Leadership Talks 3 — — Dr. Evi Prokopi

Dr. Evi Prokopi, President and Co-Founder of Cosmoleadership answers our questions today.

Dr. Evi Prokopi is a multicultural expert, having lived in six countries and worked with people from 58 countries. She has tremendous experience in recruiting, training, coaching, mentoring, leading and managing project management teams for Fortune 100 companies and start-ups.

Evi is the first and youngest Greek female to ever speak at the Global Project Management Institute Congress and she is one of the World’s Top 100 HR Influencers 2020. As a Certified Work Performance Assessor, HRM Lecturer, Success Coach and author, she wants to empower people and help them achieve their personal and professional goals.

Thank you Evi for being my guest and sharing your valuable thoughts with us.

· How do you describe leadership?

Leadership is about guiding, directing and supporting your people so they can be their best version. It’s about facilitating their own personal and professional development while you ensure there is transparency and clear two-way communication.

· Is leadership really different than management? How? And why?

In simple terms, leadership is more about motivating people while managing is more about monitoring the work done by said people. However in many cases, a team leader –at least in paper– is also the team’s manager. Therefore the same person is responsible for motivating the team and removing obstacles along the way, and also accountable for the final outcome.

· What key characteristics should a leader have? What leadership values and approaches are indispensable?

A leader should have several traits but if I have to narrow them down to the top three, I will go with clear, open and honest communication skills, emotional intelligence and agility.

In today’s world, honesty and transparency are overlooked but these values are all-time classic, and this is the way to go for a sustainable future, in my humble opinion.

· Which one is more effective for a successful business management, dictating leadership or empathetic leadership?

I am a huge supporter of empathetic and servant leadership, but it may not always be the answer. A true leader should be able to distinguish and understand each individual they lead. This is why it is of paramount importance to actually care and get to know your people. You can only lead successfully when you know whom you lead.

As McGregor described in his Theory X and Theory Y, there are two types of people. Those who like work and responsibilities and those who try to avoid them. A leader may need to try both approaches in order to understand which one works best with those they lead in a specific workplace and under specific conditions.

· How important is mental health in a workplace? How important is a fulfilling and peaceful work environment for the success of business?

Mental health is extremely important. If we deal with mental issues, we cannot give our best. We get tired, distracted, and demotivated. In the past, I suffered from depression so I understand the importance of a peaceful work environment very well. As a matter of fact, I left my last corporate role because of the toxic environment and the institutional bullying that took place.

Mental health is like a domino. It may start with an individual, their performance may be decreased and this will consequently affect the entire team. The team’s performance will be undermined and ultimately the organizational performance will suffer as well.

This is why companies should adopt humane practices and truly care about their employees. They should make sure they invest in their people’s happiness.

· How should a leader’s approach should be about mental health at work?

Get to know your people, understand them, don’t judge them, and help them any way possible. It may be that you give them some flexibility, or a few days off, or you subsidize their therapy sessions. Or anything else that will support your people.

· How is business world’s adaptation to the Covid era?

At last, a bad management practice, i.e. micromanagement rose and everyone understood the root of the problem. Too many managers and leaders were terrified when they thought their employees would work remotely.

What have we seen? It can be done, many people love it and if a company follows best practices, it can be equally efficient. So, as a remote work ambassador, I am really happy that remote working is now the norm and I hope that employees will have this option when we go back to normal, whatever that ‘new normal’ is.

· What type of changes in business management and by means of leadership should be expected even after this pandemic is over?

I wish I could predict the future! However, I believe that more people will work remotely and the scourge of open-space offices will be fought.

Unless we manage to educate future leaders, unfortunately, bad leadership and broken practices will exist whether physically or virtually.