Overview
On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews Aviv Shahar. Aviv helps senior leaders create radically new futures.
Topics Discussed:
- About Aviv Shahar:
- The most exciting thing is getting together with a team of very smart people.
- When Aviv works with those teams, they produce radical clarity, sense of purpose and a set of strategies.
- Many senior executives in all sizes of companies experience the VUCA environment with a sense of overwhelm.
- The impact of clarity is dramatic and meaningful.
- It impacts business benefit, but also people and teams.
- Aviv’s book, Create New Futures.
- Two core premises:
- The currency of leadership is conversation.
- Strategy is an exercise in imagining the future and working backward.
- Do organizations reach out to you or do you prospect; how can you tell you can help?
- Nearly 100% of organizations come to him by word of mouth or referrals.
- Sometimes there will be conversations that take three weeks and then there’s a project, sometimes it’s 12-18 months.
- He must produce value up-front even before people make the investment.
- Mostly his company engages when someone is new to a role or two organizations come together and have to address situations with limited resources.
- This work has a science-inclined data, but the art of what is possible is also important.
- Have you seen a common denominator that allowed senior leaders to get there?
- Most of these leaders struggle with a chaotic environment (velocity of change, technology, etc.)
- Leaders struggle with internal mechanics of a large company.
- There are always more needs and demands and less organizational energy to achieve it.
- All the first three things need to happen while the leader is trying to live a whole life as a spouse, parent, citizen, healthy human.
- Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important, and why?
- In the first 10 years of your life your experience is defined by who your parents know.
- In the next 10 years it’s defined by who you do and don’t mix with.
- In your 20’s you’re defined by what you understand by your core competence and the people you choose to pursue things with.
- In your 30’s you’re defined by your family and what you choose to devote yourself to.
- In your 40’s you become the product of your habits, rituals and updates.
- In your 50’s you find out that you’re defined by whether you’re prepared to make a whole new start, or you’ll level off and shift into coasting.
- It’s a combination of who and what you know, but different phases of life dictate how you pursue who and what you know.
- Aviv would not be where he is now without the kindness and generosity of the people he knows.
- He can trace the majority of the work he’s gotten back to less than a dozen of key champions.
- If you can be that kind of a champion for other people, it’s gratifying to pay back and forward.
- Tell us about a time a connection became a champion for you.
- Story #1:
- In the early 2000’s he was leading a leadership course for the AMA.
- One of the participants was a leader from Hewlett-Packard
- He said he’d never experienced that before, could Aviv “HP” that for them?
- In three weeks he met with HP’s team, it’s not 15 years later and he’s still working with leadership teams at HP.
- Story #2:
- He had a conversation on a flight from Seattle to San Jose.
- Sat by someone on the flight and it led to a series of phone calls.
- Ended with him engaging with a team from Sysco.
- The key to building your network is to be curious.
- Treat everyone the same way, you’ll never know where it will lead.
- The best most meaningful networking relationships occur inside the confines of living your life.
- Story #1:
- Throughout your career, how important have mentorships and masterminds been for you?
- He’s benefited from long-distance mentoring.
- If you’re driven to grow and evolve as a professional, you need a mentor, coach and peer group. They are different modalities.
- If you’ve never had a mentor or coach or been in a mastermind, look for someone who has a skillset you’d like to develop.
- You need someone who’d 3-4 steps up the road from you.
- Look to create value for the mentor in return.
- The kind of coaching Aviv engages in, the coach doesn’t have to have the exact experience you need.
- In peer groups, never look to be the smartest person in the room – you’re going to learn a lot less.
- Your two precious assets are your time and your focus.
- You must be guided by a profound sense of guidance and purpose.
- The motto of his life is “an undebriefed action is a wasted action.”
- First, what worked well?
- Second, what did I learn?
- Third, what will I do differently?
- Fourth, where will I implement the change?
- Two core premises:
The Random Round:
-
- What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
- Movie Director, Sherpa, talk show host
- If you could sit on a park bench for an hour with anyone past or present, who would it be?
- In the ancient world: King Solomon, Jesus, Mary Magdelene.
- In the renaissance period: Leonardo DaVinci.
- Early 20th century: Theodore Roosevelt, Rudolph Steiner.
- How do you like to learn best, books, blogs, podcasts or video?
- Framing a question and writing.
- Give us a glimpse of your morning routine?
- Wake up between 5:15
- First hour is writing and centering
- Run for 15 minutes
- After breakfast, head out to the ocean to run again and swim
- What is your go-to pump up song:
- The Sound of the Ocean
- What are you not very good at?
- Filling forms, IRS forms or any other.
- Find him online at avivconsulting.com or on LinkedIn at Aviv Shahar or Twitter or his Podcast Create New Futures.
- What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
Tweetable Quotes:
- “The key to building your network is to be curious.”
- “In peer groups, never look to be the smartest person in the room – you’re going to learn a lot less.
Resources Mentioned:
Buildyournetwork.co– Podcast website
BYN.media/fb – Facebook Group
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