Maria Antonia Otero, an Inspiring Trajectory

by | Aug 21, 2019 | All, Women in History and in Law | 0 comments

“I have learned that what qualifies people, rather than the decisions they make, are the causes for the decisions they make: the motivation that moves them.”

This is how Mª Antonia Otero began her inspiring session at our last I-WiL Breakfast of the 19-20 academic year. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of Jazztel, and has held different positions at Telefónica, the latter as Deputy Director General of Networks and Innovation. During the session, where she talked about the drivers, obstacles, brakes and accelerators of her career, she left us some keys that I summarize here:

• People, not technology, are the most important element of companies.
• Women contribute: Ability to manage teams. Balance between the short and long term. We do a better risk assessment.
• The emotional intelligence of which so much is spoken is intuition, not feminine, but just intuition: knowing how to anticipate things.
• Assertiveness must be educated, to know how to say no when it is no. Women have a great capacity for communication.
• Don’t do to another what hurt you or discouraged you.
• The importance of having logistical issues resolved.
• Recognition of the inheritance received: the fact that her mother had worked, had lived away from home before getting married, and, most importantly, had chosen her life partner well (Mª Antonia and her husband are parents of two children and are expecting the second grandchild).
• It is advisable to continue working when the children are small, because it seems to her that being away from the labour market for a year can limit you.
• -There are no “ugly” jobs: they all are until that person arrives who gives it a new air and makes it attractive.
• In life you end up finding what you have sown.
• Denounce that it is feared that the women in the Boards of Directors are taking steps in the direction of “woman-flower”. Mª Antonia, as Ana Llopis always says, is committed to providing all possible ladders to make it easier for women to get to the Council.
• We are once again at a disadvantage in STEM: differentiated education can enhance the presence of women in these fields.

Nuria Chinchilla is a Professor in the Department of People Management in Organizations, holder of the Carmina Roca and Rafael Pich-Aguilera Women and Leadership Chairs and founder of the International Center for Work and Family. A graduate in Economics and Law, she holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from IESE. Her areas of specialization include women and power, management skills in family-responsible organizations, time and career management, interpersonal conflicts and non-profit organizations. In 1984, he began working as a full-time faculty member at IESE. The views expressed in this paper are solely the author’s.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator from Spanish

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