Choosing Leadership with Sumit Gupta

This is the Can't Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations - all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.Together, we'll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadershiphttp://deployyourself.com/https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/https://deployyourself.com/newsletterhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4allhttps://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumithttps://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoachShow Notes life Is the balance. between making things happen. And letting them happen.The moment we try to force or the moment anybody, or anything tries to force something. It creates friction.Nobody likes resistance. When we push people, they push back. We can create anything which we are creating as leaders with or without force. And that is something I think, which is the balance between making things happen and letting them happen. You cannot force music. You have to let it flow.If a musician is trying to force. The music. Or if a singer is trying to force the singing, it loses its beauty.Trying to control something or somebody's always create friction because it is not natural. You must learn to use the right leverage at the right time. You must learn to use the right action. At the right time. Or do the right thing. At the right time. Which is not forcing against anything, which is natural.You cannot force yourself to fall asleep. Now sleeping is as natural. As it can be. Everybody sleeps. But you have to let yourself fall asleep. Everything else works the same way.It doesn't mean that you do not do anything or it is wrong or bad to do something. But you identify actions, would you use leverage or which flow with the natural flow of things and then you take them.And it is only when you stop trying to go to sleep, that you can fall asleep. And it is only when you stop trying to play. Beautiful music that the beautiful music. Can actually flow or happen through you. The best musicians are not who can play the fastest or the most number of hours in a day. The best are those who let the music flow through them. And let their action and their bodies be guided by that flow.Just because letting anything be or letting something happen is so uncomfortable for us to be there with our own self in silence and solitude. That we try to fill that gap with forcing something and that creates a whole lot of problems on the outside.It is only in silence and in solitude with yourself that you can understand. What is yours to make happen? What is it that calls you? And what is it that deeply matters to you? we can let go of wanting to be somewhere else. Where we are right now. Right. The whole point of music. Is what you are listening to right now, not what you are going to listen to five seconds or five hours in the future. The whole point of dancing is the dance itself. Not to get somewhere else.. So wanting to be anywhere else is forcing an idea. this is a paradox, right? By trying to make things happen. We actually make it difficult for them to happen. Stop taking things too seriously all the time. And it is only by stopping to take something too seriously that we can be serious. About doing the best that we can in any given moment. For your commitment to be strong. You have to hold it firmly, but not too tightly. There is no forcing or pushing when you're fully committed to something. Your commitment has its own flow. Once you commit to something, it has its own flow. Just like everything else in nature. We forget that work can be musical too, because work is nature and nature is musical just by its own nature. We forget that politics can be musical too. We forget that the biggest debates or social issues of our time. Can also be like music and nature. Let it happen. Learn to use the right action at the right time. Learn to use the right leverage. At the right time.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Ian shares multiple stories about the lessons he has learnt as a leader. We talk about getting fired from multiple roles and how that shaped him as a leader. We speak about the difference between hiring the best people and getting the best out of people, and how he found out that everybody expects respect first of all from their leaders and organisations.You can find Ian at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ianfishwick/In the interview, Ian shares I believe that you don't train people by sticking them in a classroomAnd I think people make the mistake of saying, let's hire the best people. I get that everybody wants the best people, but what I say is, get the best out of people.We all have bad days. Let's not pretend that I'm fantastic and I'm fantastic every day. It's a bit like being a footballer. It doesn't look like that. You need constant motivation and help, so the same people can be good, better an average. I feel good about what I do, I'll probably do a great jobkeep it really simple. Treat other people the way you want to be treated yourself, and you're not gonna go very far wrong.those who get into management positions who then start to love the authority of it. You've lost it, you've lost it completely. the higher you get in an organization, the more likely there are to be restructures

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Philip shares his background in statistics and finance, and how that allows him to be a better entrepreneur. He also shares how being the youngest of five boys while growing up in his family has helped him have a high-risk tolerance and a spirit of competitiveness. We also spoke about the challenges that come with a startup growing very fast, and how he likes to run to calm and clear his system of stress to be able to make sound decisions. You can find Philip at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/johnstonphilipIn the interview, Philip sharesThe essence of finance is predicting the future.I would say that I have an extremely high-risk tolerance. Growing fast is stressful, but it's also very exciting.What I do is I try and run on the day that I'm having the mania so that it kind of clears my system of these like endorphinsI'm quite into standup comedy and podcastsStandup comedy makes you about 500 times better at public speaking.You can hack this whole entrepreneurship game. It doesn't need to be as hard as it looks

This is the Can't Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations - all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.Together, we'll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadershiphttp://deployyourself.com/https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/https://deployyourself.com/newsletterhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4allhttps://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumithttps://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoachShow NotesCan we get on the same side and talk about the challenge together, rather than sitting on opposite sides of their table and holding, holding onto our positions? And I think what leads us to hold onto our positions is our fear of failure - that we do not want to face that we can fail, and that fear of failure leads and keeps us stuck in these endless conversations.Simply because of the fact that we are unable to deal with that we might fail, it leads to a mess on the surface. There is nothing wrong with being scared of losing a position or disappointing those who support you but it keeps you away from playing fully on the outside. It keeps you away from having the real conversation on challenging yourself and others as well and talking about real stuff rather than getting lost in intellectual conversations.If you practice any martial art you will know that, uh, hesitation will get you killed. if you practice any sports. Hesitation will make you lose. , but this is what we are doing. our fear of failure and inability to deal with the mess inside is suffocating us from the inside, but also keeping us stuck on the outside.There's nothing wrong with being scared and terrified, but to hide it, to not be okay with it is taking us nowhere.I must say I was terrified and I still am, but I'm not afraid of acknowledging it. I'm not going to let it stop me. I'm not going to let it hold me in a position and not see things from the other side as well. And I'm, I might fail as an entrepreneur. I might fail as a professional, I might fail in my career as a CEO, I might fail as a coach, as a father, as a husband, as a parent, as a friend, I might fail. But so what? I mean there is, there's a world beyond I, right?I might fail, but what is better is playing a half-life is that acceptable? Certainly to me, it is notWe would all be crawling if children would behave as adults behave. These days. If children would be afraid of falling, we would all be crawlingThis is how you get to any success, not by trying to be safe and hesitating, but by being fully willing to fail. The way you get to success is not by trying to be safe and hesitating but by being fully willing to fail, fully willing to fail is a precondition for your full commitment to whatever that you're trying to achieve.Otherwise, you are always keeping one foot behind. and you cannot take a leap of faith. You cannot take a jump if your one foot is still on the ground.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Steve shares how travelling around the world as a child has shaped him into a curious and open person. He also spoke about the challenges of working with people of different cultures and how he learned to compromise and look for win-win solutions, and yet doing that without compromising on his foundational set of values.You can find Steve at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemidgley/In the interview, Steve sharesI was blessed to work on every, literally every continent of the world.Fortune had favoured me and I didn't have any debt in my life.I'm a straight shooter. I'm very, you know, I believe authentic and transparentYou have to be prepared. To stand up for what you believe inSometimes you have to stick to your principles and it might mean that you have to step out, and that's not pleasant, right? But that comes with the territory.You have to be extremely resolute and resourceful and make sure that you're managing your own energiesI have a personal dream, uh, to build a charity that will fundamentally change underprivileged children's lives.I think navigating, uh, the ambiguity at the moment is extremely challenging.You've gotta let your team see the human side of you, uh, as much as possible.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Marius shares about his childhood and how growing up in a family of 6 siblings set him up for learning continuously and leadership. We also spoke about the very critical role of purpose to keep everyone together in an unpredictable environment. You can find Marius at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusciavola/In the interview, Marius sharesComing from a considerably large family, you can imagine that I had to fight for what I wanted or what was oursI've learned that the best way to learn is actually to teachWhen you create that environment people will not shy away from speaking their mindyou're entering an area of unknowns and you've gotta be comfortable with the uncomfortableyou've gotta have trust in yourself and trust in the people that you are surrounded byWhat keeps us together is that common purposeThe fear comes when you have an environment that's commanding and controllingWe don't fail twice on the same thing. We don't make the same mistake twiceSome of the challenges we face are also self-inflictedYou need to say no to so many things more often than you say yes to. But those things that you say yes to, you know you wanna do them really well, and that will help you stand out I prefer to be the serving CEO than the commanding CEO.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In a very candid and honest conversation, Bharani shares his life and how we wanted to shape his own destiny - even as a child. We spoke about growing up seeing your parents struggle, and how that teaches you to make the best out of what you have. He also shares how entrepreneurs must learn to change and shape their role as the company grows. You can find Bharani at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/bharanidharanviswanathan/In the interview, Bharani sharesSomehow in my childhood days, I got this inspiration and deep motivation to shape my own destiny.my only philosophy to make the best out of what you canwhatever you have, make the best out of it. when you don't have much privilege and opportunities, you have to learn to make the best out of it and accept what you have.when you come from a lesser privileged background and when you suddenly get into a world full of opportunities and life, you will be overwhelmed. Um, and it'll not be easy to adapt.You don't have to do everything in one stretchyou have to let go of a few things so that other people can take it forward and run while you can focus back and, uh, look at the big picture and take your time. So, it is very counterintuitive. It is not easy for people to let goit's a very difficult journey to go through, you know because you will have an innate fear that, uh, nobody in the company will be able to operate at your level, right? As a human being. Most of us fall in that trap. Uh, but it's important to realize that, et cetera. Otherwise, you are on a treadmill constantly. It'll be uncomfortable, but please go through it.I have invested in myself to understand more about myself. I completely agree with this because money and title are hygiene, but people want purpose and culture and values beyond that.it's important that you have some breathing space to reflect upon what is happening, otherwise, you are constantly Reacting to the world.Don't worry about the outcome because you are given everything. The best will happen. Trust the process.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Thomas very humbly shares his experience as an employee and how his journey to CEO has been. He talks about his family, balance, and a very different look at leadership. I am sure everybody who listens to this will be left deeply touched and moved.You can find Thomas at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-van-eeckhout-b0b9ab2/https://easi.net/enIn the interview, Thomas sharesI joined the company back in 2006 as an internal sales officer and made my way throughout the organization and took on the role of CEO three years ago. I noticed that the more ambitious I was, the better my results became so, so quite fast. I started to work quite hard. Um, and I still believe that if you want to achieve something, you have to put in, you have to put in the work so that there is no secret We really have a default YES Culture, whereas I think most of the companies have a default NO culture.we allow people to take ownership over their career and they can basically chase their dreams. And that's something what I had the opportunity to do as well. We need to create a context where people can be successful, a context, where people can actually be happy at work. They have to have a vision. Um, we have to. Indicate where we want to be next year in three years, in five years and in 10 or 15 yearsIt's 50% or even more 60 or maybe 70% is about communication. You need to repeat and repeat time after time again. What we want to achieve, who we want to be as a company, why we want to do what we are doing where we want to end up with that strategy becomes more and more important.We need to have, as a company, we need to have a personality. People, both potential customers and candidates, people that, that might come to work with us. They really have to feel in what way we are different from other companies.We have 115 shareholders, 115 colleagues who are working at Easy that have decided to invest in the company, to basically become a co-owner of the company, which is something we want to continue. The main challenge is to stay true to who we areI want every colleague. Who joins us needs to strengthen the culture we have. I want to be I want to have a company with the strongest culture possible. I want that or my dream is that That's the reason our customers have to work with us because they feel the difference It's about consistently putting our words into practice. We really need to practice what we preachI'm a father of two daughters. And it's my responsibility to raise them as the people that I want them to be, um, in this world. And in order to do that, I need to balance Easi with the time I spend with my family and doing the things that allow me to do those first things in the best way possible. So I need to make sure that I sleep enough, that I do enough sports, that I remain, uh, healthy and fit as well.I believe culture can be managed. It can it, it should be managed.I might be a CEO at Easy. Whenever I'm at home I forget the CEO part and I'm just doing whatever my girls want me to do. . Um, so I'm not very I don't have much authority at home. I basically just try to raise. I try to raise girls that I'm proud of.The way I see it, the CEO is not the most important person in the company. That is, uh, that, that's something that I'm very much convinced of.Whenever I experienced pressure, it was always pressure that I invented myself

