Marianthe Evangelidis, Sustainability Leader at London Stock Exchange Group - Anchored in Values: How a Sabbatical Can Guide a Career

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I'm Tracy Lovejoy.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And I'm Shannon, Lucas. We are the co-ceos of catalyst constellations which is dedicated to empowering catalyst to create bold, powerful change in the world.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): This is our podcast move, fast, break, burnout, where we speak with catalyst executives, about ways to successfully lead transformation in large organizations. And today I am delighted to get to be with the director and business accelerator at the London Stock Exchange Group. Mary Anthony abanges.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Thank you for being here with us. Marianthe.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Hi, lovely to meet you. Well, I've met you already, but lovely to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Absolutely so. We'd love to give you the chance to introduce yourself and hear about your catalytic journey, highlighting career and personal highlights that you really feel can help us see the catalyst inside of you.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Absolutely so. Hi everyone. My name is Marianthe Angolides. I have transitioned into being a director and sustainable finance, and investing at London Stock Exchange Group. This is where I lead our strategy for distribution and growth. And I really love my role because I feel as though it's actually real and having an impact in driving positive change in the world. So I I'm very enthusiastic about the role that I'm in

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Marianthe (LSEG): in terms of some of my where I've come from my career there are a couple of highlights, both. I suppose you'd call career highlights, but also really life highlights that I'd love to share with you. The 1st is really, if we focus on sort of our career, highlights is becoming a director of product to technology at L seg, within the accelerator and launching the 1st AI workflow into the industry was absolutely amazing, and really showed the 1st market. It showed

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Marianthe (LSEG): innovation. It showed creativity. And really it was pushing the forefront. So pushing change in an environment that doesn't really change a huge amount very quickly and takes time to happen was amazing to be able to go and do.

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Marianthe (LSEG): The second career. Highlight for me was looking at becoming where I became a non-exempt director of capital enterprise, which is a not-for-profit which is engaging and supporting the start ecosystem in the Uk and supporting underrepresented founders. So again, really, it's the impact my career highlights are the impact I've managed to create in the industry. If I talk more about

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Marianthe (LSEG): sort of life highlights a couple of years ago, in 2,018, actually decided to take a Sabbatical and skip for a yacht from the Uk. New Zealand.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and I would absolutely advocate taking a Sabbatical to anyone. It was a massive challenge. You had to have a lot of drive to do it. We didn't really have a vision of exactly what we wanted to do other than perhaps sail around the world. And so my husband and I bought a yacht.

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Marianthe (LSEG): did the work on it without having a huge amount of experience, of actually understanding what yachting or sailing across oceans might be, and we sailed from the Uk. To New Zealand just before Covid Covid hit in 2020.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And it was amazing, the cultural understanding of risks, the building, a team working with others. And really that community was absolutely amazing to become immersed in, and an amazing challenge to be able to complete as well.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): So many questions, Mary Anthony, I have to admit. So.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): bouncing from what you were just sharing, I have a lot of of clients in coaching executive clients and coaching. Who can feel a little bit nervous about taking the Sabbatical, what it might mean to their career, so would love to hear what, how you justified that. What it meant to tell that story when you came back, cause I'm hearing

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): it was a lot of learnings, but I would love to kind of. Hear how you think about this, and the advice you have for others within that.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And so

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Marianthe (LSEG): there's no shying away from the fact that it's a daunting prospect to suddenly step away from a high flying career where you're being promoted. You're going to leadership training. You're being involved in new projects which are really exciting and starting to escalate and becoming like part of the I say, the norm of the business, but, like the most exciting bits of what the business is doing at that time.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think that the way I reflect on it is.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And and I think this is a trait of catalyst is that

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Marianthe (LSEG): we're not great with just constant, no changes like things just remaining flat line. We're constantly looking for something like, What's next? What are we going to be involved? In? What dreams do we have? What are we going to be able to do? What are we going to be? Where are we going to be able to create impact? And

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Marianthe (LSEG): for me, taking that step back and saying, right, what do I really want to do? This is an experience I've never had before. I'm stepping into somewhere that I am very uncomfortable. I'm very uncomfortable doing and but I'm gonna take the leap because

