Episode released on: May 3rd, 2021
CX Goalkeeper with Daniel Jordi – S1E20 is about "the aligned leader" and "leaders bridge". It's all about connecting people – Customer Experience Goals with the CX Goalkeeper
The CX Goalkeeper had the great opportunity to interview Daniel Jordi
LinkedIn Headline: Connecting Switzerland’s Digital Leaders to Accelerate Growth & Innovation
My learnings:
A) The Aligned Leader Show
- It is an interview series on YouTube (with more than 130 episodes).
- The show is lasting since more than 8 years as Daniel has not a commercial purpose. People like the show for its inherent value. Companies’ names and job titles are not relevant on his show. What really matters are the human beings behind the stories.
- It was created to connect people, share great stories and to fulfill Daniel’s own need to connect with people.
B) The CEO Collaboration Day
- It was created to enable Switzerland Leaders to get closer together.
- Participants use their first names to introduce themselves and not their job titles.
- Also in this case, leaders come together because they believe that there is a true value in investing one day with other leaders.
Speaking about Human-to-human interactions, Daniel clearly states: “digital is good, physical is better”.
His book suggestion:
- Simon Sinek “Start with why”
- Seth Godin “The Dip”
Daniel’s golden nugget: “Understand the why behind everything. It is difficult to connect with somebody if you don’t understand the why”
How to contact Daniel:
Thank you Daniel!
#customerexperience #leadership #innovation #transformation
“Understand the why behind everything. It is difficult to connect with somebody if you don’t understand the why” @jordico on the CX Goalkeeper Podcast
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Transcription:
Gregorio Uglioni 0:03
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CX goalkeeper smart discussion. Today I’m really happy to have Daniel Jordi with me. Hi Daniel!
Daniel Jordi 0:13
Hi Gregorio
Gregorio Uglioni 0:15
Thank you very much for for being in. And as usual, I think the best way to start this, could you please introduce yourself Daniel?
Daniel Jordi 0:23
Sure, of course, how to best introduce myself? Well, Daniel, Daniel Jordi, I’m Swiss I, I work since forever in, in business, in business consulting, in sales in business development. It’s kind of my DNA, I guess. And if I would have to describe myself in one word, I would say the connector, because that’s how I see the world, I always see people ideas, resources, projects, whatever it is, and I try to connect the best thoughts or the thoughts where the best connections are in between the best matches, that’s pretty much what I’ve done my whole life so far. And I guess it’s not really going to change that much.
Gregorio Uglioni 1:06
Were very interesting. And if I think if I look at your LinkedIn profile, it looks like that you are at least 60 or 70, because you had so much experience. It’s unbelievable everything and everything about what you are doing. And thank you that you find time to be on this podcast. I think, though, let’s let’s literally start, I start with two words. And I think you will understand what I’m speaking about is the aligned leader, and where it came this idea several years ago.
Daniel Jordi 1:40
Yeah, I mean, the, the line leader is basically it’s basically this interview series that I have, where I talk to technology, entrepreneurs, technology, CEOs, digital executives, in Switzerland, the idea actually came out of the same roots of like likeliest bridge, my own company that I started back then. And the year came from basically frustration a little bit, because I always felt like, you know, we have everything in Switzerland, I guess that we need to do great things. And at the same time, we also have an ecosystem that, in my opinion, is not as interconnected as many other innovation ecosystems around the world. And of course, it has to do a little bit with our culture in Switzerland, we tend to be maybe a bit more reserved, a bit more in our own garden thinking, and that has, you know, has a lot of impact on the business as well. And the idea from the the Allied leader, the interview series came out of this needs to just have the stories shared, that I believe are great stories and stories that the world or at least Switzerland, or, you know, the people want to hear them needs to need to hear. So I started just, you know, sharing this idea of recording some authentic conversations with some friends that I had, in the, in the, in the digital business. And, you know, I just started recording one, and you know, had a chat, and it was great, it was interesting, people enjoyed it. So the guests enjoyed it, got some great feedback, so did the next one. And it just evolved, and in the beginning was not called the alliance leader was just, I guess, I don’t know, I don’t think it had a name. It was just, it was just a couple of recorded conversations on YouTube. And that’s where, you know, that’s how it grew to, I guess, more than 130, 140, 150 or so, people that I’ve that I’ve interviewed. And it also at the other on the other side, it came out of my own need of connecting with great people, and being able to, you know, share, you know, the stories and the personalities of interesting people. And, honestly, I think that’s one of the best ways to connect with each other is not through titles, or, you know, companies or whatever, I think the best way to connect with each other is actually through our own personality and through our own authenticity. And that’s one of the core purposes that I that I built this on giving people the opportunity to share themselves, because I interviewed a lot of people as well that, you know, were a lot on the media, they had a lot of interviews, they were on TV, they were on radio, or whatever. But it was always this. The interview very often was behind the mask, you know, they were asked about the companies and were asked about you know, things but in a very limiting in my opinion, a very limiting way. And what I’m interested in is not the face or the the mask, the mask basically the facade. I’m not interested in the facade. I’m interested in what’s behind. I’m interested in the in the heart and soul of things. So that’s, that’s a little bit about the aligned leader and how it came into place.
