Latest / King Dems Podcast | Growth Mindset, Leadership, AI and Business Insights / CQ Leadership Method for Tech Leaders: Mindset, Skillset & Toolset Strategies
Transcript
- 0:00Do you create environments or how do you help leaders foster
- 0:04environments where teams are thriving to the point where you
- 0:10know it's reducing turnover and increasing productivity at the
- 0:14same time? Because like you said earlier,
- 0:16when we're building teams, it's not necessarily productive to
- 0:20have all rock stars or all, you know, that one type of person.
- 0:24We are structuring our teams to be a whole force, a whole
- 0:30system, a whole machine. But how do you make sure that
- 0:34every part of that team, you know, feels included to where
- 0:38turnover isn't an issue and productivity isn't, you know,
- 0:42suffering before? We dive back into today's
- 0:44conversation. I want to share something
- 0:45important. This episode includes a pay
- 0:46partnership with Better Health, a platform designed to make
- 0:48starting therapy easier. I know from my own journey as a
- 0:50leader and entrepreneur that life can sometimes feel
- 0:52overwhelming. There are seasons, severe
- 0:53stress, uncertainty and pressure build up, and you need to save
- 0:55space to process it all that severe therapy comes in.
- 0:58Therapy isn't only for people facing clinical challenges.
- 1:00It's the space to reflect, grow, and find better ways to manage
- 1:02stress, relationships, and as no goals.
- 1:04It takes courage to seek help, but it's also one of the
- 1:07smartest investments you can make in your mental and
- 1:09emotional welcoming. That's why I'm proud to
- 1:10highlight Better Help with Better Help.
- 1:11You simply feel out of short version there and get matched to
- 1:14the credential therapist in just a couple of days.
- 1:15If the first match doesn't feel like the right field, you can
- 1:18easily switch therapist at no actual cost until you find
- 1:20someone who truly connects with you.
- 1:21Inside the platform, you'll also find tools like Donelline and
- 1:23group sessions on different topics that can support your
- 1:24growth. And with over 7000 reviews, 10
- 1:26of 4.5 Trust validation, Better Help is a platform you can rely
- 1:28on. So if you feel like you'd
- 1:30benefit from talking to your therapist, this is Data
- 1:31help.com/kinggames. That's Data help.com/king Games
- 1:34to get 10% off your first month of therapy.
- 1:36Once again, this is a paid partnership with Better Help and
- 1:38I encourage you to take that first step.
- 1:40If you've been thinking about it, sometimes the best that's
- 1:42meant you can make easy. Yourself Welcome to The
- 1:49Kingdom's podcast, where we share the stories of
- 1:52extraordinary people and dissect hot, relevant topics that shape
- 1:56our world. From visionary leaders to
- 1:58trailblazing creatives, we uncover the mindset, strategy,
- 2:01and grit behind greatness. Whether it's business, culture,
- 2:05or personal growth, we ask the real questions.
- 2:08This isn't just conversation, it's transformation.
- 2:11The Kingdom's podcast, Your next breakthrough starts here.
- 2:15Licencing reimagined your life. Ladies and gentlemen, you'll
- 2:23once again welcome to the King James Podcast and Diary of a
- 2:26CFO. And today I've got with me a
- 2:30VVVIP fortune out of Posner Pollard Beck.
- 2:36Welcome Alexandra Leman's car and when the action begins, my
- 2:46Co host is no Aller, the best sales expert on earth.
- 2:58Let's go. Wow.
- 3:02I'm ready. Oh, OK, so you want to get
- 3:05welcome. Alexandra is being a couple of
- 3:07months in the making. But we made it happen.
- 3:12Like, you know, or and many people don't know we're actually
- 3:16family. You know, she she, she's my in
- 3:18law. You know, my brother's married
- 3:20to a Polish lady at a press. You know, Poland is very, very
- 3:24close to my heart. I have been in Poland without
- 3:27being being in Poland. I was in a former part of
- 3:31Poland. Lithuania.
- 3:33Was that last year? Yeah.
- 3:34So I love Poland. Go Poland and we've actually
- 3:39done our assignments, you know, to give you flowers because your
- 3:43body of work is actually highly, highly impressive.
- 3:46So today we are incredibly excited to sit down with the one
- 3:51and only Alexandra Lemanskar, A renowned leadership expert, the
- 3:55visionary founder of Lehman Skills and the brilliant mind
- 3:59behind the groundbreaking CQ Leadership method.
- 4:03Alexandra has dedicated her career to revolutionising how
- 4:06tech leaders communicate good, high performing teams and truly
- 4:10excel in today's dynamic and often complex environment.
- 4:14Get ready for an insightful conversation.
- 4:17Let's dive in. So I'll offer my Co host to
- 4:21shoot you the first question. Let's say ladies first.
- 4:25Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for
- 4:28joining us, Alexandra. We're so excited to have you
- 4:32talk about your expertise and leadership.
- 4:35For anyone who may not be familiar with the type of work
- 4:39you do, could you share a bit just about your journey and what
- 4:43inspired you to dedicate your career to tech leadership and
- 4:47you know, the communication intelligence that you're that
- 4:50you dedicate your life to right now?
- 4:52Yeah, of course. Hi team, Thank you for having
- 4:54me. It's it's, it was a long journey
- 4:56for us to meet here today, but fifth time's a term, I would say
- 5:00I'll. Tell you no.
- 5:02So Mandela wrote a book. He say he called it a long Walk
- 5:05to freedom. And of course, finally, this is
- 5:08the long walk. It's sure.
- 5:09Fitz, it's sure Fitz. So I'm so happy to be here and
- 5:12excited to to talk to you both. Yeah.
- 5:14So, so yeah. So my name is Alexandra
- 5:17Laminska. Alex.
- 5:18It's it's in short as well and good.
- 5:19And my story is quite unusual, I would say, but I think that's
- 5:24most of the guests are saying that's the stories unusual
- 5:27because I was a violinist since I was 8 years old.
- 5:31So the whole journey that I had in my childhood as a young adult
- 5:36was to become a musician and 12 years of education in Poland,
- 5:42six years in the primary school, quote unquote.
- 5:46That is the next sticks in the higher education in music, in
- 5:49being a musician, becoming a musician.
- 5:51And then I have already started an academia of music as well.
- 5:54So it was all set and done and I was an A straight A great
- 6:00students like the nerd of the nerds.
- 6:03So it was always super important to me to be the best of the best
- 6:07and great students, of course. And it was the second year of my
- 6:11music music Academy. And I was, I was having so much
- 6:16fun as well because you know, musicians are fun and classical
- 6:19music as well. And I had great, great, great
- 6:23friends. I started to play in different
- 6:25orchestras all around Europe and in Poland.
- 6:28There is this part of music, musical education, the art
- 6:31education overall, that you need to be a great solo player, solo
- 6:36musician, to be in orchestras or teams of musician.
- 6:40And I never wanted to be in the greatest solo person on the
- 6:45stage. I was great in the orchestra.
- 6:47I also met a lot of orchestras actually, back then, the
- 6:52weirdest thing started to happen.
- 6:54I was so stressed, you know, it was years ago.
- 6:56I didn't have all of the tools that they have right now.
- 6:59And I started to fail my exams, only solo exams.
- 7:03And I was like what the hell is going on?
- 7:05Because you know, I never failed.
- 7:06It was like it wasn't possible for me.
- 7:09And I failed once. Then I failed the second for the
- 7:12second time. And the Dean of the Academy
- 7:15organised a meeting and she told me maybe it's it's time for you
- 7:19to quit. And I was like, what are you
- 7:23saying to me? I'm not a quitter like I was.
- 7:26No, I was only ace or B's, B's plus from different, different
- 7:31things and only one failed exam. So I was like not going to
- 7:36happen. And I left and then I failed
- 7:38again and it was like super hard for me because you know, the
- 7:42whole life you're being prepared for this journey.
- 7:45And it wasn't, it wasn't like I, I couldn't have done something
- 7:49else. I was pretty smart as a, as a
- 7:51kid and as a teenager, but it was a path and it was a lot of
- 7:54money and time invested in practising, you know, concerts,
- 7:59travelling, all of those, the instruments, all of those
- 8:02things. And I was like, maybe it's,
- 8:05maybe it's time to quit. And I didn't know analysis
- 8:09because my brain is super analytical.
- 8:12And I was angry, I was upset, I was sad because, you know, it
- 8:16was like a part of my identity to be a musician.
- 8:19But I've decided to quit. And my parents actually didn't
- 8:22talk to me for like two or three weeks after this decision
- 8:25because, you know, my whole life was created around and I've
- 8:29changed to my whole life. I've shifted my identity.
- 8:32I moved cities, I applied to University of Technology.
- 8:36So I became an engineer and then I'm business psychologist.
- 8:41And right now here I am with all of my skills, analytical brain
- 8:45that was formed as a musical person, musical kid.
- 8:49And the last 10 plus years I've, I spent to work around
- 8:55supporting others, supporting mainly leaders and their teams,
- 8:58mainly in technology because of my engineering brain that was
- 9:01created back then in the, in the, in the musician times.
- 9:05And I've decided that I don't want for other people to hear
- 9:09that sentence. Maybe it's time for you to quit.
- 9:12And instead of giving support, asking questions or maybe show
- 9:16the direction or show what's on the table to choose out of.
- 9:20I've, I've seen so many situations like that in my
- 9:23career in business and different organisations, corporate worlds,
- 9:27medium, small, big organisations in Poland and globally that I,
- 9:32it is like for me, it's, it's a mission, but also a life on
- 9:35project. And that's why I started to
- 9:38create my own tools. I learned all the time.
- 9:40I started to create the frameworks and right now where,
- 9:44where, where I am 2025 for recording it October.
- 9:48And I'm in this moment where I run my own business for almost 6
- 9:52years now. And I've created tools,
- 9:54frameworks and the part of the method that I think that we are
- 9:58going to talk about today. So here we go.
- 10:03That's awesome. That's amazing.
- 10:06That's. Like the?
- 10:07Story I know that AI definitely myself as well we definitely
- 10:13relate to kind of the golden child super analytical nerdy kid
- 10:22best of the best type of kid and then.
- 10:24Guess what? To be faced.
- 10:25Guess what? Look what I have on my screen,
- 10:28right? This is one of my favourite
- 10:29songs. This is a song by Connor Price.
- 10:33The title is Straight A students.
- 10:35Straight A student. And that is what we are.
- 10:38Everybody on the school, the guy says I'm a straight A student,
- 10:43but I'm friends with the cool kids.
