S4:E35 🎙️LIVE with Ion-Mircea Ghinda 🇨🇦

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Hello everyone, this is Coach Bizzy. I have a very, very special guest for you. Today is Sunday, July 20th. It's about 6 PM here in California and should be 9 PM on the East Coast. So I have a very, very special guest for you for Season 4, Episode 35. We are live right now. On LinkedIn, on YouTube. And if you have a question for my guest, please type your question in the comment section and I'm gonna make sure we get your question answered. But also please let us know where you are watching from, what city and state or what country in the world. And today, like I say, I'm gonna be talking to Ian. And please follow him, Yann Guinda, on LinkedIn. And let me just take a second to introduce my guest today. So Yann, from managing global banking operations at Global Affairs Canada to driving AI-powered transformation in public service training, Yann is not just building systems, he's shaping the future of ethical leadership. All right, oh, actually this is not Jan, sorry, uh, this is, uh, someone he wanted us to follow. Here we go, this is, this is Jan right there, Jan Brakke Geda. Okay, so Jan is not just building systems, he is also shaping the future of ethical leadership, resilience, and innovation at scale. So you don't want to, uh, miss this. And, uh, with no further ado, let me go back here and, uh, ladies and gentlemen, bring the man, Yon, all the way from Canada. Uh, how are you doing today, sir?

Hello, Coach BZ. Can you hear me well?

Hello, hello. So how, how are you today?

Ça va très bien. Bonjour.

Hello.

I know Coach Bizy also speaks a bit of French, or very well French. We spoke together in French as well. I'm doing great. I'm actually enjoying attending this podcast and being on this episode 35 of your season 4 of the podcast, and hopefully we can have a great conversation about leadership. So happy to be here.

Wonderful. Yeah, because one truth is leadership is universal, right? It doesn't matter where you are from and where you live. These principles we're talking about really are universal principles, and they will take effect, and you will see the result if you do put them in practice. Now, you have a very interesting story. Can you take us back to the very beginning? What inspired your journey into public service, and what keeps you grounded in the mission today?

Yes, definitely. So I thought about joining public service ever since I first did a co-op work term for Environment Canada. Now it's called Environment and Climate Change Canada, the government department that is in charge of Canadians' environment. I worked there in 2008 for a summer. I was a co-op student. So the co-op student, it's basically a program between universities and the government which allows students to get work experience in either companies or the government. For me, it was my third co-op student. The first two co-op students I've done, the first two co-op terms I've done them for Alcan, which is one which used to be one of Canada's largest companies, and then it got acquired by Rio Tinto, an Australian group. So long story short, in 2008, in the summer, I moved to Ottawa from my home in Montreal. Actually, I was living on the South Shore of Montreal, Longueuil. Which is a city right south of Montreal. And for me, that was also difficult because it was the first time I was living away from my family. But I also had an exchange semester lined up in Paris, so I knew that I needed this as a stepping stone to live on my own for a summer and learn about how to work in the government. Now, when I started working in the government, I realized that the purpose of Canadian government and governments around the world is to focus on serving the citizens of the country. So to me, the journey in public service started with learning the purpose of public service, and then when I came back as a full, as a full indeterminate employee, so full-time indeterminate in 2012, after I finished at university and I had a quick 2-year stint in the startup environment in Montreal, I was working in accounting. I joined the government again in 2012, and I realized that there is so much change happening in the government mirroring the big changes that happen in the private world, and there's a lot of room to lead and to change, and that's what passion me ever since. But one last thing I would like to mention is that when I left the startup companies to join the government, the CEO asked me what's my purpose to do in the Canadian government. Why am I going in the Canadian government? And beyond serving the public, I also mentioned to him that my passion is learning different languages, is traveling abroad from the point of view of learning different cultures and, you know, interacting with people from around the world. So that actually fueled my journey to study at Harvard and then later on to Hopefully, you know, I went on a posting abroad in India, so it all kind of came together. Thank you.

Wow, okay, just to let you know, we have quite a few people. The comment section is on fire right now.

So, wow, that's great.

Eniola Odukale from Edmonton, Canada— I mean, sorry, California. We have Maryam Edam from Canada. And we also have Widima Kuwana from Ottawa, Canada. Where are you right now in Canada? What city?

I'm in Ottawa, so the capital of Canada.

Yes, so we have your people logging in. This is wonderful. The next question I wanted to ask you, uh, you've served in diverse global settings from India to Ottawa. How have those experiences shaped your leadership style?

