Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - Hortense le Gentil: The Unlocked Leader, How to Connect With Your Employees and Unlearn Entrepreneurial Mindtraps | Leadership E248
Episode Date: October 6, 2023Hortense le Gentil felt stuck. Despite having a successful career in advertising in Paris, she didn’t know her purpose and she was unhappy in her marriage. Everything had gone South, or West, as the...y say in France. One night she had a dream about her grandmother and it unlocked her. She decided to start her life and her career over from scratch. She left her marriage and her corporate job and launched herself as an entrepreneur at age 40. Now, Hortense is a world-renowned executive leadership coach. In today’s episode, Hortense shares some of her top insights about leadership, including how executives, business owners, and entrepreneurs can move from being heroes to human leaders. Hortense le Gentil’s latest book is The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead With Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World. Le Gentil’s thought leadership is informed by 30 years in business, working across industries including media consulting and advertising—and as an entrepreneur. In this episode, Hala and Hortense will discuss: - Why we need human leaders and not heroes - What horse jumping can teach you about leadership - How to become a more authentic leader - Identifying the mindtraps that are holding you back - How we can activate our “Gandhi neurons” - Ways to break free from our old beliefs - The benefits of writing your own eulogy - And other topics… Hortense le Gentil is a world-renowned executive leadership coach, speaker, and author. Her coaching work focuses on CEOs and senior executives on their journey from hero leaders to human leaders. Her latest book is The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead With Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World. Le Gentil’s thought leadership is informed by 30 years in business, working across industries including media consulting and advertising—and as an entrepreneur. She was a 2021 and 2023 nominee for the Thinkers 50 Coaching and Mentoring Awards and has been ranked #5 on the Global Gurus list by World Management Global Gurus. Her thought leadership has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., Business Insider, and ThriveGlobal.com. Resources Mentioned: Hortense’s Website: https://www.hortenselegentil.com/ Hortense’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hortenselegentil/ Hortense’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/hortenseleg Hortense’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hortenselegentil/ Hortense’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hortenselg/ Hortense’s latest book, The Unlocked Leader: Dare to Free Your Own Voice, Lead With Empathy, and Shine Your Light in the World: https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-Leader-Voice-Empathy-Shine/dp/1394152930/ LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Leadership, Productivity, Networking, Goal Setting, Time Management, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Leadership Skills, Strategic Planning, Mindset, Time Management, Team Building.
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Yeah, fam. Leadership is something we talk a lot about on this podcast and for good reason. Leadership is not something that comes easy for many of us. And being an inspiring, competent, and authentic leader can take decades for even the most successful executives to master. Our guest today can help you get there much sooner. Ortham's Legenti is an executive leadership coach, speaker, and author. Her mission is to empower leaders to be truly authentic and make a lasting difference in the organization.
organizations they lead. Her latest book, The Unlocked Leader, is a practical guide to freeing
yourself from the mind traps that hold you back so you can learn to lead with empathy and impact.
Today, Ortanz is going to give us a masterclass and executive leadership and how to become the
leader you've always wanted to be. Ortonz, welcome to Young Improfiting Podcast.
Thank you for having me, Hela.
I am so excited to have this conversation. And I wanted to start off exploring your own leadership
journey because you're one of the biggest leadership experts in the country. And I think your own
story will offer up a lot of lessons for us. So from my understanding, your first experience with
leadership was really riding horses when you were a child in France. So what did your time as a show
jumper in France teach you about leadership? Thank you for this question, because, you know,
horses are, you know, all my life. So what horse riding talks about?
me was, I think, everything. I would say empathy, trust, and vision. So let me share a story.
Oh, no, better. Hala, come with me and we're going to ride. So now try to follow.
So you imagine yourself, you ride a horse. So you are on a horse, right? You imagine that what you have
to do, you compete. So what you want to do is to jump an obstacle. So you know exactly where you
want to go and how you want to go. It's your vision, right? Are you still with me?
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. So now you're with your horse. How do you communicate with the horse?
The horse doesn't speak, right? So through feelings, through your body, so your hands, because your
hands are holding what we call reins. Rains are, you know, directly communicate with the mouth of the
horse, so it gets like left, right. So you communicate very, very. So you communicate very.
very delicately and with your legs and your body. So in fact, you feel the horse and the horse
feels you. So we said that you are aligned. You are one with the horse. You really communicate,
you really, you feel them. This is empathy. And then imagine, so you are in front of this obstacle
now, so you turn and everything. So you're here now. You're just here. You're ready. So we say that
three steps before the obstacles, you don't have to move anymore. You don't move. You are ready.