- 10:45Yeah, Well, let all the rules of the rule break go.
- 10:47Listen to that song. It's the story of your life.
- 10:50Sorry, the story of our life. And you're speaking to two
- 10:53musicians. You're speaking to two musicians
- 10:55as well. No coincidence.
- 10:58Right. It definitely runs deep,
- 11:01especially like I've definitely had situations where you
- 11:08dedicate your whole life to a certain path and then you face
- 11:11that failure and it you do go through huge identity shifts.
- 11:15But it sounds like, it sounds like because of that experience,
- 11:21you've been able to create your QC leadership method kind of
- 11:25around those experiences. And I are helping a lot of
- 11:28businesses, which is amazing. Would you be able to kind of
- 11:32give us like a quick overview of what the CQ?
- 11:37Sorry, I think I said QC is CQ leadership method entails.
- 11:42Of course, so secular communication intelligence, so
- 11:45this is an abbreviation from leadership method, is a
- 11:49framework that I've created based on my work with leaders,
- 11:52especially in technology engineering.
- 11:54It is my main area of expertise because I'm an engineer myself.
- 11:59And since I started my work in HR in the organisation, I, from
- 12:03the very beginning, I've started working with IT technology
- 12:07engineers because you speak the language.
- 12:09So this is like a natural thing to do.
- 12:12And it was like over 10 years ago and not a lot of HR people
- 12:15actually spoke the language of, of technology.
- 12:17So it was something that was natural when it comes to giving
- 12:21me those business units to, to, to take care of.
- 12:25So based on all of those experiences that I, I held all
- 12:28the layers, being an HR business partner, working with people on
- 12:33the C level, directors and -1 all of those levels of net
- 12:38management and their teams, I've gathered so many examples,
- 12:42experiences, and that's all the patterns and the pattern
- 12:45recognition. I think it's one of the most
- 12:47important skills right now, especially in the age of
- 12:50technology that is growing so rapidly that we need to, we need
- 12:53to take care of our brains and our skill sets and mindsets to,
- 12:58to see how we use the technology, not to be now be
- 13:02pushed by right out of what we are doing on a daily basis.
- 13:06So it was something that I've, I've created based on that.
- 13:09I learned the tools all over the way.
- 13:11I got certifications. I, I fed my brain so hard.
- 13:15So it, it was, it was important and I saw the patterns when it
- 13:18comes to communication and how much it is entitled to, to the
- 13:22leadership itself, because leadership is all about product
- 13:27and it's all about people that create this product.
- 13:30Regardless of that industry. The part of the world that
- 13:32you're in and how you lead your team is directly proportional to
- 13:37how their team, your team built that the product services that
- 13:41you are, you're providing to your clients.
- 13:44Internal external one depends on where the team is and I've based
- 13:50on the transaction analysis. This is the part of the the
- 13:53science that the psychology diet I'm very entitled to.
- 13:57This is a part of the Eric Burns work.
- 13:59So it was the part of the psychology that he didn't
- 14:03believe that the Freud's work was was the best possible ones.
- 14:07So he created that a new one and there were so many tools that
- 14:12you could use work in a therapy process, but also they are super
- 14:17replicable to organisations, teams and leaders because there
- 14:20are always transactions between people.
- 14:22And based on that, there are there are many different tools
- 14:25and that they use in the organisational path.
- 14:28And there is the whole process communication model PCM
- 14:31framework that I use and is a part of, of the CQ method.
- 14:34So it is like the lay, they're the layers of the of the tools
- 14:39and and little pieces of exercise crisis that you can do
- 14:45pieces of the knowledge that I give leaders and their teams.
- 14:48But the main goal of it is that you understand yourself.
- 14:52So you know how to tailor communication because
- 14:54communication intelligence is about tailoring your
- 14:56communication to others because it's one of the most the biggest
- 15:01misconceptions that there is actually one-size-fits-all.
- 15:03If I like something, I'm sure that they will like something
- 15:07and it will fit their preferences when it comes to
- 15:10communication, how they like to work, what kind of delegation
- 15:15and tools they are going to be responsible to, etc.
- 15:18So the method itself is about gathering all of those tools
- 15:22that I believe and I made it in practise that they work.
- 15:26They are logical because a lot of people when it comes to this
- 15:31group of engineering technology leaders are very analytical
- 15:35brains. So they need to have patterns
- 15:37and logical things to, to use. So I decided to give them the
- 15:42essence of everything that I've learned over over the last 10
- 15:45plus years and have created the method that they can take and
- 15:49implement right away, not after like months and months of
- 15:53learning. They can take it and they can
- 15:56implement it right away to the work.
- 15:58Nice, nice. And I know that you mentioned a
- 16:03couple pivotal moments prior to switching gears over to
- 16:09engineering, which kind of led to this entire approach.
- 16:12Were there, I guess, when you started in engineering and when
- 16:17you started kind of developing this method, getting your
- 16:21strategies together, working with these leaders?
- 16:24Can you think back to your early career after you kind of
- 16:28switched over and were there any pivotal moments that drew you
- 16:32closer to leadership psychology and development of the
- 16:38frameworks of your CQ method? Was there something during your
- 16:42engineer time, maybe during school or when you first started
- 16:46that you can think of? Yeah, for sure.
- 16:48I started to work very early in my engineering degree.
- 16:51It was, it was a full time job actually, because I managed to
- 16:54do so many things in a in a daily basis that I've decided to
- 16:58start working as fast as possible because it was
- 17:01important to me to put things into practise.
- 17:04And I think we we know that university in University of
- 17:09Technology is, and I know that it's different from country to
- 17:12country, but in Poland is very theory based.
- 17:15So a lot of theory, a lot of talking about the past, the
- 17:21books that professors wrote, right?
- 17:23And a lot of those people never work a day in business.
- 17:28So there's no application whatsoever when it comes to that
- 17:31theory versus versus. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you.
- 17:34Why does you describe in Poland sound like you're describing
- 17:38Nigeria? There are patterns all over the
- 17:43world and it's not on the our countries.
- 17:46Yes. Shout out to Nigerian.
- 17:49Shout out to Nigerian. Poland.
- 17:51Yes, that's true. And you know, you are in the
- 17:54United by blat right now. So yeah, it's it's it's.
- 17:58And in the United Kingdom, that is why you got united.
- 18:02Yes, that's true. That's true.
- 18:04You know, it's, it's not funny, but it's like funny, not funny
- 18:07thing that we are seen as very smart people.
- 18:12And from the intellectual perspective, I think it's, you
- 18:15know, there are all of the research connected with that,
- 18:18but we are learning so much theory that there's no space for
- 18:23practise most of the time as well.
- 18:24And children the age of 6 or 7, when they start school, they're
- 18:29learning. Of course it's changing right
- 18:31now and different in public schooling, different in private
- 18:35schooling, but, and as we did learn in our generation, it was,
- 18:39it was something like that. So I've decided to go to
- 18:42practise as fast as I could. And so I started in a little
- 18:47internship with PR agency. So I started to move my brain a
- 18:51little bit into how people are actually work and what they need
- 18:56in the market so we can create better solutions.
- 18:58But I very, very, very soon decided to go into HR because it
- 19:03was like a connection between the human part that I loved
- 19:07because I was a musician for years.
- 19:09So I've created value for people so they can change themselves a
- 19:12little bit, you know, and then the engineering part, because my
- 19:16love to process to, you know, to create processes to, to put the
- 19:20things in the right places was, was huge.
- 19:23So I've decided to join the project that was connected with
- 19:26Transformation. So hey, change in transformation
- 19:29right away. And we've moved and I was a
- 19:31recruiter back then and we moved to several roles from UK and US
- 19:36to Poland because of the costs. Of course, back then it was
- 19:39always over. Yeah, over 10 years ago now.
- 19:42And The funny thing, funny thing, got to know like five
- 19:45years ago or so, the same roles that we knew from UK and the US
- 19:49were moved to India and Nepal from Poland because of the
- 19:52costs. Of course we know how it works
- 19:54right now and it was a pivotal moment for me to start working
- 19:58in a corporation right away. So first job as a as an HR
- 20:01person, it was in corporate world and I saw so many things
- 20:05that were not so good. But I saw a lot of things that
- 20:08are very good when it comes to, you know, the organisational
- 20:12culture, things that you can do with that kind of budgets that
- 20:16are incorporated that are not in the in the small organisations.
- 20:20Then I switched gears. I work in Polish organisation,
- 20:23big organisation, around 10, around 1000 people, 1200 or
- 20:27something tops. Then I moved into into different
- 20:31organisations, having higher and higher roles, but switched and
- 20:36pivoted myself from being a nature person, like a
- 20:39generalist, to their learning and development, because it was
- 20:42the development that growth people was also in my heart.
- 20:45So it was the most important thing for me.
- 20:47Yes, L&D, Indeed and I grew, I grew, I took more and more
- 20:53responsible jobs, hire and hire in the organisation.
- 20:56I started to be a leader myself very early in my career because
- 20:59of my skills and mindsets and and so on and this eager to
- 21:03learn all the time. But it was a shift, very
- 21:07important shift to me when I was in one big organisation and it
- 21:13was a corporate environment and I was responsible for the for
- 21:19the huge part of the world back then in the technology, one of
- 21:23the companies that were inside of the portfolio of companies.
- 21:27My boss was in the US and he was responsible for America since I
- 21:30was responsible for the rest of the world because it was like
- 21:34possible, of course, for me to do so You so it was you Cane,
- 21:38Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Middle East, India, New
- 21:42Zealand, Japan, Australia, of course, because it is so
- 21:46manageable. And I created a huge programme
- 21:50for tech leaders back then. And we were and we both run it
- 21:55in our regions and people were so happy about it.
- 21:58It was the first time that something like that was created
- 22:01and we had great feedback and we run the project very
- 22:05successfully. And then because it was a global
- 22:08call, the boss of my boss told that we need to lie about how
- 22:13we've created this programme because it's not possible from
- 22:17the corporate perspective. So we asked like a small people
- 22:22in this whole big structure to build something on our own.
- 22:27So we needed to say that it is based on the other project and
- 22:31the other programme that was already built inside of the
- 22:34organisation. So it was like, are you kidding
- 22:37me? And it was it, I was done.
- 22:41And I've decided, you know what, it's like, I don't want to do
- 22:45something like that. It's like my ethics, my, you
- 22:47know, they need to create value out of trust and, and high
- 22:54quality was so important for me. So I've decided, you know what,
- 22:58I just need to do my own thing because it's like I cannot work
- 23:02that way. The money was great.
