IAM1605 – Coach Helps Organizations in Business Transformation and Strategic Innovation

Albana Vrioni Teaser 0:00
Coaching is not about expertise in a function or in an industry, not at all. It's about the quality of self-mastery and sound mastery of the dynamics that influence the quality of human relationships at different levels. And this is where I offer reliable service to my clients across, industries and functions.

Intro  0:22
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you.
Precisely the information you are in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:51
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Albana Vrioni of generative intelligent coaching. Albana, great to have you on the show.

Albana Vrioni 1:03
Thank you so much for hosting me, Gresh. I am pleased and honored to be with you and your audience.

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Gresham Harkless 1:10
Yes, absolutely. The pleasure is all ours and I love all the awesome things that you're doing and before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Albana so you can hear about some of the awesome things that she's working on. Albana is a senior business manager and change leader, executive and business coach, author, speaker and trainer, specializing in business transformation, strategic business innovation, and organizational development. Albana coaches and advises, business leaders worldwide on generative leadership in business innovations, supporting them re-imagining the future and see beyond what's obvious and develop visionary thinking of infinite possibilities, shifting to a new state of mind and energy.
She has over 20 years of experience in architecting and delivering business transformation for international businesses, European institutions and agencies. Albana has served on various business functions like IT, BPM and automation, managed security services, HR and organizational development, supply chain management, business development, and new product development.
She believes that business leaders hold the potential of changing the game of their business in the story of their lives, and has made it her mission to support them to thrive in shaping the future. Albana, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community?

Albana Vrioni 2:27
Thank you so much. Well, I'm very excited about the conversation.

Gresham Harkless 2:33
Yes, absolutely. I am too. And I love everything you're doing. I'm like super charged up by just, hearing and reading your bio and hearing about all the awesome things. So I guess before we jump into what you do, I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Albana Vrioni 2:49
Yeah. That's an interesting reflection that I had on that, question. My entire career is an exciting pursuit spark by the opportunity to work with key leaders during the systemic changes in the early nineties in Europe. It was a period of the collapse of the Eastern block and emergence of new democracies.
And, you know, since then, enabling the success of undertakings that connect, that aspire and create narrative growth. That has been my passion. It's been my journey and my life's work. I grew up as a kid, encouraged to be curious and to question the status quo and to look for better alternatives.
And this is what I still do today. I accompany my clients in being game changers and thriving in disruption, and creating prosperity. So as you, introduced me, it's true that over these 35 years of professional experience, I've delivered more than 35 critical projects ranging from 50K to 50 million euros.
I've developed as a business transformation leader and changed strategies, partnering with leaders and teams who want to excel in business transformation and achieve their next-level success. And in all that, I have had, experiences of bad failures as well as those, experiences of projects that have been outstanding and had growth like 300% Euro.
And, you'll see with all that background, what brought me into creating my own business. Actually, since early in my career, I showed big interests on conscious leadership practices. I lost my brother in the big social unrest, created novania in 97, from irresponsible leadership and governors. And so I had a first hand experience on the desperate need for, a leadership model that was driven by the long term, by thinking sustainability and interconnectedness. So thinking systemic impact, and so that was the first drive of, searching for something that went beyond of what I did within the organization that I was employed. And I did have great opportunities as an employer, and what we see is that people do not quit their companies, they quit their bosses.
And I feel this was clearly my case in my last employment underlying this, was a conflict between what I wanted to realize and how I perceived it was possible within the boundaries of my organization and my role. So there was a clear misfit that I was feeling and I felt that what I wanted to bring to the world required working from an independent role.
So that is what triggered me to say, Hey, it's time for me, to move on and be my own CEO. And that was a moment of deep reflection for me, exploring a world of knowledge and wisdom. That was not yet in the repertoire of my employers at that time. So I learned with love and soul to what intrigued me intellectually and still have a viable business.
And deep down, I knew that working out of love would pay off. Also, through experience that I had within my organizations, I had well understood that from those experiences, business leaders need to constantly develop capacities that keep them on course, that keep them on the top of their game. Yes, grading their technical and strategic skills, but mainly developing their capacity for mindset shift. For envisaging the future and the roadmap we're getting there for committing oneself, engaging others into realizing that future, developing a capacity for influencing real estate beyond authority and creating strategically alignment in the large net of stakeholder interests. And that was something that deeply interested me. And I felt, I had it in me and I felt I could best deliver that on my own terms. Again, being my own CEO and here I am.

Gresham Harkless 8:05
Absolutely. So I, know you touched a little bit upon how you work with and how you serve your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like and how you're making the impact for the clients that you work with?

