SHOCEO® Reading for Success: 7 (Seven) Minutes.
For this edition of the She’s Her Own CEO® Interview Series, we are excited to introduce you to Paris-based Leadership Coach, Andrew Nowak!
Andrew Nowak is a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Europe Certified Executive & Team Stakeholder Centered Coach. Andrew’s mission is to help successful people achieve positive, lasting change in behavior for themselves, their people and their teams!
With over 35 years of experience in business as a teacher, trainer, consultant and executive coach, Andrew has helped hundreds of clients make millions in business, create jobs, retain valuable talent, build fantastic teams, and have a better, more meaningful life!
Kathryn Brooks, She’s Her Own CEO®: Hi Andrew, thanks for speaking with me today! Please share the early education and life experiences that have shaped who you are today.
Andrew Nowak, Leadership Coach: Hello, Kathryn. To introduce myself to your readers — I’m Andrew Nowak. I am 60 years old and hail from the UK. I am proud to be a Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coach.
I am based in Paris and have been since 1982, so I have spent more than half of my life in the City of Lights! Why Paris? Because when I was a boy, I remember sitting on my mother’s knee watching T.V. when a song called Michèle came on and I instantly fell in love with the language. From there I knew that I wanted to live in Paris, so that’s where I have ended up!
My mum and dad met during the War. He was a Polish spitfire pilot. As I speak with you, I realize I have no idea what mum was doing at the time, probably helping with the war effort! I was sent away to board at the age of 5 ½. Although this was quite traumatic at the time, I quickly learned two things:
- Enjoy it because you cannot change it; and
- Learn to survive!
My father died in a motorbike accident when I was 11. Having been shot down during the War 3 times and escaping back to England to fight the Nazis, he had always had a thing for speed and danger. It’s a true miracle I was ever born at all! I only realized this much later.
Immediately after graduating with a degree in Humanities (French, Politics, and Philosophy), I moved to Paris. I continued living rather a bohemian existence, moving in artistic circles which was a real eye-opener for someone so young. It was an eye-opener because of the cut-throat competition that exists in artistic circles. One had to see it up close to fully appreciate! One always imagines that these types are all buddies and wouldn’t do anything to hurt their fellow artists!
I met some truly fascinating characters including André Breton, the Pope of Surrealism, who was fiercely weird or at least came over that way for his 
gobsmacked admirers! I was drifting and learning at the same time.
I was broke and yet rich from learning and being around immensely creative and successful people! I genuinely believe that this rather long “lost weekend” helps me today in my coaching corporate executives because none of them are as zany as some of the characters I met early on when I was starting out. It also allows me to see the hidden, creative, more fragile side in these executives.
Kathryn Brooks, She’s Her Own CEO®: Those were some rich formative experiences! Andrew, what have you learned most about the leaders you have helped in your practice?
Andrew Nowak, Leadership Coach: Often I think leaders would prefer to be artists than working in offices all day. Hence the importance of Work is Love Made Visible. This wonderful book, by some of the world’s best specialists, shows people how to bring “love” into the workplace. A lot of art is about challenging the status quo.
In today’s world of extremely rapid change of pace and disruption, challenging the “sacred cows” is a must. Leaders who ask themselves, “Am I right?” are not asking themselves the right question. The right question today is, “How do I know I am right?” That means leaders have to get out of the way and ask themselves another vital question: “How can I be a better leader”? …and be more willing to seek diversity of sources of ideas…something that is central in Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching!
In strictly career terms, I started teaching English in one of Paris’ top lycées. Some of these kids would go on to become elite members of the French Establishment going to the ferociously competitive Grandes Ecoles and on to top jobs in CAC 40 bluechips and the Administration.
From my teaching career, I moved into the training sector and quickly set up my own business as a consultant, assisting senior executives deal with whatever needs they had working in international markets. This was fascinating, as I was able to work in many sectors, learning the ins and outs of all sorts of businesses, in all sorts of contexts, with some truly great people who have taught me far more than I could teach them!
From consulting I have gone into coaching. This is where I discovered Marshall’s work, which had an immediate, positive impact on my life and on the lives of my clients as I immediately used his teachings in my sessions.
Kathryn Brooks, She’s Her Own CEO®: Tell me more about your work with Marshall Goldsmith.
Andrew Nowak, Leadership Coach: Over the years I have helped hundreds of clients add financial value to their businesses AND to improve their organizations’ culture. How do I know this? Many people now ask me to mentor them as I show them the power of Marshall’s work and the MGSCC process. My aim is to carry on with this mission until I drop! Of course, there are other coaches out there doing a great job but none, in my opinion, have the Courage, Humility, Discipline AND Generosity that our mentor demonstrates every day.
Let me just illustrate what I witnessed last November in Amsterdam and Portugal. Marshall invited a group of coaches to a leadership seminar where he was to be the “warm-up act” for Barack Obama. Marshall hosted a 1,000 € per ticket breakfast at his hotel at 8:00am. He then went on to give a great performance in front of an audience of 3,000 people. After the event, around 8:00pm, he was doing selfies with attendees, including young children! He must have been exhausted and yet he kept smiling and doing selfies before being whisked off for a well-deserved rest. I went to see him a couple of weeks later in Portugal. I mentioned the story to the other attendees at lunch, which Marshall had with us (he could easily have gone off on his own for a breather). Do you know what he said? “Thank you, Andrew, for mentioning it.” His manner was one of extreme humility.
One thing I am grateful to Marshall for is teaching me the power of thanks and gratitude, genuine thanks and genuine gratitude. This is why I am a part of the MGEuropean 100 Coaches group. I want to pay back the positive lessons Marshall has taught me through his authentic, positive wisdom! I have already “converted” at least a hundred people to this LIFE IS GOOD methodology! There are many more to go! So many business leaders are caught up in their own egos that they have stopped listening to their authentic selves, or their inner artists, as I sometimes call it. These people were influenced by artists growing up. Reconnecting with those influences can help them be their authentic selves again, when they were “freer”.
Kathryn Brooks, She’s Her Own CEO®: Any final leadership perspectives you would like to share?
Andrew Nowak, Leadership Coach: Once the leader has reached the top of the pile, the most meaning
ful thing he or she can do is spread happiness around. The most successful leader wants to do this to create a positive legacy. Typically, the lives of 40 people improve as a result of 1 leader’s decision to follow a MGSCC coaching course.
The mighty Peter Drucker, the father of modern management said,
“Our mission in life is to make a positive difference. Not prove we are right. Not prove we are smart.”
Anyone who is interested in making a positive difference can and probably will have a meaningful life. Successful leaders, I believe, have this at the top of their list.
Kathryn Brooks, She’s Her Own CEO: Andrew, thank you for so candidly sharing your experiences, your leadership perspectives, and your positive energy! Learn more about Andrew’s work:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-nowak-8402a819/
19 Rue D’Aumale
75009 Paris
0033611762669
Looking for even more #CEO Insights? Check out my other interviews and be sure you’re subscribed below!
xx Kathryn
One Response
Rob Burgner
Fascinating story! Paris is my favorite city as well, and I appreciate the insight into how important the “inner artist” and creativity is to becoming a great executive. In a world that has come to value left-brain activities and specialization it’s refreshing to see a different take on achieving true success.