A few days ago, I had the pleasure of participating in the 4th Annual Work-Life Balance Conference, organized by Fundación Másfamilia at CaixaForum Madrid.

A necessary space to reflect on a reality that is no longer the future. It is the present.

The relationship between artificial intelligence, mental health, and leadership.

Beyond everything that was shared, there is one idea that clearly summarizes my perspective:

Artificial intelligence is not the challenge. The real challenge is how we choose to use it.

In the early stages of a professional career, leadership is often associated with achievement, recognition, and the need to prove one’s value. Advancing, making important decisions, and being seen as competent or influential are all part of that initial drive that pushes many people toward positions of responsibility.

Over time, however, some leaders discover that leadership is something more. Beyond visible success, a deeper question emerges: why do I lead?

That moment marks a significant transition. Leadership ceases to be focused solely on personal performance and begins to orient itself toward meaning, impact, and contribution. It is the shift from ego to purpose.

In the executive world, productivity is often associated with time management: optimized calendars, clear priorities, measurable goals. However, there is a less visible — yet deeply determining — dimension that shapes overall performance: emotional energy.

We don’t always underperform because we lack time. Often, we underperform because we lack presence, inner clarity, or emotional balance. Working eight hours from a place of calm is not the same as working eight hours from a place of tension.

Productivity, in its deepest sense, is not only a matter of organization. It is an emotional matter.

Delegation is one of the most frequently cited competencies in leadership discourse and, paradoxically, one of the hardest to put into practice.

Many leaders know they should delegate more, but they don’t. Others delegate only partially, with excessive supervision, constant corrections, or last-minute reviews.

Behind this difficulty there is usually not a lack of technical knowledge, but something deeper: a complex relationship with control, trust, and responsibility.

Delegating is not disengaging. Nor is it abdication of leadership. When done consciously, delegation is an act of executive maturity.

In an organizational context marked by speed, pressure, and constant decision-making, many leaders have learned to listen outwardly: to their teams, their clients, the market. However, one fundamental, silent, and decisive form of listening is often neglected: listening to oneself.

Self-awareness is not an introspective exercise without practical impact. It is a core leadership competency—an internal tool that shapes the clarity of decisions, the coherence of actions, and the quality of influence a leader has on others.

You cannot lead others without first learning to lead yourself.

In many organizations, there is talk of results, objectives, productivity, and efficiency. However, there is a less visible (yet deeply decisive) dimension that cuts across all these variables: the emotional climate.

Emotional climate does not appear on balance sheets, but it can be felt in every meeting, every hallway conversation, every shared silence. It is the affective atmosphere that surrounds the team and directly influences its performance, commitment, and well-being.

Caring for this climate is not a delegable task or an accessory aspect: it is one of the most profound responsibilities of a conscious leader.

For decades, management development has been dominated by leadership models focused on efficiency, planning, and control. Leaders were trained to optimize processes, manage results, and minimize errors. But what happens when the leader masters the technique, and yet their team still doesn’t flourish?

Scientific evidence confirms it: technique alone does not guarantee leadership success. Studies by Daniel Goleman (1998) and subsequent research in the Harvard Business Review show that up to 85% of the competencies that differentiate the most effective leaders are related to emotional intelligence, not technical or cognitive skills.

Technique provides structure, but not meaning. Leadership based solely on efficiency runs the risk of generating meaningless results, exhausted teams, and disconnected work cultures.
True transformation begins when leaders understand that they are not managing processes, but people.

Philadelphia is an active break for me, where I observe trends, try out tools, and accompany leaders in new contexts. This year, I am repeating two key themes:

1) Multiculturalism in the city and online work, bilingual (ES/EN)

Being in such a cosmopolitan city allows me to see different realities firsthand and open my mind to a global perspective that is increasingly present in organizations. I bring all of that to my online sessions (yes: even though I’m there, I continue to work with my coachees, wherever they are, in Spanish or English).

How does that translate into value for you?

• Intercultural communication: clearer and more respectful messages in diverse teams.

• Leadership of hybrid and distributed teams: coordination rituals, availability agreements, and asynchronous work that reduce friction.

• Decisions with multiple perspectives: integrating different viewpoints without losing strategic focus.

• More inclusive and effective meetings: facilitation, turn-taking, and follow-up that improve participation and commitments to action.

• Bilingual coaching (ES/EN): we switch languages according to the objective, context, or audience to gain precision and fluency.

In a sector as demanding as catering and food, where every minute counts and the pressure is constant, taking care of your team is not a luxury: it is a strategic necessity.

Gastrocoaching.food was created to respond to this need.
It is an innovative proposal that brings together two worlds that, until now, rarely crossed paths: professional gastronomy and executive and emotional coaching.

The goal: to improve how we work so that it is reflected in what we offer.