Our guest, Lara Bezerra, founder of Workcoherence, Mentor, Board Member, fostering a world for conscious leadership and a purposeful life.
Her international career in the pharmaceutical industry spans 27 years, three continents, seven countries, in several positions, being in senior leadership positions of multinationals since 2003. She has been successful as a female executive, having some pioneer positions as the 1st Female leader appointed as Executive President of the Bayer group in Latin America (Venezuela). She is Brazilian and has worked in American, German, and Swiss multinational Pharmaceutical companies. She has driven organizations and teams to success, financially, professionally, and personally. Lara believes results come through people, and she has aimed to build leaders in each of the members of her team. After leaving the corporate world in December 2019, Lara started a new journey to consult, coach and mentor organizations to change their mindsets to work consciously, impacting society positively and building more leaders in their organization who want to lead consciously, bringing Purpose to their companies and their people. She has been guest speaker in different MBA courses in Switzerland, India, France and has given speeches to several organizations on the topic of Purposeful transformations and conscious leadership. She has a degree in Business Administration from the Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) University, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and several other courses in leadership, general management and public policy taken during her international career.
Living Room Conversations: Leading Consciously with Lara Bezerra
CHRYSAVGI = Chrysavgi Skiaveniti (Host)
LARA = Lara Bezerra (Guest)
CHRYSAVGI: Welcome to the LIVESciences Living Room. In the work that we do we believe very much in the catalytic power of conversation as well as the impact that it brings to our world our Living Room is a space for us to connect to exchange to learn to think together in a very casual settings organization fill their ideas they give us inspiration and also the courage to explore and to infuse our world with new ideas and new ways of working welcome to episode 39 of Living Room Conversations. I am ChrysavgI am your host for today a catalyst at LIVESciences and an organizational psychologist today our topic is leading consciously living a life of purpose and I would like you to join me to welcome our guest for the day Lara Bezarra who is the founder of Work Coherence, a mentor, an inspiring Pioneer who believes in the potential of people with an international career spanning over 30 years in the pharmaceutical industry across three countries across three continents, seven countries being also senior leadership positions. Lara you’ve had a very long successfully, fulfilling, meaningful career in the corporate world and just recently it started a journey to consult, to coach, and to Mentor organizations towards working consciously get us started. How has this journey begun for you? What does it mean to live consciously?
LARA: Thank you so much Chrysa thank you for having me and I thank you a lot of LIVEScience what you guys are doing is amazing so I am a fan of Teal Around the World and everything that you guys do.
Indeed for me living consciously is to is living an intentional life is when you know what you want when all your decisions and how you are is defined by who you are and you know yourself not what you do not who is around you and I think that this is something very important for Humanity today for us to have a balance. And I think that we are today this week is the week of mental health and I think that this is something that is very important that each person that knows exactly who they are they will not be defined by what they are what they do what is the interaction that they have in the work but even more important they will be able to impact the work and the people around in a much better way. And these I learned in my 30 years work in the corporate because I had to do it and I wanted to do it I wanted to impact positively whatever I was and my leadership started to be towards people and I started to love people and believe so much in people that I understood that unleashing the potential that they have inside by helping them to find their purpose and aligning their purpose with the purpose of the company would make them want to wake up in the morning and go to the work they would be much happier, much healthier, and the productivity the results of the work would would improve so for me living consciously is to have coherence in life to know that you are one person one human being wherever you are at home with friends at work and if you work in the environment where your colleagues your place of work allows you to be yourself then it’s a dream work.
CHRYSAVGI: It is like that Lara let us extend the our Welcome to our guests our participants we invite everyone tuning in to our YouTube live Channel and Linkedin live to contribute engage in the discussion asks your questions to Lara we will be looking at your comments and we will be bringing them into the conversation. Lara, you spoke about a workplace that allows you to be yourself. How easy is that? What does it look like in reality throughout your career? What different experiences have you had about this safe place to be yourself at work?