Well, it definitely brought color to my leadership style because interacting with different cultures and being in leadership positions in different countries, but also in the, I would say, follower positions, you know, like we don't always have to lead. We also have to be able to be good at taking instructions from others and sometimes even suggesting to our managers what is the course of actions that we believe should be taken. Whether those decisions are taken or not is the prerogative of the manager. However, we have, all of us, a very key role in leadership, whether we are the person who is at the helm or we are the person that is helping make the dream come true or the work get done. Or the services getting provided. We all have a role. So working abroad, I realized that there are definitely different characteristics that are influenced by different cultures, and being mindful of the cultural characteristics of each employee is a key to success.

Wow, that is quite insightful. So in your role at Global Affairs Canada, you've modernized complex banking operation. So what does strategic financial stewardship look like at the nano level?

Well, I would say it's being able to be at the forefront of the changes in the financial world and also seeing how the technology plays a piece in what we're doing to improve our efficiency and our effectiveness. Again, we have to remember why we're there. We're there to provide services to the Canadian as an ultimate purpose, but we also have sometimes to provide services internally. We also have to provide, you know, advice to senior management. So whatever the role is of our work in the organization, we have to make sure that the technologies and the stewardship and the governance are adequate to achieve the purpose. So for example, when I was working in internal audit, I was able to bring technologies in such as data analytics. We had a software that's called ACL. I had a mentor, Mr. Dave Kader, who was able to teach me the software. He would organize sessions for public servants when he was with the Office of the Comptroller General. Then later on, he was my mentor on specific projects. I worked with him also as a consultant managing him and his team to provide some data analytics for the contracting audit that I worked on in 2018. Talking about, for example, in the banking environment, we are— we were working on implementing the new ISO 20020 standards. We were working on modernizing the form that is intaking the vendor information for new vendors and vendor changes. It was built on a PDF infrastructure and we were bringing it on a different infrastructure so that it has better interaction with our financial system. When I was in Delhi, we used technology, for example, to build visualization tool that was helping our clients and missions abroad, which are Canadian embassies and consulates. So they would get up-to-date data and stats on their error rates and, you know, how many transactions they were processing. They're able to look at that with their management and compare between different embassies to see what are the weak points. So all that kind of technology infrastructure I was helping to implement, but I also had strong teams behind me that were actually collaborating together to make the solutions happen. So I was never able to do something all by myself. I always needed to rely on, on my team members and also Sometimes I have to actually do some of the work myself, and I'm not shying from doing the work and also like, yes, outlining my opinions about that, you know.

Wow.

So really talking about leadership and influence and working together for a greater goal. So what about during times of crisis? Tell us about managing financial continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Kabul evacuation.

Yeah, that's a very interesting situation because first of all, when I went to India, I didn't get to go there right away. So I started my position in November 2020 while I was still a student in my master's class. I was actually taking Mr. Kortler's class on business data analytics, and we were basically building like mini AIs with R programming language. But I also started working on my new job managing a team in New Delhi. So it was a team of 12, and since I was in a different time zone, I had to make sure that the team was very clear about the tasks that they were assigned and that the managers on site that were reporting to me also had the adequate instructions and the adequate FaceTime with me to be able to perform and to guide— to have the guidance to lead the team in that difficult time. It was also difficult from the point of view that some employees— well, all the employees were working from home, but some employees were also sometimes getting sick with COVID so we had to support them. And then there's also the mental health element where my manager Devin, and I was supporting him with that, we would organize weekly sessions every Friday where we would have like games and, you know, discussions with the team that were not work-related, just to make sure we get the pulse on the mental health of the team. Because, you know, being locked for months and months is very difficult for the teams. Also, when I was working on the Emergency Watch Response Center from Canada, that was before I went to India, I would actually go to our main office of Global Affairs Canada and interact with other team members, and we would work on the phone lines and on emails. To bring Canadians back to Canada, and we would facilitate their transportation back to Canada during COVID Again, when we were in India and there was the Kabul evacuation, we had to maintain continuity of payments to suppliers according to the Canadian government contracts. So we were having good legal advice from our headquarters. We had to interact with the staff that got relocated to Canada to get certain approvals, certain banking access.. And then we were with the team in New Delhi able to actually provide the services to make sure the payments got out to the suppliers that needed them. So it was juggling a lot of different things, but also with the final goal in mind and keeping on track, you know, day by day. It's sometimes difficult, but you have to kind of go through it and make sure that you achieve your goals.