And what you do is you trust. You trust your horse because now you are not going yourself to jump.
It's your horse who is going to do it, right? It's exactly the same with leaders.
Because the horse, in fact, is your team or your team member. So you have to feel them, to be
with them and to trust them, you're not going to do all the work by yourself. It's your team.
So you trust your team and your team trust you. And how you do that, you know, by being aligned
and by increasing your embassy and have a clear vision. And this is what your teams are
waiting from you. I love this example. This is such a great example. Thanks for sharing that.
And so I know that you spent a long time in your career in corporate.
You also spent almost a decade as an entrepreneur.
And at one point in your life, you had this really pivotal moment where you decided to change
everything.
You left your marriage.
You rewrote your story from scratch.
You moved to a new country.
How did you know that you needed a change, that you needed to get back into alignment
with yourself and discover a new purpose and become an entrepreneur?
So let me share with you a story.
So my story.
about 17 years ago.
I was in Paris and I felt stuck in my life.
I was married and with two children,
but I was unhappy in my personal life
and unhappy in my professional wife.
I felt like I didn't live my life.
I didn't fit in my life.
It was not my life.
It was someone, I don't know,
the life that others was, you know,
expecting from me,
but not really much.
mine. And I couldn't express myself fully. And it was a very low point. Everything went west,
or south, I think you'll say, it's the west in French. So, Saos, and I was stuck in my bed for months.
So I didn't know what to do. I was trapped. I was completely locked here. And I had a dream.
My grandmother came to me in my dream and told me to find the path of roses. So I was surprised,
because I don't know what it is.
And I ask her,
where is it?
She just told me,
she smiled and she told me,
you know where it is.
And I woke up.
I was furious.
I was angry.
What?
You know, my grandmother,
she didn't give me,
you know, the direction.
No.
I didn't know what she was talking about.
And I'm listening.
And after thinking,
I understood what she meant was that the path of roses was me.
The path of roses was in me.
The path of roses was my voice.
And what I did wrong was I was not listening to my voice.
I was listening to the voice of the community or whatever who said,
you cannot get divorced.
You cannot become an entrepreneur at age of 40.
It's madness.
You cannot do that.
You cannot do that.
And so I was locked.
And so when I understood that at that point,
I freed myself because I said, okay, I'm going to listen to my voice and I'm going to do my way,
how I feel it.
And so I left my marriage, I left my corporate job, and I became an entrepreneur for a decade
until I found my calling to be a coach today.
Amazing.
And so I know you've written several really popular books.
The newest one is called The Unlocked Leader and it was just released.
So curious to understand why you decided to write this book.
Why is because the world change, as you know, Allah, and expectation change.
So your customer, your employees' expectation change.
So the old model of leadership is over.
And people want to connect with you.
They don't need another hero like Tina Turner said.
They need a human leader.
they need somebody with who they could relate.
They can understand.
That's why I wrote this book because I learned a process for my experience,
my own experience in my life, the experience as a coach with my clients
and my diving in neuroscience and spirituality and philosophy and psychology or so.
I found, you know, process and this process is working.
and I thought that, you know, I should write a book about it to help people, you know, to free
themselves for their mind-trapped.
And I know that in your book, one of the first concepts that you go over is the difference
between a hero leader and a human leader.
Can you talk to us about the difference between a hero leader and a human leader?
Yes, so the hero leader is a leader who thinks that he should have all the answers.
We're not going to be vulnerable and not authentic.
So this is a leader who is going to enter in your meeting and you say,
okay, we're going to do that, that, that, that, that, that, and he's going to leave the meeting,
and nobody talked.
The human leader is a human with who you can connect, that you know, that cares about you,
that asking you question.
Hala, how are you today?
Do you feel good?
Do you not feel good?
Who are you?
This is a person also who is asking more questions and create this environment where people can be safe
and secure and understood and understood.
to why they are here and feel important, feel seen.
I know a lot of the listeners who are tuning into this podcast.
They're entrepreneurs, their small business owners, their leaders themselves.
