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Digital Transformation & AI for Humans
Welcome to 'Digital Transformation & AI for Humans' with Emi.
In this podcast, we delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation, and most importantly, the human spirit.
Each episode features visionary leaders from different countries who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch—nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence, soft skills, and building resilient teams.
Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes.
Visit https://digitaltransformation4humans.com/ for more information.
Digital Transformation & AI for Humans
Conscious Leadership in the Age of AI: Balancing Humanity & Technology for Growth
Join us as we explore Conscious Leadership in the Age of AI with my fantastic guest, Dr. Ron Stotts from Seattle, United States. Dr. Ron is an Executive Coach, Three-Time Best-Selling Author, International Speaker, and Harvard Business Review Advisory Board Member - is going to share with us his insights on Balancing Humanity and Technology for Growth.
With over forty-five years of exploration into the understanding of people's limitations and greater potentials, Ron helps entrepreneurs and executives navigate the challenges of evolving into conscious leadership. He offers transformative programs that guide his clients in creating a truly inspiring life beyond anything they have ever imagined.
Dr. Ron reveals powerful insights on:
✔ Maintaining Humanity While Embracing Technology
✔ Overcoming Limitations in AI-Driven Change
✔ Balancing Empathy and Technology in Leadership
✔ Risks of Over-Focusing on Technology
✔ Role of Spirituality and Emotional Intelligence in Leadership
✔ Advice for Leaders Feeling Overwhelmed by Technology
✔ Combining Emotional Intelligence and AI for Better Decision-Making
✔ Recommendations for Leaders to Succeed in Life and Business
🔗 Connect with Dr. Ron Stotts on LinkedIn
🔗 Visit the site
🔗📚 Overscheduled by Success: A Guide for Influential Leaders Too Busy to Create Their Next Dream
🔗📚 Transformational Leadership: For Greater Success and a More Conscious and Caring World
🔗📚 Leadership on the Leading Edge: Shift Your Life and Work Up to the Highest Levels
About the host, Emi Olausson Fourounjieva
With over 20 years in IT, digital transformation, business growth & leadership, Emi specializes in turning challenges into opportunities for business expansion and personal well-being.
Her contributions have shaped success stories across the corporations and individuals, from driving digital growth, managing resources and leading teams in big companies to empowering leaders to unlock their inner power and succeed in this era of transformation.
📚 Get your AI Leadership Compass: Unlocking Business Growth & Innovation 🧭 The Definitive Guide for Leaders & Business Owners to Adapt & Thrive in the Age of AI & Digital Transformation: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNBJ92RP
📆 Book a free Strategy Call with Emi
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🌏 Learn more: https://digitaltransformation4humans.com/
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🔔 Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes
Hello and welcome to Digital Transformation and AI for Humans with your host, annie. In this podcast, we delve into how technology intersects with leadership, innovation and, most importantly, the human spirit. Each episode features visionary leaders who understand that at the heart of success is the human touch nurturing a winning mindset, fostering emotional intelligence and building resilient teams. Today, we are going to talk about conscious leadership in the age of AI. My amazing guest, Dr Ron Stotz, from Seattle, the United States. An executive coach, three-time best-selling author, international speaker and Harvard Business Review Advisory Board member, with over 45 years of exploration into the understanding of people's limitations and greater potentials, ron helps entrepreneurs and executives navigate the challenges of evolving into conscious leadership. He offers transformative programs that guide his clients in creating a truly inspiring life beyond anything they have ever imagined. Let's dive into balancing humanity and technology for growth. Welcome, Ron, so great to have you here.
Speaker 2:Hi, thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be great have you here, Hi thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to it. It'll be great, so do I. To start with, could you please share a few words about your journey, your path and everything you've done until today, everything I've done.
Speaker 2:Well, that would take three hours at least. You know, my life has been an adventure. That's really what it's been. A lot of people go oh, you're so courageous because you work on your different issues and you heal things.
