It’s All About Human Beings

French born Charlotte Delmas is from a long line of general practitioners – her parents and grand-parents have all worked in the medical industry and her early years were dominated by this profession. Naturally, as with many children, she figured that she would follow in their footsteps.

“I always thought I would be a doctor until the day I went to hospital to visit my grandfather who was dying. I was 17 years old, and I realized that illness and death couldn’t be my day-to-day topics.” 

Charlotte describes this emotional revelation as happening just days before she validated her choice for her place at university. She was wise enough to recognise the need to change her pathway and quickly decided to opt for a degree in business studies. She has always been adept at life sciences, but felt she knew very little about the world of business.

Having been accepted to spend a year in the University of St Louis, Missouri, Charlotte chose her classes based on what she liked: HR, organizational behaviours, marketing, etc. After a year of study, she had a realisation that HR really was the most strategic function in a company – after all, how can a company function without the right people, teams, and leadership? 

She recognised there was definitely a link between the ‘bedside manner’ competences that would make a great doctor, and the competences that make a great business leader. 

Returning to France to embark on a HR Graduate Program, Charlotte remembers her first class with lecturer, celebrated organizational theorist and author, Jean-Marie Peretti, and the lightbulb moment she experienced when he said “I’m from a family of doctors, and I’m not here by chance. It’s all about human beings, it’s not an exact science”. 

It was at that point that Charlotte realised that the universe had brought her to where she needed to be.

Continuous Change

After more than 20 years of working in HR at L’Oreal, Catalina and Datawords, Charlotte had acquired many strategic competencies managing change in complex international contexts. 

With many of her professional goals accomplished, there still seemed to be a void and Charlotte realised that she needed to do some important internal work which required her to push her limits and develop her ideas on who she is and how she can contribute to the world.

It was at this point that she decided to apply for the INSEAD Master in Change Program to academically formalise her great experience regarding human behaviour and the hidden dynamics of organizations

Just filling-in the application was a revelation for Charlotte. She found a renewed love writing and remembers that she couldn’t stop writing essays regarding all the wonderful topics that were of interest to her.  During her program experience with INSEAD, Charlotte became fascinated with the topic of hidden group psychodynamics – the way unconscious motivations can fuel our behaviour in a team environment. Understanding the academic ‘science’ behind this topic, Charlotte has been able to apply her learning in the workplace. She describes the knowledge as having helped her to see the world differently – in her own words, as if someone had “wiped away the mud from my glasses”.

Work-Life Balance – Get an Intense Personal Life!

As I interviewed this fantastically driven women, I couldn’t help myself from the recurring question that was popping into my head – with so much work and study, when is there time for anything else? 

I asked Charlotte how she managed her work-life balance and she told me this wonderful anecdote:

One of my mentors at L’Oreal once told me something that has remained with me since: “the secret of work-life balance is to have an intense personal life that ensures work-life is pushed to its fair place. Having an intense personal life is making sure you have commitments and constraints that prevent work life from invading you and your time. Work-life can permeate into every free moment of your life, if you allow it to do so - it can always take more space, no amount of time is ever enough – so you must be the guardian of your own time and make those precious moments truly sacred”.

So that’s how Charlotte does it - she commits to different activities and makes sure that her personal life is intense enough to maintain a balance with her challenging professional career!

That led me to dig deeper into how Charlotte spends her assigned ‘free’ time. And she’s absolutely right, she has a great many things to keep herself amused – starting with a husband, three teenage children - and a dog! 

Charlotte and her husband recognise the privilege they’ve had with their educations and careers, and are taking time to mindfully raising their children to become citizens of the world; supporting them to open their minds and place importance on contributing to the world they live in. They are passionate about ensuring that the “luck” their children have had in being born into a caring family, benefits others.

As an extrovert, Charlotte thrives when she is among people. And, like most extroverts, she also loves to re-energize by spending time with her family (and her dog) in Nature. She plays tennis and recently discovered her competitive streak when playing in team tournaments - which she really loves. I guess this comes back down to her passion for human interaction - team spirit is great when you’re under pressure!

