MARINA AVDEYEVA: Why It Is Easier to Live with «Leaders»

Marina Avdeyeva / Photo from personal archive

SHORT PROFILE

Name: Marina Avdeyeva

Date of Birth: April 24, 1978

Profession: Ukrainian entrepreneur, co-owner of the company Arsenal Insurance and founder of the startup Easy Peasy Insurtech

What is leadership — a position in a hierarchy or an inner state? A formal status or the ability to lead others? Why is spirit more important than gender? Let us try to explore this together with Marina Avdeyeva, the creator of IC «Arsenal Insurance», one of the three largest insurance companies in Ukraine. You can expect an open conversation about the nature of leadership, the price of success, power without attributes, business without illusions, and the wisdom that comes with the years.

LEADERSHIP IS ABOUT PEOPLE, NOT STATUS

hat is leadership? You know, it so happened that at first I didn’t even think about it. I simply invested myself fully in building my career and my business… Now I would formulate this concept differently: for me, a leader is a person with whom things are easier than without them. This understanding differs from what leadership is often considered to be — the presence of certain hierarchical attributes, positions, and powers. This is especially typical of large corporations: if you are endowed with all the attributes of authority, then you are almost automatically regarded — and feel yourself — a leader. And this feeling has nothing to do with sex or gender. It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman. What matters is which hierarchical step in the corporate world you occupy.

But there is a nuance: a hierarchical position may be confirmed by real leadership — or it may not. In other words, leadership in reality manifests itself informally. There is even such a concept as an informal leader, who may not possess any attributes of corporate power at all. But then by what criterion is such a person a leader? It is simple: leadership is about people, not about status. Therefore, a leader is someone who unites people around themselves as a personality, not around their formal position. For a leadership role, two things are important: first, a new and inspiring idea. And second, the ability to implement it.

A STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN

I am an entrepreneur and a marketer. My task is to turn ideas into money. But from experience I can say: people never work only for money — they like to be part of bright, fresh ideas that drive them. It is important for a person to leave their own «imprint on the Universe». In essence, this is what I have been doing all my life. I liked being the first, I liked shaping an industry, and of course I liked reaping the fruits of what is called leadership. However, I learned that I was a leader quite late, from journalists’ questions. Before I had to answer them, I was simply doing my work together with a team of like-minded people. At first this team was small; today it numbers more than a thousand people.

Perhaps leadership is when people believe in you so much that they are ready to take a step into complete uncertainty together with you. In my life there was a period when I left a very high position in a foreign company, with an enormous — even by today’s standards — officially guaranteed income, and began building my own business from scratch. There were no guarantees that anything would work out. But unexpectedly, 150 people expressed their desire to leave with me, although I deliberately did not try to persuade any of them. Moreover, I honestly told them: «I am going into complete uncertainty and may become bankrupt tomorrow, so think carefully before leaving with me». Yet they took the risk, chose to walk alongside me, and became my loyal associates for many years.

«WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP» — A MYTH?

It is still not easy for me to rationally explain why it happened that way back then. I think people possess some kind of built-in intuition that allows them to assess why it is worth following some people and not others. Probably, if they see a person’s strength and believe in the strength of their idea, they develop a desire to be part of it. On the other hand, as I have already said, for many people it is much easier to live and work with a leader than without one. People are naturally rather lazy, so by standing behind a strong person they spend far less independent effort. It is simpler, more comfortable, and safer when a leader takes on all the risk and all the responsibility for the decisions made. Psychoanalysts might say that a leader is a kind of archetypal «adult», whose leadership style oscillates between the poles of paternal control and maternal care. But I think the world of business is actually not very receptive to such things.

In business, both men and women have the same role — to turn one dollar into one hundred. Therefore, whether you start from a female or a male position here is not so important. I admit that there may be certain specifically female characteristics and methods. But in the world of business these are rather relative categories. For example, it is often believed that by nature a woman will act more empathetically and more gently than a man. But reality is quite different. I personally know many women executives who can be far more ruthless and uncompromising than most men. When I observed such examples, I tried to look at myself from the outside — am I the same as they are, or not? Of course, it is not easy to evaluate oneself objectively. But it seems to me that I do not belong to the category of such «reinforced-concrete» women leaders. In any case, if we think that at the foundation of the much-discussed «women’s leadership» lies something like softness, forgiveness, and maternal care, we are greatly mistaken.