Gregorio Uglioni 4:52
I think you’re bringing really one one important topic it’s I had the chance also to be on your show, but also I had the chance to To watch at quite a lot of these interviews, and it’s really nice, all the stories that came out discussing with you and people that that are really sharing their experience, and what they learned about human to human connection. And about all the topics that are relevant today, like digitalization and so on, perhaps one question, is it now as you mentioned, you add more than 100 videos, what is your motivation to continue with with these interviews, because we see quite a lot of podcasts webcast, and the first 10 are done. And then oh, it’s again, I need to organize that I need to find time. And as a podcaster, our hobby podcaster, I see how much time we need to invest, to find the topic to ask the people to join to align the questions, if somebody wants to align the question at once. What’s your view on that?
Daniel Jordi 5:54
Yeah, I mean, you know, the beginning consistency was incredibly important for me, I wanted to publish every week. And then I ran into some issues at some point where it just, you know, maybe it would have been possible, but it would have been way too much. So I just stopped being extremely perfectly consistent, and nothing happens. And it was okay. And sometimes I had a break for three months. And nothing happened, you know, and I realized that actually, it’s not consistency, that is most important. But it’s the value that’s behind the actual thing. It’s not, it’s not just doing it every week, or every month or something, but it’s actually the outcome, the the, the actual value behind it. So the way I do it is, I mean, the beginning was very structured in terms of I have my plan, who I wanted to have and had everything prepared. And I mean, now, you know, it’s takes me very little time, because usually, the way I book guests now is I have a conversation with somebody really interesting. And I say I have this thing, I would love to record you, I’ll have this interview with you. And that’s usually how I, you know, get the guests now, and then it just happened to be, you know, one, or like, maybe between two and four times a month. And, and that’s fine. But then also after I optimize the whole thing a lot. And the only thing I really do is the actual conversation, everything else somebody else takes care of which I’m extremely happy about. Yeah, and then that’s pretty much the way I do it.
Gregorio Uglioni 7:31
And I think you’re you, you mentioned two extremely important topics is consistency, and value. But I think what I really liked and I also enjoyed in the discussion with you is the freedom that if you want to do that, and you see it brings value, you do that it’s not, let’s say your boss telling to you, you need to do once a week, or each each month, at least five, but you have the freedom and I think this is extremely important. Now bit strange pressure
Daniel Jordi 8:02
are in the jump. And just just one more thing I’d add on that in terms of freedom. I mean, for me, you know, I don’t have a goal of getting a million views a year on these videos, I don’t have any commercial goals whatsoever. The only motivation, why I do it is to connect with those people actually connect with the guests. The guests, to me are the most important in this whole, you know, series or in this whole construct me the most important people are the guests. And I know if I pick the right people, and we talked about but the right topics, then it’s going to be interesting for some people. For others, it’s not going to be interesting to listen to that. But for some it will be. And as long as I have a couple of new relationships a month that I get out of this, I’m happy and I continue. And maybe that’s another big distinguishing as well. Because if I had, you know, very clear KPIs and lots of commercial goals attached to it or whatever, it will probably be different, but I don’t I just you know, and if I want to take a break for three months, I do
Gregorio Uglioni 9:10
I fully agree and understand what you’re saying I was asked by somebody wanted to join my podcast and wanted to present his product. And I said no, because I don’t want to sell products from other people from other companies. I wanted to have genuine discussion, learn from from the interview partner and have the opportunity to share what what what I’m learning and to share this this interesting discussion that that that I decided to start when when COVID started to spread around the world. And I’m going to ask them, let’s say nasty question you can choose if you want to answer or not. And the first one is which interview you remember or you say that’s the best one that I did.