Wow, those are really complex global operations, very fascinating. So you did mention AI when you were in school, and I understand— congratulations are in order, right? You are a finalist in the Canadian Public Service Data AI Challenge, so that's a very big deal. Can you walk us through your AI-powered language training tool and its impact?

Yes, so our proposed AI language training and evaluation tool is actually aiming to help employees of the federal government. So that's our current target market to learn the second official language. So for us as Canadian public servants, we need to be bilingual, like to speak both English and French. So there is currently a big need of training in various sectors of the government in order to achieve promotions in order to— but it's not just about the promotions, it's also about being able to provide Canadians with bilingual service and to be able to interact with our colleagues that are Francophones or Anglophones. So it's actually aiming to solve that problem. Now we're using, first of all, a database. So the database that we used as the main database was a database of mock exam questions because The way it works is 3 exams, 2 are multiple choice and 1 is oral interaction. For the 2 exams that are comprehension and writing, it's multiple choice. So there is actually mock exam database which presents synthetic data. And then we can use AI to actually generate new questions, generate learning plans. And then we also have in our roadmap a virtual tutor that would allow people to interact and do learning with an AI-powered tutor. And we would also help— like, try to help sort of reskill certain employees in the federal government to be able to help with certain learning tasks. So for example, certain language experts that we spoke with said that a lot of the learning for their schools happens in group settings, in class settings. So we're actually looking to use network platform concepts to actually bring people who are at the same level together in certain groups, be it, you know, virtual classroom or games, and then have them interact, but with perhaps a human teacher or monitor present so that, you know, they're able to have a flowing conversation and to actually learn at the best of their ability.

Wow, that is quite fascinating. Now, I know that you are not a CP CPA, CIA, uh, CISA, and a master's from Harvard University. So what advice do you have for professionals seeking to balance continuous learning with leadership demand?

Uh, well, Coach VZ, I noticed you're a CISSP, which is very similar to CISA. So, uh, for those who don't know, Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Certified Information Systems Auditor, they have a big overlap in the security part. About a third of the CISA was about IT security. My master's at Harvard was about management, but I also had two certificates that I got, one in strategic management and one in principles of finance. I have other designations, yes, with CPA, Certified Professional Accountant, and CIA, Certified Internal Auditor. Currently I'm looking perhaps at getting the CFE, Certified Fraud Examiner, because I'm on the board of the ACFE Ottawa Association. Now what I advise public servants and any leader in the world, because we're all leaders if we decide to be leaders, no matter what your role, I would advise you to never stop learning. Again, like, don't learn just for the titles, you know, the titles to me don't matter much as long as you don't apply them, right? Like if you apply it if you apply the knowledge that you learned in a designation or in school, I think that's basically the value. But then there is also the, to a certain degree, a signaling value, right? So if you're applying for a new job or a new position, people tend to respect the level of effort that was put to get a designation. So we should actually be proud of the time that we put in to learn if we ended up getting the designation or a degree. Now there's of course all these stories about CEOs of companies who dropped out of Ivy League and they wear that as a badge of honor, and I have nothing against that, but at the same time there's a certain pride that comes with actually finishing and graduating like you did, Coach BZ, from Harvard, you know, like you have this knowledge and also the networking, right? So like when you learn something, like, don't just go there for the knowledge, go there for the networks that you create. Because a lot of times the professionals that learn along with you will become your colleagues. And a lot of times, you know, if you need advice, you cannot come up with all that advice all by yourself because the technology changes so fast. And especially if you're like all over the place with all different fields of study that you learned about, you can't keep track of it all. So it's important to have this network where if you have a question, you can quickly know who to ask for help and, you know, rely on their advice.

No, that is very, very important. Continuous education and networking. I think those are really two keys for success, right? Two master skills for success in the age of AI. Because I remember the generation of my grandparents, they went to school, once they got their degree, they really never had to open another book in their life ever again. And then they work for the same company for like 20 years and they retire, get the gold watch. But those times, those days are completely gone, right? You have to keep learning. Even with AI today, right? It pretty much innovates pretty much every 3 months or so, right? So you really have to keep up with the technology, keep up with innovation, and keep up with the pace. Now, having said that, you've held leadership roles in Kanza and the ACFE. Ottawa chapter. And by the way, 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 Yan, please type it in the comment. I'm gonna make sure he answers it by the end of the program today. So my question for you, Yan, why is community service and association leadership important for public servants?