Speaker 2:And for me, the truth is it looks much more difficult to go through life carrying all that burden of emotional backlog and unhealed issues from childhood, earlier relationships. You know what we might look at as failures in our life and that type of thing. So you know, my life has really been one where I'm training and learning to evolve, to really recognize the gifts within everything that comes into my life. Recognize the gifts within everything that comes into my life. Sometimes those are difficult gifts, but to really be able to learn to breathe into, to learn to look for the opportunity within everything that comes into my life and so really learn to be present in accepting of everything. Really learn to be present in accepting of everything, not in the sense of accepting that it's perfect, but it is what's there and I get to look at.
Speaker 2:Well, what can we do with this? What is the opportunity to grow here? What is the opportunity to learn, serve and become more connected to all that we are here. So that's really what my life is about, and I just in pretty much everything that I do is in relationship to that how, my relationships, what I do in my life whether I'm working in my garden and landscaping, or whether it's golfing or boating or working with clients certainly it's all about exploring what are we capable of. How can we do it in a more loving, supportive way that literally allows us to be more successful and flourish in our life.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. You've been also running your own business in Switzerland in your past. Besides gardening and everything else, you have your reference points, which are super strong, and I just want our listeners and viewers knowing about that little detail. You was fumbling up what to mention, not to mention. How do you?
Speaker 2:guide leaders to maintain their humanity while embracing the latest technologies like AI and other technological advancements in their organizations. Well, it really starts with the difficulties they're having, and the fears that I hear them expressing really come from a lack of connection within themselves. But as they heal and create a deeper connection within themselves, they become more conscious, they become more present and in that more conscious present place, they're really not having to address their fears as to say, well, what is something like AI capable of? How can we use it? Rather than create some movie about how it's going to take over our life, how do we really integrate it into our life in a way that supports bringing out the best of who and what we are?
Speaker 2:You know, the most important part of AI to me is if you are working from what a place that I call big mind, if you've got your mind really developed and integrated and neurologically developed, so you're working with integrated whole brain thinking, where you're accessing not only the forebrain but you're really trusting that the best wisdom, the highest level of your thought and wisdom, are going to come from quiet in your mind. That's where you access what I call big mind. It's when we're in that state that AI becomes an incredibly valuable tool. It's not dictating and directing us through life or misdirecting us through life. It becomes really a supplemental tool that's playing on the level that we need technology to be on to support that level of our capability.
Speaker 2:You know, when you're in big mind, all of a sudden AI doesn't look so overwhelming because you're capable of accessing really high level thoughts immediately. You're accessing, you know, a tremendous amount of information and going through it and sifting through it. Without that, it's not a thought process as much as a being present and letting it like standing in a river watching it move through. But accessing what you need as it moves, moves through you, and so all of a sudden, ai becomes a tool that can work with you at the speed that you're now working at. In other words, as you evolve into higher levels of thinking. When, when you evolve into being able to use your mind, your brain, your higher levels of thinking to the level that you're really capable of, then AI becomes an ideal assistant because it's the only tool we have available at this time that can keep up with you. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:It makes perfect sense for me and I'm so happy that you're mentioning it, because I'm talking quite often about the need to speeding up, to developing ourselves, to evolving from our human side in order to match that level of technologies and navigate that human-machine combo in a very powerful way, so that we get that synergy we are willing to get and so that we get a better future for ourselves as human beings. But without getting there, it is really difficult to see that perspective and be able to keep up with the pace without burning out, without being overwhelmed, too stressed or missing out on some potential outcomes which are not actually planned to happen, but they are coming anyways, because we weren't conscious enough and we didn't see the whole picture from the state of mind we are in at that moment, where making those decisions and that is something we have to just highlight so super important and thank you so much for doing it together with all of us today.