LARA: This is a very interesting question Chrysa because it’s a lot depend on on the person but if the person wants to be him or herself but the environment is very much pressure Lots focus on performance but performance linked to results and there is not this care for people and this through something beyond for doing the work it is very difficult for the people to be themselves so we saw in the past lots lots of companies that were just focused on on the numbers on the results and then people were exchangeable so if you are not getting results you are out but we saw a very big transition and a difference coming and what I believe is that the COVID situation changed completely this. Because the working from home and are starting to introspect a little more, people started to demand much more and also companies saw that if they would not take care of their people nobody would make any sacrifice for the clients.
So it is a kind of chain of well-being let’s put it this way that first the bosses the owners of the company or the leaders they have to want to have well-being for themselves they have to understand that what they are doing at work will have a further impact in society and then they have to bring these to people and for people to feel the same it’s not easy but I see so many companies being able to do it today but it always starts from the leaders. Why? I am coaching and mentoring some people that are in high positions in companies that are transforming and I often hear people say you know I see that the company wants to go to certain direction. I want there are lots of colleagues that want but there is a certain person or a leader that doesn’t care. This person wants to keep doing the things the same and it’s just kind of cheating the system to tell that they are doing just because they think this is a new marketing thing or whatever and then they get very frustrated what I often advise to these people is believe in what you want and focus in what you want understand your fears understand the problems that exist in your workplace but focus on what you want why do you believe and put together people that believe the same and fight for what is good but in a nice way in a very positive way.
CHRYSAVGI: How can we do that? How can we fight in a nice way? What would your advice be?
LARA: So my this I have been doing a lot of work since I was also CEO president of companies so it’s a lot about emotions so I read a lot of this book and other books about emotions. And the advice that I didn’t do I did give even this Monday to a very, very, very, very, very interesting person. So this lady she was asking me sometimes I don’t talk I am in a in a meeting and I see that somebody makes a comment that goes against what is really the purpose of the company and they want to go to do things quickly and I don’t think that this will help and I get even anger and because I am angry I don’t want to talk because I think that it will not go in the right way so I had a person very close to me that was a director of me in India that one day he told me ‘you know Lara if you are able to tell your emotions your emotions will not talk for you and we under we understand what you are feeling and we will understand why and it’s easier to solve’.
From this learning I started to give this learning to everybody so when you have a situation that you are not agreeing you don’t need to fight you don’t need to shout that is wrong or whatever but go in your core remember what you want and if you start in a positive note talking about your emotion but positively meaning I will give an example in this case of the lady tell look I believe so much in what we are doing in this company and I believe so much in the impact that we can we can have that when I heard you my thought was this might not be the right thing for us to do because this might put us back in the old place and because I thought of it I got very angry inside so I just wanted to share that I have a thought but I would like to think about it but I would like just to call the attention that I think that we can do much better so if you are able to express yourself not from the emotion negative emotion place but expressing that you had it.
But bringing back to what everybody wants because by the end everybody wants to have a good result, with good reputation, with a sustainability of the business that is not only financial but because people want to work, to buy from this company.
So if you come back to your that’s why I tell that purpose for you to live a conscious life and a coherent life you need to know your purpose and how aligned to the company because if you come back always to your purpose and what you want to do in this company and how you think that this company can do well. You can always express your emotion, you have always to take care. Because I learn it because and I know so much about it because I made these mistake so many times because I was a person that expressed the emotion just by breathing so I had to learn to speak my emotions and not not let them speak for me and when you do this you are also getting a much better well-being health level.
CHRYSAVGI: That’s a great learning Lara because in the heat of the moment emotions speak
louder than we speak. So taking a moment and putting them into context can really help us both express self-empathy towards what is going on but don’t ask to receive empathy and ask the others to connect with us. Thank you, that’s a great learning that you bring to us today. You speak very much about starting from oneself and always looking for the purpose connecting what do we do when things are difficult when something unprecedented happens? A crisis, a rejection, maybe someone is being unfair to us, maybe we experience injustice. What do we do then? How do we connect? What do we look for that can be an anchor for us to give us the strength to go on?
