CFO Leadership Psychology & Tech Strategy: Communication Intelligence w/ Aleksandra Lemańska

0:00 Do you create environments or how do you help leaders foster environments where teams are thriving to the point where you know it's reducing turnover and increasing productivity at the same time? Because like you said earlier, when we're building teams, it's not necessarily productive to have all rock stars or all, you know, that one type of person.

0:24 We are structuring our teams to be a whole force, a whole system, a whole machine. But how do you make sure that every part of that team, you know, feels included to where turnover isn't an issue and productivity isn't, you know, suffering before? We dive back into today's conversation. I want to share something important. This episode includes a pay partnership with Better Health, a platform designed to make starting therapy easier. I know from my own journey as a leader and entrepreneur that life can sometimes feel overwhelming. There are seasons, severe stress, uncertainty and pressure build up, and you need to save space to process it all that severe therapy comes in.

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1:36 Once again, this is a paid partnership with Better Help and I encourage you to take that first step. If you've been thinking about it, sometimes the best that's meant you can make easy. Yourself Welcome to The Kingdom's podcast, where we share the stories of extraordinary people and dissect hot, relevant topics that shape our world. From visionary leaders to trailblazing creatives, we uncover the mindset, strategy, and grit behind greatness. Whether it's business, culture, or personal growth, we ask the real questions.

2:08 This isn't just conversation, it's transformation. The Kingdom's podcast, Your next breakthrough starts here. Licensing reimagined your life. Ladies and gentlemen, you'll once again welcome to the King James Podcast and Diary of a CFO. And today I've got with me a VVVIP fortune out of Posner Pollard Beck.

2:36 Welcome Alexandra Leman's car and when the action begins, my Co host is no Aller, the best sales expert on earth. Let's go. Wow. I'm ready. Oh, OK, so you want to get welcome. Alexandra is being a couple of months in the making. But we made it happen. Like, you know, or and many people don't know we're actually family. You know, she she, she's my in law. You know, my brother's married to a Polish lady at a press. You know, Poland is very, very close to my heart. I have been in Poland without being being in Poland. I was in a former part of Poland. Lithuania.

3:33 Was that last year? Yeah. So I love Poland. Go Poland and we've actually done our assignments, you know, to give you flowers because your body of work is actually highly, highly impressive. So today we are incredibly excited to sit down with the one and only Alexandra Lemanskar, A renowned leadership expert, the visionary founder of Lehman Skills and the brilliant mind behind the groundbreaking CQ leadership method.

4:03 Alexandra has dedicated her career to revolutionizing how tech leaders communicate good, high performing teams and truly excel in today's dynamic and often complex environment. Get ready for an insightful conversation. Let's dive in. So I'll offer my Co host to shoot you the first question. Let's say ladies first.

4:25 Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Alexandra. We're so excited to have you talk about your expertise and leadership. For anyone who may not be familiar with the type of work you do, could you share a bit just about your journey and what inspired you to dedicate your career to tech leadership and you know, the communication intelligence that you're that you dedicate your life to right now?

4:52 Yeah, of course. Hi team, Thank you for having me. It's it's, it was a long journey for us to meet here today, but fifth time's a term, I would say I'll. Tell you no. So Mandela wrote a book. He say he called it a long Walk to freedom. And of course, finally, this is the long walk. It's sure. Fitz, it's sure Fitz. So I'm so happy to be here and excited to to talk to you both. Yeah.

5:14 So, so yeah. So my name is Alexandra Laminska. Alex. It's it's in short as well and good. And my story is quite unusual, I would say, but I think that's most of the guests are saying that's the stories unusual because I was a violinist since I was 8 years old. So the whole journey that I had in my childhood as a young adult was to become a musician and 12 years of education in Poland, six years in the primary school, quote UN quote.

5:46 That is the next sticks in the higher education in music, in being a musician, becoming a musician. And then I have already started an academia of music as well. So it was all set and done and I was an A straight A great students like the nerd of the nerds. So it was always super important to me to be the best of the best and great students, of course. And it was the second year of my music music Academy. And I was, I was having so much fun as well because you know, musicians are fun and classical music as well. And I had great, great, great friends. I started to play in different orchestras all around Europe and in Poland.

6:28 There is this part of music, musical education, the art education overall, that you need to be a great solo player, solo musician, to be in orchestras or teams of musician. And I never wanted to be in the greatest solo person on the stage. I was great in the orchestra. I also met a lot of orchestras actually, back then, the weirdest thing started to happen.

6:54 I was so stressed, you know, it was years ago. I didn't have all of the tools that they have right now. And I started to fail my exams, only solo exams. And I was like, what the hell is going on? Because you know, I never failed. It was like it wasn't possible for me. And I failed once. Then I failed the second for the second time. And the Dean of the Academy organized a meeting and she told me maybe it's it's time for you to quit. And I was like, what are you saying to me? I'm not a quitter like I was.

7:26 No, I was only ace or B's, B's plus from different, different things and only one failed exam. So I was like not going to happen. And I left and then I failed again and it was like super hard for me because you know, the whole life you're being prepared for this journey. And it wasn't, it wasn't like I, I couldn't have done something else. I was pretty smart as a as a kid and as a teenager, but it was a path and it was a lot of money and time invested in practicing, you know, concerts, traveling, all of those, the instruments, all of those things.

8:02 And I was like, maybe it's, maybe it's time to quit. And I didn't know analysis because my brain is super analytical. And I was angry, I was upset, I was sad because, you know, it was like a part of my identity to be a musician. But I've decided to quit. And my parents actually didn't talk to me for like two or three weeks after this decision because, you know, my whole life was created around and I've changed to my whole life.

8:30 I've shifted my identity. I moved cities, I applied to University of Technology. So I became an engineer and then I'm business psychologist. And right now here I am with all of my skills, analytical brain that was formed as a musical person, musical kid. And the last 10 plus years I've, I spent to work around supporting others, supporting mainly leaders and their teams, mainly in technology because of my engineering brain that was created back then in the, in the, in the musician times. And I've decided that I don't want for other people to hear that sentence.

9:10 Maybe it's time for you to quit. And instead of giving support, asking questions or maybe show the direction or show what's on the table to choose out of. I've, I've seen so many situations like that in my career in business and different organizations, corporate worlds, medium, small, big organizations in Poland and globally that I, it is like for me, it's, it's a mission, but also a life on project.

9:36 And that's why I started to create my own tools. I learned all the time. I started to create the frameworks and right now where, where, where I am 2025 for recording it October. And I'm in this moment where I run my own business for almost 6 years now. And I've created tools, frameworks and the part of the method that I think that we are going to talk about today.

10:00 So here we go. That's awesome. That's amazing. That's. Like the? Story I know that AI definitely myself as well we definitely relate to kind of the golden child super analytical nerdy kid best of the best type of kid and then. Guess what? To be faced. Guess what? Look what I have on my screen, right?

10:28 This is one of my favorite songs. This is a song by Connor Price. The title is Straight A students. Straight A student. And that is what we are. Everybody on the school, the guy says I'm a straight A student, but I'm friends with the cool kids. Yeah. Well, let all the rules of the rule break go.

10:47 Listen to that song. It's the story of your life. Sorry, the story of our life. And you're speaking to two musicians. You're speaking to two musicians as well. No coincidence. Right. It definitely runs deep, especially like I've definitely had situations where you dedicate your whole life to a certain path and then you face that failure and it you do go through huge identity shifts.

11:15 But it sounds like, it sounds like because of that experience, you've been able to create your QC leadership method kind of around those experiences. And I are helping a lot of businesses, which is amazing. Would you be able to kind of give us like a quick overview of what the CQ? Sorry, I think I said QC is CQ leadership method entails.