Speaker 2:It's really a matter of whether you're coming from a mindset of fear or a mindset of open opportunity. That makes all the difference. You know anything that is efficient and effective and new and different as AI. If you're coming from a place of fear, then you're going to look for why it's scary, how it's going to just eliminate your job or take over this or destroy that, whereas if you're working at the capability that a human's actually capable of, if you're willing to evolve into your higher levels of capability, moving into those higher levels of leadership and that type of thing, then AI is, as I say, just a great assistance, capable of being there and playing with you on that level. So, yeah, so true.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree, ron, with your experience in transforming high-level leaders. How do you help them recognize and overcome their limitations in the face of rapid, ai-driven change?
Speaker 2:Well, ironically, it starts every time. They'll always come to a discovery call with a significant problem, and I'm wanting to explore well, what is your main challenge right now? They're trying to figure out how to get more out of their employees or how to negotiate this or create that, and so all I really need to do is help them recognize that there's a pattern in the process that they're in, and that pattern is always reflective of something that they're withholding. They're afraid they're not able to do it. They're afraid they're not enough, or they're trying really hard, or maybe it's in relationship to employees and having trouble communicating with employees or getting the employees to do what they want in a timely manner those types of things. What they always recognize through very short conversation is oh boy, this is a pattern that I've had throughout my life. And as we begin to look deeper into that pattern, they realize, wow, that's actually a pattern from my childhood and it's like okay, so what is that pattern? What is that pattern?
Speaker 2:And as we breathe into, as we explore those patterns, those childhood patterns that are reflective of their management or leadership style in the current time, the current day, they see the limitations where the limitations came from, and so it's just really. It's a matter of initially healing those past issues so that those parts of themselves that are limiting and sabotaging their capabilities are resolved and become integrated into all of who and what they are, so that they're capable of being present and curious rather than always looking in the past and more fearfully oriented. So as they become more present with themselves, accepting the loving of themselves, their mind becomes quieter. As their mind becomes quieter, they begin to access the forebrain that becomes the CEO of their brain. All of a sudden, they're looking at life from a place of how do I make it better for everybody, which is always going to make it better for them? How do they? You know, they just see things from a bigger picture, more aware perspective, and so things aren't moving so fast and aren't so distorted. They're much clearer and comfortable with everything that's going on in their life. And you know, as they begin to develop an even higher level of integrated whole brain thinking and learning to not rely just on that left brain thinking, mind that's got them through the university and into the right job and into the position they're in as they begin, it's not a matter of we don't want to use that anymore, we want to develop it and enhance it. It's kind of like developing AI within your own mind.
Speaker 2:How do you increase your ability to think faster, fuller, with more ease and comfort than you've ever had before, with less struggle and more ease? And as you do that, you're more present, you're more at ease. You're not coming from a place of fear, you're coming from a place of curiosity, and as you do that, then you begin to trust more that. Well, if I'm really looking for a solution, a design, how to fix a problem that I'm seeing, then I really want to quiet my mind. I don't want to try and think harder and more. I really want to quiet my mind. I don't want to try and think harder and more. I really want to breathe and quiet my mind so I can be present enough to hear what I'm thinking on the highest levels and the highest abilities of my brain and that's what I call big mind is you really breathe and you learn to access those higher levels of capability.
Speaker 2:And from that place, all of a sudden, ai becomes rather than, as I've said before, something that we're afraid of. It becomes this perfect assistant that is moving at a pace that keeps up with your new life and a lot of people go well, geez, my life's already moving too fast and I can't keep up and I feel like I'm going crazy. It's like, well, take your foot off the brake of your life and you'll be doing fine. It's so important for people to recognize that, yes, you've got your one foot on the gas pedal of life. Imagine you're, you know, imagine you're in a car and you're moving forward in life.
Speaker 2:The question I always ask is how much energy do you have on the brake? How much energy do you have on the brake of life? Where you're trying to control all that emotional backlog, you're denying who you are, you're disconnecting yourself from yourself and others. You're keeping your heart closed to protect it from things that you needed to protect it from when you were a child, perhaps. So you know we spend a great deal of energy and oftentimes people recognize that 40% of their energy is on that break. So you know it's not a matter of, well, let's push harder on the gas. It's a matter of let's begin to release that energy that we're putting into the break, into keeping ourself closed, because when you're not breathing, when you're not healing the past, you're also keeping your heart closed. You're also keeping your mind closed, and so you're not able to access the best of who and what you are. You don't even know it exists. So you come from that frightened, limited place because you don't know that you're just capable of so much more. You think you are that limited being that you've experienced to date and that is not who you are at all.