LARA: Hmm. I love this question because many people think okay purpose is like you have a purpose like like meat that I believe in human beings and I want to take the potential out of them or some people are medical doctors but there is a very good definition about purpose that I read in this book of this philosopher that is a Brazilian philosopher he is called Mario Cortella and he tells that what is the purpose that I put be in front of me the word purpose in Latin carries the meaning of what I put in front of me. What I am searching a life with purpose is that one that I understand the reasons why I do what I do and I know clearly why I don’t do what I don’t do. Why I love this definition because sometimes having purpose is not only knowing what you want and going towards it sometimes this also that you know when you do not know some don’t don’t do something so mainly in a crisis and I think that my purpose was even deeper in myself when we lived crisis in Venezuela in places that it was like how we live our life and with purpose if right now what we have is to fight crisis and we cannot even do what is the purpose of us as a company as a person and there are so many good people and I would you have to restructure.
So you always come back to why you are doing what you are doing and what you are not doing what you are not doing so in the in this case when we were in Venezuela we talked a lot about the purpose that we have Beyond everything is that we don’t want to close the company in this country the easiest way for many things is just to close and wait for these two to end and then come back but what we want is to be here. Even if there will be a point where we cannot have products anymore because we will not be allowed to import how can we stay as a company with the minimum necessary so when everything will be back or we are able we have a possibility to impart again we can be the first ones to import again. So in this way everybody who was there they were telling us to do our best but we know that most probably one moment we will not be here anymore so while we are here? Let’s do our best. And it was not easy Chrysa but for you to see an example of this the last we structured that it was the fifth restructure. When we had to just let it go of our whole salesforce no and they were so much understanding their purpose what they were doing, what they were doing and why they were not doing, what they were not doing. So we were not able to import products anymore but we wanted to be there we wanted to work well with everybody then in this moment when we had to had the last restructure we call all the Salesforce to come to Caracas and of course they knew what would happen but we just thought that we would have a meeting when everybody was already in Caracas it was Sunday I received a message from one person from the sales force and the person was telling me look like I want to thank you a lot we know what is going to happen tomorrow and we are we are kind of prepared to eat but we know how hard it should be for you and for the leadership team so I want you to know that we are prepared and we will help HR we brought computers and everything and I want you to know that we are okay. And the next day when I went there I could not stop myself but when I was announcing everything I had like you know I was almost crying and then people told me that it is okay. And then we did it very well and by the end many people were coming to my office to talk to me and one person came to me and told me Lara thank you a lot for what you were doing and please do not let the company close here. And I told them no it will be okay and after this and you know that when these things happen Chrysa after the people who normally they are very afraid right? But we had a great place to work and we were ranked among the 21st ones and the only pharmaceutical company right after this we discussed should we continue or not with the with this this survey or not and we continued and it was very nice so indeed it’s like indeed it’s like in our life is the same I face moments in my life that something completely unplanned happened and that I just told why is this happening? Well I know what I want so let’s see what can come for me. If I know what I want it is okay and I
know some things that I don’t want so this guides me it’s a kind of balance yes the purpose will guide you when from your heart you don’t know something you will just make this balance and
there are some moments Chrysa that you have to wait.
CHRYSAVGI: Sometimes we have to wait. That’s a challenging lesson in a world that moves so fast so fast. But you described so beautifully about finding resilience and trusting the purpose
to orient ourselves and we don’t need to know exactly what the next steps are but just taking
one step at a time as you describe it in this reconstruction and I’d like to take you back to these experiences even Venezuela because at the time you were the first female leader a pointed that the executive president of the buyer group in Latin America and I’d like you to to go back at the time how did this decision feel for you? How did the experience evolve? What can we learn now looking back at these experiences?
