Lenin Oyuga, Head Telco Commercial & Partnerships, MEA at Mastercard - Navigating Change and Innovation

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Hi! I'm Shannon, Lucas.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And I'm Tracy Lovejoy. We're the Co. Ceos of Catalyst constellations which is dedicated to empowering catalyst to create bold oracle change in the world.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: This is our podcast move, fast, break, shit burnout. Where we speak with catalyst executives about ways to successfully lead transformation in large organizations.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Today I'm super excited to have with us Lennon Oyuga. He joined Mastercard in 2023 as head of the Telco digital partnerships me a to lead the Telco digital partnership segment in in this role he's responsible for overseeing mastercard's investments in the Telco state space setting sales strategies and engaging with c-level stakeholders to focus in creating sustainable competitive differentiation

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: mastercard and its customers. Lennon is a technology strategy and business executive with a passion for leading organizations and innovations, making ever-changing technology relevant, and he likes to use his positions for jurisdiction to influence actual policies and consequently embrace much needed change in the world. He's led multiple industry applications and his generalization of

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: understanding business processes has driven him to work across continents and various industries where technologies applied, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It's so great to have you here, Lennon.

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Lenin: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be on board.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And also I should just call out, you have 2, at least 2 experiences doing some really important nonprofit work. You want to throw those into your background. Story. There.

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Lenin: Yeah, absolutely absolutely absolutely. So one of one of the one of the ones I'll start with is the we are family foundation where I was involved as a global mentor. So we are, family foundation is better visible. New York. And what it does it picks out.

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Lenin: You know, candidates are stand out across, you know, different global universities and help them, you know, get into the job space, not just by employment, but also by them building their own, you know, companies and organizations. So in this I got to mentor, you know, people in Brazil, people in Africa, people in Europe. You know, young individuals who are building businesses, and I can confidently say these are catalysts who are shipping the world in very different ways and forms. So that's one of the organizations are involved with

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Lenin: the other. One was a young African leadership initiative, which was something formed by Barack Obama in his presidency, covering East Africa, and pretty much looking at nurturing young talent into the job space you know, coming into a job with a plan, and figuring out what this plan is, so that at the end of the day you don't just take the the staircase upwards.

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Lenin: but sometimes you can take the escalator to, you know, scale a couple of flows up. So that was pretty much my role in in. Also that that setup something that I did for about 4 years.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing. I just I mean, like the impact that you've had. I couldn't let that piece go, and said, and then, as we were getting to talk you is also like it may be my best job so far, has been as a father so wanted to throw that out there, too.

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Lenin: Yes, you know what I usually say. My my biggest career achievement is, is is being a dad of 2 boys, you know 8, and you know, one year, 8 months and I believe, the sense of fulfillment and purpose that that that brings is pretty much what fuels my engine as a catalyst in everything that I do out here.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: 100%. Thank you for sharing. Alright. So let's jump in. Tell us how you relate to the concept of catalyst, and maybe what that's meant for you and your various leadership roles.

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Lenin: Yeah. So I I I believe that a catalyst is defined by a you know, a relentless, curious nature, you know, and and this quest, for, you know, driving a progressive or even a drastic change in seeing things that people sometimes don't even see. And what I mean by this is a a catalyst, someone who's willing to be indifferent either in the thought process, in going against the green and even defining a new path where there's there's no path.

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Lenin: And you know catalysts are always defined by, you know, quickly learning and unlearning stuff in their different organization. And and I must say sometimes it's it's a very lonely place, because if you are going against the green and everybody's going in a separate direction, you always find yourself, you know, trying to look around, you know who's with me in this particular journey. That's why I think it's very important to to make sure you you know, tag along others, or carry along other people who can share in your thinking as a catalyst.

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Lenin: because in defining new paths, in defining new roads, in thinking differently. That's where we're able to unpack new opportunities or even accelerate existing opportunities. So where I relate to the catalyst is pretty much, you know, being in different, in thinking and putting that into action.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: So powerful. I'm wondering that sense, the felt sense as I heard you talk about it about like you're going that way, and everyone else is going this way. How do you maintain your energy when you're in systems where that's happening.

