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. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.
In the interview, he spoke about growing up in Iran and the importance of a multicultural approach to leadership today. We talked about the role of chance and serendipity in our journeys, the new skills required when any individual contributor grows to be a manager, and the importance of balance in life.
You can find Shahram at the below links
In the interview, Shahram shares
- The balance between taking the opportunities as they unfold, But also planning your career properly is quite important in shaping a successful career.
- You will never be a hundred per cent correct. Maybe you are only 50, 60% correct. But being able to assume how people perceive how people are seeing their own situation and what are their opportunities and challenges is quite important as an authentic leader.
- Culture is like the operating system of our brain
- On the other hand, the operating system, which is loaded in our body, which is our culture and the way we grow up and what we experience in life shapes most of who we become as a person, as a professional, but also as a leader.
- But I think in, as a leader, if you want to be successful, maybe the exact opposite is the honest advice because you need to a bit dismantle yourself from the culture you belong to and analyze the situation with the different views you have.
- And as a leader, you need to understand that and be flexible and allow people to basically express themselves properly.