LARA: Oh there are so many experiences and buyer you know was such a generous company because they trust me when sometimes I you know sometimes women they tell oh I have to be much more ready to do something we are like this sometimes and they trusted me and they were telling you can do you can do and it was funny that in this occasion Chrysa something was happening in my life in my private life two years before I was appointed I was having a fertility treatment and somehow I just knew that I was not in that the talent list for being general manager president of general manager of Pharma not because I was in Pharma. Because somehow somebody understood that it would be better for me if I would not have the pressure of being in the talent list and they just took me out just to help me and it increased the stress so much.
And then somehow after a while there was a new person that came in to deal with the regional head and in a certain time that I was still doing this there was a position opening in Venezuela and it was not only the general manager of Pharma but was also the president of the corporate legal entity responsible. So he came to me and he told me that I think that you are the right person are you okay and it was funny because there was a conversation and and I was telling I am doing the fertility treatment I will keep doing it but I really want to do it no and he told Lara I rather I know how how you are and I know that if you get pregnant you will be in licensed in in maternity leave but you will be there so I rather you go but I want you to go in a very conscious way I want you to go there taking care of yourself. So this person was marvelous and I went there. It was not easy. It was lots, lots, lots of challenges but I learned so much.
And one thing that I learned is that every time that you have doubt don’t act in your doubt stop a little and think okay why I am here for and many times that I had doubt and I started to fight against something that I didn’t believe I just had to step back and think okay fighting this the way that I am fighting will not help and I was fighting so much there even that today there were some Global people that were calling me Lara Croft at least I just got to know because once I was calling the headquarters and they had to transfer for one another and they didn’t put in the mute and I heard that okay look it’s Lara Croft calling she wants to talk to you and then oops no and then when he answered the phone I told yeah here is Lara Croft oh man I’m sorry we didn’t mean I said no it’s nice for me to know because I don’t want to be like craft you know not like I don’t want to be fighting the whole time because my essence is to be good. And I think that when I am being good and doing things in the right way I feel much better and it’s taken the best out of me so I had to learn with time that being good, thinking on people and being a woman a female a woman who takes care of the nails who dress like women that it’s okay to be. And with this you are also strong and you can make very difficult decisions. You can make decisions that are complicated because you are able to come to your core and make people understand it.
So my biggest learning as a woman is that you you will have fears you will have doubts lots of times who should I trust can I trust this person what they are thinking am I good enough for this job so you will have lots of fears and lots of doubts the point is always ask the right question okay this is all this. But if I am here and I can open doors for other women and I can show that we can do the work in a different way being good and doing the right things and impacting society worry with people so focus on this, focus on this and there will be times that you are in your limit you will have to change companies and it’s okay or you have to leave companies but you are not a company you are not your job if you know why you are doing what you are doing you can be sure that after leaving something is because there is something new that you you start and it will always start. If you focus on your dreams in what you believe and not your fears and your doubts. So that’s why for me even these lessons were important being a woman because being a woman is not easy but it’s so nice so good. And if you are able to do your work being a woman and feeling proud of being a woman and make people at easy because you are a woman it’s even better.
CHRYSAVGI: Thank you Lara. It is as you said it’s not easy but it is fulfilling. And you gave us this motivation. Be proud you have fears, you have questions but be proud of these questions these questions brought you here and I’d like to pick up on a question that Bianca has sent us in the comments. And she’s asking about giving us a couple of tips on how to find purpose while still being extremely busy with work and taking care of our families you spoke about opening doors for women so if we think about this this interface between work and family what what does would help women to get further to make this you know a harmonious coming together? Not something that you need to compromise, you need to challenge yourself even more to question yourself even more.