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Lenin: So. So I think I think, as as being in being a catalyst you. First of all, it's you must be very in touch with yourself in terms of pissing yourself sometimes because most of the times we seek perfection. But you know a good number of times. Sometimes progress is better than perfection. But that's just one thing, and the other bit is as long as you're a better version of yourself today. Let you are yesterday. That indeed, in itself is progress, and it's a way to recharge your batteries.

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Lenin: But, most importantly is, you should always be ready to raise up your hand because no man, a woman is an island, and you know we are product of learning and being helped by others.

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Lenin: Always say sometimes V yourself as a company, and every company has different divisions that make it work. There's a Hr. There's a commercial, there's strategy, you know. There's technical

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Lenin: and just like, you know, a a catalyst out here. You must also look at yourself, at you know what are your strengths and where? What is missing in your grand scheme of things you know, as a board. And what do you do about it?

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Lenin: And you know those are the pockets where you get your batteries charged back, and you get to, you know. Get those points of reflection, and you're able to, you know. Be very in touch with you know what you're trying to drive, because most often than not we can always get lost in, you know, our quest for success or our quest of going against the green. If nobody's tapping us on our shoulders and telling us either you're doing a good job, or you need to pace yourself.

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Lenin: or you need to feel first, then we get lost in, you know this this journey, and we're like, you know, Hamstone, a trade well on on a, on a trade mill just running around and round. So you end up jogging on the spot. Yes, you've worked out. But have you covered.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: But decent.

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Lenin: Yes. Well, probably not. Yeah.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I love it. And yeah, that sense of having people around you who can both like give you celebrate the progress that you've made, but also the reminder like, Hey, maybe you need to take a long weekend or go do whatever it is that recharges you is super powerful. Thanks.

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Lenin: Yeah, that's that's that's great.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Taken this, and I would love to to continue down in this area. You have done lots of jobs where you've been catalyzing and transforming in a variety of spaces, and would love to hear one or 2 of the major challenges you have faced as a catalyst executive in being able to drive transformation.

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Lenin: So so 1 one of the biggest challenges I've faced, you know, in being a catalyst is at some point I was working for an organization that was going through

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Lenin: a merge and acquisition.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Hmm.

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Lenin: And prior to this there was a lot of, you know, changes that have happened into the organization.

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Lenin: So the team in itself are facing, you know

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Lenin: what we call a ban out in terms of you know, change management, which resulted into apathy and frustration.

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Lenin: and this at at some point always lowers the employee engagement and productivity. So one of the biggest challenges I I faced is, first of all, how do you still steer a ship and you know, you know, make sure you recharge yourself, and everybody's looking you know, to you for for direction, and sometimes you don't even have the direction. All you have is faith and hope.

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Lenin: That you know. At the end of the day all of us are going to reach to the finish line everybody with change you know, are worrying about their jobs and what's going to happen to them. So one of the things I I I struggled within that particular period of time is how to taste, iterate and adapt to the new change.

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Lenin: And you know, assure the team that this change is good much as you know, it's going to affect the entire organization. Now, that was a challenging task. Especially in, you know, learning as a catalyst being able to go back and making sure that you know I'm not carrying too much weight on my back to break the buck itself but I'm cutting weight, and I'm constantly putting it down to make sure. You know, I regain the strength to carry the weight back on my back to steer the team.

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Lenin: So that was a very difficult you know, moment, for for you know, for me to kind of like be a catalyst and drive change. The other challenge I faced. You know, as as a catalyst leader is

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Lenin: more often than not, you know, when you're catalyst and you're driving, you know, such change in an organization you, you always get to tend to lose yourself, and if you don't have people around you will remind you of your value system. You know what you stand for.

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Lenin: Why are you actually there as a leader?