Speaker 2:So my privilege is to guide people into waking up to who and what they truly are, to help them on a journey that I take them on to reconnect with and become aware of and accessing all of who and what they're capable of accessing. And the result of that is they begin to see their dream, they begin to recognize their highest intention or, as I like to refer to it, your highest aspiration. Aspiration meaning what do you need to breathe into? Because when they first see it, they're not really the person who can create that. But they also see that, oh, if I access more of myself, if I heal and become more, I can access and become the person I need to be to create that dream, to create that life that I'm truly worthy of.
Speaker 1:I am thinking about my conversation with one person on my discovery call as well, a C-level leader, and when I asked her but what is your dream, what is your vision? And she said dream, I don't have dreams anymore, I have only plans.
Speaker 1:you know so, and it just out of that and and it's so true for so many in those positions with high performance, high achie, you know, it is really a good example of how many of us are disrupting our life by pushing both gas and brake at the same time and wondering why doesn't it become smoother than that to navigate our life? No wonder, because probably we are doing something not in the way we should do it and we need more harmony, and we need also to understand both the engine and the road we are driving our car a little bit better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean on a more literal level. What would happen to a car that you're driving in that manner, that you're pushing on the gas and pressing on the brake? That creates a lot of tension and struggle and excess wear and tear on the car and it's going to fall apart. It feels stuck, so do we.
Speaker 1:So do we, and that's the sad news that so do we. But the great news is that today we are having this conversation and I'm so happy that you found me and we get a chance to spread the word about how we can create a smoother path forward and be in the flow, and I know that you have a nine and eight figure business owners and leaders among your clients. So can you share a case where a leader successfully balanced empathy and technology to achieve both personal and business growth? How is it connected and how should leaders think about that combo of softer skills and harder skills together?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's a matter of really appreciating within yourself Maybe that's where it all starts is you have to appreciate that trying harder is not the best way to get things done. Working harder, trying harder, you know, just going faster, you know, is not the best way to get things done. It used to be. I still teach meditation I have for 45 plus years. But it's so interesting how many people believe that if they just go faster in their life then they'll be able to slow down. And it's like, has that ever worked? You might slow down perfectly, but you're not going to slow down Again.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a potential client yesterday and his mind is going so fast he's got all these things he wants to create and he's trying and efforting and working. It's so chaotic that he's so unfocused that he can't organize his life and have the relationships he needs to stabilize his life. And so you know he's calling kind of from a place of how do I deal with life? I'm out of control and I don't know what to do. That's a scary place to get to. These are smart people. I don't know where we got the beliefs that. Why is it that the scariest thing for most people is to look in their past and become more self-aware. That should just be the most welcoming core aspect of life. You know, and as you, I believe, in another conversation we had, you know why is it not part of our educational system? We're frightened.
Speaker 2:You know parents want their kids. You know you talk to any parents, they go I love my child unconditionally. Their kids. You know you talk to any parents. They go I love my child unconditionally. Well, actually, they want their child to be a lot like them. You know, oh, that's true. Well, I don't love them quite unconditionally, and so, you know, it's really a matter of.
Speaker 2:I mean, I worked with a couple 30-some years ago and they were just getting married and they're lovely human beings and they both worked through their issues and became healed and they became stronger and they both are still very successful leaders in the world. But what amazes me is I look at their three kids and they are the most incredible children. I mean, they're in their 30s now. So that's really it. Really, I watched them grow up and they went to the right school. They felt loved, they felt connected, they felt like part of something and each of them have just stepped into the world so boldly and seeing life as such an adventure, with so much intrinsic success in their lives, creating loving and supportive relationships. But also a couple of them are entrepreneurs and just incredibly successful and have been from their early 20s.
