At The Halfway Mark: What I've learnt in these 2 weeks as CEO1Month of AdeccoME

As I sit writing this, I wonder where time flew. I am now entering my third week of CEO1Month at AdeccoME and I am truly grateful for the experience.

I started out a naïve girl with no direction and here I am, two weeks later, feeling a little more confident about my career. What have I learnt? A lot of business jargon definitely tops the list. I remember my first sales meeting: I was lost! Words like “PNL”, “activity” and “pipeline”, made no sense to me. I had a list of questions to ask, but none of those were relevant since I got my answers as the meeting progressed. I am glad Romain stood beside me through all this. He never imposed himself on me, rather, he allowed me to make sense of the meetings and then question the team where I did not understand. He is, in every sense of the word, a mentor. Now, I enter a sales meeting with figures of last week on my fingertips and questions ready to be fired.

With Adecco Middle East's CEO-Romain Liot

Weekly Sales  Meeting with Department heads

I have had the opportunity to meet with key figures at our other branches and now understand how each branch contributes to AdeccoME as a whole. I have gained an understanding of the challenges of each section within AdeccoME and of the challenges faced by the separate branches through the Middle East. It is fascinating to see how changes in one branch or department can affect the total figures on a weekly basis. As someone who has worked at entry level management, I never had the opportunity to gain this perspective. For entry level professionals, every change is a bother. It is a new way of working and letting go of our old habits. This CEO1Month stint has, in two weeks, showed me why change is necessary. I can see how little things add up. I also now realise why it is sometimes difficult to make changes. To those sitting on the ground level, it may seem like a small change, however, the top-level management needs to consider the impact on every department, every existing process and maybe even on a regional and global level. This exposure has taught me to always look at the bigger picture and not to get lost in the irrelevant details of any plan.

Attending Adecco Middle East's Client Iftar

With these two weeks behind me, I look forward to learning new skills. I have a slight understanding of strategy now and hope to have a chance to showcase these skills. I am yet to work at the finance department and as for any company, this department is equivalent to the blood vessels in the human body. I want to understand costs and what decisions affect the cash flow. I also may have an opportunity to travel to Qatar and visit another AdeccoME branch, learn their strategy and work challenges. As the month comes to a close, I am excited about being a part of the monthly sales meeting and understanding how the weekly figures meet and pan out. While the excitement of new challenges and knowledge keeps me going, I am nervous about my Global Adecco contest and I am working hard to be one of the 10 lucky ones to be chosen to compete for Global CEO1Month at Adecco.

All in all, it has been an exciting 2 weeks and I am ready for more!