We all want to be more like human leaders than hero leaders.
So how can we tell if we are more like a hero leader, which is the leader that we don't want to be?
We want to be more like a human leader.
I would say try to go back to the last meeting or to the way you communicate with me.
people and ask you this question, do I know everyone in my organization? Do I know anything about
what happened in their life? Did I ask question? Did I ask for input? Those kind of questions.
So you will have the answer. You will know. You will know. If you never ask for help, for example,
and you always say, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. You don't listen.
Now, would you say that this is important for every employee in your organization? What if you
have 60 employees? Is it just for your direct reports that you need to understand more about them?
Yes, because of course you cannot, you know, if you have 6,000 people, you cannot know everyone.
This is true. But what you can know is, yes, your direct report and be a role model for them
and ask them to do the same with their team. So be sure that it cascade and then go from the top
to the bottom line.
It's very, very important that everyone is included.
And you can do also, you know, time to time,
Zoom or whatever with everybody and try to communicate with everybody.
Of course, you cannot in a daily basis, you know,
communicate with 6,000 people.
But you can set the tone, let's say.
Totally.
So another core concept in your book is Mind Traps.
And you say that someone's past success
might get in their way of getting forward
because of these mind traps.
So how can something that initially helps you succeed become an obstacle?
So let me define a mind trap first.
The mind trap is a mental obstacle that stands between you today, Hall, and you tomorrow.
There are those stories that we tell ourselves.
So if I go back, you know, to my story, the mind trap, though, was, and this is one of the common
Mindrapp was that I didn't listen to my voice. I was listening to other voice. But where are they
coming from? They come from trauma that we've been through and they are not overcome. Or they can come
from other voices who tells you what you do. So this is what Mindrapp is. And the first step is to find
the source. So who said that and after to challenge this voice. To make it real for us, can you give us some
examples of what these mind traps are?
For example, some symptoms.
You feel unhappy, unsatisfied, sad, you are arrogant, or at the opposite, you feel the syndrome, the imposter syndrome, or you can feel guilty, or that are clues that are symptoms of you are locked somewhere.
So let me share a story.
years ago, they were leaders, was considered for being the CEO of his company.
And so it was a very good, very good and successful leader, of course, as you can imagine.
So he had to go to interview in front of a panel of leaders,
or the leaders who were responsible of this process.
And from out of the blue, he was very talkative.
He talked, he talked, he didn't listen.
he was someone else. So everybody was surprised. It was surprised. You know, the first one was
surprise was him. And of course he lasted because this is not what we were waiting from you
in that kind of interviews, but very surprised. So we talked about it and we tracked the source.
It happened that 30 years before that event, it was student and he had to take an exam.
And in order to take an exam, he had to pass a role exam.
So he was in front of a panel of professors.
And one of them didn't let him speak all the time.
So he was absolutely shocked.
He couldn't express himself.
So it was a trauma.
And more than that, the professor told him, young guy,
I can promise you something.
One thing.
You will never be a CEO.
because he lost his cool, and he said,
because you cannot handle your emotions.
So this idea stayed in his mind and he's hurt until the time he came back,
just, you know, right at the moment, he was considered to be a CEO.
So this is a main trap.
And here you have a trauma and a voice.
You have two of them.
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Yeah, and it's funny that you say that
because when we think of trauma,
we always think of this big horrific experience,
like you got beat as a child or something.
But in this example, you're saying
it was a professor that didn't let him speak.
That's the trauma that he had.
So it doesn't have to be a big experience.
So what are some examples?
I know you talk about inherited trauma, psychological trauma.
What are the different examples of trauma that could surface later on in life?
You're absolutely right.
So trauma could be not a big deal, but little thing.
Their trauma are different size and shape.
But let me give you a metaphor.
Your brain are like a house.
In the house, you have, you know, different rooms.
In your bedroom, you have your bed.
In the dining room, you have a table.
And in the living room, you have a sofa.
So imagine that in middle of your living room, you have a car.
And imagine you want to sit on your sofa to watch TV.
You cannot see, right?
So a trauma is that.
It's something that your brain didn't put as a right place.
So maybe it was, yeah, it was a trauma for this leader and for another one, not at all.
Why?
Mystery.
But this is like that.