11:42 Of course, so secular communication intelligence, so this is an abbreviation from leadership method is a framework that I've created based on my work with leaders, especially in technology engineering. It is my main area of expertise because I'm an engineer myself. And since I started my work in HR in the organization, I from the very beginning, I've started working with IT technology engineers because you speak the language. So this is like a natural thing to do. And it was like over 10 years ago and not a lot of HR people actually spoke the language of, of technology. So it was something that was natural when it comes to giving me those business units to, to, to take care of. So based on all of those

12:26 experiences that I, I held all the layers, being an HR business partner, working with people on the C level, directors and -1 all of those levels of net management and their teams, I've gathered so many examples, experiences, and that's all the patterns and the pattern recognition. I think it's one of the most important skills right now, especially in the age of technology that is growing so rapidly that we need to, we need to take care of our brains and our skill sets and mindsets to, to see how we use the technology, not to be now be pushed by right out of what we are doing on a daily basis. So it was something that I've, I've created based on that. I learned the tools all over the

13:11 way. I got certifications. I, I fed my brain so hard. So it, it was, it was important and I saw the patterns when it comes to communication and how much it is entitled to, to the leadership itself, because leadership is all about product and it's all about people that create this product. Regardless of that industry.

13:31 The part of the world that you're in and how you lead your team is directly proportional to how their team, your team built that the product services that you are, you're providing to your clients. Internal external one depends on where the team is and I've based on the transaction analysis. This is the part of the the science that the psychology diet I'm very entitled to. This is a part of the Eric Burns work. So it was the part of the psychology that he didn't believe that the Freud's work was was the best possible ones. So he created that a new one.

14:09 And there were so many tools that you could use work in a therapy process, but also they are super replicable to organizations, teams and leaders because there are always transactions between people. And based on that, there are there are many different tools and that they use in the organizational path. And there is the whole process communication model PCM framework that I use and is a part of of the CQ method. So it is like the lay.

14:37 They're the layers of the of the tools and and little pieces of exercise crisis that you can do, pieces of the knowledge that I give leaders and their teams. But the main goal of it is that you understand yourself. So you know how to tailor communication because communication intelligence is about tailoring your communication to others because it's one of the most, the biggest misconceptions that there is actually one-size-fits-all.

15:03 If I like something, I'm sure that they will like something and it will fit their preferences when it comes to communication, how they like to work, what kind of delegation and tools they are going to be responsible to, etc. So the method itself is about gathering all of those tools that I believe and I made it in practice that they work.

15:26 They are logical because a lot of people when it comes to this group of engineering technology leaders are very analytical brains. So they need to have patterns and logical things to to use. So I decided to give them the essence of everything that I've learned over over the last 10 plus years and have created the method that they can take and implement right away, not after like months and months of learning. They can take it and they can implement it right away to the work.

15:58 Nice, nice. And I know that you mentioned a couple pivotal moments prior to switching gears over to engineering, which kind of led to this entire approach. Were there, I guess, when you started in engineering and when you started kind of developing this method, getting your strategies together, working with these leaders?

16:24 Can you think back to your early career after you kind of switched over and were there any pivotal moments that drew you closer to leadership psychology and development of the frameworks of your CQ method? Was there something during your engineer time, maybe during school or when you first started that you can think of? Yeah, for sure.

16:48 I started to work very early in my engineering degree. It was, it was a full time job actually, because I managed to do so many things in a in a daily basis that I've decided to start working as fast as possible because it was important to me to put things into practice. And I think we we know that university in University of Technology is, and I know that it's different from country to country, but in Poland is very theory based.

17:15 So a lot of theory, a lot of talking about the past, the books that professors wrote, right? And a lot of those people never work a day in business. So there's no application whatsoever when it comes to that theory versus versus. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you. Why does you describe in Poland sound like you're describing Nigeria? There are patterns all over the world and it's not on the our countries.

17:46 Yes. Shout out to Nigerian. Shout out to Nigerian. Poland. Yes, that's true. And you know, you are in the United by blat right now. So yeah, it's it's it's. And in the United Kingdom, that is why you got united. Yes, that's true. That's true. You know, it's, it's not funny, but it's like funny, not funny thing that we are seen as very smart people.

18:12 And from the intellectual perspective, I think it's, you know, there are all of the research connected with that, but we are learning so much theory that there's no space for practice most of the time as well. And children the age of 6 or 7, when they start school, they're learning. Of course it's changing right now and different in public schooling, different in private schooling, but and as we did learn in our generation, it was, it was something like that. So I've decided to go to practice as fast as I could. And so I started in a little internship with PR agency. So I started to move my brain a little bit into how people are actually work and what they need in the market so we can create better solutions.

18:58 But I very, very, very soon decided to go into HR because it was like a connection between the human part that I loved because I was a musician for years. So I've created value for people so they can change themselves a little bit, you know, and then the engineering part, because my love to process to, you know, to create processes to, to put the things in the right places was, was huge.

19:23 So I've decided to join the project that was connected with Transformation. So hey, change in transformation right away. And we've moved and I was a recruiter back then and we moved to several roles from UK and US to Poland because of the costs. Of course, back then it was always over. Yeah, over 10 years ago now.

19:42 And The funny thing, funny thing, got to know like five years ago or so, the same roles that we knew from UK and the US were moved to India and Nepal from Poland because of the costs. Of course we know how it works right now and it was a pivotal moment for me to start working in a corporation right away. So first job as a, as an HR person, it was in corporate world and I saw so many things that were not so good, but I saw a lot of things that are very good when it comes to, you know, the organizational culture, things that you can do with that kind of budgets that are incorporated that are not in the, in the small organizations.

20:20 Then I switched gears. I work in Polish organization, big organization, around 10, around 1000 people, 1200 or something tops. Then I moved into into different organizations, having higher and higher roles, but switched and pivoted myself from being a nature person, like a generalist, to their learning and development.

20:41 Because it was the development that growth people was also in my heart. So it was the most important thing for me. Yes, L&D Indeed and I grew, I grew, I took more and more responsible jobs, hire and hire in the organization. I started to be a leader myself very early in my career because of my skills and mindsets and and so on and this eager to learn all the time.

21:06 But it was a shift, very important shift to me when I was in one big organization and it was a corporate environment and I was responsible for the for the huge part of the world back then in the technology, one of the companies that were inside of the portfolio of companies. My boss was in the US and he was responsible for America since I was responsible for the rest of the world because it was like possible, of course, for me to do so You so it was you cane, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Middle East, India, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, of course, because it is so manageable.

21:48 And I created a huge program for tech leaders back then. And we were and we both run it in our regions and people were so happy about it. It was the first time that something like that was created and we had great feedback and we run the project very successfully. And then because it was a global call, the boss of my boss told that we need to lie about how we've created this program because it's not possible from the corporate perspective.

22:18 So we asked like a small people in this whole big structure to build something on our own. So we needed to say that it is based on the other project and the other program that was already built inside of the organization. So it was like, are you kidding me? And it was it, I was done. And I've decided, you know what, it's like, I don't want to do something like that.

22:45 It's like my ethics, my, you know, they need to create value out of trust and, and high quality was so important for me. So I've decided, you know what, I just need to do my own thing because it's like I cannot work that way. The money was great. A position that I have was amazing. I was very high in the instructor. I had a lot of autonomy, but this situation was like a no go for me.

