89 | Leading with SOUL: Unleashing the Power of Conscious Leadership | Zana Goic Petricevic

Building Better Cultures

Host Scott McInnes’ guest on this episode of Building Better Cultures exemplifies the passion she prescribes for strong leadership. Zana Goic Petricevic, founder and managing director of Bold Leadership Culture, brings a uniquely compelling brand of coaching and transformational approach to empowering workplace cultures. Her new book, “Bold Reinvented: Leading with Courage, Consciousness and Conviction,” lays out foundational steps that leaders can take to inspire the best in their teams.

Communication is key, and it starts with setting the right tone and vision. The strongest leaders, says Zana, are constantly learning. They’re able to hear all kinds of perspectives and embrace a broad spectrum of viewpoints. In other words, they are learners (the No. 1 trait Zana believes the strongest leaders share). There is an infectious energy communicated when corporate decision-makers are unafraid to do the digging, entertain the feedback and explore new, potentially better paths.

Zana shares with us a powerful model for corporate self-actualization with the acronym SOUL, Self, Other, Universe and Legacy. In this episode she spells out each of these four elements, providing personal examples and a challenge to leaders who are stuck in a “check-the-box” mentality. She wants all of us to ask – at work and in life – are we leaving it all on the field? Are we approaching the world from a place of fear or love? Passion is contagious and the visionaries who bring it transfuse everything and everyone around them.

Zana gives a shout-out to a book that has informed her thinking. Click here to learn more about “Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of Being,” by Philip Shepherd.

You can discover more about the Building Better Cultures podcast and related services, by visiting www.buildingbettercultures.com If you’re struggling with communications in this time of hybrid workplace, click here to explore Workvivo, a collaboration platform that offers seamless digital integration.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Originally from Croatia, Zana introduces herself as a coach and consultant, as well as an author who understands ways in which conversations can be valuable tools for dissecting and improving leadership styles.
• Different cultures and a global orientation are integral to Zana’s approach.
• The single word that for Zana embodies the best leaders? Learners. They share a common ability to stop and think, understand, raise their own awareness and grow.

• Another core competency prevalent among strong leaders? Decisiveness. Interestingly, it correlates back to being a learner. Doing your homework and pausing to reflect enables clear, decisive decision-making.
• Shifting perspective about what constitutes development can be powerful. Beyond the classroom, it can occur in myriad unexpected places, even among difficult colleagues.
• Does everyone have the potential to be a competent leader? Zana unequivocally says, “Yes!” It all depends on whether we actually choose to engage those innate abilities.
• About Zana’s model and the four things she believes are key to sound leadership, which all require that we bring a strong sense of soul to the mission. Those elements are:

• S: Self. The journey begins with raising our own self-awareness and confronting ourselves honestly as to our beliefs, preconceptions and blind spots.

• O: Other. Leadership doesn’t occur in isolation. When we lean into each other and bring compassion, we are strengthening a message of trust that builds strong cultures.
• U: Universe. On the leadership journey, there comes an inevitable point of adjusting to the larger atmosphere we’re co-creating around us. What are we doing to impact and shape our overarching culture? We are part of a whole.
• L: Legacy. Great leaders bring a passion. They see the value and meaning in the work they are doing, and that commitment to honoring purpose is contagious.

• How do you know if you’re laboring under an unconscious bias? We need to tune in and receive the feedback. We cannot grow ourselves alone, and devoid of how we’re impacting those around us. It can be a calling “forth” rather than a calling “out.”
• Zana shares thoughts on the subject of trust, which she believes has three faces that are inextricably intertwined:

• Trusting ourselves: You need to believe that what you are bringing is worthy and unapologetically embrace it, as well as take responsibility for your impact.
• Trusting others: It comes down to a decision to invest in a relationship, allow mistakes and provide a safe space to grow a mutual bond.
• Trusting something bigger than ourselves: We must come to terms with the fact that not everything is under our control, much as we would like it to be.

• It all comes down in the end to impact. Are you being the leader you are meant to be and bringing to each day a commitment to eliciting your best self in every endeavor?

Zana’s #1 Leadership Gamechanger: Ask yourself whether you’re playing to win, or playing not to lose. These are two drastically different approaches that determine whether you’re doing things from a place of fear or a place of love. Are you staying silent and safe or speaking up? Are you taking risks to create what’s missing or are you hanging back?

ABOUT ZANA GOIC PETRICEVIC

More information about Zana’s new book, “Bold Reinvented: Next Level Leading with Courage, Consciousness and Conviction,” is available here.

Website: www.boldleadership-culture.com Zana @LinkedIn

ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES Learn more about Scott McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring Change, by clicking here.

ABOUT WORKVIVO To discover Workvivo, a workplace communication and engagement platform that offers seamless digital integration, please click here.