- 23:05A position that I have was amazing.
- 23:07I was very high in the instructor.
- 23:09I had a lot of autonomy. But this situation was like a no
- 23:14go for me. And since then my brain started
- 23:16to go in this direction of doing things on my own.
- 23:20I had different organisation. I did a part and then so it was
- 23:23an iterative work, I would say to transfer myself to where I'm
- 23:27now with my team. But it was, it was, it was
- 23:32pivotal, I would say. Yeah, absolutely.
- 23:36I love that you speak about creating programmes that impact
- 23:43leadership globally because obviously at our pot, if you
- 23:47can't tell, we're all from different countries right now.
- 23:50So a lot of what we do is create global impact and we love
- 23:54speaking about topics that to impact business in all different
- 23:58countries. So to hear that you have that
- 24:01expertise is such kind of an inspiring story because you also
- 24:05knew when to walk away. And I think that's a lot of, I
- 24:08think that's a lot of pressure that not only is put on you, but
- 24:14even a lot of people in our audience when they're in
- 24:16different workforces or they're moving through pivotal moments.
- 24:20It takes a lot of wisdom to know like, OK, how much am I going to
- 24:25give to a company when I'm in a great position, when I'm making
- 24:28a lot of money, when I'm making this global impact and in
- 24:32control of this insane programme that I'm building for several
- 24:36different countries. It takes an immense amount of
- 24:39like self trust, self-awareness and self leadership.
- 24:44Obviously you have to lead yourself in order to lead other
- 24:46people. So it's like, it's just really
- 24:48amazing to kind of hear that. We definitely see the value and
- 24:54those skills. I'm going to have AI kind of
- 24:58take the next couple questions for you and so we can keep it
- 25:02moving. But yeah, I think it's I think
- 25:06it's just so incredible to have that self leadership.
- 25:11I think you're definitely just speaking on that so well because
- 25:19in order to pivot, you have to have such self-awareness and you
- 25:22have to have such self leadership.
- 25:24So I just think that's really awesome.
- 25:28Wow, it's actually been what I say a mouthful A handful a globe
- 25:35for you know, everything that you've said, your journey.
- 25:41It's very, very robust. But you know, a couple of themes
- 25:45that have me is I'll take first your philosophy because your
- 25:52philosophy very much aligns with my philosophy, our philosophy.
- 25:58We have three podcasts, right? Two of them are globally ranked.
- 26:02The third one we just started was it last week.
- 26:05Yeah, $1,000,000 Blueprint podcast.
- 26:11And that podcast is about interviewing millionaires from
- 26:16all around the world. And we asked them questions on
- 26:21three themes. That is the three pillars of our
- 26:27philosophy #1 mindset #2 skill set #3 tool set.
- 26:33And you've mentioned those 3 themes today.
- 26:36Others podcast The real recognise the real.
- 26:39You know, life is principle based.
- 26:41That's just the thing. You're in Poland, the United
- 26:44Kingdom, America, but we have never sat down together to have
- 26:50a single conversation or we've always operated in a particular
- 26:54direction. And you know, mindset is very,
- 26:56very important. You know, I, I had to learn this
- 27:00from a very, very expensive business coach when it comes to
- 27:04hiring. And of course, you're into HR
- 27:07and you, you probably did not know last month I was invited to
- 27:11train a couple of HR professionals, business,
- 27:14business accurate, right? And this is, you know, one of
- 27:18the things I have to teach them before you hire a person, Most
- 27:22organisations evaluate the skill set or don't realise they need
- 27:27to evaluate the mindset first before evaluating the skill set
- 27:31and then evaluating the, would I say the ability to use the tool
- 27:37set, right? So I'll love for you to speak on
- 27:39that mindset skill set, tool set.
- 27:41So. Yeah, I agree.
- 27:44And personally, when I hire people, the first thing that I
- 27:48do is to is to talk about mindset and to evaluate the
- 27:52personality structure. Of course, I'm not telling them
- 27:56that I'm evaluating the the because there is a questionnaire
- 27:59from the process communication model perspective, but I'm not
- 28:01using it to for the recruitment processes.
- 28:04But I believe that we can all learn and myself and I'm sure
- 28:08that both of you as well are the best examples that you can learn
- 28:11anything you have, anything you need to do the work.
- 28:15But if you don't have your mind right, and if you are not
- 28:19courageous enough, if you are not curious enough to do it,
- 28:23persistence, it is not going to happen, because you can be the
- 28:26smartest person in the world. But if you don't want to use the
- 28:31knowledge, if you don't want to share it, if you don't want to
- 28:34help people thriving and being the best version of themselves,
- 28:38I think this is the essence of the leadership in partnership as
- 28:42well, of course, because Steph, I've heard once the sentence
- 28:44that stuck with me and it's, it's it's with me since then
- 28:48that we'll teach leaders how to be good leaders.
- 28:52But we don't teach team members how to be a good team member to
- 28:57others. And I think this is super
- 29:01powerful. Absolutely.
- 29:05I think Even so like training team members, it's the same, the
- 29:13same awareness, same skill set that you're teaching the
- 29:16leaders, you know, because at the end of the day, even if you
- 29:20have someone at the head who's delegating, the stronger, you
- 29:24know, they say another quote to your strongest leaders only as
- 29:30strong as a team under them, you know, So you have to empower
- 29:35your team. You have to make sure that yes,
- 29:38they have the right mindset and kind of integrate leadership
- 29:45into the team so that the team is also self leading.
- 29:49I think there are so many businesses where that definitely
- 29:53goes into the mindset. Like you're like you're
- 29:55mentioning, if your team doesn't have a mindset of where they
- 29:59want to empower people, where they do not want to grow, maybe
- 30:03they just want to sit in the skills that they've learned and
- 30:08maybe, you know, sit in a corporate setting or do
- 30:11whatever. I think being stagnant as it can
- 30:14be a huge issue for sure when building a team to be, you know,
- 30:18just something be very mindful of.
- 30:20But I think being able to integrate your team into your
- 30:24leadership only makes the whole unit stronger for sure.
- 30:28So yeah, you're making really, really, really good points for
- 30:32sure. Two things that that came to my.
- 30:37Mind about it? Yeah, that's true.
- 30:39It's the things that I think that important and came to my
- 30:42mind because, you know, I mentioned that when people are
- 30:45stagnant, that's it can be an issue for a team and when people
- 30:49don't want to learn. And you know what, years ago it
- 30:53was heartbreaking for me, if a person don't want to learn, they
- 30:58don't want to sign up to pork shops, they don't want to go on
- 31:01one-on-one sessions with me or something like that.
- 31:03But over the years I've learned that, you know, it's OK for some
- 31:08people if they don't want to learn, if they want to be good
- 31:12at the job, it is OK to let them go.
- 31:16With Mel Robbins, they let them and there's a great book that is
- 31:20I think a Bible of leadership, The Radical Candour by Kim
- 31:23Scott. It is something that I work with
- 31:26the method and the framework, but also in the book Kim is
- 31:29writing very, very good about team development and she's
- 31:33talking about how important is to have people who may, who do
- 31:37the maintenance work, the repetitive tasks that there need
- 31:40to be done. Of course, some of them are are
- 31:43replaced by technology and will be replaced by technology.
- 31:46That's not all of them, and you cannot have all of the stars in
- 31:51your team because if you have only stars in a team, it is
- 31:54very, very not sustainable to to lead A-Team like that, so.
- 31:59Players only. Of course it is super hard to
- 32:02have only a players because they are the ego are huge, they need
- 32:07constant challenges, new projects and let's be honest,
- 32:12there's no such business like like that, even if in the first
- 32:16part of when the business grows very fast.
- 32:19I work in start in startup environment very closely.
- 32:22So even if you run a startup, there are phases.
- 32:26So first they're growing very rapidly, of course, but then
- 32:30there's a maintenance phase and we need people to maintenance
- 32:33things as well. So what?
- 32:35I teach leaders, and it is my learning as a leader as well, to
- 32:38not be mad at people who don't want to learn all the time like
- 32:42myself because this is my passion and not theirs.
- 32:46And you know what it was one of? The biggest leaders I.
- 32:49Had yes, exactly and I I lost people because of those beliefs
- 32:54that I had that all the people need to to learn it to be like
- 32:58me, a very passionate about learning lifelong learning in a
- 33:02value list. You know, I've learned that it
- 33:05is not true and it's OK to let people not be as I am and
- 33:11they're OK as well in their thinking Of course the question
- 33:15is what kind of team and what kind of organisation we want to
- 33:17lead. This is a different story, but
- 33:19from the pace of understanding the human thinking and to the
- 33:24way of doing things, it is OK to let them so, and I think that's
- 33:30what what you said, it's resonated with with me and I, as
- 33:33so many examples of people are that they're very mad at their
- 33:37teams that they don't want to learn.
- 33:39They don't want to use the budgets, you know, the
- 33:42trainings. They don't want to use the money
- 33:44and they don't understand why. And it's sometimes it's just out
- 33:48of the values. It's just just it, it's not
- 33:51important for me or I'm in the moment of my life where I need
- 33:55to take care of my family, of my health.
- 33:58I just had a kid and this is not my priority at the moment and we
- 34:03need to make a contract around that to see how it fits to the
- 34:07organisational goals, the team goals, but also a person that is
- 34:10in from the past. This is the leadership essence.
- 34:14How to learn it? Very well said.
- 34:15Yeah. You know, you develop
- 34:19programmes, training programmes, learning opportunities, but then
- 34:23they say this is not my priority.
- 34:25You know, even had to spend money on trainings and have my
- 34:32business partner say I am not interested in that data.
- 34:35But it hurts very deep, especially where you spend
- 34:38money. You spend money on a training
- 34:40and then they say no, right. So what are you gonna do?
- 34:43Are you gonna force them? So how do you need to learn the
- 34:45hard way to let them? I did force them in the past,
- 34:48you know. You can force a host to the
- 34:51stream. Yeah, this is something myself
- 34:54and do. I were discussing about it
- 34:55yesterday. You can force a hostile stream
- 34:58or you can't force to drink. Yeah, I had to let it in a hard
- 35:01way. Give a man of fish you fed him
- 35:02for a day or teach him how to fish.
- 35:04You fed him for a lifetime. So we are in the business of
- 35:06teaching men to fish. I'd rather feed you for a
- 35:08lifetime than, you know, feed you for just one day.
- 35:11It's very tiring. It means you're going to wake me
- 35:13up the next day to feed you again the next day, the next
- 35:16day. Come on and come on.
- 35:17And like you need to learn how to fish.
