December 2022

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, we talk about entrepreneurship as a mindset and whether entrepreneurs are born or made. We talk about the transition from a functional or technical role to working with people, which every entrepreneur has to learn at one point. He shares the importance of appreciating people, self-awareness, and to have a healthy relationship with standing out from the crowd.

You can find Karl at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwfeilder/
• https://www.karlwfeilder.com/

In the interview, Karl shares

• Entrepreneurs are born and not made
• You could probably make a natural entrepreneur a little bit better, but I’m not sure you can train them from scratch. 
• My PhD thesis is that, um, entrepreneurism is an undiagnosed spectrum disorder. Uh, a little bit like autism or one of the other, um, psychological trades.
• My parents, uh, my mom and my stepfather, uh, in the end, took three jobs each in order to pay for me to get through school. Um, this led me to really, really want to succeed, but I think I had that natural drive.
• Rubbing shoulders with people that had got lots and lots of money when we didn’t, made me aspire to have more than I would’ve normally aspired for.
• It’s more about appreciating the people that are around you. And it’s definitely about enjoying the. Um, the destination, growing a company and then selling it.
• The growing is where all the fun is and, uh, that’s almost always about the people that you either work with as customers, as suppliers, or as your colleagues in the business. 
• The thing about building a business is always about the people, and you’re gonna need to employ some people that maybe have different skill sets from you and therefore different ways of communicating. But that still means you need them in the business, and you’ve gotta be able to identify your own weaknesses and recruit people that complement those.
• The thing about being an entrepreneur is you really got to believe in yourself. Um, in many ways being a CEO and being an entrepreneur are similar in that they’re both very, very lonely jobs. 

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, we discuss how growth and growing hurts, and why is it important to be aware of that. He also shares the importance of staying balanced and having the support of a coach, and taking small breaks, and taking the right steps at the right moment when it comes to fast growth.

You can find Gernot at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/gernotschwendtner/
• https://www.wegrow.company/

In the interview, Gernot shares

• Growing hurts. So this is something I think it’s important to accept it and be aware of it. 
• It is important to stay balanced.
• We did one very useful exercise for ourself. We killed the company mentally, right? So we went through that process and said, What if, you know, like what would still be left? And we discovered a lot of network know how, personal assets, experience et, et cetera. So we could easily scale. Again, that set us mentally free and gave me a lot of freedom in saying like, Okay, now let’s buckle down all hands on deck.
• Yoga and meditation help me in a way where I can recognize my own stress level. So I become aware of it and I can try to let it go, or sometimes I need to live through it. And sometimes I had meetings where I need to get up and say, Excuse me, I really have to take a break now. And then I take, uh, five minutes, walk around the block, do the breathing, and then I come back and I say what I did, and we laugh about it.
• I can be like spiralling out of into the future and I’m, or around the other street corner and. I became aware in that moment of a pattern. So this is a strength but also a weakness. So what helps me is I need to have people around me who can help me keep the connection with the team and sometimes shake me and say like, Hey, Gernot um, the team needs that, has those issues, whereas I’m mentally maybe already a year or two years ahead.
• Fear is natural reaction, right? There are also some good things in it, um, in a way. That might make you aware of risks that you were not aware, but fear is one of the worst, uh, counselors if you make decisions based out of fear. They will never, never never be good decisions. You run away from things or you avoid things or whatsoever. 
• What helps me is, um, is a technique that I also learned in the last couple of years is it’s called shadow light on your fears or look at the monster under your bed, right when we were afraid, uh, maybe as kids that there was a monster, your bed, and then maybe our parents put the nightstand lamp and looked with you together.

This is the Can’t Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.

These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations – all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.

Together, we’ll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.

