On Tuesday last week (16th April) the NNC Network met once again at the beautiful offices (courtesy of Hanover Communications) for a fireside chat with Meta’s former Head of Internal Communications, Inara Pilatti. With the NNC fast approaching it’s first birthday as a community for Internal Communications professionals, speaking English as a second language, there are now over 100 people in the network with more than 30 nationalities combined.
Spill the Tea!
“So, tell us, how did you end up in Internal Communications?” was my first question to Inara. This is one of my favourite interview questions to really open up the conversations, as it’s rarely a profession that people set out to do from a young age. Inara has an academic background in journalism and with combined interest in psychology, she soon began her career at HSBC, giving her a flavour of the corporate world in an HR position. From here, she honed her skills progressing into a Communications role, in the knowledge it would fuel her ambition to combine her love of writing, storytelling and understanding human behaviour.
In a room of internationals, of course I was quick to ask how Inara found herself in London; the answer to which was a combination of fulfilling a personal dream and pursuing an opportunity to move with her most recent employer, Meta. From here, the conversation opened up to wider questions around cultural differences in working life and the benefits of being a multilingual in the workplace. Whilst Inara acknowledged some of the challenges faced, such as having to check dictionaries in the working day to make sure she was following conversation, she explained how language is so closely connected to culture. In a positive light, this means having multilinguists on board helps a wider cultural understanding, which is arguably an invaluable asset in global organisations.
Inara also shared some of the humorous but maybe less comfortable moments of developing her comms career in the UK… she explained how she would intentionally arrive a little late to meetings to avoid the stereotypical British weather small talk!
Aside from hearing Inara’s story, one of the key topics of the evening was around Imposter Syndrome and how to manage it at work. As someone so successful in their comms career, it was great to hear some of Inara’s top tips:
Make peace with it – it’s not going away!
Empowerment lies in leveraging your strengths and not fixating on the weaknesses
Remember you are the expert in your field
Throughout the evening, we also chatted about variation in working culture and Inara mentioned the differentiation in ‘following protocol’ between Brazil and the UK, as well as workplace greetings. Apparently there are more hugs in Brazil than in the UK, who knew! Inara ended the conversation by inviting the audience to begin networking and, of course, form a stereotypically British queue for hugs!
Meet the Author with Inara Pilatti - Hanover Communications - Tuesday 16th April 2024
Now What?
It was a real pleasure to host Inara and to welcome some new and some familiar faces back to Hanover Communications for another NNC event. For those who are part of the community, this is a reminder that there is a LinkedIn group for you, so please let me know if you would like to join (thenncnetwork@vmagroup.com). As I continue to plan and prepare future events and workshops for the Network, I am always open to hearing new ideas and suggestions (and feedback!), so please do get in touch for a chat.
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