Daniel Jordi 10:01
I don’t know which one is the best one that I did. Because I think most of the work is, is done by the guests. I mean, one I remember, one I remember very well is with Ian Roberts, the CTO from Bueller. And I remember it, I think because because of his passion, because of Ian’s passion, is incredibly passionate person. And, and, you know, just I think that’s what’s sticks with me not necessarily the insights that are shared that those are great. But what I remember is people who are incredibly passionate, that’s all was the way I often say, you know, this is not about interviewing the highest profile people or something like that, to me, it’s most important to interview the most passionate digital leaders. And there this is, this is one that I remember very well, there’s others, but maybe this one is probably the one that I remember, best.
Gregorio Uglioni 11:00
I was hoping that that you would set the one with you, Greg, but okay, I can accept that.
Daniel Jordi 11:06
you trick me there. you trick me there?
Gregorio Uglioni 11:09
No, no problem. It was a joke. And perhaps one question, is there somebody that you said, I want to interview this person, and it must, it should not be the CEO of one big company, but to say, this is the guy that I want to interview, but now, it’s not yet time? I will ask him later.
Daniel Jordi 11:31
Yeah, I’d love to have Seth Godin on the show, or Simon Sinek, or Simon Sinek, one of these two. And, you know, they don’t fit my profile criteria for the show. Because it’s usually, you know, Switzerland’s digital leaders that I’ve been through, but I just, you know, I find these people very interesting, their perspectives, their, their, their opinions, their experiences, and those are two and I think I messaged Seth, once when his email address was still, he still has an email address. I sent a message I think I messaged in one never really heard back. But you know, I didn’t expect to hear back. But those are those are two people. I’d love to interview someday. But it’s not really like, you know, a, I need to do that tomorrow
Gregorio Uglioni 12:24
night. And I think these are two really great personalities that could bring value to everybody. Is it in Switzerland or outside of Switzerland that these are outstanding people with clear values, and I like them worry very much. Perhaps the last question on the on the interviews, which one they want? Which one was the most funny discussion?
Daniel Jordi 12:47
The most fun discussion or funny discussion? Hmm. I’m not sure laughing race dance out. Which one is funny? extremely funny. I don’t know.
Gregorio Uglioni 13:08
That’s the next one.
Daniel Jordi 13:10
Maybe?
Gregorio Uglioni 13:12
No, Thank you, Daniel. And I think you are also in Switzerland. Were very well known also for something different that you are doing. I had also the chance to be part of it. It was the CEO collaboration day. And also there perhaps could you please explain what what it is? And what is the aim of this CEO collaboration day?
Daniel Jordi 13:31
Yeah, sure. I mean, the motivation is exactly the same, like are the driver was exactly the same. Like for the interview series, at the end of the day, for me, it was important to get Switzerland state digital leaders closer together, but not between the companies, but between the people, the human beings. So I wanted to set up something where people don’t walk in with, you know, suits and ties and, you know, have, you know, you know, and just came and just come because there’s a champagne reception. I wanted, I wanted people to come together because they believe there’s true value in human connection. And when you connect from human to human magic happens, great stuff happens. And that’s basically what the driver was. And when one one thing when we were when we were still allowed to do physical events. One thing we did is we, you know, we didn’t have any fancy name tags, we had those textile stickers, and we wrote the first name of each person with with the marker, and that was it. There was no other information about this person, you actually had to speak to the human being to know what’s behind the first name, and also breaks this last name thing basis that we have in Switzerland, which is fine. You know, I respect that. I still have that with my lawyer, which is the law Personally, I’m not Purdue, I think. But I respect that. That’s fine. But I just very often feel that when we have a first name basis, there’s just more connection, there’s no, it just goes deeper. So and the aim at the end of the day to me is to create more interconnectivity between Switzerland digital leaders, because I think there’s still a lot, but a lot of potential we have in Switzerland. And, you know, with that, of course, comes, you know, more innovations, more things that come out. I mean, from the previous events that we’ve done, there’s been all kinds of stuff, there’s been investments that happened, board engagements, partnerships, business deals, people hired each other, there’s all kinds of things that came out of these events. And, yeah, that’s, that’s a little bit of the of the goal. And in the future, when we did the first one online in November, when you were when you were joining us, that was the first one online. And it was quite scary, because, you know, I didn’t expect the online experience to be the same as the physical experience. And I think it was, it was it was, it was quite good. It was good to read good responses from people very good feedback from people. And I’m still hoping that in the future, we can do them again, face to face because, yeah, I just I like having a beer with people face to face. I, I like having lunch with people face to face, you know, we can do a lot with technology. And I just Yeah, I think it’s all fine. But I don’t think we human beings are naturally made to purely only be online. Yeah.