Her final (secret) pleasure is a creative pursuit - drawing and painting portraits or human bodies – which brings us full circle back to human beings being the central focal point of her life.

The Future of Work

Since graduating, Charlotte has given a keynote address at the ENA (Ecole Nationale de l’Administration) on Leadership and Performance Management, and more generally, she spends much time reflecting on the future of work for a better Profit / People / Planet balance.

If she had to describe her ‘dream’ job, Charlotte says that she would love to be the Head of HR for a company sufficiently large/important to significantly impact the world of work, combining the 3 “Ps” mentioned above! She describes this as even more than a dream job, but “a mission on earth!”.

So what does Charlotte think the next generation of leaders needs to be successful in the future of work?  Having written her master’s thesis on Powerful Women and Humility, Charlotte is convinced that the most inspiring leaders for tomorrow will be humble leaders who question themselves, actively listen and know how to put together everyone’s strengths. Showing vulnerability and actively listening are key competences and Charlotte believes that will ultimately be the key to creating a more gender-balanced workplace and world.

A Passion for Gender-Balanced Leadership

Curious to understand why Charlotte had delivered a thesis that focused on Powerful Women, I asked where her gender balanced leadership journey had started. She shared with me that it all began with the Eve Project.

Taken directly from the Eve project’s website – they explain it best: 

In 2009, women in Danone realised their co-responsibility in the existence of the glass ceiling.

Women need to take more risks themselves to move upwards in the company.

Therefore, Danone took the initiative in 2010 to organize an intercompany leadership seminar for women and “enlightened” men.

Charlotte was lucky to participate in the event in 2012 and she described it as a wake-up call. Since then, she has used these three guiding principles to navigate her own career and she also encourages us all to reflect on these points:

• dare to be yourself, to be able to act with integrity and purpose
• include enlightened men in your reflections and actions
• it’s better to make mistakes and learn from them, than to not do anything

Top Tips

Build your network: Charlotte became a member of PWN Dublin in 2008, when she arrived in Dublin, Ireland. She found PWN to be a great network to connect to an international community, in a country that she was new to. 

Another reason for being in a ‘women’s’ network is Charlotte’s belief in the power of sorority. While interviewing Charlotte, she recalled a speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, during which Lagarde asked us to ask ourselves ‘Did I help another women today?’. This resonated with me so strongly that every day I do my best to make this a reality.

Keep learning: One of the most memorable speakers that Charlotte listened to is Joanna Barsh, bestselling author of “How Remarkable Women Lead” and “Centered Leadership”. Charlotte reports leaving that particular conference in full reflection mode, asking herself the following questions: in my career, which leaders have been the ones pushing me from the plane to jump with a parachute (to dare, to take risks, to move forward, to go beyond limits)? Who have I been pushing from the plane? Who have I pushed beyond his/her own barriers/fears/limits?

It’s by creating space for inward reflection that Charlotte believes we continue to grow and evolve into better versions of ourselves.

Be vulnerable: As with many people, Charlotte is a huge fan of Brené Brown. Arguably Brené’s most famous TED Talk reduced Charlotte to tears when she first watched it. Charlotte discovered that vulnerability was key to creating a link with others. Charlotte calls Brené’s book, “The Power of Vulnerability”, her bible. Not yet discovered Brené’s work? Check out her website. 

The other recommendation that Charlotte makes is the podcast: “Métamorphose, le podcast qui éveille la conscience” – but you’re going to have to brush up on your French language skills to enjoy these!

If Charlotte’s story has inspired you and you would like to take a moment to connect, you can find her on LinkedIN. 

PWN Global would like to thank Charlotte for her story, and our corporate partners at INSEAD for having introduced us to Charlotte. 

If you have an inspirational story that you would like to share with the PWN Global community, we would love to hear from you. 

Date: July 2022
Author: Rebecca Fountain, Marketing Consultant, PWN Global
Copy Edited: Amandine Cornut, INSEAD