LARA: You know I love this. I was reading Bianca’s question and the one before also about other people and about having purpose only with family. It would be a little Beyond it so I will put these questions together because I think this is great because this is a kind of reflection about purpose. About living happier, living more fulfilled and I think there is no busy thing because it’s not only work Bianca sometimes it’s like being a mother I have three 17, 16, 14 and and sorry 15 and 14. And now they make me so busy the point is this, look, there is a very nice definition and my company today is called work coherence because I believe in something that I wanted to share and this is a way for you to live your purpose and View and and and and find your purpose for me work is everything we do no in India in India there is an expression that is called Dharma. Dharma is your path, your work and whatever you do in your Dharma you will have a karma. The karma is the consequence of what you do. The karma can be positive or can be negative so absolutely and we as human beings absolutely everything we do will have an impact on people. And in the environment that we are yeah so can you imagine that you’re living very busy and you’re raising your kids leading people and then you have your community you have your friends you have to be a wife a mother and everything and you are doing these just solving your problems that are arriving and not so much conscious about it but see another picture imagine that you are doing all of these but for example in my case I believe in human beings and I believe that we have to unleash their potential and and I love to work with people.
So when I am busy with everything that I am doing, I’m trying to focus and think about how okay this situation can help me to see people in the right way and help them to unleash their potential? And somehow if I do this with my kids and when I am uh they’re doing something wrong instead of being angry I will tell them you can do so much more. And my son in one swimming competition he was very afraid of doing some things and he wanted to skip one event to go to another one and I told him son you cannot ask from yourself less than you are. You have to do what you are capable of and you are capable of so much. So you demand it and it was so funny because he went there and after a while I saw him his stories of the Instagram this phrase for him and it was so nice so why I’m telling this when you know more or less your purpose and it’s not about it can’t be about family the point about family is why you want to bring from your family.
And we as women for example when I am at work and I am not regretting that I am at work because of my kids because I want I think intentionally I am conscious about what I would like to see my daughters doing. Do I want my daughters to suffer because they are at work and not at home? Do I want my daughters to suffer because they are not there the whole time and apologizing for not being there and apologizing for not being with their kids? So I want my daughters to tell me I am doing this because I am learning from the work and what I’m learning from the work I will bring here and the time that I am with you I am with you and will you make a family that is great. So the purpose is something that you ask and I tell you something Bianca there are some questions that you can have like how I would like to be remembered the day of my funeral? What I would like people to talk about me and when you reflect about it and I ask this question to all my coaches to everybody and the questions are many people think I want to be a good person no many people have different good person because of what? And each one of us we have a different something that we think about there is one person that want I want to uh make good environment other person telling I want to I want people to remember me because I did something about education. So if you think about something and it can don’t need to be big but this helps the family and the purpose your purpose is not just one. It will be changing and evolving as you grow as a human being. Why? Because your purpose when you’re a student will be to prepare yourself to make a family and then to leave a legacy within the family. When you marry, probably the marriage together will have a different purpose that you align your purpose with the couple’s purpose. But you have to always be flexible and do this and then when you will go to work or you will change works you you have to adapt. So that’s why for me when and this is something that I’m writing in my book for me there are four things that are very important for you in life to be a conscious, a coherent human being you have first to understand the integrality of your life, understand what is impacting you and what you impact.
So you understand the inter integrality of your life in each new moment you have to be observed in the integrality of your life then you have to understand to live an intentional life you you have to watch for your intentions and then the third you have to be coherent what means to be coherent means that you know your intentionality and you leave your intentionality in your all parts of your life. And then the fourth I tell that is a lifelong learning because when you understand your integrality in a certain part of your life something changes and you have to adapt again to everything that is new so you can be coherent and be yourself in the integrality of your life so you have to learn to adapt your intentionality. So in a busy life what is important is that you bring some process and I have let’s see if I have my book here I have a little notebook that every time that I’m a little overwhelmed I go back there and I tell why am I doing what I’m doing? I have a 10 not 10 year plan. It’s not a plan of what I want to do but who I want to be and what kind of person I want to be. So when I come to be overwhelming and I do this every year once or twice a year yeah? I sit down and I tell what kind of person I want to be how the environment that I am are helping me to do this and how I am helping this and I did this with my kids.
