Claudia Parzani, the key to success is together

In the book he writes that the dichotomies and the dialectic between opposing fronts are outdated and counterproductive because today’s challenges force everyone to embrace attitudes of cooperation. Doesn’t that seem utopian to you? Doesn’t it feel like the world is going in the opposite direction?
«I am a very practical woman, utopia is not too much in my comfort zone. If I look at the world with the eyes and skills I have been given and through the wealth of relationships I have learned from, I cannot find a better way forward in my head. The sheer amount of challenges and complexity ahead of us makes me think it’s no longer a single person or even a single generation in charge.

Let’s look at what happens in companies, where 4-5 generations now live together and where, if we have been attentive, we understand that it is not always senior people who have the right skills: today issues such as digitization and sustainability are pressing the youngsters have shown that they know how to bring expertise to the table. If we don’t work on coexistence and on kind and respectful cooperation and with the desire that they are the best ones to lead, we will miss out on great opportunities for growth and development”.

The value of the individual

This is true in the small for the individual, in the large for the maxi companies and for the country. Kindness, guidance from the best, space for young people… How many companies are going in this direction?
«By now it is understood that the paradigm must be changed, also because, otherwise, young people leave. They are ambitious in a different way, they have a different idea of ​​work, and in this they must be listened to. They aspire to companies that are based on clear values. It is no longer permissible to be a super-technological company and arise in an area where those who live there are afraid to go out. Young people want to work in companies that have a positive impact on the territory, that have respect for the individual, they want to feel that they are contributing, even through work”.

You can’t always win

Let’s talk about her. Some time ago on Linkedin you wrote something uncommon, especially for a woman of power, which began like this: “Today I lost in everyone’s eyes”. We remember what had happened. Together with two London colleagues, she was competing for the role of Senior Partner and Chair of Linklaters Worldwide, the most important position of her company, which was later awarded to one of the two English. Why did she want to write publicly about having lost her?
«I really wanted to get there, to the top, to the world top, and in my heart I thought I was going to win by bringing this new and alternative thought of mine. I worked very hard for months to prepare the candidacy, so it was a blow: perhaps I didn’t reckon with the reluctance to change of a company that for 180 years has been electing its Senior Partner among its London office partners.

For me it was a complete loss, but if I look at it as a whole in this case in the light of the fight against geographical stereotypes – I ran part of a relay in the battle of my life, the one for inclusion, for opportunities for all . I’m sure the next runner will lean on my defeat to make it a victory. After all, who knows how many times I have collected the successes of the efforts of others. See? The theme of acting together returns. And of giving. I am the mother of three daughters: I cannot think that what I do I do to put up a flag».

It’s okay if you fall, but only if you get back up

So would you perceive positively the curriculum of a person who highlights his mistakes, falls, defeats?
«I would very much like to read about courageous people who ran – because it takes courage to expose yourself and run – who fell and then got back on their feet. And instead I see all similar resumes, people who do all the same things and no one ever fails. One wonders why the world has accustomed us to only admitting victories, to the point that if we haven’t won in a race we don’t count it. I wanted to be the global head of a law firm that is among the top five English-based firms in the world and I failed. Is this a point in favor or a point against?

Don’t influence the way of others

How are you preparing your three daughters for the future?
«I want my daughters to be able to find the path that makes them happy, because for me there is no way to arrive in life other than to put one’s passion and one’s happiness into something. That’s why I’m trying to give them as many tools as possible, a luxuriant garden of experiences, in a vision of maximum flexibility: for example, they went to all three English schools, because I learned English when I was 24 and this it severely penalized me. After all, the jobs that our children will do tomorrow will be very different from those we know. What do I do? Do I suggest my girls become, what, lawyers? But who knows if there will still be lawyers! We project what we know onto the kids and therefore we risk giving them too many limits. I prefer to listen to what they express every day: listening is a necessary prerequisite for facing any challenge, in the family, in companies, anywhere».

What are his daughters studying now?
«The first, Penelope, 18 at Christmas, is studying in Philadelphia, at a university that she has chosen and which is strongly focused on aspects of business, mathematics, statistics and, together, psychology and social issues. The second, Ginevra, is 16 years old: for a while she attended the artistic high school, now she attends an equivalent English-Italian scientific high school. The first year at the art school went badly, and the day we found out I showed up at home with half a kilo of ice cream and we ate half of it for one, so we started thinking about another way. I did many instinctive and alternative things: for many years I didn’t bring home report cards to my daughters, I didn’t want them to grow up tied to the performance and judgment of others. As for the youngest, Rebecca, she is 13 and she wants to be an actress. She’s a born comedian.”

Are leaders born or made?

Straight question, straight answer: how do you become a leader?
«With competence. With the study. For me, the sequence is this: competence, therefore credibility. I mean that it is very difficult to be the boss if you are not credible and to be credible you need to have a content recognized: it is difficult to teach something that you know little about and to make yourself respected, if you have not proved that you know, that you have studied, that you can find the direction. With credibility, then, comes trust. At that point, you broaden the boundaries of your action by calling on other talents who broaden the set of skills and therefore extend the value of what we do together, allowing you to conquer new territories».

Speaking of credibility, you use your position of influence to strengthen the action of organizations that are dedicated to rights, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
«I never count only on what I can do alone, but on the good I manage to build by moving others. I don’t have the strength of those angels who go to the hospital to feed a sick child, but I have learned to create the maximum value for the battles I believe in by fielding my business contacts and my ability to reach people.

Moreover, he writes that more heart should be brought to companies and more managerial management to the third sector. And if the managers alternated experiences in the company and experiences in the third sector?
“That would be brilliant. And we return, once again, to the value of the whole, to the mixing of skills that generates the positive impact».

The zero moment of success

In the book, he mentions his career progress through empty and full spaces: «I have always tried not to be afraid of the emptiness that opened up under my feet, because I know that only by creating emptiness can space be created for a new and different fullness ».
«Looking for the new has always set me apart. Now I’ve been at Linklaters for a long time, but I’ve done different things within the Studio and every time I’ve abandoned what I did best and started over from something I didn’t know. For me it is a vital instinct, it is my way of conceiving existence. Sure, when you have something beautiful and safe it’s difficult to let it go, but we often remain gangrenous in positions that maybe don’t satisfy us, for fear of changing. To my friend Ada, who was engaged to someone with whom she was no longer happy, I said: you can’t keep it, because in doing so the next one won’t come ».

In your opinion, can a zero moment be traced in people’s professional lives in which success is born or not? In your career, for example, can you see, looking back, the precise point?
«As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s the fact that I’ve always allowed myself to be out of time, that is, to find myself in avant-garde positions and do things that no one was doing yet, before, in short, they became shared. Because of this misalignment, for a while I was considered almost a naïve or an alternative person, not always in a positive sense. I never stop telling young people: practice passion, do everything to remain true to yourself, pursue happiness by not giving in to compromise”.

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