Speaker 2:Another one got more involved in Paul to create a more enhanced, more appropriate educational system for learning differences. He's literally having a huge national effect on the educational system as a result of his interest and focus, and so you know I can talk about. I mean, everybody who does this work becomes more successful. They all become the CEO or the they take on the role, become the founder of the organization that their new dream shares, that they want to fulfill their life with. I mean everybody does better. Their relation, their family, their relationship with their kids all of that is just hugely enhanced. And, yes, they're doing well in business and oftentimes increasing their. You know, literally within a year they're doubling their income. That's just a normal result of it.
Speaker 2:But the amazing part is what their personal and professional life looks like, on a heart level, if you will, because when they go home there's just such a loving environment that they feel healed and refreshed for the next day, that they feel healed and refreshed for the next day. They aren't exhausted and you know, having to deal with the chaos of being at home and then going to work the next day and having to deal with all of that, I mean that is not a sustainable lifestyle. And that's where I see these people. It's like, well, if I just try harder, if I just work more, if I just you know, then I'll get there, and it's like no, no, you have to slow down. You literally have to slow down, and slowing down doesn't put you out of control, it puts you into control. If you can't control your mind, you can't control your mind.
Speaker 1:Totally agree and you know, I even have an article in the Brains magazine called Slow Down to Speed Up, because that's exactly what people should do in order to succeed and reach their goals and dreams a short period of time. But you can't have it as a sustainable solution through your life and expect that you are going to enjoy your life and not break down what you care about, those crucial parts of your life, like your professional life, your personal life. Something is going to fall out of that equation sooner or later.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how you live is the life you're going to create, and if it's not being present, if it's not opening your heart, if it's not using your whole brain, if it's not a life in which you're evolving and growing and learning to really relate better with yourself and others, you're not going to get to a place where, all of a sudden, that's going to happen, and I think that's the illusion that a lot of people have.
Speaker 2:It's like if I just go like heck and my life seems out of control, but boy, when I get to here, then I'll be better. It's like, no, no, you won't, because you won't even know how to deal with that quiet or more focused place. You'll go right past that what you're really looking for and not even know you were there. You have to give yourself the freedom to see your dream. You have to be able to recognize where am I trying to get to and live your life in a way in alignment with who you need to be or want to be, not only on the journey, but when you arrive at that dream life, which, of course, is just a moment before then it changes into more.
Speaker 1:I agree, and it's amazing actually that we have this conversation and open up for more, because this is the most ecological way to help others to avoid that pain, those disappointments, and step up into the better version of themselves and their abilities and their potential life, filled with love and dreams and achievements, and having it without the need to go through all those hits and pain which the universe sometimes brings to the table just to wake you up and show you that you should do something differently you up and show you that you should do something differently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, when people come to you, know to me and probably to people like you, and the only problem they have I don't think it's a problem, but they feel like the only issue that they're working against is they want more, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's nothing but an indicator that you're ready to evolve. So you might not know how to evolve, you might not know how to let go of where you are, you might not know how to access more of yourself, but it's just that's what you need to go out and learn. You need to find somebody like myself and others who do this work, who can guide you into those deeper levels of understanding, accessing who and what you're truly capable of, so that you can begin to envision that life that you're truly worthy of. You know it's all of the things you know for me, emotions, struggles, anything that's going on in my life are nothing but indicators that there's something that's ready to be healed so that I can continue to evolve.
Speaker 2:You know, when I'm out sailing, the forward sail has two little threads on it and those are called telltales, and those telltales when I'm sailing, if I need to move into the wind. Move up into the wind more or fall off more. Those telltales will start to wiggle on either side and tell me this is what I need to do. If I ignore those telltales, just as if I ignore my emotions and struggles, then the sail is going to start wiggling all over. I'm going to get off course and disrupt my sailing, and so it is with life.