Very good question. 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 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 is 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 a— like, 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. We would put events, sometimes diplomatic events, and that leads me to the fact that I was also on the board of GCWCC. I was co-chair for that. So GCWCC is the Government of Canada Workplace Campaign for Charity, and we put together large events in New Delhi to raise funds for charities, for Canadian charities. So all these events and all being on these boards— ACFE Ottawa, it's another board where we put together events to help people learn about ethics. I had my past Harvard professor, Professor LeBlanc, come and speak about ethics and fraud governance. We also put together an event in January, a professional development day, where we had specialists from the fraud industry and also the Canadian Integrity Commissioner came for a fireside chat, which I animated. So all these boards and volunteering are very useful to actually provide services to the community and without actually getting remunerated, but there's a large, I would say, payback in the impact that we're making. So we have to be proud for seeing how our volunteering efforts are actually helping the community.

That is really huge because I'm a huge, huge believer in leading through service, right? Making a difference, hopefully leaving this world a little bit better than we found it. So having talked about ethical leadership, and you mentioned your Professor LeBlanc, I believe from Harvard, who went to speak to your nonprofit, how do you define ethical leadership, especially in high-tech environment where decisions are real world consequences.

So I believe ethical leadership, I will explain it the way my law professor at Concordia explained. Basically, very simply, the law writ large is the purpose of law is there to tell you not to do anything that your mother would tell you not to do. And I know it sounds very simplistic, but he would actually bring all the cases that we were analyzing to, you know, why would the people do these things if it actually caused damage or if it actually didn't take into account that it's illegal? And again, the law is there to keep us in check, right? It's, it's whatever society came with as a tool to keep us to be ethical. Now the leadership, the way it translates to leadership is that when we lead, we have to be honest. And we have— being honest doesn't mean to say everything, right? There's also a need-to-know principle where we cannot communicate every single piece of information to everybody. So sometimes we have to make decisions, you know, who we're inviting to meetings or who we share certain information to. But whatever we do, I fully believe in as much as we can be transparent and as much as we can give all the information that we have, again, taking into account that some information is private, and also explaining our decision, being able to always explain our decisions to anybody, you know, because if we're keeping things simple and we're able to explain, then I don't think we can do anything that's unethical.

Wow, that is, that is very powerful. One last question I'm going to ask you for this segment before we move into the, uh, 7th question I ask everybody who comes on this podcast is, uh, what does thinking globally but acting locally mean in your daily leadership practice?

Yes, so thinking globally means that we have to be open to advancements wherever they are in the world, and we have to accept the fact that we may not be at the forefront of everything, but we should be having a critical mindset to understand What is out there that could help us? And it takes a little bit of selflessness to have that, because if we realize that other entities around the world or other countries or other, let's say, in academia, other universities, you know, I always hear certain, like, let's say you're a Harvard person, you're a Yale person, you know, we like They try to kind of like have this rivalry, like in a friendly manner. But at the same time, you know, if there's an advancement, let's say MIT came up with this AI molecule, like they used AI to come up with a molecule called halicin, which destroys most bacteria that, you know, it would have taken hundreds of years to discover without AI. Well, that's an advancement that happened in the United States with MIT. But now it's going to be the whole world who can apply it locally. And also, like, I was listening to Jensen Huang, the NVIDIA CEO, and he was mentioning that he would hope that the US stack of technologies used to create sovereign AI in various countries. So that means that if there's an advancement anywhere in the world, you have to think globally and you have to accept that, and you have to be humble enough to say, okay, well, let's not reinvent the wheel here if it's already available there. But once you're able to look globally, you have to think, how does it apply locally to your situation? And sometimes that means adapting things. Sometimes it means, you know, developing extra elements to a certain invention or patent to fit your local environment, your local standards, you know, whatever is the requirements locally, your local culture, for example. So that's how I see it. Thank you.

Okay. Uh, before we start the, uh, the second segment, is there anything you would like to share? Anything on your mind, John? Yeah.

So I was actually thinking of this before the call that I want to mention, and I don't want to forget. Um, I think in leadership, one thing that's important, it's often overlooked, uh, is the lesson from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. And what they were saying, and again, the Three Musketeers were actually four because they had D'Artagnan. They were saying, "One for all and all for one." And I really like this saying because it actually implies that no matter who is the leader and no matter how large is the team, you should all act as a unit, as a, you know, together entity. And it cannot be this sense from the point of view that You know, if you're having disagreement or dissent, that will slow you down. So I think if people keep that in mind, that would help them advance much faster, no matter what their role is on the team.