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, we talk about entrepreneurship as a mindset and whether entrepreneurs are born or made. We talk about the transition from a functional or technical role to working with people, which every entrepreneur has to learn at one point. He shares the importance of appreciating people, self-awareness, and to have a healthy relationship with standing out from the crowd. You can find Karl at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwfeilder/https://www.karlwfeilder.com/In the interview, Karl sharesEntrepreneurs are born and not madeYou could probably make a natural entrepreneur a little bit better, but I'm not sure you can train them from scratch. My PhD thesis is that, um, entrepreneurism is an undiagnosed spectrum disorder. Uh, a little bit like autism or one of the other, um, psychological trades.My parents, uh, my mom and my stepfather, uh, in the end, took three jobs each in order to pay for me to get through school. Um, this led me to really, really want to succeed, but I think I had that natural drive.Rubbing shoulders with people that had got lots and lots of money when we didn't, made me aspire to have more than I would've normally aspired for.It's more about appreciating the people that are around you. And it's definitely about enjoying the. Um, the destination, growing a company and then selling it.The growing is where all the fun is and, uh, that's almost always about the people that you either work with as customers, as suppliers, or as your colleagues in the business. The thing about building a business is always about the people, and you're gonna need to employ some people that maybe have different skill sets from you and therefore different ways of communicating. But that still means you need them in the business, and you've gotta be able to identify your own weaknesses and recruit people that complement those.The thing about being an entrepreneur is you really got to believe in yourself. Um, in many ways being a CEO and being an entrepreneur are similar in that they're both very, very lonely jobs.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, we discuss how growth and growing hurts, and why is it important to be aware of that. He also shares the importance of staying balanced and having the support of a coach, and taking small breaks, and taking the right steps at the right moment when it comes to fast growth.You can find Gernot at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gernotschwendtner/https://www.wegrow.company/In the interview, Gernot sharesGrowing hurts. So this is something I think it's important to accept it and be aware of it. It is important to stay balanced.We did one very useful exercise for ourself. We killed the company mentally, right? So we went through that process and said, What if, you know, like what would still be left? And we discovered a lot of network know how, personal assets, experience et, et cetera. So we could easily scale. Again, that set us mentally free and gave me a lot of freedom in saying like, Okay, now let's buckle down all hands on deck.Yoga and meditation help me in a way where I can recognize my own stress level. So I become aware of it and I can try to let it go, or sometimes I need to live through it. And sometimes I had meetings where I need to get up and say, Excuse me, I really have to take a break now. And then I take, uh, five minutes, walk around the block, do the breathing, and then I come back and I say what I did, and we laugh about it.I can be like spiralling out of into the future and I'm, or around the other street corner and. I became aware in that moment of a pattern. So this is a strength but also a weakness. So what helps me is I need to have people around me who can help me keep the connection with the team and sometimes shake me and say like, Hey, Gernot um, the team needs that, has those issues, whereas I'm mentally maybe already a year or two years ahead.Fear is natural reaction, right? There are also some good things in it, um, in a way. That might make you aware of risks that you were not aware, but fear is one of the worst, uh, counselors if you make decisions based out of fear. They will never, never never be good decisions. You run away from things or you avoid things or whatsoever. What helps me is, um, is a technique that I also learned in the last couple of years is it's called shadow light on your fears or look at the monster under your bed, right when we were afraid, uh, maybe as kids that there was a monster, your bed, and then maybe our parents put the nightstand lamp and looked with you together.

This is the Can't Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations - all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.Together, we'll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadershiphttp://deployyourself.com/https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/https://deployyourself.com/newsletterhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4allhttps://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumithttps://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoachShow Noteshow often we numb ourselves down. Not to see the pain or the joy. in the person who is right next to us or in front of us. like, how often we numb ourselves to the pain and joy. of our closest friends of our Spouses. Of our. Children or parents. of our team-mates, of the people who report to us, or our own managers and bosses. And to take it a step beyond our customers. Our investors. Any other person, who is a stakeholder in what we are doing on a day-to-day basis.We busy ourselves about work about being smart about. Competing. With each other about beating each other, coming one up. About proving ourselves, right. Or proving somebody else wrong. And that we lose touch with what connects us are our hearts. and emotions Because no matter, what you're doing, the starting place is that connection. Right. The starting place of a family, the starting place of a team of an organization. Or a community. Is that connection? It is through that connection that we build a team. Not through a goal, which we set for the team. The team is created by that. Connection among people. Who can laugh and cry together. And then they can go after whatever goal they want to go. But it is our hearts and our emotions, which connect us as human beings as leaders. And we talk, we plan, we discuss, we analyze, we do all of that. We talk about diversity. We talk about inclusion, emotions, emotional. Uh, intelligence trust relationships. Mental health these days. And yet we forget that trust relationship, inclusion. Empathy. Are all matters of the heart. You cannot plan. Strategize. And analyze and create a trusting relationship. You can not build inclusion and empathy just by planning, strategizing. It is about being human. It is not about being smart. It is not about being intelligent. It is also not about being right. It is about being human. And realizing that we are already connected through our joys, our pains, our deepest desires, what we care about about most deeply. Any result, If that takes you away from being connected as individuals. Then It is going to Impact the result that you are trying to produce. I, because it is so paradoxical that we get lost in the achieving, in the doing of the work that we ignore the foundation of that work. In the first place, which is that connection that we all have, which creates teams relationships. And then even organizations. Whenever we feel whenever you feel, the pain and suffering, or even joy or celebration of somebody else. either sitting next to you or. sitting on another continent, It is a call and a reminder to your humanity. And by extension to your leadership. It is important to move forward. That is what leadership is producing results. But. Not while forgetting that. The foundation of that, of any team, any business, any relationship, any result? Is that connection that we all have; is that emotion, that empathy that we have. And in moments like these, when we are talking about a tragedyAnd this is a wonderful In this case also painful reminder. That we are all connected. Our pain and suffering. And at the same time our joys and celebrations, unites us. That is what makes us human. That is what makes a team, a relationship and organization. And by extension all results. which you have committed to producing as a leader.

This is the Can't Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations - all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.Together, we'll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadershiphttp://deployyourself.com/https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/https://deployyourself.com/newsletterhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4allhttps://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumithttps://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoachShow NotesWe have the same two choices we can. Uh, we can look down and we can be afraid of falling. Or we can look up. To where we want to go. And. Take a flight.Looking at the sky, but not taking the flight. Serves no one. It doesn't serve me. Doesn't serve those around me. Doesn't serve the companies that I'm working with.There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong about it. Uh, feeling fear. There is nothing wrong with wanting security. Uh, but at the same time, it doesn't help you get where you say that you want to go.obviously, in the physical world, we do not have wings like birds. Do. But I am talking from the context of leadership and in the leadership world. We do have wings. And perhaps we have never opened them. Perhaps we have never believed that we can fly. Another way to ask this question. If you had wings, where would you fly to? Or if I stop using metaphorical language and use more direct language I can ask you - If you could not fail. What would you do? Or if you had complete freedom, what would you do?it's not like the bird who flies doesn't have fear. And it is not like, like the entrepreneur leader who goes after the impossible, and doesn't have fear. But I don't think I have been. More fearful. Uh, I have experienced fear more this year than any other year. But at the same time, I have not stopped myself because of the fear. And that's the difference between fear and courage or the fall or flight like the flight is acknowledging that. You can fall and still. Flying still opening up your wings and flying. And it's a choice. It's a choice, what do you trust more? Do you trust gravity more or do you trust your commitment, your skill. That even if gravity wins it's okay. Like, even if you fall down, you will get back up.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Simon spoke about the importance of respecting other people’s opinions, even if they are opposing ours. We spoke about continuously learning, the art form of working with people and building relationships, and how people are always wanting to do good, look good or feel good.You can find Simon at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-godfrey/In the interview, Simon sharesI'm a serial learner. I love to learn things and read.My thirst for knowledge Is really what drives me.No two people are the same. People might dress similarly and look similar, but actually their motivations, their backgrounds, shape who they are really.People generally have three sorts of main motivators. They either want to do good, look good, or feel good about what they're doing. I take every interaction very seriously. One should always do one's homework and make sure that one understand the people you are dealing with, whether that's governmental, whether that's political, whether that's industrial or otherwise.You've gotta be likeable. I mean, you've got to, you know, genuinely show interest. You've gotta be inquisitive in your nature and you've gotta ask lots of questions that aren't deeply personal necessarily, but are informative.The evidence really matters and being authentic and then saying to people, Here's my evidence trail or my vapour trail of evidence and things I've done. So judge me on that. Don't just judge me on what we're doing here right now.I write a lot of poetry. Um, and I find it very therapeutic. I dunno, I must, I'm 200 poems some of them are brilliant in my own mind. Some of the just are slightly average, but nevertheless, they're all heartfelt and they were all written with a purpose in mind.I enjoy language immensely. Um, and I enjoy playing with the words. That makes me happy.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Andrea spoke about constantly moving across continents and how that has shaped her attitude to flexibility and adaptability. She spoke about a key moment while leading a team at Fresh Direct in which she showed up a leader in an emergency situation. We also discuss confidence, finance, creativity, and storytelling from a leadership perspective.You can find Andrea at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-fernandez-coto/https://joinvitamin.com/enIn the interview, Andrea sharesI always had like a very big interest In the world in general.I think there are many different things you pick up, uh, when you live in different countries. I think you become very flexible. Um, because, and adaptable, because you have to do it every so often. Um, I think you also, um, learn appreciation actually because you learn to appreciate like the different things in different places.because you are faced with making new friendships from start, so, You actually kind of get skills in how to understand people, in how to deal with different kinds of people, obviously languages and the ability, to communicate with people at different levels.at the end of the day, leadership is about dealing with people I'm not doing it because I think it's a fancy thing to do. or a, let's say timely thing only. It's like a trendy thing to do, rather, That's the right word to use. It is a real problem in society. there will always be doubters like, there will always be doubters on anything you do, so you might as well just find the ones that believe in it and go for those and, partner with those people.I'm a strong believer that there are new ways of managing and leading than I think the ones that I have seen used many times in my career.I'd like to refer you to a professor that I had at Harvard. Her name is Frances Frei, she uses this methodology. It's a triangle that she says that it is really critical factors in leadership if I remember them correctly. It's one authenticity two empathy and three logic and basic ability to do what you to do, to execute, to think, to put your mind, uh, and develop interesting solutions.I have seen many times when people leave companies and are very destroyed because of management styles, and leadership styles, and I think that's a pretty bad outcome for an organization. if we would measure things a little bit differently, um, then we would lead differently if you have a person come to work and being fearful, uh, scared about the reaction of the manager or the boss, uh, insecure about what he or she's bringing to the table, you may not get to listen to really great ideas that can change the outcome of a project, you may not get to experience a great team, an environment that can actually create different outcomes. So I think there's much more to be done on that side still in the world of business I think children are a great source of creativity and like really, like it almost feels, um, weird, but when you spend time with kids, I think you really. Kind of disconnect from the day-to-day and therefore kind of a new window opens up in your head.