So the work here is to understand because at one.
point, yes, you're going to sit on your sofa and you cannot watch TV. So the work is to take
this car and put, you know, this car in the garage at the right place. And this is what happened
in your mind when you have a trauma, little or big. I was, it was, oh, I don't know, maybe more than 20
years ago. I was attacked in Paris. So I was in Paris. I was in my car. Came back from the
office, it was winter, dark, and I was attacked.
I was shocked and I was very, very afraid because, you know, they took my purse and they had
my keys and my name and where, you know, and my children were very small. And I was so afraid
that, you know, someone came, you know, in the house. Breaking in, yeah. Yeah, breaking in. So nothing
happened. I was lucky. Okay, I lost everything, but, you know, it was not, nobody died. So I forgot.
But each time I was driving under a streetlight, I was afraid, like a little panic.
Didn't know why.
Until I came, you know, to see a psychologist.
And with what we call EMDR, we put back the car at the right place.
And he explained me that, in fact, I probably chances were that my brain saw the person who attacked me.
But I did not remember.
So the car was not at the right place.
That's why I was overreacted.
So that could be that.
Or that could be, in the case and the story that I share with you, so this professor.
But that also could be, doesn't belong to you.
Like another story is this leader was always very angry, very angry and always shouting.
And he was never in peace.
In revisiting his life, we understood that in fact it was coming from a.
family who escape war.
And so, you know, during the family dinner,
he was told that to be careful to everyone,
that everyone is an enemy and to not trust anybody.
But he took it for granted.
So we were not at war anymore.
And it was not his story.
It was the story of his parents.
So it's what I call ineritude.
So you didn't do anything.
But it came with.
that with you. So there could be another one. And after you have also, it's a big trauma,
like we know, like veterans of Vietnam, of wars and PTSD and things like that. Those are our
objectives. What kind of consequences if we don't put the car in the right place and we continue
to have these mind traps? What kind of consequences can we experience as leaders? You are not yourself
and you don't have the old view because you see only half of your life. You cannot see the old
you and you're not yourself, you're not as successful as you could be, as happy as you
could be. You cannot unleash your own talent. So a lot of things. So you're really locked
somewhere. But a lot of people stay like that. It's your choice. Nobody can force you anyway.
And I'm sure there's external voices that could help you, but there's also external voices that
can make mind traps worse, right? So can you talk to us about that? Yeah.
For example, if people, you want to do something, for example, when I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
So I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but yes, I was 40. Yes, yes, I was not 20.
Everybody told me, you are crazy. You are completely crazy. Okay, maybe I'm crazy. Okay.
But I didn't listen. You know, if I had listened to all the voices, I would not do anything.
I would stay where I was, but I would not, you know, discover everything that I discovered.
since 20 years. I would not live here in New York, and this was my dream to come back to New York.
That would not be possible for me to help others, because I couldn't help me first.
So how can I help others? And this is my mission, and this is my calling. So that would be so sad.
I totally agree. I'm sure a lot of my listeners know my story, but if I had listened to you,
everybody who told me, I was too old to start a podcast six years ago. And all my friends told me,
what are you doing? You're wasting your time. And everyone was making fun of me. I lost a lot of
friends because they didn't like that I was putting myself out there. And even when I became an
entrepreneur, my parents were confused and didn't know if it was the right thing for me, my partner
at the time. And I just didn't listen to anyone. And I'm so glad that I trusted my gut.
You can only listen to people who have been where you want to go. Not people who've never been
where you want to go. That's completely true. And I love your story, Ella. Also, in my
case, I was sure that it was what I wanted to do. And also, it's good to know at least one person
who did it. And I knew at that time I have a very good friend who, unfortunately, she just passed away.
Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. And she did that at age of 40. She was a very successful partner
in a large organization. And at the age of 40, she said, okay, going to leave and I'm going back to
school and I will be an architect and she became an architect and very successful architect also.
And so I said, okay, if she can do it, I can do it. So it's good to have at least one model,
one role model, to know one person who did it. And that's why I talk about it, by the way.
Well, I love this conversation. And so we're talking about mind traps. And in your book,
you say what can get us out of this is a mind shift.
And so we love actionable steps on Young and Profiting Podcasts.
And you say that one key way to begin a mind shift is by understanding how our brain can change
and embrace new perspective.
