 Good morning to you. Thank you for staying with us. If you are just joining us, well, you are on time for the fast conversation of the day around career. And we have an interesting one for you today. We are talking about finding that X factor, particularly yours. And for that discussion, we are joined by Anthony Washira, who is a leadership transition coach to help us through this conversation. Remember, you can interact with us through our socials at Y254Channel using the hashtag Y in the morning. Washira and Starshira, welcome. Thank you very much. Glad to have you with us. I'm happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me. Okay. So we want to get into this particular topic to understand it. What is your X factor? Wow, a good place to begin. And seeing as we are talking about careers, your X factor is what distinguishes you from everybody else. And everybody has uniqueness. Everybody has unique strengths. Everybody has unique passions. And everybody has their unique personal core values. If you are able to leverage those, the three of those, and find an intersection of those, you find your sweet spot. You find what you can do better than most people where you work. You find what you love more than most people. Really, what you love is what you enjoy, your passion. And then your values kind of help you create boundaries. They help you know what you can do, how far you can go in certain situations, and where you cannot go. So that in another bridged version is your X factor. Okay, that's quite interesting. So would you say that people who mostly feel lost, it's usually because they don't know their X factor. They have not gotten these three things. You've said core value, their strength, if I'm not wrong, the third one? Passion. Passion, strength, core value and passion. So is it because they have not identified these three? Yes, in some cases it's a yes. If some of us are stuck in jobs that we don't like, some of us work for people we cannot stand. So if you are one of the best way to describe it is like trying to fix a square peg in a round hole. You are in a place that you don't like working there. There is a problem there already. You might also find that you are working in an area that is not in your strength. So your strengths are in communication, but you are in a factory hauling boxes or doing logistics, something like that. Or in a bank. Or in a bank. Yes. So yes, you might have this good job, but you're not fulfilled. You're not able to give your best, because you're not passionate about that and your strengths, your biggest strengths are not being used. So that kind of sometimes brings about a state where someone feels trapped, someone feels lost, someone feels like they are dissatisfied. Okay. Yes. And also does it, is it also the same thing as superpower? Because I was going through your website and you were using it almost interchangeably, but maybe you can explain what is a superpower and is it the X factor? Ah, all right. Thank you very much. So superpowers according to me are your strengths, your gifts. Picture a superhero. And for our viewers, I am a fan of Marvel movies. And Marvel movies for me, they helped me explain this very easily. The Avengers Endgame, that movie when it was released in a short while, it became the biggest grossing movie of the biggest grossing movie ever after it was released after a few months. And what did they do? They created stories of different superheroes. These superheroes had different superpowers. Everybody had their movies and they had different superpowers. So you have different superheroes showcasing their different superpowers. Then when they get together, they're able to create great magic because they're unique. They have each, each is unique in their own way and each brings the superpower to the table to solve the problem that they had in the very same way. Superpowers are what you can do better than us, what you can do better than most of us. So when you bring that to your career, to your place of work, to whatever organization and everybody else brings theirs, we're able to combine that and solve a problem pretty much like the Avengers did. So superheroes for me is what is your uniqueness? What is your strength? They could be gifts, they could be talents. And I dare say that the biggest superpower that we have is our mindset because we are able to switch this to, to change it, to think that we can. That's where it begins. But we all do have different strengths that we bring to the table. Okay, so everyone has a superpower, that's clear now because this has the strength that you bring on and it's unique from any other person. Yes. All right. And the mindset, let's speak a little bit about that. Why is it important to have a positive mindset and what does it do to you? Henry Ford said this that if you think you can, you're right. If you think you can't, you're right. So your mindset pretty much determines what you can and cannot do. If you think you can't, you're correct. So you will act in accordance to how you think. So you manifest that it becomes, it dictates your behaviors and your habits, which in turn also now dictate the results that you get. So if you change your mindset, if you start looking at the world in a different way, then you start behaving differently and when you start behaving differently, you start getting different results. Okay. So yeah. And how easy or hard is that because it's sad for, you know, for someone who has been raised in a particular environment to think in a particular way as much as you want to, but things are not working out. So how do you get yourself to change that mindset? You really want to, but everything around you says, no, this, you know, I'm going down and, you know, up is not the way. I like that. How you get to change is not easy because we are a product of nature and nature. So we have our personalities. So some times our personalities stand in the way. Naturing is what we have been exposed to, perhaps parentage. So the schools we went to, the environment that we have been exposed to, those kind of straight jacketers. However, there