Um essentially my talk is about uh building in fast paced environments.And I think, uh I picked this topic a little bit, you know, because of the current situation that we're living, um It's changed everyone's life and it's really tested the resilience and the strength of so many um of our teams and like so many around us. Um And even probably in our private lives um as well. So it's also something I learned in the last few months. Um I was actually working for a fintech company um building their sales teams. Uh I'll tell you a little bit more about myself in a minute and I could, I could see a lot of these um related. So it inspired me to create this um for women network and thank you so much for, for having me and for inviting me to your network um to participate payment. This looking amazing. Um There are lots of interesting, really honored. Um I just want to still uh to start with a quote of like Britney Brown. I'm sure lots of you already know who Briney Brown is. Um The quote is when people don't know their body value, they're hustling for their work.

And I think um lots of you obviously already know what this means. Um You know, how important it is to let team knows. Um And people in your team and people around you, um what's the value they bring and what's their role and why they are important otherwise, you know, that's basically leaving them in a state of like, I really need to show off and like, you know, show my value and that's not maybe the culture we want to drive in companies these days.

Um So, yeah, so I really like this quote a little bit about me. I'm from Spain. Um I work as a senior talent partner for a company called T FU and I also volunteer for Red School of Innovation as a mentor and coach. Uh what RED does is they uh they offer refugee um support. Um So they basically a lot of people are in Germany um on a ref on their refugee visa. Um What really does is them and they train them um in technical um subjects. So code and a lot of coding classes and prepare them for the job market. What I do there is I coach the students and I run workshops to prepare them how to prepare their ce s how to prepare for interviews, um how to build their confidence. A little, a little bit around the job market. And um the idea of going for a job because lots of them are career changers or have gone through experiences that, that left them slightly isolated from the job market. And I currently live in Berlin just moved here last year. My company actually moved me uh since we expanded a little bit. Um So yeah, that's literally what I do as a senior talent partner. Um The company I work for is talent for what we do is we are an in-house talent consultancy. We work uh on site with some of the um world's best brands, you know. Um And we recruit mainly across technology, marketing and sales.

Also, I've been doing a bit of sales um for different um for different industries basically. So that's what we do. I want to talk about resilience. I pick uh this definition of resilience. Um There are loads as you can imagine, but I like this one quite a lot. Uh resilience is that ineffable quality that allows us uh allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their, their result, they find a way to rise from the ashes. So I think it's a bit more poetic than others and not so businessy. Um So I quite like this one. Yeah. Uh because lots of times we tend to talk more about the strength or effectiveness. Um And we forget a little bit about what resilience actually is and what it means for our teams and in the workplace. And um there isn't talking about it, uh just going back into it. It's because uh for the last few months I joined a fintech company um on a project and they were really scaling really fast and I was responsible for growing and hiring a big part of their sales teams and leadership uh sales people. And obviously, we always have this idea of sales people being very, you know, resilient and effective and always uplifted. But when COVID happened and that's I started the project, um um everything was put into questions.

So me as a recruiter being there, I different um sides of what a good sales candidate is. Um And what a good sales team is and having these conversations with the the managers. Um They, they were really honest about the fact that the teams were really struggling, the mood was really down, you know, they are just people like work remotely and selling remotely and they felt like really disconnected and isolated um which put in test their resilience and of course, the sales team was doing very well until then.

Um But like, you must know a lot of companies are currently struggling, you know, and um of course, there are things that are out of your control, you know, but it also, I think it changed a little bit the culture of hiring for us and the way we hired and built the teams and we put uh resilience at the core of it and we made it like a testing people on resilience, like uh building teams in a way that they are resilient, you know, uh became really relevant and important.

