Ep: 256 Ian Ziskin

Ian Ziskin, President, EXec EXcel Group LLC, has 40 years of experience as a business leader, board advisor and member, coach, consultant, entrepreneur, teacher, speaker, and author. He is the Co-Founder and Partner of Business inSITE Group (BiG), Co-Founder of the Consortium for Change (C4C), and Co-Founder of the CHREATE Project. His global leadership experience includes Chief Human Resources Officer and/or other senior leadership roles with three Fortune 100 companies – Northrop Grumman, Qwest Communications, and TRW. Ian has written dozens of articles, blogs, and book chapters on the future of work, HR, leadership, coaching, and HR's role with the board of directors. What problem do you solve? Defining reality. Being open to paying attention to what is happening around you and minimizing the risk of being in denial. Show Notes: One thing that jumped out to Ian while writing his book, The Secret Sauce for Leading Transformational Change, was that humans have an ability to explain away things that don't fit with the way they want to see things. Entrepreneurs are at risk of this because they are in the trenches. It is important to let reality sink in so that you can truly address the problem. Sometimes even when the data is there we are reluctant to make the hard decisions and make the transformational changes needed. We have to realize that we are not always able to anticipate and prepare for all of the changes that happen. The Covid pandemic is an example of that. We still have to realize and adjust to the changes. There are many things that we can't control. Even if things worked for the last 50 years, it doesn't mean they will work for the next 5, 10, or more. As business owners or leaders, we may have our own idea of how things should run in the business. The employees may have a different idea of how they want to work. What the workforce is really expecting from us these days is trust, flexibility, transparency the ability to have options and choices. Employees are more willing than ever to leave a job to find what they are looking for in terms of options and choices.  As a leader we have to transform from talk, talk, talk and tell, tell, tell to listen, listen, listen.  If you are listening you aren't really learning what is going on and what your people are wanting. All transformation is change but is all change transformation? Some changes are tweaks or short-term and may help a bit but not really be a complete rethinking and repositioning. Changes may not lead to dramatic improvement like transformation will. Ian's book is available at transformationalchangebook.com Ian Ziskin's Recharge Round What habit do you think has led to success in your life? Exercise and working out. It helps with physical strength and discipline but it also helps with his thinking and keeps the cobwebs out. If you had one do-over, what would it be? He went to work for a bad boss a few years back. He thought his advice would improve things but came to realize that not all people will change.  Ian Ziskin's website: exexgroup.com Ian's offer  Connect with Ian Ziskin: Twitter LinkedIn Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/mastermind/ Get your Daily Dose of Positive at SimplePositiveActions.com