ABOUT YOU

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Who are you?

After being away for 20 years and coming back to Portugal I have been reflecting a lot on that question. When I returned my entire past came rushing back as well and I realized that  had I never left Portugal, I wouldn’t have become who I am today.

I was a very shy, introverted kid, the observer more than the actor. But I have been very much influenced by the cultures I was immersed in. 

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I spent 3 years in Germany where I learned to be punctual, responsible and accountable but also to plan and be persistent/ patient with people to make real friends.

Later in the US the environment pushed me to be much more of an actor than an observer, to speak up and network. I had to try to find a way to do that in an authentic way.

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Today I would say I am an American-Portuguese and I call myself a change-artist.  

I work with organizations and leaders who are intending to transform their business. I bring my skills to the company that would make a difference. It goes beyond business training and formal education that most of us get as a preparation to be in the business world.

I am also a daughter and a partner and I am a citizen.

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I am a listener, it’s one of my favorite things to do!

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What should our community know about you?

The skills we need as leaders today, especially as leaders of change,  are not the skills that we received in our formal education or business training. They are not skills we are going to acquire by working longer or harder at our jobs -none of it was taught during my MBA..

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They are skills that we will get from other areas of our lives where we do things for pleasure and not pressure which are by nature places of genius for us. In particular, in my case: art.

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Yet we tend to put these spaces away from ourselves in the business environment, splitting our identity and putting them on the side as hobbies like they don’t really matter to reach our goals (IPO, selling a company, etc).

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I believe in the integration of these elements.

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I believe that we should all have a dojo or a studio where we get to practice these essential skills. As a founder, investor on day one you need to be a rapid intuitive thinker and empathetic leader, being able to connect the dots and all these things are not things that most people are exposed to, even in our family or in traditional education systems. They tend to come from other areas of life (sport, art, music,...) that are boosting self expression.

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That’s my encouragement for leaders to look at these areas of their lives. It could be anything cooking,  gardening, mountain climbing music whatever it is, but approaching with consciousness and on purpose to draw from these places to apply it to whatever you are dedicating your work towards. 

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​​By doing so, I think you are going to be much more successful than if you keep pushing yourself, or focus on looking good to impress other people, or stick to conventional, analytical thinking.

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ABOUT YOUR MISSION

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What do you do? What is your mission and what drives you?

“Bringing light to dark places” is sort of my guiding motto.

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I enjoy working with an organization, a team or a person and helping them see things that are obscured that if brought to light can really change their dynamic and trajectory.

I hate conflict  but I do really well helping people dealing with conflictual situations.

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As an artist I have a wide perspective and I use my body a lot, to sense. I not only listen to the content of the conversation but I am picking up all sorts of signals in the conversation.

As a dancer I learned and trained to develop a sense of seeing without seeing, developing those senses  is essential in a dark, moving, everchanging environment.

This allows me to pick up signals that are the root cause of everything. These signals are very nuances and carry within them the place of real breakthrough. 

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There are other practices I have integrated into my life like meditation (2005), but personally, movement is where I found the best path for me to get into the state faster. 

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Lead with your heart and gut first (bring the preverbal elements where the real need is)  and then add  the analytical mind into the picture to solve the equation in a disruptive way.

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What is your next big thing you like to do?

Something around education probably.

In fact, working with executives and the business realm I realized that what stands in our way usually stems from our early formative years of life.

I realized how some interactions as kids can mark us for life and are the foundation of our mental model and understanding of reality.

It would make sense to swim upstream and work on education.

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ABOUT REDBRIDGE

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What represents Redbridge for you? And how does this bridge make sense to you?

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I joined Redbridge to connect with people who also share a bond between San Francisco and Portugal, and who've had international careers. 

And my second intent is how to get the best of both worlds.

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There is something about the slower pace in Portugal, a more natural pace of living that has its place and can be very beneficial. Also Portuguese are very creative working with very little resources. It’s fantastic for prototyping. 

Whereas in the US life is planned, structured and envisioned more. Which works well for scaling.

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I think we can bring some of the speed from the US and also the focus on delighting the customer from a cultural perspective. It's almost inexistant. 

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Learning agility is correlated to international experience according to Korn Ferry recent research. It allows you to change perspective on reality and connect the dots. 

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Also an international experience is not accessible to all. Art is an accessible way to train yourself to see the world differently, use your mind and your body differently and  to connect what the naked eye doesn't connect.

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That’s what many of the Redbridge members are doing. They innovate, they are breaking through, they are disrupting industries that haven’t faced much disruption. It often comes from a different field challenging assumptions.

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What is your call to action for the members?

Be willing to explore different identities; it's at the heart of everything. 

Do not just believe that you are where you went to school, or what you do, That’s only one story.

The more you can play in different areas and experience different identities that come out because you are stimulated in different ways, the more you can expand as a leader, as a founder or as an investor.

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For me it’s Art, dance, movement but typically, whatever you were doing as a kid where you were losing your sense of time could be a good place to start exploring  (drawing, playing an instrument, dancing, sewing, painting, practicing sport,...).

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Anything where you are not there to perform for other people 

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Back to the first question, explore and question at all times who you are?

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Follow Ana Lucia on her Substack and LinkedIn.

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Interview by Aurélie A. Vincent,  Founder of Embody Agency

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