Sure. Thanks for having me, Emma. It’s great to be here with you today. My name is Dorina Nas. I live in Cluj, Romania and my current role is with Emerson, which is a global automation leader for industries such as energy, a lot of solutions for sustainable future and sustainable environment. I’ve been with Emerson for almost 13 years now, the majority of the time being part of marketing teams from marketing communications to customer research, branding, customer experience. So, I’ve been very lucky to be able to experience all these different areas of marketing. For the past five years I’ve been part of various HR teams working on projects that are still a little bit marketing flavoured like employer branding, learning and development, employee experience. Currently I’m part of the global culture team and my role covers employee communications and employee experience.

At the moment a perfect work-life balance is really being presented in the media, do you feel that this is a helpful or attainable goal?

Well, anything which is labelled as perfect, I think is unrealistic and it can end up putting a lot of pressure on ourselves when we try to achieve this perfect situation. For me personally it’s a matter of looking at things from a broader perspective and not day by day. Each day is different and sometimes you’re busier at work and then of course you won’t have the time for yourself, your family, your friends, and the things that matter to you as much as you would have during days which work is not that critical or that busy. I look at things on a weekly basis, monthly basis and some things are really non-negotiable for me. I need time for myself, to recharge my batteries, whether that’s spending time with my family, a nice outdoor experience, yoga classes or just hiding in a nice corner and reading a book.

I think in the media it really portrays giving 100% to both, continuously, and it’s just not realistic. I think that can really play into guilt on the social side of things, but also impostor syndrome on the work side of things. KPMG did a study and 75% of female executives across industries have experienced impostor syndrome¹. Have you experienced this and how have you navigated your way through those feelings?

Then as well, all those work-related standards and goals we’re setting for ourselves and we’re trying to achieve. It’s really annoying because there’s that inner voice nagging all the time. It’s been really difficult in some situations for me, but I started learning to listen to it and to understand that it’s trying to protect me from all the things which could go wrong. So, it’s safer to sit in my corner, well known, no surprises. The moment I invite this part of me because it is a part of me, probably a part of all of us, invite it to a conversation and understand what it’s trying to protect me from, and then thinking how realistic that is, how probable that outcome is. Then thinking are the ways I can work on not letting that happen for myself and it’s a work in progress. It’s happening a lot of the time and if I forget about it, it has a tendency to overtake everything and to become the loudest voice in my mind.

So, do you think it’s possible to get rid of it? Or do you think it’s just that you’ll be able to quieten that voice?

I don’t think you can get rid of it and the harder I try to ignore it or just hide it in a in a corner it just came back louder and stronger, so I just made room for it and then it goes quiet. Later on, you can be a little bit cheeky and just show it all the things I’ve been through and nothing that you were scared of happened.

Who have been some of your biggest supporters throughout your career?

There’s so many of them, I’ve been really lucky to meet a lot of good people, these were my managers throughout my career, my teammates and my friends. I think developing those relationships at work and having friends at work is really crucial for a good professional life and achieving that work-life balance we were discussing previously. We spend so much time at work and that’s a fact, right? We don’t have to separate these two things and support can come from anyone really. Just need to invest in building that trust and developing relationships.

Success can mean something different to everyone, and I think it can sometimes mean something more personal or more in your work life. What does success look like to you?

For me, success is a lot about balance and finding that balance between all the things I want to be part of my life. It’s also made-up of the little things. As I was mentioning relationships before, I think that’s a great sign of success for me, having people I can reach out to and connect with and learn from, friends I can laugh with and do fun things together or to listen to and offer my support whenever I can and get support from them. Trying out new ideas, especially at work and turning them from ideas into real things and making them happen, being able to have that time to finish a good book, I enjoy going on holidays. It’s all these little things. The broader perspective of having all of these in my life, this is, you know, really success.

I think in terms of balance, self-care and work intertwine a lot more because sometimes the best thing you can do professionally is to take a break and that will improve your work and sometimes that bit of self-care you need is to stay up late and finish that project and that will lead to better self-care in the future. I think sometimes we split them up so much when they’re a lot more intertwined than we realise.

Absolutely. And I think that connects back to self-awareness. And understanding what your needs in terms of self-care are. So, rest, recharging your energy but also getting things done because this can be energising as well and getting things off your plate. Again, there is no perfect day in in one’s life. So, if you need to stay late today, but you can then free your schedule on Friday afternoons then things should be perfectly balanced.

What does it mean to you to be a leader?

I think it’s an opportunity for continuous learning and growth and for me personally it ties back to self-awareness. I think in order to be a decent leader you need to be aware of your strength, your weaknesses, what are the things which energise you, which are the things that drain your energy and to understand and manage your moods. We tend to label some emotions as being negative, and those are the most contagious. So, if I’m in a bad mood and I join a team meeting, I’ll probably influence everyone’s mood that day and that’s not something I’d want to do, not consciously at least. When I’m able to understand myself I’m able to really listen to the people around me and to be present and there for them and support and help with what they need rather than what I think they need. There’s no universal recipe, what works might not work tomorrow and I think that’s great for keeping us agile mentally and emotionally as well.

1. https://info.kpmg.us/news-perspectives/people-culture/kpmg-study-finds-most-female-executives-experience-imposter-syndrome.html