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Lenin: kind of like gives you, you know, a major setback. So it took me a lot of learning to understand that you know what I need to also tap into the people around me who'll be able to fast, reach out me and to remind me why I'm there to be able to, you know, drive this particular change, so that margin acquisition was a difficult one. Another one in in the catalyst journey was when I was trying to move from

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Lenin: a a technical role into a fully commercial role. It was a very challenging journey, and I'm sure you can relate, cause everybody who sees you trying to do a commercial role sees the technical bit of you and disqualifies you from the role. So I had to learn to take a lot of nose

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Lenin: had to kind of like, grow a thick skin and get a point of by. I'm looking at it. As I have nothing to lose. The worst I will get is a no pick myself up, and you know, go until I get that single. Yes.

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Lenin: and the moment I got a yes, is the moment also, the career took a drastic, positive time cause I was able to have a technical track and a commercial track and put them all into one as someone who's offering that to the market. So a lot of resilience was built in this.

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Lenin: But you know, it took, you know, a a lot of punches. Sometimes you're dancing in the ropes, but you don't know but you always have to get yourself back in the arena. As long as you know the arena is right in front of you. You get back from the ropes, and you know you keep you keep fighting until you get there.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): I love every single one of these. I'm gonna go back to the to the first one, because this is a deep curiosity and something that I talked about with clients and coaching a lot. So you you talked about the team is burned out. How do you steer the ship when you may not even have a direction.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): How does one steer the ship when you know the organization's in the middle of transformation, and no strategy has emerged. Yet we know we need to stop doing what we're doing.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): What should we do? What best practices have you learned? How do you keep a team engaged and motivated like. How should they fill their time?

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): What have you.

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Lenin: So. So what I've learned, you know, in in that particular journey is always remember the purpose, and and I think the purpose never fades out, even when direction is is being blown left and right by the wind, and constantly reminding the team that you know this is why we're here, and this is what we are still trying to achieve is one part. The other bit is also, you know, you know, working with the people and leaning on them to tell them that you know what at the end of the day we are 14 mountains to climb. Let's climb one mountain at the time.

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Lenin: you know. We'll we'll get to where we need to do with the changes and everything. But let's let's focus on you know, crossing one finish line at at a single time before we get to the rest, and it's more like at the end of the day. I keep saying this you can only join the dots backwards.

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Lenin: and reminding the people that at the end of the day, once we get to the finish line, every step will make sense, however painful, however easy the process is, and with that, you know, able to get the team to focus on what we can be able to do within our control.

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Lenin: And sometimes a gravity situation is a gravity situation. So you still focus on your job. If you are to deliver sales, numbers focus on grinding on the sales numbers. If the organization changes Logos tomorrow you might get a bigger portfolio or not.

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Lenin: and when you get it, or when you don't get it. Sometimes, when you fail, you need to learn to fail first and fail forward, and when you get a bigger portfolio you need to know now when to raise your hand, and, you know, get further help to see how to drive that. So that kept the the the. You know, the light burning in the team in terms of you know what we have this already on our table. So let's let's let's have a very lasers focused approach to this. But let's remember why we are here. Because I I'll believe if if the Y is missing, then

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Lenin: you know th there's no fuel in the tank to to even get the car moving, much as we don't know you know, without a compass whether this guy is gonna go straight or we going to take the first time that we find.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Yeah, as a leader did the elements of, you know. In your third challenge you mentioned the necessary resilience of shifting tracks, or when Shannon asked you about maintaining energy right? The need to, you know, kind of put the backpack down. How did that at all, if at all, figure into what you would bring to your teams.

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Lenin: Yeah. So at the end of the day, every time I'll put the back back down, and you know, put it back up what? What I essentially did was I? I would also lean on people.

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Lenin: I would also have you know, a support structure. And this is what I I was referring to as a personal board of directors. So you know, in the, in the personal board of directors, like what I have for myself. I have my y, which is which is the family bit, and my dad actually sits on that personal board of directors. He thinks it's an Overkill when I show him.

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Lenin: I have someone who helps me with thinking through commercial and then strategy, I have someone who helps me think through numbers.

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Lenin: I have someone who helps me think through people and purpose, and also branding. So at the end of the day we every time I put my back back down. You know my batteries are empty, and I lean on this team to also help me think through. And sometimes it's perspective.