«THE CARROT AND THE STICK» HAVE NO GENDER

A leader, regardless of gender, is a person who is confident that everything will work out. People need this confidence because most of them are emotionally dependent on what the «leader» of their pack feels. By the way, in Ukraine during the war we all felt this very clearly. Companies whose leaders left the country while their teams stayed behind fell apart. But there were other examples when CEOs remained in Ukraine, saying through their own example: «Guys, it won’t be easy, but we are not going anywhere. The ship is afloat, we keep working, and we will succeed». And these companies continue to operate to this day and even grow, despite the generally extremely unfavorable conditions for Ukrainian business. In other words, if we speak about a philosophy of leadership, it is closest to the principles of Stoicism.

The Stoics taught: do what must be done and let come what may. It turns out that when speaking about leadership, besides the idea itself we should also mention another of its informal components — the strength of spirit. And this category has no gender. There is no specifically male or female strength of spirit, character, or will. I admit that in some business niches gender may indeed matter, but in my business I do not observe this. Yes, women are obviously somewhat more emotional, but these are certainly not emotions that men do not have. Therefore, the proverbial «carrot and stick» have no gender — they are simply management tools. And a male leader can destroy a company just as easily as a female leader. The reasons for success or failure have nothing to do with their gender.

COMPETITION WITH MEN DOES EXIST AFTER ALL

In my view, leadership is also about desire — about realizing what you truly want most of all. A leader is always a visionary. It is always a person who knows better than others which direction to take. And they will go there anyway, even if they have to go alone — with you or without you. In the corporate world, a woman may indeed find this role somewhat more difficult. But again, when I entered business, I personally never reflected on questions of the «female fate» — I simply moved forward toward my goal. Now, looking back, when I can calmly analyze many things, I have to admit: yes, it was more difficult for me than for my male colleagues. I can even recall certain stories that confirm this point…

For example, when I was applying for a job. Or when, in the course of my career, I was being evaluated as a candidate for a certain position and compared with male candidates. I was constantly asked whether I planned to get married. Because marriage, followed by pregnancy and maternity leave, is an obvious disadvantage from an employer’s point of view. At such moments a woman faces a very difficult choice: what should she prioritize — family or career, work or a child? But at the beginning I did not think about any of this at all — for me everything was perfectly clear: I very much wanted to bring my vision of the future, all my ideas and plans, to life! I began to reflect on it only twenty years later, when I had finally been able to «catch my breath» a little and started remembering that certain «women’s stories» had indeed occurred in my life. But within the framework of my experience, bias in the assessment of personal potential is perhaps the only real problem between business and gender.

International Short Story Competition «ODESSSIADA»

HOW COMPATIBLE ARE BUSINESS AND FRIENDSHIP

What is my company for me today? Itzhak Adizes has a book called Corporate Lifecycles. It contains an idea that I like very much. Its essence is that a company changes depending on the stage of development it is at. When I started my own business, I already had an MBA education and extensive corporate experience behind me. And they did not always align with each other. But intuitively I always felt that my main resource was time! If I was going to succeed, it could only be thanks to speed — speed that had to be much higher than that of others. So when I tried to find a metaphor for my company, only one came to mind: a vertical takeoff team. I absolutely love this metaphor!

The strategy we implemented received an informal name — the «aggressive scaling strategy». Thanks to it, starting almost from nothing, we grew very quickly into a fairly large company, literally within a year. Speaking about horizontal connections, of course, within the team we were truly close to one another. We looked at the world in the same way. We had similar goals and values. In essence, we were not just colleagues and friends — we were a family. There is a popular opinion that you should never work with friends, that it leads to nothing good. My response to that was: «But how can you start anything serious without friends?» Of course, at that time I did not fully understand all the risks that the lack of boundaries between business and friendship could entail.