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Paulina opens up about her mental health challenges and how life has prepared her for what she does rather than any formal education. We spoke about her unusual background, and how she continues to draw lessons and inspiration from that - for herself and others. We spoke about the role meditation plays in her life, and the value of nourishing important relationships.You can find Paulina at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinatenner/https://paulinatenner.com/In the interview, Paulina sharesthe biggest challenges for me will always be related to things I care the most about, and that would be my relationships with people that love me and support me.when we talk about choosing leadership, I would kind of bring it to choosing inner or self-leadership first. How you want to show up? Is what you're doing aligned with your values? And if it is, it almost doesn't matter whether your message is heard. Two people or 200,000 because that authenticity means everything.I totally believe that if you choose to show your authenticity and in your self-readership over and over again, sooner or later the world will pay attention.I would say come back to what feels really good in your body. So when you are doing it, it feels meaningful. And after you've done it, you get this internal feeling of satisfaction and prioritize these things like taking courage enough to prioritize yourself, your desires, and your passions. Just be prepared for the fact that some people love you, some people will be neutral and some people will hate you. And that is the journey of any person that chooses to be real In the world.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Faisal shares how he himself financed coming to America at the age of 17 from Bangladesh, and the wisdom he learned from his supervisor when he was working as a janitor. He shared the health challenges of his mother and son, and how he derives meaning from what he does. He shared about travelling to Japan and being influenced by Zen meditation - and the role and relevance of meditation for today’s leaders.You can find Faisal at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/faisalhoque/https://faisalhoque.com/In the interview, Faisal sharesThe definition of entrepreneurship is at the end of the day. It's taking care of Your, financial well-being with your own venture.Life is a journey and you have ups and down, you have failures after failures, and then you have few successes, and then you have failures. So it's never like a straight line.I've always been a dreamer, but I'm pragmatic and now I prepare for the worst-case scenario with a pragmatic mindset.You connect with what's your true calling and try to make an impact. So it's evolution, and it's a journey and I, despite the ups and downs, I totally enjoy it. Experience is the best teacher.If you want to lift others first you have to lift yourself. Because of technology, today's also an opportunity to make an impact, to be able to connect with people wherever and able to really take advantage of whatever gift that you may have.You can't follow somebody else's path. It's your own unique journey. Inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.Life is somewhere in between letting it happen and making it happen. There's a fine balance.A lot of people think mindfulness is about - you meditate and completely emptying your mind and you get lost and as a result you connect with yourself. That is a method, that's a formal method of practising meditation, and then as a result you achieve mindfulness. But, since you mentioned Zen Buddhism, the monks two activities they treasure and practice repeatedly is sweeping and cleaning and cooking. The definition of mindfulness is really just focusing on the present moment.Let's not get confused that you can make things happen without systemic execution. This combination of mindfulness and being empathetic to other people's needs and where they are, combining those two things, that's the hallmark of new leadership.We have absolutely entered into a creative innovative phase of evolution where mundane work is being taken over by automation and the real value comes from creativity and innovation.The best leaders are very mindful and they're also very empathetic.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Colleen opens up and shares about her early fascination with tech and data, and how she has continued to be an innovator. She also spoke about her health challenges and what has that taught her as a leader. We speak about the importance of having hope, facing our own fears, and the importance of holding ourselves accountable.You can find Colleen at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/colleennagle/In the interview, Colleen sharesWhether it's the smallest thing in the world or the biggest objective, I think, Learning to have hope and being in that mindset of, I can do this, I see that this can be overcome is a really big part of it.I'm so grateful, certainly not for going through difficulties with health, but I'm certainly super grateful for that silver lining of what it taught me.Holding yourself accountable is so much half the battle. , Because if you continually hold yourself accountable and end up experiencing success, you're gonna associate success with holding yourself accountable.Having my ups and downs of coping and yet, still being able to go out there. And focus on achieving the overall goal. It was coming not necessarily from this place of confidence, but I was doing confidence-building things along the way that I think, with that momentum eventually added up to something.If you keep your agreement, that's one thing. But if everybody keeps their agreements now, that's the story. I think leadership isn't something with a small l it's something with a capital L and we each need to figure out what that capital L looks like for each of us. Stepping forward because leadership is not, also not something that comes with the title.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In our conversation, we spoke about how moving from Macedonia to the UK has shaped her as a leader. We talked about resilience, persistence, and the difficult choice she had to make once she moved to the UK. We speak about how people are often surprised by her determination, and how she has learned to show vulnerability as well as be open to criticism.You can find Radmila at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/radmilablazeska/In the interview, Radmila sharesEven if you are a successful person at what you did, There's always something that you can train and do a little bit better.If you have a passion, if you have ambition, don't give up on it. It doesn't matter when it's gonna pan out, it will pan out in the end.I also show that I'm vulnerable as well. I do mistakes and I honor them, and I also am open to criticism whether it's negative, positive criticism. I'm open to it.I am looking at everyone's on a level that we are all people, whether we are leaders, whether we are all working together for someone's objective.If there is a friction. You need to work on that section. Never let it go. Never let it just under the carpet because at some point in your life or your working career will come back and bite you.I guess the combination of my determination and openness to listen to other people in their opinion, I think that's the combination that makes me a good leader.And I think one of the key things is that also, even if you are in a boardroom and you're talking to your board and you know that you want to say something, but you are fearing to say that, say it's better to be said and done rather than keep it to yourself.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, David shares how he grew up with a love for Math and Physics, and how that changed once he started managing people. We spoke about mentoring and coaching, and the important role of emotions and empathy in building strong relationships. He shared an example of how playing football led to a breakthrough in conversation which was not happening otherwise, and that led to an interesting conversation.You can find David at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/david-jayatillake-9962748a/In the interview, David sharesA lot of people who go into leadership for the first time still think they need to be firing on all cylinders as an individual contributor as well. And really, once you've got a team of three or four, that's actually the minority of your time, the majority of your time is looking after your team.And then, suddenly I'm looking after a team of three or four, and I've learned to that I'm supposed to be delegating a fair amount. I think that was helpful for me.You need to be doing organizational impact work. And if that's not there, you begin to feel a bit lost.if you're not involved, you just get isolated. There's, it's very difficult.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Jami shares about the people who have impacted his journey, the importance of clarity and self-leadership, and how that allows you to move forward with purpose and courage. We spoke about his dreams and ambitions, how he deals with change, and the power of choosing to do something instead of it being an obligation.You can find Jami at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jami-kiran-7a0b1324/In the interview, Jami sharesWe have to have very good clarity. Clarity is very important and having core clarity helps us to understand who we are while we are, making choices.Leadership is part of life, it is not only related to the business layer but also to the personal layer and on the social and civic and every aspect of it.Leadership is not only from driving value, it's also about the identity and also how you advocate your ideas and how you boldly take the decisions and how you stand for yourself and for others, and how you develop and hope you double up and drive the influence, not only with your connection, with your community, but also how you support to build trust, which will act as an enabler.Multi-lateral communication is vital.Leadership need two things. One is mind and heart, but now it is heart and mind together.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.Kevin spoke about the lessons he learnt from that experience, the value of transparency and honesty, and putting people first. He shares his vision for Nostra for the next 10-15 years, while at the same time expressing gratitude to his family and everybody he works with.You can find Kevin at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kevino11http://www.nostra.ie/In the interview, Kevin sharesOur key strategy has been getting a customer, look after everything to do with it, including the supply of people, if they're required and then keeping the customer for as long as you possibly can.We very rarely lose a customer.I've learned that my wife and kids are far more important than any of those things.People's happiness comes from the people that are around them. And one of the things, that I'm blessed with is having a great family, a very supportive wife, and amazing kids who are all flying. Every business is about people and you have to get yourself in a place that you're in a good place personally. And then you can grow a business The number of times that the directors and the company had to have their salaries delayed for the following couple of years, it was very difficult, but the learning, it was, we learned. How to survive. We learned how to negotiate. We didn't lose any people during that period. And, we even had some of the internal staff saying, listen, I've got a credit card. If we need to use it to buy things, I had unbelievable support from everybody.One of the reasons our accounts were so bad was I wanted to look after the people. So at no point was I gonna let good people go that I cared about, we would carry everyone.There are lots in companies that is left unsaid and left undone. And for me, it's, if you're not enjoying leadership, there's something wrong. Go find it, figure it out, have the conversation and deal with things as they come up.We said we would get through which we did. And then we'd move on. And that's something I'm very proud of.No matter what challenge or headwind comes out at an organization, there is always a way out.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, she talks about being a women in a male-dominated tech world, and how her mother inspired her to be her own self. We discussed how knowing who you are and trusting yourself first is the key to move forward in a world where you do not feel like you fit in or understand what you are permitted to do. She gave a powerful message of not giving anybody else the permission to make you upset, stressed, or impact your mental health. I loved interviewing her, and I am sure you - the listener - will take a lot away too from this interview.You can find Nermeen at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nermenghoniem/https://helloada.ai/In the interview, Nermeen sharesI've continued to live my life from a very young age being a hybrid between I like to be involved in storytelling and impacting people's life.At the same time, I'm also very much a scientist at heart and to sit down and really nerd out the technologies. So I think I have always been balancing these two The technology world is very male dominated and I'm also currently based now in Silicon valley and it's also very male dominated.I realized that there is a really big gap in how we communicate these fields to women.I want more women in technology and especially more women in AI engineeringMore women are working and more women are taking into leadership positions. And a lot of men are welcoming to it and some are less welcoming to it. But that's part of the journey.Unapologetically, be yourself because I think confidence comes up from within. And you can strongly believe that you are being your best self and at the same time also allow room for constructive criticism.I cannot dictate what other people will say to me. I cannot dictate how people feel about me, but I can dictate how I react to it.I don't think it's worth getting personalYou can control how things affect you. You can control what you want to hear, and if it doesn't serve your purpose, if it doesn't serve your growth, it's not worth putting your energy in. We become too sensitive as the generation sometimes. And if we consider everything to be a negative message, then we will not grow.And if you trust a little bit more, I think you were able to do whatever you put your heart to. You are also much more powerful than you think you are. I think a lot of women sometimes put themselves down and don't think they're good enough for the job or good enough to get into the engineering field or good enough to start their dream.I can do whatever I want.I think people don't realize that I am a work in progress to get to this place. And there are moments where I feel insecure and where I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing, where I'm going and it's okay.