- 35:20And Speaking of learning how to fish, you know, trainings are
- 35:23very, very essential. I love the fact that you are
- 35:27into training. And of course, that's something
- 35:29we are also into as well. But as far as the philosophies,
- 35:33you know, go, philosophies are born out of principles, right?
- 35:37And the world is ruled by principles.
- 35:42CQ method, please educate us. Teachers train us because the
- 35:49two the two goals of this podcast are to educate and to
- 35:53motivate. And that's why we have the best
- 35:56in the the best of the best from around the world.
- 36:00Come on this platform to educate us and motivate us.
- 36:03You have been motivating us. Now we want you to educate us.
- 36:06Thank you very much. OK, in a nutshell, because you
- 36:11know, I can, I can, I can, can teach you and educate.
- 36:14You great Jindabra. Jindabra, Jindabra.
- 36:19OK, so in the essence of the method that the goal of the
- 36:23method is for you, the two things, the first thing is so
- 36:27you understand yourself. While you mentioned the
- 36:29self-awareness and self leadership, and this is always
- 36:33the first thing before you start leading others, you need to know
- 36:37yourself. So the the first step in the
- 36:40method is to to map yourself when it comes to your process
- 36:44communication model, personality and communication preferences
- 36:48structure. So there are 6 levels of the
- 36:50personality. Every single person on the
- 36:52planet has them, but there's always one thing that's going to
- 36:56be dominant. And actually it is.
- 36:57It was shaped around 6-8 years old or something like that.
- 37:01So young kid had this moment forming moment in their lives
- 37:06when they are learning about themselves in the world that
- 37:08they surround them. They learn what they need to do
- 37:12or not to do to be seen, loved, taken care of.
- 37:16So it shaped their belief system actually about themselves in the
- 37:20world. And the neurological system is
- 37:22shaping as well in this age. So that's why, and this is this
- 37:26moment and we, we have it for adult life and in the base of
- 37:30personality, when once you know what it is, you can take a
- 37:33questionnaire, you can work around hypothesis, of course, is
- 37:36always the best thing for especially for tech IT
- 37:40engineering people to have numbers.
- 37:42So you can have the report and you can have your structure.
- 37:45But without that, you can make hypothesis as well and see, OK,
- 37:48So what is the language that I prefer?
- 37:51What is the type of the sentences that I prefer for me
- 37:54to use? What are my main psychological
- 37:57motivational needs? What I, what is my distress
- 38:00sequence? So how I react as a pattern in
- 38:03the stress situations under pressure, When is that there is
- 38:06a tight deadline, when I have not a lot of resources and I
- 38:10need to manage to certain situations and so on and so
- 38:13forth. So there are many different
- 38:15elements in there that you can learn about yourself.
- 38:17Once you have it, then you can go and map your team.
- 38:21So this is number #2 so step number 2 is to map your team.
- 38:24I even create a like super short and simple Excel spreadsheet
- 38:28that you can use. You put your name of your
- 38:30teammates in there and you make your observations.
- 38:34You take verbal communication, emails, Slack, Teams messages,
- 38:39and you just look for the keywords because we all have one
- 38:42main preference when it comes to communication and we can map
- 38:45people that are around us. So as I mentioned, there are six
- 38:50types of language that people are using and you have the
- 38:54keywords that are around all six of them.
- 38:57And you were just starting like the curiosity journey and to
- 39:01start to analysing things that people are doing, how they're
- 39:04talking, what they're talking. So the the verbal and nonverbal
- 39:07communication and how they behave under stress, under
- 39:11pressure. Because this is all data about
- 39:13people and that way you have hypothesis about your team.
- 39:17Of course you can map your team with question, but it's not the
- 39:20key. The key is for you to understand
- 39:22how to map a person and make a good hypothesis to then tailor
- 39:29communication more after first 2-3 sentences.
- 39:34But they're, they're saying to you, so this is the key.
- 39:36So very fast and very efficient. So because we don't have the
- 39:40time, so we make the time, we need to have efficient things
- 39:44that we can use right away. And this is this is that what
- 39:47they learn in the workshops, growth processes, one-on-one
- 39:51sessions with me from the podcast that I run.
- 39:53And everything that's there is a base that you can use.
- 39:57So this is number 2 #3 is to match the communication, tailor
- 40:02the communication. People are going into
- 40:06misunderstandings, conflicts, they hate working with each
- 40:10other. They they don't understand each
- 40:13other, not because they have bad intentions, but because they
- 40:17speak different languages. And I don't mean that I speak
- 40:20Polish and you speak English. But if I speak data and I say
- 40:25the facts are that the data is saying, the numbers are that it
- 40:30is not logical to make that kind of decisions, and the other
- 40:33person is saying, Alex, I don't feel it.
- 40:36I don't know. I'm not sure why, but I know in
- 40:38my heart it doesn't feel very well.
- 40:42And, you know, I'm messing up a little bit.
- 40:44But the same part of the brain is responsible for talking and
- 40:49learning different languages like Polish, English.
- 40:52Right brain versus left brain. Yes, the same part of the left
- 40:57brain is responsible for learning languages, foreign
- 41:00languages and speaking these languages when it comes to data,
- 41:03emotions, beliefs, reflections, reactions or actions.
- 41:08So six types of language and This is why people are not
- 41:12getting along. They think that the other person
- 41:18is the same, has the same preference.
- 41:21That's why we sometimes we, I'm not sure how it is in your
- 41:26countries and cultures, but in Poland is like, I'm not sure if
- 41:29I speak Chinese to you, but you don't understand me, you know,
- 41:34and, and both of us speak, speak Polish.
- 41:37So it's like we just don't understand each other.
- 41:40And it's not because we speak different languages from the,
- 41:42from the native perspective, but it's like we are speaking
- 41:45different languages from that, from the personality preferences
- 41:48perspective. So first three steps of the CQ
- 41:52method is to know yourself. So map yourself, map your team
- 41:56or people around you. You can train on your own
- 41:58family. We recommend that because it's
- 42:01the closest people to you and you have so many data about
- 42:04them. And then tailor communication,
- 42:06see how people are going to react differently.
- 42:09Sometimes it's just one word. Changing one word is a huge
- 42:12thing that you can do. You change I think to I believe,
- 42:17I think or I feel, and sometimes it is.
- 42:19It is just that asking a question or making a direct
- 42:22sentence because people have different preferences when it
- 42:25comes to building sentences, when it comes to communication.
- 42:29So yeah, in a nutshell, as I said.
- 42:33Well, I, I feel and I know that there's nobody better to do
- 42:42these that a Polish person, a Polish or Lithuanian.
- 42:49Well, the guy from Lithuania invited me.
- 42:51I was like, I want you to come to Lithuania, you will like it.
- 42:57Just two sentences. I was convinced.
- 43:01And you did it. And when I landed, I think I
- 43:04landed at Carter's airport, I had to drive to Vilnius.
- 43:08And when I met him, Vilnius, he said, oh, you're person of your
- 43:12word. You said you were doing that UK.
- 43:18Yes, yes, and you did. And this is super important for
- 43:21some people. If you keep your word, this is
- 43:23the. People that have.
- 43:24Beliefs and, and you know, the trust, and this is important
- 43:28some for some people, it doesn't really matter because they have
- 43:31super small access to this floor and their personality structure.
- 43:34We all have everything. So basically we can, we can go
- 43:38into communication and get along with everybody that's we observe
- 43:44the world first of all, mainly through our lenses, through our
- 43:48frame of reference, our like favourite paths and patterns.
- 43:53And this is OK because that's who we are and nobody teaches it
- 43:58at school. And it breaks my heart.
- 44:00So that's why I'm here and trying to to do my best to to
- 44:04change that. Now people like you are teaching
- 44:06it right. And I did have a guest on the
- 44:09podcast recently. I don't know if you've seen that
- 44:12interview. That is the one with Doctor
- 44:16Tatiana Tepova. She's Russian and she's have a
- 44:20trained and she's an expert at non verbal communication.
- 44:24You saw that. OK, that's cool.
- 44:26So he says that non verbal communication is even more
- 44:31important than verbal communication.
- 44:34The non verbal cues are more important than what you were
- 44:37saying because the body is a snitch.
- 44:40The marking face. Of it, yeah.
- 44:42Non verbal is your body is giving you out.
- 44:45Yeah, definitely. And our different research gives
- 44:49different numbers, but something between 60 to 90% even is non
- 44:53verbal. That's why we have so many
- 44:56conflicts around e-mail or when you don't put your camera on
- 45:00when you're talking to somebody. It is because you're robbing
- 45:04them out of all of the cues that they can see.
- 45:08They can, they can hear when and especially when you have a
- 45:13meeting and you're muted and off camera.
- 45:15So it's like you have a back on your on your on your head and,
- 45:19and there's nothing and over e-mail.
- 45:22It's crazy how much miscommunication and conflict
- 45:26and misunderstandings are. And I see it all the time in
- 45:29different organisations, regardless of the industry and
- 45:32the country and the size of the company that are emails, e-mail,
- 45:38e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. And there is nothing out of this
- 45:41this conversation besides conflicts, since, you know,
- 45:44they're wasted time, so. All these people like to do,
- 45:49would I say tap in? Sounds like what you just did.
- 45:53They say ask a question. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
- 45:55Why is it? Why is it that you guys do that?
- 45:58I'm curious. It adds up to the nonverbal
- 46:03communication. So you have more cues that you
- 46:06can, you know, you can make your guess and your hypothesis about
- 46:09the and the communication, but not all the people are doing it.
- 46:12And it depends on on your, your structure as well.
- 46:15If you have very, very far this, this, this floor that it is
- 46:20connected with using more non verbal because there are many
- 46:22people who are very flat when it comes to using non verbal like
- 46:26poker faces, like very monotonous tone of voice, very
- 46:30like sitting like like a tree or something very like, And
- 46:35actually there are also people like that.
- 46:37So I, I have them, a lot of them in the workshop.
- 46:41Sometimes they're sitting for the whole day.
- 46:43You really, you really can't tell.
- 46:45It's this person happy? You can tell what is happening
- 46:48in their brain. The poker face is just so crazy.
- 46:54The question is, do you prefer the poker face or the beach
- 46:56face, right? Because it's like you need to,
- 47:00you need to choose because some people have this one something,
- 47:03some people have that one. And it is a, it is a queue as
- 47:06well. You just, you need to follow the
- 47:08signs because there is an algorithm to recognise who is in
- 47:11front of you. And there are patterns.
