We recently connected with Paul Jan Zdunek and have shared our conversation below.

Paul Jan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

In graduate school, I majored in orchestral conducting. Every week we had to stand in front of our peers and be the maestro – the teacher – even though we were there to learn ourselves. To be able to lead those who are just as talented, if not more so, than you, was a lesson in humility – one that I still use today.

As leaders, we need to come from a place of being centered in our craft and our skills, but also from a place of learning from others, no matter who they are. Leadership is a team sport, not a solo one.

Additionally, as a conductor, you have to lead without saying much, if anything at all. You have to draw on your intuitive leadership skills and get others to follow by creating a sense of purpose, trust, and inspiration. By being fully engaged in the moment, we can achieve a heightened sense of being and focus which will provide others with a centeredness that is essential for personal and professional success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I serve as the Chief Operating Officer at Miller Kaplan, a Top-100 Accounting & Business Advisory Firm in the US, and Partner at Tipping Point Strategists, a consulting firm focused on transforming organizations through its foundational approach of Purpose, People, and Place.

After a decade-long career as an orchestra conductor, I bring over 20 years of C-Suite experience providing business leadership and advisory services to both for profit companies and charitable organizations. I have been a business turnaround advisor, change management leader, and interim qexecutive for institutions requiring financial or organizational revitalization. I am often engaged by organizations needing transformational services to address financial decline, organizational inefficiencies, human capital challenges, and leadership conflicts.

My expertise includes organizational and leadership development, change management, conflict and crisis resolution, complex facilitation, personal and professional coaching, as well as stakeholder management.

I am a PROSCI® Certified Change Management Professional and Certified Exit Planning Advisor, CEPA®. I have taught at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, as well as within the graduate Arts Administration program at Goucher College in Maryland and continue to deliver keynote speeches at industry conferences and executive retreats, including TEDx, on the topics of organizational transformation, sustainable success, and personal & professional drivers.

I served as a Mentor-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins University and continue as a Mentor to JHU students and alums within the OneHop program. I teach executive courses within the Technical Management Program at UCLA and the Odyssey Lifelong Learning Program at Johns Hopkins University.

I hold a Bachelor of Music in Composition from The Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, a Master of Music in Conducting from The Cleveland Institute of Music, and an Executive MBA from The Claremont University Peter F. Drucker School of Management.

As a musician, I led or collaborated with The Baltimore Chamber Chorale, The Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Opera Vivente!, Minnesota Opera, The Dale Warland Singers, The American Composers Forum, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. I received the P. Bruce Blair Prize in Composition and ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Jamboree Records produced a recording of live performances I conducted with The Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies titled Classics for Kidz by Kidz available on Amazon and Spotify.

I am an award-winning co-author of a book on cultivating GREY LEADERSHIP® titled Cowboys & Conductors: Conversations on Horseman-Humanship.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This is the subject of my next book and of my current TEDx talk. After spending over twenty five years training in and working in music as a conductor, I decided to pivot to a career in business. How I did that is by understanding what my Defining-Driver and Superest-Power is and figuring how to translate that to my Market Value.

Our Defining-Driver is formed by a childhood Demon or Stressor. If we course-correct or exorcise our Demon, we can shape our Defining-Driver for success both personally and professionally.

Additionally, if we can identify our Superest-Power – something we do better than anyone else, or differently than anyone else – we can differentiate ourself from others and from our competition.

These two things will help drive our Market Value and provide us with the resources for our personal and professional success.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What helps build your reputation in any market is adding value and delivering on what you say you will.

Additionally, being authentic in your professional and personal relationships will set you above the rest. Engage with people before you need them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pauljanzdunek.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauljanzdunek/

Image Credits
They are my own