Un pour tous, tous pour un.

D'Artagnan.

We do have a question from Eniola, which is perfect. It's going to be the first question we ask for the second segment. He says, it's such a good time to serve in the Canadian public service. Service IT space. What advice have you for young aspirant looking to join the public service to help them scale and remain relevant? That's a very, very good question.

You want me to answer now or in the next segment?

Please.

So the question is, what, what advice do I have to help them remain relevant in the public servant, or how to get into—

what advice do you have for aspiring leader who want to join the public service to help them scale and remain relevant?

Oh, I love this question. It's an amazing question, uh, Emmanuel, right? Thank you, Emmanuel. So, so I actually did, um, as I age and I have more experience in the government— I've been with the Canadian government for, um, gosh, since 2012 I was indeterminate, so that's at least 13 years— um, I, I actually, as I progress, I like to also to share my knowledge and to mentor new entrants in the public service. So I actually, whenever we would have students such as Maryam, who you mentioned she's on the call, we were actually looking, myself and other colleagues on my team, to provide them the tools they need to succeed. Whether that means, you know, lessons from our past experience, whether that means like past mentoring that we have, like sharing those lessons with them. I also would advise to you to read books and biographies of past public servants that inspire you. For example, for me, Lester B. Pearson, past Canadian Prime Minister, was also a Deputy Minister and a Minister of Foreign Affairs. That's an example. There's also Escott Reid, who used to be a Canadian diplomat that was very instrumental in creating the United Nations and NATO and ICAO, the International Aviation Council in Montreal. So all that, to me, if you learn about the Canadian government, you'll be ahead of other people who— it's all about showing that you're interested and you understand what the Canadian Public Service purpose is. But from the point of view, as you said, of the experience and of the skills, I think you have to look at what are the skills that are required in the Canadian Public Service and For example, I spent 6 years in internal audit, or 6 and a half years if you count my co-op with them. And internal audit always requires new people. So if you— and I recommend that as a profession. I know currently on LinkedIn there was an ad that the Global Affairs internal audit teams is looking for auditors. So again, keep an eye out for what's available, keep an eye out for student programs to come in if you're a student. If you're not a student, maybe try to get a term, term assignment, and then try to get that into a permanent assignment. But all throughout this exploratory activity, just make sure you look at what experience is required in the current moment in the Canadian Public Service and work on getting that experience. Meet other public servants that can give you some tips and tricks about, you know, what, what is expected in government jobs. And again, don't lose— the most important thing is don't lose track of what the public service is there for, because don't get sidetracked, you know, like, we're there to serve the Canadian public, we're there for the Canadians, we're public servants. So the word servant carries a lot of weight, and if you keep that in mind, I guess you'll, you'll be successful. Thank you.

Servant leadership. This is wonderful. So next question for you, the second set of questions: what are you learning right now?

Well, I'm learning a lot about AI. So I actually, I read the book of Henry Kissinger, who used to be the US Secretary of State. He passed away at 100, but before that he was a mentor for Eric Schmidt, who was the CEO of Google. And so they wrote with Daniel Huttenlocher and Craig Mundy two books. The Age of AI is the one that I just finished. It's very interesting because there's a lot of philosophical background to AI that I believe most people, you know, they just think of GenAI, but knowing the AI that I was working on in 2020 with Professor Korkler at Harvard, I know artificial intelligence is very broad, so for me artificial intelligence is something that I'm learning now. I'm also learning more about fraud. I love fraud. I'm, again, I'm passionate by fraud because especially a lot of AI is now used to commit fraud, so we need to learn how to use AI to protect ourselves from fraud. And I'm also interested in in foreign service because I would like eventually to go back abroad to serve in Canadian embassies abroad.

Thank you. Wow, that is quite fascinating. Let's talk about failure for just a second. I have a coin here. On this side it says success, on the other side it says failure. I truly believe success and failures are two sides of the same coin, and most people, they will look at your life and everything you accomplished so far and be awed by your success. But I know you've had to go through some challenging time in order for you to, to get where, where you are now. So one question I have for you is, uh, can you share a moment where your values were tested as a leader and what did you learn from it?

