Character and competence: What I learned from my boss Charo Santos-Concio

To know a little about the journey of Charo Santos-Concio, 2014 Asian Media Woman of the Year, click on the link:

https://youtu.be/P7y8cZhNOIY


A few years ago when I was going through a major hurt, I asked my boss Charo Santos-Concio for a radical change in my career . She told me “ don’t run away from a problem. It is teaching you something.”

I believed it was damn good advice from someone who has been through a lot and always emerged victorious and a better person because of the experience.

Ms. Charo was Executive Vice President for Entertainment when ratings dropped after 17 years of leadership. Feeling the weight of blame on her shoulders, she retreated for a while to process what has happened. When she returned, there was no looking back. She led the company to recovery as its new President and CEO. When she retired two years ago, ABS-CBN was back as industry leader and has evolved into a stronger multi-media company.

Ms. Charo prompted us to challenge ourselves and get out of our comfort zone. For example, when we have already mastered the formula for our channel's station IDs, she urged my team to change the format before it appeared necessary.

Many ABS-CBN executives, including myself, remember the curious thing during the pre-hiring interview with her. Ms. Charo did not ask much about our credentials and technical competence. Instead, she asked about our childhood, our relationship with our parents, our dreams, the hurts we’ve been through, what inspired us and other personal background. In short, she was not as interested in what we knew as she was keen on what we are made of.

I learned transformational leadership from her and it has become my own leadership approach, too. It is from Ms.Charo that I learned the importance of knowing why we do what we do before I heard it from Simon Sinek. She also talked about grit as the quality of people who will succeed before I learned about it from Angela Lee Duckworth.

She was the boss who taught leadership to leaders.

( Recommended reading : My Journey. The Story of an Unexpected Leader by Charo Santos-Concio and An Mercado-Alcantara )