is a powerful force that is called choice. If you are willing to learn, if you are willing to unlearn, if you are willing to receive instruction and make small incremental changes every day. And one of the ways that I propose is get a mentor, get into groups that challenge you to do better. Get a coach. It's not an easy fix, but small incremental steps, getting help, like getting a coach, like getting a mentor, like being in the right forums. You will make steps into seeing the world in a different way, but it takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of effort and we'll come back to that later on getting a mentor. But now, how do you find your ex-factor now getting to your strengths, knowing your co-values and why do I keep on forgetting the third one? Passion. Passion, all right. Yeah. So how do you get all that? So at the risk of sounding like I'm selling, at the influential, my organization, we help people do that. We help them discover their strengths. We help them discover more like and cover, because you have them. More like and cover your strengths and your passions and your co-values. However, one of the ways that you can find your strengths is by looking at your life and see the things that you actually do better than most people. You can do a 360 assessment yourself. What do I know that I do better than most people? Then you can ask people that you work with. You can ask people that you live with, like family, people that know you very well. What do you see that I do better than most people? What do I get complimented for? So you can begin finding your strengths. If it's a place of work, you keep getting compliments because of doing something better than most people. So you can figure that out. Passion is tricky. Seeing as some of us studied things that we did not want to study, we were parents in their great love and their direction sometimes misdirect us. They think that this course, if you take this course, if you go this route, you stand a better chance. But they kill your dreams. They kill your passion. So you end up going this route. But what you really like is this other one. So finding your passion requires many things as well. It's also kind of a 360. Find out what interests you. Find out what you like talking about. Find out what you like reading about. Find out what really interests you. And then you start discovering a pattern of things that you really enjoy. Now disclaimer, passions sometimes may not turn into a career. And that does not mean that you can't find your ex-factor in that sense. They may be something that you want to do after work. They can be a hobby. However, there are people who are also very creative. They have figured out how to find what it is that they love to do in that place where they are. They may not have, you see, they were sent in a wrong industry quote-unquote. But if you are creative enough, you might find a way of blending your passion into that work. And that makes it easy. That makes your day easy. That makes you enjoy part of your, because you can ask yourself, fine, what is it about this job that I really enjoy? And then if you work in a place where you can be able to reorganize some things, you can ask for some reorganization so that you are spending time doing something that you really enjoy, which helps you give your all, which helps you perform better. And if it happens too much to align also with your strengths, you are more productive. You're doing something that you're really good at and that you really enjoy. Right. Interesting. And what is the place of influence in finding your X factor? I like this. Go ahead. Influence. I like influence. And my organization is called the Influential. Very interesting question there. So influence is the ability to persuade somebody to do something. It's a power to change something. And if you are, whether you are senior or not, if you are doing something that you're good at, you do it well. If you're doing something that you're good at and that you love, you do it even better. Now, if you're doing something that you're good at, that you love, and your convictions, your values are aligned, then you're doing something really, really special. What happens when you find that sweet spot is that you create great impact and you have the ability to persuade, to influence up sideways and even downwards. Yes, because you don't have to force. You actually speak louder than words. You have the ability to petition. Maybe you lead a department and all those things are aligned. If you want funding for something, say a team building for your team. If you need money for expansion or for something like that, you're able to influence even your seniors because we hit targets. We are engaged. We are switched on. We are pretty much what you want us to be and a little more. So if we need something, it's easier for us to persuade you. If you look at the converse, supposing we are not hitting targets, supposing we are not engaged, supposing we are complaining. You might be wanting, if you're the boss, you might be wanting to get rid of us. You might be wanting to change this department, to switch it up. But if we are doing, if we are not a headache to you, we are, there's that principle of pain and pleasure. We are pleasure to you. And consciously, we create, we help you to release the feel-good hormones when you see us. So we influence you indirectly. Okay. So that's also influence. Yes, we create influence. So it's not all about the title. It's about using what you have. It is about using what you have. And pretty much, that's what we believe at the influential, that you can be influential at any level. You don't have to have a title. If you have found your ex-factor, if you have found your strength, they speak on your behalf. If you have found that and your passions, they speak on your behalf. Look around you. Think about one of the people that I really like is Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa had no title really, but her influence is felt to date. She was very humble, lived in a place that not many of us would have wanted to