23:15 And since then my brain started to go in this direction of doing things on my own. I had different organization. I did a part and then so it was an iterative work, I would say to transfer myself to where I'm now with my team. But it was, it was, it was pivotal, I would say. Yeah, absolutely. I love that you speak about creating programs that impact leadership globally because obviously at our pot, if you can't tell, we're all from different countries right now. So a lot of what we do is create global impact and we love speaking about topics that to impact business in all different countries.

23:59 So to hear that you have that expertise is such kind of an inspiring story because you also knew when to walk away. And I think that's a lot of, I think that's a lot of pressure that not only is put on you, but even a lot of people in our audience when they're in different workforces or they're moving through pivotal moments. It takes a lot of wisdom to know like, OK, how much am I going to give to a company when I'm in a great position, when I'm making a lot of money, when I'm making this global impact and in control of this insane program that I'm building for several different countries.

24:38 It takes an immense amount of like self trust, self-awareness and self leadership. Obviously you have to lead yourself in order to lead other people. So it's like, it's just really amazing to kind of hear that. We definitely see the value and those skills. I'm going to have AI kind of take the next couple questions for you and so we can keep it moving.

25:03 But yeah, I think it's I think it's just so incredible to have that self leadership. I think you're definitely just speaking on that so well because in order to pivot, you have to have such self-awareness and you have to have such self leadership. So I just think that's really awesome. Wow, it's actually been what I say a mouthful A handful a globe for you know, everything that you've said, your journey. It's very, very robust.

25:44 But you know, a couple of themes that have me is I'll take first your philosophy because your philosophy very much aligns with my philosophy, our philosophy. We have three podcasts, right? Two of them are globally ranked. The third one we just started was it last week. Yeah, $1,000,000 Blueprint podcast. And that podcast is about interviewing millionaires from all around the world.

26:17 And we asked them questions on three themes. That is the three pillars of our philosophy #1 mindset #2 skill set #3 tool set. And you've mentioned those 3 themes today. Others podcast The real recognize the real. You know, life is principle based. That's just the thing, you're in Poland, the United Kingdom, America, but we have never sat down together to have a single conversation or we've always operated in a particular direction.

26:55 And you know, mindset is very, very important. You know, I, I had to learn this from a very, very expensive business coach when it comes to hiring. And of course you're into HR and you, you probably did not know last month I was invited to train a couple of HR professionals, business, business accurate, right?

27:16 And this is, you know, one of the things I have to teach them before you hire a person, most organizations evaluate the skill set or don't realize they need to evaluate the mindset first before evaluating the skill set and then evaluating the, would I say the ability to use the tool set, right? So I'll love for you to speak on that mindset skill set, tool set. So.

27:44 Yeah, I agree. And personally, when I hire people, the first thing that I do is to is to talk about mindset and to evaluate the personality structure. Of course, I'm not telling them that I'm evaluating the the because there is a questionnaire from the process communication model perspective, but I'm not using it to for the recruitment processes. But I believe that we can all learn and myself and I'm sure that both of you as well are the best examples that you can learn anything you have, anything you need to do the work. But if you don't have your mind right, and if you are not courageous enough, if you are not curious enough to do it, persistence, it is not going to happen, because you can be the smartest person in the world.

28:28 But if you don't want to use the knowledge, if you don't want to share it, if you don't want to help people thriving and being the best version of themselves, I think this is the essence of the leadership in partnership as well, of course, because Steph, I've heard once the sentence that stuck with me and it's, it's it's with me since then that we'll teach leaders how to be good leaders. But we don't teach team members how to be a good team member to others.

28:59 And I think this is super powerful. Absolutely. I think Even so like training team members, it's the same, the same awareness, same skill set that you're teaching the leaders, you know, because at the end of the day, even if you have someone at the head who's delegating, the stronger, you know, they say another quote to your strongest leaders only as strong as a team under them, you know, So you have to empower your team.

29:36 You have to make sure that yes, they have the right mindset and kind of integrate leadership into the team so that the team is also self leading. I think there are so many businesses where that definitely goes into the mindset. Like you're like you're mentioning, if your team doesn't have a mindset of where they want to empower people, where they do not want to grow, maybe they just want to sit in the skills that they've learned and maybe, you know, sit in a corporate setting or do whatever.

30:12 I think being stagnant as it can be a huge issue for sure when building a team to be, you know, just something be very mindful of. But I think being able to integrate your team into your leadership only makes the whole unit stronger for sure. So yeah, you're making really, really, really good points for sure.

30:35 Two things that that came to my. Mind about it? Yeah, that's true. It's the things that I think that important and came to my mind because, you know, I mentioned that when people are stagnant, that's it can be an issue for a team and when people don't want to learn. And you know what, years ago it was heartbreaking for me, if a person don't want to learn, they don't want to sign up to pork shops, they don't want to go on one-on-one sessions with me or something like that. But over the years I've learned that, you know, it's OK for some people if they don't want to learn, if they want to be good at the job, it is OK to let them go. With Mel Robbins, they let them and there's a great book that is I think a Bible of leadership,

31:21 The Radical Candor by Kim Scott. It is something that I work with the method and the framework, but also in the book, Kim is writing very, very good about team development and she's talking about how important is to have people who may, who do the maintenance work, the repetitive tasks that there need to be done. Of course, some of them are are replaced by technology and will be replaced by technology.

31:46 That's not all of them, and you cannot have all of the stars in your team because if you have only stars in a team, it is very, very not sustainable to to lead A-Team like that, so. Players only. Of course it is super hard to have only a players because they are the ego are huge, they need constant challenges, new projects and let's be honest, there's no such business like like that, even if in the first part of when the business grows very fast.

32:19 I work in start in startup environment very closely. So even if you run a startup, there are phases. So first they're growing very rapidly, of course, but then there's a maintenance phase and we need people to maintenance things as well. So what? I teach leaders, and it is my learning as a leader as well, to not be mad at people who don't want to learn all the time like myself because this is my passion and not theirs.

32:46 And you know what it was one of? The biggest leaders I. Had yes, exactly and I I lost people because of those beliefs that I had that all the people need to to learn it to be like me, a very passionate about learning lifelong learning in a value list. You know, I've learned that it is not true and it's OK to let people not be as I am and they're OK as well in their thinking.

33:13 Of course the question is what kind of team and what kind of organization we want to lead. This is a different story, but from the pace of understanding the human thinking and to the way of doing things, it is OK to let them so, and I think that's what what you said, it's resonated with with me and I, as so many examples of people are that they're very mad at their teams that they don't want to learn.

33:39 They don't want to use the budgets, you know, the trainings. They don't want to use the money and they don't understand why. And it's sometimes it's just out of the values. It's just just it, it's not important for me or I'm in the moment of my life where I need to take care of my family, of my health.

33:58 I just had a kid and this is not my priority at the moment. And we need to make a contract around that to see how it fits to the organizational goals, the team goals, but also a person that is in from the past. This is the leadership essence. How to learn it? Very well said. Yeah. You know, you develop programs, training programs, learning opportunities, but then they say this is not my priority. You know, even had to spend money on trainings and have my business partner say I am not interested in that data. But it hurts very deep, especially where you spend money.

34:38 You spend money on a training and then they say no, right. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna force them? So how do you need to learn the hard way to let them? I did force them in the past, you know. You can force a host to the stream. Yeah, this is something myself and do. I were discussing about it yesterday.

34:56 You can force a hostile stream or you can't force to drink. Yeah, I had to let it in a hard way. Give a man of fish you fed him for a day or teach him how to fish. You fed him for a lifetime. So we are in the business of teaching men to fish. I'd rather feed you for a lifetime than, you know, feed you for just one day. It's very tiring.