So a bit from my research, this talk uh is for you, maybe it helps you, but the four trades of resilient teams, I'm sure there are lots of others. Um But this is what I found so far. So resilient teams believe that they can effectively complete tasks together. So I'm sure that as individuals, we're very confident on our ability to complete uh tasks on our own and you know, and how effective we can actually work on our own. But when you're a part of the team does essentially keep changing because it means that you need to have that empathy um to resonate with other people and coordinate with them. Um Very resilient team knows that they can accomplish things of course, individually, you know, every member, but they know that when they are together, things are going to get done to a probably even higher standard. And that would, that's one of the aspects that I'm cur uh of team. So ah dynamics. So like for example, some of you work in Scrum or a child or some of others work in waterfall, you know, so these all things have to be co ordinated, but in here and that's obviously is connected the way you work but also in here it's also about ethics, you know, they know what's expected from them at every stage, you know, and what's, what's, um, what do they, what they bring and, and what do they contribute to the team and that they owe the rest of the team, you know, um, their, their performance also at the end of the day, they're able to improvise.

Um, so, you know, and here there was a case uh about pilots, you know, and uh plane accidents, I think, you know, um and, and how they, they reacted under, under pressure basically. Um so cells resilient cells, teams are able to improvise. So I think again, it's a very good, um good example um of companies that even though, you know, things were really tough and uh things were completely out of our control and they didn't go as planned, they actually, you know, reorganized themselves and they knew, you know, that they, they could just be creative, you know, and, and bring their best, you know, even if things were not as planned and like all the forecasting were probably messed up, uh things were not going to be like they, they thought they would be for the next six months, but like they, they basically could get together and say, ok, what's the best case scenario, you know, out of the situation that we, we can um realistically achieve, you know, and they will just like create a new plan and everything legally changed, you know.

Um, and it didn't look as they, as they, it was supposed to be, but, but at least, you know, um, they, they were able to take some action, um, they trust one another and still feel safe. So, um, psychological safety is very important, um, for resilient teams. Um, this is basically connected to something I will talk a little bit later, um, regarding to the ability of making mistakes. Um and also, and thinking outside the box. So if you don't trust your team, if you don't trust the people around you, sometimes you might not be able to speak up in meetings, uh You might not be able to come up with crazy ideas or even, you know, take risks and be able to make mistakes. Um because obviously, you might be afraid that other people won't take it seriously, they might make fun of you. Um They, they must think your ideas or your comments are completely stupid, you know, or they might just dismiss them. Um But this is not the case in resilient teams. Again, uh Lots of these things are reference with, of like managers and also the culture of the company. Um I understand that, but obviously, I know there are lots of leaders in, in this event. So perhaps something to think about um in, in terms of what culture you want to drive.

But I've been, I've been also, I just didn't say anything in a meeting, uh even though want an opinion because I was worried would make fun of me, you know, and that all comes down to that psychological safety, unlike, um the ability to trust your, your team, you know, and, and of course yourself, you know, um but just trust the people around you that they won't, they won't touch you in your ideas is silly or crazy.

Um So essentially these are um some type of resilient teams. Um um Because obviously I've been very involved in uh I partnering um working with lots of stakeholders, uh different kind of things, sometimes technical, sometimes more sales or market. Um But experience and what I think uh is important to build, to build this one is partner. Um So at town F we have one of values is partner. Um We partner with all the business. Uh We don't only partner with the recruiters and we don't only partner with one hiring manager, we partner with way more people. Um I never really heard of a great team that was built based on one so's opinion. Um So you probably, if you're looking to build a very strong team um progressively, you will need to consult other people or if you don't have a business yet, um other people around you, you know. Um So you, you'll have to, to probably not do this on, on your own and um and you will need to align with other people that, that might be able to contribute and give you also feedback and help. So, yeah, so pan will be one then is diversity. Um So allow uh different ideas, you know, and um that's obviously uh applies to people from different backgrounds, cultures, um even people that speaks different languages, you know, I think it's very important for teams.

Um So, like, you all know, diversity comes in many forms um allowing diversity as part of the team will make it uh obviously more resilient. So keeping that in check um is one of the things that can contribute to that resilience. Um because obviously that will challenge different ideas, different points of views, you know, which again, you know, it keeps that uh skill balance and like point of view balance, you know, which is very important for, for collaboration and for, for keeping that strength um essentially as we go.