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's interesting. It's different. I'm getting married this year. Let's take it as a honeymoon. And that's exactly what my husband and I did is we took a leap of faith. He gave off his job at Amazon.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I took a Sabbatical with Elsa, and we stepped into a boat and set off across the oceans, which

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Marianthe (LSEG): I love learning. I don't know if you, Tracy and you, Shannon. It sounds like your background is very much part of your part of what you do and how you've lived. So for me, learning this was a massive learning experience, and I came back stronger from it.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love the title learning when you, when you talk about it, you know as you're heading back into the workforce.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): What was that like to say. You know, I took a year.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Terrifying, and it was 2 years so it was a terrifying prospect to come back in. I think that

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Marianthe (LSEG): when coming back into the workforce. It's positioning the challenges. And actually, what I learned from the experience

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Marianthe (LSEG): the the experience I had before in product and technology, really. And and the experience I've had at Elsec. And financial services really helped my transition into the role I took in the business accelerator and at refinitiv at that time

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Marianthe (LSEG): the

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's not sale my Sabbatical. I didn't have additional experiences. So, for example, we worked, worked, looking at solar panels on some of the remote islands in Tonga to figure out, okay, is this a good investment? Is this something that is even feasible for some of those islands to have? So we're starting to build more of a link towards sustainability and starting support, sustainable infrastructure in some of those islands. So that was a piece, almost a piece of learning and work and a challenge in itself.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So, for example, we jumped in a dingy. You couldn't access this place by yachts. You had to jump in a dinghy. It was a little bit perilous but had a really amazing.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I suppose, story to tell around some of the experiences we had on the journey. It wasn't sort of the the glamorous. Oh, you're lying on a beach. It was actually a lot of work. It's not an easy journey to take.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And without using this word. So forgive me. I'm putting words in your mouth. It sounds like this as a journey connected to a sense of personal values and personal purpose, that learning is a key element of who you are and what you want to do, that getting to engage in sustainability in different ways. And so, while it may look like a weird left turn from a, you know, career trajectory from a life trajectory, it was actually a really key aligned step. Is that right?

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Marianthe (LSEG): Exactly. Yes, exactly.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I would imagine.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Adventure. And that's also it's just a sense of adventure in that life story and life experience piece. But it's very much tied back to, what is the world's gonna look like in 20 years time?

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Marianthe (LSEG): How do we even start changing that story? And what we're what we're what we're doing as a population. What's the human race going to look like? And so understanding that, and going on this journey and experiencing what it is now, and some of those low, lying islands, I felt was really valuable. As

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Marianthe (LSEG): these are the thing. Those are the places where things are going to change. So yes, definitely as a life story development.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I would imagine that helps as you move back into the workforce to contextualize it in that way, especially as someone who works in sustainability.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Yes, absolutely so so a lot of the work, or or that I kind of then went into was a lot around with a sort of move from technology and infrastructure to data.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And so what we know about the way the world works is that data is informing a lot of the decisions, the investment decisions, the identification of risk around sustainability and investing in companies and so

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Marianthe (LSEG): understanding at a at a

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Marianthe (LSEG): it from a supply chain point of view of where is that data even going has been really helpful on my journey, and then entering back into sustainability again in the workplace.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Amazing. Thank you for letting me dive into that. You've already started to unpack this a little bit would love to understand what that concept of Ca catalyst means to you, especially as an executive.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So there are 2 elements that really, really kind of strive out to me. And the 1st is around connecting the dots so and bringing people together. It's really been fundamental to any successes I've had in my career. So, for example.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think it's 2 years ago now. I work across the L seg. Business, which is a newly newly created business. Essentially because we have the acquisition of refinitiv into the L. Seg. Lseg group.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and as part of that we launched it, created and launched the Lseg Innovation network. Now that was bringing together innovation teams from across this newly formed business, and