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In our conversation, we talk about nature vs nurture, how we are shaped as individuals, and how growing up in an entrepreneurial family shaped him. He shared a couple of serendipitous moments which have turned out to be instrumental in his journey. We touched upon the important role of meditation in helping him stay balanced as a leader, and how his leadership style has evolved over the years.You can find Ennio at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/enniosenese/https://twitter.com/enniosnIn the interview, Ennio sharesI believe that people have to be self-supportive. But if we can't be, if they can't be self-supportive, then we as a state or as a society needs need to help those people in moving along.There are so many books about leadership. If you have read them all, the risk is that by the end, you still don't know what leadership is.Some bits of an ego you need to have in order to move on because otherwise, it becomes a very passive life, So I'm very grateful for the fact that I've been able to fail. On a couple of occasions, which gave me the opportunity to learn and to see that there are better ways to move on.I think it's about balance first thing. So that's a key word balance.In the end, you need to ask yourself, what am I doing? Is that what I'm contributing to? Is that really something that is contributing to, the better of mankind, to improve the world to have some, another type of gold than just purely commercial?Those types of existential questions. I think if people would dedicate more time without having their relatives or loved and dying around them but dedicate more time to think about those types of existential questions. I think, first of all, we would live in a better world for sure.I always recommend also to people who work with me to do a bit of a retreat for a couple of days in complete silence and just think about, the purpose of life, things that you are grateful for, things that you have experienced, lessons learned, over a period of time.I meditate but sometimes events happen. Also, unexpected events, which basically prevent you from, from staying calm because it's easy to stay calm in a very calm environment where there is no pressure, et cetera, et cetera.In the end, it's always about reflection and the ability to see how unimportant you really are. at the end.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, we speak about how starting JetRockets was not planned but accidental, and why she is running a TEAL self-managed organisation. We spoke about her views on leaders, some of the recent mistakes she had made, and her commitment to her employees was evident from how they moved their employees out of Russia because “it was the right thing to do”.You can find Natalie at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliekaminski/https://jetrockets.com/In the interview, Natalie sharesI had to take a step back and learn to delegate. And to learn to focus on working on the business, not in the business.You can accomplish a lot more by being an empathetic leader as opposed to being a demanding managerif a mistake is made, it's okay. It's a learning, it's a learning opportunity and I actually encourage my people, my employees, to go outside of their box, their thinking box, to try new things because that's what contributes to creativity and improvement over time.You have to treat your employees as children in a right and you allow your children to make mistakes, and that's how to learn to walk.I've learned a lesson never to try and address the issue immediately. So if something were to happen, you gotta take a break of a few minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or even an hour is not going to change anything dramatically in terms of your response, but it will definitely, in terms of your response time, but it'll definitely have a drastic effect and quality of your response.I want to understand what happened instead of coming to that employee and being, How could you have done this? The question is, what do you think went wrong? What could you have done differently?If they take ownership, There are two things that happen. First of all, they see that you're trying to help them grow. Second of all, they remember that lesson and it, they retain it in their mind. So the likelihood of the same issue occurring again decreases dramatically.Ultimately your goal as a leader is to build that relationship with your team so that they come to you. It has nothing to do with fear of punishment or repercussion or anything like that.We're business. We're not an army.So it's my job to serve them, to empower them to then service our clients, which in turn helps me accomplish my goal of building a, larger and more successful organization.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Tauseef opens up about the very personal loss of his mother and cousin and how that inspired him to start a company to make healthcare easier to access for people from their homes. The conviction in his voice, despite all his challenges, was very strong and decisive, and that is a lesson in the embodiment of a purpose for anybody listening.You can find Tauseef at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tauseefahmad1/https://sprintmedical.in/In the interview, Tauseef sharesWe have a great mission. And that mission Is the only fuel that we have right now. I am changing The culture and the standard of healthcare in, especially in my community. And I think I will continue to do that. No matter Capital deprived? Yes, we are. Are we worried? No, we are notMy biggest fear is if you raise venture capital dollars, okay. And five years down the line, I will. I'm sure that we will be very valuable. Okay. And there would be times when people want to acquire us. People wanted to change the direction that we are presently in right now.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, he spoke about growing up in Iran and the importance of a multicultural approach to leadership today. We talked about the role of chance and serendipity in our journeys, the new skills required when any individual contributor grows to be a manager, and the importance of balance in life.You can find Shahram at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shahrammaralani/https://www.amazon.com/Shahram-G.-Maralani/e/B08FCN8GFNIn the interview, Shahram sharesThe balance between taking the opportunities as they unfold, But also planning your career properly is quite important in shaping a successful career. You will never be a hundred per cent correct. Maybe you are only 50, 60% correct. But being able to assume how people perceive how people are seeing their own situation and what are their opportunities and challenges is quite important as an authentic leader. Culture is like the operating system of our brainOn the other hand, the operating system, which is loaded in our body, which is our culture and the way we grow up and what we experience in life shapes most of who we become as a person, as a professional, but also as a leader.But I think in, as a leader, if you want to be successful, maybe the exact opposite is the honest advice because you need to a bit dismantle yourself from the culture you belong to and analyze the situation with the different views you have. And as a leader, you need to understand that and be flexible and allow people to basically express themselves properly.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.Vinod shares in the interview how he and his wife started a coffee house in 2015 to provide a sip of happiness to every customer, and to enhance the experience around coffee. He shares how they navigated covid and are now looking to expand, and how they have leveraged technology during covid. He also talks about caring for people and building a team on a solid foundation of values.You can find Vinod at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kvinod77/https://www.vinodkumar.me/In the interview, Vinod sharesWe knew immediately that was the first opportunity that we gotta pursue it. So we put our eggs in that basket and we went forward with it.It took me five years to find the connection and when I found it, It clicked immediately because we were then able to leverage my background.Most business schools don't necessarily focus on running a small business. This is what we realized.only when you make an attempt to actually get closer to the customer, understand the customer, you understand the challenges in it and the actual value of why it is so important.We never thought we will be delivering a cup of cappuccino. Pizza is one thing. But delivering a cappuccino is a totally different problem that we never thought we'd be delivering a cappuccino, but now we do. In hindsight, everything is easy and clear, but when you're going through the process it's a mess.The second thing that motivates us is we feel like we need to take care of the people That work for us. And it's important to take care of them because quite literally, their livelihood is dependent on the business.an entrepreneur needs to be very comfortable with ambiguity. I think that's the thing. You have to be comfortable with ambiguity and you have to be comfortable with things going wrong and things not going according to plan. And you have to know what the non-negotiables are, You have to pick the right fight, cuz when things go wrong and you have to fight the circumstances, it's easy to lose energy.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Raymond shares about his journey of being 100k dollars in debt before becoming a teacher, coach, and successful businessman. He also shares that he only does what he loves to do, and spoke a bit about some of his crazy adventures - including a 350-mile foot race to the North Pole. We spoke about leadership, growth, commitment, and how to have more than 24 hours in a day.You can find Raymond at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondaaron/In the interview, Raymond sharesPeople typically underguess my age by five to 15 years, and my secret is that I do only what I love. I tried all these businesses and they all failed, and I did extremely well as a salaried employee in math and computer. But I didn't enjoy it, and so at age 39, I was a 39-year-old life loser. I was a hundred thousand dollars in debt, completely broke. My boss had just fired me. I told my wife I got fired, and she did the only thing a reasonable woman could do. She dumped me out of our marriage and I was depressed. I didn't know what to do.It just exploded because I was meant to be a teacher. And so if you want to know how it all really got started, it's the day I found out that I was supposed to be a teacher.Once you commit the resources come to you. Once you commit, the physical universe gets pushed to the side and the spiritual universe delivers to you whatever you want.You can't know what's gonna happen. You have to be able to allow chance encounters.Not only should you burn plan B and C, which I really love, I've never heard that before, but I say you should burn Plan A, and just go for it. Ready, Fire, aim.It's wonderful to have intentions because that's the fuel of the soul.If you don't have an assistant, you are one. There are always ways to have people help you.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Silvia shares how she is empowering women and couples by translating medical research into valuable information for family planning. She shares how the mission of her startup is also her personal mission, how similar leadership is to parenting, and the challenges of convincing investors as well as other stakeholders about what they are doing and why.You can find Silvia at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/silvia-hecher-b637b598/https://www.levy.health/In the interview, Silvia sharesWhen you're struggling to conceive, it's not just women who are part of the equation, but also men.Part of my life that led me here was wanting to be a mom for a long time.And you wanna have kids and then it didn't work. And I was overwhelmed by that sense of urgency, that belonging, or that desire to have a child. Was so strong all of a sudden, and then realizing that you want something badly, then not able to get it. That like really sparked something in me and gave me the energy to do something about that.There are so many hundreds and thousands of clinical studies where issues regarding fertility diagnostics and fertility therapy are discussed. Are found great results, but they're not made available to the people who really need them.Patients typically think that doctors should have all the answers. They should know everything, but that is an unrealistic expectation from my point of view. We have to empower women to make good decisions for family planning and for diagnosing fertility and addressing fertility issues.I wouldn't say that it's so niche because every sixth to seventh, a couple struggles to conceive it really depends on who, and how open your friends and family are.People just don't open up that they're doing IVF because they're embarrassed. Very few couples share fertility struggles openly, or even with their family and friends. It's impossible to know everything. When it comes to coaches the important thing is to not get a coach when everything is falling apart, but to get a coach way before and when you're doing well.many people tell you no, you can't do this. No, this can't be done. No, you're too early for this. No, you're not the right person. And I think having a coach helps you navigate all the different responses from your environment and the different expectations from customers and the expectations from your team and how you grow with that and how you struggle with that.I see a coach like a mirror on the wall, really reflecting things and pushing back things to me and giving me things to think about. And to question not as somebody who's giving me the solutions.Motherhood for me is challenging just like, for everybody, I would say it is very fulfilling. It is a lot of fun. I just love the directness and the honesty that you get from your kids.I struggle to be a mother and have a startup at the same time, I feel like I'm never doing enough on the one end and I'm never doing enough on the other. I always would like to have more time for my children more quality time. And I always have things for my startup at the end of the day.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In a very candid conversation, I don’t even want to call it an interview, Chris shares so much of his life that we normally keep hidden - not just from others but also from ourselves. He opens up and shares about his childhood, his tryst with entrepreneurship, failure, success, mental heath challenges, and what gives his life meaning. Listen to this conversation to understand who Chris is and his story. We talk about material success as well as meditation, doing more as well as doing nothing, and fear as well as courage.You can find Chris at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisfederspiel/https://blackthorn.io/In the interview, Chris sharesI ended up spending a lot of time after my parents split and got divorced when I was very depressed, just sitting at my computer and it helped me be very comfortable with computers.And I ended up finding computers to be very safe. There was nothing that could like physically or emotionally hurt me with a computer.I got diagnosed with bipolar two when I was 20 or 21.Whenever I had to do something interpersonal, I did not deal with it very well. I tended to be very abrupt or brash when talking to people like they were a computer I wasn't empathetic and I tended to type strong messagesIt was very painful. Going through therapy sucks. I don't enjoy one bit of it, but the benefits of it really helped me in my life.If anyone has a mental illness where there's like heavy anxiety, it helps to do a lot of exercises to manage that it helps to level it out.From the base of the mountain, you can see the mountain, but from the top of the mountain, you can no longer see the mountain. And the concept is about the journey. It's not about achieving the thing in the end. And there's something rewarding about the journey that I look forward to.Boys are taught to not talk about their emotions and girls are taught to shut up. And it's interesting the struggles that men and women have after getting a bit olderThe last company I co-founded, when I sold it when I sold my interest, it really hurt because this thing that I had devoted, like almost every waking hour or two for a year and a half, it was suddenly gone.And it made me realize one, one day, I want to be able to change that dynamic if I can because you hear all these things. If you had a day to live, what would you do? And if your company's gonna go away from you, what would you do? It was a big lesson I learned.