35:12 It means you're going to wake me up the next day to feed you again the next day, the next day. Come on and come on. And like you need to learn how to fish. And Speaking of learning how to fish, you know, trainings are very, very essential. I love the fact that you are into training. And of course, that's something we are also into as well.

35:30 But as far as the philosophies, you know, go, philosophies are born out of principles, right? And the world is ruled by principles. CQ method, please educate us. Teachers train us because the two the two goals of this podcast are to educate and to motivate. And that's why we have the best in the the best of the best from around the world. Come on this platform to educate us and motivate us. You have been motivating us.

36:05 Now we want you to educate us. Thank you very much. OK, in a nutshell, because you know, I can, I can, I can, can teach you and educate. You great Jindabra. Jindabra, Jindabra. OK, so in the essence of the method that the goal of the method is for you, the two things, the first thing is so you understand yourself.

36:28 While you mentioned the self-awareness and self leadership, and this is always the first thing before you start leading others, you need to know yourself. So the the first step in the method is to to map yourself when it comes to your process communication model, personality and communication preferences structure.

36:48 So there are 6 levels of the personality. Every single person on the planet has them, but there's always one thing that's going to be dominant. And actually it is. It was shaped around 6-8 years old or something like that. So young kid had this moment forming moment in their lives when they are learning about themselves in the world that they surround them.

37:10 They learn what they need to do or not to do to be seen, loved, taken care of. So it shaped their belief system actually about themselves in the world. And the neurological system is shaping as well in this age. So that's why, and this is this moment and we, we have it for adult life and in the base of personality, when once you know what it is, you can take a questionnaire, you can work around hypothesis, of course, is always the best thing for especially for tech IT engineering people to have numbers. So you can have the report and you can have your structure. But without that, you can make hypothesis as well and see, OK, So what is the language that I prefer? What is the type of the

37:52 sentences that I prefer for me to use? What are my main psychological motivational needs? What I, what is my distress sequence? So how I react as a pattern in the stress situations under pressure, When is that there is a tight deadline, when I have not a lot of resources and I need to manage to certain situations and so on and so forth.

38:13 So there are many different elements in there that you can learn about yourself. Once you have it, then you can go and map your team. So this is number #2 so step number 2 is to map your team. I even create a like super short and simple Excel spreadsheet that you can use. You put your name of your teammates in there and you make your observations. You take verbal communication, emails, Slack, Teams messages, and you just look for the keywords because we all have one main preference when it comes to communication and we can map people that are around us.

38:47 So as I mentioned, there are six types of language that people are using and you have the keywords that are around all six of them. And you were just starting like the curiosity journey and to start to analyzing things that people are doing, how they're talking, what they're talking. So the the verbal and nonverbal communication and how they behave under stress, under pressure.

39:11 Because this is all data about people and that way you have hypothesis about your team. Of course you can map your team with question, but it's not the key. The key is for you to understand how to map a person and make a good hypothesis to then tailor communication more after first 2-3 sentences. But they're, they're saying to you, so this is the key. So very fast and very efficient.

39:39 So because we don't have the time, so we make the time, we need to have efficient things that we can use right away. And this is this is that what they learn in the workshops, growth processes, one-on-one sessions with me from the podcast that I run. And everything that's there is a base that you can use. So this is number 2 #3 is to match the communication, tailor the communication.

40:04 People are going into misunderstandings, conflicts, they hate working with each other. They they don't understand each other, not because they have bad intentions, but because they speak different languages. And I don't mean that I speak Polish and you speak English. But if I speak data and I say the facts are that the data is saying, the numbers are that it is not logical to make that kind of decisions, and the other person is saying, Alex, I don't feel it. I don't know.

40:36 I'm not sure why, but I know in my heart it doesn't feel very well. And, you know, I'm messing up a little bit. But the same part of the brain is responsible for talking and learning different languages like Polish, English. Right brain versus left brain. Yes, the same part of the left brain is responsible for learning languages, foreign languages and speaking these languages when it comes to data, emotions, beliefs, reflections, reactions or actions. So six types of language and This is why people are not getting along.

41:14 They think that the other person is the same, has the same preference. That's why we sometimes we, I'm not sure how it is in your countries and cultures, but in Poland is like, I'm not sure if I speak Chinese to you, but you don't understand me, you know, and, and both of us speak, speak Polish. So it's like we just don't understand each other. And it's not because we speak different languages from the, from the native perspective, but it's like we are speaking different languages from that, from the personality preferences perspective.

41:50 So first three steps of the CQ method is to know yourself. So map yourself, map your team or people around you. You can train on your own family. We recommend that because it's the closest people to you and you have so many data about them. And then tailor communication, see how people are going to react differently. Sometimes it's just one word.

42:11 Changing one word is a huge thing that you can do. You change I think to I believe, I think or I feel, and sometimes it is. It is just that asking a question or making a direct sentence because people have different preferences when it comes to building sentences, when it comes to communication. So yeah, in a nutshell, as I said. Well, I, I feel and I know that there's nobody better to do these that a Polish person, a Polish or Lithuanian. Well, the guy from Lithuania invited me. I was like, I want you to come to Lithuania, you will like it. Just two sentences.

42:58 I was convinced. And you did it. And when I landed, I think I landed at Carter's airport, I had to drive to Vilnius. And when I met him, Vilnius, he said, oh, you're person of your word. You said you were doing that UK. Yes, yes, and you did. And this is super important for some people. If you keep your word, this is the.

43:23 People that have. Beliefs and, and you know, the trust, and this is important some for some people, it doesn't really matter because they have super small access to this floor and their personality structure. We all have everything. So basically we can, we can go into communication and get along with everybody that's we observe the world first of all, mainly through our lenses, through our frame of reference, our like favorite paths and patterns. And this is OK because that's who we are and nobody teaches it at school.

43:58 And it breaks my heart. So that's why I'm here and trying to to do my best to to change that. Now people like you are teaching it right. And I did have a guest on the podcast recently. I don't know if you've seen that interview. That is the one with Doctor Tatiana Tepova. She's Russian and she's have a trained and she's an expert at non verbal communication. You saw that.

44:25 OK, that's cool. So he says that non verbal communication is even more important than verbal communication. The non verbal cues are more important than what you were saying because the body is a snitch. The marking face. Of it, yeah. Non verbal is your body is giving you out. Yeah, definitely.

44:47 And our different research gives different numbers, but something between 60 to 90% even is non verbal. That's why we have so many conflicts around e-mail or when you don't put your camera on when you're talking to somebody. It is because you're robbing them out of all of the cues that they can see. They can, they can hear when and especially when you have a meeting and you're muted and off camera. So it's like you have a back on your on your on your head and, and there's nothing and over e-mail. It's crazy how much miscommunication and conflict and misunderstandings are.

45:28 And I see it all the time in different organizations, regardless of the industry and the country and the size of the company that are emails, e-mail, e-mail, e-mail, e-mail. And there is nothing out of this, this conversation besides conflicts since you know, they're wasted time. So. All these people like to do, would I say tap in? Sounds like what you just did.

45:53 They say ask a question. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Why is it? Why is it that you guys do that? I'm curious. It adds up to the nonverbal communication. So you have more cues that you can, you know, you can make your guess and your hypothesis about the and the communication, but not all the people are doing it.

46:12 And it depends on on your, your structure as well. If you have very, very far this, this, this floor that it is connected with using more non verbal because there are many people who are very flat when it comes to using non verbal like poker faces, like very monotonous tone of voice, very like sitting like like a tree or something very like, And actually there are also people like that.

