Marcelo Lopardi on Building a Team That Owns the Results
Delivering Results While Developing the Team
As Corporate Sales Director at ArcelorMittal, Marcelo Lopardi leads major corporate accounts in Brazil and the export market while developing the leaders responsible for delivering results. High Impact Leadership helped him rethink how he uses his own expertise, creating more space for his team to solve problems, take ownership, and build the capabilities that support long-term performance.
Marcelo Lopardi leads sales and commercial strategy for ArcelorMittal’s major corporate customers in Brazil and its export market. As his responsibilities have grown, so has the leadership challenge: delivering against immediate commercial priorities while developing a team capable of taking greater ownership for decisions and results.
High Impact Leadership offered an opportunity to examine how his role needed to evolve as he began leading other leaders. Freitas joined Columbia Business School Executive Education’s program to strengthen how he develops talent, creates ownership, and scales his impact through his team. The experience challenged him to rethink where leadership impact comes from and what becomes possible when a leader stops providing every answer.
What leadership challenges led you to the High Impact Leadership program?
At this stage of my career, I'm leading other leaders and operating in a more complex and volatile market. I felt that technical expertise and business results alone were no longer enough. I wanted to better understand how I could scale my impact through people and leadership.
A major challenge is balancing short-term business demands with long-term team development. Both require attention, but sustainable success depends on building capabilities within the team while continuing to deliver results.
Why did you choose Columbia Business School's High Impact Leadership program?
The combination of faculty, leadership assessments, coaching, and practical application from different perspectives made the program very compelling. It focused not only on theory, but also on real leadership challenges shared by colleagues from different backgrounds and contexts. That created very diverse and powerful exchanges.
What did your 360-degree feedback reveal, and how did it change the way you lead your team?
The feedback confirmed that my team values my transparency, accountability, and focus on results. At the same time, it highlighted opportunities to create greater ownership, involve people more in decisions, and continue developing others' leadership capabilities.
One of my biggest shifts was recognizing that my role is not always to provide answers, but to create the conditions for others to find them. This creates more sustainable empowerment and a more innovative mindset within my team.
It also helped me understand that hitting commercial targets and building an environment of strong engagement, ownership, and trust are not competing priorities. Those qualities are drivers of sustainable performance and better business results.
How have you put what you learned into practice, and what has changed as a result?
I have become more intentional about involving my team in discussions, decisions, and problem-solving before moving directly to solutions.
I have seen greater engagement, stronger accountability, and more initiative from team members. People are contributing more actively and taking greater ownership of outcomes.
What has been the hardest part of applying that change across a team focused on hitting numbers?
Resisting the temptation to move straight to the answer. When business pressure is high, it is often easier to direct than to develop, but long-term results come from building capability within the team.
How are leadership expectations changing for sales leaders in the global steel industry?
Leadership is becoming less about control and more about adaptability, collaboration, and developing talent. The pace of change requires leaders who can build engaged teams that respond quickly to evolving market conditions.
What would you tell another sales leader on the fence about this program?
The program is designed to support the development of managers across functions and business sectors. By empowering participants to take ownership of their professional growth, it fosters the continuous development of leadership competencies and equips managers with the tools and insights needed to meet current and future organizational challenges.
How would you sum up the impact of High Impact Leadership in one sentence?
High Impact Leadership helped me realize that my greatest impact as a leader comes not from having all the answers, but from adapting my approach to align people, priorities, and strategy around a common vision.
Upcoming High Impact Leadership Programs
$12,600
High Impact Leadership
5 CIBE Credits
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