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Lenin: Sometimes it's challenge, sometimes is literally refilling your batteries with encouragement, and reminding you why you are in that particular seat, why, you actually leading this particular team, and that sometimes is enough to take me back to carry the backpack until you know the entire team that you know. Let's keep moving.

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Lenin: We have enough energy to cover, you know, the next 1,000 miles, or something like that.

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Lenin: So that really helped me to, you know. Come back and still carry the backpack, however heavy, got through through that particular journey, and change.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I love all of this so much. The purpose on the corporate team and personal level is so energy giving and can be a Standalone, North Star. Also, we can't do it alone in any of those contexts.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: And then having the well, and so the personal board of directors there, but also like that, like the intentional pause coming back to the intentional pause. It's an amazing triumvirate going back to your the challenges when you were in the organization like, I love the skills and the tools that you were able to bring to the table if we gave you a magic wand, are there things that you would have loved to have had sort of more organization

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: support for you as a catalyst leader to navigate some of those tougher times.

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Lenin: Yes, absolutely especially, you know, when you're going through the merge and acquisitions. I I would have loved to have, you know, a more autonomy in terms of decision making on where we're going. I think it will have given me a better compass in telling the team, much as we can see the notes. But at least it's in this direction, so that that is something I would have. I would have loved.

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Lenin: I would have loved the team to get exposure in terms of you know, if the organization they're gonna had actually gone through a couple of mergers and acquisitions for them to learn how it was done before rather than you know. Just being, you know, Greenfield, and facing it for the first time. I would have loved for that to happen. I would also love for the you know, the the teams a. A and the people to, you know.

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Lenin: Get, you know the sense of encouragement all the way through to the corporate. Much as you know, we are doing it as a regional leadership team. Sometimes, you know, connecting with the purpose, with the the tone, and everything goes all the way to the top, and every time they get, you know in touch, or even see

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Lenin: the conversation happening, you know, from the top of the mountain it becomes very relatable, cause you can see a fellow human being like you sitting right at the top of the mountain telling you that this is challenging. But we're gonna get there, or you know you're walking up to me. I'm sitting right at the top of the mountain. So let's just keep going. Those will have pretty much, you know, positively driven

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Lenin: you know, myself and team to action, and maybe I will have made the backpack a little bit lighter. If

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Lenin: every time I would try to lift it, cause someone else will be lifting it with me. But I think sometimes it's you know. The the crown is a heaviest for the one who wears it. So sometimes it comes with, you know, that sense of responsibility and calling. So the backpack, our save. As it is, you are the leader. You are in the arena. Carry that back.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I love that the autonomy, which is such a catch, 22 for catalyst, will be handed big projects like an MAM. And a or some kind of change initiative, and they're like, Go do it go sorted out, and then you find the hidden guard rails that nobody nobody told you at the beginning, which can be really tough to navigate. What I I loved to the the the ask sort of for like don't make us learn

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: this on our own the first time, like, clearly, someone else has done this. And we're game for the challenge. I'm gonna go back to something you said earlier, too. The role of a catalyst is about learning and unlearning, which is true in an M. And a particularly cause. There's lots of cultural nuances that are gonna go on there. And then the final piece is that encouragement which we know, like a the catalyst will see the first

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: top of the foothill and think it's the mountain top, and think we can never do it, and then we'll get there, and we'll have crushed it only to see what we think is the next big peak. And so, taking that moment to be like, you're at the top where you didn't think you could get, and let's celebrate before we go or conquer the next mountain. I just. I'm wondering if you have any tactical advice for that middle one, though, cause it's we don't always stop. I haven't, anyway, always stopped and said.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Is there anyone in the organization or in my network who can come in on this specific business challenge that just has the learned experience. I don't mean, like technical, know how necessarily, but like how to navigate this kind of a systems change. How? How would you think about asking for that.

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Lenin: I think I think you know, in in in clarifying an ask like that, first of all, is is to simplify the problem, and I think aware, is coming. Really, really handy is, you know, we go against the green, we think in different

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Lenin: and in that same strength we can actually simplify the problem statement into what what we are trying to achieve or or pretty much get to. And you know, breaking it down into chunks. Make makes it easy to consume. And you know, having, you know, smaller chunks makes it easier to

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Lenin: to define and know actually what challenge or problem we're dealing with, perhaps in an M and a situation maybe documentation could could be a challenge.

