. As the Head of Sales Pacific for Airbus, she has contributed to the sale of over 450 aircraft across Europe, Asia and the Pacific since joining the company in 2011.???

In this episode of the Humanity Works Podcast, Marie-Frederique discusses how her early mentors shaped her desire to be a leader who cares, how she influences and leads a large organisation when most individuals don’t report directly to her, and the challenges she faced as an executive and a mother.??

If you’d prefer to listen to our conversation you can do so here: Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

What are your thoughts and approach when it comes to leadership???

[Marie:] My observations on leadership is that alone, you're nothing. Truly, you're not very much. But together, when you come together as a team, when you find the right people, the right vibe, the right energy, you're able to move mountains. And so having been part of teams like this, that's what I’m trying to reproduce as a leader.

And it starts with who I recruit and how I develop people. Most of my team are men. So I actually enjoy telling them that it's okay to be vulnerable. And then of course leadership is about development and growth. Of course, you want to love your team, you want to love the dynamics. But the biggest gift you can do as a leader is help people grow.?

And then you get in that comfort zone as a leader where you feel surrounded by a great set of caring, motivated people, and you don't want people to take them away from you. But that's the best gift you can give them. So for me, those are three steps.?

And in all the recruitment, the development and the growth, it's again about the same values, I recruit for humility, I believe that is the number one quality of a good salesperson. If they’re humble. Take my example, we sell aircraft to airlines. Let's be clear, airlines probably know our aircraft better than we do, because they operate it every day. So you're not going to teach them anything, you're there to help them find a solution to their needs.?

What do you think about diversity and how do you approach it??

[Marie:] It's mostly about balancing. I see my role as a leader, as a good way to share my own experience and change and break the bias that I observe in a company.?

I mean, we already talked about age. And if we focus on what it means to be a woman in a male dominated environment, actually my experience has been rather good. I've been evolving in a world of men that were mostly caring.?

Sometimes, they have interesting comments, to say the least. And they have the feeling that they need to express an opinion on how a woman does something or not. But I feel that I've been fairly protected from some of the most horrible comments I've heard in the industry.?

But my observation is that men don't even realize they're making weird comments. And so I see it as a necessity for us to speak up. When you hear somebody saying something that isn’t appropriate, we collectively have the responsibility to say something.

For me personally I was mostly challenged on my ability to be a good mum, and a good sales person. I remember flying from Toulouse to Sydney sitting next to a male colleague of mine,? and my daughter was maybe nine months at the time. And as he sat down he said, “Oh, my wife doesn't understand how you can go on the other side of the world and you leave your nine months old baby.”

And I replied, “Well, you have children, right? Yes. How do you feel about going on the other side of the world?”?

Why is it that a woman should feel any different than a man when they leave? It's hard for everybody. So I think it's about rephrasing that, when you hear something like that and put it back on the person. Help them to understand in a very caring way. It doesn't have to be aggressive.?

Of course in my career, I’ve questioned myself a lot about how good of a mum I was. And I think that's any parent's question. Whether you travel, you don't travel, whether you have a really demanding job or less demanding job, just because it's more unique today, it may not be tomorrow.?

There’s more to this episode! To hear all of Marie’s insights, listen to the full episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. You can also read the interview here.