Leadership Journeys [15] - Gastón Käufer Barbé - "I am always paying attention and always learning."

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing.In the interview, Gastón shares about growing up in a family of entrepreneurs in Argentina, and how that led him to start his own company - but in the Netherlands. He talks about not being afraid of making mistakes, and the importance of listening in his work. He also shares how he has learned to delegate as a leader which has led to lowering the burden he has faced as a founder and CEO on his shoulders.You can find Gastón at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/gastonkauferbarbe/https://www.toucaninsights.com/In the interview, Gaston saysI come from a family of entrepreneurs, so I always have this heritage, like listening to my father and my grandfather, all the things that they studied or the, that they decide to take the risk and do things. I inherited from them from a family perspective.Amongst the companies that I worked for before, one was Avon cosmetics. So my boss there, he was extremely straightforward. He was very kind in sharing his learnings.Don't be afraid of committing mistakes. Take decisions.Sometimes they don't go as expected. So you feel like you're like this sort of crashing a car constantly until you realize what you have to do. And you are able to turn the wheel and put the car in the right direction. I think you're doing the things that the market needs that you identify, what are your strengths, and then you're able to offer that.I'm a big fan of Argentina entrepreneurs starting businesses. I bow to them. The main difference is that the conditions to start a business in Argentina are extremely difficult.I'm extremely passionate about identifying gaps in the market and identifying in what way companies can provide a better service.I'm extremely passionate about that is it's about people and understanding people. It's something that I find extremely interesting differences in cultures, in countries.People are extremely intelligent, but they also like processes.Listening is absolutely key to not only really understanding what they want to say. And, but also to identify what are the fears that they have, what are they really looking for?Listening is where the real deal is happening. And as you said it's when done it's transparent, it's not like the visible, but it's a, especially as a leader, if you put your attention on the listening, then you can change you and the quality of a conversation.If you're really listening to what they have to say, you can really identify way more things in an extremely broad range of aspects that talk in the conversation but they are there and they need to be addressed. And that's the main difference as you were saying, like between a leader or someone that just is like addressing needs.I'm always paying attention and I'm always learning. So listening and learning from everyone, it's something that I always put in practice.With time, I've learned that we have grown the team. So I realize that. Delegating in a smart way is extremely key to growth.  It provides confidence to the rest of the team. It boosts their confidence. It makes them feel very responsible and accountable for what they are doing. The first challenge, I think almost everybody is facing is, that the speed of change has increased. And then there is a lot of uncertainty. Almost everybody has to continuously learn and adapt.I know the effect. Probably situations that we have never thought could happen or never thought that it would affect us suddenly you're experiencing it and you need to basically serve the way in the best possible way that you can.Start small, focus and really understand the inside out of that niche. Really understand what your target is looking for. Be extremely critical.