Alina Gazi is a woman in tech, with an extensive career experience in various roles. During her professional journey, Alina found a lot of inspiration along the way, which brought her to who she is today, a wearer of many hats.

At the same time, Alina is a delivery manager, a leader, a resource manager, and a mother. How does she handle all the above while focusing on her well-being? Find out in the interview below.

How did you start your career in tech and how did you find your way to leading teams?

I started my career as a .NET Developer 20 years ago, writing backend algorithms to optimize structures for civil engineering. In time, the project grew, and I faced the need to plan its progress better, so I followed the Project Management program which proved to be the foundation for my management career. Until motherhood in my 30s, I adventured into presales and have taken the responsibility as a business partner in an eCommerce company, created a small business for hobby workshops, and wrote C++/C#/PHP code in Iasi, Bucharest and London.

Maturity came with a more coherent path toward management and leadership. During my career, I learned and experienced Agile and Resource Management in large projects, Project Management, and Delivery Management trials for a large transportation project. This led me towards EPAM, where I happily grew from project management to a delivery manager role. My next goal is to become a senior delivery manager.

What strengths helped you the most in your career?

There are three most important strengths that stood with me, during my entire career and I am grateful to guide by them. The first one is the ability to be authentic and truly caring toward my colleagues. That involves acting with integrity and accountability, to inspire trust, not only in me and the work we do, but trust in others and their capabilities. The second one is hunger for learning and evolving while tackling tough new challenges with dedication. The third one is to wisely trust and use the intuition and emotional intelligence to help me and my colleagues meet goals and create a happier and healthier working culture.

What motivated you to step up and become a leader and what are the key skills a manager must have today?

During my tenure as a project manager, I stepped up to better organize our team’s work, motivated by the ownership of successful deliveries, a desire to inspire the team to achieve a common goal and an inclination to contribute to the team’s well-being. I think true leadership is like wisdom, it gets unveiled with each new experience, being nurtured by each satisfied team and each happy stakeholder, colleague, manager and customer.

Together with the “must have” authentic care for others’ well-being, there is a need to excel in having open and continuous communication with our colleagues. Creative thinking gives us the ability to see different perspectives in difficult situations or to come up with innovative original solutions. Also, situational awareness is a skill that can be educated and can become a very useful tool in conflictual situations.

Collaboration and intercultural sensitivity are crucial skills for a resource manager, especially in a multicultural team. At EPAM we often build teams with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints and encourage collaborative leadership, by embracing our cultural differences. And this is one of the best ways to assure achieving greater success.

What is your favorite part when leading teams? How do you engage and inspire your people?

For me, the most rewarding part of working with people and teams is observing their individual qualities and preferences and gently guiding each of them into situations that would make them evolve and grow to their optimal potential. 

Lao Tzu’s vision of the ideal leader resonates with me: “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

To read the rest of Alina's advice and insight, click here.

Do you want to be part of a team like the one Alina built in EPAM? Check out our open positions and apply today: epam.com/careers