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, we talk about how that led him to create a software solution to fix communication breakdowns. Brian shared how any corporate group behaves like a larger organism. We spoke about the transition from working in a company to starting your own thing, and how that requires stopping being anonymous and becoming comfortable with being in the limelight.You can find Brian at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-curtis-78842358/https://decentralizedsystems.netIn the interview, Brian sharesWhat happens is there's this slow disengagement of the employee over a long period of time.The decentralized process has more to do with the efficiency of creating better relationships than it does, even information because information only travels when the relationships are in a growth cycle.You have to put yourself out there and say, Hey, this is what I've got. This is who I am. And it's a totally different process. You become a promoter of yourself and then you're creating, new relationships constantly on the outside.We're all part of basically the same growing organism, and that organism works better when our relationships work better.COVID pulled us apart. And we saw the, I think we're seeing the after-effects of that.Unfortunately, sometimes it takes an accident before people realized how important they are to one another.A bigger group has an emotional body and a mental body just like you.Organizations are built like a tree.I don't think anybody wants to be in a state of conflict. So any system that we can put in place where. We get out of that state of conflict. All you have to do is start the growing cycle. Conflict is a negative growing cycle where you're, you're growing up apart. You just have to overcome that negative growing cycle.Nobody grows without failures. And well, what we conceive as failures actually tell us more about ourselves in order for us to keep moving forward. So I think I'm grateful for all those experiences

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to celebrate leaders for the choices they have made, which are not always easy or comfortable, and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Yasmina spoke about the power of being yourself and then demonstrated it wonderfully by being her wonderful self. We talked about thinking outside the box, connecting with people as human beings first, and her journey from her roots in Africa to working in many male-dominated industries. She shares with us the valuable lesson she learned from her dad about working for passion and not for making money.You can find Yasmina Kazitani at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmina-kazitani-mba-ms-52576bb/https://twitter.com/ferielyasminaIn the interview, Yasmina sharesWe are doing it because we love doing it. And we impress people because we are driven by our passion. So passion is, again, all about your leadership.I do not consider my teams like team members. I always keep them as a family because we grow together. We nurture together. I'm not your leader or your manager. I'm the person who's just having the job title.When we talk about leadership. It's tribal, it's really, tribal's ways of doing.Don't be nice. Be yourself because you have your ups and downs.As a leader, you can not fear being wrong or being not knowing.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Gilad talks about how he spent 25 years of his life doing M&As and realised he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his career making rich people richer. He now works to solve the biggest challenge humanity faces - climate change - through a rewards based approach. Listen to this episode as we discuss fear, ego, greed, taking responsibility without burden, seeing money as energy, and the importance of our body when it comes to leadership. You can find Gilad at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gilad-regev/In the interview, Gilad sharesThe way to scale up climate action is through changing of the economy.I started many years ago to work on my fears. I didn't want my fears to control me. And then suddenly I realized that there is another guy that controls my life and that's the ego. And. I see by the way, ego and fear as a ying-yangAnd then once you start to look at your ego, it's much easier for you to look at the mirror and say, Hey where is my responsibility?There was less and less resistance from my being for me to ask these questions. It was less and less. I could be more and more honest with myself because that ego, that small devil did not take over and reject those thoughts. And I think that really what helped a lot.Fear can be my friend, which means I'm not trying to control my fear. I also don't try to control my ego. When they're popping out, I look at them, they look at me, and I get the information from them but I'm not trying to suppress them.I physically felt that money is energy. Because when you're practising Tai Chi, you're practising on energies. I'm more in harmony with myself. Hence I'm not afraid of letting go.Maybe the best advice I can give is if any person can, from time to time, just stop all the noise. We have so much noise around. It's coming from all directions. And just try to be with oneself and try to become observant. It doesn't have to be meditation, people sometimes afraid, but just to breathe, just to turn off everything, for five minutes or for seven minutes, and maybe that's can be the starting of the process.Everything is in front of you, but because you are not stopping or you are always in that rush, you're not seeing it. And sometimes by just stopping pausing, and allowing things to settle down, you will see it for yourself.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Anshul shares how his life took a sudden turn from the world of corporates and finance when he listened to a deep inner voice and pursued the unknown path. We talk about how that path led him to many serendipitous moments - including meeting many coaches and mentors who have taught him how to listen to the deep wisdom and intelligence of our intuition and body - and the science behind it.You can find Anshul at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/anshulkamath/https://evolveinc.ioIn the interview, Anshul sharesat some point, you start to pay attention to some of the subtler signs. It's very hard to describe it, but there is just an internal feeling that feels this is not right.I know how you just tune in and listen in to yourself and understand what your body's really telling you.There are three kinds of lives people lead, which are survival, success and significance.Ever since I left. I was very clear that I'm just gonna pave my own path. And there is no set path for me in front of me.This is scientific stuff. 75% of the communication that happens is actually your body trying to tell your mind something. And only 25% is your mind actually trying to tell your body, but we only pay attention to that 25%. The answers don't come to your mind because a lot of times we will tell ourselves the stories we want to listen to in our mind.The best decisions when you are actually listening to yourself come from a place of absolute common stillness.I've always believed in authenticity. One of the defining kinds of quotes, I remember when I was when I just left shell and started this sort of unknown path and life was the privilege of a lifetime is to discover who you truly are.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Laimonas shares how he is building his 10th company, and how being bullied at school gave him the drive to succeed and prove others wrong. He also talks about family and the importance of placing people first, and how business is only a reflection of the energy of its people. He also shares how he has learned to hire people smarter than himself and not try to do everything by himself - which was limiting his growth at one point. You can find Arturs at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/laimonasnoreika/In the interview, Laimonas sharesWhile you're actually failing you're learning a lot. That's what created me as an entrepreneur,I was bullied at school and that made me a bit angry with the world. So I have to go and prove things.I really want to show that it's possible to seek success while you're smiling while you're good to people while you are helping. And don't be that douchebag businessman who is mean and really controlling things.I want to prove the other way of doing business. That it's fun. It's pleasant and it's doableBusiness is just a reflection of people and the energy people create.When I started my business, I tried to do everything myself. Like I did marketing, I did sales. I did a one-man show, but that limited my organization from growing.when you go to do business, you expect stressful situations. You expect things to change super fast. So if you expect that, so why stress then? Why would you stress? This is the normal life of the startup things change so fast. So just don't stress about it.a lot of times people sometimes think that I'm, too relaxed too optimistic, but it's just me being myselfif you want to outshine in this world, be yourself. focus on building something meaningful provide results for yourself, and your team and keep building,you can be a leader and still be yourself.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.Henny is someone who doesn’t follow the normal route in life. She lost both her parents at an early age and learnt quickly that life is too short to not make your own decisions. She wants to be happy and also create an environment where her teams can also learn, grow, and be happy at work. She acknowledges that she can be too hard on herself, and tries to let things go and find a balance.You can find Henny at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hennyhoekstra/In the interview, Henny sharesLife is too short to make decisions that you don't want to have. I also feel like no matter what happens, if I die out, I will be happy because I have the feeling that I created a positive impact on the world.If you look at leaders there they're mostly like very angry or tough people. Not exactly, always vulnerable. I do believe that people that are able to show vulnerability make sense because we're all human beings. And if, and then we connect with each other when we're trying to be vulnerable, when we try to open up with each other, we get more connected.Our emotions and our inclusion play a bigger role in our decision-making than our rational minds.it is better to also take the time for yourself. So when you're working you're doing the right things, because if you're very tired, you make bad decisions and that's not what you want to do as a leader.almost all choices are reversible. So it is worse to not choose.Always be learning. Always develop yourself. Always you can learn something from someone. Everybody can teach you something, be open to it, keep developing yourself, and they will also keep developing everything around you.

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into Focus for leaders and teams. How to stay focused and get quality work done in the age of distraction? How to train your mind to get into a state of flow without getting interrupted every now and then? In each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesLeslie - "coming back to the why and why am I doing this is really what has helped me generate more focus. "Sumit - "before we talk about focus, it's very important to identify what to focus on and not just focus for the sake of focus, but focus always for the sake of producing a result." Sumit - "we have to choose because if you try to focus on everything in a way you're not focused on anything, "Sumit - "focus is also very closely tied to being committed, being responsible for what big responsibility that you have taken on."Leslie - "not only does productivity go down because you're flipping back and forth and then you're slower. Your risk of errors is greater. "Sumit - "So if you're driving, you can keep the whole route in your mind, but you have to focus on the road in front of you. So focusing on the present moment or the today is very important. "Leslie - "You think you need to do more, but that's not necessarily how it pays off."Sumit - "Does the phone owns you or do you own the phone? So again, as you said just because you have a phone doesn't mean that you have to answer every call or you don't mean that you have to keep it on at all times."Sumit - "It's just not healthy to hear a ping sound every five seconds or every five minutes, even, it's just, or brains or bodies are not built for that. "Sumit - " It's not just about productivity. It's also about health and wellbeing, which is so much more important. "Sumit - "You're choosing at any moment. If you're in a meeting and your phone rings, you're choosing to answer that phone, right? If you're in a meeting and your boss suddenly calls you, you're choosing to answer your boss or choosing not to, but all of these are choices and we get away. We make it easier psychologically by using these like defence mechanisms or escapist language. Like I did not have a choice or I have been trying, but I have not been able to."Leslie - "There are those moments of when and what suits, your kind of biological clock. So paying attention to it is really important. And, my way of doing that is noticing it and capturing it and journaling it and then adjusting my schedule so that I can take advantage of when suits me the best."Sumit - "Multitasking is a myth. "Sumit - "the human brain is just not capable of doing two things at a time. You can do as many things as you want, but in any given moment, you can only focus on one thing."Leslie - "you can quickly see how slow you are when you're switching back and forth, as opposed to accomplishing one and then accomplishing the other task."Sumit - "focus requires energy."Leslie - "Just like your windows browsers, and you have too many tabs open, I have too many tabs open in my brain and I need to shut them down so that I can focus."Sumit - " we can hold only five to seven things in our short-term memory at a time."Sumit - "If you take a bike and load it with so much stuff that it can't move, that's not the problem of the bike."Leslie - " I've now gone back to, headphones free and just enjoy the sight and sounds of nature."Sumit - "there is also that notion associated that if I take time for myself then to feel guilty about that, that's wrong or that's selfish. But again, coming back to the metaphor of you always putting your own oxygen mask first, and in fact, that is necessary."As quoted by Edgar Schein in his book Humble Inquiry, an humble inquiry is recognizing that insights most often come from conversations and relationships in which we have learned to listen to each other and have learned to respond appropriately, to make joint sense out of our shared context, rather than arguing with each other into submission.