Yeah, no, that's a, that's a great question because there were, there were multiple moments where my values were tested, and I'm going to try to keep it broad because I don't want to, you know, like, give in too much about specific situations. But I mean, there are certain times when we get depressed, you know, and we feel like we're too far away from achieving the goals. And then a lot of times that's right before when we're at the cusp, you know, when we have to push a little more and then we'll be successful. So I kind of— I'm a strong believer of, you know, after rain comes sunshine. Like, you know, you always have to kind of look for the sunshine after the rain. Keep positive. That's where I was mentioning that song by Iggy Pop on your chat where he was saying that in the morning, you know, when he would have to wake up super early and go to do a morning show, he would like try to like, you know, force himself to be happy because that will set the tone for the rest of his day. So even if he feels crappy in the morning, he will just So that's kind of like, that can be applied in other areas. But I think also failure comes with lessons, right? So if, for example, I'm, you know, academically I didn't have that much, like, I don't think I've ever failed a class, but that doesn't mean that I was always satisfied with the grades that I got, right? So to me, it's like how you define failure, right? Because some people might say oh, I'm failing if I fail a class. But for me, maybe failing is not getting A+ or not getting 85%, you know. If I get a 70%, I would feel it's failure. And then again, we have to kind of always have that introspection and learning and see why did we fail, right? When I was just starting university, I was, you know, trying to join a fraternity, and I was probably going out too much with the fraternity people. And then I was like, not studying as much, right? And then my grades, even though I didn't fail, you know, I was close to failing. So then I realized, okay, well, maybe I want to focus on the academia a bit more. And then I had to make the hard choice of not joining the fraternity, even though I was really looking forward to, you know, the leadership side of the experience and all that. But I realized that at that time in my life, I didn't want to continue and be able to, you know, join a group but but lose the, you know, the university academic, you know, like if I would fail some classes, I would have to stay longer in school. I ended up staying longer for other reasons because first I started in finance and then I had to go, you know, in accounting and do my CPA. So I stayed an extra semester. But again, it's how you define failure, how you act when you fail, and it should always be like, what can I learn? You know, what should be the next step, how did I define failure, how did other people define failure, are we on the same page, and then use it to go forward.

Okay, 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— 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 songs or music kind of helped you get through it. So one question I'm gonna 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 a group called Board Experts. So there's very interesting governance information there. I'm following, you know, for example, I mentioned Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, because 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 am inspired by these examples because, you know, we can learn from the thought leaders and we can emulate. So one thing that I used to emulate is, for example, to post more on LinkedIn. And I need to also look at the audience and learn from the thought leaders what they are teaching us and apply that in my own life.

That is wonderful. And let's make sure to add a LinkedIn profile for all of those people in the discussion section so people know who to follow. So, uh, if you could choose 3 people, only 3 people, present, past, or even mythical figure, uh, to have dinner with, who would you choose and why?

So probably I would choose Steve Jobs because I was in awe with what he achieved and how he changed the the world of technology. Yeah, I would probably— would I? Oh my gosh, there are so many. Jesus, definitely. Oh my gosh, what else? Let's see. Margaret Thatcher. Yeah, we had it. We had a class and I learned so much about Margaret Thatcher, and she was the Iron Lady, so she was very inspiring.

Yeah, Margaret Thatcher was a good one. From my library, I have this book here, which I really love about some of the things.

Did you see the movie with, uh, with, um, Meryl Streep? Yes, that was a great movie.

I think it's the Iron Lady. Yeah, it's a pretty, pretty good.

Meryl also played another strong leader, but from a different angle, which was Devil Wears Prada.

Yes, yes, I am interested to, to take your thought on that.

Movie because Devil Wears Prada puts leadership in a bit of a negative connotation. So do you think that the way the character in Devil Wears Prada was running a publishing house was, uh, had some learning, uh, out of it? Because at the end of the day, the employee didn't stay with her and she basically didn't— yeah.

And one, one thing I used to know, there's a sequel coming out.

There's a sequel apparently coming Really, that's, that's going to be pretty, pretty cool.

I would definitely be interested just to see what they come up with. But one, one thing that's important, I actually wrote an article actually this week. I'm gonna have a podcast on it, uh, influence and manipulation, right? With leadership, when you become good at this, you can really influence people, hopefully to do the right thing, right? Something, a goal, a mission for the organization that's good for for you and for everybody involved. However, if you are not a good person, you can use the same exact skills to manipulate people to benefit yourself. So there is a thin line between influence and manipulation. Anyway, I, I wrote an article about that, and I'm going to be doing a podcast probably on Friday or Saturday.

I'll be tuning in. I'm very interested, interested to hear your thoughts on that. Thank you.

So what books would you recommend?

