Buried in the marks of memories are questions one often wonders – what is it that made me who I am today? The world we live in is an amalgamation of cultures, languages, people, and their experiences. Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebration of this intricate web of relationships – to acknowledge and honor where we come from and how it shapes us.
Eduardo Pacheco is one such wonderer with a life full of inspiring stories narrated humorously. A Sales Manager for Owens, Illinois, Pacheco was born and raised in Mexico. As he winds down the lane of exploring his ethnicity, he observes how being Mexican is also being a culmination of multiple cultures and traditions in itself.
Through an anecdotal conversation filled with laughter and humorous recollections, he explains how he moved from the engineering industry to becoming a Sales Manager.
An Exceptional Learner – Through and Through
Eduardo recalls his time in school and college and reveals he has always been a good student with great grades. What motivated him? My mother, he answers, adding that a strictness when it came to his grade is what motivated him to maintain them. Chuckling, he talks about the prestigious college he studied in, where he got a grade-based scholarship owing to monetary issues.
Upon graduation, Pacheco found a job after some difficulties. His father told him about a trainee program at a company, saying, “I’m not asking twice, you have to take the job to work.” Pacheco recalls this moment with a degree of gratitude because he learned many skills and preferences in that job – it is what helped him understand his skills better.
Eventually, he moved from Engineering to Management. He jokingly explains this move with the reasoning that the factory was too cold, remarking that as random as the move might have seemed, it was a very good one for him. He started in the capacities of demand planning and found an obsession with numbers and data. Moving to product development and marketing soon after, he got a taste of what that industry really had to offer as opposed to his conception of it.
A People-First Leader
“As long as they understand the objective as part of their aspirations, I think it’s okay…”
Pacheco’s leadership journey was filled with a variety of situations, yet, one thing becomes increasingly clear as he talks about both his experiences and his leadership style – he believes learning better skills and understanding people’s positions is important. As a “hesitant” perfectionist who really likes to do things as well as he can, his approach to himself reflects on his approach to his team.
The first two to three months of Management, Eduardo says, were very difficult ones since he was new to Sales Management. He had to learn how to manage a team, deal with customers and use analytics to his advantage. In the middle of it all was his MBA degree, one of the things that changed his life. What he did already know, however, was how to talk to people and really understand them. He hesitates in saying he thinks he’s quite likable, and it’s not hard to confirm that he is – he makes people comfortable with his humor and understanding.
“I had no idea what a sales manager does…It was intimidating but the advantage of being in a company is that you can learn…I got to learn a lot.”
As a manager, Pacheco chooses to draw on his experience and his own identity to realize that working as a team means “If one of my guys does something wrong, I take part of the responsibility because it’s my team and their performance is my responsibility as well.” He believes that knowing the right way to motivate someone is an integral part of how he leads. When you know what works for a team, they start to see what they’re doing as important to them as well. Being supportive of their approaches and being there for them as a leader is what sets him apart. Eduardo emphasizes how negative reinforcements might only demotivate team members. He tries to maintain a balance between “numbers and how they pull things together without being overwhelmed.” As long as it is a part of the team members’ aspirations, work will get done.
A real people’s leader, putting people’s individuality first and looking at a team with equal responsibility for everyone is Eduardo’s leadership style condensed. His understanding of this management style stems from his own experiences and identity, only adding to his ability to be an effective leader.
He takes inspiration from his father’s relentless honesty even in the face of struggles. It reflects in the way he looks at his own work. Pacheco never fails to acknowledge the things he has learned and credit the places that taught him. His persistence to learn and understand is what makes him the manager he is today – drawing on the “big ties” of human relationships in the culture he has grown up with. Great Learning’s commitment to upskilling and advancing the careers of professionals with a dedication to make the world a better place is exactly what Eduardo embodies.
Find out more about the PGP in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