Speaker 2:You're going to get off course. You're going to have to start over. You're going to have to. But if you can just learn to pay attention to these subtleties, you can learn to pay attention to your breathing, to your feelings, to how your life is going. When you're struggling with something, rather than try and work through it and push through it, breathe into it and see what's underneath it. Breathe into it and look deeper and heal whatever's there, and I guarantee you, in that process, you will access the very thing that you need to continue to evolve. That's how it's set up. That's the way it works.
Speaker 1:That's the secret so many are not aware of, unfortunately. But now this is the real chance to re-evaluate what really matters and how to get there where you want to come and be, ron. What are the risks of focusing too much on technology and losing the human touch in leadership, and how can conscious leaders prevent that?
Speaker 2:Well, probably the same answer. In many ways, we're interested in technology to enhance our lives. So people are a part of everything, and if you leave them out of the equation, then the technology becomes a predominant expression of who and what we are and we leave more and more of ourselves behind. And I mean I'm seeing it within the existing technology of today. It doesn't bring us closer, it disconnects us more fully. It disconnects us from ourself, it disconnects us from others. You know people talk about, oh, you know the iPhone will help connect us all.
Speaker 2:Well, look at who is creating this technology. I mean and I'm not being critical but when you really look at the people who are creating this stuff, they are oftentimes the kind of person who's not very connected with himself and others, person who's not very connected with himself and others. So they're creating technology that only further expresses their personality. I see it in leadership. Most people lead their organization. Their ego really just leads the organization. All of their unhealed issues splash over everybody and everybody has to deal with the different elevated leadership issues that are going on.
Speaker 2:And so it is in life. You know, people are creating technology. If they're not people-oriented, then they're going to be creating things that reflect their personality, reflect their personality. They're going to reflect how to be safer and more disconnected and locked into some sort of unsupportive, introverted life that really doesn't involve others, because they don't feel safe with others, they can't open up their heart to others, can't even open up their heart to themselves. There's so many of them. So I mean you have to work through those things if you're going to ever really bring humanity into the technology. Otherwise you're going to be so focused on the technology in an unrelated way to humanity, to the inclusion and the enhancement of humanity, that you don't even notice it because you're not aware of it for yourself.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, there are many unhealed leaders who are bringing their pain further into the world and break down even those who probably were more healed at a certain point. But then it's impossible to be in that environment without getting disrupted yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it ends up being destructive, not creative, not life-enhancing, but life-threatening.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's not always easy, Ron. How do spirituality and emotional intelligence help leaders to be more successful?
Speaker 2:well, let's define spirituality. Spirituality is, you know, I think in the past was kind of thought of as this thing that you know had nothing to do with most people's lives or whatever, and and it's like spirituality is just awareness of more of who and what we are. You know what is spirit? Spirit is really the part of ourself that we don't. It takes, you know, that's what meditation does. Meditation, quieting the mind, really accessing the best of who we are, puts us in connection with more expanded parts of ourself, and spirit is what we had called that in the past. I call it just big mind, I call it our connection with the universe. Spirit is really not a separate part from leadership, it's an intrinsic part. If you want to be a good leader, you have to be spiritually aware, because spiritual awareness just means you're accessing the best of who and what you are, your capability of your mind, your ability to be present and curious, your ability to really deal with rapid change and increased complexity in a smooth and effortless sort of way. It's the integration.
Speaker 2:We're at a point where if we don't learn to integrate all of who and what we are, if we don't learn to access and really fully integrate who we are, we're not going to survive as a species. I mean, we're doing fine in some ways now, but if you look at our different systems, our health systems, our prison systems, our food industries you look at so many of these systems and they're completely the educational system, at least in America it's completely broken down. All of them are completely broken and unsustainable. They were created decades ago for completely different purposes than we need now.
Speaker 2:Before, we were trying to create people who could work in our factories. Well, nobody does that anymore. Now they need to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence. I mean recent survey of 1,000 CEOs, you know, or three years ago, 30% of them said self-awareness, emotional intelligence, is really important. Well, now, 90% of those same CEOs, when interviewed 1,000 CEOs, they're recognizing the absolute importance of emotional awareness and self-awareness. It's you know, we're in a rapidly changing environment where those are critical factors to our enhancement and success of our life, and so that we use tools like AI to our benefit and not to our destruction.