46:37 So I, I have them, a lot of them in the workshop. Sometimes they're sitting for the whole day. You really, you really can't tell. It's this person happy? You can tell what is happening in their brain. The poker face is just so crazy. The question is, do you prefer the poker face or the beach face, right? Because it's like you need to, you need to choose because some people have this one something, some people have that one. And it is a, it is a queue as well. You just, you need to follow the signs because there is an algorithm to recognize who is in front of you. And there are patterns.

47:14 I mentioned 6 type of language, four types of nonverbal communication, four types of communication channels, 9 motivational needs connected to all floors and you're done. So that's why people, especially in technology, IT, engineering, so this is that area that I work with. They love this method because it's not the psychological bullshit. That's psych.

47:37 You need to listen more or you need to be more open. It is like blah, blah, blah, OK, So what exactly I need to do? So that's why people love it because it's, it shows them step by step what they need to take care of when it comes to themselves, what they observe, what they, what they need to be more aware of, what kind of signs they need to, they need to be more and more conscious of. And then they observe the world in the better way. So it's, it's, it's the ready to go process, the ready to go step by step process that they can use, you can use. And then the beautiful thing is that it is replicable. So we can use it at work, you can use it at home, and you can use it anytime in any culture

48:26 because it's immune to bias when it comes to the culture differences. So we all have everything and I think that it's it's, it's, it's very much a relief that we can actually get along with everybody. Sometimes it hurts because the people are so different in the structure that they need to stretch themselves more.

48:47 But it is possible from that from this perspective. You know, clocation is key to achieving anything, right? And of course to achieving organizational goals and individual goals. But you have this affinity towards tech. So when it comes to specific communication challenges that are unique to tech leaders, you know, for example, the high analytical teams that work remotely and of course with all of the complex technical jargon that they have to communicate. So what is that immediate impact of better communication on the team dynamics and success of their projects? The first thing that I see the most, after the first part of the training or mentoring sessions, they start to understand.

49:37 They have so many aha moments. They start to understand from their brain because they use mostly the logical part of them, all of themselves. They have like that's why they don't get it. Not because they're idiots or they're not thinking logically, but because I have the curse and knowledge. I am an expert in my area and the language that I'm using that is very much into details, technological aspects of it. This is very much connected with what I want to achieve. I want you to understand every single thing. This is my mission and shifting your brain into OK, they need to understand the bare minimum or only what they need to know to move their work forward.

50:20 It is crucial and it is essential for them to make this shift when it comes to mindset and then the skill set because they learn that yes, they need super techie jargon. They need super techie communication. But this is only their need. Not all of the people, especially in business that there's not as tech savvy as themselves. So they start to learn how to, and this is important, how to simplify the communication because there are amazingly doing amazingly well with complexity and people especially nowadays are great in complexity, but simplification not so easy to do.

50:56 So what I see and what I work with, with teams especially is to simplify the communication. It keeps it shorter, more essential, and more to the point, regardless of the culture, because we we talked a little bit about that, regardless of the culture, regardless of the country and the size of the organization, it doesn't really matter.

51:19 But being more to the point and understand that people have different communicational needs. So sometimes they need to say how they feel about something. Sometimes they need to do a little brainstorm. Even if we already have a solution, sometimes people get involved in the process and we need to let them because that's how we build engagement.

51:39 That is critically low right now when we are recording this episode globally, it's getting lower and lower. So it is something that I see the most that people start understanding that their communication preferences, they're not the only one. They will find somebodies that they will speak their language fluently because they speak they speak data and don't speak data. But there are five different options there and they're aware why people are reacting in a in a certain way. They are getting the why that this is so essential. So this is the, the biggest, I think change that I see in people's brains in the thinking patterns, but also the doing patterns, because thinking is only one part of the story. How they react differently, how

52:29 they change the approach, how they doing projects together differently, how they work on a daily basis, especially remotely or hybrid when they don't sit together in A1 room, but they work and in different countries in different times, time zones, they will work on different tools. So they were becoming more aware and the leaders are becoming more aware how to lead that kind of complex environment, not to adding more complexity, but actually to simplify things because we don't need more complexity.

53:05 We have it. I think we have enough. We need more more simplification and things that make sense and they actually create value at the end of the day. Absolutely. Well, you know, you've spoke a lot about psychology and, you know, having people have been allowed to express how they feel. And psychology is simply the study, the scientific study of the human mind, right? And we said this, your philosophy, reason by philosophy, mindset is #1 skill set is number 2, tool set is #3 right?

53:43 So Speaking of practical psychology, right? Like moving beyond the theory to measurable impact, you know, to resolve treating frameworks. But how do you translate complex psychological principles into something that is tangible and actionable for these tech leaders who are often looking for clear, direct solutions? Tech guys, they want to be able to measure the impact, right? So how do you translate those psychological principles into something that gives results and that result is measurable and trackable?

54:26 So when the first thing that I do most of the time when, when a person or a team or a company approaches me that they say, hey, Alex, we saw what you're doing or we saw you at the keynote at the conference or something. We want to do something like that for your team or for our team or for our manager or something like that.

54:43 I I ask a question, what kind of change do you want to see at the end of this process, of this workshop, of this growth program, you name it? What kind of change do you want to see in this person? Insight. Of course, and then we do reverse engineering because I do believe that you need to have the purpose.

55:03 Without that, it's it's it's only a just a one day training and it's you know, it's going to be fun. It's going to be interesting, but after a week you won't remember a thing. So it needs to be rooted somewhere in the numbers because as I said, I'm an analytical person and I believe in that, that when if you don't measure, you can't grow it. So it can be quantitative and it can be qualitative, doesn't really matter.

55:27 So I ask about this change and I look for the numbers they can use. It can be engagement results, engagement survey results. It can be satisfaction, team satisfaction results. It can be feedback that they they've gathered over the months. It can be 360. It can be feedback from the team. So sometimes I talk with the team and the very beginning of the process, I have them, I have the script that I run, let's put it that way.

55:53 And then I do the same conversation at the end of the process and I and I measure the difference. So it is it, it, those can be goals, business goals, it can be KPI's, OK Rs from the perspective of how the team or how the person works in daily basis. So over 1/4 of the work it is it is very visible actually after first training, after first mentoring session, you can you can see the first pieces of changes.

56:20 So answering your questions, I always put the goal that is connected with numbers regardless of the time of the work that we are doing together. So what kind of change do you want to see in yourself, in this team, in this results which have them from the business perspective, from the team perspective and organization perspective.

56:36 Sometimes if the organization is small, you can make it directly proportional to the goals that you have as a business. And then we go to the toolkit. So what kind of tools here is the palette and just kick your poison for over those years that I've learned on my own and I taught it Tartars, but also use it on myself as a leader and as a person.

56:59 I can tell what can you take out of it? And I can suggest something. But at the end of the day, this is your decision what you are going to choose. So the autonomy of building yourself is crucial. So you're choosing your tools and to work on them, so you work in practice on how to use them. So if you are choosing the process communication model, as I mentioned, we are going to the questionnaire, we are going to the reports, we are going to the tools you're training how to tell your communication to what you have to yourself. But other in the next two others, we gather feedback from the team how they see that you changed over the last couple of weeks or months and we measure the change. So this is what I what I do

57:42 because I do believe that the motivation is important, but it comes and goes. Consistency is a key. If you do things over time and you do it repetitively and to measure the results, this is what we can, what you can actually see when it comes to transformation, transition and change. And it's learned so well.

