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.
Marjukka is the Founder of Osaango Ltd and is Transforming Businesses with Intelligent API and Information Architecture.
In the interview, Marjukka shares her journey of leaping into consultancy from a corporate role, defying the naysayers.
Her advice will resonate with both professionals and leaders, underlining the significance of active listening, acknowledging the power of “I don’t know,” and finding value in unexpected perspectives.
She emphasizes that listening is not just about silence, but understanding the unspoken. Tune in for a captivating conversation.
You can find Marjukka Niinioja at the below links
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/marjukkaniinioja/
- marjukka.niinioja@osaango.com
In the interview, Marjukka shares
- “I got into APIs accidentally, and I definitely got into entrepreneurship accidentally.”
- “It has been really good in terms of there were some very practical reasons of setting up the company there.”
- “People being the kind of problem and the solution for any of the technical or business things that we want to do and innovate and change.”
- “I think from that vision I think it’s even more so now we have AI, IT, IoT, supercomputing, like everything cool and fancy, all related to APIs, still highly needed.”
- “The challenge is that technical people don’t necessarily want to know more about business, or they find it challenging, and then vice versa.”
- “I think a lot of it is kind of focusing on, well, like really focusing on the one thing at the time, but also doing this kind of like almost meta-consulting.”
- “Sometimes you are too stuck in your own bubble, like with people who speak exactly the same stuff as you do. It really keeps you from being too in your bubble and believing that everybody is either believers or non-believers.”
- “And I’m still not saying it’s easy and that I’m hyper successful in it, but it’s something that if at least I believe that if somebody pays attention to that and understands that, you need to develop.”
- “I don’t know is the starting point of learning because when you say, ‘I know,’ it feels comfortable, yes. But at the same time, you stop yourself from learning something new.”
- “Once you realize that you can start scaffolding, but as long as you believe that the world is flat, you can’t start exploring that. It is actually round.”