Leaders with a soul

Mireia Las Heras, doctor in Business Administration, enters at the Royal European Academy of Doctors

Mireia Las Heras, doctor in Business Administration, industrial engineer and professor at the IESE Business School, entered as a full academic at the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), during a ceremony that took place on Tuesday, 12 June, in the Catalan employer Promotion of Work, in Barcelona. The recipient read the admission speech “El valor del Liderazgo” (The value of Leadership). On behalf of the corporation answered the full academician and doctor of Business Administration José Antonio Segarra.

Las Heras analyses in her speech the role of leadership based on the person and their values, defining work as a source of personal wealth and of the company as an environment of well-being and creation of material and non-material wealth. Always putting the accent on the person. “Measuring personal success in terms of professional success hides another absurd reductionism: that of reducing the person’s life to his or her professional aspect, or at least, the reductionism of considering this, the professional aspect, as the most relevant”, she considers.

From there, the new academician influences values ​​such as motivation, involvement or personal development as fundamental values ​​of any business organization. “The result of a network of enriching relationships is that people are more capable of facing challenges, of being innovative, of creating economic value for the company, and of directing their personal and professional trajectory more effectively, while remaining employable”, she says.

“Measuring personal success based on professional success hides another absurd reductionism: that of reducing the person’s life to his professional facet”

To conclude that leadership goes beyond knowing how to manage a company. “Properly mobilizing others to achieve shared objectives is crucial, especially in a context like the current one, which, as we have already mentioned, is complex, but leadership is crucial for the sustainability of any social and economic activity. Leadership should be encouraged at all levels: in the family, social, educational, and organizational institutions”, she says.

Segarra, meanwhile, praised in his speech of response the professional and teaching career of Las Heras, which has made her a reference of humanism within the company despite her youth. For the academician and also a professor at IESE, the postulates of the researcher offer a new response to what society today expects from the company: a human environment that generates wealth and values. Segarra didn’t hesitate to compare this new business model with the structure of the “castells” of Catalan tradition.

Las Heras has addressed in numerous publications and conferences topics related to the integration of work-family, women and leadership and development of professional careers. She directs the International Family Work Conference of IESE since 2009 and is also co-director of the IESE International Conference on Women and Leadership, which celebrated its first edition in July 2017. This year she will co-direct the interdisciplinary conference on fatherhood together with the Social Trends Institute and Harvard University. Also, the new academician directs the IFREI project, which brings together researchers from more than fifteen countries and has worked with more than 60 corporations around the world. Every two years the IFREI Network organizes a meeting that unites companies, governments and academicians.