Strategic Influence Decoded: Ash Seddeek on Leadership Mindset Shifts

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Let's go, Grandpa. Wait, you did?

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You don't say.

Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow. Talk about fast.

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I realized it was very surprising that language is only a manifestation of what's happening in one's brain. So I realized that the biggest value add that people discovered in the coaching conversations was the fact that the way they look at things was one way and in order for them to create a much bigger value, was for them to kind of shift their thinking whenever some of those moments happen. It was very interesting to realize that language is nothing else but a manifestation. So then we had to shift the way we're looking at the issues or the way we're looking at the team or our roles in the company. And then language becomes a tool that helps us articulate that step into the.

World of success with your brand Amplified. The ultimate podcast designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies, and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success.

It is an absolute pleasure to have Ash Siddique with me today. The Executive Greatness Institute. What an amazing name for an organization. Truly. Ash, first of all, thank you for being here.

Well, thank you for having me, Anika.

So I want to go back a little bit because you have been a Fulbright Scholar and now you're an executive coach. And you've had this incredible journey, not only a one time, but a two time Fulbright Scholar and a linguist, to leading teams at powerhouse companies like Deloitte, Oracle, Cisco, and now coaching executives at major organizations like Google and Uber. What was the pivotal moment or experience that made you realize that this was your calling and you wanted to help leaders go through transformation rather than to stay in corporate leadership yourself.

That's a great question. So I think definitely, as you mentioned the Fulbright scholarships, my journey started by looking at the English language as an opportunity for me to get into a career focused on teaching back in Egypt, where I come from. And of course, in that case, I was looking at the language as this is an opportunity for me to establish my career and everything else. When I came to the US I found out just similar to Egypt, making money, teaching was not that good even in the US So I ended up joining Schwab in San Francisco and getting into corporate jobs. But time and again, I could see that people's ability to communicate clearly was such an amazing lever that made a difference for a lot of people. When you see it existing, it does make a difference that you can see them succeeding and flourishing and inspiring others. And those who don't end up really sort of occupying smaller space because they will tend not to speak up in meetings or they would shy away from public speaking opportunities, which in turn also limited their potential. And that was the genesis that I noticed a whole lot more at Cisco, where I was working as a content strategy manager on a large conference that Cisco had put put together on an annual basis for 20,000 or more sales account managers. And I noticed that again, when you look at the top 50 leaders at Cisco, some were really good at it, getting on the stage and speaking and being very energetic and very inspirational. And others, again, you had to work with them to help them get into that ability. So I really saw a big gap among the leadership team where some were natural but or had a lot of experience doing it, others needed a lot of help. And that's really what I saw. There is an opportunity here to find leaders who could unlock so much potential by helping them speak with clarity and have the executive presence that they are looking for.

Yeah, yeah, that's so important. And I am a university professor, so I also, when you said that, I was like, yep, I know exactly what you're talking about. And it is something I see in my students trying to bring more to them to help them feel confident in speaking and presentations. I have a podcast course for graduate level and even seeing which ones want to be behind the scenes and I have to kind of push them. But we also need to hear your voice because that's part of your brand. And being feeling comfortable in one situation will help you out in every situation in your life.

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.

So do you think that your background as a linguist and your Experience and expertise in communication obviously has shaped your approach to executive coaching because you also have, you know, this is a different understanding of language than most people that I have seen go into coaching, without a doubt.

I think what it did help me see was the fact that our ability to connect with our audiences is so fundamental to us getting anything done. Like I had, I had a colleague at Cisco, she's now an HR leader at Uber, and she said to me, ash, now that I'm in hr, I can see that nothing happens except through people. And just realizing that was such a fundamental point to then realize that a lot of the time leaders are so much wrapped up in their own head because they are worrying about their own ability to get the point across or their own executive presence. And one of the main challenges I have is to help them understand that it is no longer about them. It's about the audience and how that audience may be struggling with the project, that they have delegated them that project to them, and they need them to get into more of a coach rather than a manager. So I help them really see that it's an opportunity for them to transition mentally from someone who's thinking about themselves to someone who's thinking about their team a whole lot more. Because that's how they can unlock so much of a multiplied effect by virtue of helping their team members understand things, clearly figure out how to go after executing a particular project and again achieve success. And that's when they realize, oh, my goodness, my role is to build capacity within the team.

