Season 4 Ep. 8- Your Inner Compass

🎙️ Season 4 | Your Inner Compass with Anil Erkan
In a world full of noise, pressure, and constant demands, the most powerful leadership tool isn’t external, it’s internal.

In this meaningful Season 4 episode of the Transformation Station Leadership Podcast, I’m joined by Anil Erkan to explore what it truly means to lead from your inner compass. We dive into how self-awareness, values, and inner alignment shape the decisions leaders make and the impact they create.

This conversation is a powerful reminder that clarity doesn’t come from doing more, it comes from getting grounded in who you are and what you stand for. When leaders trust their inner guidance, they lead with greater confidence, authenticity, and purpose.

If you’re ready to move beyond external pressure and lead from a place of truth and alignment, this episode will speak directly to you.

Learn more about Anil Erkan:
Website: https://anilerkan.com
LinkedIn:   / anilerkan  

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Until next time, stand tall, step bold, and own your transformation.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Leadership is not just about what you achieve. It's about how you think, how you respond, and how you grow through every challenge. The leaders that create lasting impact are the ones who are always willing to evolve, adapt, and lead with every intention. Come on, let's go ahead and get this conversation started. We lead it, we live it, and we ignite it in others. I'm your host, Adrian Benson, and today we're diving into a powerful conversation. That's right, we're talking about our inner compass. And today I have an amazing guest, a leader who brings insight and experience and perspective on what it truly takes to grow, adapt, and lead effectively in today's environment. And before we get this conversation started, I just want to remind you to join us every Monday and Wednesday here on Transformation Station. Every Monday and Wednesday, we have amazing leadership conversations with gurus, experts who have been leading for quite a long time, and they share with us wisdom and tips that we can utilize today to remain effective as leaders. Well, today I have the honor of having Anil Erkhan. He's with us today. He is a coach with a rich international and multicultural background that forms his approach to coaching with over 25 years in the corporate world and a commendable tenure in coaching since 2018. He has a wide array of experiences that we're going to draw from today. He has over 2,500 hours of coaching experience. We are in for a treat today. Anil, I want to say thank you so much for joining us here on Transformation Station. It's a pleasure to have you as our guest today.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Absolutely. So as I was preparing for this conversation, you know, Anil, I was thinking to myself, leadership growth, it often begins with awareness. It begins with us, you know, the leader recognizing something needs to shift, something needs to be strengthened, or sometimes something needs to be released. So I want to start off by asking you this question What does your inner compass mean in the context of leadership? And and in the what why do so many leaders lose connection with their inner compass as they grow in responsibility?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. It's it's a very, very important question and a good place to start. So the inner compass is the part of us that really knows before the strategy deck is ready, before the committee weighs in, what's actually really true. It's your values, it's your instincts, your sense of what kind of leader you want to be, not just kind of the leader that the role demands from you. And coming to the connection part that you just asked is the reason so many leaders lose connection with it is surprisingly simple, actually. They get rewarded for adapting. So every step up the ladder they go, uh, it the ladder requires new uh expectations to be met. Yes, they have to read the new rooms, they have to adjust to new cultures, and that has worked for a while, especially you know, in the beginning stages until they become at a certain seniority level. But at some point, that adaptation starts to feel like armor, you know. You're still performing the role, you've just lost the thread back to yourself, to your inner compass.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