So how can we be more aware of these stories that we're telling ourselves?
To be more, this is very simple.
You just have to listen because in fact what we do, we are surrounded by noises.
media, social media, your parents, your family, your community, your religion, for whatever,
and you name it.
So we are surrounded by noises.
So the first thing is to free the noise.
To free the noise.
And how you free the noise by just making silence.
So take time to just make silence.
Try for your brain to stop making stories or listening.
to listen to story.
So try to meditate.
Try to just go by to yourself.
Think about what do you feel?
How is your body feeling right now?
Are you in your body or outside your body?
Can you feel it?
Are you aware of everything that, you know, in your mind?
There's a story that goes without you.
Like, okay, I should go that.
And I'll go that.
And after the show, I have to go with that.
No, no.
be here at the present moment. You have to learn to do that because it's not natural. But take the time
to just stop, breathe, and feel and try to make silence, silence. And you say that tapping into
our empathy for others, what neuroscientists call Gandhi or mirror neurons can help us see a different
perspective. So can you help us understand what Gandhi neurons are and how we can activate these
Gandhi neurons. This is my favorite neurons. Gendi neurons. So Gany neurons are in fact the mirror
neurons. So we can call them also imitate neurons. So if I take, for example, your mug,
if I take the mug and I drink, the part of your brain is doing exactly the same. And chances are
that you also are going to drink without thinking.
It's just, you know, mirror.
And the very famous neuroscientist, Ramachadran,
named them by Gandhi because it was a follow me neurons.
So interesting and so true.
And how it helps us as a leader is because it is less what you tell that, what you do.
You are a role model.
So if as a role model, you say, oh, you should do that, but you don't do it, people are watching you.
They are looking at you.
Again, so you need to be your role model.
So be careful because it's very important.
They're going to do exactly the same.
If you act not correctly, don't be surprised to find somebody who is acting exactly the same.
So maybe you are even not aware of it.
And so how you activate, you ask me, you can role play, for example.
So let me share an example.
When they're a leader, wanted to do a workshop with his team.
So we were there and the subject was everyone had to share his own story.
And the good moment and the difficult moments and what did they learn from that?
And this leader had to role play and open the ball because he had to set the tone because
everybody's going to look at him.
And what is going to say, they are going, you know, if he shared a lot, they're going
to share.
If not, then.
So he didn't know exactly what was, you know, good to share, not to share, where to begin,
and so on.
So we role play.
We walked on it.
And we did the workshop and it was magic.
Because it's difficult sometimes.
So you don't know.
We are not very used to share emotions or who we are to open ourselves.
So role play.
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Young and profiteers.
I know there's so many people tuning in right now
that end their workday wondering
why certain tasks take forever,
why they're procrastinating certain things,
why they don't feel confident in their work,
why they feel drained and frustrated and unfulfilled.
But here's the thing you need to know.
It's not a character flaw that you're feeling this way.
It's actually your natural,
wiring. And here's the thing. When it comes to burnout, it's really about the type of work that you're
doing. Some work gives you energy and some work simply drains you. So it's key to understand your six
types of working genius. The working genius assessment or the six types of working genius
framework was created by Patrick Lensione and he is a business influencer and author. And the working
genius framework helps you identify what you're actually built for and the work that you're not.
Now, let me tell you a story. Before I uncovered,
my working genius, which is galvanizing and invention. So I like to rally people and I like to
invent new things. I used to be really shameful and had a lot of guilt around the fact that I didn't
like enablement, which is one of my working frustrations. So I actually don't like to support people
one-on-one. I don't like it when people slow me down. I don't like handholding. I like to move fast,
invent, rally people inspire. But what I do need to do is ensure that somebody else can fill the
enablement role, which I do have, Kate, on my team. So working genius helps you uncover these
genius gaps, helps you work better with your team, helps you reduce friction, helps you collaborate
better, understand why people are the way that they are. It's helped me restructure my team,
put people in the spots that they're going to really excel, and it's also helped me in hiring.
Working Genius is absolutely amazing. I'm obsessed with this model. So if you guys want to take
the Working Genius assessment and get 20% off, you can use code profiting. Go to workinggenius.com.
Again, that's workinggenius.com. Stop guessing. Start working in your genius.