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Marianthe (LSEG): from, I suppose, the important thing here is when I talk about connecting the dots, it's about creating a network in an ecosystem.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And the reason that's incredibly important isn't just in the here and now of creating a network. And the impact it can take now. But the impact it can make in the future, because you never know at what point you might need to call on that network to be able to make a change.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And the the the second piece that I think really relates to the Catholic concept in that piece is when you then see the bigger picture

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Marianthe (LSEG): you can bring that network and community and the ecosystem together to make a huge impact.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And so I'd really, when I think about some of the experience that I've had and the the pieces of catalyst

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Marianthe (LSEG): trait. The catalyst traits that I bring those the 2 pieces that really stand out to me.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And there's a theme I hear from your introduction, even within that the word impact

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): that I wonder if that's really tied to how you live your life as a catalyst

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I you know you said I'm I love my current job because I'm really getting to make an impact. And so I'd love to have you talk a little bit. So you know, connecting dots, collaboration, bigger picture ecosystem.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): But I'm guessing it all needs to have an impact for you

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): to be worth it. So can you unpack that a little bit for me?

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Marianthe (LSEG): So yes, it needs to have an impact for me, because that that, I suppose, ties into my values. I. But also, if I think about how how you're successful. It's demonstrating to others that what you're doing is creating an impact, whether that's at demonstrating to your exec committee that the work you're doing. The investment they're putting into the projects that you're doing is creating impact. You have to show that

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Marianthe (LSEG): otherwise you're not going to show success.

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Marianthe (LSEG): A lot of the time that impact comes down to revenue. I think the reason that I'm enjoying the role I'm in is yes, there's a revenue impact. But you can intrinsically see the link through to the benefit it's creating for the world as well.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Amazing.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I'd love to jump in. Everything you just talked about is like the awesome stuff the sparkles of being a catalyst, right? The fun parts, but

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I mean, we know, and I'm wondering what you face like. It's not always easy to be a catalyst executive, and so I'm wondering if you can share one or 2 of the biggest challenges that you faced in that role as a catalyst leader.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So. Yes, I've got 2. The 1st is moving too quickly, and

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's not. I say, actually, it's not an issue to move quickly. I think the the challenges of moving quickly is if you don't bring others along on the journey with you and

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Marianthe (LSEG): a lot of that, bringing others on a journey, of being able to create a vision, being able to inspire being able to show others this sort of direction of travel, where you might be hoping to go, and although that message may not get across in the 1st instance, the more you talk about it, and the more you bring more people on in that journey. Gradually there's this sort of movement that you start to create that can lead to a bigger change.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So just a highlight, the challenge for me. Isn't that you move too quickly? It's that when you move quickly you need to bring others quickly on the journey with you. Exactly. And then the the second challenge for me is, I'm both the mother of 2 and

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Marianthe (LSEG): a catalyst. And so you kind of and does you kind of want to do everything at the same time. So for me, one of the biggest challenges is, well, what am I going to focus on? You don't have all the time in the day to do whatever you want to do. You've got kind of responsibilities. And so for me, going back to my values around my family.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And I, sort of personal values has been really important. And being able to make sure I'm setting aside the right time to both

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Marianthe (LSEG): moving forward projects.

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Marianthe (LSEG): but also managing the family and and looking after them as well.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Well, thanks for bringing up that last piece, cause it's not we like while we talk about living an intentional life and the importance of that around Cados. I don't know that we talk a lot about that, the the family piece of that. And so I'm wondering like, How how do you think about balancing that? How do you, or make balancing might not even be the right word? How do you? How do you handle that challenge?