Albana Vrioni 8:15
Yeah, absolutely. So, our activity focuses on advising leaders and organizations who want to succeed in what I call leading transformational change. Leaders and organizations who want to succeed in transforming a persisting or a disruptive challenge, and sometimes in transforming an idea or a dream into an innovative project, that transformational change. This activity can be in context of; Organizations business performance improvement or what we recently so much talks about digital transformation, knowing that in each of those cases, there is a need for cultural change and the team and or at a larger level. And, so we work with sales to marketing, with procurement teams, with HR teams and with IT teams.
My direct involvement with the clients is done mostly through advising and coaching, but sometimes also engaging hands on. As I said, side by side to make it happen. I love putting skin on the game and I tend to pursue client work where we grow both sides. It's important for me that the client grows through our work, but it's also important for me to grow through my clients.
Coaching is not about expertise in a function or in an industry, not at all. It's about the quality of self mastery and sound mastery of the dynamics that influence the quality of human relationships at different levels and this is where I offer reliable service to my clients across industries and functions.

Gresh 10:11
Nice.

Albana Vrioni 10:12
I don't know if that makes sense.

Gresham Harkless 10:13
That makes perfect sense. What would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce, and that can be the thing for yourself, the business, or a combination. But do you feel like that conscious leadership sets you apart and makes you unique?

Albana Vrioni 10:26
Yeah, that's it. There's of course that focus on conscious leadership and being a conscious leader and going in the direction of being innovative and being genuine, and going towards solutions. But what is also unique on what I do is that focus of my work and next is how I do that. I build that expertise on coaching and mentoring and advisory. And when I work with a client, I don't offer them either advise or coaching or mentoring. I go for an integrated development offering to the client, whatever the client needs to get to the next level of greatness.
And so, I guess, what I stand for is developing and working with a whole leader. And so adoption of narrative change, which is, the core of my process is still in its infancy and, especially in the corporate world. And, we believe we we're two partners in the organizations and, we believe to be pioneers in bringing to narrative intelligence and, narrative leadership or conscious leadership in the service of leaders who want to make a difference and, thrive, on disruption. One person, one team, one organization at a time. I guess that's a differentiator of mine. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 12:09
Awesome. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Albana Vrioni 12:22
I love reading poems and, there are, quite a few selection of poems that brighten up my day. . But on top of that,  depending on where I feel the need at a certain moment to resource, my thinking, my creativity, my energy, I would go into, different styles of, books. For example, I remember that, on tough conversations, especially with clients who are going through tough times, I found, the art of power, that gives a whole story of Thomas Jefferson, very resourcing, and in other times talking with clients who are going through difficulties on their, let's say scaling of their idea. What helps me is what I call my 15 minutes of time with myself every evening and noting what I am grateful for the day.

Gresham Harkless 13:37
Nice. I I love each of those hacks. What would you consider to be, what I like to call a CEO nugget? This is a little bit more word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, or if you hopped to a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Albana Vrioni 13:54
I think that, in that role, there are two important words coming together today. Chief Executive and Chief Energy Officer, you know, it's a role that that gets together, the executive and the energy working with each other in tandem, and in harmony. Without that tandem and harmony of executive and the energy officer, it's not going to to work, it's not going to be sustainable. So, there is one thing that I wanna leave with my, my colleagues, with  my peers, with my clients, put together in whatever, what you are doing, the element of managing and executing your strategy, uh, but also of managing, executing any and, and enriching your energy.
One cannot take you too long without the other. Awesome. And, is that a little bit on how you would define,  being a CEO, our goal is to hopefully have different quote and quote CEOs on this show. So Albana, is that what being a CEO means to you? Is it that chief energy officer, the chief executive officer, and combining those two things together?

Albana Vrioni 15:13
Yeah, that is part of it definitely.

Gresham Harkless 15:16
Awesome. Albana, I truly appreciate that definition, and of course I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know, and of course, how best people can get hold of you, but about all the awesome things you were working on.

Albana Vrioni 15:33
I've got a website, which, has got quite some, wealth of information in there. So generativeintelligence.eu. I am reachable on LinkedIn and of course I'm reachable, via email. Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 15:50
Awesome. Well, to make that even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. I, appreciate your time today.

Albana Vrioni 15:58
Well, it has been a total honor and pleasure to, have shared the mic with you Gresh And, I wish you the best of luck on, realizing your mission of, bringing and separating and distributing the knowledge to your wonderful audience.

Outro  16:17
Thank you for listening to the I am CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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