Well, I guess a very little-known book that to me encapsulates the out-of-the-box thinking and explains a lot about the certain hierarchical quandaries nowadays is Peter's Principle. So Peter's Principle is a book that is written half in jest, but not full in jest like Murphy's Law is, and it talks about the hierarchy in organizations and how people sometimes advance too fast and then they're unprepared for their position and then they get stagnated at a certain level. It also speaks about the ends of the spectrum. So I think it's a very interesting book. Another book that I would recommend—

Why Things Always Go Wrong by Dr. Lawrence J. Peter, right? And Raymond Hall.

Yes, and it's written in 1969, but I believe it's still relevant today.

Wonderful. Yeah, what else?

Well, again, The Age of AI, this book that I just read. I think it's fantastic to learn about AI and what AI means. And let me think, you said 3 books, right?

Well, just a couple is fine.

Well, for example, the Handbook of Governance by Professor LeBlanc. It's a great book if you want to learn about governance because it's got like articles from— well, it's basically a collection of different chapters that are written by experts in the field on specific topics. So if you want to learn about governance writ large, then you have chapters about AI and governance, about security, about auditing. So you can learn pretty much the whole topic of governance through this book. And it's a very voluminous book. And I believe it's in the third edition now. So when we were taking the class at Harvard, the professor was actually telling us which ones are his favorite chapters. How we can apply it to the business world. And he was giving us examples. He was bringing, for example, Andrew Fastow, who was the CEO of Enron, and he got in prison after that and he spoke to us. So I was like in awe, you know, I think it's—

That is quite powerful. What about podcasts? Any podcasts you're listening to you think my audience should subscribe to?

So The Gag Files, I really liked. Again, I love listening to podcasts. Your podcast is amazing. I actually— all the podcasts that interest me— so the reason I mentioned GAC Files is because it explains our Department of Foreign Affairs, our mission. Again, I see that they haven't posted in a while, but all the episodes that are there are very solid and very good to learn about how Canada is operating in the world and how diplomacy happens. And they're providing a lot of detail, again, detail that is public, but it probably is not known by a lot of people. So I think that's a very interesting podcast. Yeah.

Okay, you've already mentioned the Devil Wears Prada and the Iron Lady for movies. Anything else you want to mention? And you also mentioned the—

oh, Gandhi. So the Gandhi movie, I had to watch it for my one of my classes at Harvard, the Leadership Through Literature and Film. And it's a fantastic movie because you'll learn how Mahatma Gandhi was able to, you know, have his leadership style was very different from a combative leadership style. It was very similar to what Nelson Mandela did. And it enacted a lot of change. And it basically created brand new country based on his personality and his stance, you know, towards colonialism. And, you know, it's very powerful example. And Ben Kingsley was great in that movie.

Mahatma Gandhi's leadership style reminds me a lot of Martin Luther King.

100%. 100%.

Non-violence. And yeah, that's really powerful. Okay, 6th category. I'm 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 that 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, And that's where I mentioned that Metropolis quote on the chat, because this quote, it says that the link between brain and your hands, so between your thoughts and your actual physical, you know, brawn, like, you know, the contribution, should be the heart. So if you don't have a heart, then you will make decisions that are perhaps unethical perhaps not the best for your colleagues, perhaps not the best for humanity. So I believe the heart, the heart should be part of humanity and what everything that humanity does.

Okay, we are getting toward the end. So the last question for the second portion of the podcast is, you've been so generous with your time, you've shared so much about your experience, how can myself and my audience add value back to you? How can we make a difference?

Well, you're already adding value just by being there, Coach Vizi. I believe you are an amazing inspiration to me and to others. I believe that you, just by letting people know who you are and your show, can add value by allowing people to learn more about experts through other episodes of your show. So keep doing what you're doing. I think you're doing a great service to humanity, I guess. And also, one last thing that I want to say is that I think that what Kennedy once said is like, "Don't ask what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country." I don't actually— like, I never want to think what others can do for me. I always want to think what I can do for them, and then what they do for me, it kind of comes as, you know, like a byproduct, but that's not ever my goal.

Wow, 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, pretty young. We, we talked earlier, uh, you are about a dozen years or so younger than me, but you are 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, uh, what is most rewarding for you right now?

So what's most rewarding for me is the journey. I'm actually realizing that, um, what, uh, when I, when I started at 18, 19 and I was working a few jobs, I was working in a Zeller supermarket and also working in a 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 work." I'm not going to realize where time passed. So she said, live every moment and be aware of every moment because this time won't come back. And if you don't think like that, then you will realize the time will pass so fast that you won't be aware of where it went. So that lesson stayed with me because I think if you live in the moment and you're not kind of like, you know, 10 years ahead, like it's okay to plan and it's okay to reminisce and to learn, but try as much as possible to live in the moment and try to be there in the moment because you won't have this moment again. So make the best of it. 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 had, 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've 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 yeah.