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think I feel very fortunate that I'm in a relationship where there is balance. And so having that opportunity to share the load is really important, but also recognizing where

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Marianthe (LSEG): sometimes you do want to put, say, one of the projects you're working on ahead of, maybe your family and understanding why you want to do that, and what the impact of doing that is both on the project, but also what your family. So what's important to you in the way you're working with family. But what's important to you, and what impact you want to create in your work time and sort of career, time as well.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And so do you do that. Do you lean in sometimes and say, Yeah, I'm going to put this project

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: like sort of on the front burner? Or how do you navigate that.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And there's a huge amount of guilt if you ever say that I think that it always refers back to me as well. What gain is my family gaining out of this.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and so trying to make sure that if yes, I am stepping back and doing something that is more orientated around work. Actually, my family are gaining something anyway, like whether it's spending time with my husband, whether we there's an activity that they're doing which is really beneficial, or they'll really enjoy. And so you're kind of having to balance the yes, I'm making an impact in work, but also making sure that

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Marianthe (LSEG): the family are gaining something from it, as well.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, that resonates so deeply personally, because it's like one of the things. I was a single mom, pretty much from the beginning. And one of the things when I had to make those tough choices like also, what am I modeling

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: for?

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Marianthe (LSEG): Exactly. Yep.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and that's completely so. I always think back to my

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Marianthe (LSEG): my mom was always working. She started her own businesses. But it's when I think about the expect, not the expectation I'm expecting for my kids, but the fact that they know that as a woman you can work, and you can have a family. And yes, you're balancing constantly. But it's important to know that you can do that.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And if you haven't got a role model potentially in the business. Who's doing that? You need somebody else to show you what's possible.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, the other thing that I want to connect back from earlier in your story when I coach people. And this is very present, this comes up a lot in coaching right that tug of war. These weren't your words, but you had a really interesting way of thinking about time.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: because you're like. This is an epoch, an era of 2 years of rejuvenation that I'm gonna this is my commitment for these 2 years. It's not like it was a 2 week bucket, and so I'm wondering if you can talk about like how time zooming in and out of those choices that you're making, and maybe, like some of the ways you're thinking about that in the future.

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Marianthe (LSEG): It's really especially.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think if you're constantly go, go. You sometimes don't reflect on the way in which time passes. Those 2 years went in a flash. They're really quick, and especially, I definitely feel as having kids that

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Marianthe (LSEG): the time goes even more quickly. If you're like, you're rushing for one thing to another, and you don't get that time to pause.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I the

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think

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Marianthe (LSEG): I will. I think in in time. It's for me. I don't necessarily think about the time things are taking other than the fact that, for example, if we wanted to go again, we've seen lots go against failing, for example, and gone that adventure.

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Marianthe (LSEG): There are sometimes time limits on doing that. And so you do have to work in periods of time. The way in which I off. I don't necessarily look at it from a time aspect, I think, from an opportunity point of view of this is an opportunity that I will never get again. Therefore I should take the time in order to do it.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Fascinating, and I think there's a theme that's coming through, too, that you it sounds like articulated or not. Have a good sense of your values, your core values, which helps to navigate that opportunity, choice.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Yeah, I I think that's really important. Values can change so it's not to say that if you, if you establish what your values are that they're going to change considerably. It's okay. If they don't change, it's great if they change as well, because that really supports any decisions. And the time you're going to spend on different things. So

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Marianthe (LSEG): for me, family is a big value, and I know it's a big value for my husband as well, so it's great. We have that alignment. It can be challenging for your values. Don't align with others. But I think when I think about how being successful and kind of moving up into the exact positions is

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's

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Marianthe (LSEG): you can have values that may contradict each other. But you'll probably always have one value that's going to come out on top.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I thought.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And just understanding the sacrifices that you're making

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Marianthe (LSEG): in order to achieve that value has been really important as well.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: There's a clarity and a core to you that's super powerful. And so I'd love to bring that back to the 1st part that you talked about, because moving too quickly is a double-edged sword for catalyst. But when I you know, my follow-up question would be like, How do you handle that. But in a way you called out some of the things like.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: it's not the moving too fast. That's actually the problem. It's the ramifications on the other people. And so you're like, so you need to create a vision, and you can't just say it once you might have to say it until you want to poke your eye out with a pencil because you're so tired of talking about it. And this movement creating. I'm wondering if there are other things that you've learned that. Let you walk that balance of moving fast enough that it feels good for you, but moving fast enough to drive impact and bring people along.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Error, error. I always go back to this 2 things. I should really have 3 things that I could say. So 2 things. The one is