Yeah. And so basically you're saying that how we act as leaders, our employees and team members are going to mimic us. And same thing with our Dirk reports. So it's also important to make sure that the other leaders on our team are also acting as good role models because everyone's going to follow them and their behaviors as well. Once we've identified these mind traps, we've gotten a new fresh perspective, either from somebody external who's giving us advice or from a good movie or a good book like you were just saying.
How can we then challenge our old beliefs and break free from them?
So you have to go to the process of transforming.
So we arrive to the mind shift.
So you transform, you transform and replace what is not helpful anymore.
So you challenge your beliefs and challenge your fears.
Challenge your belief with three very powerful questions.
Is it true?
Is it relevant?
Is it helpful today?
But let me give you an example.
Let's go back to the example with the leaders, you know, the last leader.
So the last leader, so we know now that he was, he panicked at a panel in front of professors
and his professor said that he would never become a CEO.
So when we talk about that, I ask him three questions.
Is it true?
Is it true that you cannot be a CEO?
He was considered as a CEO.
So no.
Is it relevant?
Say no.
Is it helpful today?
Not at all.
Okay, if you say no, no, no, let go.
Let go.
Just let go.
It's very simple.
What is the importance of making a conscious decision to move forward from our mind trap?
Because you need to be okay to do it.
That's why you ask this question.
Are you okay and to let go?
And are you okay to let go?
Because after that, you can have another exercise with, you know, the game, the tug of war.
So you hold this, the rope on one side and in the other side, for example, you can put the professor.
So this is what we did with this example, put the professor.
And so here, you play.
You know the game, right?
So you tied the rope and the other person do it the same, and the other person do it the same.
So you can imagine that you play, but you don't go far because you still have the rope between you and the person.
And so at that moment, so we did this exercise and asked you to let go, let go the rope.
What's happened if I tell you, let go the rope?
What happened to the other person?
They fall down.
Yeah.
The person fall down.
And so now you ask, okay.
And what's happened?
What this person is doing?
So maybe, you know, in this case,
this person was just not happy at all.
So this person, the professor, was shouting.
And I said, what do you feel?
He said, he looks ridiculous.
I said, okay, are you ready to go?
Yes, I am.
And he was, he freed him so.
So to answer your question,
you have a choice to hold the rope or let go the rope.
Nobody can force you, like we said before.
So you have to do it consciously.
And I imagine that you let go of the rope.
You're almost telling yourself a different story
and sort of moving the car away from where it's supposed to be, right?
Exactly, because now you are not with the car in the middle.
So you can put the car at the right place because you are in peace
and you don't have this professor in the car, in the middle, you know, of the living room.
No, you don't want that.
Yeah.
So we identified mind traps.
We also have talked about shifting our perspective.
And now you have the mind-build process.
Can you talk to us about that and define that for us?
So now that you freed yourself, you can be the author of your life.
You can write your own story.
So how you write your own story by reflecting, of course, you know, reflecting on your life,
you know, what did you learn, the lessons,
the difficult moment, the good moment, what you learn.
But what is very important is what drives you.
Define your purpose.
What drives you?
And how you want to be remembered as a leader or as a person,
because everyone is a leader.
You're a leader, at least, you know, at the minimum,
you're a leader of your life.
How you want to be remembered.
What memories you want to let behind you?
And I have a very good exercise.
Here is very good.
I ask people to write their,
geology is difficult, but think about it. When you are out of the picture, what memories do you want
people to share about you? So I'm pretty sure that you're going to find exactly what drives you
and what is important for you if you think like that. And also, what is important is to know
that you write your story because you know your driver, you know your purpose, you know how you want
to show up. So you can write your story, you can do what you want, and you can
become this unlock leader.
And the perfect example for me is the example of Ralph Lauren.
I don't know.
I think everybody knows the story, but this is the story of someone who always listened to
his voice and always listened to his dream, follow his dream.
So he was a young man born in the Bronx and he designed very nice and wide.
ties, beautiful ties, colorful ties,
went to a groomy dress to sell them.
They wanted them, they wanted the ties,
but narrow and without his label, the polo label.
And Ralph, who didn't, you know, at that time was very young
and didn't yet build the empire that he has today.
He left.
And he said, I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to follow my dream.
And the rest is history, right?
The purpose of his company is to inspire a dream of a better life.
