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The Power of Curiosity with Diana Kander
30 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Diana gets candid about her journey from being a self-proclaimed “negative” leader to embracing humility as her greatest superpower. Packed with practical takeaways, Diana shares:
· The art of curiosity: How asking the right questions can unlock innovation.
· Mastering feedback: Using honest (and sometimes uncomfortable) insights to grow as a leader.
· Chasing the impossible: Why prioritizing learning can help you achieve audacious goals.
If you’ve ever wondered how top leaders turn challenges into growth opportunities, this conversation is for you. Tune in and discover why curiosity and humility are the ultimate tools for building unstoppable teams.
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About The Cultivating Leaders Podcast
Real stories. Practical advice. Tangible growth. Join The Cultivating Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Agriculture Future of America, as we explore what it takes to lead in food, agriculture, and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out or leading at the highest level, this podcast is your go-to resource for leadership that matters. Listen now and start cultivating your leadership journey.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to the Cultivating Leaders podcast, where we get inside the minds of leaders to harvest great ideas and lessons that can help you grow as a difference maker in food and agriculture. I'm your host and curiosity captain, Nicole Ursig. Today we have with us a guest that I am so excited about because I have followed her on social media for years. So to get to meet her in person and have her on the podcast is just amazing, ah Diana Kander.
Diana Kander's Background
00:00:28
Speaker
She is a serial entrepreneur who entered the United States from Ukraine at the age of eight. And Diana had launched and sold millions of dollars worth of products and services by her early 30s. Hashtag goals. Today, she is an innovation consultant and innovation keynote speaker and a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been taught in over 100 universities. And her parents would like you to know that her sister is a doctor.
00:00:53
Speaker
Diana, welcome to the pad. What did I miss from your bio? That's a pretty good amount. I think you've got the highlight. Okay. I have to admit, I stole the joke from your, uh, obviously your website. Tell me, um, that made me giggle when I read it. So I had to share it. Tell me about your, um, like what makes you share things like that? It's funny.
Family Dynamics and Leadership Insights
00:01:13
Speaker
Oh, well, at my sister's 13 years younger than me and there's only two of us and she's been the baby the whole time. yeah My parents just adore her and want to tell everyone about her all the time. So, uh, if I have been jealous of any human being, it's my sister.
00:01:30
Speaker
Are you the oldest? Yep, I'm the older sister. It's just the two of you? Yep. I'm the same. I'm also an elder sister and the baby is just always the baby. She gets everything. Yeah. They they can do no wrong, right?
Leadership vs. Management
00:01:42
Speaker
um Okay, so you work with a lot of high-powered people as a consultant speaker.
00:01:47
Speaker
uh curious your perspective what do you think makes a leader that's a great question i think leading versus managing so when you're a a manager it's your job to make sure that people are doing the things that they're supposed to do and when you're a leader it's your job to inspire people of what they're capable of. So it's a lot less push and a lot more like helping find the goal that exists in themselves, which is usually even more than what you could manage them to do. I love that. Okay, so what do you feel like is a common superpower that separates the good leaders from the great ones that that you get to work with or that you've seen?
00:02:31
Speaker
The incredible leaders have a very healthy amount of humility about them. So they don't always have the right answer. They let other people have a turn. They are curious, which I think curiosity and humility go hand in hand. They ah let other people lead. You know, that's the old adage is like the definition of a leader is how many leaders you've created. And so I think that humility is a very the underappreciated skill set that the greatest leaders I've seen that produced the greatest results exhibit.
00:03:08
Speaker
Okay, so I think a lot of times when we think about leaders, ah people, they tend to be people whether, not always, but who have big egos um or big personalities. So tell me, if I am someone who is maybe a charismatic leader or a front of the room type of person um who maybe does have that big ego, how do I, you're saying the best people are are humble and and have humility, can they, can both exist?
