On Friday, September 8, we had a fascinating session by Gezim Gashi.
About Gezim Gashi
Gezim Gashi is an entrepreneur, storyteller, producer, mentor, speaker, educator, branding expert, and partner at the OCS Institute of Arts & Innovation in Los Angeles, California. He has worked with organizations such as the Walt Disney Company and Quincy Jones Productions. Originally from Kosovo, he grew up in Alvesta, Sweden, and currently shuttles between New York City and California.
The early days
Gezim Gashi was born in Pristina, Kosovo, in 1990. Just three days later, the parliament declared independence from Serbia, prompting a military invasion.
Serbian soldiers stormed the hospital newborn Gezim was staying in. There were rumours that a genocide was underway. His mother panicked when she learnt that soldiers were making their way towards their floor and had barricaded the hospital doors. She immediately called her husband and her brother to the hospital. She then tossed her newborn out of a second-floor window into the arms of her brother. After that, she escaped from the hospital to reunite with the family. Two years later, the family escaped to Sweden as refugees. Gezim came to know all about this only much later.
While in Sweden, Gezim found his calling: mentoring budding stars. That’s when he joined the Academy of Music and Business, helping launch new voices into the industry as a producer, mentor, and talent scout. In 2019, he moved to Los Angeles the city of his dreams to launch the Institute of Arts and Innovation at Oaks Christian School. He currently runs the department’s mentorship program.
Gezim wants to reinvent education. He believes that that the current school model and its form is outdated, the result of the standards set during the British Empire. To survive the highly digital age in which we live, the focus needs to be on why one chooses to study. He also feels that a much deeper knowledge of business, entrepreneurial skills and marketing is needed than what is being offered at most high schools today.
On Leadership qualities
Self-awareness
It is important to be aware of our strengths and weaknesses, beliefs, and values. We must keep asking ourselves: What do people say about us when we are not in the room?
Growth
Leaders enable the growth of others and themselves grow. One CEO grew his company for a few years. He then distanced himself from his employees. After a few years, growth stopped. The company does not exist anymore.
Setting an example
Leaders embody the standards they set for others. Through the choices they make and their actions, they emerge as role models. If they do not do things the right way, the result will be disrespect, disagreement, lack of loyalty and attrition. Leaders should not have one image in their day-to-day dealings inside the company and another image in social media.
Authenticity
Leaders should be honest, transparent, and genuine in their interactions. Leaders will have their good days and bad days. But if they have authentic conversations and relationships with their people, the worst days will feel like the greatest days.
Emotional intelligence
Leaders should be aware of their own emotions and control them. They should also understand the emotions of others.
Resilience
Resilience is needed to bounce back while facing setbacks. Leaders should also motivate their people to be resilient. Resilience is closely related to purpose. If we are doing something which is bigger than us, it is more likely that we will develop resilience. It is easier to develop resilience when we know why we are doing something.
Purpose
As already mentioned, when Gezim was born in Kosovo, a genocide was under way. His mother threw him out of the 2nd floor window of the hospital so that his uncle could grab him. That is how his life began. That is why he was named Gezim (Joy in Albanian). When he heard this story years later from his mother, Gezim knew there was a reason for his existence. Purpose has helped him to be resilient.
Courage
Leaders must take tough decisions and calculated risks amidst uncertainty. But if they have a purpose and the decision aligns with the purpose, it is easier to move forward. Purpose can also help a leader to understand whom to involve while taking tough decisions.
Adaptability
Flexibility and openness to change are important for leaders. It is adaptability which enabled Gezim to take his business online during Covid. Adapting to change is not difficult when we have a purpose. If we are clear about our purpose and our actions are aligned with the purpose, people will follow us.
Vision
Leaders should articulate a clear vision and ensure that people have a shared sense of purpose. If the leader is not a visionary, it will be difficult to tap into people’s potential and enable them to grow.
Empowerment
Leaders should empower their team members through delegation, trust, and effective communication.
Lifelong learning
Leaders should stay current with industry trends.
High ethical standards
Leaders should set a moral compass for themselves.
Work life balance
Especially in creative professions, work life balance is important. Working long hours doing routine work can drain people of creativity. Ultimately, it is not about how many hours we work but about how smart we work.
Community
Leaders must build a close-knit community. They must reduce the power distance and build strong relationships based on collaboration and trust. Large power distance means people will hesitate to open. So, it is important for leaders to be on the ground.
Continuous improvement
It so important to keep improving. Gezim gave the example of one of his leaders who makes it a point to visit other schools and institutes and learn something new. This leader has developed the art of thinking of the future in a positive way. His curiosity, energy, and commitment to improve are contagious.
Empathy
Leaders must support their people during tough times. When we know that the leader is having our back, trust increases.
Legacy
Leaders must leave behind a lasting impact. Consider Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea. He fostered a culture that continues even today. A leader’s actions should be guided by a strong desire to ensure that the work continues even after he is gone.
Concluding remarks
Leaders need many skills to be effective: purpose, authenticity, empathy, shared vision, work life balance, continuous improvement, etc. Leadership is not about achieving business goals or giving instructions to people. It is about inspiring people with a shared propose and constantly reminding them that they are doing something bigger than themselves.
