🇫🇷 En Français 🇨🇦: 🎙️ S4:E35AI RECAP en direct avec Ion-Mircea Ghinda 🇨🇦

Hi, I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's Maxwell Leadership. Our certified team members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation, I'm proud to say, is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend, Bob Fabien Zinga.

Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach Beezy. If you need to develop into a better leader, this podcast is for you. If you want to achieve a greater level of success, this podcast is for you. His mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, said it best: everything rises and falls on leadership. We hope to inspire you today and provide you with an insight that has the potential to positively impact the trajectory of your life. Welcome to the Leadership and Success Podcast.

Imagine gaining the leadership skills that could redefine your career. Join Coach BZ on the Leadership and Success Podcast, where each episode delivers practical insights from world-class speakers, military leaders, and industry experts. We dive deep into what matters most. Building resilient teams, leading through uncertainty, and navigating complexity with clarity and confidence. Every conversation is crafted for aspiring leaders like you who are ready to grow, lead, and make a lasting impact. Don't miss our powerful live sessions and recent highlights. Michelle Hayward on building diverse, high-performing technical teams. Anne Leslie on leading through global complexity and cybersecurity risk. Ron Carpenter, AI, exploring faith, resilience, and AI-powered leadership. Colonel Michelle G.I. Gardner, INS, on commanding influence from the battlefield to the boardroom. Chris Robinson on shifting from drift to drive in life and leadership. And Coach Enrique Acosta Gonzalez on mentorship, legacy, and heart-centered leadership. Ready to level up your leadership journey? Tune in on Spotify, Apple, Audible Podcasts, YouTube Live, and LinkedIn Live. Join the movement toward leadership excellence. Listen now and start transforming your success.

That is quite powerful. I'm now going to show you the song you mentioned, right, by Iggy Pop. In life I've learned often, however I feel, start in the morning, put on a good face. If you are not in a good mood, fool yourself, fool yourself, don't get down, don't let yourself go down. I believe music is a very, very powerful medium. And I think for most of us, No, I am a musician. Are you a musician? Do you play any instrument at all?

Well, I used to play piano and guitar. I haven't played in ages, but I would like to start playing again if I can, because I believe, like you said, music is very powerful.

Yeah.

Yes, because I think everybody remembers important times in your life, where you were and what you were listening to and what sounds or music kind of helps you get through it. So one question I'm going to ask now is, who are you following? Who are the thought leaders that you are listening to?

Yeah, very good question. So I'm actually, like we mentioned, Professor LeBlanc. He has, uh, he has a group called Board Experts, so there's very interesting governance information there. Um, I'm following, um, you know, for example, I, I meant, I mentioned Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, because he, he's out there in the media a lot and he's talking about AI. So I mean, I could mention tens of people that I follow, and it's always, you know, like once I follow people on LinkedIn and then I keep seeing their messages and their advice, and if I like something, I repost. There's a gentleman, Hector Parekh, who is in the Canadian government.

He posts a lot about AI, and he actually built his own AI tool, and I inspired by these examples because, uh, category on the second segment of our podcast: if you had one day and only one day to live, what would you have liked your final contribution to be?

I would like to bring everybody together. So if there's people who don't feel comfortable to work with other people or to interact with other people, I just want them to realize that we're the sum of all the parts, and we have perhaps more things in common than things that set us apart. And I would like to use that day to set an example how people can work together in harmony.

Okay, if right here and right now was your final conversation with humanity, what leadership truth would you want us to remember?

I want everybody to remember that we're just, we're not just a cog in the machine, that we actually have a purpose. I want us to find that purpose. Again, sometimes I hear the phrase, "I'm just pressing a button," but then that attitude actually means that what differentiates us from, you know, an AI or a robot, right? If we don't have soul in what we do and if we don't lead with our heart.