58:06 People who need it, who don't need another wishy washy woo thing. Sometimes it's important, you know, to feed your brain with something like that. But at the end of the tape, business results are there to be met and we need to be equipped to do it from the mindset, skill sets and tool sets perspective. You know, Speaking of, you know, mindset, skill set, tool set, now you're talking about tool sets. And I see psychological concepts or psychological frameworks as tool sets, right?

58:42 Of course, definitely you use these psychological models to achieve change. And in the process of achieving change in any organization, there are three things that are involved. You have the people, the processes and the systems. You cannot achieve change by just changing one thing. If you change the people or you don't change the process, you don't change the systems, you will achieve the change you're trying to achieve, right.

59:14 So one of the when I say one of my favorite psychological models is masters heracle of needs a course. It just helps you to understand people on a general basis, right, and what everyone is striving to achieve ultimately. I also love the Myers Briggs, you know, the type indicator, but I'll not for you to give me maybe 1-2 or three psychological tools that you like on your own to use to in your process of, you know, consulting with leaders or So what tool sets do you like? So the first one is that I mentioned a couple of times already.

1:00:02 So the process communication model PCM is a framework. It is similar to if you know inside or disk or anything actually based on the Carly Young. Methods can be, can be treated similarly, but the PCM is very, very much, much complex, but in a good way. So it's not, it's not only saying you are from the perspective of the structure of your personality, but it was most important. It says why, so it gives you the why that is behind it. So what shaped you in the past that as you are a person that you are right now as an as an adult person, it gives you algorithms of your behavior, it gives you patterns and you can do a pattern recognition and and what kind of patterns are serving you and what kind of

1:00:54 patterns doesn't. So this is important for from the understanding this, this the behavior part. So not only who you are, but why and what you can do with it. So this is the application in real life, not only the theory, not only the framework, not only describing who you are, but why and what can you do about it. Bad days and good days.

1:01:14 So this is this is important. So this is the first one. The second one is the whole framework of transaction analysis. The PCM is a part of it, but I treat it separately because it is that the concept, the framework that is, that is separate and but the whole the framework is transactional analysis.

1:01:30 And there are many tools that I use on the organizational level. The one is contracting. So how to make contracts with other people? So this is the first one and to avoid misunderstanding conflicts because I'm not going to assume what you want, I need to actually say it out loud. So it is there in between US and people are not doing it very well. And I see it all the time.

1:01:54 So this is the second one as a whole structure. And the third one that I really, really love is the will of conflict. And this is the tool, not the not the whole like Myers Briggs or PCM, but this is a tool that is extremely powerful. Five types of conflicts, the will of conflict as a tool that shows you why again, it gives you why people are wasting time, because time is is a currency.

1:02:24 And I hear it all the time that people are I'm I'm sure that you you do as well. I don't have time and it drives me crazy and I hate. It we have only three resources, time, money and effort. Time and effort. Those are the four resources we have. Of course, and when I hear the senders, I don't have time.

1:02:43 I'm, you know, I in the past right now, I'm different because I'm smarter. I've got wiser over the years. But like a couple years back, I got mad when I've heard this sentence because it's so much a lie. You know, it's not true. It's not about the time. It's never about the time. It's about your priorities and how you get them. And of course, we have different situations when it comes to your life.

1:03:11 You can have kids or don't have them. You can live in a certain part of the world or not. You can have different positions and different task lists, different roles that you have. But we all have 24/7. So it's not about the time. And the will of conflict is showing you where you are losing your time and how you can get it back because you go into the wrong directions when it comes to using it and you're wasting so much time.

1:03:36 Don't miss communication in conflicts because you don't tailor your communication. And we're circle back to communication intelligence very freely. Wow. What goes around comes around having that full circle around, yeah, communication is still, it still senses back on communication. Whatever model you're looking at, whether you're looking at ECM, you're looking at BIOS breeds, you're looking at even the pipeline of languages. I just ways of compute the Asia.

1:04:08 So you know, when you are actually helping these leaders, basically what you're doing is you're breaching a gap, right? Of course, as a consultant, you are brought in to solve a problem and that is the mindset. You know, I am a consultant as well. I remember work with the BIG4 accounts and fans PWCKPMG. They tell us the reason why these guys bring you to their offices is 'cause they have a problem that they cannot solve on their own and they need you to solve it. If you're basically bridging gaps, being a consultant, even though you have very high level academic qualifications and of course also professional, you know, certifications, you and me, we both know that theory is different from practice. They teach you something is

1:05:12 cool, but when you get into practice, it's a different ball game. How do you help bridge that gap between academic psychology and first real world leadership challenges? And of course, I love love for you to give us examples of how understanding team psychology can lead to specific positive outcomes.

1:05:35 Yeah, So 80% of what I do is practice. So it is super important for me. I'm not a theoretical person. I love a good theory, of course, but it is super important for me for people to to train themselves. And as an example, like it was like last month or something, one organization approached me. It is one one of the biggest tech organizations in Poland and they asked me about.

1:06:02 Hi Alex, we, we just need some communication workshop, you know, one they think and because we are OK, but we need something that people can experience. We have some budget left for the year. So let's do something like that. And every single time when I have a situation like that, I start to dig deeper into what is under the surface.

1:06:22 Because if they are saying that we are OK, we have some budget left. We want for team to do something together, to meet on side, to have lunch together or dinner or something. And aside of all of that, they have a workshop that they have. We love your energy, we love what you're doing and you are trained as a person in tech, so it fits. And what I did is to start talking with every single team member or 10 people in a team.

1:06:50 And we've started just to talk just a quick meet and greets, like 30 minutes a conversation or something. And they started to, and I don't know about you, but I, I don't know if it's a gift quote, UN quote or a curse, but I have something in myself that I meet somebody and we talk for 10 minutes and I have the whole story of the lives, the Horror Story. They're all, the whole situation at home, their health situation. And I'm not even asking, OK, let's be honest here. But I don't know if it's something in me that invites them to share.

1:07:29 It's. Something in US? I think I you know I. And that is why you're also a podcaster. That is why you're also a podcast. That's true and. We get stories without even asking. And then, you know, they talk and talk, and then they say, wow, you made me say so much. I didn't. I'm actually didn't. Yeah, that's that's true.

1:07:53 And you know, I have I have it. It happens all the time. And that, you know, I, I have this hypothesis that people just don't have other people to talk to. And that's why they have a person like that, that actually is listening and no phone, the phone is, is somewhere there. And I'm, I'm really curious about yourself as a person.

1:08:13 It gives them a space that they don't have on a daily basis. I have this hypothesis and I'm testing it right now. But hey, so I'm coming back to the story. I start talking to those people and they start talking to me about different situations and different problems. And there I see the patterns. I see the patterns that there is no feedback, there is no trust, there is no recognition that is tailored to what they need and not what the leadership or organization did set as a framework for the team.

1:08:41 And I come back to into the stakeholders. Let's put in the name like that on them. And I say, hey, I know that you came to me with a need like that, but I see that of course I can do it if you want, but I would take three steps back and address this, this and this before we go into your need. And they were like, how do you know that? And like I was like, yeah, people and I saw the pattern and I can come to you with a solution because it's, it's like we can train people on communication, let's put it that way.

1:09:18 It is always beneficial. It will be always beneficial. So they train on themselves, they train on communication between themselves, etcetera. But you have problems on that process level of the contracting level. You have frameworks at place that are not a fit to a team like that. They need something else and before we go further, I advise you to take care of it and we can do it together. You can do it on your own.

1:09:43 I always do it like that. I'm never pushing that. You need to do everything with me. I'm not an expert in everything, of course. So I told them that this is what I can do for you. I do it. I would do it in this, in this order and then we can do the communication or we can do the communication workshop or growth program or whatever.