Speaker 1:I totally agree. But the development is going in the right direction according to that survey. Right so that more CEOs understand what really matters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but are they willing to do it?
Speaker 1:that's a great question, and that's a great question as well to those leaders who are listening to us now and watching us. Are you willing to do something about it, even if you already know how important it is? Are you willing to invest into it?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean it. There's an old story about the hundredth monkey, I think. They fed yams to monkeys on islands near Japan and one day one of the monkeys washed. You know, they were just throwing them off on the sand. And one day one of the monkeys washed the potato off before he ate it. And it wasn't long before more and more monkeys were washing their potatoes before they ate it. And it wasn't long before more and more monkeys were washing their potatoes before they ate them. At some point, enough monkeys on that island were washing their potatoes.
Speaker 2:All of a sudden it becomes something that everybody does, and not only on that island but on all the other islands. They all immediately begin to shift over that mindset shifts. Rupert Sheldrake talked about this in his research years ago that if a scientist can crystallize a particular substance in the lab, that it becomes easier to crystallize anywhere in any lab throughout the world. And that's really. It's that same thing. If we can create enough conscious leaders, then all of a sudden, being a conscious leader will become the standard of leadership and that will change. Turn our organizations into really nurturing, supportive environments that are much more productive and much more profitable. Create a world that's much more conscious and caring because you're taking care of everybody. Everybody feels like they're a valuable part of something, everybody's contributing to something. And all of a sudden, when they go home, they aren't mad at their kids because they had a bad day, they aren't treating their spouse in some abusive way. They're coming home thrilled that they had a great day, feeling like they're part of a valued thing and treating their families in relationship to that. And all of a sudden, the kids are in a completely different experience. They're in a healed experience.
Speaker 2:I was talking to a client the other day and I'll see if this is relevant or not. We're big-minding this. He asked me do I have to heal everything? I said no, just the significant things. And he goes. Well, give me an example.
Speaker 2:And so I looked into my own life and I remember there was one day I was probably seven or eight years old, maybe that old. I used to mow our lawn and my dad was pretty anal, retentive about how he wanted the lawn mowed, and so I would mow it both directions and I'd trim the edges and everything. I'd do a great job. And you know, one day I was standing in the dining room window and there was windows on both sides and he pulls up in the car and he gets out of the car and he looks around angrily and then he immediately goes and gets the lawnmower and starts mowing the lawn.
Speaker 2:Well, that doesn't sound like a big deal, but to that little boy standing in the window all of a sudden I can't do anything. Good enough, I'm not enough. My dad doesn't love me and of course you know I don't know what to do with that. So I stuff it into that cave within me, then move on into my life, feeling unacceptable, feeling unloved, feeling everything's conditional. And you know so I had to, you know, in my healing process, go back and heal that situation, come to a place where, because I had a great dad, I really did. But come to a place where, because I had a great dad, I really did. But come to a place where I could understand, oh, he probably had a bad day at work and when he came home he needed to do something. I'm the same way. If I'm not, if I'm dealing with something, I love to go work in the yard while I'm you know, processing it or something you know.
Speaker 2:And it had nothing to do with me. He wasn't judging me, he just needed to get that energy out and to recognize that, oh, he was just. You know, he'd just come back from World War II, a few years earlier, and the trauma on the life-threatening situations that he was in on a regular basis for five years had to have a huge effect on him. And so you find yourself getting, you know, as you move through the anger, hurt, fear, shame and guilt move back into a place of understanding, a place of forgiveness, a place of compassion and appreciation, which allows you to move back into a place of love, and that's what heals each of those circumstances. So, as we heal those significant circumstances, primarily with our parents and significant others, that gives us a feeling of emotional connection. All of a sudden we begin to trust our emotion.
