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Excellence Foresight with Nancy Nouaimeh
Welcome to Excellence Foresight, the podcast that guides you on the journey to building top-performing, sustainable, and future-ready teams and organizations. We explore how to plan for excellence, dive into the latest trends, and share practical insights for achieving success in today’s rapidly changing world.
Our mission? To fast-track your journey to excellence. It's a challenge, but with the right strategies and understanding of unique organizational cultures, it's achievable.
In each episode, I’ll share insights from my 24 years of experience in diverse, multicultural settings. Plus, we’ll have inspiring guests sharing their stories and the lessons they've learned in their own quests for excellence. Whether you’re a leader or a team member, this podcast is your roadmap to success, helping you and your organization thrive by embracing best practices and future-focused thinking.
Excellence Foresight with Nancy Nouaimeh
What Da Vinci's mastery teach us about leadership and culture?
Embark on a transformative journey with me, Nancy Nouaimeh, as we explore the essence of an exceptional organizational culture, inspired by the legendary Leonardo da Vinci's Work and Art. A study by Korn Ferry conducted in 2023, showed that 38% of the top executives identified that culture is one of the top 5 determinant of a company's success. In this episode, we peel back the layers of leadership artistry to reveal five key traits that can reshape your leadership style, and principles that promise to ignite a culture rich in curiosity, continuous learning, and innovation. Discover how these principles are the blueprint for modern excellence in any thriving enterprise.
Join us as we connect the dots between the pursuit of excellence and the satisfaction of both the teams we lead and the customers we serve, in an episode that will reshape the way you think about leadership and culture in the business world.
Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Excellence 4-Side podcast. I'm your host, nancy Noine, a cultural transformation and organizational excellence consultant, a leadership technical coach and a mentor. My passion is to make excellence an everyday habit. But before starting with our episode today, I wanted to share with you one of my challenges, since I've decided to start my own podcast, and I think it's a question that everybody raises when they start their own podcast how to make a successful one and how to do that and reflect a true image about yourself and what you want to share. Now, this is very challenging.
Speaker 1:When you read about podcasts, there are a lot of tips. Some of them are very confusing, even, but not the last article I read. While they somehow use the number of downloads to measure the success of a podcast, they also mentioned that a podcast should be measured by the value to the people who choose to listen to it. While excellence might not be the hot topic of the day, achieving excellence is based on fundamentals and building strong foundation in people and processes. We should be aligned with a clear purpose. These fundamentals will always remain relevant, now and in the future, whether we talk about connected workers or use of AI in healthcare or digital plans in construction, it is always important to be effective and efficient, in other words, know what to do and do it right Now. People like buzzwords and new trends, but I do believe that many also like to be the best and they like to excel, same as organizations. Desperation to succeed and remain competitive drives organizational agendas, so why not focus together on principles and concepts that help us get there?
Speaker 1:While I was preparing for this episode, I thought why not to explore the art of crafting a winning culture, art and business. Yes, there's more overlap than you might think, and I was lucky enough that just yesterday, I had the amazing opportunity to interview a quality guru, 90 years old yes, correct, which I'm keeping his name on the gate for now. Then the interview article is out. He told me beautiful stories about his passion for music and how he learned about improvising from studying Bach when he was young, and how did this help him become a better professional and shaped his problem solving capabilities and his abilities to do the jump and improvise and change plans when needed. An amazing personality. So, going back to art and culture, there's a lot of overlap and I think Leonardo da Vinci is the best example to use.
Speaker 1:Now this topic of exploring art and winning culture will be divided into three parts. I thought this episode the first one we will talk about Leonardo as a distinguished thought leader and artist. In the second part of the scene, our guest episode will be with Etienne Vandere Périmont, a business consultant and also a gallery owner from Venjam, who lives and work in the United Arab Emirates. He will share his success stories and some wonderful lessons from his journey with art. So wait for that. And we will have a third episode where we will use Leonardo's art and what makes the fabric of a winning culture. Stay tuned for that too.
Speaker 1:So let us kick off this episode with Leonardo da Vinci, not just the man behind the Mona Lisa, but the relentless innovator who dared to dream big. Beyond his iconic works like the Mona Lisa, he delved into inventive sketches, unique inventions and anatomical studies. What a genius, his work, which merged art, science and imagination, and he inspired generations not only with his relentless creativity, but also, which I mostly like is his pursuit of excellence. Leonardo was a visionary and futurist artist. He anticipated future possibilities and aimed to shape them, and you might check his humanoid robot designs and flying machines. Even in the 15th century. He had a forward-thinking capacity and that was the first aspect of his successful organization or culture. How can we anticipate the future and get ready for it? In companies these days, they use future foresight to predict future trends. As we talk and talk more about the culture, there's a study by Carne Ferry conducted last year, in 2023, which showed that 38% of the top executives identified that culture is one of the top five determinant of company success. Let us not forget that successful cultures are shaped by leaders, making leaders, in essence, the artist of the organizational world. Now think about Leonardo and about great leaders you worked with or met Then. Leadership isn't just about strategy or management. It's a form of art requiring creativity, vision and, most importantly, understanding of people.