You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadership

• https://deployyourself.com/
• https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/
• https://deployyourself.com/newsletter
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/
• https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4all
• https://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumit
• https://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoach

Show Notes

• how often we numb ourselves down. Not to see the pain or the joy. in the person who is right next to us or in front of us. like, how often we numb ourselves to the pain and joy. of our closest friends of our Spouses. Of our. Children or parents. of our team-mates, of the people who report to us, or our own managers and bosses. And to take it a step beyond our customers. Our investors. Any other person, who is a stakeholder in what we are doing on a day-to-day basis.
• We busy ourselves about work about being smart about. Competing. With each other about beating each other, coming one up. About proving ourselves, right. Or proving somebody else wrong. And that we lose touch with what connects us are our hearts. and emotions 
• Because no matter, what you’re doing, the starting place is that connection. Right. The starting place of a family, the starting place of a team of an organization. Or a community. Is that connection? It is through that connection that we build a team. Not through a goal, which we set for the team. The team is created by that. Connection among people. Who can laugh and cry together. And then they can go after whatever goal they want to go. But it is our hearts and our emotions, which connect us as human beings as leaders. 
• And we talk, we plan, we discuss, we analyze, we do all of that. We talk about diversity. We talk about inclusion, emotions, emotional. Uh, intelligence trust relationships. Mental health these days. And yet we forget that trust relationship, inclusion. Empathy. Are all matters of the heart. 
• You cannot plan. Strategize. And analyze and create a trusting relationship. You can not build inclusion and empathy just by planning, strategizing. It is about being human. It is not about being smart. It is not about being intelligent. It is also not about being right. It is about being human. And realizing that we are already connected through our joys, our pains, our deepest desires, what we care about about most deeply. 
• Any result, If that takes you away from being connected as individuals. Then It is going to Impact the result that you are trying to produce. I, because it is so paradoxical that we get lost in the achieving, in the doing of the work that we ignore the foundation of that work. In the first place, which is that connection that we all have, which creates teams relationships. And then even organizations. 
• Whenever we feel whenever you feel, the pain and suffering, or even joy or celebration of somebody else. either sitting next to you or. sitting on another continent, It is a call and a reminder to your humanity. And by extension to your leadership. 
• It is important to move forward. That is what leadership is producing results. But. Not while forgetting that. The foundation of that, of any team, any business, any relationship, any result? Is that connection that we all have; is that emotion, that empathy that we have. And in moments like these, when we are talking about a tragedy
• And this is a wonderful In this case also painful reminder. That we are all connected. Our pain and suffering. And at the same time our joys and celebrations, unites us. That is what makes us human. That is what makes a team, a relationship and organization. And by extension all results. which you have committed to producing as a leader. 

This is the Can’t Stay Silent series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

For most of my life, I have kept my voice buried beneath layers of fear and insecurity. In each episode of this series, I will find the strength to express myself from the bottom of my heart.

These short episodes will be filled with honest reflections, simple stories and metaphors, and some gentle provocations – all to help you Deploy Yourself in your own life.

Together, we’ll discover how we can create a world where all of us can show up as leaders. So, if you are ready to allow the leader in you to bravely listen to my call of leadership, join me on Can’t Stay Silent.

You can find more about me & the Deploy Yourself School of Leadership

• https://deployyourself.com/
• https://www.deployyourself.com/podcast/
• https://deployyourself.com/newsletter
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit4all/
• https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4all
• https://www.youtube.com/@leadership-sumit
• https://www.tiktok.com/@sumitguptacoach

Show Notes

• We have the same two choices we can. Uh, we can look down and we can be afraid of falling. Or we can look up. To where we want to go. And. Take a flight.
• Looking at the sky, but not taking the flight. Serves no one. It doesn’t serve me. Doesn’t serve those around me.  Doesn’t serve the companies that I’m working with.
• There’s nothing wrong with it. There’s nothing wrong about it. Uh, feeling fear. There is nothing wrong with wanting security. Uh, but at the same time, it doesn’t help you get where you say that you want to go.
• obviously, in the physical world, we do not have wings like birds. Do. But I am talking from the context of leadership and in the leadership world. We do have wings. And perhaps we have never opened them. Perhaps we have never believed that we can fly. 
• Another way to ask this question. If you had wings, where would you fly to? Or if I stop using metaphorical language and use more direct language I can ask you – If you could not fail. What would you do? Or if you had complete freedom, what would you do?
• it’s not like the bird who flies doesn’t have fear. And it is not like, like the entrepreneur leader who goes after the impossible, and doesn’t have fear. But I don’t think I have been. More fearful. Uh, I have experienced fear more this year than any other year. 
• But at the same time, I have not stopped myself because of the fear. And that’s the difference between fear and courage or the fall or flight like the flight is acknowledging that. You can fall and still. Flying still opening up your wings and flying. 
• And it’s a choice. It’s a choice, what do you trust more? Do you trust gravity more or do you trust your commitment, your skill. That even if gravity wins it’s okay. Like, even if you fall down, you will get back up.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Simon spoke about the importance of respecting other people’s opinions, even if they are opposing ours. We spoke about continuously learning, the art form of working with people and building relationships, and how people are always wanting to do good, look good or feel good.