That's. And I think we've seen this change more and more people realizing hopefully that we have to treat things a little differently post pandemic post, you know, people not sure about their. If they're going to have jobs, if they're not going to have jobs, is AI taking away their jobs. And so having that clear communication, looking at ourselves as people who can really coach and mentor our teams, I think that builds so much more trust.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think this is really where the ability of a leader to see that they are a multiplied effect and a catalyst for helping people bring that extra mile of effort that you will only see when you've activated something precious in them, which is they love working for you, they love working for this company, they love working together. And our listeners, a lot of them, we can basically ask them, does the word love come into the description of environment that you've created? The psychological safety, does it even exist? And that's where we can see that it's almost like a Maturity model. We have like a stage one, stage two, three, four, five. And I think a lot of leaders listening to us, hopefully they can pay some close attention to what dynamic exists today on their team, because this will give them a sense, oh, my God, there's just so much more goodness that can happen. If I focus more on getting out of my own head and more into the dynamics that I am, I can help create where that psychological safety that they create, the ability to think of themselves as a coach unlocks so much more. Because then the mindset that they have is, let me talk to my team members and see how can I help them do what they do again as a coach rather than stepping in and doing it for them.

And it's really about establishing a different kind of credibility. Which you also had to do when you moved from corporate to saying, I'm now going to coach people who are my peers. Was that a difficult transition for you? Did people accept it easily or did you kind of have to sell yourself a little bit?

I think definitely, you know, there's so much going on in your own head thinking, you know, who, who am I, who am I to talk with a Cisco, with a VP at Cisco or a VP at Uber and at Uber and help them prepare for a board meeting, convers, conversation. I think definitely people sometimes, when they can see that they need some help and they are willing sometimes to give us a chance. And I think some of it has happened as a result of people willing to follow their intuition by thinking, this person has worked in these companies. So hopefully there's some goodness there. And I think that encouragement that they gave me allowed me to start to achieve some success with some of them and then use that to go to new clients and say, I'm working with this VP at Cisco or this VP at Uber, and that sort of opens up the door. But definitely, I think going into some of these conversations, I had my own doubts and of course, you know, had to pray a lot.

Absolutely. And you have some core frameworks, and a lot of people have frameworks for the way that they do things, but I really love the way you position yours. Chief excitement Officer. Right. Exponential value moments. So can you talk a little bit about how you came up with your core philosophy for how you wanted to show up for your clients and some, like, just unravel some of these concepts for us?

Definitely. When we started looking at communication, we realized that one of the key levers in communication is your state when you come into the meeting, what vibe, what energy. And we've Been there. We understand. We go into a meeting with some people and we just feel that I don't want to be there in other meetings. Oh my goodness, the meeting's so invigorating. There were some people talking about this and people talking about that, and that's really where we realize that the energy that you end up bringing into that meeting is so important for us to think about. So that before we go into the meeting, even at a minimum, if we take just a few seconds, just get grounded, because a lot of people are running from one meeting to another. So cognitive switching is such a big burden for a lot of people. So we definitely. Part of the coaching that I work with clients on is this idea of meeting with self where we have to get together with ourselves on a Friday afternoon and look at the calendar and then be selective. You know, there are certain meetings that are very important meetings and that's what we call exponential value moments where we know there's high impact to the business as well as to our careers, because that's really where we're going to show up in front of some key stakeholders. Which means at some layer in that meeting we are being looked at and we're being assessed. So that means we would have to prepare differently for those moments. That means I might have to exercise at the beginning of the day, if I drink coffee, maybe I will get the coffee in and then I will basically ask myself, what kind of energy am I going to bring? And I think my time at Deloitte and Tuche really accentuated this concept of client focused interactions where we would suit up and look really good going into an LA client corporate office, because we know we're representing the Deloitte brand and that was part of us, number one, protecting the business we have in that moment. But not only that, but getting referrals into the future. So we had to think about this referenceability idea and that again, bundles into coming back to Chief excitement officers, meaning if you're coming into the meeting, it has to make a difference. And the biggest difference is in the energy that you bring. Let's say we're feeling excited about this initiative. Where is the excitement coming from? What are the benefits for the organization? What are the benefits for the people on the call for their teams? So you get more strategic in thinking about what is the bigger picture and how the bigger picture can actually impact your energy in hopefully in a positive way. And if there are risks, the difference between excitement and then you coming into a moment and pausing and saying, but you know what this project is only going to happen if we also address some of the key risks. That variation is critical for people to realize there are some risks. And this person is not hand waving and up on a mountain by him or herself, but very grounded. I understand what the risks are. Here is the excitement sources and here's also the risk sources and then helping the audience understand both. I think then people are very appreciative of the fact that your energy helped them actually focus on the message. Whereas if it's boring, they will go to their phone or start thinking, should we have seafood for dinner? You know.