Speaker 2:You know, somebody was raised when I was, or at least in the family that I was raised in. Anger was not acceptable. Men weren't ever afraid. I don't even remember literally I don't remember being afraid as a child. I'm sure I was, but I wouldn't have looked at it or acknowledged it. So I had to learn to be able to handle my anger. I had to learn to acknowledge and express my fear in supportive ways so that I could be present and capable of relating with others and have loving relationships and raise my children in supportive ways. But that also allows me to, as a leader, to be compassionate and supportive of everybody working with me, and that creates that conscious and caring world that we were talking about.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing those beautiful examples. That's how it is, and it's really important to keep them in mind and think about it. Take some steps to look at what should be healed, what should be reviewed, and take care of it as well. Ron, what advice would you give to leaders who feel overwhelmed by technological changes but want to maintain a human-centered approach to growth?
Speaker 2:Go on that journey of discovering more about yourself so that you can handle all that rapid change and increased complexity. You know it's just upgrading. Everybody knows that you have to upgrade your computer from time to time. Well, you have to upgrade your brain, you have to upgrade your own life. You can't stay stuck in some limiting comfort zone that worked for you 10 years earlier or five years earlier or whatever. You have to be able to evolve and step up. If you don't want to be a leader, then you can get away with a lot more. If you want to be a leader, then lead and lead yourself. Be able to lead into and with all of the change that's going on. Embrace that, access all of who and what you are, rather than trying to stay and overwork your limited capabilities that you had developed so early in your life. You're so capable, you have so many abilities that you can access if you'd be willing to open up and find the humility to discover who you are and what you're capable of.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love it. Such a great advice In your experience. How does combining emotional intelligence and artificial intelligence technologies result in better decision-making and overall business success?
Speaker 2:Emotionally intelligent person is going to make all decisions with an awareness of others, of people and the relationship of the technology with people. So they're going to create technology and relationship to enhancing our lives, rather than disconnecting our lives more fully, as we see so often happening, so that emotional intelligence allows that personal connection to be integrated into and part of the development of everything that we're creating. If you have a higher vision, that you want to create a more conscious and caring world, then your technology is going to be moving you towards that, rather than if you're feeling disconnected within yourself, then you're creating technology that's reflective of that disconnection. So develop that connection within yourself.
Speaker 1:Brilliant.
Speaker 2:Living a work.
Speaker 1:That is spot on and actually you know a lot of people understand it. But just to have a kind reminder so that they start thinking about it once again, because there's so much going on and it is important to just wake up sometimes and lift up above the surface of all those problems, of all those situations and events and processes which are going on in our lives, and still think about what really matters and prioritize right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you have to have a higher vision, and that means you have to be more conscious, which means you have to heal.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Ron. What would you recommend to today's leaders to become more aware and succeed in life and, of course, in business?
Speaker 2:I think if they would really take the moment and breathe and really, what is your vision, what is your highest intention, what it is you want to create, and really look at not just the technology of it, but what's the result of that technology. How does it affect the human technology, how does it affect the human race? How does it affect the planet? How do we take better care of ourselves and the planet? How do we create a world that's always enhancing itself? If you recognize that vision, which I'm confident will be part of anybody's higher level vision, then you'll create from that. And then you look at, well, who do I need to be, who do I need to become so that I can create that? And that's when you go, oh okay, so I need to heal this, I need to do that, I need to learn about this, I need to practice that, I need to become more mindful, I need to create significant personal transformational experiences in my life to allow me to shift into a higher state of consciousness that I can easily live from and trust.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this and for all your wisdom and experience. I don't know what to say it's such a pleasure to have this conversation with you and having you in my studio today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Ron, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Digital Transformation and AI for Humans. I'm Amy and it was enriching to share this time with you. Remember, the core of any transformation lies in our human nature how we think, feel and connect with others. It is about enhancing our emotional intelligence, embracing a winning mindset and leading with empathy and insight. Subscribe and stay tuned for more episodes where we uncover the latest trends in digital business and explore the human side of technology and leadership. Until next time, keep nurturing your mind, fostering your connections and leading with heart.
