Dialectica: Sharing knowledge beyond borders
By ADventure
Ιn the course of our last semester at the Communication, Media and Culture Department of Panteion University and during our laboratory lesson “Leadership & EQ’’ which is under the syllabus of AD&PRLab, we had the opportunity to start a job shadowing project. Our professor, Dimitra Iordanoglou, pleasantly surprised us with that idea and explained to us the process we had to follow in order to successfully put -once more- our theoretical knowledge into practice. Besides, experiential knowledge and hands-on tasks have always been a distinguished feature of AdandPrLab. The purpose of our exercise? To observe individuals or groups of leaders, as a way to approach the mentality of organisations that spark our professional interest.
Our AdandPrLAb team, ADventure, chose to visit Dialectica. Dialectica, once a start-up company, is now a renowned global company that specializes in information services and has offices located in Athens, London, Montreal, Vancouver and New York. More specifically, the firm has been recognized as one of Europe’s fastest-growing companies for 2022 and 2021 by the Financial Times as well as the 9th Best Workplace in the Hellenic region. It was also named Best Workplace and top employer in Greece for three consecutive years (2022, 2021, 2020) by the Great Place to Work Institute. They began their course in the professional world in a humble manner and are now hiring more than 40 employees per month. Their employees at the moment are more than 650 and coming from more than 30 nationalities.
We chose Dialectica first and foremost because of their company culture: their efforts for openness, transparency, friendliness, diversity, equity, inclusivity. It is a company that -according to their own employees- invests on their human resources, they do not deem them “expandables” or “replaceables”; they want their people to want to work for them. They invest in younger professionals -something extremely positive- and that transpires in a youthful, invigorating mindset that characterises the company. It is very rare that the culture of an organisation supports young professionals as much as Dialectica does. Another extremely important factor that influenced that choice of ours, were the leading female figures of the company. It is atypical, even for 21st century’s workplace standards, that firms choose more women than men for their leading positions.
Throughout the time of our visit to their main office in Athens, we were very impressed by the welcomeness of the whole team. We ended up interviewing three Dialecticans: Eleni Aktypi, Head of Marketing and Communications (Global), Stefania Diamantara, Director of Legal and Client Protection and Stella Bourdi, Vice President — EMEA. Each and every one of these women offered a unique perspective concerning the professional environment of a global company and its leadership in the digital and post-covid era.
The main subject that all of our three interviewees pointed out was no surprise to us: Emotional Intelligence. In the course of our laboratory lessons, our professor, Mrs Iordanoglou, explained and highlighted countless times the importance of EQ in today’s business world. That being said, all three women agreed with our professor; “EQ is number one”, Mrs Diamantara, Director of Legal and Client Protection commented. “There used to be a boss or a supervisor. That person had the right to be angry, to not care about other people’s feelings in the workspace, there was no empathy. There are different terms today. As the years go by and the younger generations, like Gen Z, enter the workplace, having empathy and being emotionally intelligent are the first values a leader needs”, she concluded. “EQ is a huge topic for us […]We’re a people company, we don’t produce any product, we offer services and when you do that, your core product is your people”, Mrs Bourdi,Vice President — EMEA, hastened to add.
Moving forward with our interview, we asked them what a typical work day looks like. All laughing, they explained that the most interesting thing about their work days is that no day is like the next. “Everyday is a new day and something different happens”, Mrs Diamantara added. Furthermore, while exploring the requirements of a leader, we asked whether they believe that a leader is born or made. Mrs Aktypi replied frankly that “We’ve had a debate a while back on that topic. I think that there are some personal characteristics that help you “be” a leader. But the truth is, a leader is not someone who simply has a title, a leader is a person the company and the employees view as one”. Taking the floor, Mrs. Bourdi, Vice President, delved into the hot -and usually avoided- topic of a leader’s failure. “Failure always upsets me. We’re ourselves first critics, so it’s a given that you’ll get upset if you fail, and if someone tries to tell you otherwise, they’re lying. […] Personally, it helps me to communicate my feelings with a trusted colleague or my manager. [..] And it helps me to think of a new, different plan, a different approach and that makes me feel safe, like, ok, I’ve failed, but i have a new plan, let’s see how that works out”, she shared.
Our conversation had so far been just fine, but the truth was, we really wanted their insight as female leader figures as soon as we walked through the company’s doors. They obliged us beyond any expectation. “To be honest, I don’t have any experience being discriminated because of my sex in Dialectica”, Mrs. Diamantara stated. “It is one of our company’s core values [to believe in skills rather than traditionally given gender roles]. I’ve observed many colleagues in leading positions get discriminated against for being women. It’s still a problem in 2022, but, fortunately, that problem doesn’t exist here”. Mrs. Aktypi later added that “It’s not by accident that most people working in HR are women. I’m lucky to be in this environment, I’m lucky to be in Dialectica […] they respect women here, they empower us, but in the professional world there is still an unconscious bias, not just towards women, but in many subjects”.
Last but not least, we wanted to examine matters such as the development of a firm during a difficult financial circumstance, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. “Everything was affected by Covid. Despite all that, there were opportunities, covid wasn’t just something negative. […] we’ve moved forward as a society, […] with all the losses that included. […] Apropos of the clients, it’s quite obvious that covid had an impact […], it made them more hesitant […]. So yes, covid impacted things, but, with the passing of time, we’ve reached post-covid era and we’re back to normalcy in terms of client-firm relations.” Director of Legal and Client Protection shared.
While we were thanking Dialectica for the warmest of welcomes, Mrs. Bourdi bid us farewell, advising us the following: “If you’re a young person, starting your career now, it’s important to try things, and, regardless of your specialization, you have to work hard, to bring forward new ideas for the company you work for; people might not hear you out the first time around, but don’t get disappointed, keep on trying. In your interviews, you need to show that there’s a reason you’re there: you know the company culture, their work. Finally, learn to take the best from what each and every person in your workspace has to offer”.
Huge thanks to our professor:
ADventure team:
Μαρίνα Σ., Effie Karpathaki, Demetra Tzorou, Eirhnhzh, Katherine Papagianni, Theodora Filopoulou, Danae Kountouri