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Reggie, I just sold my car online.

Let's go, Grandpa. Wait, you did?

Yep, on Carvana. Just put in the license plate, answered a few questions, got an offer in minutes. Easier than setting up that new digital picture frame.

You don't say.

Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow. Talk about fast.

Wow.

Way to go. So about that picture frame.

Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested.

Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. This is one of those things where sometimes, you know, I'm a host, but I'm also. I also get interviewed and sometimes people can see that light or I can see that in my guests of you know that this is something they're really invested in and really excited about. And that's the energy, right? You have to be grounded and you have to have a lot of belief in your ability, but also in what you're proposing.

Absolutely, for sure. And I do believe, I mean, sometimes I wonder, I say to myself, where's all this confidence coming from? And I think it's micro moments of success. Definitely looking at the English language as a way to earn a living back in Egypt, and then, you know, being blessed and getting these Fulbright scholarships. I think for sure these things helped build up confidence over time because you can see, let's say I've been able to achieve this and this and that, but you come back and you. You step back and say it. It's not about me anymore. I have to think about what success gonna help my clients achieve. And that's really where coaching has been such a blessing, because it helps me to turn the table around and think about what could we do for this client and help them and their team as well.

What is one of the biggest surprises to being on this side of the table? I mean, you've been coaching for quite a while, but I'd love to hear, is there something that you. An approach that you had to take or just moments where you've gone, oh, this is not what I was expecting to have to teach, or this wasn't what I was expecting to learn myself.

I think when we get into coaching, a lot of the time we realize there's so much about mindset, the power that I've realized. It was very surprising that that language is only a manifestation of what's happening in one's brain. So I realized that the biggest value add that people receive, people discovered in the coaching conversations was the fact that the way they look at things was one way and the in order for them to create a much bigger value was for them to kind of shift their thinking whenever some of those moments happen. It was very interesting to realize that language is nothing else but a manifestation. So then we had to shift the way we're looking at the issues or the way that we're looking at the team or our roles in the company. And then language becomes a tool that helps us articulate that. So it's very interesting to see some of that happen. And again, for me, it happened just by having the conversations with clients and talking and trying to understand what's really causing them to hold back in meetings. Where's the lack of confidence coming from? And then we unpack that and realize they feel that maybe they are not even deserving to be there. The imposter syndrome may be in action. And then I sometimes have to tell them, you are here. You are at Cisco. You are a director, a senior director. We need to embrace the fact that you're here because you've got the qualifications, the work experience, you feeling that you don't belong is one thing we have to work through and instead start to really accept and celebrate. And then also start thinking that you're not the main part of the equation. The main part of the equation would be what kind of value do we bring collectively. And then all of a sudden you can see, oh my goodness, I'm just a piece in a big jigsaw puzzle. And if I can help others, then I am doing something that is valuable. And by definition, this is going to be a reflection of the fact that you're that kind of leader who's able to unlock potential in others.