00:03:36
Speaker
There's a very simple test on how to know how humble you
Humility in Leadership
00:03:39
Speaker
are. Would you like to take the test? Yeah. Okay. I'm a little scared, but yes. What percentage of your daily decisions would you say are wrong? Professional decision. Oh, that, uh, more than I'd care to admit. Um, what what do you think? Zero to a hundred. What percent of your daily decisions are probably wrong?
00:03:57
Speaker
I'm going to say 30. I mean, i like, I'm not a bad decision maker, but I'm, I'm a human. Solid answer. So the higher up you go on a company, the lower the number goes as, as you can imagine. So the higher leader, they're like, Oh, maybe 5%, maybe 10%. But actually, according to researchers and games theory, roughly 50% of our daily work decisions are incorrect. And that's because oftentimes you're making decisions based on incomplete information. So you're just guessing for a lot of things. You don't know the future or circumstances.
00:04:26
Speaker
of the situation change after you've made the decision. If you think about people who had ah cruise tickets in March of 2020, you know, and they were like, should we, should we still go? I don't know. We got a good deal. So circumstances have changed. And yet, because you think so few of your decisions are wrong, you're not looking to make changes or adjustments. And you just keep digging a hole with your wrong decisions because you said you would. And The leaders that know that a lot of their decisions are wrong for those two factors are constantly looking to see what is changing in the environment and where they need to make adjustments. And so it's the ones that are constantly shifting, reevaluating, assessing, and being willing to be wrong.
00:05:14
Speaker
the are the ones that grow the fastest. Okay, so you're saying like they maybe still have confidence and and a bit of an ego and a good way that I make good decisions, but I know that some of those decisions are going to be wrong, so I'm always going to adjust.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yes, so I have strong opinions loosely held. ah Yes. okay So i I believe very strongly in the things that I believe, but I'm very open to being wrong. And I'm looking for information about being wrong and constantly asking people for that.
00:05:45
Speaker
feedback, and I don't think the higher up you go in an organization that leaders have these kinds of feedback loops that would even be dare to tell them if they were obviously so obviously wrong. Oh, I love that. Okay, so if I am a leader high up in an organization, and I don't have that feedback loop, at AFA, we always talk about how feedback is a gift. um How do I cultivate that? How do I build build a ah good feedback loop?
00:06:12
Speaker
Well, I think one of the first steps that you could do is an annual anonymous survey of the people that report directly to you, and to have enough people take the survey that you can't tell who said what, and and to make people believe that there will be no retributions. I've definitely seen leaders do anonymous surveys and then yell at people for what they said, and that's definitely not curiosity or humility.
00:06:37
Speaker
but it's to have somebody else maybe help you sit with what was said and and then share back with your team like here's what was said and here's what I would like to work on over the next 12 months and that shows your interest in learning and improving and you're now leading by example. So obviously you have a ton of great knowledge and advice and and get to work with some amazing people. Tell me what, obviously I read your bio, but tell me about your leadership
Early Entrepreneurial Experiences
00:07:01
Speaker
journey. Like how did you recognize that you were a leader and that this was the type of work that you were meant to do?
00:07:07
Speaker
Well, I would say I have a very roller coaster leadership journey. So I started as an entrepreneur in my twenties and I started a business that grew really quickly. And I was managing people who were working in 20 different states. It was like a pretty large operation very quickly. I was in my early twenties and I made every leadership mistake in the book because I went from law school to ah running a business and there was no management training.
00:07:33
Speaker
And I was just trying to do my best. Then um when I became an author and a speaker, maybe five years ago, I did this exercise where I was working on a book about really great leadership and how leaders have a much stronger impact on people that work for them than they think and about how a lot of leaders have leadership principles, but in their moments of stress actually exhibit very negative qualities that they aren't even aware of.
00:07:58
Speaker
And while I was doing these interviews, I asked people to give me their worst bosses. I asked people to share who was working for the worst boss imaginable. And then I called those people and interviewed them for their leadership principles. And wouldn't you know it, like all the worst bosses imaginable have like a very strong theory of what makes a good leader. And so that made me think,
00:08:24
Speaker
Man, maybe I was one of these terrible bosses. And so I contacted every person where the work relationship didn't work out. They were fired for some reason, and I had a story in my head about what that was.