Speaker 1:I'll share with you now the main five traits of Leonardo's that are the game changers you and your organization has been waiting for. They are essential and impactful. One curiosity and commitment to continuous learning. Leonardo has accessible curiosity and commitment to learning. He unbidded a growth mindset that led him to keep learning and improving, and developing a growth mindset is something that is worth spending time on developing, so I really recommend you to go dig deeper into that.
Speaker 1:Innovation and experimentation. Da Vinci's was always ready to experiment with new techniques, materials and ideas, and he constantly pushed the boundaries of his craft, resulting in groundbreaking art and inventions. He mirrored the culture of innovation, risk taking that we see in thriving organizations such as Apple and Amazon. With each leaders we work with how to develop scientific thinking, a loud room for people to try and test new ideas and solutions. The third is collaboration and cross disciplinary skills.
Speaker 1:Leonardo collaborated with experts on various disciplines, learning from others, sharing experiences and knowledge. This usually wins greater outcome, forces, skill, quality and attention to details. We can all witness how meticulous attention he gave to details in his art and scientific observations, which reflect the dedication to quality and precision that he had, and this characterizes high performing teams and organizations. I have a quality background and just yesterday, in the interview I've had with the quality group I've interviewed, he shared an example of quality in nursing and how it was important to improve patient satisfaction. It's all in the details and how much we give attention to quality and building quality in people and processes. The fifth skill that I wanted to share with you is adaptability and flexibility DaVinci's diverse interests and ability to adapt his skills to different challenges and projects. Transitioning between art, science and engineering is really something to admire, and we have learned during the COVID-19 how much adaptability and flexibility were key to overcome setbacks and challenges. And while DaVinci's wasn't part of an organizational context in the same way as a modern business, his attributes and approach to his work demonstrated many of the traits contributing to a leadership that shapes winning organizational cultures.
Speaker 1:I believe that to shape a better tomorrow, we must first establish a strong foundation to it today, where both technical and human capabilities intertwine like a double helix to support improved melt, digitalization and growth. Leadership involves practical skills, strategic decision making and a focus on achieving organizational goals, and if you are a leader, you can develop your own unique leadership style and make it adaptable to different situations. Regardless of your leadership style, certain elements are crucial for your success in your leadership role and for creating the long-term impact you hope to achieve. Just as a piece of art can leave a lasting impact on its audience, effective leaders create lasting impacts by shaping organizational cultures, developing future leaders and driving sustainable success. The five elements I consider most important to help you have a better impact as a leader Self-awareness, continuous learning and improvement influence integrity, empowerment and empathy.
Speaker 1:Self-awareness, continuous learning and improvement are abilities that you could reflect on and improve. These will determine how much improvement you would be able to have. When we talk about this, it's really about your ability to reflect on your strengths and areas for improvement. This will determine how much improvement you will be able to have. Also, your adaptability and flexibility in changing circumstances and challenges. One way to do that is to be open to receiving feedback on your style and performance and finding ways to refine your leadership skills. For more effective leadership, improvement is possible only when people are willing to acknowledge vulnerabilities and abundant bias. In that pursuit of a better way, influence artists often tap into their emotions to create impactful work.
Speaker 1:As a leader, use communication to inspire, motivate and guide your team. Develop high emotional intelligence which can connect to with your team members on a deeper level, fostering trust and collaboration. Integrity integrity counts a lot in this context. Whether, as a leader, you walk the talk and role, model the behaviors and values you ask your team to show Empowerment, it is really about taking risks. A culture of empowerment and autonomy can lead to more engaged and motivated employees. A leader must also be willing to take calculated risks, push boundaries and explore new ideas to drive innovation, growth and even champion that. The ability to take the right actions and drive experimentation and innovation is vital. If you always play it safe, you can't expect significant differences in outcomes. Repeating the same actions yield the same results. When innovation is coupled with a focus on quality, it leads to higher standards and better outcomes. As a leader, you can influence everyone in the organization. Your words will become their words.
Speaker 1:Empathy an empathetic leader is someone who demonstrates a high level of empathy and emotional intelligence. In their interactions with others. They have the ability to understand and share the feelings and perspective of their team members, colleagues and stakeholders. This leadership styles as well as not only listening and understanding, but also responding in a supportive and considerate manner. As an empathetic leader, you create a positive and inclusive work environment, foster strong relationships and often lead to increase trust and collaboration among your team members.
Speaker 1:Now, if you've tuned to this podcast changes, are you're seeking answers about your leadership journey and how to create the lasting impact? These five leadership traits are critical for leaders who focus on building a culture that takes their organizations to the next level, to higher performance and happier employees and customers. They are worth a nice place on your development board. In our next episode, we will continue the discussion around the art and excellence With Atyan Van Den Piribon, an entrepreneur, a consultant and founder of Nanda Gallery, who will share with you his unique insights and inspiring journey. Stay tuned, engage with us. Be part of the excellence foresight community. Thank you for joining us and let's shape a brighter future together.