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into how to prioritise the long-term and short-term as a leader. How to find the critical balance in business as leaders - where we are responsible for short-term metrics - and yet also for the long-term growth and sustainability of our business? In each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesSumit - "we all agree on this is a big problem but we still can't agree on what to do because the structures of the world we live in is still derived or run by a lot of short-term thinking"Leslie - " it's really, what is that most important thing of where we're going? So that then as a leader, you can help decide for your team, how. Support the organization in getting there. I think the first is to have courage and ask specific questions to get that direction. "Sumit - " if you realize something is missing from a long-term point of view, The way to do it is not to do it alone, but to build a consensus so that the team or the company can do it as a group, as a unit."Leslie - "Having the courage to ask, and then when you get the answer of the direction, ensuring that's something that you feel passionate about and is the right thing to do, and you want to do it so that you can convey that to your team."Leslie - "To step into that space and maybe not know how we're gonna get there. But this is where we know we should be going."Sumit - "it shouldn't become a match like somebody needs to win and somebody needs to lose. It needs to become a partnership. It needs to become a team effort."Sumit - "it's very important to measure numbers in the short term, but not to see those numbers going up and down as a direct measure of the performance of your people, of your teams. Because then there is a lot of hidden elements."Sumit - "What if you like hit your numbers, but destroy your reputation in the market, in the industry. So there's a lot of things which you cannot measure like trust. What if you like, you certainly go through a downturn. And to save cost in the short term you do a round of layoffs, but it destroys the culture and the trust in the organization."Sumit - "If leaders who want to focus on the short term will not get followers, they will automatically have to change."Leslie - "It requires courage and trust in self to know what is right for you."Sumit - "Nothing stops you from sending an email to the CEO or sending an email to, to your high people, higher up in your hierarchy or to or to find them somewhere and to engage them in a conversation."Sumit - "There are many places that you can find help if you go looking for it."Sumit - "That's the definition of courage, right? Courage is not about giving up at the first disappointment, but courage is about trusting that this is important and then moving forward, no matter how slow or fast the progress is."Asquoted by Edgar Schein in his book Humble Inquiry, an humble inquiry is recognizing that insights most often come from conversations and relationships in which we have learned to listen to each other and have learned to respond appropriately, to make joint sense out of our shared context, rather than arguing with each other into submission.

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into how to keep oneself motivated as a leader. If we are not motivated ourselves, it shows its impact on everything we do and every responsibility we have. Leadership starts with finding and staying connected with our own motivation first.In each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesSumit - "if we get our body moving, it lifts our moods, it lifts our spirits."Leslie - "my personal practice is sitting with coffee and enjoying a bit of cosy time and journaling, and that helps me reflect on yesterday and set the intention for what today is."Sumit - "another practice which works very well for me is to just highlight three or four areas where I want to complete something today"Sumit - "anybody can build a new practice, even if that is uncomfortable for them."Sumit - "motivation is it's it's connecting to that fire, which is within you and then giving it a little bit of air so that it becomes like a flame"Sumit - "You don't have to do anything as an obligation. Because that's, again, going against motivation, right? Motivation is when you are free to choose and do something."Leslie - "Some other ways are just taking that time to pause and maybe asking for help, as a leader that could be. An opportunity, not only for yourself but the team as well ask for help. "Sumit - "sitting in silence or sometimes taking a break allows all of those matters, which we deeply care about, but we don't really address because we are so busy, just having that moment of peace allows them to come up and then we can listen to them and actually put it into our actions and practices."Leslie - "going for a walking meeting together is a great way to combine a lot of what we've talked about when it comes to finding that motivation"Sumit - "I think an overcrowded mind sometimes can stop us from being motivated. And once we empty our mind, either through reflection or through journaling, it allows us to touch those deep levels of feelings, which actually is motivation. Motivation is not a thought process. It's not something you can reason yourself into it. It's a feeling that you already have. But sometimes the mind is so cluttered that you get lost or you'd lost touch with it"Leslie - "it is different for everyone and the leader can't take sole responsibility for motivating each person on the team. It's each of the individual's responsibility to find that too, but there is value in communicating what motivates."Sumit - "there is no such thing as a motivated or a demotivated person. There are only moments in which you are motivated and demotivated. And then every moment is a new opportunity,"Sumit - "every moment is basically telling you that if you're demotivated, that something is missing, either you need to say no to something, or you need to do something differently that you can make the experience fun"Sumit - "Motivation is not something which you can design or control. You can only create the conditions for motivation to happen, but not really directly motivate somebody. You can direct somebody or force somebody to be motivated."Leslie - "One of my suggestions, which I got from another organization was let someone from the team lead, let them bring a topic, let them change the format. So again, creating that space and really injecting some air back into it, to give motivation and really the opportunity for that motivation all over again, as a team."Sumit - "if you don't take a shower, that doesn't mean that you're a bad person or something is wrong. You just take a shower, if you wash your hands and they become dirty again, you simply wash your hands again. Similarly with motivation, right? If you're not motivated or if you don't feel that energy, it's not like something is wrong or something is missing. You just shift. Connect with something and then you're motivated again."As quoted by Edgar Schein in his book Humble Inquiry, an humble inquiry is recognizing that insights most often come from conversations and relationships in which we have learned to listen to each other and have learned to respond appropriately, to make joint sense out of our shared context, rather than arguing with each other into submission.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Arturs shares his vision for the future and how he plans to take his company from 15 to 50 people. He is a leader who is not afraid to get his hands dirty and he is ready to do any job in his company. He has no false pride of being a CEO, and yet, at the same time, takes time to step way from the day-to-day to focus on the long-term strategy for his company, and then supporting his team to execute on that.You can find Arturs at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/aburnins/https://atommobility.com/In the interview, Arturs sharesI always wanted to do things my way. And do the things that I believe it's the right thing to do.Nothing happens in weeks or months. it usually takes years. Or at least half a year to see some initial result. You need to work hard and at least for some time you need to work on idea on a project before you see any reasonable results.Energy is a limited resource. You cannot utilize your energy forever without any recharge. you sometimes to recharge your battery to get new energy and new ideas.The thing that's helped me probably the most, I think it's doing sports. I personally play football. During this one to hour session with the team, you physically cannot think about the business. You cannot think about the problems you just focus on the ball on the team, on the situation on the field. So basically the moment when you basically recharge your mind.That's probably challenge number one. How do we keep everything on the same page? When we have 15 people versus when we have 50 people in a team. So how you communicate, how you make a decision. So that's one of the challenges to making it very transparent. And not over-micromanage everybody to achieve that.I feel comfortable doing any work which is good for the company. Some people think that okay, the CEO should only basically lead or show the vision and don't do some not CEO stuff. In my opinion, like as far as it's a company if it helps. I can do any part of the job as far as it helps

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Bhav shares not just his leadership style but also the madman part of him. He talks about the incredible role luck plays in our journeys, and how he uses drawing to bring a deep focus to his work - and how that helps him stay balanced as a leader.You can find Bhav at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dodonerdIn the interview, Bhav sharesI've always put a lot of my journey down to luck. Like just having been at the right place at the right time with the right manager who was able to guide me into the role.I certainly try to think about decisions I make that impact the company that impacts the team. Just like the bigger picture, as opposed to always just focusing on the team.I talk about this with my team constantly when we have career development conversations generally. What gives you energy? Like, what is it that gets you up? What do you enjoy? Energy is like a balance. There's gonna be things that give you energy and things that drain you on an adventure. A large part of like my early influence has always been maths, science, and believe it or not, art. I feel like between those three subjects, you kind of get to see the world with different lenses. So from the math and science perspective, you get to see the world from a very quantitative matter-of-fact, point of view, then from art, you kind of have this very abstract interpretation of what things mean and how people interpret them.Everyone's different. And people react to situations very differently.I like to paint and draw when I'm not working. Obviously I've got two kids, which means that my free time is limited and precious. Sitting down and painting or drawing helps me take my mind off things and just focus on being in the moment.When I focus, I can, I'll put myself into almost a meditative state where it's nothing but the problem I'm working on.I'll split my week between like being really close to the problems and what my team working on, but also then taking a huge step back to actually, are we as a team heading on the right track?If you don't want to be misinterpreted or you want to get to some outcome. You have to recognize who you're speaking to. Adopt and adapt the way you talk to their style.If you adopt the right style for your audience. You at least minimize the risk of something being lost in translation. I think there is this distinct lack of training in all organizations, even in education, which prepares people for these non-technical skills. That's also critical as you progress into leadership positions. We communicate in so many different ways that people sometimes forget.If I'm being completely honest. I don't know what the answer is, what the future holds.I use the expression we're so focused on the gravestone. We forget the graveyard.It's easy to be a good leader when things are looking great. It's only when you know, you're staring down the barrel of a gun and you have to make like big decisions and know, you have to prioritize ruthlessly and you have to, you're going to disappoint people that actually your skills as a leader and your authenticity and your concept communications, they really started to show themselves in you your true character is revealed.I've said it before and I'll say again, I think people often forget. Yes, of course you've earned your right to be, uh in a position of leadership, but there's an incredible amount of luck for every person who makes it into a management position, probably like 10X who don't.It took me a while to recognize that I can't solve every problem. I can't, I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to be the advocate. I'm supposed to have the hard conversations when I need to. I need to motivate them when I need to. I need to praise them. All of the skills that got me into this position are not going to be the skillset that will make me successful moving forward.I think having a network of peers, people who are at the same level as you don't have to be in your discipline, Talking to them, understanding what the challenges are, reaching out to people, and understanding what you need to develop a service mindset sooner. It's going to be super helpful.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In this interview, which is one of the longest ones I have done because both of us were having so much fun, Bart talks about his goal to offer meaningful and fun work to a thousand people. We also talk about the value of stopping and celebrating and what all happens under the surface of spoken words when it comes to people, conversations, and leadership. You do not want to miss listening to this one.You can find Bart at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/snijdersbart/https://twitter.com/Bart_SnijdersIn the interview, Bart sharesA big part of my life is my family. So it's definitely worth mentioning. And, uh, yeah, there's no book words written how to raise a kid.I try to create like a unique company culture and create a legacy with it can inspire other companies as well, how we work together.I believe that people can do everything if they want it bad enough.We don't really judge on what you can do at this point, but we look at people at the potential. Like the learning capacity, how fast can they learn something? How willing are they to go the next mile and, and to really push towards the result? And I think that's failure is a big part of our culture here. I am nothing more than anyone else here. It doesn't matter if you're like, if you have a hundred million or not, if you have super smart, super, pretty like rural people. And I think that's the base of the culture here under leadership, uh, how we try to do it and try to help each other.I want to offer a thousand people meaningful and fun work. 