00:08:37
Speaker
And I contacted all those people and said, can we have a conversation? And I'll just listen. And you tell me everything I did that was wrong. And I did that for a month. And it was the hardest month of my life because I thought stories ended a certain way. And I was telling myself something. And they told me a completely different side of me and how it impacted them for the rest of their career in negative ways. And I was a puddle of mutt. And I had that experience.
00:09:04
Speaker
saying I never want to make another person feel that way again. And so now I'm like an over-corrective leader. Now i I feel like I have both the skill set and the desire to be a good leader, as opposed to somebody who's trying to achieve objectives and results and has to deal with people to get it accomplished.
00:09:26
Speaker
what okay so obviously you're an author but like that takes bravery to be like hey uh it didn't work out you probably don't like me now tell me everything that's wrong it was really hard to get some of them to even get on the phone with me one person still won't speak to me and And the people that didn't weren't very much, I don't know how else to say it, but you know, hopefully we are not the same people that we were 10 years ago or 20 years ago. And it is it is these conversations that I think have changed who I am as a person. person and I'm so grateful that those people took the time when they were clearly still mad at me to tell me how my story was different than their story. For instance, I'll give you an example. So I had an employee and it wasn't working out and I ah was encouraging them to like look for other opportunities and I think I even introduced them to like a headhunter and I was like I'm setting you up here like I'm helping you find other opportunities and they said that like
00:10:29
Speaker
traumatized them because I never was direct about what I didn't like about their work. I just tried to help them find a new job without giving them clear direct feedback about what was happening and setting clear expectations. and i was like I thought I was being nice, but really I was covering up the the real gift of us being on the same page.
00:10:50
Speaker
I think it's so just brave and courageous to even try and have those conversations and I am curious ah because all of us deal with feedback in the workplace and um it is never easy to hear. how How did you take that and decide to channel it into something good because obviously it was it was painful to hear too. I think it's about being open to believing other people and and having even an idea about who you are being loosely held and saying, okay, well, if these people had this experience, then how can I change how I am in the world to improve the experience of others? Um, but scary too. I think that like, even what you're talking about, right? Like to hold your own identity as a person of like, okay, this is who I am, but I'm willing to accept other, other people's versions of that loosely holding it. That's,
00:11:41
Speaker
Wow, that's something I'm gonna have to think about, right? Because who you are is a, like that's foundational, that's core. And to be like, okay, I'm sure this is who I am. And also I'm willing to hold that loosely. So who I am is a person that wants to, that means well and wants to be better. That's my core definition of myself. So I am open to feedback and opportunities to improve because I am also, my definition of me is I am a normal, valuable human being.
00:12:10
Speaker
But hopefully people know that I didn't mean like negative things and that i
Communication and Feedback in Leadership
00:12:16
Speaker
I want to change my behavior if given the opportunity. Yeah. oh All well-intentioned things. Just maybe like the message chant was a message received. Correct. right Amazing. Okay. So ah how do you feel like, do you have an example of, okay, I learned this and now ah now i am now I'm different or this version of me does things differently after you've You've learned all of these things. Oh, well, i I had really strong assumptions about what I was trying to do to help other people. And now, you know, a lot of leaders have this policy that they have an open door for people to come give them feedback. And my philosophy is, if you're not hearing information that is surprising,
00:12:56
Speaker
then nobody's coming through that door. You need to go out there and get people to tell you that. So I actually have a practice um that I use with the people that I work with on a weekly basis. It's called a team process improvement meeting. And it takes just 15 minutes. And what you do is you search your feelings for everything that has happened in the last week. Any kind of communication usually happens with communication that that led you to be frustrated, confused,
00:13:23
Speaker
angry, even excited, elated. And then you say, what was the process that happened that led to these feelings? And then we talk about whether we should have a new process, because most processes, most things that you do at work are actually unspoken things. Like you never talked about how you would email certain parts of this podcast episode, you know, and you might not be on the same page.