It's so interesting to hear and maybe a relief a little bit. That doesn't matter what part of leadership you're in. If you have a very small company, a startup, or you're leading a really, really big organization, one of the biggest in the world, and that leaders all still have these issues.

Absolutely.

And these fears. And they don't always come thinking that they have all the tools in their toolbox or that they can affect major change. And that is one of the things that you focus on. Right. The communication side, strategic influence and change, sponsorship. So how do you make sure, or how difficult is it to make sure that leaders have all three of those? And is is an issue if they have. They're really strong in one or two parts, but not the third?

Yeah, for sure. I think the realizing that when we talk about this idea, what would happen if the company you're working for decides to go out and hire someone other than you? And if the company focuses on the functional expertise, highly likely they will find thousands of people. So, for example, if somebody's a finance leader and we go out and try to hire a finance leader, highly likely we'll get 250 resumes on LinkedIn. But the key question would be which one of those is someone that can come in and help us see that there's a whole lot more potential than what we currently have. You want that person who can help you see over the fence. And that's really where companies are a lot of the time, looking for the strategic leader that can see a future that doesn't even exist. And it's this aspect of being someone who understands that they need to lead change and be very good sponsors is where we really see people who have the skill of helping create a future that doesn't exist. And that's really where it's very critical skill to have, because it tells everybody else in the organization. You're one of those that if we go out Looking, it won't be easy to find because we not only want people who would help us run today's business, but hopefully we have leaders who can help us create tomorrow's business and the future side of the business. And that's what companies usually are looking for, people who can help the organization scale and help envision better future state and then come back and energize everybody else to create that, whether it's the customer service experience or the experience of a patient coming into the lobby of a hospital and so and so on. And that's where a lot of leaders don't see that that's a big part of what it means to lead strategically. Yeah.

Change sponsorship is such a unique and clear and exciting way to look at change and change management. Right. A lot of times we hear those words and we're like, what's going on? We rightsizing? Am I going to lose my job? What does this mean?

Right.

People look at it on their very individual basis. But when you say change sponsorship, that just that different phrase opens up a whole new world of possibility.

Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Because a lot of, as you're saying, people are worried. I think by definition, because of everything that's happening in the economy, there is a layer of concern. Number one, they're looking for us, for the leaders to help them see that there is an opportunity for them to actually take a deep breath and trust and have confidence in the present and the future. And then start to also send them a signal that it's okay to stay here and not look for a job somewhere else. Because you know what, we have some amazing things coming up. So they want to see a trailer. They want to see that not only are we creating success now, but they also want to see that as a leader, you're helping them visualize what's coming up. Oh, my goodness. Not only am I going to stay here because of what I see, but also because of what's coming. Because otherwise a lot of companies have a lot of attrition and a lot of time. We don't know why. And a big part of it highly likely is the leadership team is not spending time, help people see what's coming. So they end up jumping ship. That's huge. Huge budget loss.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's so much harder like just any, any sales or anytime you're selling something or you're trying to retrain somebody or bring somebody new, and it costs a lot more to do that than to keep the people you have.

Yeah, absolutely. Ye.

So when we're talking about change resistance. Obviously, there's a lot of confusion right now around artificial intelligence, more specifically generative AI and maybe a little machine learning. I was recently in Vietnam and got to visit a lot of different businesses and one of them had just been in the process of training 4000 software engineers over a period of two years with different upskilling AI certifications. They didn't create their own. They used Google, they used major company certifications so they could prepare their entire team's workforce for the next phase of what their work in healthcare and tech might look like. I thought that was such a great way to approach innovation change, and that the company had the foresight to say, don't worry, we're taking care of you and we're preparing you. I don't see necessarily a lot of that in the U.S. we see, you know, or at least we hear in the media that sometimes the C suite is they know that they want AI, but they don't know how they want to implement it. Or they say, oh, we need this, this, and this. But then again, there's not as much training. So maybe it's not AI, maybe it is. But I'd love to hear some examples of change resistance and some change management issues that have arisen in the experiences that you've had.

