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The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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or its employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
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be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
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W FOURCY Radio.
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Good morning, good afternoon, good evening for anyone who is
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tapping in from around the globe. Actually, I just got
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back from South America, which was incredible, and seeing the
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glaciers and the mountains and the power of nature was unbelievable.
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And that's why I'm one of the reasons why I'm
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excited to have my guest today, Zachary Aimes. Zachary is
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a phenomenal leader. He has done many, many great things.
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And I guess the reference to the mountains is he's
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a fabulous downhill skier in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah,
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which I happen to love. And Zachary is also a
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global executive coach. He works with the Marshall Goldsmith Group,
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He's developed a local leadership program, He's worked with Bloomberg.
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He's just done some phenomenal, phenomenal stuff and he continues
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to serve as clients, which is great. So with that,
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I'd like to invite Zachary on the show.
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Thank you for having me.
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What made you work?
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Move to wasatch Utah? What made you go out there?
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So it's not that big of a surprise.
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I do think many people wonder why or how I
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ended up here, but I was born and raised here,
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so that was not an unusual place for me to
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eventually land. But in terms of why I'm here now,
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after about fifteen years in corporate leadership talent development roles,
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about ten years in New York, four years in Singapore,
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I was there part of what we're talking about with
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the great millennial career crisis. So I had been in
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my roles at Bloomberg, as you mentioned for a minute,
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took me all over and had a great opportunity while
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in Singapore to be a regional talent partner and it
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was also mid COVID and so I left both my
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career back and as well as Asia left the corporate
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side of things and decided to start my own practice
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of coaching and consulting, and came here thought it would
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be a safe soft landing mid COVID. What actually ended
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up happening was I have now a dog, a house,
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and as you did a ski pass.
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So Zach great.
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Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, what you know,
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what really drew you to leadership development and coaching?
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What was the what was the real draw for you?
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It's interesting many people in our field of work that
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both you and I do. Someone will maybe rise through
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the ranks and come in sideways and realize later on
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that they were a great mentor, or maybe they were
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great at sales. And I came and did some sales
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training my experience, I knew that this is the work
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I always wanted to do. I think that sits kind
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of in two spaces. One from a younger age. I
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was doing leadership talent development, unaware that it was a career,
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and just loved going to junior leadership conferences. I was
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able to travel the country and I'm very used to
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standing in a room with you know, four flip charts
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and markers and just loved that world and again, but
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didn't know that this was a thing I could eventually
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do over time. The other piece of it, in terms
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of why I've also dedicated my life to it. The
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more that I continued down the path and read those books,
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I was a total nerd, and as you can see,
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I'm surrounded by them.
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That was what I would ask for.
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For Christmas and birthdays was you know, Jim Collins, good
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to great, pretty dense for a teenager, But that's what
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I thought was some fun literature.
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But I think for me, the through line.
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Has always been, when I think about it, there's been
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no great thing accomplished in this world without leadership. So
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for me, it's my ability to not just help individuals,
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which is highly rewarding, but also recognizing that my small
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little pebble in the lake is also wildly helpful in
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terms of the larger ripple effect that it can have
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in the world.
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Wow, So what did you see?
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Are the biggest gaps in leaders that you found are
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sort of consistent across the board or aren't there any?
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I mean, I think there are plenty in some way, right.
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I think everyone myself included, and knowing the career you've had,
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none of us are without some sort of gap, right.
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I think that is part of the beauty of the
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process of leadership and our growth and development throughout it,
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and that ability, I think is what gives many of
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us our empathy to understand how to help and grow
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and develop others.
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I do think there are some.
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Unique challenges that are being faced right now within our
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current environment with the onslaught of things like AI and
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the massive, massive or rapid I guess pace of technology
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changes that sometimes the old rules so no longer fit
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our modern environment. I think that's one of the bigger
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challenges is the expectations of Again, each of the different
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generations coming into the workplace have looked different, and therefore
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the leadership requirements to help those behind them have had
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to look different as well. So I think there's a
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lot of things, and we could pick in, you know,
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a number of them to deep dive, But yeah, I
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think everyone faces some unique challenges based on the current
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environment and more importantly their relationship to it.
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Did you see any you know, I know you've worked
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in Singapore, and I know you've worked in the US,
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and you know, around the world, But do you see
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any major differences that come about as a result of
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either country culture or organizational culture.