This is really good. You know, here on Transformation Station, we give our listeners and our viewers an opportunity to stop and to perceive and understand what is resonating with them. And so, to everybody right now, I'm inviting you to stop and assess, you know, and he's already giving us like a masterclass right here. Why do you find that you have lost connection from time to time? This question is for every leader that's listening and watching right now. And I'm inviting you to share with us in the chat right now. Go ahead and put it in the comments. What's resonating with you? What has caused you to lose connection? You know, as you were talking, I was thinking to myself, it is so true that as we move forward in seniority, as we gain that experience, we do learn how to adapt and conform to what we perceive is required. And many times, if we're not careful or aware, that becomes our identity and we lose the connection with our values. You are so right. And to every leader that's listening, you know, we have a best practice that we want to share with you. Schedule regular reflection time to reconnect with your values, your purpose, and long-term vision. That could look like maybe on Sunday morning, you take 10, 15 minutes and you just sit. That could look like at the end of every day, you just take five minutes, 10 minutes before you walk out the door to say, Let me stop, let me reflect, let me reconnect with purpose, let me see what's important right now. I want to ask you this question: How can leaders learn to distinguish between this is important, external pressure and internal alignment when we have to make important decisions?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Yeah, yeah, these are all very, very uh important areas to cover and actually some of the areas that we work on with leaders. So one of the most clear signals is the external pressure. External pressure has urgency. Now, internal alignment has gravity. So the external pressure that has urgency is actually sending signals to you saying that you have to, you have to, you have to do that. Alignment says this is true, this is this is what's going on. So when a decision comes from alignment, there is a quiet steadiness to it, even when it's difficult, but when it comes from pressure, there is often a subtle anxiety underneath, like a sense of going through motions. So I I invite leaders to slow down enough to notice the difference.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

You know, why why does external pressure often feel so urgent or reactive?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yeah, it's actually tied to the adaptive part that we had discussed, because when we have adapted, we have formed, as you have also mentioned, an identity. And so our identity is actually what creates that pressure to conform to that request. So if we were a very simple example, if we were um always meeting deadlines and we were pressured to meet deadlines, and although we don't believe in meeting that deadline for a number of reasons, we will still feel pressured to do so because we have learned, taught ourselves, let's say, to be on time, because being on time has helped us go up the ranks. So it feels very misaligned, not it feels the pressure that oh, if I you know set a boundary or say no to this deadline, it might uh have consequences. Whereas I, if I'm myself, if I believe in the reality of that deadline is going to cause quality issues or other aspects, I have to you know bring that outside and be true to myself to make now I might get the new deadline or not, but at least internally I will be much more in a more peaceful place, if that makes sense. So this also connects to your happiness or you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Your happiness, your contentment, your feeling of inner peace, or even what you project um as well. I love this. So, you know, a best practice that we want to share with the leaders is pause before making major decisions and ask, is this driven by urgency or is this driven by alignment? You know, a little a nail, I had a leader that was talking to me um not too long ago, and they were telling me, you know, Adrian, when when that email comes to you and it triggers something, like don't answer right away and hit send pause, take a pause, walk away if you have to, look at something else, and then come back and read it again so that your response is not reactive, but your response is more thoughtful and focused.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Exactly. So true.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yes, yeah, leaders, what are your best practices? Share with us what are your best practices when you find yourself at that tension point of external pressure and internal alignment? We want to hear from you. Put it in the comment section, we'll share it on one of our episodes coming up. So I want to ask you this question What are the warning signs that a leader has drifted away from their inner compass, even if they appear, and this is this happens all the time, even if they appear to be successful on the surface?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, yeah. Uh again, this is uh an area which uh comes up a lot when I first meet with leaders. When they come to me for a discovery call or they want to work with me, they have this uneasiness, but they can't really name it or place it. And this is actually one of the most uh dangerous uh kind, which is the quiet kind. So you're still delivering, you're still getting promoted, but internally something has shifted, you know. So the warning signs that I can uh list that I see most often can be uh the adaptation feels like a mask, like it's not really genuine. It's still there, you're able to use the mask, but it doesn't really feel 100%, it doesn't feel you, it feels alienated. Yes, you're always in motion, but there is no clarity to it, you're just like running, and so it's not really clear. You're running because you're from a you're running from an automated place, let's say. Um, and it's more about uh meeting expectations from you know the stakeholders from higher up or yeah, from the other uh colleagues or you know, third parties, even so those are the I can stay there. Are some few others, but I think these are the uh main ones that so and the reason why I told tell them as quiet, I explain them as quiet is because those feelings are not easy to name, like when you have the mask and you can't take it off. Yeah, it's not really easy to to put a finger on that um or the expectations parts. So um having some help, having to work on those to get them to the surface uh really starts to to make a difference and understand what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah, this is so important because many leaders wrestle with this, right? That drifting away. Um, you know, I've done countless coaching, and one of one one topic that comes up consistently is I'm there, like I'm doing what I need to get done, but I'm not there.