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Marianthe (LSEG): really when, as you're trying to bring people along, the journey is, how can you empathize and reflect on how those people might be feeling around you to respond to your behavior, to respond to your vision, and really making a note of if you can empathize with others, or at least this is what I find you can emphasize and think about where they might be coming from, especially in the business point of view, because everyone has the sort of

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Marianthe (LSEG): what they're driving towards the revenue targets. They might be driving towards the way they want the business to grow, the strategy they've got around the business. You can empathize and think about. Well, where are they coming from? Can I put myself in that position and think about that? And then

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Marianthe (LSEG): what do they want or need to hear, in order to be able to come on the vision and move as quickly as I'm I'm moving.

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Marianthe (LSEG): The second piece is actually thinking about

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Marianthe (LSEG): really having that senior sponsorship without that, it's really difficult to bring people along on your vision.

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Marianthe (LSEG): the. So just going back to Elsa Catalyst. Actually, it was so important when we're thinking about an innovation movement and kind of moving from the bottom up. It was great. I mean, you had a lot of enthusiasm. You had a lot of people wanting to work towards making a success. But you do need that senior sponsorship to actually move things quickly as well.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So I I those are the 2 sort of wisdom for me in terms of within a business. How do you make success? The success of a project. So it's a scene of sponsorship, and also empathizing and reflecting what others are expecting.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Do you? You again? Just sort of if you feel like you embody empathy. I'm sitting here going like I wish I could have worked for you at some point.

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Marianthe (LSEG): You know.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: But I'm wondering if you have any advice on how to get senior sponsorship like we talk about that a lot.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: But it's not. It's not like woo we can. We can easily just walk up to the CEO and be like. Here's what we're doing.

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Marianthe (LSEG): No, it's re, and it is really challenging. From the years I've had working on projects and building business cases, a lot of it is about, how do you align the organization's value? But also the key objective looks like the group objective.

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Marianthe (LSEG): admittedly, there's always the sort of the necessity to understand what the revenue is that a project or business case or something is gonna generate. And and if you can show it's gonna generate a lot that some that helps a lot with the business case but the in terms of approaching and talking to senior execs. It's been a lot about making sure that aligns with what their their objectives are.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Otherwise, like

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Marianthe (LSEG): those are the company's objectives. If you're heading in the right direction, if you're heading on the same path

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Marianthe (LSEG): that those execs are heading on, then that alignment is only going to set you in good stead to be able to actually kind of getting that sponsorship.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And how do you think about getting the sponsorship of multiple stakeholders across when they might have different objectives that you're trying to connect to.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So that I

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's it's definitely time consuming. But I think if I think about even for a board level of

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Marianthe (LSEG): before you go into a board meeting. You're going to have had conversations with everyone in that board meeting to check your alignment, to check sort of how they're feeling to empathize with them and think about. Well, what's their positioning? What are they looking to get from these particular decisions? And so there's always a thread of how somebody's objectives align to what you're trying to do and what you're trying to move forward. And so yes, it can take time. But it's really important that you identify those to each of your key stakeholders.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and then can go and have those conversations with them.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And how do you manage your energy? Because I think that's sometimes the part where the Kylins are like? It's not moving fast enough. I have to do all the work, all the emotional labor, to bring people on this journey. How do you keep your energy throughout that.

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Marianthe (LSEG): It really goes back to values, of looking forward to spending time with my girls. But but in a in a workplace there's always the.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think, as long as you can see yourself moving forward a little bit.

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Marianthe (LSEG): There's some. There's energy you can draw from that. So you're always it's not as though you're gonna hit your big vision and hit your success rate straight away. It's always a journey, and setting yourselves up those full of steps in order to meet that ideal vision. At least, is is what keeps me going.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So those little successes are really what kind of keep me keep me energized, and every so often a coffee. I'm really struggling. I definitely finally get a lot of energy out of that.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing. And one thing that we didn't talk about after we hit record that you actually encouraged us to do as we were doing. The intro is celebrate. Celebrate the wins along the way like. Thank you for

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: gifting that back to us.