- 47:14I mentioned 6 type of language, four types of nonverbal
- 47:17communication, four types of communication channels, 9
- 47:22motivational needs connected to all floors and you're done.
- 47:25So that's why people, especially in technology, IT, engineering,
- 47:30so this is that area that I work with.
- 47:32They love this method because it's not the psychological
- 47:35bullshit. That's psych.
- 47:37You need to listen more or you need to be more open.
- 47:40It is like blah, blah, blah, OK, So what exactly I need to do?
- 47:45So that's why people love it because it's, it shows them step
- 47:50by step what they need to take care of when it comes to
- 47:54themselves, what they observe, what they, what they need to be
- 47:58more aware of, what kind of signs they need to, they need to
- 48:03be more and more conscious of. And then they observe the world
- 48:07in the better way. So it's, it's, it's the ready to
- 48:12go process, the ready to go step by step process that they can
- 48:15use, you can use. And then the beautiful thing is
- 48:19that it is replicable. So we can use it at work, you
- 48:22can use it at home, and you can use it anytime in any culture
- 48:26because it's immune to bias when it comes to the culture
- 48:28differences. So we all have everything and I
- 48:31think that it's it's, it's, it's very much a relief that we can
- 48:37actually get along with everybody.
- 48:40Sometimes it hurts because the people are so different in the
- 48:43structure that they need to stretch themselves more.
- 48:47But it is possible from that from this perspective.
- 48:51You know, clocation is key to achieving anything, right?
- 48:56And of course to achieving organisational goals and
- 48:59individual goals. But you have this affinity
- 49:03towards tech. So when it comes to specific
- 49:07communication challenges that are unique to tech leaders, you
- 49:10know, for example, the high analytical teams that work
- 49:15remotely and of course with all of the complex technical jargon
- 49:19that they have to communicate. So what is that immediate impact
- 49:24of better communication on the team dynamics and success of
- 49:27their projects? The first thing that I see the
- 49:31most, after the first part of the training or mentoring
- 49:35sessions, they start to understand.
- 49:37They have so many aha moments. They start to understand from
- 49:40their brain because they use mostly the logical part of them,
- 49:42all of themselves. They have like that's why they
- 49:46don't get it. Not because they're idiots or
- 49:49they're not thinking logically, but because I have the curse and
- 49:53knowledge. I am an expert in my area and
- 49:56the language that I'm using that is very much into details,
- 50:00technological aspects of it. This is very much connected with
- 50:05what I want to achieve. I want you to understand every
- 50:08single thing. This is my mission and shifting
- 50:11your brain into OK, they need to understand the bare minimum or
- 50:16only what they need to know to move their work forward.
- 50:20It is crucial and it is essential for them to make this
- 50:23shift when it comes to mindset and then the skill set because
- 50:26they learn that yes, they need super techie jargon.
- 50:30They need super techie communication.
- 50:32But this is only their need. Not all of the people,
- 50:35especially in business that there's not as tech savvy as
- 50:38themselves. So they start to learn how to,
- 50:41and this is important, how to simplify the communication
- 50:45because there are amazingly doing amazingly well with
- 50:49complexity and people especially nowadays are great in
- 50:53complexity, but simplification not so easy to do.
- 50:56So what I see and what I work with, with teams especially is
- 51:01to simplify the communication. It keeps it shorter, more
- 51:06essential and more to the point, regardless of the culture,
- 51:10because we we talked a little bit about that, regardless of
- 51:13the culture, regardless of the country and the size of the
- 51:16organisation, it doesn't really matter.
- 51:19But being more to the point and understand that people have
- 51:22different communicational needs. So sometimes they need to say
- 51:25how they feel about something. Sometimes they need to do a
- 51:29little brainstorm. Even if we already have a
- 51:31solution, sometimes people get involved in the process and we
- 51:36need to let them because that's how we build engagement.
- 51:39That is critically low right now when we are recording this
- 51:42episode globally, it's getting lower and lower.
- 51:45So it is something that I see the most that people start
- 51:49understanding that their communication preferences,
- 51:54they're not the only one. They will find somebodies that
- 51:57they will speak their language fluently because they speak they
- 52:01speak data and don't speak data. But there are five different
- 52:06options there and they're aware why people are reacting in a in
- 52:10a certain way. They are getting the why that
- 52:13this is so essential. So this is the, the biggest, I
- 52:17think change that I see in people's brains in the thinking
- 52:22patterns, but also the doing patterns, because thinking is
- 52:25only one part of the story. How they react differently, how
- 52:29they change the approach, how they doing projects together
- 52:33differently, how they work on a daily basis, especially remotely
- 52:37or hybrid when they don't sit together in A1 room, but they
- 52:42work and in different countries in different times, time zones,
- 52:47they will work on different tools.
- 52:49So they were becoming more aware and the leaders are becoming
- 52:54more aware how to lead that kind of complex environment, not to
- 53:00adding more complexity, but actually to simplify things
- 53:03because we don't need more complexity.
- 53:05We have it. I think we have enough.
- 53:07We need more more simplification and things that make sense and
- 53:12they actually create value at the end of the day.
- 53:14Absolutely. Well, you know, you've spoke a
- 53:19lot about psychology and, you know, having people have been
- 53:25allowed to express how they feel.
- 53:27And psychology is simply the study, the scientific study of
- 53:31the human mind, right? And we said this, your
- 53:36philosophy, reason by philosophy, mindset is #1 skill
- 53:40set is number 2, tool set is #3 right?
- 53:43So Speaking of practical psychology, right?
- 53:46Like moving beyond the theory to measurable impact, you know, to
- 53:52resolve treating frameworks. But how do you translate complex
- 53:56psychological principles into something that is tangible and
- 54:02actionable for these tech leaders who are often looking
- 54:06for clear, direct solutions? Tech guys, they want to be able
- 54:11to measure the impact, right? So how do you translate those
- 54:17psychological principles into something that gives results and
- 54:23that result is measurable and trackable?
- 54:26So when the first thing that I do most of the time when, when a
- 54:30person or a team or a company approaches me that they say,
- 54:33hey, Alex, we saw what you're doing or we saw you at the
- 54:36keynote at the conference or something.
- 54:37We want to do something like that for your team or for our
- 54:40team or for our manager or something like that.
- 54:43I I ask a question, what kind of change do you want to see at the
- 54:47end of this process, of this workshop, of this growth
- 54:50programme, you name it, What kind of change do you want to
- 54:54see in this person? Insight.
- 54:57Of course, and then we do reverse engineering because I do
- 55:01believe that you need to have the purpose.
- 55:03Without that, it's it's it's only a just a one day training
- 55:07and it's you know, it's going to be fun.
- 55:08It's going to be interesting, but after a week you won't
- 55:11remember a thing. So it needs to be rooted
- 55:14somewhere in the numbers because as I said, I'm an analytical
- 55:17person and I believe in that, that when if you don't measure,
- 55:21you can't grow it. So it can be quantitative and it
- 55:24can be qualitative, doesn't really matter.
- 55:27So I ask about this change and I look for the numbers they can
- 55:31use. It can be engagement results,
- 55:34engagement survey results. It can be satisfaction, team
- 55:37satisfaction results. It can be feedback that they
- 55:40they've gathered over the months.
- 55:42It can be 360. It can be feedback from the
- 55:45team. So sometimes I talk with the
- 55:46team and the very beginning of the process, I have them, I have
- 55:50the script that I run, let's put it that way.
- 55:53And then I do the same conversation at the end of the
- 55:55process and I and I measure the difference.
- 55:58So it is it, it, those can be goals, business goals, it can be
- 56:02KPI's, OK Rs from the perspective of how the team or
- 56:05how the person works in daily basis.
- 56:08So over 1/4 of the work it is, it is very visible actually
- 56:13after first training, after first mentoring session, you can
- 56:17you can see the first pieces of changes.
- 56:20So answering your questions, I always put the goal that is
- 56:24connected with numbers regardless of the time of the
- 56:26work that we are doing together. So what kind of change do you
- 56:29want to see in yourself, in this team, in this results which have
- 56:32them from the business perspective, from the team
- 56:34perspective and organisation perspective.
- 56:36Sometimes if the organisation is small, you can make it directly
- 56:40proportional to the goals that you have as a business.
- 56:42And then we go to the toolkit. So what kind of tools here is
- 56:47the palette and just kick your poison for over those years that
- 56:52I've learned on my own and I taught it Tartars, but also use
- 56:56it on myself as a leader and as a person.
- 56:59I can tell what can you take out of it?
- 57:03And I can suggest something. But at the end of the day, this
- 57:05is your decision what you are going to choose.
- 57:08So the autonomy of building yourself is crucial.
- 57:12So you're choosing your tools and to work on them, so you work
- 57:16in practise on how to use them. So if you are choosing the
- 57:20process communication model, as I mentioned, we are going to the
- 57:22questionnaire, we are going to the reports, we are going to the
- 57:24tools you're training how to tell your communication to what
- 57:28you have to yourself. But other in the next two
- 57:32others, we gather feedback from the team how they see that you
- 57:36changed over the last couple of weeks or months and we measure
- 57:39the change. So this is what I what I do
- 57:42because I do believe that the motivation is important, but it
- 57:48comes and goes. Consistency is a key.
- 57:51If you do things over time and you do it repetitively and to
- 57:56measure the results, this is what we can, what you can
- 58:00actually see when it comes to transformation, transition and
- 58:03change. And it's learned so well.
- 58:06People who need it, who don't need another wishy washy woo
- 58:12thing. Sometimes it's important, you
- 58:14know, to feed your brain with something like that.
- 58:16But at the end of the tape, business results are there to be
- 58:20met and we need to be equipped to do it from the mindset, skill
- 58:24sets and tool sets perspective. You know, Speaking of, you know,
- 58:28mindset, skill set, tool set, now you're talking about tool
- 58:32sets. And I see psychological concepts
- 58:36or psychological frameworks as tool sets, right?
- 58:42Of course, definitely you use these psychological models to
- 58:47achieve change and in the process of achieving change in
- 58:53any organisation there are three things that are involved.
- 58:57You have the people, the processes and the systems.
- 59:01You cannot achieve change by just changing one thing.
- 59:05If you change the people or you don't change the process, you
- 59:08don't change the systems, you will achieve the change you're
- 59:12trying to achieve. Right.
- 59:14So one of the when I say one of my favourite psychological
- 59:19models is Masters Heracle of needs a course.
- 59:24It just helps you to understand people on a general basis,
- 59:28right, and what everyone is striving to achieve ultimately.
