Núria Chinchilla inaugurates the second edition of Desayunos Cátedra

Nuria Chinchilla, a Professor/Lecturer from the Department of Managing People in Organisations and Director of the International Center for Work and Family at IESE Business School, inaugurated the second edition of Desayunos Cátedra on 13 February. This event was organised by the Chair for Management by Missions and Corporate Governance at UIC Barcelona.

The topic that was discussed was “the personal mission”. Chinchilla underlined self-knowledge as the key to identifying the mission “we have in life” and to prioritise the roles that we would like to undertake in any of the personal areas of our life.

“As long as we are aware of our competences and our potential we can discover why we are here”, stated the professor from IESE Business School.  The speaker reminded us that self-knowledge also involves understanding the reasons, both conscious and unconscious, which make us take decisions in different areas: at work, in our families or in society.

Likewise, she also underlined the main reasons that motivate action and determine our decisions.  Extrinsic: these come from the environment (money, fame, etc.). Intrinsic: the learning, challenges or pleasure obtained from the action itself. Transcendent: their origin can also be found inside the individual, and the recipient of the action is another person, however the action has a positive impact on them.

Chinchilla highlighted the fact that values are objective and make us grow as individuals, as a society and as a company.  “How much people value those values is another issue”, she said. Chinchilla talked about the difference between motivation, the strength that leads you to act and reason, which is the cause of motivation. “The reasons are the values. They are the reality of life, they are what make you live and take decisions”, she explained.

According to Chinchilla, any mission must have three characteristics. It must be effective:  “Taking into account people’s potential, abilities and the resources they have to undertake them. In other words, it must be feasible”.  It must be efficient, so  “the learning and skills that are used must be suitable”, and also consistent because “the mission must have repercussions for other people.”

At the end of the talk by Núria Chinchilla, the floor was opened up to questions and participants shared their experiences.

The aim of these get-togethers at breakfast time is to connect the academic world with the business world and generate debates on issues related to humanist business practices. These breakfast meetings begin with a brief introduction to the topic by a speaker who is an expert in the field, and then subsequently a debate opens up in which participants can describe their own experiences.