00:13:50
Speaker
So talking about things before they blow up into huge things that make you crazy is an awesome opportunity to reduce tension from a relationship. Whose responsibility do you think that is? is it If I'm a manager, is it my responsibility to make sure that I am seeking that out um from my team members? Or if I think about myself as a team member, is it my responsibility to make sure that I'm not letting those things fester and coming in and expressing some of them to to my manager?
00:14:19
Speaker
yeah unfortunately 1000% of the leader's responsibility because I've worked with people who were used to this process with me and then they went to go work for another employer and they're like, hey, I have some feelings that I'd like to share. And, and their employer was like, you keep those for yourself. That's not the kind of thing that we do around here. So I i think that's a leader's responsibility. I love that. That's a great thing. I'm going to have to think about implementing that.
00:14:45
Speaker
Okay, you've been on ah an amazing leadership journey. Tell me, what is a leadership or business lesson that you wish you
Exploring the Leader's Shadow Self
00:14:52
Speaker
had learned sooner? So the idea for the book that I was working on that decided not to publish was that leaders have one ideal version of themselves, who they are, but when they encounter moments of stress,
00:15:06
Speaker
So they're under a tight deadline or there's just pressure from other parts of their life. There's this shadow self of them with all of these negative qualities that they aren't aware of. And from the research and we did hundreds of interviews, they're really the same kinds of things that we do as leaders.
00:15:25
Speaker
when we are under stress that drive the people that work for us crazy. And so being cognizant of your shadow self and your tendencies under stress and sharing that with your team and letting them say back to you like, Hey, you told us to mention when we're stressed and trying to micromanage us. Can, can, is there a different way for us to do this project? I think we'll, we'll help you from sharing that stress and pressure with your team. Okay. So you said, uh, there, the way you leaders have like key things that are in our shadow selves. What are some of those things?
00:16:04
Speaker
I look up the whole list. I'm genuinely curious. And so I've taken this down a different path than we planned. OK, here we go. Micro management is number one. ah Number two is reacting with anger and judgment to what happened. Number three is caring only about the deliverables and not about the team as human beings. Number four, not reinforcing positive performance.
00:16:31
Speaker
Number five was holding negative feedback. Number six, ignoring the suggestions. And number seven, not dealing with an underperforming or toxic teammates or just somebody that should be dealt with.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah. And the other thing that we learned and ah that I think is very valuable for leaders to know is I think about the courage of your teammates as like a ah bucket of courage. Okay.
Encouraging Idea-Sharing and Curiosity
00:16:59
Speaker
that And every time they speak up in a meeting or share an idea.
00:17:04
Speaker
That's them placing a bet with all their courage chips. You know what I mean? Like gambling with it. And when they share that idea, if you have the opportunity as a leader to either double their bet or take away all their chips. So if somebody shares an idea and you say, oh, well, I guess we're just sharing any old idea today, then you've You've taken all their chips. They have an empty bucket of courage now. They will share nothing, so they will just be quiet from here on out. But if when they share, you see, my God, that is an amazing idea. Thank you for sharing. You've now doubled their amount of chips and shoved it back in their bucket. And the more chips in their bucket, the more ideas they'll share, the more innovative they'll be, the more engaged they will be as an employee. And you as a leader need to understand your impact on that courage bucket of everybody that works for you.
00:17:53
Speaker
I love that visual and especially like the emotional weight of it, right, because going all in on a bet, and that that fact that if you react wrong as the leader, you're, they've basically lost everything, or, or they double like, hell yeah, I've doubled the courage that I have now in the relationship or in sharing or in being open or doing something. um Yeah, that makes the ah the risk of the way you react as a manager or a leader feel even that much higher, honestly, for you to to put it that way. Yeah, be cognizant of how much power you have. So I interviewed these employees who work would not be able to leave their house without their computer. They were terrified of their boss yelling at them over email. People who were
00:18:40
Speaker
like not seeing people socially that were going to therapy, they had developed anxiety, like strong physical responses to the way that leaders were treating their people that the leaders had no idea about. I think ah what you're pointing out is as someone's, ah so this is something I always think about ah as like my team members. So I know that as someone's boss, at the end of the day, no matter what, I am dinner table conversation.