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Yeah, I think it's an interesting one where we are
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getting I think, more and more streamlined in terms of
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our access and capabilities with each other across the world,
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which in many ways is fantastic. And then I also
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really love the fact that there are some differences. One
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of the things I noted, even for myself, was needing
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to make some adjustments in my own communication style coming
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from New York headquarters, where it was loud and bustling
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and very direct and what's the next thing, and jump
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in and say your piece, right, and then Singapore in particular,
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but you know, not hopefully too broad of a suite,
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but across most of Asia, right, the style of communication
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is a little slower. It's a lot more listening, it's
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taking your turn. It has different nuances to it, which
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were critical even for my own success. To make sure
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that during the day I approached my colleagues in a
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certain manner, and then when I would get on those
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late night phone calls back with my team in New York,
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I made sure I jumped in. It was one of
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my rules. In the first two to three minutes, I
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had to make sure my voice was heard on a
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call because it would be easy to get lost in
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the background, And so that knee and mix for approaching
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our styles and our cultures and our communities differently was
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vastly critical. And it was also really fun in my
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role to help teach other people how to be successful
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on that global stage.
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So what did it mean to speak up?
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What did it mean to fight for your ideas and
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your opinions, and even quite frankly, sometimes how to be
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comfortable cutting somebody off.
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So, so you know you are a millennial, I mean
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you say that, do you find that any challenges for
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you when you're coaching older executives?
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Or you know, has that been a challenge for you?
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And the second part of that question is do you
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coach any other millennials or people that are younger?
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So two questions.
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Yeah, so for those that are a bit older than me,
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I personally have not found it to be that big
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of a difference. I think the beauty of the container
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of coaching is it's not my job to give you answers.
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So if the question is right, do I have I
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been in your shoes? Or do I know your challenges?
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Or what's the advice I would give quite often that's
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not part of the agreement anyway, But I can say
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what's coming to mind actually, for one in particular individual,
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is that was a lot of the initial idea of
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their coaching was they were concerned about how to work
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with and manage a younger generation, the needs and demands
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and you know, not wanting to say the wrong thing
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at the wrong time, and feeling that younger generations might
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be a bit more sensitive and was really open and
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receptive to certain perspectives. But what was interesting is by
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the end of that coaching engagement, that was his number
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one piece of feedback was Wow, I thought we were
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going to talk about this, and we talked about all
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these other things. And I think that goes back to
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this idea that yes, we all might have some gaps
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in our leadership, but for most, for most of us, right,
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I think leadership is is really very very similar and
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mostly the same. It's one of the things I used
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to joke with one of my old HR colleagues, right
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that people are people, and as long as there are
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people in the workforce, you're going to need leadership, and
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there's going to be some of those challenges. And then yes,
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I think I've also been really lucky in the sense
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of helping. Actually, I'm about to just finish a six
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month coaching engagement with a fellow millennial pivoting in their
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career as well and really identifying again some of these
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big moments that they're tackling within this millennial career crisis
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of what do I do next? Here is what I
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thought was going to be and I don't know how
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to manage certain things. So yeah, it's been a fun
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experience being able to help on both sides.
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Wow, what do you think is from your experience is
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the secret sauce of great leadership?
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What is really that secret sauce?
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Yeah? For me, I think there's two things I will
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comment on. The first is recognizing, again as noted, that
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people are people. When you really stop and think about
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the best leader you've ever had. This is actually a
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fun exercise I will often do in groups is talk
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about the best boss and the worst boss. And when
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we think about these great leaders, the list is rarely,
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rarely does it include great project management skills, delivered everything
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on time, we were under budget, right, That is not
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the things that people list. What they really say is
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that they were open, they were listening, They cared about me,
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They respected who I was, They were open to ideas
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right they themselves were a person. But more importantly, they
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recognized their team members as people and these human needs
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that we have. And then the second one I will
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note from zooming out, not necessarily from their direct reports,
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but in terms of what the conditions and the environment
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are currently asking for. I've been doing a lot of
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work in adaptability, shifting away from the traditional change management,
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recognizing that things are constantly happening, constantly in change and influx.
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And so the main characteristic we are seeing, and there's
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a lot of different research out there that's supporting this
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right now, is the idea of adaptability, that characteristic of
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can I pivot, I've got new information, how do we
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move forward? And that idea or concept I think has
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been quite revolutionary, especially in the face of what many
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are you know, considering this idea of burnout we're seeing
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in big numbers and stress. But a lot of that,
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again is the condition assuming we're going from X and
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now we're going to Y, and now we have you know,
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sub bullets and dot point O and all these things
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in between that X and the Y, and sometimes we decide,
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you know what, we don't want to go to Y.
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We're going to leak frog and get to Z. So
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those two things I think would be the most import
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and that I'm seeing consistently around what makes a great leader?
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Yeah, I mean you may have already answered this, but
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what do you think the biggest mistake? Well, it's two
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parts to this question. What do you think is the
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biggest mistake that leaders make? And what do you think
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is the hardest thing that leaders have to do to change?
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That is a very good and difficult question. Obviously, I
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think many of those things might be highly individualistic. That said,
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I do think quite often leaders can get in their
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own way, especially if they think they need to have
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all the answers. I think that is one of the
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most difficult transitions for a leader from that, you know,
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not just from the high performing individual contributor into a
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management role. That's kind of that first step of the ladder.
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But even when you're in that middle ground, you are