Name: Kim Groshek

Title: Founder and CEO

Oranisation: Pause Power Inc

Kim Groshek is #1 International Best Selling Author and the only female business consultant to receive the Women's Ambassador for Women in Africa. Known as the Pause Lady, she is the founder of Pause Power, Inc., and founder of Spring Soiree Scholarship Foundation. As a computer scientist and cognitive scientist, she once grappled with social media overload and the constant tethering to her smartphone. To break free from this cycle, she took a radical step—turning off her smartphone, deactivating her social media accounts, and unplugging for an entire year. This experience led her to discover the power of intentional pausing and reconnecting with herself.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Kim's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

In working with CEO's as an elite coach, I found they have Constant Decision Fatigue. These emotional and physical impacts underscore the interconnectedness of decision fatigue with overall well-being, emphasizing the importance of managing cognitive load for mental and emotional health.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

In the 1980s, immersed in the burgeoning fields of computer and cognitive science, I found my passion and began my journey from the trenches. As I built my own company, I embraced various roles, learning on the job and gradually assuming leadership and managerial responsibilities. Over the years, my path led me to spearhead significant change management initiatives for Fortune 100 companies, all while engaging in diverse creative pursuits, from directing a university play to producing a documentary, writing children's books, speaking at schools and women's leadership events, teaching part-time at the university, and even creating a STEM conceptual TV show. Through ups and downs, I honed my skills, faced challenges head-on, and persistently moved forward, one step at a time, embracing each moment as an opportunity to reach, stretch, and grow.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Get up early 5 am, swim at pool. Coffee chill. 8am start focused work, 4,3,2,1 calls and reach outs, networks, and interviews. Fulfilment with elite clients. Business building activities. Close out at 4 pm. Spend evening chilling, relaxing, walking, time with husband. Bed.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

I am the CEO and position myself and see myself in that role, also aligned to my CEO avatar.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

"Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds" profoundly shaped my leadership by inspiring a mindset of relentless perseverance and self-mastery. Through David Goggins' raw narrative of overcoming immense challenges, I learned to embrace discomfort, set audacious goals, and cultivate mental resilience. This book not only transformed my approach to leadership but instilled a determination to push beyond limits and defy the odds in every aspect of my life.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Embrace continuous learning, as adaptability and a hunger for knowledge will be your most valuable assets on the journey of leadership.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

People in large companies trusted me with bigger assignments due to my skills and persistence. It was liberating and allowed me to grow and perform in ways I never felt possible in a business environment. Not to say. However, I didn't have ups-and-downs and expansion and growth; but I had my own company, working for me for companies. The epiphany happened after I began a new consulting contract with a fortune-100 global company when someone new, a senior leader, saw my skills. The executive I worked with, became my mentor and told me his vision, and I implemented it. I mean, it was big stuff, the whole half of the entire Fortune 100 company's arm was almost ready to be amputated, going under. He allowed me to rediscover my power. And I took it. Lo and behold, this influential person, “me”. I had been there all along, even when I was in the hole, Dark Hole. It's not like I went from powerless to powerful and that was the end. There were still dark times. But, years later, the senior leader told me when we met for lunch, he said, "Kim, I don't know what you did." He said, "But that was very unusual for only two years to get all that in place. Usually, it takes longer, at least five, to stick." He said, “what you did stuck, just in two years, and it's still in place, to this day, three years later, is stuck, and is sticking." He informed me that I did a fantastic job. He always gave me such Kudos.