The Only Constant
During the last week of Leadership and emotional intelligence lab, we found ourselves to the municipality of Glyfada in order to get to know a man who, through his hard work and his thirst for contribution, manages to hold leadership roles and to manage large groups of people. We are talking about Panagiotis Machairas. To carry out his work we talked about our goals and objectives of our work, he invited us to watch moments of his remote conversations with his colleagues in Spain and the remote performance of his tasks such as project planning, decision making and the management of individual problems.
Nevertheless, and because of Mr. Mahaira’s digital and intermittent contact with his working environment, we faced some challenges. Limited interaction of ours and his with the workplace and inability to observe non-verbal cues. Furthermore , we sometimes encountered both technical and comprehension issues as some of the discussions were in Spanish. In addition, due to his telecommuting, we did not have the opportunity to see him interact with his colleagues in the physical workplace. Therefore, in order to gain a more complete picture of Mr Mahaira’s leadership profile, we decided to conduct an interview as well. He started his journey in this competitive professional world at the Air Force and specifically at ESMA (Scientific Association of Aviation Engineers). While he continued his engagements at the Department of Mechanical Aeronautics in Patras as well as at Cranfield University where, as part of his postgraduate studies, he specialized his training in aerospace dynamics expert technology. For Mr. Mahaira things were somewhat different as at 22 years old as the chief officer of the Araxos flight line he was called upon to lead 45 aircraft and 28 people.
‘From the beginning the responsibility fell on me, and my younger brother who had come to see me at my 4th year of working there, because he’s younger than me, he had told me. ‘Well do you work to live or do you live to work?’
A man who has gradually seen the challenges become more intense and demanding has gone even further into the deep end, taking positions such as helicopter overhaul plant manager, up to his current position as IT and digital transformation systems manager at the European Space Agency, the organisation he has been working for since 2009, taking on broader organisational central roles in the digitisation of the European Space Astronomy Centre in Spain. Subsequently, according to Mr. Mahairas, leading people is a challenge and managing them must be done in a personalised way by recognising and encouraging the motivation of the subordinates you manage, as this way you also capture corporate and self-education objectives. While this culture of diversity embraced by the institution gives the individual systematic and systemic at the same time opportunities to examine biased beliefs with a view to the broader formation of the ego and superego. Of course positions of power and positions of leadership make you, in his words, feel like you are ‘walking on air’ due to enthusiasm, due to the dignity of the role, so you have to remain methodical and purposeful in the way you lead in order to stay on the desired direction.
‘What a man who is called upon to lead must have is the flexibility and the maturity or the knowledge to realize that there is a man as a human and then there are tools. The purpose of the leader is not to satisfy his own desires or to express his own self, it is to become the result of the position to which he has risen.’
To reinforce the aforementioned at the same time, he made a reference to servant leadership, in which the ultimate goal of the leader is to achieve the vision of the company while at the same time giving their subordinates the opportunity to have their voices heard and grow, providing a continuous support during their partnership. ‘Here I don’t exist for me, I exist for us and the organisation’. While referring to the stress which is a part of every working environment, the factor of overwork and burnout was also mentioned. A state of physical and emotional exhaustion which may lead to other factors such as those of silent resignation (I do the bare minimum) but also to deeper issues of loss of personal identity. Recognising how damaging it is for something similar to happen to a leader who brings such importance and influence to the organisation.
‘A lot of times we try to do things and understand our feelings like it’s as simple as counting 1–2–3. It’s not that simple. I always say that in leadership positions the big challenge is taking the time to understand the problem. It’s not obvious at all.’
At the end of our meeting with Mr Mahairas, we certainly learned a few things and drew our own conclusions. As participant observers we saw first-hand the role, responsibilities and hard and soft skills of a leader. We got to know the ESA organisation and its functions in greater depth. During the virtual job shadowing, the leader offered us advice, experiences and knowledge related to competence development and career development on a professional and personal level. After following a leader we had the opportunity to compare what we had observed ,with our own ambitions by understanding to a greater extent our abilities, skills and wants.