You can find Simon at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-godfrey/

In the interview, Simon shares

• I’m a serial learner. I love to learn things and read.
• My thirst for knowledge Is really what drives me.
• No two people are the same. People might dress similarly and look similar, but actually their motivations, their backgrounds, shape who they are really.
• People generally have three sorts of main motivators. They either want to do good, look good, or feel good about what they’re doing. 
• I take every interaction very seriously. One should always do one’s homework and make sure that one understand the people you are dealing with, whether that’s governmental, whether that’s political, whether that’s industrial or otherwise.
• You’ve gotta be likeable. I mean, you’ve got to, you know, genuinely show interest. You’ve gotta be inquisitive in your nature and you’ve gotta ask lots of questions that aren’t deeply personal necessarily, but are informative.
• The evidence really matters and being authentic and then saying to people, Here’s my evidence trail or my vapour trail of evidence and things I’ve done. So judge me on that. Don’t just judge me on what we’re doing here right now.
• I write a lot of poetry. Um, and I find it very therapeutic. I dunno, I must, I’m 200 poems some of them are brilliant in my own mind. Some of the just are slightly average, but nevertheless, they’re all heartfelt and they were all written with a purpose in mind.
• I enjoy language immensely. Um, and I enjoy playing with the words. That makes me happy.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Andrea spoke about constantly moving across continents and how that has shaped her attitude to flexibility and adaptability. She spoke about a key moment while leading a team at Fresh Direct in which she showed up a leader in an emergency situation. We also discuss confidence, finance, creativity, and storytelling from a leadership perspective.

You can find Andrea at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-fernandez-coto/
• https://joinvitamin.com/en

In the interview, Andrea shares

• I always had like a very big interest In the world in general.
• I think there are many different things you pick up, uh, when you live in different countries. I think you become very flexible. Um, because, and adaptable, because you have to do it every so often. Um, I think you also, um, learn appreciation actually because you learn to appreciate like the different things in different places.
• because you are faced with making new friendships from start, so, You actually kind of get skills in how to understand people, in how to deal with different kinds of people, obviously languages and the ability, to communicate with people at different levels.
• at the end of the day, leadership is about dealing with people 
• I’m not doing it because I think it’s a fancy thing to do. or a, let’s say timely thing only. It’s like a trendy thing to do, rather, That’s the right word to use. It is a real problem in society. 
• there will always be doubters like, there will always be doubters on anything you do, so you might as well just find the ones that believe in it and go for those and, partner with those people.
• I’m a strong believer that there are new ways of managing and leading than I think the ones that I have seen used many times in my career.
• I’d like to refer you to a professor that I had at Harvard. Her name is Frances Frei, she uses this methodology. It’s a triangle that she says that it is really critical factors in leadership if I remember them correctly. It’s one authenticity two empathy and three logic and basic ability to do what you to do, to execute, to think, to put your mind, uh, and develop interesting solutions.
• I have seen many times when people leave companies and are very destroyed because of management styles, and leadership styles, and I think that’s a pretty bad outcome for an organization. if we would measure things a little bit differently, um, then we would lead differently
•  if you have a person come to work and being fearful, uh, scared about the reaction of the manager or the boss, uh, insecure about what he or she’s bringing to the table, you may not get to listen to really great ideas that can change the outcome of a project, you may not get to experience a great team, an environment that can actually create different outcomes. So I think there’s much more to be done on that side still in the world of business 
• I think children are a great source of creativity and like really, like it almost feels, um, weird, but when you spend time with kids, I think you really. Kind of disconnect from the day-to-day and therefore kind of a new window opens up in your head.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Paulina opens up about her mental health challenges and how life has prepared her for what she does rather than any formal education. We spoke about her unusual background, and how she continues to draw lessons and inspiration from that – for herself and others. We spoke about the role meditation plays in her life, and the value of nourishing important relationships.