So at the beginning of the year I have a questioner and they have a Google Drive that has their names and has a reflection for each year [Laughter] And I had a reflection for them once that what kind of person you want to be. So when they were already so Lily was already 11 and then they had a certain age what kind of person you want should be? And Marco told I want to be a person who motivates people and Sarah told I want to be a person who everybody can count on me and Lily told I am a person that I want to impact positively somebody everybody so somehow when I make this questionnaire this was one of the questions then I told okay how can you be this person at school? How can you be this person for your teachers? And then Marco told if I want to motivate my teachers I have to be a good student I have to have questions and funny enough he was super afraid of asking questions to teachers.
But then because he told I want to motivate the teacher it was about the teacher not about him so I want to make her feel well so I want to ask questions but it was a reflection that you did we
did right? Like two years ago but each time that starting the year I asked them which kind of person you want to be to your friends to your colleagues to sorry to your teachers to your
sisters so I always make these for them as I used to have this kind of Reflections to my team.
I always had Reflections we had once a year strategic meeting that we worked with both parts that it was a personal part and the professional part and I always brought to them the purpose but if you do not have a company that does it so you have to do to yourself to be asking yourself about purpose. Once a year ask yourself why am I doing what I’m doing? And if I’m not doing something it’s because I am afraid or I am intentionally not doing something so be conscious about it these are some things that you can do to live a much more purposeful life.
CHRYSAVGI: When we start asking these questions what person do I want to be and and we
put we put down our reflections how can we take in afterwards? How can we have a sense of what person we are becoming? How do we see this becoming? How do we ask others to give us feedback?
LARA: The funny thing Chrysa is that many people that I work even that I worked with when they found their purpose and they were leaving their purpose or even my kids no? It’s so amazing because when you have clear in your mind which kind of person you are suddenly it starts to appear things that people are asking you about these people you are acting in this way and if you’re even able to talk and tell that you were doing this because of this is even stronger so if you are able to put in words why you’re here for and what kind of person you want to be and when you were doing or deciding something in your life you mention it people will understand you much more. And people will ask you things that are around this because by the end you are good at it, what is your passion, what you’re good at, what the world needs and then you make money for it, no?
So if you did the checkpoint is to look at what people are asking you, what kind of projects you are receiving while you are receiving these and friends, why your friends are calling you so your kids. How your kids are asking you things how they are doing things with you and sometimes it’s funny because many people ask me I have sometimes recommendation of clients that come into a Lara I had a recommendation about your work because people told that you believe in people you you you you you work on unleashing their potential so can you help me in this? And it’s something that I have never done but then I look I said okay let’s see how can I help you. And then my work was starting to form with services that I didn’t have in my portfolio because people knew what I what I am and what I like to do and they start to ask you because I put this out there. So you have that’s why the intentionality part of yourself you have to know what you what you’re doing and why you are doing what you’re doing when you’re just living a life that you know what you are doing and don’t talk to people don’t express it will be very nice you have a very nice life when you will start telling why you are doing what you were doing do you understand that people understand that your life is incoherent that you are so coherent because you are walking the talk and what happens when you walk the talk? People start to ask you for things people start to ask advice so you start to be a true leader so when you start to be a true leader is when you are living a life that is so coherent that you are talking about it in this way you were being this human being and you are a natural leader but this is a skill that you develop and everybody can develop it. And if companies are able to bring these from each person can you imagine then it doesn’t matter anymore what is my weakness because I know what is the strength of other people and I can just work together and ask for help from somebody that compliments me. Because despite the end is what we are here for we are humans to complement each other and not to try to work just in what we don’t do so well.
CHRYSAVGI: Yes you brought a very interesting description about teamwork. Teamwork being about looking out for the strengths in each other and coming together. What are your experiences from the different teams that you have been involved in either as a member or as a leader? How can we see this potential of teams being enlist through living a life of purpose?