1:10:02 So they were so shocked that they ended a call. So they they told me they'd need time and I said OK, tell me whatever. And they called me like 2 weeks after or something like that. And they say, Alex, thank you for your honesty. Nobody ever told us something like that. And we want to do it your way.

1:10:24 We want to try it. We don't know what is going to happen. We need to be careful because our organization has difference policies and then processes etcetera. But we want to try and we've already started. So it is always something underneath the surface. You know, as and as you mentioned as consultants we have, we have different things that we can see because we are not inside of the of the system all the time. So we have different different perspective. And that's why myself and my Co host have grown the lens so that we can see very well into your organization. That's true.

1:11:06 That's true. And sometimes it's crucial just to ask one question that nobody ever asked before. That's this is what happened with this disorganization that I just gave you the example about. The ability to ask proving questions is very very important. I'm going to give it over to my Co host to ask you questions about team building excellence. But before I do that I need to appreciate your skills anyways. Layman skills.

1:11:36 I'm sorry, Lemon skills Le Mans coaching from team building. Asides from engineering, asides from music, you are also talented with improv comedy. You know how to mimic people. You switch voices and tones and cadence call. Give it up for the world's best Alexander Lemansko. You know it's. Always good to, to have, you know, the, the, the Plan B when it comes to the business, right?

1:12:17 I'll switch peers a little bit. I'm going to hand you over to the world best in music and marketing and sales experts, Noella Rook. So you've spoken a lot about your background in HR and how kind of you bridge the gap between engineering and analytics and even have a having a musical brain and creating this insane, this insane leadership method that is, it's so funny.

1:12:51 A lot of the most productive methods, I always call them simple, but not easy. You know what I mean? Like the structure of it is so simple, but as humans, we overcomplicate our minds and we overcomplicate our thinking and overcomplicate just the way to success. So when it comes to, I feel like everybody deals with this at some point. And with your background in HR, you're most likely an expert on this.

1:13:22 How do you create environments or how do you help leaders foster environments where teams are thriving to the point where you know it's reducing turnover and increasing productivity at the same time? Because like you said earlier, when we're building teams, it's not necessarily productive to have all rock stars or all, you know, that one type of person.

1:13:47 We are structuring our teams to be a whole force, a whole system, a whole machine. But how do you make sure that every part of that team, you know, feels included to where turnover isn't an issue and productivity isn't, you know, suffering? Yeah, I'm going to going to simplify it as the ocean to make them simple.

1:14:13 Not easy, because if you ask different leaders, you have this checklist. Do you do it all, myself included, as a leader? And of course I'm not doing all of those things all the time. Mm Hmm. Of course, I'm not somebody who's perfect, but I do my best. So I would simplify it to three main things that I see the patterns again and I see that it's working.

1:14:37 The first thing to do when you're building an environment for people that can thrive, it can be effective is what I mentioned before, is to do good contracting so people know what they do, what they not do, and this is important, what is in their scope of responsibilities and where they make decisions.

1:14:58 So they are not wasting time on asking around or wondering or looking for information or making meeting to the meeting, to the meeting to the meeting and they're wasting so much time. So this is what I do as a leader as well. First of all, good contract for the scope overall. It is not like we did recruit this person. So they supposed to know from the recruitment process what is in their scope because the three of us know and I'm sure that all of the people that are listening know that the recruiting process is the marketing process.

1:15:30 Both sides are giving their best, but not remembering a thing from the conversations that actually had. So it's needed at the very beginning of the of their cooperation to set the rules. And it's about processes, it's about procedures, it's about the tools that we are we are using. It's about how we communicate what kind of tools we are we are using for project management, for the management of the specialists role that they are doing.

1:15:57 So this is the first and foremost thing. The second thing is to tailor your communication. I'm going to be boring about it, but it's about people need to be seen. And if you as a leader, you're not, if you don't know who is a person in front of you, who are you leading? Who is in your team? What are the preferences? What is the team map?

1:16:19 What is the quake of communication they need? What is the way of working they need, because some people need to work alone on their own. Some people need to work in a huge group and the huge open space on side because without that they're not efficient. Some people will work well in a small group, 234 people, and you need to know who your people are as a leader to make this environment work for them because sometimes people, and this is my experience as a leader. I had the assistant, it was like 2 years ago, a year ago as well. And I made those mistakes on my own as well. So I teach people how to not do it. I had a person who preferred to work with people and he had a background in a corporate world

1:17:05 and he was used to work with others and with me is a remote work. We see each other like from time to time. And he didn't deliver his work, not because he didn't know how to do it, because he was incompetent. He was fully competent, but his preferences of working with people and contact was so strong that he was frustrated all the time.

1:17:24 And it influenced his, his, his creative creativity and efficiency and effectiveness. So this is the second thing. Tailor your communication, know your people. And this is connected with delegation, feedback, recognition, goal setting, execution of goals, growth, growth goals, everything that is connected with, with a person's journey in your organization. So this is the second thing.

1:17:46 The third thing, don't be afraid of letting people go. Yes, we are tend to to to stick with people who we deeply we know that are not a fit, that are not a person with a skill set, mindset and tool set the. Mindset first. The mindset first, always. Of course, we we know after working with them for a couple of months or a year, years even, that they're not a good fit for the team, for the role, for the products, for the organization itself.

1:18:26 Sometimes there is a misfit when it comes to the culture because the values are different, so much different that a person is suffering and the organization is suffering, the clients are suffering. So it is not selfish. It is not. If you did everything you could have and it's crossed everything from the list above, it is OK to have this conversation and just to support a person in the transition to another team or another organization.

1:18:51 And people are so afraid of doing it because they they're so afraid that they're going to hurt others and they're going to crush them. But it's really depends on how you're doing it and why you're doing it. So, and I did this mistake in my past as a leader as well. So I'm saying in out loud right now, don't be afraid of doing it. Of course, not the first thing you're doing, don't get me wrong here.

1:19:14 But sometimes it's just it, it's just a, it's just a misfit. And you cannot measure everything during the recruitment process because it's just not possible. You kind of measure everything. I'm going to see something before that comes back. You said that the recruitment process is like marketing and you know ages like you're talking about Noella's work. Noella is the best marketing expert in the world. Nobody can tell me anything about that. If you have a problem, go report me to the British police. But you know, the interesting thing is what if I lied of I see that I can speak Polish and now Alexandra is asking me questions.

1:19:55 The only thing I can say is Jindobra. Jindobra. A good start now don't don't be too harsh on yourself. I see a lot of jokes on the Internet these days when I light up my CVI can do this. And then yeah, yeah, yeah. I just had to put that in. Over to you, Noella. A couple things kind of lit me up a little bit. So mainly I just wanted to touch on how you're speaking about not being afraid to let people go.

1:20:27 It kind of made me think a couple things about just from like a leadership standpoint, kind of, I guess what I wanted to start with is that as a leader, it's so interesting because if you're not able, well, first of all, if you're not in alignment with the overall vision and you're not committed to the overall vision, you won't be able to let people go. So if you don't, if you're not, I guess 100% clear on where you're going as a company or what the goals are or even what the branding is.

1:21:02 You've worked with a lot of startups. When you're in that rapid phase, you have to be super clear on kind of what your goals are, what your mission is, what your purpose is, and what you're doing. So I think it's really important to be clear on that so you can let people go in the correct time. And I think you're 100% right when it comes to saying people are scared of hurting each other's feelings and stuff like that. It's really interesting when you're able. It's when you're not able to let the right people go and you keep the wrong people, your turnover can absolutely be higher. And then the right people will quit, You know what I mean? Because they come in and they think the culture, they're super excited to come in.