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Marianthe (LSEG): It's really important.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It's super important, all right, final. If you had a magic wand, is there anything else that you would love to help, you know, to having your toolkit to help overcome those challenges.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So based on the challenges. My Magic Horn would be just infinite time.

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Marianthe (LSEG): But I do also say that with with biting my tongue as well, because I think infinite time, although it may sound amazing

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Marianthe (LSEG): in a way. You don't then start to appreciate time and appreciate the time you have to do things. So I think that

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Marianthe (LSEG): although my magic one will be infinite time, there are lots of tools to make your life more efficient and more productive. But

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Marianthe (LSEG): in a way, it's good that you have to make decisions on what you want to do and how you spend your time in your life.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Oh!

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Marianthe (LSEG): Do you do you? Is that what you'd want? Is that your magic.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I I feel well, I the time thing it's like when you said it's like, Yes, infinite time. And then, like you have to make choices, and it's like, Oh, it's so painful sometimes, though, because, as accounts, you're like, I wanna do all the things. But you're not wrong. I was like the the bittersweet lesson of it makes it more precious because you have to change.

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Marianthe (LSEG): It does. Yes, exactly. Exactly. You appreciate life, I think. To focus on the things that you really want to do. And it's it's good to be able to make those decisions.

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Marianthe (LSEG): because otherwise everyone might have infinite time. And then where would we be.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: We'd never get anything, not anything done totally.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Tomorrow it'll be fine.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Within that vein. You use the word opportunity that I'd love to to follow up on that. You know you evaluate kind of each opportunity. How do you do that? Is that a is, do you have a conscious way that you do that? You know we've we've talked about values. We talked about time? Or is it more gut, as you know, the Sabbatical opportunity or a new job opportunity? What does that look like for you?

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Marianthe (LSEG): It's a mixture of guts, and it's a mixture of a little bit of data analytics and understanding the the outcome of that. It's difficult to have all the data. So you do have to make some assumptions about what you think, where you think you might be heading. And when you're talking about opportunities in terms of business decisions.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Often you're going to have data support that. And there are going to be revenue targets. You're aiming to support, and you'll collect the data from clients, etc, to be able to support that business case when it comes to the opportunity of a new job. For example, you're not necessarily going to have all of that. Yeah, okay, you might be paid more great. But what other opportunities in your career development is that going to build so something that I try and do in that? I'll talk about one of my previous managers is making sure that you always have a development plan.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So because when we talk about time, actually, time goes very quickly. And if you don't kind of think about well, where do I want to be, what sort of traits where do I want to potentially be? Do I want to be a CEO? Do I want to be a Cfo. Where do I potentially maybe want to be in 20 years time? What are the traits? What are the characteristics? What are the skills that you might need in order to do that. And so every year I have a development plan

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Marianthe (LSEG): to understand some of the skills I want to build on, and that also helps me manage that year of time thinking, well, I may not have sort of launched a new product. But I've developed this. And this skills, I think is going to get me to maybe where I want to go.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And love.

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Marianthe (LSEG): That's been really important. When I think about opportunities, I think about well, what skills is that opportunity lining up with, what new skills am I gaining from it.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love it, and it ties back to you, sharing that learning is so core to you. Right? That kind of in every opportunity you're assessing it's okay. If a core thing for me is learning, what can I learn? As opposed to? You know other ways that we may measure opportunity, as you say, money?

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): But I just love that for a catalyst to really be thinking about. What? What do you want to achieve in life in some period of time. And how does this particular opportunity align to that or not? It's a nice. It's a different lens, which is, I think, incredibly helpful. So thank you.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): So a lot of catalyst can stall out in our career. Right? We have behaviors. You're talking about bringing people along, moving too quickly, and so moving into this director position for you right at the executive level. What is it that you have found in your journey that allows catalyst to move into executive positions or set another way. What can stop us

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): from moving into those positions.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think that

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Marianthe (LSEG): for me it's the leaders. So whether it's your senior sponsor, whether it's your manager.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I think that that is one of the most important elements of being able to progress.