Absolutely. So I worked on a large implementation in Seattle for the state of Washington where they were implementing a big software package. And I think a lot of the time, as we were talking earlier, the resistance is because they don't see what's happening around the corner. And at Boston Scientific, they were implementing a big project portfolio, software. So I think resistance shows up in how people see how much impact what we're doing is going to cause for the organization. There are, of course, there are some benefits. But again, I think as a change management consultant, sometimes when I do this kind of work, and that's really where you saw the idea about sponsorship. I find that the toughest part is people realizing that that where they need to spend a lot more time talking about the benefits and making sure they also listen to the concerns. So a lot of the time the resistance is happening because we have not spent enough time explaining, because it's fascinating what happens when people have the desire. Awareness is one thing, but having the desire is a whole other thing.

This is true.

So we can definitely encourage people listening to us to think about this idea of desire almost as a campaign where you have to start if you want the project to succeed, you should start three or six months before where you Do a lot of listening first and you go to people and say, I just want to think with you and imagine with you what would happen if we did this and we did this. So they themselves organically end up co creating the desire. And that's where you're thinking more proactively of the resistance, because it does happen. And sometimes, of course, if it's passive aggressive and you don't even know it exists, it may put a lot of these projects in jeopardy. And it's fascinating that research says sponsorship is definitely like the 70% factor in whether or not it does succeed. So it's crazy. Yeah, yeah. So I think for sure it is something that is real. Resistance is real because of course a lot of the time you're changing how things happen and people have built so much knowledge and expertise and how things happen now. And then you're coming and saying, you know that Mustang that you have spruced up with so much care and love, now we have to literally put it aside and go get another car. And for a lot of people it doesn't make any sense. So you have to walk through the logic with them in order for them to say, oh, you know what, that makes a lot of sense. And of course that's a huge distance for us to get there. Yeah.

And this concept of making sure people have buy in is so important because if they feel like they are part of they have a say that they're part of creating, then they're so much more invested and so much more excited than if they feel that you're just bulldozing over them. We see this in examples all the time, in every size again of corporation or nonprofit. If somebody has that idea, but they're not willing to take people with them, that's where these leaders can fall down.

Absolutely. Recently I put together a book. The title of the book is Conviction. Because if everybody, to your point, if everybody gets to the point of believing that we need to change from the status quo to something much better, if there is conviction, then it's a whole lot easier. Whereas typically we are working with a 10, 15% conviction level. And that's really where resistance kicks in. People keep saying, I don't understand, can you help me figure this out? Can you come and explain it to my team? And it takes us much longer. And of course all of this is happening while competition may be beating the door to our customers and so forth. So for sure would very much encourage everybody that's listening to this to think about this idea of conviction, desire, awareness, the toughest part is essentially this part of the equation.

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Well and you are already an Amazon best selling author. Right. And so conviction. Is this a book that's out for us yet?

It's coming out I think in the next few weeks for sure. So definitely people listening to us. If they reach out to us, we'll give them a digital copy so I can extend that gift to them as well.

Oh that's amazing. And you also have you have the seven top skills of highly effective strategic leaders. You have your success blueprint. So you're doing it all this amazing work, but you also still I mean it's going back to AI a little bit. You are also an AI fintech inventor and you're also an entrepreneur. Can you tell us a little bit about that part of your work and does it interplay and intersect with the role that you have as an executive leadership coach?

Yeah. So I'm excited about that you brought that up because the AI piece of the work that we're doing now is about how AI can actually help people in organizations communicate more effectively. So we're basically thinking about when I was coaching a leader at Uber, I as part of the coaching process I basically mentioned, Let me go talk to five people you work with and get input from them. And it's fascinating when I go talk to those other stakeholders and ask them, how would you like to be communicated to? And then I discovered that they have very unique preferences in terms of how they want to receive the communication. So the AI software is literally driven by that insight, where a lot of the time when we're writing a message, we don't know what the other person receiving this message wants to be communicated to, how they want to be communicated to. So the software will be a library of communication preferences from everybody in the organization. So when you're just about to write an email, it will tell you this person likes bullet points. They want to know what the logic is behind the point that you're making, or maybe they're interested more in the story. So with that insight, you'll be able to write a whole lot better communication because you know what they like and what they don't like. In addition to that, the software will also go and look at the 1015 software applications that you and the other person have so much context and will collect context from all of those sources. So when you say, write an email from me, it will have a very relevant message that captures the working relationships and the projects that you're working on together. So we're hoping with this software that not only it will help us get much better out of AI, but hopefully the message will land and would be clearer and effective because of the fact that now we know what the communication preferences of everybody around us is. Otherwise now we're basically shooting in the dark most of the time, we're sending and praying.