- 59:33I also love the Myers Briggs, you know, the type indicator,
- 59:37but I'll not for you to give me maybe 1-2 or three psychological
- 59:43tools that you like on your own to use to in your process of,
- 59:51you know, consulting with leaders or So what tool sets do
- 59:57you like? So the first one is that I
- 1:00:00mentioned a couple of times already.
- 1:00:02So the process communication model PCM is a framework.
- 1:00:05It is similar to if you know inside or disc or anything
- 1:00:10actually based on the Carly Young.
- 1:00:13Methods can be, can be treated similarly, but the PCM is very,
- 1:00:18very much, much complex, but in a good way.
- 1:00:22So it's not, it's not only saying you are from the
- 1:00:27perspective of the structure of your personality, but it was
- 1:00:31most important. It says why, so it gives you the
- 1:00:35why that is behind it. So what shaped you in the past
- 1:00:39that as you are a person that you are right now as an as an
- 1:00:43adult person, it gives you algorithms of your behaviour, it
- 1:00:47gives you patterns and you can do a pattern recognition and and
- 1:00:51what kind of patterns are serving you and what kind of
- 1:00:54patterns doesn't. So this is important for from
- 1:00:57the understanding this, this the behaviour part.
- 1:01:00So not only who you are, but why and what you can do with it.
- 1:01:03So this is the application in real life, not only the theory,
- 1:01:08not only the framework, not only describing who you are, but why
- 1:01:12and what can you do about it. Bad days and good days.
- 1:01:14So this is this is important. So this is the first one.
- 1:01:17The second one is the whole framework of transaction
- 1:01:20analysis. The PCM is a part of it, but I
- 1:01:23treat it separately because it is that the concept, the
- 1:01:26framework that is, that is separate and but the whole the
- 1:01:28framework is transactional analysis and there are many
- 1:01:32tools that I use on the organisational level.
- 1:01:34The one is contracting. So how to make contracts with
- 1:01:38other people? So this is the first one and to
- 1:01:40avoid misunderstanding conflicts because I'm not going to assume
- 1:01:44what you want, I need to actually say it out loud.
- 1:01:47So it is there in between US and people are not doing it very
- 1:01:52well. And I see it all the time.
- 1:01:54So this is the second one as a whole structure.
- 1:01:57And the third one that I really, really love is the will of
- 1:02:01conflict. And this is the tool, not the
- 1:02:04not the whole like Myers Briggs or PCM, but this is a tool that
- 1:02:09is extremely powerful. Five types of conflicts, the
- 1:02:12will of conflict as a tool that shows you why again, it gives
- 1:02:18you why people are wasting time, because time is is a currency.
- 1:02:24And I hear it all the time that people are I'm I'm sure that you
- 1:02:27you do as well. I don't have time and it drives
- 1:02:31me crazy and I hate. It we have only three resources,
- 1:02:35time, money and effort. Time and effort.
- 1:02:38Those are the four resources we have.
- 1:02:40Of course, and when I hear the senders, I don't have time.
- 1:02:43I'm, you know, I in the past right now, I'm different because
- 1:02:47I'm smarter. I've got wiser over the years.
- 1:02:50But like a couple years back, I got mad when I've heard this
- 1:02:54sentence because it's so much a lie.
- 1:02:58You know, it's not true. It's not about the time.
- 1:03:03It's never about the time. It's about your priorities and
- 1:03:06how you get them. And of course, we have different
- 1:03:09situations when it comes to your life.
- 1:03:11You can have kids or don't have them.
- 1:03:12You can live in a certain part of the world or not.
- 1:03:16You can have different positions and different task lists,
- 1:03:18different roles that you have. But we all have 24/7.
- 1:03:22So it's not about the time. And the will of conflict is
- 1:03:25showing you where you are losing your time and how you can get it
- 1:03:30back because you go into the wrong directions when it comes
- 1:03:33to using it and you're wasting so much time.
- 1:03:36Don't miss communication in conflicts because you don't
- 1:03:39tailor your communication. And we're circle back to
- 1:03:41communication intelligence very freely.
- 1:03:45Wow. What goes around comes around
- 1:03:48having that full circle around, yeah, communication is still, it
- 1:03:53still senses back on communication.
- 1:03:56Whatever model you're looking at, whether you're looking at
- 1:03:59ECM, you're looking at BIOS breeds, you're looking at even
- 1:04:02the pipeline of languages. I just ways of compute the Asia.
- 1:04:08So you know, when you are actually helping these leaders,
- 1:04:16basically what you're doing is you're breaching a gap, right?
- 1:04:22Of course, as a consultant, you are brought in to solve a
- 1:04:26problem and that is the mindset. You know, I am a consultant as
- 1:04:32well. I remember work with the BIG4
- 1:04:34accounts and fans PWCKPMG. They tell us the reason why
- 1:04:39these guys bring you to their offices is 'cause they have a
- 1:04:43problem that they cannot solve on their own and they need you
- 1:04:47to solve it. If you're basically bridging
- 1:04:50gaps, being a consultant, even though you have very high level
- 1:05:00academic qualifications and of course also professional, you
- 1:05:05know, certifications, you and me, we both know that theory is
- 1:05:09different from practise. They teach you something is
- 1:05:12cool, but when you get into practise, it's a different ball
- 1:05:17game. How do you help bridge that gap
- 1:05:19between academic psychology and first real world leadership
- 1:05:24challenges? And of course, I love love for
- 1:05:26you to give us examples of how understanding team psychology
- 1:05:31can lead to specific positive outcomes.
- 1:05:35Yeah, So 80% of what I do is practise.
- 1:05:40So it is super important for me. I'm not a theoretical person.
- 1:05:44I love a good theory, of course, but it is super important for me
- 1:05:48for people to to train themselves.
- 1:05:50And as an example, like it was like last month or something,
- 1:05:54one organisation approached me. It is one one of the biggest
- 1:05:57tech organisations in Poland and they asked me about.
- 1:06:02Hi Alex, we, we just need some communication workshop, you
- 1:06:06know, one they think and because we are OK, but we need something
- 1:06:10that people can experience. We have some budget left for the
- 1:06:13year. So let's do something like that.
- 1:06:15And every single time when I have a situation like that, I
- 1:06:19start to dig deeper into what is under the surface.
- 1:06:22Because if they are saying that we are OK, we have some budget
- 1:06:26left. We want for team to do something
- 1:06:28together, to meet on side, to have lunch together or dinner or
- 1:06:32something. And aside of all of that, they
- 1:06:35have a workshop that they have. We love your energy, we love
- 1:06:38what you're doing and you are trained as a person in tech, so
- 1:06:43it fits. And what I did is to start
- 1:06:45talking with every single team member or 10 people in a team.
- 1:06:50And we've started just to talk just a quick meet and greets,
- 1:06:54like 30 minutes a conversation or something.
- 1:06:56And they started to, and I don't know about you, but I, I don't
- 1:07:01know if it's a gift, quote unquote or a curse, but I have
- 1:07:06something in myself that I meet somebody and we talk for 10
- 1:07:11minutes and I have the whole story of the lives, the Horror
- 1:07:15Story. They're all, the whole situation
- 1:07:19at home, their health situation. And I'm not even asking, OK,
- 1:07:24let's be honest here. But I don't know if it's
- 1:07:27something in me that invites them to share it's.
- 1:07:30Something in US? I think I you know I.
- 1:07:34And that is why you're also a podcaster.
- 1:07:36That is why you're also a podcast.
- 1:07:39That's true and. We get stories without even
- 1:07:43asking. And then, you know, they talk
- 1:07:44and talk, and then they say, wow, you made me say so much.
- 1:07:50I didn't. I'm actually didn't.
- 1:07:52Yeah, that's that's true. And you know, I have I have it.
- 1:07:56It happens all the time. And that, you know, I, I have
- 1:07:59this hypothesis that people just don't have other people to talk
- 1:08:02to. And that's why they have a
- 1:08:04person like that, that actually is listening and no phone, the
- 1:08:07phone is, is somewhere there. And I'm, I'm really curious
- 1:08:12about yourself as a person. It gives them a space that they
- 1:08:15don't have on a daily basis. I have this hypothesis and I'm
- 1:08:17testing it right now. But hey, so I'm coming back to
- 1:08:20the story. I start talking to those people
- 1:08:23and they start talking to me about different situations and
- 1:08:26different problems. And there I see the patterns.
- 1:08:29I see the patterns that there is no feedback, there is no trust,
- 1:08:32there is no recognition that is tailored to what they need and
- 1:08:35not what the leadership or organisation did set as a
- 1:08:39framework for the team. And I come back to into the
- 1:08:43stakeholders, let's put in the name like that on them.
- 1:08:46And I say, hey, I know that you came to me with a need like
- 1:08:49that, but I see that of course I can do it if you want.
- 1:08:54But I would take three steps back and address this, this and
- 1:09:00this before we go into your need.
- 1:09:03And they were like, how do you know that?
- 1:09:06And like I was like, yeah, people and I saw the pattern and
- 1:09:11I can come to you with a solution because it's, it's like
- 1:09:15we can train people on communication, let's put it that
- 1:09:17way. It is always beneficial.
- 1:09:20It will be always beneficial. So they train on themselves,
- 1:09:22they train on communication between themselves, etcetera.
- 1:09:26But you have problems on that process level of the contracting
- 1:09:30level. You have frameworks at place
- 1:09:32that are not a fit to a team like that.
- 1:09:35They need something else and before we go further, I advise
- 1:09:40you to take care of it and we can do it together.
- 1:09:42You can do it on your own. I always do it like that.
- 1:09:45I'm never pushing that. You need to do everything with
- 1:09:47me. I'm not an expert in everything
- 1:09:49of course. So I told them that this is what
- 1:09:52I can do for you. I do it.
- 1:09:53I would do it in this in this order and then we can do the
- 1:09:57communication or we can do the communication workshop or growth
- 1:10:00programme or whatever. So they were so shocked that
- 1:10:05they ended a call. So they, they told me they'd
- 1:10:09need time and I said OK, tell me whatever.
- 1:10:12And they called me like 2 weeks after or something like that.
- 1:10:17And they say, Alex, thank you for your honesty.
- 1:10:18Nobody ever told us something like that.
- 1:10:22And we want to do it your way, we want to try it.
- 1:10:25We don't know what is going to happen.
- 1:10:27We need to be careful because our organisation has difference
- 1:10:30policies and then processes etcetera.
- 1:10:33But we want to try and we've already started.
- 1:10:36So it is always something underneath the surface.
- 1:10:41You know, as and as you mentioned as consultants we
- 1:10:44have, we have different things that we can see because we are
- 1:10:49not inside of the of the system all the time.