work at. Her environment was not the best place to work, but her influence is so great, because she found her ex-factor. She found something that she believed in. Yes. Okay. Talk about core values, because that's the third thing that you've mentioned, this passion, the strengths and core values. Talk about core values. So every organization has got core values, and core values really define what we do every day. So as individuals, sometimes we don't realize it, but we do have our individual core values. So you have values that you live by, you have values that dictate what you do. I take, for example, how you choose to dress. It's a choice. And we have had that issue with ladies and my dress, my choice. My dress, my choice. Yes. Yes. So let me use that example. How I choose to dress is based on something I believe. So some of us believe that wearing some short dresses is not okay. So if that's my conviction, if that's what I believe, then that's what I believe. So I will not wear short dresses. Some of us believe that if I'm riding in a car with a person of the opposite gender, if they're not my wife, they will ride in the back or I will ride in the back. I've seen people like that, and that's okay, because that's their core value. That's a value they hold here, and I'm being a bit extreme here. But at the same time, you can have core values, for instance, I have a core value, which is dignification. And I like saying it like that, dignifying people. So dignification means that if I find the person opening the gate for me, the soldier, I treat him with respect. Okay. If I go to a hotel and the waiter or the waitress serves me and makes a mistake, I treat them with respect just the same way I would want to be treated. So that's dignification. That's a value that I hold here. So if I act outside of that, I'm acting out of integrity. I'm out of integrity, and I need to get back to integrity. So everybody, you realize that you have core values, but you can figure out what your core values are. There's a way to figure out what they are if you're not sure what they are. So what's the way of figuring out? What's the way of figuring out? So we help you look at your life and see if there are values that you have held on for life, because there are some values that we are given by our parents that we carry through life. But as we get to the 20s, when we're becoming independent, sometimes we shed off some of those and pick up values of our own. So core values can change depending on which season you are in your life, but not all of them. Some of them, they can go with you throughout your life, but they can change because some of the values that you might hold in high school, might change when you go to college, might change when you go to work. So you figure out what you have valued. Then you also figure out what you have valued in the last one year or three months, and then you figure out what is it that you value right now. So there's a way that we can help you figure that out, but there's a way. You can look at your life and see what values have I lived by. And then of course you see which ones make me feel authentic and which ones make me feel inauthentic, because we are living at a time when we are influenced by so many things. So sometimes we will act in accordance with values that are not ours because we want to please the other person. So what is the place of authenticity in all this because you've brought that up? Thank you. So I believe that when you are living within your core values, that is the place where you are consistent with, you do things that are inconsistent, that are consistent with your values, and therein lies your authenticity. However, let me add a few layers to that. Imagine you're living in your core values, doing what you believe, being you everywhere, so that how you feel inside is the way you show up. That's how you see you. It's not you're not influenced by formal or by some influence or somewhere. You are living you, you are being true to you. So you are comfortable. Then you have found something that you love to do. And you are operating in the areas of your strength. I believe you are totally authentic in that place. Your values make you authentic. So your work, you can find authenticity further in your work because you are doing what you love to do, not what we are making you do, and then you're operating in the area of your strength. Remember, we had said that when you're operating in an area where you're not strong, and I have that experience, sometimes you show up in a very different way and you're underperforming. You know, Einstein said that if we measure every animal, if we ask a fish to climb a tree, it looks like a failure, you know. Yeah, but you put it in water. But that's not in the air, huh? Yeah, so it's inauthentic when it's trying to climb a tree. It's not built for climbing trees. So you need to find your area of specialty, where your strengths are. And your authenticity just shows up. These are your real strengths. This is your passion and you are living within your values. You are authentic. Wow, amazing. So now, what is the difference between someone who has found their X-factor? That is, I believe to summarize it, it's just that thing that makes you stand out from the rest. What is the difference between someone who knows their X-factor and someone who hasn't? That is a fantastic question. And I am saying that because there are some people who are very good learners and they're very good at surviving. And they might actually learn to do something and do it well, but they are not thriving. They're not thriving. They are not in their element. So how you know, I think one of the things is individual, individual. I should search myself. I should search myself. If I hit my job, if I hit going to work, there is something there. What is the reason? Is it me or is it the place? There's something that needs to be addressed. I would challenge our viewers to introspect. It's a personal, I'm lacking the words, but it's a personal, let me just use the word introspection. It is you who will know whether you are