The former president of Ancap (2016-2020) and the former director of Gas Sayago (2012-2016), who initiated and won a labor lawsuit against the latter company, for which he should have been paid almost $6.9 million in 2021, spoke about his experience as a leader in different organizations.
“Leadership is not a static word, both in definition and in styles,” he began his speech. “It’s good that women aren’t expected to lead in a certain way and men in another,” she added.
During his career as a leader, Jara asserted: “I have been through several meat grinders” but “all that served as learning.”
The chemical engineer, who held various positions in companies in England, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina (as well as Uruguay), said that during her career she understood that “the leader is the one who has to get the best out of those who make up the team to achieve common goals”.
Likewise, Jara said that there was a “moment eureka” during his career, in which he found a model of leading work teams during the management of the organizations for which he has worked. It is about the conscious leadership model.
This model posits that “We live in a Shakespearean drama, in a triangle in which there is a victim, a villain and a hero”he explained. In this scheme, “leaders tend to go either the villain or the hero role.”
“These dynamics are not sustainable because there is someone who is giving more than 100% responsibility,” Jara developed. We live based on “who is right” and that “does not allow us to explore problems out of curiosity,” he added.
That is why “empathy is important: the leader does not necessarily have to solve everything, but he must ensure that there is an environment where everyone has space and can be who they are,” he reflected during his speech.
“You have to find the right point between empowering and empathizing, in that logic of the triangle,” he asserted.
For the former president of Ancap, the “most valued attributes of the leader” are four. The first is to “have a vision”, knowing where to go; the second is to be a “mentor and coach”; the third is to explore from curiosity, to solve problems from that place; and the last one is to learn both to communicate and to listen.
Jara expressed that it is important to continuously train: “I am moved by the passion to continue learning and that innovation and technology open the door of abundance for all.” And he concluded his speech with a fragment of the song by Shakira and Bizarrap: “Women no longer cry, women bill”.