unknown 14:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

And you know, you talked about some of the signs, right? Feeling disconnected, constantly second guessing your decisions, right? Your stress. You know, I've had many uh coaching, man, many clients, you know, talk about their shoulders and how you know physiologically they like they they just get in a parking lot and and their body starts to tense up, right? Loss of fulfillment, doing the work, no connection, no sense of purpose or meaning or value, just going through the motions. And again, leaders, we remind you to do regular self-checks. Be aware of your energy level, be aware of if you are able to get rest or if your mind is always running. This is important. So, you know, your coaching framework emphasizes knowledge and intentionality and self-awareness. Can you elaborate on these three elements together uh to help foster development in leaders?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yes, thank you for that. So, this is actually the heart of what I have uh over the years developed because coaching is actually a practice of primarily, ideally, it's a practice of self-awareness. But and self-awareness is a very good place to start because why you can surface the beliefs, the patterns, and the blind spots, but we still need the knowledge. Knowledge gives you the frameworks and tools to understand what you're seeing, and intentionality is the bridge between the insight and the action, so the deliberate choice to lead differently, but not just to think differently. So when we have the self-awareness, we understand what's making us get stuck, but we need to understand what kind of framework we can use here or what kind of knowledge we need, and the intentionality is the intentionality put it in place. Now, why do I choose intentionality as a word and not motivation? Because sometimes this is a bit um used like in in place of each other, but it's not really the same. You don't need to be, you don't need to have motivation to be intentional. Motivation is a is a spurt of energy generally, but intentionality is much more long term. So I might not be motivated to go to the gym, but my intentionality will take me there if I want to be you know healthy. So that's why intentionality is is very uh critical here. So without self-awareness, knowledge stays theoretical. Without intentionality, awareness stays comfortable but inert. So what I find with senior leaders is that knowledge is rarely the gap. They they generally know the frameworks or what they are supposed to do, or maybe sometimes there's some gaps, but it's not big. The gap is usually the necessary courage to to look inside and to get that self-awareness to really see what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, the gap is the knowledge, is the courage to look inside to see what's going on. Why do you find that that's a tension point? Why is that a tension point having the courage?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Well, yeah, because it's painful. So sometimes when we see it, like in my corporate days, my main I had a main belief. My main belief was if I work hard and I will I wasn't very good in corporate, you know, company politics and things like that. So, but my my belief was if I work hard and I deliver results, sooner or later I'll go up the ranks, which is maybe a naive belief. But if I know this belief, if I had known this belief at the time, I could have worked around it. But if I would have known this belief, it's going to hurt. So looking inside is not um easy. So the courage part is definitely necessary.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Yeah, yeah. This is good. This is good. This is like a masterclass, right? Here, this is really good.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

We have to have the courage to look inside and not be afraid of what we find, right? But use it as fertilizer to be able to grow. Yeah, this is great.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

So, this is why I always also myself take coaching because I also know how hard it is to be sitting in the coaching uh seat. Because when you sit in a coaching seat and you really want to change, that's that's not easy. Like that's already a very courageous first step. Um, and so in order to empathize, I also get coaching time to time whenever I I feel the need, but it also helps me to connect to to the people that I work with. But courage is definitely something I try to nurture because it's not a static uh element in people.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm a firm believer that we never get to the place where we have arrived, we should be forever learners, right? Always learning, always challenging ourselves to grow. So I love that illustration that you gave us just now. Thank you so much for sharing that. How does leading from our inner compass change the way we show up in our decisions, our relationships, and overall impact?

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yeah, yeah. So this is uh one of the most critical areas because once we can cultivate the self-awareness and become more self-aware in our day-to-day, what happens is the way you show up starts to change. So even when you like the main belief, in especially in the Western world, is that the more we speak, the more we say things, the more we can create influence or create impact, which is not true. You can you can have impact and influence with speaking less, or even just being a very good listener, but just being very uh with yourself, your influence becomes into comes into action without force or without uh pushing it. So you earn the trust not by managing your image, but being yourself in in a way. Um, in decisions, it means you're responding rather than reacting, as you had also pointed out, the reacting part. So uh it means people can pick up on the difference between someone performing a leadership role versus being a leader, yes, yes, yeah. So that's that's the main uh change there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