00:19:08
Speaker
And am I leading in a way that when I meet that person's spouse or their mom or their grandma, are they going to be excited to see me? Or are they going to to be like, oh, that's the lady. That's the one that has caused all this stress and turmoil. um But I think all of us as leaders are just humans. And we look at these team members of like, they're humans too, where um you don't you know see the power dynamic a lot. And so I think sometimes it's hard to recognize that the power is not in, I tell you what to do, but it's in,
00:19:37
Speaker
how much i like influence you have over how that person feels about themself. I think that a really valuable practice that any leader could have is to ask anybody they hire about their worst leader experience.
00:19:50
Speaker
And not only will you learn like, Oh man, I didn't know that was terrible. I will definitely be sure not to do that. And that's like one of the benefits of the research that we did. It's just like, Oh, well that's a thing you don't like. Okay. And the other benefit of it is you'll understand your employees so much better. So one of the examples is when we interviewed people, somebody said anytime they turned in a draft that wasn't 100% perfect, their boss would like throw it at them. Okay. And so they had just a real, just visceral reaction, the word draft.
00:20:29
Speaker
And as a boss, you should know that about the people that you work with or when you ask them for a draft. So, cause that's going to be in there for the rest of their lives. So make sure the people that are on your team, you could have a really fun conversation with them over lunch one day, like just in your worst leadership experience, you know, and that'll be very instructive for you as the now super humble leader of learning pointers of what you could do better. Plus they're going to be great stories. Oh yeah.
00:20:58
Speaker
we I think we all have stories like that, right? Okay, so that's a phenomenal question to ask your team member. I do want to talk a little bit about curiosity because that's you are the curiosity expert. um So talk about how you have become an expert at at teaching how to harness curiosity and you're obviously a very curious person yourself. So how how did that come to be?
00:21:22
Speaker
Well, I started by studying expertise. And the pitfall of expertise is the more you know about a subject, the less curious you are about it. So the more successful you become, the less curious you are about how to do anything better. and And there's a real expert plateau that happens once we figure out a way that works in our work environment, our rate of learning grossly drops, our rate of really big new ideas really slows down. And that's because Curiosity is the space between what you know and what you don't know. And when you become an expert or very successful, you literally have no space. What you now have is the do list. You know, you brainstorm all the different things you need to do because you're the expert. And it is hard job to increase the size of that space in our everyday week.
00:22:14
Speaker
and to make sure that we as leaders are constantly zooming out and seeing like what are the air to and asking the questions that will create the space for ourselves and our teams to grow.
00:22:25
Speaker
okay so how do you know ah like what what questions should you be asking like how do you know how If I am someone who is this expert that you're talking about that maybe has, I've declined in curiosity because I've gotten really good at ah at what I do, which sounds like honestly, Diana, like, okay, I was maybe really curious at one point. I learned and I became an expert and the thing that got me this success was being curious and now I'm not naturally curious. So how do I recognize that? And how do I know how to ask myself or other people the right questions?
Continuous Personal Growth
00:22:58
Speaker
It's because you think you're done. It's because you're looking at the wrong thing for your success metric. You're looking at revenue or whatever your personal success metric. And you're like, look at this, I'm killing it. Every year is better than the last year. And revenue is a lagging indicator. It is not the right metric. So for me, the way that I create space for growth is I say myself on a scale of one to 10, where am I today to what I'm capable of as a leader, as a keynote speaker as an author, and that answer is never nine or 10. Like right now, that answer is like a 5.5. So, okay, now there's a big chunk of space available there. How do I fill that space? Now I get curious about how I can move up that chart. And so the the trick is you create the space for growth. You ask yourself the kinds of questions that make you curious about what new level is possible for you to unlock.
