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This month, let’s meet Felipe GUZMAN, professor of Management on the Lille campus since 2018.

More than 600 professor-researchers on IÉSEG’s Lille and Paris-La Défense campuses contribute to students’ learning journeys, enhancing their chances of achieving their professional goals and thriving in their careers.

“Faculty in the Spotlight” is the monthly feature that offer a closer look at IÉSEG’s professors—their background, what they teach, why they joined IÉSEG, fun anecdotes and so on.

Felipe, can you tell us a bit about your background?

I’m from Chile. I did my bachelor’s degree and my first master’s degree in a business school in Chile, quite similar to IÉSEG actually! Then I went to Spain to do my PhD in management.
Then I moved to France, and I’ve been at IÉSEG since 2018. I mostly taught in Chile before, but also in India. I’ve also been invited to the US as a guest speaker, but I mostly teach here in France. I chose IÉSEG because I liked the truly international dimension with a majority of professors coming from many different countries.

What is your area of expertise and what courses do you teach at IÉSEG?

On the research side, I’m interested in interpersonal influence—that is, how people manage to make others do what they want them to do. Broadly speaking, I’ve studied this from multiple angles: in negotiations, how people persuade others; and in leadership, how leaders get subordinates to do what they’re supposed to. What I’m mostly working on lately is how employees influence their leaders—how they sell ideas to managers. In other words: “How can I convince my manager to do something I suggest?”

When it comes to teaching, to put it simply, I’m a management professor. But I typically teach courses in the fields of organizational behavior, leadership, as well as power and influence. I currently teach three courses at IÉSEG: the Organizational Behavior course in the PhD program. I also teach the Positive Leadership Development course, which is our flagship leadership course in the Grande École Program. I also teach in Semester 6, which is mostly for exchange students. And finally, I teach an elective on Power and Influence, which I really enjoy as well.

Can you tell us more about the courses you teach?

The Positive Leadership course was designed to translate the School’s Vision—“changemakers for a better society”—into a course. The goal is to help students develop and become changemakers themselves. We work on leadership skills and abilities, which includes managing work, schedules, tasks, assigning responsibilities, KPIs—that kind of things. The second focus is relationships—how to build trust, motivate your team, take into account emotions and people’s lives beyond the workplace. The third angle is change—how to innovate, turn a vision into a concrete project, actions, or products. And the last part is about ethics—the values you bring and develop as a leader. We start from the school’s values, but then encourage students to reflect on their own and how to communicate them. We ask students to create a “changemaker statement”: “I want to change this…” and then we work throughout the course on how to build and realize that vision. The idea is that when they leave school, they can actually go out and implement these ideas in the workplace.

The Power and Influence course was created based on the idea that at school, students learn to get good grades. That’s the system from kindergarten through university—study, understand the material, and get good grades. We professors are trained to spot talent and reward it—we write recommendation letters, offer teaching assistant roles, and help students succeed. But in the workplace, the rules change! Managers don’t care who you are or what grades you got at school. You have to sell your performance—show what you’re doing and communicate the value of your work. Many students expect that things will work the same way as in school when they enter the job market, but it doesn’t work this way. Your supervisor doesn’t necessarily know what you’re doing. This course helps them make the transition from school to workplace. We teach that organizations are social and political environments—you have to demonstrate your value. Otherwise, no one notices. I know that students love this course. At first, they see the word “power” in a quite negative way, but by the end of the semester they understand what it really means in this course and they want to be powerful. They want to share their work and their vision. That’s a big shift.

What are your teaching methods?

I don’t lecture—I flip the classroom. I give readings, guide discussions, and make them do things to to make sure they actively participate. They also have to do a personality assessment, and then we explore together how they can use the results to gain influence. We work on reputation: how to leave a positive impression on others and be charismatic to be successful in their careers. Then we have a session on networking. I challenge them, for example by asking them to connect with someone they admire on LinkedIn—an entrepreneur, a manager, etc.—and invite them for a 15-minute coffee chat. Many do it, and some get internships that way! Students are surprised to see it works. I tell them—people do have time. You just have to dare. And many of them do. When they message me later to say they got an internship, or met someone inspiring thanks to this. That makes my day.

What do you enjoy about being a professor at IÉSEG?

I have fantastic colleagues who are very competent but also very kind. Since I joined seven years ago, our group has doubled in size—we’re around 30 or 40 now—but we’ve managed to keep a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

I enjoy teaching because it feels like performing on stage to entertain and engage with an audience. In an alternate universe, I’m sure I would be a stand-up comedian. I really enjoy that live interaction. During COVID, teaching was harder because I was talking to a camera and screens, and I really missed the face-to-face sessions with my students.