Right. So you really have to keep up with the technology, keep up with innovation and keep up with the pace. Having said that, uh, you've, you've held leadership roles in CANSA and the SCFE Ottawa chapter. And by the way, uh, Maryam Emdan from Canada, is from Ottawa as well. So there is a huge representation of your folks on LinkedIn Live right now. And for those watching us live on LinkedIn or YouTube, if you have a question for Ian, please type it in the comment. I'm going to make sure he answers it by the end of the program today. So my question for you, Ian, why is community service and association leadership important for public servant?

Well, very good question. I, I, I believe that volunteering It's very important to help the community wherever you are able to volunteer, wherever you're able to donate your time. It helps, you know, there's people who definitely need our help, be it in food bank, which I volunteered in when I used to live in Montreal, or in, you know, we used to have volunteering in Ottawa to help the refugees children learn French. You know, they would go to school and they would need a tutor, and a lot of times, you know, they're looking for people who spoke French to help the children. And I would go there and I would work with other lovely persons to help the children to learn. And you would see like the happiness on their face, you know, and the parents would come over and they'll be really happy that somebody's able to teach their kids to speak the language and, you know, give them a head start in life. From the point of view of associations, I was a bit spoiled from the fact that when I was in India, they were expecting us at the High Commission to actually be on at least one or two boards. So they would have these boards that would aim to be sort of auxiliary to what we were doing, but they were actually allowing us to have a different kind of leadership. I was on the CANZA board. So CANZA was the Canadian, Canada, New Zealand, Australia Association, and its purpose was to provide diplomats with duty-free diplomatic goods. But that wasn't just the diplomats, it was also the embassies. So we have, we had, CANZA has a number of embassies that they were actually having as clients, and it was actually a very good experience from the point of view that I was the treasurer and I was able to attend board meetings. I was able to guide the financial decisions of this association, so that was a very good experience. I was also on the board of Club Canada, which was like the embassy's restaurant and pub that the diplomats would use, you know, to decompress and to, you know, have events.

Bienvenue à notre podcast Leadership et Succès. Aujourd'hui, on va explorer les leçons, d'un leadership vraiment inspirant, mêlant intégrité et innovation, comme celui d'Ione Mircea-Guinda, qui conjugue expertise financière, innovation en IA et service public de manière remarquable.

Oui, c'est fascinant. Alors, par où commencer?

Eh bien, d'abord, on voit clairement que le leadership ne se mesure pas seulement aux gros titres C'est surtout une question de service et d'humilité.

Exactement.

Ion démontre par exemple lors de crises comme la pandémie et l'évacuation de Kaboul qu'il faut mettre la mission avant l'ego pour protéger les gens et assurer la continuité des services.

C'est vrai, ce service de haute volée en temps de crise, c'est vraiment impressionnant. Mais parlons un peu de sa vision financière. Qu'est-ce qui te marque le t'aime le plus là-dedans?

Alors, pour Elon, la finance n'est pas juste des chiffres, c'est une véritable discipline de leadership. Il a, par exemple, réussi à générer des économies significatives en Inde en modernisant les opérations bancaires et en améliorant les contrôles internes.

Yeah, c'est super intéressant.

Chaque décision financière devient un choix stratégique pour servir une mission plus vaste et réaliser des économies pour le contribuable.

C'est ça qui est important. Et son approche innovante en IA, par exemple avec cet outil d'évaluation linguistique, c'est vraiment dans l'air du temps, non?

Exactement. C'est comme, comme, tu vois, une synergie entre technologie et humanisme. Son projet d'outil en IA permet d'offrir des évaluations en temps réel et des parcours personnalisés pour aider les agents du service public à atteindre les normes bilingues.

«On ne voit pas souvent des technologies qui servent avant tout à élever le potentiel humain plutôt que de le supplanter.» Ça me rappelle que l'IA ici n'est pas un maître, mais un serviteur, une façon d'augmenter les capacités humaines sans pour autant perdre le contrôle éthique.