00:23:57
Speaker
Hmm. Is that something that just comes natural to you? Do you think? No, I don't think so. I've been, I've been studying curiosity for 10 years and I feel like I, I still don't, I feel like I know less today than I am capable of knowing. You know what I mean?
00:24:13
Speaker
So there's this running career effect, running career effect that a lot of people use to describe but the less you know about a topic, the more confident you are about it. But the other side of it is the more you know about a topic, the less confident you are that you know everything that that now there's a whole world of things that you could explore. So I actually have a new book I just finished.
00:24:39
Speaker
that's diving even deeper into curiosity and all the different habits you as a leader, um, can practice on a daily basis to constantly stay curious. But I feel like write a hundred books on curiosity topics and helping leaders. Like I just think I'm not even scratching the surface of what's possible. I love that. That feels like a job security. Yeah. Uh, okay. So I'm a leader. Give me three practical tips that I can do to be more curious or be better at curiosity.
00:25:08
Speaker
Okay, ah if you're a leader and you want to be more curious, so there are really two main ways. The first is get really curious about what's working, which means it's very easy to be busy, but there are only a handful of things that are driving the key results in your business.
00:25:30
Speaker
So identify what an eight, nine or 10 project initiative looks like for you and get very vigilant about saying no and putting down the things that are not serving you. So we started this conversation by talking about just because I said, let's do this thing. Let's not keep doing this thing if it's not an eight, nine or 10. So how do we constantly reevaluate our work to make sure that we're only spending our time on what matters most?
00:25:58
Speaker
Second, how do we not wait until something goes terribly wrong to to get better? So how do we use every project as an opportunity to learn? So I do something called an after-action review after every single keynote, which I'll do 40 to 50 times a year. I'll go over every slide of the presentation that I'm giving today. And then on every slide, I'll be like, can I have done this better? Oh, how they reacted to this one. Maybe there's another idea I could bring into this.
00:26:27
Speaker
And so instead of saying, oh, I'm going to revamp how I do this process 40, 50 times a year, I come up with 20, 30 things. So you can imagine the delivery of what it is that I do changes significantly by the end of the.
00:26:42
Speaker
year. um And it's an awesome opportunity to involve your team and to say, hey, we are a team that just constantly improves whether things work or not, so that when something doesn't go well, your team will feel safe to share what could have been better instead of feeling threatened, like you're just looking for somebody to, to be in trouble. So figure out what works the best and double down on that. Figure out what can be better. Nothing is ever 100% a success or a failure. So figure out how to get better at every single turn. And number three, get a different definition of a failure or something that doesn't work as an experiment
00:27:21
Speaker
that really makes you stronger for the future. Because there's nothing that you've done in your life. i'm I'm sure you could tell me your greatest, most embarrassing failure. And I could show you directly about how it's led to your professional success. So helping our teams feel that way and and not be scared to share things that aren't working so that we can deal with them faster is really the key to having curiosity drive your growth.
00:27:49
Speaker
Okay, so ah it's really interesting to me because you're you're talking about, okay, how do how do we find in our businesses what's working best to do more of that, create this space for our team to share that constant feedback loop. um But I'm really in, you're talking about like, okay, how do you define what works best because nothing's ever 100 and what a failure is. And you said earlier, revenue is not a great key performance indicator.
00:28:13
Speaker
So tell me what in what in your business is. So like as you've laid that out for you and your team, like how do you how do you define what those are? Excellent question.
Key Performance Indicators for Success
00:28:21
Speaker
So it's not revenue. My key performance indicator is how many referrals I get for other speeches with every speech that I deliver. So it's not even how satisfied the audience were or how satisfied the person that hired me was. It is how many people in the room Even if they're in the same organization, we're like, other people need to hear this message. And when you just focus, and whatever your business is, you figure out the customer metric that is your key performance indicator. And if you just leave your focus on that, how do I continuously create more value and more impact for the things that I'm trying to do? The revenue, oh my God, it will skyrocket. It will follow if you keep your eye on um that key performance indicator.
