And now our guest is a globally acclaimed leadership expert and speaker.

This is well known in the corporate world for her ability to spark transformational change by equipping leaders and teams with the skills, thinking and behaviors necessary to step up to the next level.

Payal, welcome to Business Life 360.

It is so fabulous to have you here.

Payal Nanjiani: Thank you so much, Kristie.

It's an honor to be here on your show.

Kristi K: Well, listen, you have been a leader in the international executive leadership world for a long time.

And I really want to talk to you about the term leadership.

It has certainly changed through the decades.

And as we look at our world today and corporate leadership, how would you, as an expert in the field and a corporate coach, define today's definition of leadership?

It's really evolved.

Payal Nanjiani: That's true, Kristie.

Our leadership has evolved in the coming years.

In fact, in a nowadays, I tell people that when you are thinking of leadership, you need to think of building more leaders.

You know, it's a mindset you have to cultivate.

In my definition, everybody is a leader.

I have never looked at leadership or thought leadership from an angle of position and diaper.

I always believe that wherever you are, you know, I have seen CEOs not showing great leadership and I have seen janitors showing great leadership.

So leadership actually begins where you are.

It's a mindset that you are doing.

And the more complex our business world is getting, the more imperative it is that we business leaders across all levels in the organization without determining what their, you know, position or title is.

Kristi K: I really love that.

I love the fact that you don't label somebody as a leader or not a leader.

I believe the same thing that is in within each of us to be a leader.

And sometimes it just takes that right.

Boss, that right environment, that right organization that we're associated with to really bring it out.

So you and I have talked I know I've been on your podcast and we've discussed the ability to bring leadership skills out from within and really starting with leadership from the inside out.

So tell us more, Payal, about how you recommend we can start to really find those seeds within and bring them out and become the best leaders we can be.

Payal Nanjiani: Absolutely.

And having you on the podcast was amazing.

You know, all our listeners really benefited so much from what you had to say.

So I have introduced one term in a concept in the corporate world.

It is called inner leadership.

Okay, Now what, what, what I am seeing is that it is only during difficult times that people come to understand how difficult it is to manage that process and their feelings and all the times that are conflicts.

You know, you have a lot of work to do as a leader as you're signing up for conflict or signing up for fresh roles and tight budget and a lot of obstacles and challenges, if you are not able to train your mind to be strong, then your emotions, it's going to overcome you.

Are you going to lose every time?

So, you know, leadership, you know, all life is said inside out.

So we told me that in leadership, these are some contingencies.

I believe everybody, everyone from the time you have actually started the work, in fact, even before you should begin to train your mind into it, you should be able to change your, you know, work on three elements like that or reason Number one is you should be able to lead yourself very effectively before you meet others.

Number two, you should be able to you should be able to manage your thought process and leverage it to your advantage.

And number three, you must be able to bring about quick changes in your behavior patterns because in the complexity of the of the business world, we are nothing is certain.

We had the pandemic today.

You know, we have evolved industries have evolved, the businesses have evolved from the industrial age to the technology age, with so much of quick changes that are happening.

If you are not able to align these three elements of your inner leadership, it's going to overwhelm you and you're going to be reaching a growth plateau very soon in your.

Kristi K: You know, pile.

Sometimes you refer to it as the term winning in leadership.

And I really like that because it's developing that mindset, as you just stated, of being a winner, of really stepping up to meet your goals and exceed your goals.

So if we have done some of those steps that you just mentioned, how do we begin to assimilate and really act upon that winning mindset?

Payal Nanjiani: Oh, that's a wonderful question, Krista.

In fact, of my latest recent book is titled As Winning the Leadership Game Every Time.

Kristi K: I love it.

It's great to wait to read it.

Payal Nanjiani: Yeah, I will send you a copy of that.

And it's been released last year, almost end of last year.

But like you said, using these three.

So what happens is when you align these three elements, you will notice that in every company and every organization in the world at large, there are always three types of people.

First, that are people who are survivors.

You know, they they do everything to survive layoffs, to keep their jobs, to keep getting paid, you know, So they want to survive everything that's going around.

And then we have another set of people who are called, you know, people who thrive you.

We have a lot of people who thrive.

They are doing good.

They are growing.

You know, the they are they are doing a fantastic job.

Their jobs are going well.

They have reached a certain level in the organization or in their career.

And then we have at the top of the pyramid, which I call as winner now a winning.

You know, a person who has a winning mindset knows how to stand out in a noisy parking, but they know exactly how to evolve, how to be relentless, how to be unstoppable.

I'm happy to be, Christi.

These are qualities that are beyond the traditional leadership qualities that everybody talks about, you know, decision making, conflict management, managing your stakeholders, communication, what it's a given that you have to know all these things if you want to succeed.

What if you really want to bring the game?

Then you have to have qualities of resilience, of being unstoppable, of having in a focused attention of being relentless in the team.

You just can't sit back and say, Oh, I've done this, you know, and now I'm going to celebrate and I'm going to stop no winners when I just want to move on to know exactly how to keep holding on.

Kristi K: And to your point, too, I do feel like there's always someone who has a stronger work ethic or a little bit more drive than the next person.

So it is really important to show up with that solid work ethic and that mindset of wanting to win.

So that's such a great point.

Hi, Nancy.

Amy, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your leadership expertise with us.

Payal Nanjiani: Thank you so much.

Posted.

It's really an honor to be with you here.

Kristi K: Thank you so much.

And now let's head out on location to continue our leadership dialog