So two two, I want to ask you two more questions. I'm gonna skip a little bit. Here's one I want to ask you what daily practices, because I know somebody's listening and watching right now, and they're like, Okay, I'm with you. I but but what do I do? What daily practices help leaders to strengthen our ability to listen to our intuition, our values, and inner guidance?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah, yeah. So I am a big fan of writing or or journaling. So when I work with uh my clients, I try to instill the writing habit with them. And if they are interested. In a meditation habit as well. Why? Because these are the ones that can make the stronger connection to the self-awareness parts. Because self-awareness is generally taught as something you do in the moment, which is true. But in order to get there, you have to post-analyze it. So, what does that mean? If you write about the challenge you had in the meeting, it's going to have a deeper connection to your insight. So uh I generally like to instill, even if they're after our work is done, hopefully they continue the journaling. Um and I try to instill that habit. So I think that's the most one of the most important things, the reflection. Yes, does it have to be journaling? Maybe not. Meditation is also powerful, but the Western world uh meditation takes time, and people are a bit more they want to get results. Journaling is a bit faster, meditation is stronger in the long term, if that makes sense. I know we uh there's a lot of detail to unpack on that, but it's just too technical at this time to explain why is that the case. Um, so one other thing is that is very critical that I try to teach is the the body connection. Because whenever we have a reactionary moment which is coming from the identity or the ego, there is always a connection to the body. So either I'm holding, especially if it's a negative, if I'm anxious, if I'm uh you know, worried or something, either I will hold my breath, either I will tense up. It could be a number of things, right? So I try to teach body scans, even to do body scans during meetings, during dialogues, very quick, uh, you know, so to realize if I'm tensed up, what's making me tense in this moment? Is it something they said? Is it something that's going on? And then that can help me to snap out of that. I call it the autopilot. Then I can really say, Oh, okay, I'm I'm getting frustrated here, but let me just park this frustration and respond, whatever I need to respond. So those are the three things that I can say: the journaling, meditation, and the connection to the body through body uh scans.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Yeah, this is good. This is good stuff. All right, listeners and viewers, I know and I hope that you have been taking notes. And if you have not, you know what that means. It means you have to come back and watch this again. So, and as we turn the corner on this amazing conversation, I really am like I am enraptured in this conversation right now because I feel like we're just scratching the surface. But I want to ask you this final question: what's one key takeaway that you want every leader to understand about their inner world and connection to effective leadership? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah, so actually, at the end of each client program, uh I try to emphasize this as well. And so your inner world, our inner world, is not separate from your leadership. It is your leadership, your inner world is your leadership, the beliefs you carry, the patterns you repeat, the things you never stop to question, they shape every decision you make, every room you walk into, every person who works for you. So the most powerful investment a leader can make isn't like the knowledge, the new framework, or this executive program. It's the courage to look honestly at who you are, who they are, and close the gap between the person and the leader they know themselves to be.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Powerful. That was a very powerful way to end this podcast episode today. So listen, I know that there are leaders that are like, I need more of this. They want to be able to engage with your resources and really take another deeper dive into this conversation. How can we stay engaged with you?

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, so if they visit my website, my name lastname.com, anilarcon.com, um, and they can book a discovery call to have a deeper chat on what they're trying to achieve and what they're trying to do. And hopefully at the end, we can uh draft uh a program for them. But yeah, that's the way to go. My email is there, my LinkedIn is there, and and they can look at the programs. And if they're interested, I'll expect a discovery call. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Absolutely, I love it. So the link is here on the screen, it's also in the description box. I want to invite you to go ahead and click on that link, all the links, engage with Anel. And matter of fact, let him know that you saw that you heard this particular episode, share with him what has resonated with you and ask him questions because we believe that the community that learns together grows together. Annel, thank you so much for joining us today. It has been an absolute honor to have you here on Transformation Station.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

Absolutely. All right. Well, listen, this conversation reminded us that leadership is a journey of continuous growth, continuous awareness, and intentional action. And I know that this episode resonated with you and added value to you. So I'm inviting you right now to share it with a leader, your team, an organization that you're a part of that is ready to grow and transform. Matter of fact, use this episode to start off your staff meeting and have a staff discussion. Well, until next time, keep leading with purpose, growing through every experience, and continue your leadership transformation journey.