'cause I think for a lot of people, work is something you need to do to get paid for. And I really believe that it should be a lot of fun and it should be meaningful.Psychological safety is one of the most important things for high-performance teams.I don't offer people work, but offer people meaning. I give them the opportunity to do meaningful work and contribute like, if you look back in 10 years or 20 years, and even like at the end of your life, you can look back and say, Hey, you know, this is what I left behind. This is how I changed the world a bit. Most people in my team understand that having fun and meaningful work is way more important than having a high salary.You can never put revenue in front of mental or like even physical health in any way.I think we're the top 50 fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands. And, uh, this is something that we can really be proud of. So I'm really thankful.I try to be a good example. So to my teams, uh, I tried to walk in the office like at a different time. Just to, to, to show them that you don't have to be at nine, like nine to five now, please. Now. And I go to the gym in the middle of the day to show them, and I try not to send slack messages in a weekend or evenings, but to give you the example as well, and, and to, to have that flexibility and to, to be in control of your own life.Working for 14 hours straight - that's the stupidest thing you can do.I think in general, like if you can do six hours really productive work a day, and I think you're very busy and then you can do some like email stuff around it. Please like go to the gym and then work because you will be way more effective and. Yeah, which I do try to support that in older, all the way we can similar as mental health.Life is - you cannot, you can never put a filter on everything. I thought it was also stuff that you need to deal with. And people that say that they don't have any issue. Like. They're lying because everybody has their own sort of shit.I think being a, being a parent is kind of very related to being a leader. because it helps you, first of all, focus on something bigger than yourself. It helps you focus on long term rather than just thinking of short term, uh, many times the way children deal with things. It teaches you a lot.If you really look at communication, then words might be the least important thing. You can feel so many different things when you communicate and when you're leading. And I'm very aware of that energy that I bring.Recently I went to a colleague and, and when I was at a desk, she starts crying and I just, I, I saw it. I felt that I needed to be there, but in the past I would never have been capable of doing this because I was not aware of, uh, I was just listening to words, looking at people.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In our interview, Sandeep talks about his career as a series of base-camps on the way to the summit. He spoke about his learnings from his father, shared his views on leadership - and how leadership all starts with being authentic. He also gave some advice on trust, building relationships, and putting down the weight or burden we unnecessarily put on your shoulders - as a leader. Those who are listening, this is going to be an inspirational listen for you.You can find Sandeep at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeepbsharmaIn the interview, Sandeep sharesYou believe in people they believe in you and that's when great things happen. And that's when trust builds.People recognize me for my smile and I keep smiling, even during the toughest of my days.A lot of times in leadership, people say that to hide their emotions, they need to read a mask. And I don't think so. Those times are there right now. Post the pandemic, you need to be authentic, you need to be truthful.I've always, probably been in the background, not confident about myself. To now be in the foreground um, is been conscious of not being it's taken a lot of hard work and effort work.When people are able to express themselves, that is a validation of a leader. I think that's what we need to be. You just be what you are. I don't think so. You need to fake it. Because people will see it if you fake it.Fundamentally, if you do three things that 1) give people clarity, 2) enable them to do the job and 3) keep motivating them, you will be successful in anything which you do. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. I'm happy at the end of the day when you yourself are happy and the people we're supporting are happy. Nobody's perfect in this world actually its imperfections are what makes us so human beings.What got you here will not get you there. we had to shed some weight because when the oxygen would be less, the lighter you are, the better you walk.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Thomas opens up about realising how he was living a life that was not what he really wanted. We talk about the importance of focusing on yourself first, and the importance of happiness, friendships, experiences, and relationships. He shares the wisdom of doing nothing, and the important role sports and exercise play in his life. In addition to leading his company, he climbs mountains, does kickboxing, races cycles, and has plans to make a movie. He knows he is more than what he does and doesn’t let work define him.You can find Thomas at the below linkshttps://twitter.com/thomasvleshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasvles/In the interview, Thomas sharesI realized about myself that I was living a life that was actually the life that I thought I wanted, but not the life I really wanted.Later on I realized that's actually it's more important to also focus on yourself. Having the quality of life, happiness, friendships, relationships, experience and yeah, that, that sort of you have changed the whole ambitions that I had.If you ask people, then they would probably describe me as being very ambitious, but for me, work is lower on the priority list I think it's very important to live your life like that you take, most of life gives you, and I think that's the responsibility to everybody, as you can not change what happens to a person, but you can still change the way you respond to things that happen.In the weekend, I really try to focus on not working. I tried to keep the weekend really private.My team gives me a lot of energy. everybody takes ownership. Everybody feels as if you're on a mission and that's, I think very special.I believe that every person is interesting and has a story, so I always am keen to hear about that.I'm currently here and enjoying it, so there's no need for me to really look ahead in life.I really enjoy doing something for the first time. I try to put myself in places where I can really take everything out of myself and full myself and grow a lotHe basically helped me out in a very difficult period of my life by sharing with me his wisdom about doing nothing and letting everything go for a while in order to to find what you need to do. that advice is advice that actually led to where I am today.I think it's going to sound very egoistic, but let's say this, the first thing you need to worry about is yourself. If you are not in touch with yourself, then how can you love work? People would describe me as being super ambitious. So it's, I think it's about seeing the relevance in it and also not letting things define you. Like it doesn't make me a better person to have a great job, but it does put me in a position where I can have an impact on leadership.I think gratitude is key in life, for sure. I'm really grateful for the people around me for the blessings because I'm very privileged in life. And also I was lucky sometimes. But mainly also about let's say how amazing I'm healthy. I have a beautiful wife and a good life. Everything is really good. I do think that if you can create an environment in your office where you have the feeling that you were friends with everybody and it's a fun experience for everybody. And I think that's very important also for your success as a company. You need to be basically naive enough to believe in your own dreams. And then really go for it.If you have a product start selling it before you have it and see if people like it.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Prakash opens up about his early childhood filled with struggles, and how he had no choice but to succeed. He shares how he created a life for himself through hard work and never giving up, and how he started his own company to give back to others like him. We talk about leadership and responsibility, and he surprises me by sharing that he feels no pressure as a leader because everyone in his team takes equal responsibility. His leadership style, in his own words, is “people come first, everything else follows”.You can find Prakash at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/prakash-palani-68067620/https://www.basiscloudsolutions.com/In the interview, Prakash sharesWhen I was a kid, my father was a rickshaw man, so that's how I had my school days and so on. So I quit the schooling and the age of 17, I think, after, right after the 12th grade in India and I started working.If you take a look at our company, we'll see a lot of ESE graduates become graduates, diploma graduates, and not necessarily from the city, the major cities they come from. Various backgrounds, basically rural areas. They don't speak English. If you go to marriage halls, you'll see people serving you and making food. So that was my first job.I used to go to all the interviews, but I was rejected because I could not speak English.I did not have a choice. I had to fight hardWe have an employee-first policy. So we have a belief that if you take care of your employees, Then they will take care of your customerOur first customer is still our customerPeople ask me, what is your leadership style? My leadership style is basically, that people come first, and everything else follows.Three things I do carefully is to eat, sleep and do some exercise. These are the three things. Everything else is work.We have a partner here, they came to our partnership only because we take care of people. They really value what we are doing for the people because they are also a people-driven company.we have people, for example, one was running a pawn shop. Today he is a software engineer who's really doing a fantastic job for us. It's not just, that we start a company and you deviate from your purpose. We are very strong in our purpose. We have also ensured that purpose has been transitioned into the people. Because I alone cannot do this. My next level alone cannot do this alone. This purpose goes into the roots of people.My responsibility - It's not totally on my shoulder. So here the culture, like when I say people-first culture, we also don't go there and do micromanagement.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Theo shares how he has been exposed to a very multi-cultural environment ever since he was a child. We talk about the importance of building a great organisation instead of just building a great product, and the difference between urgent and important things. We talk about transparency, courage, and loneliness as a leader; and how perfectionism is not a scalable strategy, and the value of thinking long-term.You can find Theo at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/theorozen/https://www.d2x.com/In the interview, Theo sharesSo moving around is not something I decided myself. It was mainly driven by my parents back in the day. But I think I'm quite grateful for all of these experiences because I got to see quite a lot of different environments. So I was always exposed to a very multicultural environment.I would say more than particular events, it was more the people that I met. So I've been surrounded, I think by entrepreneurs which came in all sorts of well different kinds. Some had this entrepreneurial mindset but we're effectively building new businesses as part of a larger organization. Some were really starting their own businesses and that was really an, in very different industries. I have three siblings. Two of them are also entrepreneurs. So I think maybe there's something and then the upbringing as well. I think it always gave me lots of adrenaline in a good way in the sense that was always super excited to wake up in the morning and catch up with everything that was going onIt's one thing to build a great exchange or a great product in general, but it's something completely different to build a great organization around it.As an early stage company CEO there's a lot of urgent things, but it's important to still find the time to work on the important things.We spend a lot of time thinking about how we want to structure the organization, how we want to structure the dynamic between people. I consider myself very lucky and I'm very grateful to be working with people who I also really look up to in terms of their expertise, skillset and in a way we're also very much like-minded.We like to foster an environment where basically it doesn't matter whether you're a founder or an intern, but we need the best arguments should win in a debate and that's how decisions are made. I've never learned as much in such a short amount of time because as a founder, as a CEO you basically have to do everything. So I find myself doing things that I never thought I would ever have to even think about. But that's actually the part that I enjoyed the most coming from a mathematical slash finance background. I never thought I would have to deal with HR matters, which I now found extremely interesting, for example, again, that comes back to concept of building an organization.I try to surround myself with people who can and are willing to give me advice. So that can come in the form of advisors to the company. It's also our investors. So we raised two funding rounds and I have these bi-weekly calls with them that are that take the form of a sort of feedback session, but we're basically, I'm mostly able to express my challenges and hear their take on it because they also have a different perspective.I'm a big believer in transparency and that's also, again, an environment we try to foster here at D2X.A lot of courage is needed and I do have to get out of my comfort zone. But I wouldn't have it any other way.While it does get lonely sometimes I still feel that as an organization we're really in this together. And I try not to be a leader who just dictates what people should do. I really try to empower people as much as possible. I think that's probably something a lot of CEOs would say, I'm not sure if we all do but at least it's really one of my guiding principles.With giving freedom comes the responsibility of letting people make their mistakesI think especially as a, as an organization when you're growing fast if you basically decide to micromanage. It's not going to be a good outcome in most situations just because it's not possible.I personally had my fair share of challenges when it comes to delegating tasks. I'm a bit of a perfectionist in certain things and I think I used to be a bit of a control freak in certain ways. but I've been working a lot on that. I think it's not a scalable strategy. So the sooner you realize that the better off you are. What really made the difference was surrounding myself with people that I could trust.Instead of basically surrounding myself with lots of people, I would rather surround myself with a s