So hypothetically, if you were trying to communicate with a team of eight to 10 people and you have your core message, but could it then be distilled to each of those people in a slightly different manner based on their preferences, so they're getting the information that everybody needs to have, but just in a slightly different manner.

What it will do, it will default to what the key stakeholders in this thread are interested in. For now at least, I think eventually the main goal would be to write the message in a way that bears in mind the cognitive burden of the recipients and make sure that the message is clear and concise. Because what we're discovering as people at Cisco are implementing some of those structures, they are getting a whole lot more responses when in the past they weren't getting any responses. So it's fascinating how clarity at the very top of the message increases the level of response and this means if people understand your message, the project will move a whole lot more faster than it would otherwise.

Amazing. So we already see personalization coming to social media and to the way brands interact with people as consumers. But the internal communications is sometimes even more important. So I love this, using AI for personalization in a really constructive, important manner.

Yeah, well, definitely very excited about it. Yeah.

So of course it's interesting because there sometimes, I mean, I know I see this with my grad students and other people I talk to about AI. Sometimes they think it's going to replace them. Sometimes they, you know, they're not quite sure. They're afraid it's going to be Terminator. So they're reluctant. And by the time we finish our classes, I think they feel armed with the right tools and they understand the difference between what we as humans want to our goals and how we use AI in partnership. Right. Or in process to help achieve those goals. But they are two different things. So I wanted to tie that into thinking about leadership and what skills. I mean, we, I think we talked about a lot of them already. But are there specific skill sets that leaders need to develop or keep in mind that AI will not be able to replicate?

I do believe still, I do believe as human beings we're able to connect the dots in a whole lot better way. I think intuition is probably something that we cannot place so much with AI. So I very much encourage people to see AI more as a thought partner. And one of the key dynamics as I'm coaching leaders is their ability to frame things strategically. So as much as they actually leverage AI to help them take a step back and ask themselves what's the bigger picture of this piece of communication. At the minimum, they would leverage it in a way that would help them stand out and differentiate themselves as they communicate with others. So I definitely don't see AI replacing human beings as much because at the end of the day, there's also diminishing returns in this concept where if companies go in the route of AI, well eventually where are you going to get your customers? You need customers who have salaries, who can actually go out and buy things. So hopefully a lot of the current corporate leaders would realize that there is a diminishing returns impact to going full force with AI without paying attention to the economics of it.

And that's usually not brought up in the conversation when we at least the sensationalizing in the news media.

I just published an article where I'm arguing that a lot of LLM companies are very similar to people who own these amazing Mustangs because they are thinking transformers, they are thinking training, they are thinking we spent a trillion dollars on these LLMs. In reality, businesses do not need as much the Transformers as much as they need the reasoning layers. And that's really where the human being will continue to be an amazing source of reasoning and being able to say, I can see the numbers, my intuition is saying this and that component irreplaceable. So I think a lot of these LLMs as well as the companies that won't use AI will need to realize that the LLM companies are more or less vested because they spend so much money on the Transformers. But the question is, what does our enterprises need? Highly likely they need more human connection and inspiration because this will help us create people who want to achieve a much better level of the business. I think you can only get it from human beings because they can also envision futures that don't even exist. The ability to imagine and create is something that AI will only be able to do with you telling it that I'm thinking about this new car that would function with nitrogen and not evolve electrical power. Could you help me think that? And the human being is the only one that can generate that kind of catalyst.