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Marianthe (LSEG): and otherwise I feel like you can often be banging your head against the brick wall so that senior leadership support is really what helps you move into that next role, whether that's within the company you're in. So having that senior one ship there, or whether it's through the coach or mental that you have outside the company.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And

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Marianthe (LSEG): if I look at sort of the mentors that I've had such as Mehasha. Actually, it's

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Marianthe (LSEG): it's them having a belief in you as well and wanting to move you on and develop you, I think, is so important in actually becoming. Being able to reach the level where I am as well.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And so if folks don't feel like they have that, do you think it's worth it to leave.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Really good question. I think that

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Marianthe (LSEG): you can gain that. You can find a mentor who is not necessarily in your business. What I would go back to is, what are the

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Marianthe (LSEG): what are your skills? What do you want to develop? Are you learning in the role you're in? And so you are progressing in a way, what do you value? I mean, it's difficult when you start your career. Actually, you want to got the matter as quickly as possible, and you want to earn as much money as quickly as possible.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Do think about what those skills are that you're learning that could help you jump to the next level, whether that's in the business. So you might be gaining lots, and the business you're in that will then help you jump outside the business.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And what is it that a mentor has helped you to do in the growth and progression? Is it that they're opening the way? Is it that they're helping? You see yourself right like, why is a mentor so key.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And so I think mentors can do a couple of things, one they could potentially have the contacts in the industry to help you move about if you want to, and they could be the senior sponsor, so they can help you move into positions that are opening up within the business.

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Marianthe (LSEG): But in addition to that, they can look at the skills that. So

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Marianthe (LSEG): imagine you're not particularly great to identify what skills and expertise that you might have that could be applicable across different roles. They can help you identify talk through the development plan that you have

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Marianthe (LSEG): potentially suggest ideas of where you could move to, based on where you want to get to, because it's not as though

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Marianthe (LSEG): you could start on a Grant position. But then, jumping to CEO position. There are potentially skills you need in between.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Essentially.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Could help you that potentially, Nope, who knows? You might be actually going and starting your own startup so essentially.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Like the Yoko.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Straight away. Who knows? So that's the only caveat on that. But it is a ladder, and not a ladder in terms of career ladder, but a skills ladder that you need to be able to go on, and it may be you find yourself in a position where you don't have all the skills. But the point is that you should be able to learn them and develop them. And your mentor could can help you, and thinking about? Well, how and where can you do that?

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I'm so struck across this conversation by the intentionality, and Shannon named this before, too.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Like the word.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Is that what you wrote down? It's an intentionality that that spans time which Shannon.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And talked about.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Right. And you talked about for catalyst. It's the connecting the dots, but also kind of, you know, looking from a different view. And I just like I hear you talk, and it feels like you're like zooming out and looking at your life, zooming in and looking at your life, looking across this moment of your life, and it's such an interesting feeling to, you know. Kind of get to across this conversation. So thank you. Thank you for sharing that.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It's exactly the word that I had written down, Marathi, and it's like

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: again, I just go back to like where you're sitting with the intentionality you're I can only imagine you're unstoppable, like.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Oh, thank you!

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: No, but but like legitimately, what we have found is like the, you know, there's a range of sort of like catalytic in terms of, you know, speed and scale. There's a range in terms of how much we burn out. But this like wisdom that you're sitting in that is

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: quiet and strong and powerful as a callous, is really inspirational. I'm just. I was also going to say I was going to call up Sneeh and just thank her for this conversation, because you're so inspiring.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I'm really glad you think that. Thank you.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I have to say that you learn, you learn from others that you're inspired by others, and I think that

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Marianthe (LSEG): the when you talk about wisdom. Wisdom is often learned. And so when we talk about mentors, if you have good mentors who you can take and understand skills from, and a way of working in a way of thinking. I think that just helps build

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Marianthe (LSEG): sort of the wisdom that you have. And the way you start to think about things as well. There is an element you'd ever want to really grow up to you. So there's a timelessness to wanting to bit. You want life to be.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, I don't hear that you're not having fun with life. In fact, I hear quite the opposite like bringing that almost like childlike beginner's mind sense of wonder

