¿Habla Español? For personal and professional benefit, Colliers Intl. CHRO Mindy Geisser plans on becoming proficient in Spanish.
By Mindy Geisser
As I reflect on 2013 and look forward to 2014, I realize that management and leadership development has been a very high priority for us at Colliers Intl., and it will continue to be an area of focus in the coming year. One of my personal goals for the new year is to continue to advance my own personal growth and learning, in addition to driving this agenda for the company.
I wanted to focus on something that would be personally enriching as well as professionally beneficial, flexible to fit into my crazy schedule, and also something that would allow me to work with a teacher or coach to further accelerate my learning. So, I decided to begin studying Spanish.
I love learning new languages, and I was a French major in college. My oldest son is also just beginning to learn Spanish in high school, so I thought it would be fun to learn along with him. And from a professional perspective, we have a very significant presence in Latin America and I work with a delightful team, the leader of whom (Carolina) is in Mexico City. She is an extremely collaborative partner and is always willing to share her materials and ideas with our colleagues around the world, and to adopt our global programs for utilization in Latin America. She is always willing to speak English with me, but I very much want to learn to speak her language with her and the team. And I’m planning to attend a regional leadership team meeting with her in Peru in April 2014. All of these reasons compelled me to begin studying Spanish.
My Spanish classes are already underway, and I Skype with my Spanish tutor one or two times per week. Carolina also provides counsel and advice along the way, and my 14-year-old son provides me someone to practice with on an ongoing basis. My goal for 2014 is to be able to speak enough to conduct basic business conversations in Spanish in time for my trip to Peru in April 2014, and then to continue to advance throughout the year.
Carolina is a wonderful and truly collaborative partner, so I am excited to be able to communicate with her in Spanish, to help her with translating different documents, and to communicate with all of her team. This has been a really fun goal already, and is very fulfilling both personally and professionally.