That is awesome. And something you said is really key. Do not compare yourself to others. You have your own journey. Basically, the only person I compare myself to is the person I was yesterday. 100%. Competing against, but nobody else. That is powerful. Okay, really quickly, we are getting toward the end. 3 adjectives that describes you as a child. Don't think too much, 3 adjectives.

Okay, talkative, intelligent, and mischievous. Okay, what about as an adult? Anything has changed? Yeah, yeah, I would say more thoughtful. I would say impulsive, but also I would say wiser, wiser, wiser, not wise, but wiser.

I love it. Okay, we are at the very, very end, so it's been, it's gonna be 1 hour in about 45 seconds. So is there anything else you, you would like to tell the audience before we finish?

Well, I would just like to tell them that I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I hope they, they, they considered the time listening this helped them, and I would love to repeat this experience if possible, come on your next season. You know, I'm sure you'll go on for many more seasons, so You are writing a book, right? When is it going to be published? So basically, I did write a book, and now it's currently with some editors on the review. But the book is actually a collection of my essays from Harvard. So they've been reviewed by my professors. I had two professors for that class, and then again, I added a few other essays from other classes. And it would be published hopefully this year. And then once it's published, I will let everybody know.

As soon as it's published, please let me know. We're gonna have you back. I know I have an essay on leadership.

It's about leadership.

Yeah, which blends literature and film, which is pretty amazing. So what is one surprising lesson you've drawn from fiction that applies to real-world leadership? Let's give my audience just a little tease.

I learned, gosh, I learned that everything you read in fiction can actually be topped by real world. You just need to look at at examples, and that's what I learned in that class with Professor Como and Professor MacKerzie, is that, you know, you look at some Antigone, for example, and then you look at the business world today, you're gonna find an example. You know, like, look at Ibsen's— what was the story with Nora? And then again, you look at Martha Stewart, and bam, it's the same story. So it's like putting these concepts together and learning from the past you know, the fantasy or the movie with Gandhi that we mentioned, you know, and how that applies to the current leadership.

That's perfect. Wow, that is quite amazing. I can't hardly wait for the book to be published. Okay, now the very last thing I'm going to ask you before I do, let me double check to see if we have any other question on LinkedIn or YouTube. Okay, I don't see any. Very, very last one I'm going to ask you is, What is one word, one word only, that represents our shared experience in this podcast today?

What words come to mind? One word? Okay, it's, um, oh, one word: unity.

Unity. I love that. I think I would say mine would be globalism. Uh, as I said, leadership principles are universal, whether you live in Africa, in Europe, in India, in Canada, or in the And you know, the reason I said unity is because there's actually Cialdini, who's a famous professor.

He actually brought that as his— because he has different principles for persuasion. And then when he redid the book, he actually came up with a unity concept, which means that we're actually together as part of a group, and that's bringing us power. And I think we talked about that throughout, so that's why I said that.

That is wonderful. Thanks so much. We've gone over by a couple of minutes, but thank you Thank you, Coach Vize.

It's been a pleasure.

Yes, I definitely look forward to having you back here, Yann. Absolutely. Thank you so much. All right, everyone, this is it for today. Uh, I hope that you've, uh, learned something from the time we've spent today. I would be very, uh, curious to know what are your 3 takeaways from this episode and what is one leadership insight you are applying this week. If you can type it in the comment section, I would be very much, uh, appreciative And also, if you can tag a colleague, a junior officer if you are in the military, or a teammate who could benefit from this conversation. So like the event, repost, and add your comment. And I really, really much appreciate that. And I will be back here tomorrow, tomorrow morning. I will be back here around 6:30 AM Pacific Time, 9:30 AM Eastern Time. And what I'm going to have Yon doesn't know it, but I'm gonna have my AI agent give a 10-minute summary of our 1-hour interview. So if you don't have time, you're very busy, you don't have time to go through an hour-long podcast, my AI agent will give you the 10-minute summary, absolutely what you need to know. So until tomorrow, have a wonderful night and, uh, see you. Thank you for being here.

Thank you for listening to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your I'm your host, Coach Beezy. If you like what you heard, please subscribe to our channels 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.