LARA: So somehow it’s part of my story you know? Because I was moving country country to Country and I was arriving there Chrysa with people that were living in the country and sometimes like when I started in Hungary I didn’t even speak the language people were much older than me because I was 30 something. They knew the market they I mean what who are who am I to lead them? But I had to lead them. There is a reason why you were there you know because there are things there are things about the work but I started to learn there in Hungary that being a leader is much more about um taking the best out of each one and making them admire each other and it’s the same in the family foreign to look at it I understood that when a team works in their purpose kind of what is my impact in society through the company? How what I am doing helps to this how we together are stronger than me alone or this person alone when they start to have a common objective that is I want to have these results in figures, in numbers but this is a consequence of the work that we do together and how much we are impacting society and this was very important in pharmaceutical companies when we were coming to to our ethical behavior like you don’t have only to sell the products you have to sell with responsibility because if somebody will take your product and it is not the right indication your main purpose that is cure the patient will not happen. So you have to understand that you have to be responsible, we have to do the right things and when they kind of connect with this when there is a conflict when there is a doubt the question is, is this the best thing for the patient and for the doctor? Is this the best thing for the doctor to be a good doctor and prescribe correctly? And in all companies all business is the same you are there for a purpose there is a reason why you exist and if it is very clear and you put this in the center your team will be United by this common purpose that is why am I here for so if what we are discussing is different there is a conflict why we are here for?
So how what we are discussing will help coming here when you bring the focus from two I am right I am right to okay we want this what is the best solution from what we are having and it’s the same with couples. So I think that this is super important. If you have a common purpose a clear purpose of the company and the team and the department then you can align and everybody starts to work together.
CHRYSAVGI: Thank you Lara this is a vibe that we have from Alejandro about the possibility of aligning our own purpose in the organizational purpose and what happens in cases of misalignment or how do we prioritize?
LARA: I love this question. I love this question because I think it is the question to prioritize so if you tell there is a very funny thing. So sometimes we are looking what we prioritize right? These ones or these? Our purpose of the purpose of the company? And if you step back what I will tell your priority is to a line both purpose if you are not able because it will not be the same but if you cannot leave your purpose in your company you will not never ever unleash your potential. You will not because you will work for money or for promotion or for this because something is not from your core, okay? I will do this because of other reasons and not because you believe and this is your purpose and this is helping me to live my purpose so when you do not align with the company purpose you will not have the best productivity, you will not do your best.
That’s why in my last assignment we ask a purpose letter from every candidate and if they would not have a purpose, why do you think your life is worth? or why do you want to work with us? What attracted you? How can these improve your life? You know and I think that the priority is to align always always always always and when you align your purpose is the purpose of the company you can do whatever you want in the company it is amazing.
CHRYSAVGI: This is a core reminder to align so that we can live a life of purpose and fulfill our potential Lara you have brought much much energy and much inspiration to our conversation.
And you spoke to us about a book that you’re writing. This is where I would like to bring you to. Can you tell us more about the book? What is it about? Where is it now? What can we expect? Tell us a bit more.
LARA: Good. So the book that I am writing is about the coherence of our life and how we use purpose as the driving force for us to have a coherent life. And it comes a lot also with what George asked about the person that is another person and when the family went away she lost her purpose. And I think that this is what is important because what I would like in my book Chrysa is kind of share something that was very good for me in my life my grandfather that was a Japanese grandfather, my Japanese grandfather when I was 13 years old my more or less these my grandma passed away, and he used to during the night spend the night with us and then he would go back to his house and we used to rotate to be with him talking to him and keep him company. And I was a lot of certain in 13 years old. Everybody what do you want to be happy, happy, happy and many things I was doing very wrong because I wanted to be happy. And then once I was asking my grandfather what is happiness? Why are you so happy? Always and everything he was telling look normal. We get wiser when we are older. And when we are older we start to understand the meaning of life and we start to be wiser. No? And then being wiser we start to feel this fulfillment and live differently. So indeed the younger that you will be wiser Lara the longer in your life you will be happier. So look for wisdom you know? And for me I was my whole life thinking about it and today it’s what I mentioned to you so if one person wants to live a life that is wise, a person has to be coherent. A person has to be themselves. They have to know what they want and what they want will change according to different phases of your life. So as I told integrality, intentionality, coherence, and lifelong learning – and why lifelong learning? And as I come to the question of George. You need to be a lifelong learner because the dynamics of your life will change. Each part of your life it will change and if you forget who you are and what kind of person you are and you become your company, you become a wife, you become a mother or a father, a husband. If you become something and you forget who you are a certain point because it’s taken out of you, like people who are fired of company or people who go to a divorce or people who children go to college and are alone you lost who you are. Because you are I’m a mother- no this is what you are.