And until now, more than that over 50, 50 years now,
he still inspire us with, you know, the shows he does and everything
because he's following his, he's very authentic,
he's very, he always follows his dream, his voice.
And for me, this is the best example of how.
how you write your own story and how you can be successful in doing that.
That's such a great story.
And I know one aspect of being a better human leader is also listening, right?
We need to be better listeners.
Why is being a listener so important as a leader?
And what are some guidance and advice you have for becoming better listeners as leaders?
I would say, just listen.
And if you want to listen, don't talk.
So talk last, ask questions, and ask for input, and give feedback, ask for feedback, ask for
fitforward.
And the way it's important is because if you don't listen to your employees or your customer,
you are not going to know what they need.
So you cannot help your employees and you cannot build or do the right, you know,
product for your customers if you don't understand them. So it's very easy. Speak less. Speak last.
Try to speak last. That's all. Well, Artans, this was such a great conversation. Thank you so much.
I always end my interview with two questions that I ask all my guests. So the first one is what is one
actionable thing our young improfitors can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?
Stop. Stop. Reflect. Go back to your story.
and listen to your voice.
Do the silence we were talking about.
Do this exercise.
Begin there.
And what is your secret to profiting in life?
And this can go beyond business financial.
I think I have a daily routine.
So every day I do my yoga.
I meditate.
I'm very optimist.
And I think my secret is I always laugh.
I like to love.
I like to smile and to love.
So it gave me a lot of energy.
You are really always positive and smiling.
I can attest to that.
And where can everybody find your new book,
The Unlocked Leader, and learn more about you and everything that you do?
So on my LinkedIn, on my social media,
Instagram and LinkedIn, and my website,
my website is hLG consulting.org.
it's a shortcut from my name
because you can do also my name
but this is so complicated.
And of course, you know, Amazon
the book, you can find the book
everywhere on bookshelves.
And maybe what I would like just to add
is that the proceeds of the book
will be donated to Jed Foundation.
They works on young people's mental health
and suicide prevention.
And I thought that it was
good codes and close to my walk too.
Well, that's so beautiful.
We'll stick all the links in the show notes.
Make sure you guys go get the unlocked leader,
support the Judd Foundation, support Ortanz.
Thank you, Ortanz, so much for your time today.
It was such a pleasure.
Thank you for having me, Hala.
It was really a pleasure.
We don't need another hero.
That's what Tina Turner famously sang back in the day.
And this is what Hortans tells us today about being a leader.
The old model of leadership is over.
and Orton's shared some wonderful insights
about how we can help create a new model
of human leadership to take its place.
Here are a few of my favorite tips from her
about how you can become a better leader.
First, you have to be aware of your own mind traps,
the mental obstacles that are holding you back
and keeping you from reaching your full potential,
the little stories you tell yourself
to make yourself feel better,
but which only make things worse.
Second, engage your Gandhi neurons when dealing with others.
Lead with empathy and by example.
Being a leader is often less about what you say and more about what you do.
Your employees and followers are watching and they're going to take their lead from you.
Third, I love the exercise that Orton's offer to help us become the author of our own lives.
You can write your own story by writing your own eulogy.
I know it's a bit morbid, but it's a wonderful exercise to help figure out what your purpose is,
what drives you, and how you want to be remembered.
Finally, as Orton's learned as a girl, sometimes you just got to be.
to learn to trust your horse or your horses.
Leadership so often comes down to just being in sync with others.
And if you are, then you're ready for the next obstacle and to jump together.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Young and Profiting Podcast.
If you listen, learned, and profited, be sure to share this episode with your friends and family
and drop us a five-star review on Apple.
If you prefer to watch your podcast as videos, you can find us on YouTube.
I'd love if you subscribe to our YouTube channel.
You can just search for Young and Profiting on YouTube
and find all of our episodes on there.
You can also find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn
by searching my name. It's Hala Taha.
I also wanted to take a moment to shout out my own amazing team of horses,
my executive producer,
Amelia, our assistant producer,
for Khan and Hasham for supporting guest outreach,
Greta and Sean for supporting research,
Critty Greenma and Ash for running our ad operations.
You guys are amazing.
I have such a big, awesome production team.
I love it.
I love everybody in my Yap Media family.
Thank you guys so much for all your hard work.
This is your host, Halitaha, aka the podcast princess, signing off.