Q&A
When Gezim arrived in Los Angles (LA), he found it difficult to connect to people. It was a big city. The people were not authentic. Their aim was limited: to be rich and famous. Once Gezim went to an event and shared his frustration with someone. Later, he realized that it was the son of celebrity Quincy Jones. Gezim made it clear he was not liking LA. It was all about who you knew. It was fake behaviour. But Quincy Jones’ son told Gezim something that made a long lasting impact: it is not about who you know but about how you know. That is how Gezim understood the art of building authentic relationships. Now Gezim can connect with people in different countries far more easily.
As Head of marketing at a music school in Sweden, Gezim felt he had to have an answer to every question. A woman leader on the board pointed out to him that leaders sometimes do not have the answer. Since then, Gezim has become more comfortable with admitting that he does not have the answer. Even when he has the answer, he finds it useful to ask questions to get the perspectives of others. Traveling and asking people questions can help us gain broader perspectives. There is no need to be a superhero. We can be vulnerable and look around for answers.
Once when Gezim was going through a period of stress, he encountered a homeless person. He told Gezim that he had dropped something: his smile! That had a big impact on Gezim’s thinking. We need not be in control of everything. Things will go wrong from time to time. But we do not need to blame ourselves for that. We can stay calm and optimistic.
Being a former refugee, Gezim does feel from time to time that he might lose everything. He is doing quite well and yet that feeling has not gone away completely. He tries to stay focused and work hard but doubts about losing it keep coming back from time to time.
Gezim feels that when we have good moments, we must be prepared for bad moments. And when we have bad moments, we must look for ways to makes ourselves feel better such as by going for a walk or by listening to music. One advantage he has is his exposure to three cultures: Albanian, Swedish, and American. This enables him to see things from different perspectives. That is why he encourages his American students to learn at last one more language.
Each of us must find our own way to deal with these mental challenges. What people proclaim on social media may not work for us. Social media is harmful that way. When we try out a prescription and it does not work, we start blaming ourselves and think that we cannot become successful.
One point which Gezim emphasised is that we should never mix “I am feeling bad’ with ‘I am bad”. The feeling is a temporary phase. It does not define us. We should take all the positive things as our personal traits and consider the bad things as a temporary phase which will go away soon. The words we chose when we describe failure are important. Failures are temporary.
Everything happens for a reason and we should not blame ourselves. But we could also be the drivers. Sometimes we may be using wrong drivers. Then we should take corrective action.
Talking about failures, Gezim used a powerful metaphor. When we knock on a door and it does not open, we should quickly realize that we are knocking on the wrong door. Sometimes, we must create our own door. The great thing about our own door is that we have the keys and can pass them on to others. If we just hold on to the keys, it does not help.
In his book, Gezim shares his inspiring journey from escaping the Kosovo genocide to his remarkable success as an entrepreneur, producer, and mentor. Through his life story, he encourages readers to embark on a similar path of self-discovery and personal growth. The book provides various tools on how to build our narrative. It provides various assignments that will enable reflection.
Gezim emphasizes that we should unlock our own true potential by reflecting on our own life story. He has provided practical tips and simple exercises in his book to guide the readers in uncovering their authentic selves.
Gezim used the example of Quincy Jones to explain how we must build an enduring and credible reputation. Today, he is 90 years old and considered a legend among legends. His authentic style has helped.
If we build a credible reputation, people will be around us. They will ensure that we leave behind a legacy. We must pursue an idea bigger than us and find a set of people who share our purpose. This along with an authentic style of engagement will ensure that we build our legacy.
Gimmicks such as making posts on social media to mobilize followers are not sustainable. People will see through the game.
In short, we must create an environment that attracts people to us and inspires them to carry on doing this work even after we are gone.
Once Gezim attended a baking class without being sure of why he was doing so. He ended up learning a few things and picking up some good insights. In short, we should take ourselves out of our comfort zones and exposé ourselves to unexpected and unfamiliar situations. We should also have conversations with others and ask a lot of questions. We should try to understand the problems of others. For Gezim, it also helps to go for a walk and listen to music.
Alignment with purpose is the key here. We can take risk if we are aligned with the purpose. All the decisions we take may not be right. Indeed, it is difficult to judge whether a decision is good or not when it is taken. But if we are aligned with our purpose, even if the decision turns out to be wrong, we will find it easier to take corrective action.
We should listen carefully and try to understand what others are saying. We should not shut down people down with statements such as: “We don’t do it here.” We should show empathy and look at things from the perspective of others. While there is a lot of noise in the social media, we should track what young people are saying in such media. That will help us to understand the trends and adapt suitably. Gezim follows this practice.
Again, the key is to find our purpose. Once we figure out our purpose, we will figure out ways of getting there. One of the ways could be entrepreneurship. It is difficult to be a good entrepreneur if we only think of fame and money. There should be something bigger than us. We must be solving some important problem. Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify felt that the music industry was forcing people to listen to certain types of music. He wanted to find a way of enabling people to choose the music they wanted to hear. That is how Spotify became incredibly successful.