I am thrilled to introduce an inspiring professional and beautiful soul who has been alongside my learning and growing journey in many important moments.
Alma was super generous to share her story which started in Romania where she was born and educated. Then, it continued with a professional journey that exposed her to more countries and environments. She started her career in finance, working for Citi in London and Hong Kong, then completed an MBA at INSEAD in France and Singapore, and finally switched to working in technology for Medalia, and now Qualtrics, both located in London.
One of the motivations behind some of her latest career moves was to add more lightheartedness, creativity, and joy to her professional life. She has always been interested in working in a field that creates a positive impact in society. And so, her first job in technology found her, not the other way around. It happened after she launched this intention out into the world, a habit that is now at the core of Alma’s practices.
Alma is a continuous learner in all aspects of her life. Her passion for education also brought her into the role of Managing Trustee of the Board for Oxford for Romania, an NGO that creates transformational educational experiences for Romanian students with limited financial means. The main product offered is a yearly summer school hosted in Oxford. She was also involved in delivering an elective at INSEAD on making authentic decisions and she has further plans to manifest her role as an educator.
It’s a joy to be around Alma and this raises the eagerness to learn what gives her this spark of energy. She progressed outstandingly in all her roles and has a unique approach to both leadership and work-life balance. She has a constant willingness to bring her own personal development into the work she does as a leader. Still, Alma’s progress was far from linear with one constant element in the mix: a true passion for discovering herself and others. It turned out to be a wild ride during which she learned to complement her rational mind with an understanding of her body signals and her gut feel.
Alma is committed to bringing the best of herself to all meaningful interactions. In order to do so, she has a few habits that she practices and recommends for those of you curious to try: meditation (start and end of the work day), intention setting (daily, monthly, yearly) and regular reminders on actualising self beliefs through studies from the ACIM (A Course in Miracles) workbook.
Quieting the mind is one of the most solid practices in Alma’s journey. When she quiets her mind she realizes that at the core of it she actually knows what to do and how to do it. A loud mind contributes to living on autopilot mode, where it feels more like running instead of walking. Achieving happens as well on autopilot mode, but things come much faster when she spends a bit of time in meditation before an intense meeting or an important project kicks off. It does not have to be long, 15 to 30 minutes should suffice. It often feels like accelerating the intelligence, the ability to execute, and the creativity of a visionary mind.
Alma considers there is a need for leaders to create safe spaces for conversations that can bring forth new perspectives on how to incorporate spiritual life philosophy into everyday work. To address the subconscious bias and dogma, leaders are responsible for bringing the conversation into the room in a gentle way. They need to create a vocabulary that doesn’t exist in the workplace yet.
One example of a way she opens the conversation is when talking about her own meditation practice. Another one is when setting weekly intentions with her team members. They use specifically the word intention mixed with key results as they visualize themselves at the end of the project to see how they feel. After visualization, the celebration becomes a recurring practice to remind themselves how they progress, acknowledge it, and cheer each other on. She admits this practice does not work with everybody and a leader must meet their team members where they are on their own journey.
The leadership style Alma adopts with her team contributes to a space of psychological safety. People feel comfortable to say they wonder if their job is the right one for them or not. This creates the spaces for conversations about what their heart’s desire truly is. For her, it’s not important to convince someone to stay in the job if they are not happy with their job. Sometimes not everyone resonates with the pace or the vision. So for Alma it’s important not to force fit someone into the job. One cannot deliver long term results without being happy with their work. Alma creates a good meaningful space for her team to grow while achieving outstanding results.
When people say they don’t have enough time to develop professionally and bloom individually, Alma’s first question is: is this an assumption or something you actually tried out and did not work? In a world of capitalism, getting the best results comes sometimes at the cost of mental health, people’s loyalty, and growing a solid foundation of the business. She invites professionals to challenge all the quick fixes and think about something more sustainable for their people and their organizations.
Alma’s leadership edge is to bring more awareness and mindfulness in her team, by sharing her own experiences and practices that heighten her connections with everything she does. She dares to take this idea one step further to envision a mindful leadership approach among leaders who are powerful within their environment and contribute to reducing the bias related to wellbeing, intentional working, and spirituality.
What would leadership be like if these topics were part of a common language, not some exceptions?