- 1:10:52So we have different different perspective.
- 1:10:56And that's why myself and my Co host have grown the lens so that
- 1:11:01we can see very well into your organisation.
- 1:11:05That's true. That's true.
- 1:11:06And sometimes it's crucial just to ask one question that nobody
- 1:11:11ever asked before. That's this is what happened
- 1:11:14with this disorganisation that I just gave you the example about.
- 1:11:18The ability to ask proving questions is very very
- 1:11:21important. I'm going to give it over to my
- 1:11:23Co host to ask you questions about team building excellence.
- 1:11:28But before I do that I need to appreciate your skills anyways.
- 1:11:35Layman skills. I'm sorry, Lemon skills Le Mans
- 1:11:44coaching from team building. Asides from engineering, asides
- 1:11:50from music, you are also talented with improv comedy.
- 1:11:56You know how to mimic people. You switch voices and tones and
- 1:12:02cadence call. Give it up for the world's best
- 1:12:05Alexander Lemansko. You know it's.
- 1:12:10Always good to, to have, you know, the, the, the Plan B when
- 1:12:15it comes to the business, right? I'll switch peers a little bit.
- 1:12:19I'm going to hand you over to the world best in music and
- 1:12:23marketing and sales experts, Noella Rook.
- 1:12:32So you've spoken a lot about your background in HR and how
- 1:12:36kind of you bridge the gap between engineering and
- 1:12:40analytics and even have a having a musical brain and creating
- 1:12:44this insane, this insane leadership method that is, it's
- 1:12:50so funny. A lot of the most productive
- 1:12:54methods, I always call them simple, but not easy.
- 1:13:00You know what I mean? Like the structure of it is so
- 1:13:02simple, but as humans, we overcomplicate our minds and we
- 1:13:06overcomplicate our thinking and overcomplicate just the way to
- 1:13:09success. So when it comes to, I feel like
- 1:13:14everybody deals with this at some point.
- 1:13:17And with your background in HR, you're most likely an expert on
- 1:13:22this. How do you create environments
- 1:13:26or how do you help leaders foster environments where teams
- 1:13:29are thriving to the point where you know it's reducing turnover
- 1:13:34and increasing productivity at the same time?
- 1:13:37Because like you said earlier, when we're building teams, it's
- 1:13:41not necessarily productive to have all rock stars or all, you
- 1:13:46know, that one type of person. We are structuring our teams to
- 1:13:49be a whole force, a whole system, a whole machine.
- 1:13:55But how do you make sure that every part of that team, you
- 1:13:59know, feels included to where turnover isn't an issue and
- 1:14:03productivity isn't, you know, suffering?
- 1:14:07Yeah, I'm going to going to simplify it as the ocean to make
- 1:14:13them simple. Not easy, because if you ask
- 1:14:16different leaders, you have this checklist.
- 1:14:18Do you do it all, myself included, as a leader?
- 1:14:21And of course I'm not doing all of those things all the time.
- 1:14:26Mm Hmm. Of course, I'm not somebody
- 1:14:28who's perfect, but I do my best. So I would simplify it to three
- 1:14:32main things that I see the patterns again and I see that
- 1:14:36it's working. The first thing to do when
- 1:14:39you're building an environment for people that can thrive, it
- 1:14:42can be effective is what I mentioned before, is to do good
- 1:14:46contracting so people know what they do, what they not do, and
- 1:14:52this is important, what is in their scope of responsibilities
- 1:14:56and where they make decisions. So they are not wasting time on
- 1:15:01asking around or wondering or looking for information or
- 1:15:05making meeting to the meeting, to the meeting to the meeting
- 1:15:08and they're wasting so much time.
- 1:15:10So this is what I do as a leader as well.
- 1:15:12First of all, good contract for the scope overall.
- 1:15:17It is not like we did recruit this person.
- 1:15:19So they supposed to know from the recruitment process what is
- 1:15:22in their scope because the three of us know and I'm sure that all
- 1:15:25of the people that are listening know that the recruiting process
- 1:15:28is the marketing process. Both sides are giving their
- 1:15:31best, but not remembering a thing from the conversations
- 1:15:36that actually had. So it's needed at the very
- 1:15:39beginning of the of their cooperation to set the rules.
- 1:15:43And it's about processes, it's about procedures, it's about the
- 1:15:47tools that we are we are using. It's about how we communicate
- 1:15:50what kind of tools we are we are using for project management,
- 1:15:53for the management of the specialists role that they are
- 1:15:57doing. So this is the first and
- 1:15:58foremost thing. The second thing is to tailor
- 1:16:02your communication. I'm going to be boring about it,
- 1:16:05but it's about people need to be seen.
- 1:16:08And if you as a leader, you're not, if you don't know who is a
- 1:16:12person in front of you, who are you leading?
- 1:16:15Who is in your team? What are the preferences?
- 1:16:17What is the team map? What is the quake of
- 1:16:20communication they need? What is the way of working they
- 1:16:23need, because some people need to work alone on their own.
- 1:16:27Some people need to work in a huge group and the huge open
- 1:16:31space on side because without that they're not efficient.
- 1:16:34Some people will work well in a small group, 234 people, and you
- 1:16:39need to know who your people are as a leader to make this
- 1:16:43environment work for them because sometimes people, and
- 1:16:46this is my experience as a leader.
- 1:16:48I had the assistant, it was like 2 years ago, a year ago as well.
- 1:16:53And I made those mistakes on my own as well.
- 1:16:56So I teach people how to not do it.
- 1:16:57I had a person who preferred to work with people and he had a
- 1:17:03background in a corporate world and he was used to work with
- 1:17:06others and with me is a remote work.
- 1:17:08We see each other like from time to time.
- 1:17:11And he didn't deliver his work, not because he didn't know how
- 1:17:14to do it, because he was incompetent.
- 1:17:16He was fully competent, but his preferences of working with
- 1:17:20people and contact was so strong that he was frustrated all the
- 1:17:24time. And it influenced his, his, his
- 1:17:26creative creativity and efficiency and effectiveness.
- 1:17:30So this is the second thing. Tailor your communication, know
- 1:17:33your people. And this is connected with
- 1:17:35delegation, feedback, recognition, goal setting,
- 1:17:39execution of goals, growth, growth goals, everything that is
- 1:17:43connected with, with a person's journey in your organisation.
- 1:17:45So this is the second thing. The third thing, don't be afraid
- 1:17:50of letting people go. Yes, we are tend to to to stick
- 1:17:56with people who we deeply we know that are not a fit, that
- 1:18:03are not a person with a skill set, mindset and tool set the.
- 1:18:09Mindset first. The mindset first, always.
- 1:18:14Of course, we we know after working with them for a couple
- 1:18:17of months or a year, years even, that they're not a good fit for
- 1:18:23the team, for the role, for the products, for the organisation
- 1:18:25itself. Sometimes there is a misfit when
- 1:18:27it comes to the culture because the values are different, so
- 1:18:30much different that a person is suffering and the organisation
- 1:18:34is suffering, the clients are suffering.
- 1:18:36So it is not selfish. It is not.
- 1:18:39If you did everything you could have and it's crossed everything
- 1:18:43from the list above, it is OK to have this conversation and just
- 1:18:47to support a person in the transition to another team or
- 1:18:49another organisation. And people are so afraid of
- 1:18:53doing it because they they're so afraid that they're going to
- 1:18:56hurt others and they're going to crush them.
- 1:18:59But it's really depends on how you're doing it and why you're
- 1:19:02doing it. So, and I did this mistake in my
- 1:19:05past as a leader as well. So I'm saying in out loud right
- 1:19:09now, don't be afraid of doing it.
- 1:19:11Of course, not the first thing you're doing, don't get me wrong
- 1:19:13here. But sometimes it's just it, it's
- 1:19:17just a, it's just a misfit. And you cannot measure
- 1:19:20everything during the recruitment process because it's
- 1:19:23just not possible. You kind of measure everything.
- 1:19:25I'm going to see something before that comes back.
- 1:19:29You said that the recruitment process is like marketing and
- 1:19:33you know ages like you're talking about Noella's work.
- 1:19:36Noella is the best marketing expert in the world.
- 1:19:38Nobody can tell me anything about that.
- 1:19:41If you have a problem, go report me to the British police.
- 1:19:47But you know, the interesting thing is what if I lied of I see
- 1:19:51that I can speak Polish and now Alexandra is asking me
- 1:19:55questions. The only thing I can say is
- 1:19:56Jindobra. Jindobra.
- 1:19:59A good start now don't don't be too harsh on yourself.
- 1:20:02I see a lot of jokes on the Internet these days when I light
- 1:20:05up my CVI can do this. And then yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:20:08I just had to put that in. Over to you, Noella.
- 1:20:14A couple things kind of lit me up a little bit.
- 1:20:18So mainly I just wanted to touch on how you're speaking about not
- 1:20:26being afraid to let people go. It kind of made me think a
- 1:20:30couple things about just from like a leadership standpoint,
- 1:20:33kind of, I guess what I wanted to start with is that as a
- 1:20:39leader, it's so interesting because if you're not able,
- 1:20:44well, first of all, if you're not in alignment with the
- 1:20:47overall vision and you're not committed to the overall vision,
- 1:20:51you won't be able to let people go.
- 1:20:54So if you don't, if you're not, I guess 100% clear on where
- 1:20:58you're going as a company or what the goals are or even what
- 1:21:01the branding is. You've worked with a lot of
- 1:21:03startups. When you're in that rapid phase,
- 1:21:06you have to be super clear on kind of what your goals are,
- 1:21:12what your mission is, what your purpose is, and what you're
- 1:21:15doing. So I think it's really important
- 1:21:18to be clear on that so you can let people go in the correct
- 1:21:23time. And I think you're 100% right
- 1:21:26when it comes to saying people are scared of hurting each
- 1:21:29other's feelings and stuff like that.
- 1:21:31It's really interesting when you're able.
- 1:21:34It's when you're not able to let the right people go and you keep
- 1:21:38the wrong people, your turnover can absolutely be higher.
- 1:21:43And then the right people will quit, You know what I mean?
- 1:21:47Because they come in and they think the culture, they're super
- 1:21:50excited to come in. Maybe they have meetings, you
- 1:21:53know, with the head HR person who's super clear on the
- 1:21:56mission, or they have meetings with the CEO or, you know, the
- 1:22:00top leaders, whatever. Then they come in.
- 1:22:03But we haven't had that same standard trickle down into the
- 1:22:06rest of the team. And you have someone who has a
- 1:22:09certain expectation, like, OK, I'm so excited to come in.