1:21:51 Maybe they have meetings, you know, with the head HR person who's super clear on the mission, or they have meetings with the CEO or, you know, the top leaders, whatever. Then they come in. But we haven't had that same standard trickle down into the rest of the team. And you have someone who has a certain expectation, like, OK, I'm so excited to come in. We're going to crush these goals. We're going to do XYZ and I'm going to grow or we're going to change lives or, you know, whatever, or I'm going to come in here and do the best paperwork, you know, whatever it is.

1:22:22 Maybe they're not like training and stuff like that. Maybe they are more administrative. But Even so, that can lead to higher turnover just because the people that are aligned, you know, kind of bring it, bring it down a little bit. So I think that's so interesting and so important to kind of be in alignment and not be afraid just because if you don't, it could just lead to more turnover and lead to even worse, you know, production and the and the team. So that's really good insight for sure. I just loved loved hearing you speak on that. And then with that, I guess are there any misconceptions, I guess about team building that you address with the method that you're working with right now?

1:23:11 I feel like like you said, you mostly you're so good at what you do and we become so good at what we do because we fail and we're not kind of scared to fail. So what are kind of the misconceptions that people face with this method and that they work through? I think the first one, and I want to stay here a little bit because it's about diversity. I guess we, we were taught as leaders for years that you need to build a diversity, that the more diversity you have in a team, the better for everybody.

1:23:45 And the leaders started doing that. And what I see right now is that people are so tired of this world in overall, this world in overall that they, they did quit doing that because it's easier for us to work with people who are similar to us because they have the same preferences of similar preferences. They work in a similar way, they have similar preferences when it comes to work environment.

1:24:09 They have similar needs basically. And what what I address with the method is that you'll build diverse teams, but people need to have something in common. If they are so diverse that they have nothing in common, it's almost impossible for them to get along and it will cost a lot of effort, energy, time, stretch, learning for them to, to go into the level of understanding each other so well that they they work together well as as they are so diverse.

1:24:48 So we are working on creating teams and team building based on yes, you need different talents, you need different skills. Do you need different pieces of mindsets? Sometimes you need people who are going to hate what you are, what you are doing because they need to tell you need to be challenged, they need to challenge the status quo that you are giving them and so on. But then what you, what you mentioned, Allah is about having the common goals.

1:25:15 This is the first thing. So we know, we know, we know all know where we're going, why we are doing it. So what is the value that we are creating? So this is this is it and who is doing what again to the contracting part. So one of the biggest misconceptions for me is that this is we need to be so diverse, as diverse as possible. And this is not true.

1:25:35 So this is the first one. The second one is A1 size fizzle. If I learned one tool, 1 framework, an approach, it is going to be copy and paste and it's going to be working all the time. And it is so wrong. That's my heart is bleeding right. And I see how people are coping and paste and pasting the tools that can be amazingly well used, but they're using them wrong and they're not working and they map on the tools and the tools are crappy.

1:26:05 I'm not going to use them anymore. And it's not about the tool. It's never about the tool. It's about how you implement it. And that that's why you need bigger toolkit for you to take what you need and to fit it too much it into certain situation. This is the second. No, again it is not run breaking.

1:26:26 You know discovery that there is no such thing and was as visual, but you would be surprised how many people are doing it. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you. In Nigeria we have a proverb. That proverb says a lazy man all his beams, his tool. A lazy farmer, all his beams, his tool. Yeah, always. Because it's easy, right?

1:26:46 It's easy and there's a tool. I learned the tool. The tool doesn't work. There's a crappy tool. Easy peasy, right? Yeah, that's what you know, lazy people do the blended tools, but mindset skill set of tool set. Absolutely, absolutely. So I guess my next question is I'm going to kick it back over to AI to see where he wants to take it. OK, I just wanted to say that I have 7 more minutes so. Building relationships with people who understand global impact for sure, because that's a pillar of what we do. And obviously leadership in general just trickles down into every area of success.

1:27:37 So it's, you know, we really appreciate having you and hearing what you have to say. There's like you said, we could talk about this for hours and hours and hours. And it's so important. It's incredibly important. And it's so funny just to talk about things that are can be so simple, can be simple, but are not necessarily easy to implement. But it impacts culture and leadership in just the success of all the businesses that we want to thrive just around the world.

1:28:09 So it's so great to have you, so great to hear about your expertise. And honestly, it's just fun to talk to you because we're pretty similar. Like, you know, we're all analytical people, we're all musical people. So it's and we're all, I call it kind of try hard. So like we're if we're going to do something, we do it very passionately.

1:28:33 You know, I can tell that about you. It is very passionate. So that's amazing to have. We love to hear and I know our audience needs to connect with that because that's another thing too is when it comes to leadership, sometimes there is this strange, strange notion sometimes where you have to like have a certain like a certain mask to where you have to be strong or be whatever, you know, whatever it is, depending on the industry you're in.

1:29:03 We have a lot of tech people, lot of tech people that TuneIn and I love to speak passionately, speak openly about what really leads teams. Hang on. I think my daughter is yelling for me so I'm going to mute my mic really quick. Authenticity is key. Authenticity is really, really key to what would you.

1:29:25 And of course, you know, that's one of the reasons why we really, really appreciate you. I'll put you through a quick fire round real quick so that we can get your testimonial on the podcast as well. So what is one word, just one word that describes your leadership style? Authenticity. Whoa. You stole my word. You stole my word.

1:29:53 We need to bring a war to Warsaw. Because when Poland saw war, they ride. Whoa. OK, who's the leader? Past or present you deeply admire? Then why? You know, I, I think it may be an outrageous answer, but I admire Elon Musk and not a person, yes, but what he does, the intellect, what he does with all those businesses that he's running, I admire that.

1:30:26 Yeah, I love that. We we will do great business together. The crash, there's something, there's something. I honestly is very important to be able to separate the artist from the art. And that's exactly what you have done. A lot of people don't have that ability. So. And of course, the three of us have that ability to separate the artist from the art.

1:30:48 And yeah, we, we we really, really appreciate you. OK, So if you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would that be? I think that I would tell her to let go more, so let's go more of the beliefs I have, the desires I have, the dreams I have because they're mine and not all the people that are around me have the same ones and that's OK. So at this juncture, I want to say very, very big thank you to you.

1:31:28 I want to see this on the podcast when a person shares the time with you to share their life with you because the SI unit for measure in life is time. And of course, love and respect to you. Been on the show today, Noella, at the last words. And of course, if you want to give a shout out to anybody, let us know. Yeah, I just want to definitely thank you so much for your time. It's honestly been amazing to hear you. I know our audiences, so I don't want to say thirsty, but yes, thirsty for this type of knowledge. We're all passionate people for sure. And having that expertise and having these systems are just imperative for whatever industry we're in right now, whatever phase of business we're in right

1:32:12 now. So just thank you so much for spending time with us and giving so much knowledge, so much experience, and so much of your energy. It's really appreciated. You're such a pleasure to have, so thank you so much. I guess my only other. Yeah, I would love to maybe even book another session to do the second part because we would just like we could just talk forever, forever about leadership.

1:32:36 So yeah, if we can, absolutely. But it's just been such a pleasure either way. The pleasure is mine. Thank you for having me. And you know what? I love talking with other passionate people about shared passion. So creative value together. 1 + 1 + 1 is more than three in our case. So thank you for having me. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

1:32:56 Let's go to the audience, guys. Guys go like, subscribe, share, share with your, your, your family members, your friends, even your exes, right? And your enemies. Just keep sharing. Sharing is goodbye from us guys.