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: and like an openness to the experience. Yeah, that's how I experience you. And I also just want to say, for like listeners, as we've been talking, and I'd love your thoughts on this before we pivot to the people who inspire you. But I think especially more junior catalyst, and this was me early on, when I did finally start getting mentors and stuff, I felt like a deep sense of obligations, a little strong, but I didn't realize how much

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: the mentors get out of the relationship with the Mentees, too. And so this podcast is all about sharing the wisdom, Marathi. That's why we do it. We want to help accelerate bold, positive change in the world. Right? But I'm just wondering if you have thoughts about that really, briefly, on the relationship what it means to the mentor as well as the mentee.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Oh, I I think it makes a huge map. I so I've been a mentor for a few people across financial services, and

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Marianthe (LSEG): you get as much out of seeing the people you're mentoring being coming successful and being successful as hopefully they get out of you. With the expertise you can share with them, I, I.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And and this shows through the I suppose, the not for profit work that I do as well is.

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Marianthe (LSEG): I really believe in people and developing people.

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Marianthe (LSEG): because that's so important to where the world is going. And I think if you can share a little bit about a little of a little of your experience, and they can use that to not just be successful, but also create positive impact themselves.

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Marianthe (LSEG): It just for me, it's that warm, fuzzy feeling. It sounds terrible, but I really value, and I believe in that.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amen. We do.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Sorry I thought it really preachy like.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: No, no, no, no.

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Marianthe (LSEG): And that was.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: At all that was like a deep like preacher. Yes, that's it. Go all right. Who's

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: hired you 2 of your favorite famous catalyst, past or present or not, they don't have to be famous.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Famous. Well, depends. Maybe they say they're famous. Who knows? So the 1st to be sneeh? Who I mentioned previously, who has actually been a on the catalyst podcast as well. Who was my previous

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Marianthe (LSEG): prior to manager, like 2 2 managers ago. She was absolutely amazing. She inspired me, she

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Marianthe (LSEG): as a role model, a true and sort of holding values and making an impact she's uplifting. She gave me hope through a lot of change she really sort of

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Marianthe (LSEG): supported. When you think you're going through change, it can sometimes be quite difficult. But actually.

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Marianthe (LSEG): how do you really look at the opportunity and change, and especially in the world we're in at the moment. There's change in regard to sort of climate change. Say, there's change in regard to the change in which business in the way businesses are working. But she really gave me hope and a belief that even through all of that change. There's always an opportunity to shop and make sure that you're

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Marianthe (LSEG): you're identifying that opportunity. But also you're being really thoughtful about others, and the impact it might have on them as well.

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Marianthe (LSEG): So she's my 1st 1st catalyst who, I think, is absolutely incredible, the second, who, I'm not sure if many of you have heard of is Beryl Burton, and so for me, she's the greatest female cyclist of all time. She's sadly not alive anymore, but

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Marianthe (LSEG): at a at a time when there was almost no support for female cyclists, she broke national records. She won world championships, and, as you can understand, with sort of the balance between male and female sport at the time she's alive, sort of mid mid century last century she was just absolutely incredible, and a real catalyst in driving change, identifying opportunity.

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Marianthe (LSEG): incredible woman. And I think that not many people know about her story. So if you do get a chance, I think, understanding more about her and seeing the bigger picture of West cycling is heading. She was absolutely incredible.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Awesome. I'll ask you how to spell her name so we can put a link to.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Have her in the show notes.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Yeah, totally, Meredith, it's been just such an honor really like such an honor to have this conversation. I hope it's the 1st of many, and thank you for being here with us today, sharing your wisdom.

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Marianthe (LSEG): Thank you so much. Thank you. Everyone.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: To our listeners. Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to learn more about how to create bold, powerful change in the world, check out our book, move fast, break burnout, or, of course, go to the website at catalystconstallations.com dot.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): If you enjoyed this episode, please take 10 seconds to rate it on itunes, spotify stitcher wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you have other catalysts in your life. Hit the share button and send a link their way.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Thanks again.