Tout à fait. Et ce point sur l'IA, il insiste sur le fait qu'il faut l'utiliser pour compléter et soutenir les compétences humaines, et non pour les remplacer.

Oui, oui, exactement.

C'est une approche qui rappelle qu'il faut toujours garder un équilibre entre innovation technologique et valeurs humaines.

On aborde alors naturellement la question de l'éthique. Dans un contexte de crise et de décisions difficiles, comment E.ON parvient-il, d'après toi, à rester intègre?

Ah, c'est fondamental! E.ON dit, eux, que «faire ce qui est juste est souvent le chemin le plus difficile». «Mais le seul qui dure.» Pour lui, l'intégrité dans la prise de décision, que ce soit en situation de crise ou dans la transformation numérique, est une boussole indispensable. Il transmet que nos choix doivent toujours être guidés par un profond sens du devoir et des valeurs éthiques.

Et en plus d'être un expert financier et technologique, il adopte une démarche vraiment pluridisciplinaire en intégrant des des éléments de philosophie, de littérature et d'éthique dans son leadership.

Oui, c'est, vraiment une approche holistique. Il ne se contente pas de maîtriser son domaine technique, mais il puise aussi dans des lectures classiques— Shakespeare, Tolstoï— et même des réflexions issues du cinéma, pour enrichir sa vision et sa prise de décision. Cela montre que la rigueur intellectuelle et la sensibilité artistique peuvent se combiner pour former un leadership puissant et nuancé.

Toutefois, je me demande, en intégrant autant de disciplines, ne risque-t-on pas de s'éparpiller?

Eh bien, c'est un point intéressant. Certes, on pourrait penser à une dispersion, mais E.ON nous prouve le contraire. En fait, c'est cette diversité des connaissances qui renforce sa capacité à innover et à adapter ses stratégies. Ils montrent que l'ouverture d'esprit et la curiosité intellectuelle sont des atouts essentiels pour relever les défis d'aujourd'hui. Aujourd'hui.

Et puis, il y a ce fameux «penser global, agir local» qui revient souvent dans son discours. Qu'est-ce que cela signifie réellement selon toi?

Pour Yoon, c'est adopter une vision mondiale tout en adaptant les solutions à la réalité locale.

Yeah, exactly.

Par exemple, il évoque comment des innovations venues de l'étranger peuvent être adaptées pour améliorer l'efficacité des services publics canadiens. C'est la capacité de regarder au-delà des frontières tout en restant ancré dans le contexte quotidien de son équipe et de son environnement de travail.

Cette approche montre vraiment comment on peut bénéficier des meilleures pratiques mondiales tout en respectant les valeurs locales. Mais ça m'amène à une autre question: comment construire un héritage en tant que leader?

Très bien dit. Ian insiste sur le fait que le leadership ne se mesure pas au succès immédiat ou aux «likes» sur les réseaux, mais à l'impact durable que l'on laisse. Il encourage à bâtir des systèmes et des cultures qui perdureront, en se concentrant sur le mentorat et sur la transmission des valeurs éthiques à la prochaine génération.

On en déduit ainsi que le leadership de demain, c'est celui du servant leadership, dirigé par le service, l'écoute et l'humilité.

Absolument. Il nous rappelle que, peu importe le poste ou le secteur, notre rôle est de servir les autres, de partager nos connaissances et d'inspirer confiance. C'est une leçon précieuse pour tous ceux qui aspirent à devenir des leaders responsables et visionnaires dans un monde en constante mutation.

Et puis, il y a aussi cette importance de l'apprentissage continu. Dans un environnement où la technologie La technologie évolue si vite, comment rester à la pointe?

Eh bien, Elon met l'accent sur la nécessité de ne jamais cesser d'apprendre. Que ce soit en se formant sur les dernières innovations en IA ou en approfondissant ses connaissances en finance et éthique, il nous encourage à adopter une mentalité de croissance constante pour rester pertinents et efficaces dans notre leadership.