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Lenin: Maybe learning from a different you know, history of of the aim. And it could be another challenge that we need help. Perhaps the teams just need to be trained on. You know what happens when an organization changes logo and everything and structure from 1 point to another.

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Lenin: And you know, simplifying and making the problem statement. For lack of a better time, more edible.

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Lenin: Makes easier to raise their hand and say, I need help in these 4 areas.

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Lenin: And as a catalyst, you know, leaning on people to even achieve this really really helps because we define the problems, we make it simpler. But now, looking across the teams would find people who will be easily clutch onto the different

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Lenin: problems, with perhaps to even simplify them further, or even, you know, help us define it further, in terms of clarifying the ask. We're trying to take upwards A, and with that, you know, we become better at seeking help in in what we're trying to achieve in a very complex or metric situation, that we might be sitting on as catalyst leaders.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: I think that's really smart, and catalysts aren't always good at. We'll see the big picture. We'll have a intuitive sense, and maybe we can even articulate the vision of what that M and A might look like, but breaking down those component parts about how we're gonna get there. And then, being like, do we have the capacity or you know, skill set internally, and then having the ability to clearly ask is super helpful and helps us bring a bunch of people along on the journey with us.

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Lenin: Yeah.

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Lenin: yeah, that's true.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Conversation. We're talking about identifying people right, that either support us in our personal journey or supporting a particular project or change that we're driving toward. I'm wondering if identifying other catalysts has ever been useful to you. If it's even something that you kind of thought about as you were creating change in organizational environment.

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Lenin: Yeah, absolutely. And and you see in it identifying other customers, you, you actually find something that's very relatable.

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Lenin: Much as the journey starts with you because when you're getting people to lean in. First of all, you must be very honest with yourself on on first of all, what you can, and what you cannot do, which is a very, I would say. It's a very painful journey sometimes, because you know, telling yourself that I'm good at this, but I suck at, you know this. This other thing is in front of a mirror.

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Lenin: Sometimes you're punching on your very, very own ego, very on pride in, you know you're very good at this. By the end of the day you must be very honest with yourself, and I and I'll speak for my case. When I was trying to move from, you know, a very technical role to a commercial role. I became very self aware that you know some of the skills that I need to learn.

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Lenin: Why, you know how to work with people, how to be led and also how to lead when I get to that particular point, and you know, pretty much acquire those soft skills and also add to unlearn. You know how I even present stuff, and how I tell my story, because as a catalyst, you also, you know this in this, in the story, telling that you're able to first of all.

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Lenin: get people to understand what you're trying to do. And second of all, get, you know people to, you know, relate to what you're trying to achieve. So I had to also unline and learn a lot of things in the process. And yes, identifying fellow catalysts really, really help because you're able to see someone who's first of all been there done. That or 2 is a catalyst in a very different domain than you are in, and is doing it very, very well.

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Lenin: So you look at it as a muscle you're able to gain in the gym. You know. Maybe you're very good at cardio but you know you're not very good at, you know the weight lifting or the dead lifts.

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Lenin: So you know, this person's very good at the deadlist might learn a couple of things from you who's very good at a cardio, and you have this cross pollination from a different catalyst, and you end up gaining, you know, 2 skills, one extra skill that you didn't have.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): And so I I love hearing. It sounds like finding them within. That organizational context is incredibly helpful for mapping the system, bouncing the skills on a personal side. I'm curious. Are any of your board of directors, catalysts?

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Lenin: Oh yes!

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): With intention or by accident.

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Lenin: I would say, both. Some intention, some by accident, because I was looking to just gain a particular skill, only to find that I've actually met a different catalyst. I have 8 of them in a personal board of directors, 3 as street catalyst, and 2 actually were by accident cause I was going to learn a particular skill, only to realize that their linchpins in a very, they're very domain, and their journeys are very relatable to my journey, you know, if you take them a couple of years back.