You can find Paulina at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulinatenner/
• https://paulinatenner.com/

In the interview, Paulina shares

• the biggest challenges for me will always be related to things I care the most about, and that would be my relationships with people that love me and support me.
• when we talk about choosing leadership, I would kind of bring it to choosing inner or self-leadership first. How you want to show up?  Is what you’re doing aligned with your values? 
• And if it is, it almost doesn’t matter whether your message is heard. Two people or 200,000 because that authenticity means everything.
• I totally believe that if you choose to show your authenticity and in your self-readership over and over again, sooner or later the world will pay attention.
• I would say come back to what feels really good in your body. So when you are doing it, it feels meaningful. And after you’ve done it, you get this internal feeling of satisfaction and prioritize these things like taking courage enough to prioritize yourself, your desires, and your passions. 
• Just be prepared for the fact that some people love you, some people will be neutral and some people will hate you. And that is the journey of any person that chooses to be real In the world. 

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Faisal shares how he himself financed coming to America at the age of 17 from Bangladesh, and the wisdom he learned from his supervisor when he was working as a janitor. He shared the health challenges of his mother and son, and how he derives meaning from what he does. He shared about travelling to Japan and being influenced by Zen meditation – and the role and relevance of meditation for today’s leaders.

You can find Faisal at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/faisalhoque/
• https://faisalhoque.com/

In the interview, Faisal shares

• The definition of entrepreneurship is at the end of the day. It’s taking care of Your, financial well-being with your own venture.
• Life is a journey and you have ups and down, you have failures after failures, and then you have few successes, and then you have failures. So it’s never like a straight line.
• I’ve always been a dreamer, but I’m pragmatic and now I prepare for the worst-case scenario with a pragmatic mindset.
• You connect with what’s your true calling and try to make an impact. So it’s evolution, and it’s a journey and I, despite the ups and downs, I totally enjoy it. 
• Experience is the best teacher.
• If you want to lift others first you have to lift yourself. 
• Because of technology, today’s also an opportunity to make an impact, to be able to connect with people wherever and able to really take advantage of whatever gift that you may have.
• You can’t follow somebody else’s path. It’s your own unique journey. 
• Inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.
• Life is somewhere in between letting it happen and making it happen. There’s a fine balance.
• A lot of people think mindfulness is about – you meditate and completely emptying your mind and you get lost and as a result you connect with yourself. That is a method, that’s a formal method of practising meditation, and then as a result you achieve mindfulness. But, since you mentioned Zen Buddhism, the monks two activities they treasure and practice repeatedly is sweeping and cleaning and cooking. The definition of mindfulness is really just focusing on the present moment.
• Let’s not get confused that you can make things happen without systemic execution. This combination of mindfulness and being empathetic to other people’s needs and where they are, combining those two things, that’s the hallmark of new leadership.
• We have absolutely entered into a creative innovative phase of evolution where mundane work is being taken over by automation and the real value comes from creativity and innovation.
• The best leaders are very mindful and they’re also very empathetic.

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.

I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other’s stories – of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.

In the interview, Colleen opens up and shares about her early fascination with tech and data, and how she has continued to be an innovator. She also spoke about her health challenges and what has that taught her as a leader. We speak about the importance of having hope, facing our own fears,  and the importance of holding ourselves accountable.

You can find Colleen at the below links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleennagle/

In the interview, Colleen shares

• Whether it’s the smallest thing in the world or the biggest objective, I think, Learning to have hope and being in that mindset of, I can do this, I see that this can be overcome is a really big part of it.
• I’m so grateful, certainly not for going through difficulties with health, but I’m certainly super grateful for that silver lining of what it taught me.
• Holding yourself accountable is so much half the battle. , Because if you continually hold yourself accountable and end up experiencing success, you’re gonna associate success with holding yourself accountable.
• Having my ups and downs of coping and yet, still being able to go out there. And focus on achieving the overall goal. It was coming not necessarily from this place of confidence, but I  was doing confidence-building things along the way that I think, with that momentum eventually added up to something.
• If you keep your agreement, that’s one thing. But if everybody keeps their agreements now, that’s the story. 
• I think leadership isn’t something with a small l it’s something with a capital L and we each need to figure out what that capital L looks like for each of us. Stepping forward because leadership is not, also not something that comes with the title.