And, and I think this is probably in my opinion, the one of the most important of, of the five. and I know diversity has been maybe even like too much of a buzzword, but I really believe in this and I know that uh diversities are the strongest um fair and transparent processes. Um So I know that when lots of companies are in a rush hiring, they will um kind of, you know, make this slightly less fir and transparent in the sense that they do resource on like this uh referral systems. Or just like bringing their friends on board or just like rushing, you know, the hiring processes, um which then when you have the team together at the end of the day, um and probably other people in the team or like, it makes you even question how these people got here, you know, did we all um get the same opportunities, the same chances are we all on the same page?

You know, and I think I can sympathize a lot with like founder uh early founders, you know, and people building their early teams rushing on um on the processes and probably have the process sometimes, to be honest, I also work at start up and I've seen this um but you might be aware that in the long term, this might make your team weak.

Um And, and you might need to go back, you know, and take a few steps back and, and start building it from scratch again, which um would be, would be obviously a shame and I suppose a waste of time for, for everyone. Um So what's a fair transparent process? And this also applies, obviously, once the team is already created, uh what's there, just everyone should be clear how everyone got there. What do they bring, you know, what skills are they bringing to the team? You know, and, and uh and just make sure we're on the same page and this is not easy at all to be honest. These days, a lot of alignment, lots of conversations and, and, um, probably, you know, um a lot of goal alignment in terms of what we want to achieve in the end. Um But it's very worth clarifying the things they want. So we don't run back in circles because, um, this was something that did happen, you know, we, we did have to pres prescreen multiple candidates, multiple candidates. Um And at the end of the day, we just realized actually, you know, um the hiring manager had, but the team is not really a line or they are really not on board uh with bringing um Disney people over to the team, you know, and, and maybe it's because they didn't understand what these people are gonna are gonna do or they were just in a rush and these conversations never happened.

Um But just, just make sure you open, open those conversations really, really early. OK. Um And then have a mistake friendly approach. So this comes like the topic of uh psychological safety. Um So, um making mistakes, you know, um allows, you know, how to be creative and um and just how to come up with like different solutions. And uh like, you know, this, this has helped a lot in the time of COVID. Um For example, uh we had to change the whole straight sales strategy, like focus more on other areas. Um like reengineer the teams, you know, and like, um as like, obviously do have hard conversations at the end of the day, but we knew that that was going to put us in a position in the long term to be, um, really strong and resilient. And we knew that that would help for us to come out of this stronger. So how the weather is strong, basically that, um, you need to be clear that it's ok to make mistakes, you know, and, and, um, to essentially think out of the toxin to take risks. Um, and, yeah, and open feedback.

Um, so again, really, really important, I think, you know, if someone messes up, if someone, um, if someone, um, you know, need some, some type of conversation, you know, I think feedback should be really, really open and of course, it's very friendly in some companies or like for some managers to sugar coat things, you know.

Um, but, you know, I've worked with people from lots of different cultures and in sometimes it might come across as harsh or whatever, you know, but it's, it's best to be honest and to keep, uh, feedback open, you know, because at the end of the day, that's what's going to help the team and make it stronger.

And to be honest, in my, in my opinion, these are only some of the things that make, um, teams really resilient, probably not all of them. Um, for sure, I'm sure there are lots of others and you probably have a lot of other ideas that would go on this list. Um But from what I've learned from building um sales team for the last uh 34 months, it's, it's um it's worked for us and um and obviously I just want to share with you. And I think, you know, it's a shame that there is a lot of research done on how teams can be effective or how can team thrive. Uh you know, when things are like going great and all that. But there's, there's really a lack of research um and a lack of talk, I think on, on what allows teams to bounce back. And um and I thought that was the perfect timing um to talk about it um because of the current situation.