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Lenin: So it was a very good coincidence in, you know, assembling you know that what I call a super team.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): It sounds like a super team. And so on the personal side, when when someone's not inside your system, what is the value for you in having, like minded catalyst.

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Lenin: So we just come again.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Alright. So you know, we were talking just now about identifying your catalyst within the system that you're creating change. But you have a set of folks in your board of directors that are catalytic. So I'm curious. What is the value of having catalyst, you know that's not just in the system, but for you personally.

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Lenin: So personally, what what it gives me is you see, one of one of the quest for always becoming a better version of yourself is an ongoing journey that never ends, because, you know, learning is always a constant process, and and one of the things that I keep telling myself, is, as long as I'm able to learn something new every day, and every day presents a whole new set of challenges as you go through your career. Personal life, you know, training anything you you able to do.

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Lenin: and having this catalyst pretty much in in the personal board of directors

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Lenin: gives me the privilege of you know, bouncing ideas, challenges, and opportunities in equal measure as as I as I navigate through my career, my personal life, and, you know, lending as himself as he's just trying to, you know. Be this.

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Lenin: you know better catalysts in out there in this particular world, and at the end of the day. I've gained so much skill in in in just engaging this catalyst in my personal board of directors and some of this skills or lessons.

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Lenin: You don't even get them in an Mbs school cause their life lessons based on experiences. And even the challenge that I put in is that you get out here. So for me, that has been the biggest takeaway of having them on board. And you know, having this you know, chance to be able to sound stuff of them and getting to a point where by now I'm also playing the card forward from the lessons of land over the past decade, of of having you know this, this team with me.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Amazing. Thank you.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: It is amazing. And again, there's another thread. I just have to say I'm I'm really enjoying this conversation. Leten, and you're so sharp, and you're so fast and you're connecting all these dots. It's amazing you had brought you. These were not your words earlier, but you brought. You've gone back to, especially when you transition from the technical to the commercial side. Implicit in what you're saying is this openness to an experimentation mindset

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: right like you stepped into something that, like even you and I can relate because we talked about it. I did something similar. You're like, I don't know if I can do this like this is outside my skill set, and you would also. You've talked a couple of times about like the journey is the personal growth journey like that is kind of like its own purpose that I hear in your story. And yet

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: there's some taking risks with that. So I just have a follow up question before the next question like, How does your board help you navigate the risk taking? Because I can imagine if you had no catalysts they'd be like. Don't leave your technical career and go. Do commercial. That's a crazy idea. So like, how do they support you in those ones that are like the rational risks to take.

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Lenin: Yeah, so, so, so, my, so, so the personal board help me identify 2 things. My spikes and my barriers. So my spikes are pretty much my strength as a catalyst. You know. I'm very curious. I latch on on things pretty fast. Of course, I'm technically very, very sound, and and that's pretty much my area of excellence.

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Lenin: But you know, the barriers that I have is, you know, in being a very techy having a very geeky kind of like mindset. You tend to be very analytical, which means you have. It can be a detractor in, you know, making quick decisions, because you want a perfect situation before you're able to make a decision. But in leadership sometimes your call to make decisions on the fly. So where the personal board of directors came in. Really, really handy is sometimes to know when to take a calculated risk.

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Lenin: sometimes to know when to jump off the plane, and, you know, try to pull the parachute with the hope that it's gonna it's gonna pop up, and if it doesn't, we, we make sure we have a good crush landing, and that I I would say I had a say a fairly balanced

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Lenin: you know, risk a appetite when depending on the situation, and we got to points whereby we look at the opportunity. Visa v. The risk that that was was at hand and the opportunity, and maybe I can use one example. The opportunity for moving from technical to commercial is

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Lenin: one. I would be able to have this blended skill of navigating conversations all the way from, you know, the technical side to the commercial side where I deal with people, and what this would give me as leverage in an organization is, I can be able to lead strategy in. You know, any, any, any industry that has technology? So that was the opportunity that lies at hand. The risk was, you know, you land into a commercial role and you nose dive immediately, because you're not able to transition into that change.