00:29:06
Speaker
I love that that's your key performance indicator because I think like, as soon as you said it, I could sell like, of course, if people are referring you, then your revenue is great. Like you're you're going to be successful in business. um Wow. Yeah. So I love that. I think here's the, here's my ah next question though, is how did you, how did you determine that?
00:29:24
Speaker
Uh, excellent question. So I had my original training as an attorney and attorneys. We don't create anything original. We start with somebody else's great ideas and edit the documents for our purposes. And the same is true. There's this great book called the referable speaker. By Michael Port, nature Davis, in case you're curious that outlines like there's what a referable speech is and here's how you get one.
00:29:49
Speaker
And I'm just continuously thinking things that I think I'm already good at and saying, I think I could be better at this stuff. Like, how do I hurt from scratch? Even though I feel like I'm pretty good at this, I've been doing this a long time, I have so much more to learn. And being open about being better in those key areas will give you those golden nuggets that are going to drive your career.
00:30:12
Speaker
Uh, so as the, the curiosity person, what's the most important? You could say queen. you Oh, I love it. Curiosity queen. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, some have said, some say, some say Diana is the curiosity queen. Uh, what's the most important question that you ask yourself regularly? Could I be doing anything better? That is, that is my number one, uh, most important job in life. And I just want to make sure I apply all the same innovation principles.
00:30:41
Speaker
to my parenting and my marriage as I do ah to my work. I believe that innovation is not what you do. It's not a flying car or a new type of payment system. Innovation is how you do everything. And so if we could just practice these habits at home, then they will become natural to us in the workplace.
00:31:05
Speaker
I love that. and it's I mean, you're a ah whole human, whole person, and this mindset oh is seems to apply across your entire life. Do good better, you know? That's the goal. Yeah. um What's the best question you've ever been asked? Or the one that you like to ask people the most?
00:31:24
Speaker
You know, I find that a lot of leaders, the higher up they are, the more likely it is that they have a collection of questions. They have questions that they like to ask in interviews that they've heard from other people. They have self-reflection questions. So I have a collection of questions that I love. And I would say every person listening should start somewhere, like amazing questions that make them reevaluate. But mine is um what would have to be true?
00:31:52
Speaker
for something to happen. So instead of asking, being is this possible? Is this feasible? Because if you're imagining big, it's probably like probably not going to happen. But instead asking, what would have to be true for this to happen, will give you an amazing strategy and game plan for achieving impossible objectives. And that's one of my goals in life, is to do impossible things. Ooh, I love that.
00:32:15
Speaker
ah what Like why? Why is that your goal? Where does that come from? I mean, there's just an unlimited number of levels out here in life and setting stretch goals forces you to be a different human being on the other side of those goals. You can't do something innovative without being a different person, without innovating yourself in the process. And so I've taken possible goals ah to help myself grow and process prosper.
00:32:45
Speaker
ah What impossible goal are you working on right now? My current impossible goal, we're recording this in November. I don't want to give away the date. We're recording this at the end of 2024 is to go from somebody who has never played sports in my whole life to being a collegiate level tennis player in one year's time. Ooh. And I, I have achieved that goal. So yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
I mean, it's insulting to anyone who plays tennis who's listening, and I apologize for that. But I spent a lot of curiosity and resources to and time ah to make that happen.
00:33:23
Speaker
Okay. So, uh, I feel like a lot of leaders and very driven people, uh, we love to achieve goals. Sometimes it becomes a checklist. So now that you have reached this level of tennis, it like, are you going to keep playing tennis for the rest of your life? Or is it like, check, I got good at tennis. I did the thing on to the next thing. So it's been that way so far as impossible goals in 2018. And every year I set up a goal and I achieved each one, which is crazy because once you achieve one impossible thing, you understand that you are your own implementation.
00:33:53
Speaker
But tennis is my last goal that I will have set because I love tennis so much, I want to be playing it for the rest of my life. So next year's goal is for me to interview dog on camera. This will make more sense. keynote. But I'm a good fan of his practices. And I want to interview him to get like his business tidbits. I have not been asked to go on any interview or podcast. I love that. That's such a fun goal. I think you're gonna get there. A lot of people are very positive when I share this goal with them. But I will say it's quite difficult. It feels impossible to me.