That's very clear. So thank you. Now we know that not everybody's in the situation that they are in the C suite of a company such as Cisco or Google or Uber, and maybe they're even in a position where they can't have an executive coach. Are there a couple of things that you could recommend right now that people should start thinking about or start doing? Even if they are leaders of smaller organizations or, you know, they have that growth mindset, they have plans, they see the future vision, but they're just taking the steps there.

Yeah, I think one of the things that comes up a lot is a lot of the time we are not spending enough time connecting with people. So recommendation would be for each leader listening to us is have a quarterly listening tour with key people that you're working with, if they are your employees or your clients. Highly likely we are not spending enough time connecting, not just having a meeting on the calendar, but reaching out and saying we haven't spoken for a while. I'd love to spend some time sharing with you what we've been doing and also finding out what's happening in New World. A lot of that nurturing needs to happen more because, you know, again, coming back from a management consulting mindset, you have to continue to nurture the long term relationship and even without employees, what I'm finding out, a lot of leaders are basically saying, we're not going to have one on one conversations. If you need to have one on one meeting with me, you can let me know. So a lot of leaders now are essentially kind of walking away from the minimum level of care for their employees. So if somebody's listening to us and they basically are no longer doing the one on ones, we would say maybe a bi weekly is better than nothing at all. Because your employees need someone that would care about their development, would care about how they are doing, would care about if there are any challenges that they're facing. Having a trusted partner that they can talk to, of course, is precious in my mind. And so we would encourage them to really pay closer attention to the relationships that they have. So that's a very key component. And then we definitely would want to remind them of remembering to spend some time with themselves, reflecting. That's one of those seven skills of highly effective strategic leaders. Because a lot of the time they don't take enough time off, they don't think about the business, and they are just loving the grind. So we'd very much encourage them to override their default setting. So sometimes the default setting is, oh, I'm gonna go to my desk and just gonna jump into each calls. If you want to be strategic, you need to shut the laptop down, take a walk outside, you know, the office or the house, and reflect on how are we doing, what's going well, what could be better? That short period of reflection would have amazing strategic dividends for the business. And that's where a lot of leaders are not doing it. It's very surprising. Even Harvard Research is telling us that a lot of CEOs don't even take any time off. Unbelievable.

Yeah, that's. I mean, I know that's the American way, but I think other countries have shown us that you get a lot more creative juices flowing, you come up with new ideas. When you do take that time away and you take that time to reflect.

Exactly, absolutely. Yes. For sure. For sure. Make a big difference. At least it will give you a sense of understanding. Oh, my goodness. I haven't thought about this for a while or I wonder how we're doing over here. Let me go talk to Annika about this. So it at least will inspire you, hopefully, to take some actions that you haven't done for a long time.

Ash, we're going to lead people, I believe, to communicate with clarity, code as a source of truth for all the information that they could want you made a generous offer about giving an ebook for your book that's coming out. I'd love to bring you back on once the book is released and see, okay, what are the trends now? But I'd love to ask you one last question. Do you have a favorite quote, mantra, verse, poem words that continue to inspire you?

Yeah. The one that I would highly recommend is do what you believe is in your power. That is enough. Because if you do what you believe is enough, that means we are going to get the best out of you. So don't hold back, jump in and add value and then come back and do the same. So when you think it's enough, that means we are getting the best out of you. And that's absolutely fine because a lot of the time we are holding back. And I think it's a good question to ask why that's the case.

Yeah, I feel like that's a full circle moment, taking us back to the thoughts that people have that they're not enough. Right. The imposter syndrome. Some of the things that we talked about early on in this conversation.

Exactly.

This has been a really big delight for me. Ash. Thank you so much for bringing some of your insights, some of your stories and your amazing background. It's so rich and can't wait to see what you're doing next. And to everybody who's listening, we have some really great offers on the table, so definitely reach out so that you can get a copy of the book and do think about taking that space and time for yourself. How are you showing up, having open communication, and how are you getting people excited about the next phase of their lives and your business?

Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of your brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at yourbrandamplified. Com.