Gregorio Uglioni 16:40
I think what you’re saying, I can also share, starting from from the names, that if I look in LinkedIn, I see every 30 people, every second people, a CEO from something, and I cannot understand how many CEOs and why so many CEOs are on LinkedIn. One option is all the CEOs are there. And the people that really work are not there, or I don’t exactly know what what is possible. But joke by sight. Again, I think you’re touching really one extremely important topic. And that’s also why I asked about the CEO collaboration that you because you are all about connecting people. And on one side, we have the human to human interaction that we can have in a physical meeting. And then the other is on the digital side. And you experienced these two different words, for your co collaboration, they and what do you think the future will be hybrid events? Some people will join digital, some people will be will be in person there. What’s your view on that? And what perhaps are your ideas for the future events?
Daniel Jordi 17:50
Yeah, I think when this whole COVID thing started, events, some events, some events went hybrid. And I really dislike hybrid events from both sides, as an organizer, and as a participant. And it’s the same with meetings, you know, hybrid meetings, I think are the worst, some people sit in a conference room, the others are somewhere else on video. And then you have you have two completely different experiences. I really dislike those kinds of setups. But I think we’re in the future. I hope we’re not going to move completely away from physical events, at least, you know, to some extent. And maybe there’s a way for us to create online experiences, meetings and events that are better and just more real. And just more. I don’t know if interactive is the right word, because you know, you can do a lot of interaction. But question is, what’s the quality of the interaction? You can do some great stuff, you know, with online events that you can’t actually do in offline events. And I think it also has to do with our human evolution, because, you know, you could probably ask somebody 1000 years ago, if x y z would work for them, and they would have said, Never. And then today, nobody, it’s just part of our daily lives, because we have also evolved as human being or even 100 years ago, or 50 years ago. And I think, on the one side, it’s probably not going to go away to physical meeting, if it’s possible. But then also, I believe that, you know, if I talk to people in their 20s, and if I talk to people in their 60s, I get a completely different response. You know, what the future will be and how they enjoy interacting with each other. So I don’t really know, but I’m hoping from my perspective, as I’m sort of in the middle a little bit. I’m hoping that they’re not going to completely go away. And at the same time, I really like that. So on things are a lot more efficient.
Gregorio Uglioni 20:02
And and I share your thoughts because at the end, we should take with us what it’s working pretty well on the digital side, but without forgetting that we are at the end social animals that will mentioning, Simon Sinek, that he told us that we are social animals, and we need to be with other people to discuss other people to feel to understand other people in a better way. If I understand if I understand well, then the next SEO collaboration there will be physical if possible. And if not, then it will be digital again, correct?
Daniel Jordi 20:38
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I mean, it’s, it will be very desired to make physical but we don’t know, we don’t know right now.
Gregorio Uglioni 20:46
And I think also, the last one was really organized in an outstanding way. And there were plenty of opportunities to interact with other people. At the end, we try to do the best out of what, what, what, what we can do. And thank you, Daniel, perhaps let’s go to the human part of this discussion, we would like to learn a bit more about about Daniel about yourself, you are really, really very, very active. We discussed about your podcast, your webcast, we discussed about the CEO collaboration day, and we know that you are working also Ginetta how can you ensure to have a satisfactory work life balance or life work balance?