At that moment the reflection is so beautiful because you focus so much in helping others because this is so beautiful and you had such a beautiful purpose then the question is coming back to ask who am I?
I was a mother like this, I was a worker like this, I had to make a very deep thought and reflection when I left my corporate world and I was starting to do my new career because I thought I was always rush or buyer I was like a general manager whatever and I was like whoa I am not these so then who I am? And then in this reflection came back what I have in my website in work coherence my work. It’s like I am a human being and I have an Instagram. I am a human being who believes in the potential of human beings and I believe in human beings. So when you have these suddenly and this lady asks which kind of mother I was, who am I, what is the legacy that I left to them and she can ask what is that you learn from me and then sometimes what they learn from you is because what you have inside is what you give. And if you understand it she starts to tell me I am this kind of person and then things will start to unfold to go in this direction and my book is about it. I divide my book. I’m trying to pass this experience of being coherent through these four steps. So this is what I am trying to write there.
CHRYSAVGI: Thank you very much. Because as the conversation has evolved you have brought us into a place to ask who am I? Not what am I, what labels I carry, what titles, what others expect from me but what do I expect? From me what is the person that I would like to be and in this way I live coherently, I live consciously, I live a life of purpose. This is something that we will not be taking away from the conversation and as I can see in the it connected with the many of our participants, many of our audiences. Lara I would like to thank you for your openness for showing to us not only that success is easy, it’s fulfilling. But it’s also about taking a step back. Failure is in the game. Conflict as well. And I thank you very much for joining us today, for inspiring us, and I would like to hand it over to you. What would your concluding remark, your concluding thought for us be?
LARA: First of all I want to just thank you. Because I love these inspiring conversations I get inspired. I am even more inspired to write my book. But I just wanted to tell everybody that we are living in a moment that is so beautiful. There are things happening because when we are transforming things happen that are good and they are not so good. Focus on the good things, focus on what you want from what is happening do not look to what is he still oh it’s still too much time to come. But go back and look at what you have already achieved and how much you have evolved. Do not be so critical of yourself. Be compassionate about yourself, others and the world that we are living in and let’s try to make the things right. And let’s do it. So these are my remarks. And as I told my new work is the word coherence. So if anybody wants any suggestion to me, I will be very happy. And thank you for having me Chrysavgi, it was amazing.
CHRYSAVGI: It was amazing to have you. We look forward to reading your book, we look forward to connecting with you further around work coherence, and we at LIVESciences we continue the conversations and we have more events coming up for you you will just see them now on your screen. Tomorrow is the Teal Network Global Teal Meetup where there will be much more inspiration, much more deep dive, honest and open discussions like we’ve had today. And on November 9th another Living Room conversation with Perry Tomms.
Thank you all for joining us. For your questions, for the inspiration, we will be focusing Lara on the good things. We will be starting and ending the day with a grateful heart for having this opportunity to experience this exchange and this connection with you.
LARA: Thank you so much.
CHRYSAVGI: Thank you also to all our readers for sharing. You could see that they have already responded to you – thanking you for the inspiration that you have given them.
LARA: Thank you, thank you. And thank you for the two in the back up there that are helping us so much. Thank you very much.
CHRYSAVGI: Thank you.
LARA: Thank you, bye bye!
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