Iliyana's Blog

Navigating Success: The Power of Social Intelligence in Life & Business

[fa icon="calendar'] 14-Jan-2024 07:22:10 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Brands and Business, Leadership

[fa icon="comment"] 0 Comments

In a world increasingly driven by connectivity and relationships, social intelligence has emerged as a crucial skill for personal and professional success.

I first heard about social intelligence from Daniel Goleman's book "Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships" and wanted to write a piece that covers what social intelligence is, why it matters in both life and business and also share the key insights into developing and honing this invaluable skill, especially in the corporate world.

What is Social Intelligence?

Social intelligence can be defined as the ability to understand and navigate social situations effectively. It goes beyond traditional intelligence metrics and encompasses a range of skills such as empathy, active listening, communication, and interpersonal relations. It involves being aware of one's own emotions and the emotions of others, as well as adapting one's behaviour to different social contexts.

Read More [fa icon="long-arrow-right"]

5 Common Themes of Concern for Businesses Today

[fa icon="calendar'] 09-Dec-2023 07:02:05 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Brands and Business, Customer Experience, Artificial Intelligence

[fa icon="comment"] 0 Comments

What was the best thing about November? 

To me, it was the World Forum events we run across Europe at ServiceNow. 

We welcomed over 5,000 customers and partners in four locations: London, Frankfurt, Paris and Rotterdam. 

The exchange was incredible! There was so much learning on stage and off stage while networking. 

Reflecting on the discussions, the main conversations were around 5 key themes which we covered in the main keynotes of each event. I'd like to share these with you today. 

5 Common Themes of Concern for Businesses Today

Read More [fa icon="long-arrow-right"]

My 4 Learnings from European Women in Tech

[fa icon="calendar'] 08-Jul-2023 09:52:10 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Sustainability, Brands and Business, Career, Artificial Intelligence

[fa icon="comment"] 0 Comments

Last week, I attended the European Women in Tech conference in Amsterdam. It's been a while since I went to an event like this and it was great to be back learning and networking.

I attended dozens of sessions and wanted to spend some time reflecting on them. 

The best way for me to reflect is by writing. Writing is my way of thinking and learning and I'm getting back to it more and more as well.

So, here are my top learnings from the European Women in Tech conference.

Read More [fa icon="long-arrow-right"]

Where Most Organisations Fail - Part 1

[fa icon="calendar'] 29-Oct-2022 18:37:57 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Brands and Business

[fa icon="comment"] 0 Comments

Throughout my career, I've worked in three big tech companies and consulted hundreds of SMBs. 

No matter the size, most organisations tend to fail in two areas which undermine or slow their performance and growth.

The first one is what we'll talk about today and that is execution. 

Making things happen efficiently and effectively is the number one challenge for the majority of companies but unfortunately, most of them don't even admit they have an execution problem or don't place particular importance on it. 

And it's not just about how people do work. It's really about how decisions are being made, how individuals are being let to execute on these decisions and then how change is being adopted to manifest the outcome of these decisions. 

Few companies have proper project, program and change management practices used consistently in every team and every department. Most organisations tend to leave teams and departments to figure out how they execute. There's nothing wrong with giving autonomy but the result in 99% of the cases are siloed teams with disparate priorities who don't talk to each other and end up doing similar pieces of work and in the end not knowing whether they were truly responsible for it.

Read More [fa icon="long-arrow-right"]

The Four Management Zones in the Age of Disruption

[fa icon="calendar'] 11-Apr-2022 14:01:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Brands and Business, Growth

[fa icon="comment"] 0 Comments

I was recently made aware of a book called "Zone to Win" and having just watched a video summarising the key points, I found it fascinating.

It's not just about why established companies struggle to embrace disruptive innovation but about how they can do it. 

Even though I have not yet read the book, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the key points with you as they can be an eye-opener. 

The author, Geoffrey Moore, argues that companies struggle with disruption because of internal issues. Having worked in different types of industries and different organizational sizes, I can definitely agree. Internal processes and challenges stall innovation. Companies get too bogged down into fixing things rather than innovating and changing.  

To resolve such issues, the book says organisations need to segment the enterprise into distinct management zones, each with its own methods and metrics.

These zones are also aligned with the strategic horizons of the company - a model defined by McKinsey around annual planning of investments and resources and when you get a return on them. 

The Three Investment Horizons

Read More [fa icon="long-arrow-right"]

Subscribe here!

New call-to-action
New call-to-action

Get Social

inbound-pr-winner-new-pr-books
Blog Awards 2018_Winners Silver MPU

Popular Posts

Public Relations Today

Want to talk?

iliyanastareva

I'm always happy to chat about how we can work together. Get in touch with me and start the conversation. I'd love to hear from you.

Contact Me