"That behind a crisis, there is always an opportunity."
Meet Andrea Petrone, a 20+ yrs International Executive Coach & Advisor to CEOs and Senior Leaders, Speaker, and Facilitator with a focus on Energy, Industrial, and Technology. He helps them to drive growth by improving their leadership skills, driving effective change, building high-performance teams, and creating winning strategies.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Andrea Petrone: Hi, my name is Andrea Petrone. I’m an Executive Coach and Advisor to CEOs and Senior Leaders with more than 20+yrs of international and leadership experience. Before launching my executive coaching practice in early 2019, I worked for both small, medium, and large companies primarily in the oil and energy sector and in consulting. My coaching practice is focused on three main segments:
1) Individuals Coaching
2) High-Performance Team Coaching
3) Organizational Change and Development
My clients are medium and large companies in Europe, North America, and the Middle East.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Andrea Petrone: For many organizations, the last two years have been certainly challenging. However, some other organizations have been able to thrive in the current situation. These are organizations that have been able to stay flexible and adapt quickly, anticipate trends and opportunities, take calculated risks, build high-performance decentralized teams and leverage at the best of their abilities the online settings.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Andrea Petrone: They need to understand there is no way back to what business was pre-pandemic. We live in a new world where clients purchase and consume differently than before, employees don’t accept any more working long hours or having leaders who micromanage them or squeeze them until they incur burnout or mental health issues. Decentralized teams require tools and support, not command and control. Change is now the “new normal” so leaders must build more agile and flexible organizations able to drive it much faster than before.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Andrea Petrone: The pandemic has affected my industry but I’d say for the better. Many consultants and coaches were already working online and from home (like myself) before Covid hit. So when we faced the first lockdown, we were ready to serve clients online through video calls and sessions. In other words, we were prepared and we leveraged the situation. Some clients were not ready to move typical face-to-face work to online meetings, but they learned quickly how to adapt to the new context. For example, I managed to execute a large change initiative project with a team of 25+ employees all online through one-to-one video calls and interviews, individual online coaching, team facilitation and workshops on Zoom. Despite the initial skepticism, the work was fantastic so the results they achieved during the transformation.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Andrea Petrone: That behind a crisis, there is always an opportunity. Too many companies lost months, opportunities, and revenues just by sitting and waiting for too long. They didn’t take action or initiatives because they didn’t want to change their business model or way of working. As a result, they lost market share, traction, investors and employees. In my case, I’m glad that I reacted quickly, offered different solutions to clients and this helped my business to scale during the entire pandemic. In 2022, I want to double down on some of these new online initiatives and understand how I can use more technology to provide more value to my clients as well as to my business.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Andrea Petrone: There is no return to the traditional offline world. Not entirely. We have all learned how to be more efficient and productive online, we saved a lot of time and money due to lack of commuting. As we are creatures of habits, we adapt and now we thrive online. For this reason, I don’t expect a full step back. However, we need to work more together in person when we can as this is critical for building trust, stronger relationships and increasing team performance. This is why a well thought and organized hybrid work is necessary in the post-pandemic world.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Andrea Petrone: Too many, both for coaching clients and managing my business. In 2022 though, I want to spend time in front of a screen primarily for client sessions and have my team deal more with the business operations. We all experienced too many online meetings and computer work. This leads unfortunately to burnout and increased stress (called “techno-stress”)
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Andrea Petrone: In the online world, it’s very critical that we all learn how to be very clear with our team. Clarity and over-communication are the most important success factors right now. Something I learned which is very effective is to over-explain (also through videos and audio messages) what I want. I make sure my instructions and directions are clear and understood. I don’t want my team to assume what I am thinking. So, I spend more time explaining and asking for feedback. As a result, I see my team much more aligned with what I need from them.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Andrea Petrone: The real challenge is how company strategies are built and implemented. I still see leaders who build 3-5 years’ strategy plans that end up on the shelves because the market changes too quickly. Recent research stated that 75% of CEOs expect to change their company business model in the next three years. So, when I work with leaders, I help them to anticipate trends and future opportunities but focus only on the most impactful priorities in the short term like six-twelve months maximum.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Andrea Petrone: Neuroscience because it’s now proven that understanding how the brain works is very critical to change behaviours in people, increase their motivation, and also their ability to change. All relevant success factors in fast-changing markets and conditions.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Andrea Petrone: Some leaders still think that employees are machines ready to serve them and I am so glad that media have covered the “Great Resignation” so extensively in the last months. This has really helped some organizations to rethink the way how employees are treated. More organizations are changing their company culture but this is not enough. I want to see more empathy, respect, fairness and caring in leaders towards their employees, as well as more initiatives to support their mental health, well-being. Also, they need to remember people live when they don’t feel appreciated or have career opportunities internally. In other words, this is the right time to build true people-centric organizations.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Andrea Petrone: Focus. 100%. We all see opportunities out there but often they become a distraction for reaching our vision and goals. The best organizations and leaders are extremely focused, they know what they want and avoid distractions and unimportant priorities getting in their way.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Andrea Petrone: My vision is to fight mediocrity in the workplace. I want to see more leaders step up, lead with purpose, support and motivate their employees. My 2022 would be extraordinary if I’ll be able to impact more people, help them transform and increase business performance.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Andrea Petrone for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Andrea Petrone or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