- 1:22:13We're going to crush these goals.
- 1:22:14We're going to do XYZ and I'm going to grow or we're going to
- 1:22:17change lives or, you know, whatever, or I'm going to come
- 1:22:20in here and do the best paperwork, you know, whatever it
- 1:22:22is. Maybe they're not like training
- 1:22:24and stuff like that. Maybe they are more
- 1:22:26administrative. But Even so, that can lead to
- 1:22:29higher turnover just because the people that are aligned, you
- 1:22:33know, kind of bring it, bring it down a little bit.
- 1:22:36So I think that's so interesting and so important to kind of be
- 1:22:42in alignment and not be afraid just because if you don't, it
- 1:22:46could just lead to more turnover and lead to even worse, you
- 1:22:51know, production and the and the team.
- 1:22:54So that's really good insight for sure.
- 1:22:56I just loved loved hearing you speak on that.
- 1:23:01And then with that, I guess are there any misconceptions, I
- 1:23:06guess about team building that you address with the method that
- 1:23:10you're working with right now? I feel like like you said, you
- 1:23:13mostly you're so good at what you do and we become so good at
- 1:23:17what we do because we fail and we're not kind of scared to
- 1:23:21fail. So what are kind of the
- 1:23:23misconceptions that people face with this method and that they
- 1:23:27work through? I think the first one, and I
- 1:23:31want to stay here a little bit because it's about diversity.
- 1:23:36I guess we, we were taught as leaders for years that you need
- 1:23:40to build a diversity, that the more diversity you have in a
- 1:23:43team, the better for everybody. And the leaders started doing
- 1:23:47that. And what I see right now is that
- 1:23:50people are so tired of this world in overall, this world in
- 1:23:55overall that they, they did quit doing that because it's easier
- 1:23:58for us to work with people who are similar to us because they
- 1:24:02have the same preferences of similar preferences.
- 1:24:04They work in a similar way, they have similar preferences when it
- 1:24:08comes to work environment. They have similar needs
- 1:24:11basically. And what what I address with the
- 1:24:15method is that you'll build diverse teams, but people need
- 1:24:22to have something in common. If they are so diverse that they
- 1:24:27have nothing in common, it's almost impossible for them to
- 1:24:31get along and it will cost a lot of effort, energy, time,
- 1:24:36stretch, learning for them to, to go into the level of
- 1:24:41understanding each other so well that they they work together
- 1:24:46well as as they are so diverse. So we are working on creating
- 1:24:51teams and team building based on yes, you need different talents,
- 1:24:56you need different skills. Do you need different pieces of
- 1:24:58mindsets? Sometimes you need people who
- 1:25:00are going to hate what you are, what you are doing because they
- 1:25:03need to tell you need to be challenged, they need to
- 1:25:07challenge the status quo that you are giving them and so on.
- 1:25:09But then what you, what you mentioned, Allah is about having
- 1:25:14the common goals. This is the first thing.
- 1:25:16So we know, we know, we know all know where we're going, why we
- 1:25:21are doing it. So what is the value that we are
- 1:25:22creating? So this is this is it and who is
- 1:25:25doing what again to the contracting part.
- 1:25:27So one of the biggest misconceptions for me is that
- 1:25:30this is we need to be so diverse, as diverse as possible.
- 1:25:33And this is not true. So this is the first one.
- 1:25:36The second one is A1 size fizzle.
- 1:25:38If I learned one tool, 1 framework, an approach, it is
- 1:25:43going to be copy and paste and it's going to be working all the
- 1:25:47time. And it is so wrong.
- 1:25:49That's my heart is bleeding right.
- 1:25:51And I see how people are coping and paste and pasting the tools
- 1:25:56that can be amazingly well used, but they're using them wrong and
- 1:26:01they're not working and they map on the tools and the tools are
- 1:26:04crappy. I'm not going to use them
- 1:26:06anymore. And it's not about the tool.
- 1:26:08It's never about the tool. It's about how you implement it.
- 1:26:12And that that's why you need bigger toolkit for you to take
- 1:26:17what you need and to fit it too much it into certain situation.
- 1:26:22This is the second. No, again it is not run
- 1:26:26breaking. You know discovery that there is
- 1:26:28no such thing and was as visual, but you would be surprised how
- 1:26:32many people are doing it. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you.
- 1:26:36In Nigeria we have a proverb. That proverb says a lazy man all
- 1:26:40his beams, his tool. A lazy farmer, all his beams,
- 1:26:42his tool. Yeah, always.
- 1:26:45Because it's easy, right? It's easy and there's a tool.
- 1:26:48I learned the tool. The tool doesn't work.
- 1:26:50There's a crappy tool. Easy peasy, right?
- 1:26:53Yeah, that's what you know, lazy people do the blended tools, but
- 1:26:59mindset skill set of tool set. Absolutely, absolutely.
- 1:27:07So I guess my next question is I'm going to kick it back over
- 1:27:16to AI to see where he wants to take it.
- 1:27:19OK, I just wanted to say that I have 7 more minutes so.
- 1:27:24Building relationships with people who understand global
- 1:27:28impact for sure, because that's a pillar of what we do.
- 1:27:32And obviously leadership in general just trickles down into
- 1:27:36every area of success. So it's, you know, we really
- 1:27:39appreciate having you and hearing what you have to say.
- 1:27:43There's like you said, we could talk about this for hours and
- 1:27:46hours and hours. And it's so important.
- 1:27:48It's incredibly important. And it's so funny just to talk
- 1:27:54about things that are can be so simple, can be simple, but are
- 1:27:58not necessarily easy to implement.
- 1:28:00But it impacts culture and leadership in just the success
- 1:28:04of all the businesses that we want to thrive just around the
- 1:28:08world. So it's so great to have you, so
- 1:28:11great to hear about your expertise.
- 1:28:14And honestly, it's just fun to talk to you because we're pretty
- 1:28:18similar. Like, you know, we're all
- 1:28:20analytical people, we're all musical people.
- 1:28:23So it's and we're all, I call it kind of try hard.
- 1:28:27So like we're if we're going to do something, we do it very
- 1:28:32passionately. You know, I can tell that about
- 1:28:34you. It is very passionate.
- 1:28:35So that's amazing to have. We love to hear and I know our
- 1:28:39audience needs to connect with that because that's another
- 1:28:42thing too is when it comes to leadership, sometimes there is
- 1:28:47this strange, strange notion sometimes where you have to like
- 1:28:54have a certain like a certain mask to where you have to be
- 1:28:59strong or be whatever, you know, whatever it is, depending on the
- 1:29:03industry you're in. We have a lot of tech people,
- 1:29:05lot of tech people that TuneIn and I love to speak
- 1:29:10passionately, speak openly about what really leads teams.
- 1:29:15Hang on. I think my daughter is yelling
- 1:29:17for me so I'm going to mute my mic really quick.
- 1:29:19Authenticity is key. Authenticity is really, really
- 1:29:24key to what would you. And of course, you know, that's
- 1:29:26one of the reasons why we really, really appreciate you.
- 1:29:29I'll put you through a quick fire round real quick so that we
- 1:29:32can get your testimonial on the podcast as well.
- 1:29:36So what is one word, just one word that describes your
- 1:29:42leadership style? Authenticity.
- 1:29:47Whoa. You stole my word.
- 1:29:51You stole my word. We need to bring a war to
- 1:29:55Warsaw. Because when Poland saw war,
- 1:29:58they ride. Whoa.
- 1:30:00OK, who's the leader? Past or present you deeply
- 1:30:04admire? Then why?
- 1:30:09You know, I, I think it may be an outrageous answer, but I
- 1:30:14admire Elon Musk and not a person, yes, but what he does,
- 1:30:20the intellect, what he does with all those businesses that he's
- 1:30:23running, I admire that. Yeah, I love that.
- 1:30:28We we will do great business together.
- 1:30:30The crash, there's something, there's something.
- 1:30:32I honestly is very important to be able to separate the artist
- 1:30:37from the art. And that's exactly what you have
- 1:30:40done. A lot of people don't have that
- 1:30:42ability. So.
- 1:30:43And of course, the three of us have that ability to separate
- 1:30:46the artist from the art. And yeah, we, we we really,
- 1:30:49really appreciate you. OK, So if you could give your
- 1:30:54younger self a piece of advice, what would that be?
- 1:31:03I think that I would tell her to let go more, so let's go more of
- 1:31:11the beliefs I have, the desires I have, the dreams I have
- 1:31:16because they're mine and not all the people that are around me
- 1:31:20have the same ones and that's OK.
- 1:31:22So at this juncture, I want to say very, very big thank you to
- 1:31:26you. I want to see this on the
- 1:31:28podcast when a person shares the time with you to share their
- 1:31:32life with you because the SI unit for measure in life is
- 1:31:35time. And of course, love and respect
- 1:31:37to you. Been on the show today, Noella,
- 1:31:41at the last words. And of course, if you want to
- 1:31:43give a shout out to anybody, let us know.
- 1:31:46Yeah, I just want to definitely thank you so much for your time.
- 1:31:51It's honestly been amazing to hear you.
- 1:31:53I know our audiences, so I don't want to say thirsty, but yes,
- 1:31:59thirsty for this type of knowledge.
- 1:32:01We're all passionate people for sure.
- 1:32:04And having that expertise and having these systems are just
- 1:32:08imperative for whatever industry we're in right now, whatever
- 1:32:11phase of business we're in right now.
- 1:32:13So just thank you so much for spending time with us and giving
- 1:32:16so much knowledge, so much experience, and so much of your
- 1:32:20energy. It's really appreciated.
- 1:32:22You're such a pleasure to have, so thank you so much.
- 1:32:25I guess my only other. Yeah, I would love to maybe even
- 1:32:29book another session to do the second part because we would
- 1:32:31just like we could just talk forever, forever about
- 1:32:35leadership. So yeah, if we can, absolutely.
- 1:32:38But it's just been such a pleasure either way.
- 1:32:42The pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me.
- 1:32:43And you know what? I love talking with other
- 1:32:46passionate people about shared passion.
- 1:32:48So creative value together. 1 + 1 + 1 is more than three in our
- 1:32:52case. So thank you for having me.
- 1:32:54Boom, boom, boom, boom. Let's go to the audience, guys.
- 1:32:58Guys go like, subscribe, share, share with your, your, your
- 1:33:02family members, your friends, even your exes, right?
- 1:33:05And your enemies. Just keep sharing.
- 1:33:09Sharing is goodbye from us guys.