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Lenin: And what do we? What do we do with? You know that challenge of of nose diving when you're able to get into this fantastic opportunity? Is you start to learn and then learn you know, a couple of skills

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Lenin: like, I wasn't very good at presentation in terms of now, you know, outward presentation. I would do a very technical presentation with my slide very full of, you know. Bullet points, you know, maps and everything. So I had to move to from that to, you know, having an image on on a Ppt and telling a story to keep an audience focus to me. Now, that took a lot of practice that also took a lot of failure. And one of the biggest things I had to learn is to embrace failure and to fail first.

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Lenin: because failure, just like an opportunity gives you a chance to, you know. Learn something differently, gives you a chance to appreciate the experience, and at the end of the day. Even in this current role you get, I get failure. And I look at it very differently.

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Lenin: You know, back in the day you would get failure, you know, being the catalyst to take. You want the perfect finish of things. You beat yourself up by the time you wake up to. You know. Pick that back and move.

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Lenin: You know time has flown, the potential has gone, and perhaps your golden window to skill is no longer there, and someone else has taken the cheese.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Totally. I love your connection like, there's a lot of people that talk about the fail fast, but it's the fail fast and learn, and the appreciation for the opportunity that you had. There were so many amazing nuggets in there. But I do wanna get just, you know, if you had one piece of advice for a junior catalyst coming up. I mean you. You had story telling. You had risk taking you had people supporting you like.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: What is the one thing that you would tell? Maybe yourself 10 or 15 years ago, even.

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Lenin: So what I'll tell myself, say, 1015 years ago back is there's no perfect time. Just do it now.

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Lenin: Don't wait for a a perfect time to pretty much go against the green, or do something different.

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Lenin: The other bit I will do is, don't fear failure, you know. Be bold.

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Lenin: But most importantly, we only rise by lifting others. So carry others along in your journey. Because in carrying others along, you learn so so much, because life is is full of lessons, and when you get to the mountaintop.

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Lenin: play the card forward. That's what I was telling myself back then.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Amazing.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Go back to being 20 and hear that advice right now, Lennon.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Thank you.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Alright. As we wrap up today, we'd love to hear about your favorite catalyst, past or present, who inspires you? Why do they stand out.

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Lenin: So. So my my favorite cut list is the former Pepsico. CEO. She's called Indra, Indra. Noi. Yeah, I I admire and and and love that that, CEO and I've been following her journey ever since, you know, early days of my career. And and the reason I like Indra mo is. She did it her way in in in becoming a CEO. And she looked at, you know. Was it 4 5 things if I can remember them. I think competency was one of them.

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Lenin: Courage and confidence was another.

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Lenin: Communication was was very, very key. How you able to communicate both vertically and laterally, consistencies. Everything, because.

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Lenin: every new skill you gain, every new a attribute you want to get to the moment you become consistent, it becomes a habit, and when it becomes a habit it becomes part of your value system, and you'll always be identified by that.

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Lenin: And you know, lastly, compass is everything in all you do. So I mean, that is what I will sum up that from from Indones leadership, and that's why she tops the list as my favorite catalyst.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Love it, I.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Have goosebumps mic drop back to purpose. Like all of the things, Lennon, that was amazing.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Really I am hoping this is the first of many conversations to come. Lennon.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: 100%. I just.

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Lenin: I love. I love this. Yeah.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Shout out to Sneha like big love Sneha for this introduction. This was amazing. Yeah, I hopefully, the audience can feel, thank you so much for the conversation, Lennon.

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Lenin: Oh, thank you, thank you so much. I really I really enjoyed and appreciated this, and hopefully, I'll be back soon, because I I'd love to engage with you guys again. You're doing an amazing job out here.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Thank you and thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to learn more about how to accelerate positive change, go to our website at Www. Catalyst constellationscom.

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Shannon Lucas - Catalyst Constellations: Be sure to check out our book, move fast, break, shit, burnout, and if you have other catalysts in your life, hit the share button and send a link their way.

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Tracey Lovejoy (she, her): Thanks! Again.