«A TEAM OF GLOBAL EXPANSION»

Our company grew and over time became truly very large. To be honest, it reached a scale I could not even dream of at the beginning. When you start from zero, when you have nothing, it is easier to grow, but later it becomes increasingly difficult. Nevertheless, the culture of «family spirit» has remained with us to this day. Last year, when the company celebrated its 20th anniversary, speaking to the employees I said: «I know that our company is destined to be large-scale. The insurance business operates on representative statistics, so ‘size’ is built into the foundation of our business model. We are destined to work with large samples. Therefore, there is a high probability that this is the last year we meet as a family company. Ten years will pass, and the company will become public. Its shares will be traded on international stock exchanges. And most likely, someone from among you, my employees, will be standing in my place. And in the hall where you are now sitting, there will be an international team whose members have flown in from many different countries around the world.

Many things will change, but I very much hope that we will manage to preserve the main thing — the spirit of the people who, twenty years ago, created what was then a small family company. We will need this spirit, because if earlier we were a ‘vertical takeoff team’, now we are becoming a ‘team of global expansion’. This metaphor of expansion means that we will no longer be able to remain a family company. Many new young people from the outside are joining us, new departments are opening at such a speed that I myself do not even know about the existence of many of them. If before I was proud that I knew every employee by face and by name, now this is no longer the case. But still, I would like to preserve that family spirit which created our company. Although I realize that preserving the original ‘short distance’ between people in a large company is extremely difficult».

HOW THE PERCEPTION OF MONEY AND SUCCESS CHANGES

As growth occurs, both the leadership style and even the perception of success inevitably change. When you are just starting out, every ordinary sale feels like a success. It is wonderful when you create something that someone needs and they buy it! This motivates you. Then you begin working on your product, making it even better. But once you grow and know for certain that your product is in demand and sells well, you begin to think about partnerships. First, you start to perceive competitors differently — they stop being sworn enemies. It turns out that you can even cooperate. Over time you realize that competition helps you develop and has its own advantages. Later you begin to find partners in other sectors and industries, and at the next stage of growth you move toward building an ecosystem. And when you become an integral part of something larger — a part without which nothing will work — your understanding of success changes accordingly. And the perception of money changes as well.

A wealthy person is not the same as a capitalist. A wealthy person focuses on what they possess, while a capitalist focuses on what they manage. When a person becomes a capitalist, the philosophy of their attitude toward success — monetized in capital — changes. In the same way, money is different from capital. If financial resources end up in the hands of people who care only about money «as such», that is very bad. But when you understand that it is not enough merely to possess money — it is important to take responsibility for it — that is the moment when money turns into capital. In this case, literally everything becomes important: how you intend to use the money, where you will spend it, and with whom. As a result, a businessperson’s idea of what the upper limit of success really is often transforms. And alongside the goal of simply earning money, another goal appears — to make the world a better place.

ABOUT WHAT MONEY CANNOT BUY

At first you think that 1 million dollars is success, then the bar rises to 100 million, and that becomes the goal to strive for. But at some point you realize that there are things whose value cannot be measured in money. Just yesterday it seemed that you had everything. And suddenly you begin to notice an acute lack of something that, unfortunately, cannot be bought for any amount of money. Life cannot be turned back, friends and certain relationships cannot be restored, and some situations cannot be replayed. For example, how can you return the time that you invested in business at the expense of your own children? Leadership always has a price, and sometimes that price is not money at all. While you were developing the company, your children were being raised by nannies and governesses. As a result, you may be surprised to notice in your almost-grown children traits that are unacceptable to you.

And all of this they inherited not from you, but from those who, in one way or another, were constantly beside them. In that case, were you successful as a person? The question is not so simple. After all, you were not merely earning money as a classic capitalist; at the same time you were developing other people, teaching them something, helping some of them realize themselves. Yet somehow the people closest to you were not among them. It is not very pleasant to realize that you invested more in others than in your own children. Unfortunately, it is impossible to «rewrite» the story of one’s life with money. But if you recognize the problem, you still have a chance to change things. Perhaps this can be considered another important lesson of leadership — it should guide you along the path of wisdom, toward a deeper understanding of yourself and of others.

When copying materials, please place an active link to www.huxley.media