living authentically. We may not know. Because some people, they are survivors. You keep them here, they will learn and they might impress. But inside, they are dying, but they are good workers. They are trained to be good workers. So they can do a good job, even when they are not enjoying the work. All right, quite interesting. And now there's something that I saw on your site. You wrote, let me quote it. I used a coaching approach to co-create, enabling mindset, skills and tools to leverage this superpower. And okay, I don't know if that exactly. And what, okay. So basically you have worked with different people from different continents, you know, different countries. Other people that you've seen are more, how do I put it, they're more receptive to this change, to getting to know the X factor than others. Once they find out that they are a bit lost. Yeah, I'll give two groups. I'll try to be politically correct. So I think women, women know how to reinvent themselves and women in their, at midlife, women really know how to reinvent themselves. So that's a compliment to women. The other group that in my view is teachable and that is ready to make the necessary changes are young people. There's all this talk about millennials and Gen Z and a lot of shade is thrown that side. I happen to be a champion for that group. I think that group is ripe for direction, for mentoring, for coaching, for directing. If we have people who are patient enough to do it, because they are learners and they live in the information age. So they are flexible. So Gen Z and the women in the. So Gen Z and millennials. And I think that women have a bigger propensity than men. Than men to change. Interesting facts there. And now there's also something else. Your life is like a TV series. I'm quoting this from the website. You should be the star in the series. Your seasons are called transitions. We can help you find your exporter now and so much more. So your seasons are called transitions. And you are a leadership transition coach. So maybe expound on this if it's related to. Great, great, great, great, great. And thank you for visiting my website. So life is full of seasons. And as a transitions coach, I help people navigate those seasons with great success to create the greatest impact. So what I mean by saying that you should be the star in your seasons. Whoever is watching, I want them to think about their favorite show. Series, favorite series that you like. So it's got different seasons. So your life is a lot like that. And some seasons are predictable. Or some transitions are predictable. Like in this country, now we have the new education system. But the 844, you knew that at class 8, you get to do KCP. And then you go to high school. There's a transition there. Going from primary school to high school. Then you know that after four years, you get to do another exam and go to college. And after four years, you know that you get to graduate and go to the workplace. So some transitions are very predictable. But you can see that life is really seasonal, they're seasons. And when you go to work, the other seasons, you get into your 20s. There's what we think we know about the 20s and so on and so forth, the 30s and 40s. So life is actually seasons. So as a transitions coach, I help people to navigate those seasons and navigate the transition in particular. They change because the transition is the end of a season and the beginning of another. So besides those very predictable seasons, there are other unpredictable seasons. Like losing a parent. Nobody knows when they will lose someone. Like losing a job for people who are in their workplace. And sometimes you can lose a job and lose a loved one. Sometimes you can go through a difficult separation. You can go through a heartbreak. You can go through a promotion and a demotion. So there are other issues, other transitions that happen at an individual level. At national level, we go through transitions. We have a new government. New leadership, yeah. At the global level, we went, the pandemic, history and the transition that was happening. Now we have more people working from home. We have a lot of issues that have come as a result of the post-pandemic. So transitions are really season. So because we are in a different season than we were before the pandemic. I mean, it was happening, but it has now been accelerated by the pandemic. So as a transitions coach, I help people discover their X factor in that season that they are in so they can do their best. They can be their best self and give the greatest impact. Amazing. And as we come to a conclusion in this particular conversation, I want you to speak on impact because the real assets of knowing your X factor is to leave an impact. But some people don't really have that in mind or, you know, they're not really about impact. What is important of wanting, having the will to leave an impact? All right. Wow. Thank you. I subscribe to a school of leadership. I have a friend and he's my mentor. He's called Ed. Ed wrote a book and he says that leadership begins with initiative. When people, it begins when people take initiative to create a change that creates impact that matters. So for me, when you find your X factor and in whatever season somebody is in, remember, seasons are temporary, all of them. There is no permanent season. So you have to remember that you're living a legacy there in whatever season that you're in, you're living a legacy. And legacy is what you live inside of people, not for them. It's what you live inside of them because in that season you are with, you're going through a season with others or in fact think about it, even if it's a career progression. If you are a junior manager, you're managing people. If you are a middle level manager, again, you're managing a different team and so on and so forth. So what's your legacy? What will you be remembered for? That's your impact. Who does it matter to? So for me, when I tell them, find your X factor, find your X factor and then use that X factor to create impact that matters where you are in that season because