Interview with Eleonora Nardini – People and Communities Country Lead, CISCO

1. Collaboration & Learning: identifying new ways of collaborating and learning, experimenting with and co-designing initiatives and rituals to foster and accelerate change.
2. Leading: identifying new leadership styles, practices, and approaches that can support leaders to drive new strategic directions and engage teams, fostering internal movement and people’s professional development.
3. People Engagement: defining local initiatives to attract and retain talent, improving the employee experience and increasing synergies between teams.

What are the critical issues facing your people managers today?

I somewhat anticipated it in the previous question: the major critical issue I see for people managers is to identify and internalize new leadership modes of people interaction and engagement, considering two important aspects:

1. New business model: Cisco for the past few years has been in the process of transitioning to Software & Cloud that totally disrupts the traditional business model. This impacts processes, new roles, engagement and sales methods, but most importantly, mindset.
2. Generation gap: People managers at Cisco find themselves managing new generations with very different values and approaches to work. It is critical to establish a dialogue and understand each other in order to attract and retain talent.

Let’s talk about what we are doing together. Topics that come up in coaching sessions include 1) Effective Communication 2) Visibility, Personal Branding and Career, and last but not least 3) Conflict and Negotiation. How is coaching helpful to a complex company like Cisco in developing these topics?

It is highly important. It is the bridge that connects personal purposes with those of the company.

Is there anything that particularly struck you about our Strategic Consulting model? The closeness and attention to people, along with the in-depth knowledge of Cisco.

On the first point, Gender Equality, we are very sensitive to this topic as a women-led business, especially in light of the release of the UNI PdR that focuses on KPIs for measuring companies’ initiatives.

What does Gender Equality mean to you in your role today?

Personally, I consider myself a lucky person. Cisco is a very diversity-conscious company in general, starting from its very purpose, which is to create an inclusive future for everyone. This purpose has never been more relevant.

We know that we have on the one hand a great opportunity, but also a great responsibility to bridge the growing gap of inequality, intolerance and injustice that we are witnessing in today’s world.

And as an organization we are helping to bridge that gap primarily through technology, but also through the commitment to corporate social responsibility and social justice that our teams bring to our communities. Specifically, when we talk about Gender Equality I believe that in addition to ensuring internal equality there needs to be a strong commitment to everyone’s involvement, since this is not just a women’s issue, but affects everyone.

Strong efforts should also be devoted outwardly with a focus on initiatives to accelerate women’s careers in tech and on motivating young women to consider STEM subjects by listening directly to inspirational female role models.

We did a Project recently with the ECN Community on the topic of “What does a professional career mean to you?”: what are the policies today on Youth? What do they need?

I cannot give a precise answer and I do not want to lapse into rhetoric or stereotypes, but from my own experience, I notice a generation with completely new values and approaches. A professional career interests them, but it must be well balanced with their work life.

They appear confident and determined, but often hide insecurities. You have to understand them first and listen to them because sometimes they are fragile, and maybe they have fragilities that we were hiding, because perhaps we were manifesting other needs, and therefore other behaviours. At Cisco we have specific plans for young people: from CSAP, a postgraduate program that aims to train them and place them in the company in an international program in Amsterdam, to the ETC (Emerging Talent @ Cisco) community dedicated to the younger generation and millennials with a specific focus on their growth in relation to aging diversity.

Beyond the differences, I think the most important thing is to establish a dialogue and a collaboration between different generations to avoid isolation between different generations.

When it comes to the digital transition and hybrid work, these issues relate to awareness and the need to create effective relationships even at a distance. What are the critical issues? How can we make a contribution since it is also a key topic of the coaching courses? 

Digital transition and hybrid work are nothing new for us. In the early 2020s, when our entire company went remote, the transition was actually not as difficult as it might have seemed. However, the pandemic has changed the way we perceive the world today and we will not return to the office or use physical space as we did before.

In this context, rather than forcing a return to normality, for us this meant seizing a unique opportunity to rethink the future of work, with a clear goal of “sustaining an inclusive experience for all employees, regardless of workplace or environment” and experimenting with new ways of collaboration and learning.

And after one trial year, it is definitely positive on balance, but there are two major critical issues that I see in this context:

• 1. Isolation of people with a negative impact on their well-being and business productivity
  2. Lack of clarity on new organizational models and roles focused on people engagement

In conclusion, given the reflections we have shared, what plans do you see together for the future? 

Continue to support Cisco’s workforce in learning and coaching courses, as a partner who can act as a bridge between people’s needs and business strategies.