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into the performance and value of teams - which is the second of two episodes we are recording on teams. Nobody is paid for doing more or working hard. People are paid for producing results that matter.In each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesLeslie - "What makes up trust and why is that so special in a team and looking at it from the four components of sincerity, reliability, competence, and care and that, it's not my language, it's from the thin book of trust"Sumit - "a caveat with any request is that people have the like people should have the permission to say no. Because if people can say no then you cannot trust any yes."Leslie - "in order to have trust, I feel like you have to be vulnerable."Sumit - " if people do not feel there is enough space for them to be open either with their emotions, with their ideas or , just what is happening in their physical body, it will impact performance "Sumit - "most of what we call us trust or psychological, emotional safety is created not by doing something extra, but by stepping back and giving space for silence. Like that uncomfortable silence, which allows the safety and space to emerge. "Leslie - "another thing that I've become so aware of in that is the value of actually declaring that there's been a breakdown, whether that's been a breakdown in communication or process procedure, or even a breakdown in the team."Sumit - "I think we all know what is not working or what is wrong or what will create a breakdown in results in the future. But we do not have that openness of, we do not feel free to talk about it. And that's the value of declaring a breakdown."Sumit - "slowing down sometimes can actually allow us to work on these foundational elements, which makes everything else much more easier and much more productive."Leslie - "slow down to either speed up or slow down to be more successful, whichever way you want to look at it. Really. Has some power behind it. "Sumit - "The foundational elements are not just meant to be understood as concepts like checking tick boxes. they are meant to be embodied in the team leader, but also then everybody else in the team, which will make any misalignment or any lack of clarity in that embodiment, very visible for people."Sumit - "it's also the commitment to not just doing more producing more results, but it's also the commitment to the purpose, to the standards, to the values and to the ways of behavior that the team has set. "Sumit - "Every team has a customer and are we really taking care of their concerns and producing value and sometimes doing more or being busy is not directly correlated to that."Leslie - "our work fills the time we have available"Sumit - "I have seen people being very relaxed, very calm, not busy, and still producing more than what they were doing earlier"Leslie - "You're not going to have a great day every day. So the other option is sharing that too. Look team. I know today I may be a little off my apologies for that."Sumit - "If people don't have the context and they cannot suggest a better idea or they cannot suggest if something is totally not aligned with the long-term vision, the long-term purpose of the company team, or of the customer."Leslie - "Your culture is almost like the secret sauce of your organization. Words, actions, behaviors, and you're clarifying and reinforcing, what's truly valued in an organization."Sumit - " the specifics of what is expected from whom to whom by when and for what reasons - is very important in every request."Leslie - " continuous learning helps the team and individuals in general also helps the organizations retain their people because they know that they're being invested in their own growth and development."Sumit - "as leaders, it's very important to be conscious of. What mood am I creating in my team? And is my language, is my tone of voice, is my physical posture, reflecting that accurately or not?"Sumit - "if you notice two, two different companies with two different cultures, what you will see is very different conversations happening. once you identify what are the conversations, which create a particular culture, then the access to you is to shift those conversations. "Leslie - "And your culture is never going to be all things to all people. It shouldn't. Your culture should be unique to your organization and to what you want it to be, what you want to create, and the people that align with that will want to be part of it. "Sumit - "You cannot plan or enforce a culture. A culture is like something which is out o

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into the foundations of teams - which is the first of 2 episodes we are recording on teams. All work gets done in teams, so it is very important that we spend enough time ensuring we have a "team" before talking about performance.In each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesLeslie - "we need a team so that we can have all those different components working together towards that common goal or purpose."Sumit - "we need teams because we cannot do everything alone."Sumit - " if everybody in a company in an organization is moving in one direction as a team, Then that company will leave everybody behind irrespective of the market, irrespective of the product, irrespective of the economic situation."Sumit - "what makes a team is a set of conversations, not just a hierarchical relationship, are not just something on paper"Leslie - "Sometimes it's qualified as like the fluffy extra stuff. Instead of seeing it as the essential foundation to lead to success."Sumit - "Almost everybody I talked to has this reflection that they know that what they do is not all productive, that there is wastage there, that they are working on things which don't matter."Sumit - " if you can get the conversations, right. what I have seen is that you can produce more value. You can get more done, like not done as in time spent or tasks completed, but more done for the actual stakeholders for the team in less amount of time."Leslie - "When you're in any team, you need to know who you're serving, what does that look like?"Sumit - "a team exists, not in a vacuum. But to serve somebody either it could be an external customer of our company, but it could also be internal stakeholders"Leslie - "conflict or any sort of bump in the road, is inevitable. We're not all perfect. What keeps a team is that if something does happen where someone is not aligned, or they have done something to hurt the team or an individual that it's addressed and held accountable so that you can return to that state of alignment "Sumit - "when these foundational alignments are not in place, what happens is it results in gossip? It results in disengagement. People get disconnected. People know what is wrong, but they don't speak about it. And people know where the team is faltering, but they don't bring it up."Leslie - "it reminded me of a quote and it's from Julio Olalla. And any problem in an organization or relationship is directly related to a conversation not being held or one being held poorly."Sumit - "Everybody should be committed. And somebody, if somebody is not committed, then the team leader needs to have those conversations to get that commitment."Leslie - "if you're resisting communication for fear or blame, or that you're going to ruffle some feathers, it's likely that not having that conversation is going to cause more harm than actually having the conversation."Sumit - "The commitment and the choice part is very important because you cannot force people to be a part of a team. "Sumit - "what happens when you create a team with all superstars, it creates entitlement. It creates competition because now everybody wants to one-up the other person."Sumit - "this is a huge blind spot. that we see responsibility as a burden, taking responsibility as taking the blame for what goes wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth. responsibility is it's like a privilege. It's like a choice,"Leslie - "If you, as a team member are seeing something not going right with someone else in the team, it's not blame it is responsibility, but it's out of care of wanting the team. To succeed and do better. So sharing that is important and it is a caring act as opposed to one of blame"Sumit - "this foundation level is where everything else becomes easier. without the foundation, everything else becomes harder. "As quoted by Edgar Schein in his book Humble Inquiry, an humble inquiry is recognizing that insights most often come from conversations and relationships in which we have learned to listen to each other and have learned to respond appropriately, to make joint sense out of our shared context, rather than arguing with each other into submission.

This is the Humble Inquiries series. In this episode, Leslie joins me as my co-host to humbly inquire into overwhelm - the feeling of too much to do and too little time - which is a very timely one as we find ourselves in new ways of working. Co-hosted with Leslie Wireback on the Choosing Leadership podcastIn each episode of Humble Inquiries, we are deliberately going to put ourselves in the uncomfortable space of not knowing the answer and humbly inquiring about these challenges - with the aim to provoke new thoughts, actions, and practices - to help us better serve our coaching clients, and also to help the leader in you navigate the biggest challenges - at life and at work.Show NotesSumit - "we see doing more as a badge of honour. we feel that if we are not doing more, if you're not doing more than our peers, then that's somehow a weakness or a sign of not being a good professional."Sumit - "overwhelm and having this sense of too much to do is basically an invitation to ask better questions"Leslie - "What do you care about? What are your priorities, really stepping back and looking at that whole big picture and making adjustments - not just once but regularly"Sumit - "What I've found is that I do not have time is always a lie. I think a better, more accurate representation, would be that this is not my priority. "Sumit - "I do not have time is never the whole truth. There is something deeper beyond that. "Leslie - "I fell in the trap of my work hours needed to be eight to four, eight to five something typical, whereas that doesn't necessarily work well or serve me well each and every day"Sumit - "the first element of really asking ourselves what is the cost of operating this way? And is that okay with me? And if that's okay with you, then yes, wonderful. Continue on that journey. But if you identify that something is missing and that is not okay. Then the question is staring in your face."Leslie - "saying no feels rude. And so then I don't want to say no, I care too much. And I want to help people and saying no is going to disappoint them. Whereas., if I don't say no, I may be disappointing myself or someone else because of I'm creating a conflict and an inability to manage all that I have to do."Sumit - "No, is the most powerful word. And also one which most people find it difficult to speak."Sumit - "A NO doesn't mean that you are rude doesn't mean that you are polite. Doesn't mean that you're hardworking doesn't mean that you're not hardworking. It doesn't mean anything unless you make it mean, meaning something. So a no is a simple word. No is a full sentence in itself. "Leslie - "it might take the leader being vulnerable and saying I can't get it all done. I need help. And that. Your team might finally say, thank you for admitting this, that as a team, they're all drowning too."Sumit - "It's only about managing your priorities and then your energy"Sumit - "To realize that everybody has 24 hours, no matter what they do, whether I am an employee as an individual contributor, whether I am a manager of whether I am a president of a country, everybody has 24 hours, not a second more, not a second less for me, realizing that is a very empowering and liberating feeling."Sumit - "is it that my time owns me? What is it that I own my time? I do. I get to choose what, and where I spend my time because everybody has 24 hours. The only question. How are you prioritizing? What are you saying? Yes. To what are you saying No to"Leslie - "as a leader, do you look at the gifts of the individuals on your team and kind of reshuffle responsibilities?"Leslie - "the stories you tell yourself on the assessment you're making of, I'm not good at my time management or I'm not good at saying no, all of that, questioning it and changing it to have a different perception"Sumit - " every courageous act is a vulnerable act as well."As quoted by Edgar Schein in his book Humble Inquiry, an humble inquiry is recognizing that insights most often come from conversations and relationships in which we have learned to listen to each other and have learned to respond appropriately, to make joint sense out of our shared context, rather than arguing with each other into submission.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Lars shares how he has built his company around the values of transparency and learning. He shared what he learned from working for others - and how that shaped his unique way of doing business. He encourages everyone to come up with suggestions and new ideas as long as people back them up with facts. He shares how openly talking about his values allows him to attract the right kind of employees and clients. He vulnerably opens up about his fears and challenges and yet how he feels in gratitude for the impact he is having on others’ lives through his work. You can find Lars at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/larsmaat/https://www.maatwerkonline.nl/In the interview, Lars sharesWe combined the businesses in 2018. At that point, we had six people and here we are four years later we grew from 6 to 30. The first thing that I wanted in the company is complete transparency. All of us staff at the moment know what they are earning, know what the colleagues are earning. They know how much we ask for our clients, how many hours that I was at work that, that represents and same applies to the clients.In our company, everybody has an opinion. Everybody can come up with improvements or with their reasoning. How they are thinking we basically have one rule and that is okay. You can say everything you want, but you need to back it up with arguments or facts. And whether it's senior staff or union or trainee or intern, as long as they came up with some good ideas, they can back them up with facts or arguments. We as management or we as a company, owners are willing to listen to that.Our core values are something that really separates us from a lot of other companies. So it helps us to generate not only clients but also the clients that are thinking the same way as we are which results in. the same applies for getting the right people on the job.My role has completely changed because I'm not working for clients anymore. I'm there for my staff and I need to help them as soon as they have some problems or as soon as our clients have one of the problems with the work that we are delivering. Some of the jobs that we are having at this moment, may be gone in, in one or two years or maybe even faster (due to artificial intelligence). We need to make sure that everybody knows what is going on and how do you keep up with that and how to cope with that, to just make sure that everybody keeps, it keeps a job and we still have our clients and have value for our clients. Everybody in the company has an unlimited study budget, which basically means if you want to go to a seminar and events follow a course, read a book or anything you can just go. We will pay for that. This basically means that I've got some colleagues who spent like 30 euros a year on developing while their neighbour is spending like 5,000 euros a year for also developing. And I think that's really important because as long as everybody is developing their skills, they will get smarter and better, and it will result in better work for our clients. And it results for a better name for our company. Let's be honest, as soon as you, as a person stop developing then how do you go forward in life?One of the things that most people will not know is the fact that in the beginning, I was really scared to do these kinds of talks. And everybody was like how can you do that? But now when, once you've done it, a couple of times, you're not nervous anymore.The fact that we are able to make an impact on the lives of others. That is the thing that we are most grateful for.