To get the best in your career, set your goals and fight for them!

MARLEQ: It’s great to have you here Irene. Who is Irene? Tell us about your career progression.

Irene Giampietro: Hard to say. I truly believe in Eraclito’s philosophical approach: “Panta rei”, everything flows, everything changes. Therefore, I can just answer about who I am today. 

I am a person who’s in love with people and who deeply trusts in their potential. It took me a long time to reach this awareness. I had to make the well-known “hero’s journey”. 

Despite I was growing fast in my career as a business lawyer and as a manager in one of the biggest Italian utilities, I went back to studying to become a Lego Serious Play facilitator, Business, Career and Life coach, as well as trainer to make skill assessment, active research job openings and change management. 

Finally, I found a job that I truly love. Every person I work with helps me grow and learn more about people, about society, about job market and, last, but not least, about myself. 

It could be the worst day of the year for personal reasons, but when I’m coaching, training, or facilitating, everything else magically disappears and the only goal I can focus on is to empower their chances to be happy and satisfied with their personal and professional lives.

MARLEQ: What is the best part of working in over three countries and how is this exposure beneficial to your clients?

Irene Giampietro: I always traveled a lot, also during my studies. Working abroad is different. It’s common to face a completely different approach to a job, chain of control, distribution of tasks and responsibilities, teamwork and personal/professional growth. I love to mingle with other cultures, traditions, languages, habits, and food. There is always a lot to learn and experience. I am a very open-minded person and I try to apply this way of thinking to all my projects and relationships. 

I guess that the advantage is to have the chance to reach everyone and shorten the geographical, physical, and emotional distance. The world is amazing thanks to our DIVERSITY which should be valorized as a precious resource (not demonized as too often happens in nowadays political slogans).

MARLEQ: Who are those who need your services as a Certified Lego Serious Play Facilitator and how best do you render this service?

Irene Giampietro: I applied LSP methodology in very different contests and with very different kinds of clients. I designed LSP workshops for banks, partners of a newborn company, teams and groups of professionals trying to readdress and improve their careers. Every time it was a tailor-made project for the client aimed at “building” solutions to hard problems.

I think that this methodology is more effective: 

1. For professionals: when matched with coaching. This helps to speed up the identification of needs and therefore find motivation to draft a strategic plan to reach the goal.
2. For companies: when supported by storytelling and metaphors. This helps to create a common plot, a shared narrative, and a new perspective.
3. For teams: through the principle of 100:100 inclusion, which is a pillar of the methodology. In any LSP workshop, all participants have the same space to contribute to a common goal. Nothing better than getting to know each other, appreciating what they have to say and feeling part of something bigger. 

MARLEQ: Why is effective change management important in an organization and how do you help to provide seamless strategies?

Irene Giampietro: An enlightened change within an organization is focused on human resources valorization and motivation (Opportunity Theory). The most useful strategy is to allow every person, in every position/role, to actively participate in the transformation by expressing their needs, doubts, and suggestions to improve processes and make them more efficient. This approach holds everyone responsible for the success of the organization’s evolution. To make this possible, I propose a widespread project including life and career coaching (to set personal and professional goals), business coaching (to set common goals and strategies), workshops/training (to deliver useful content and grant a space for analysis and reflection). From the combination of all these tools, it’s possible to collect data and information resulting useful to implement an effective, shared and people-centered action plan. 

MARLEQ: What advantage do your clients have working with a coach who has a background in Law?

Irene Giampietro: Actually, I was more into business. I worked on merger and acquisition transactions, as well as on financing big infrastructures in the energy sector. What I’ve learned and I share with my clients is the criteria, accuracy, and clarity needed in any project: from searching for useful data to collecting ideas, looking for proper solutions and negotiating them with allies or counterparties and then planning all the activities to reach the goal. Of course, my experience in this area helps me with clients working in the same sector, as well as helping them with legal issues and/or finding the best professional to support them in this field.

MARLEQ: Who is your target audience?

Irene Giampietro: My target audience is middle-top managers, as well as professionals seeking a managing position who need to assess their current skills and possible improvement areas, clarify their professional goals and subsequently:

1. Review their CV and cover letters;
2. Look for training to strengthen their skills;
3. Apply for the dream job through the most suitable channels;
4. Get ready for the interview. 

MARLEQ: What is the future of work with the increased awareness of AI and Tech?

Irene Giampietro: I must admit that I am more like an analogical person. I can hardly find a good answer. The most relevant aspect I can see is the chances AI and technologies provide to shorten geographical and cultural distances. Today I was reading an article about a new smartphone that can make a live translation in the recipient’s language. I find it a brilliant solution and a great revolution. On the other hand, I think that we are in front of a similar challenge to the one artisans and workmen faced with the Industrial Revolution, which progressively erased some professions. The huge challenge for a future where AI and technologies threaten intellectual professions will be to find and create new spaces and possibilities to relocate these human resources without losing their value in the process.

MARLEQ: What are the major things professionals, who are transitioning in their careers, should bear in mind?

Irene Giampietro: Change is not an event; it’s a journey and you are the hero of the story;

1. Transformation puts everyone in front of challenges. Look in your backpack and check if you have everything you need, if not, collect what’s missing.
2. If you feel lonely or lost, find allies/professionals who could support you to reach success and be satisfied with your results.

MARLEQ: If you have the opportunity, what one policy will you put in place to empower professionals?

Irene Giampietro: I believe that the only successful policy is to work on consistency (in the meaning Carl Rogers tried to explain) which is the coherence between the image we have of ourselves and the image we project to other people and/or that they perceive.  

All initiatives and activities allow people/professionals to be consistent, and empower their chances of success.

MARLEQ: What are your guiding principles in life? Share your best quotes and movies.

Irene Giampietro: I had to learn to put it into action, but I love what my grandpa said (which I guess is a Confucius quote): “If a solution exists, please don’t worry. If it doesn’t exist, why do you worry?”

My personal hero is Mary Poppins, so my mantra is “spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down!”

And of course, the cult “Everybody needs somebody to love”!

To sum up: always try to do your best, and play with life and difficulties, it will make everything easier, bear in mind that sharing is caring.