you are creating a legacy. I am creating a legacy where I am and so are you and so is everybody else. We need to remember that. So we need to have that in mind to want to live a legacy where you are in that particular season. And there's something that I was almost forgetting, importance of having a mentor. You mentioned that earlier in the conversation. How does this help? Okay, you said it helps in finding the X factor, but you know, a little more into it. So when someone is looking for a mentor, I believe that you need to get someone that you have chosen and you have chosen them for your reasons. They should be good reasons. I want to choose a mentor because they will challenge me to grow. I want to choose a mentor because I can ask them hard questions. I want to choose a mentor because they can ask me hard questions. I want to choose a mentor because I can mentor them too. It's called reverse mentorship. So for me to get a mentor, the way mentorship is working or the way it should work, it's not a one way traffic. So I'm not there. A mentor is not a teacher. A mentor is a mentor. They show me, they've been through what I'm going through. They have worked this work so they know more than I do. But we are living in a time of some serious rapid change. This rapid change means that I might have experienced something that they haven't and especially when it comes to technology. And I'm speaking about someone who's older than me and as I mentor someone, they are younger than me. They are more switched on than I am. So there are things that they know that I do not know. So there is interdependence. I learn from them as they learn from me. And in that learning, first of all, I am accountable. This person can ask me hard questions and it's okay to have different mentors. One can be in your corporate life, one can be in your personal life, one can be in your spiritual life. You can have mentors from different fields because you're learning from them and they will help you discover things because some of the strengths that we have are born or are exhibited when we go through difficulty. And sometimes it helps when someone asks you, so how did you get through that? And then you realize that you are very resilient. You didn't know that you're resilient. Okay. Yes. All right. And what sort of relationship should you have with your mentor? How regularly, you know, for someone who doesn't have one and doesn't know how to navigate through it, is it someone who's supposed to be very close? Can you just identify a mentor and someone you want to be mentored by and go to them and ask them for that? My view is your mentor should be someone that you are fairly close to or someone that you will get fairly close to because if they are far away and we do say that someone has mentored me because I read their books and all, but there's no relationship there. A mentor is someone that you can call when you are in trouble, when you need to make a decision. It's someone that you can text if you are coming to sit here for an interview and you want, if I'm coming here to be interviewed and I wanted some input from my mentor, it's someone I can text. I'm talking about the X factor tomorrow. What do you think is going on that I should, among the young people that you think I should address? That a relationship that is that close that you can text them at some point to get pointers that you can text them, that you can call on them when you are stuck. So I believe that a mentor should be someone that you are close to or that you are going to get close to. All right, amazing. And I think that's a whole topic on it. So maybe we'll come at that someday. Maybe what is your final say on this from everything that you've said around finding your X factor as we finally close it and then we'll mention your social media handles. So I believe that everybody has their X factor. I believe that life is full of transitions and different transitions sometimes will call or need different superpowers because you have an array of your superpowers, you have different gifts. So I think it is very important for everybody to find out what their superpowers are to figure out their X factor, their uniqueness, their unfair advantage if you may, their unique value proposition at every level because only when you discover you are differentiated and especially in your career are you going to stand out from the rest. If you do not do that, you will look like everybody else. And looking like everybody else has never benefited anyone, especially if you are trying to move along in your career. You need to look like you, you need to stand out from the rest. And even in a team, for the functionality of that team, we need individuals to be individuals. We need them to show up with what they bring to the team. So it is, I think for me, one of the most important things that you can do for yourself, finding your X factor. Finding your X factor. Yeah. Thank you very much, Anthony, for this particular conversation and for taking your time to come onto the show. So where can people find you in case they want your services or they need to contact you for one reason or another? This is your camera. Okay. So if you want to find me, you can go to www.theinfluential.co.ke, that is our website, theinfluential.co.ke. I am very active on LinkedIn. I am Anthony P. W. Ashira. Anthony P. W. Ashira, if you look me up, we can connect. I am also active on Facebook as Anthony Wanjohi. There, the W is... Yeah, I have many names and I'm also active on Twitter as Anthony W. Ashira. Okay. Yes. All right. Thank you very much, Anthony. I've been calling you Anthony. It's supposed to be Anthony. Yes. All right. Now I have it. So that has been Anthony W. Ashira, leadership transition coach talking to us about finding your X factor. I hope you've taken something from that. You can talk to us, tell us what that is on our social media handle at Y to 5 for channel using the hashtag why in the morning my personal handle is at Stephanie Ayata. So we'll be taking a short break and then Brand Sakuwa will be back with more. So don't switch that dial.