00:34:32
Speaker
So, you know, don't play. Yeah. But what would it be possible to, what would have to be possible to make it happen is you just, you just got to meet the right person. That's it. I love that. Okay. So we are going to move into a segment that we call speed mentoring, Diana. Okay. So, uh, you obviously have a lot of leadership experience. Um, I'm going to give you a couple scenarios. And if you were mentoring this person in one sentence or shorties, you can make it. What would you tell them? So first up, uh, this person is a CEO.
00:35:02
Speaker
ah They are leading an organization and they aren't sure if they should stay or go to help the organization grow. I would say if they're not prepared to change in growth and grow, then they should probably go if they're even asking that question. But you don't have to be the same you a year from now. You can invest in yourself and do whatever needs to happen for the organization. Okay. ah What advice would you give a first-time manager? They have just got their first direct report and they are in the mode of, okay, now what do I do?
00:35:31
Speaker
Oh, it's a great question. um I would say establish a communication practice like the process improvement meeting to continuously, because you're going to be making assumptions about how the situation is going that will be wrong. So figure out some way to uncover your incorrect assumptions.
00:35:51
Speaker
Okay, so I am a professional in the workplace. I've received feedback that I feel isn't accurate. um Maybe it's hard to hear, probably hurtful, but I don't feel like it describes me. How would you recommend handling that?
00:36:03
Speaker
Well, there's two facets to this, like the mental one, which is, you know it's probably not from the right source. My mom is very critical of what I wear on stage when I give speeches, but she's not the target audience. So it's fine. It's not an opinion that is important. you know So identify whether like the feedback somebody meant well and is the kind of person you would come to advise for this topic.
00:36:32
Speaker
and If it's someone who's like your boss, then I am a terrible person to um give advice in this area because I am clearly unemployed and I'm an entrepreneur. So I can't tell you how to do office politics.
00:36:46
Speaker
That's not my forte. Well, but you lead people. For sure. I just don't know. and Like, if you disagree with your boss and they gave you some harsh feedback, I would tell you to go talk to us somebody else. That's fair. That's fair. OK, so ah this is a question that we love to ask at AFA, um both of our students and of other people. We love hot takes. We love controversial opinions. So, Diana, what would you say is your leadership or business hot take? This is like the pineapple on pizza kind of thing that you believe about leadership. oh I thought I had a good one, that the key to growth is doing less. A lot of people think that if they want to grow, they have to be busier and they have to do more. But really, most of your time, it was wasted on stuff that isn't adding to the bottom line. So the the more you can be focused and clear on what matters,
00:37:38
Speaker
most, um the more impactful you can be. So you don't have to actually work all day long. You can just figure out the levers that make the biggest impact and spend all the time that you want on those. I like that. That's encouraging too. That feels positive of like, if I want to do more, be more. If I want to be more, I can do less. right It feels very uncomfortable.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah. Until you try it out and it works. I love it. I think that's great advice. Okay. So, uh, at AFA, we are all about building bridges and connecting people. So, uh, where can our people find and connect with you? Oh, I'd love to connect ah with anybody listening. The best place is on LinkedIn. Uh, I connect with me. Don't just follow me as we can have an exchange. And if you want to follow an annual big thing that I'm working on, my impossible goal, also Instagram would be a great place to follow me.
00:38:32
Speaker
I can verify that she's a fun Instagram follow, as is her husband. ah Anything else that we should know or that you want to share with the audience, Diana? This is something that I'm ending my keynote with ah today at AFA, which is change is going to happen. Change is inevitable, but your growth is entirely optimal. So growth is something that you choose. It doesn't just happen. and You have to make space for it on purpose. So I hope that whoever's listening to this makes some space this week for growth and curiosity. I love it. Thank you so much, Diana. This has been such a riveting conversation. I've enjoyed it. I've learned from it. And I just really appreciate you spending your time with us and sharing your expertise.