C'est vraiment une leçon pour tous, surtout pour ceux qui évoluent dans des secteurs comme la tech et la défense, où l'adaptation est vitale.

Exactement. Et pour finir, Ian nous invite à adopter quelques outils pratiques: définir son ethos de leadership, effectuer un audit financier pour aligner les actions sur la mission, et surtout investir dans le mentorat.

Yeah, tout à fait.

Ces conseils, simples en apparence, sont pourtant essentiels pour bâtir un leadership solide et durable.

En résumé, son parcours nous offre un modèle inspirant: un leader qui, tout en innovant et en optimisant les opérations, se soucie profondément de ses équipes et de l'impact à long terme de ses décisions.

Exactement, en somme, c'est un appel à mener avec le cœur et la tête. Un modèle qui prouve que l'intégrité, l'innovation et l'engagement au service des autres sont les véritables clés du succès dans le leadership moderne.

Merci pour cet échange passionnant. J'espère que nos auditeurs trouveront autant d'inspiration dans ce modèle qu'on en a retiré aujourd'hui.

Absolument. C'est, ainsi qu'on peut transformer des défis en opportunités, en gardant une vision claire et éthique.

Oui, tout à fait.

On espère que ces réflexions vous aideront à repenser votre propre approche du leadership, que vous soyez dans le secteur public, militaire, ou technologique.

Merci à tous de nous avoir écoutés. Pensez à vous abonner pour plus de discussions sur le leadership et l'innovation. À la prochaine!

That is powerful. Slow down and smell the flowers. Yes, sir, that is great. So, uh, if you could go back and give a piece of advice to your 17, 18, 19-year-old self standing at the edge of this incredible career you've add, what would you say?

Oh, I would, I would just say take it easy, man. Like, you know, like a lot of times you're thinking like you want to do everything and you feel inadequate because you look at other people who are much more accomplished than you. But at the end of the day, you have to realize that whatever point you are on your journey, you have to look at the benefits too, right? So when you are 18, You probably don't have that many responsibilities. You have a lot of free time. Again, take it easy and, you know, enjoy the scenery, you know, learn, read, you know, make friends, make connections. Again, don't dwell too much on the things that you don't have because then you get depressed. And I remember I had mentors in my college at Dawson College who were telling me that back then. They were saying, make a list of all the things you achieved, and I was only 16, 17, and I didn't, like, I still made a list and I achieved a lot by then, you know, and then I felt better, you know, and then I brought a flower to that lady who was my mentor because I said, you are really giving me a powerful lesson. Why am I depressed if I achieved so much, you know?

So very powerful. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Okay.

Now we are toward the end. So what I'm going to ask you really quick is What is the most rewarding aspect of your life experience so far? Now, you are relatively pretty young. We talked earlier, you are about a dozen years or so younger than me, but you are not 17 years old.

No, I'm in my 30s, like my late 30s.

But yes, with the experience you have so far and the leadership opportunity you've had and you've done very well, what is most rewarding for you right now?

So what's most rewarding for me is the journey. I'm actually realizing that when I started at 18, 19, and I was working a few jobs, I was working in a Zeller supermarket and also working in an aged persons residence that had multiple sclerosis. And I remember a lady who, when we were taking the residents for activities outside and we were at the restaurant and we were enjoying ourselves, and she said, Remember, in the future— no, she basically said like, don't let the time pass by and you're gonna end up like my age and you're not gonna go where— you're not gonna realize where time passed. So she said live every moment and be aware of every moment.

Thank you for listening to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach BZ. If you like what you heard, please subscribe to our channels and and come back for more wisdom nuggets on how you may develop into a better leader and achieve greater levels of success. Leadership is the most critical skill. The world will always need leaders to lead others, deploy the next disruptive technology, or execute a business strategy. You may as well decide on counting yourself among the 21st century leaders. See you right here next time on the Leadership and Success Podcast with Coach B.