Daniel Jordi 21:29
Yeah, I mean, for me, I tend to be involved in many things at the same time, that’s just my nature. And very often, you know, there’s a point I get involved in all kinds of things. And then there’s a point where it gets too much. So I need to take a step back and understand where am I at? And where am I going? And very often, what helps me is understanding what is my roof? And not in terms of what’s limiting me, but what is what is what is my holding company? Or what am I holding Daniel, because if, if, if there’s too many things, and too many things can be very few things that are outside of the commonality of where I want to go and my vision, then it just doesn’t work. But as long as I have alignment between what I’m doing and involved in and this overarching theme, then it’s all good. Because I also know that I can be involved in lots of different things, because I usually don’t go into the depth. What I mean by that is, I know what I’m best at, and I know what I’m really not good at. And I don’t try to get involved into the things that I’m not good. Sometimes I have to, because either, you know, the situation requires it to be there somebody else there or whatever it may be, sometimes I just have to, you know, get involved in something. But then as soon as possible, I try to get out of it again and have somebody there who is just a lot better suited for that situation or for that task or project or whatever it may be. So for me, as I said before, you know, I truly believe I am the connector in that sense. And that’s what I do best. And that’s also how I tried to design my environment around me my environment, meaning you know, my role, my company, what I’m involved in, because I know if I get too far away from that, I can’t generate results, I’m unhappy, you know, work life balance doesn’t exist. I mean, I don’t know if it ever exists, really. But it’s just a mess. And I’m a mess. And it doesn’t work like that. And I know if I if I am able to be involved in a role and environment where connecting is the core capability. I’m happy, I’m successful, I’m fulfilled. I have great work life balance. That’s something that I’ve figured out over the past. It feels many, many years, that when this is in place, things are good. And things are great. And, and of course, things are only good, usually for a certain amount of time. And then we lose focus and we get off track. And then at some point, it’s a mess. And we need to step back and go Oh, what am I doing here? Exactly. And that’s just a continuous cycle, I feel but it’s That’s just human, I guess.
Gregorio Uglioni 24:29
I totally agree with what you’re saying we should do what we are doing we are best at and also trying to do what we are not really good and we don’t like or we are not passionate about. Perhaps also the next question would be, do you have a book that you like or you would suggest to the audience to say this is the book I’m reading or I read and I would like to suggest to the audience?
Daniel Jordi 24:55
Oh, I read a lot of books. I really enjoy audiobooks these days. especially when I’m not driving that much in the car right now, but with car driving audiobooks are great. I mean, one of my all time favorites is Simon Sinek. Start with Why? Obviously Seth Godin, the Icarus deception, I love that book, it’s, it’s something that I can read, listen to 100 times, and there’s always something new, because I’m different, my situation is different. There’s many more, but when, when we want to, when I say when we talk about more, the deeper sense of things, these are great, then there’s more, you know, books about technicalities of things. But the foundational books to me, are are some of these.
Gregorio Uglioni 25:51
Thank you, Daniel. And I think these are really two important books. If people would like to connect with you, because you are the connector, what’s the best way to do that?
Daniel Jordi 26:02
Well, the best way is always LinkedIn to me. Because I was trying to communicate on LinkedIn, the best way, what I’m involved in what I’m about, and how to get in touch with me and LinkedIn is usually best, very much depends on on what it is. But, you know, LinkedIn is, is usually the best place for anything business related. So for, you know, the the alliance leader show the CEO calibration day for Janetta, Project requests wherever it may be, basically.
Gregorio Uglioni 26:35
Thank you. And my word. Last question. This is the Daniel’s golden nugget. It’s something that we discussed or something new that you would leave to the audience.
Daniel Jordi 26:49
I’m like an insight or like a human, it’s a golden nugget.
For me, one of the most important things, this is how I’m wired is always to understand the why behind everything. Because if I can’t understand why something happens, and why somebody does what they do, it’s really difficult for me to connect. So you know, for example, if we have a project briefing, right, the My only goal of the briefing is to understand why because I’m usually not the expert on the project. But what I need to understand is why because if I understand the why, in a sales context, if I understand why I can customize my pitch to that, why, and that’s going to open my door. And that’s going to allow me to create the wow effect and the openness to listen to the what and how. And it’s the same thing for me. And when I’m connecting with people. Like for me, it’s incredibly easy to connect with somebody, it doesn’t matter who they are on LinkedIn, when they’re at least somehow active, because all I need to do is I go through their posts, I read through the LinkedIn profile, and then have a pretty good idea what they’re about and what’s most important to them. And that’s what I make my message about, I just I you know, I just I connect them and I relate to the things that I feel are most important to them. And that tends to open all the doors. So if I understand the why, and I’m able to communicate or reflect back to why or understanding somebody’s why, to me, that opens the door to everything.
Gregorio Uglioni 28:32
Thank you, Daniel. And as usual, I’m not commenting your golden nugget because this is Daniel’s goldennugget. The last thing I want to say is thank you very much for joining my session. It was a great pleasure.
Daniel Jordi 28:45
Thank you, Greg, and also to the audience.
Gregorio Uglioni 28:48
Thank you very much. It was really a pleasure to have you on this show, to listen to the podcast to watch the webinar and the webcast. Thank you very much. grazie mille e arrivederci
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