#642 Visionary Mindset & Skillset: Unlock Success with Tanja Bogataj

What does it take to truly become a visionary leader?

In this episode of Talking with the Experts, host Rose Davidson is joined by Tanja Bogataj, MM.Sc., a visionary leadership coach, consultant, and educator who empowers leaders to align mindset, skillset, and action for sustainable success.

Tanja shares her insights on how leaders can unlock their inner visionary potential, cultivate resilience, and adopt strategies that create long-term impact. Drawing on her 25+ years of experience across law, public policy, management, and leadership, she brings a unique blend of practical wisdom and academic expertise to help leaders navigate complexity and drive meaningful results.

Listeners will discover how to develop a resilient visionary mindset, learn three proven strategies to leverage their visionary skillset, and gain tools to confidently step into leadership roles that shape the future.

If you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or leader seeking clarity and confidence, this conversation will show you how to transform your approach to leadership and success. 

🔗 CONNECT WITH TANJA

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanjabogatajcoaching/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanjabogatajcoaching/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanjabogataj_coaching/

Website: https://www.tanjabogataj.com

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Chapters

• 4:28 Entrepreneurs often face burnout and lose passion after years of building their businesses, leading to questions about what comes next and requiring support to pivot, reinvent and develop new visions for the future.
• 6:27 Self-leadership serves as a prerequisite for effective leadership of others, requiring continuous learning and growth to become the leader that teams, visions and companies need today and in the future.
• 7:35 Three core strategies for developing visionary skill sets focus on identifying what blocks, blurs, or drains vision, as these factors limit potential for leaders, teams and companies.
• 8:30 Flipping the script involves examining situations with fresh eyes as if observing someone else's challenges, which expands awareness and creates opportunities for better actions and solutions.
• 10:45 Bridge metaphors help visualize the gap between current position and desired destination, requiring assessment of individual contributions to team stability and collective bridge-building efforts.
• 17:20 Maya Angelou's principle of doing your best with current knowledge and improving when you know better requires catching habitual behaviors and developing new ones to support desired futures.
• 22:09 Content creators provide valuable knowledge in accessible formats, helping overwhelmed leaders access coaching insights and inspiration during brief moments throughout their busy schedules.

Transcript

Intro | 00:00
Business insights on Talking with the Experts. Hosted by Rose Davidson. 

 Rose | 00:11
Ever wanted to know how to unlock your inner visionary potential or how to develop and cultivate a resilient visionary mindset? My next guest, Tanja Bogataj, is going to share with us three strategies to develop and leverage your visionary skill set. Welcome, Tanja, to Talking With The Experts. How are you today? Hi. 

 Tanja | 00:34
Thank you, Rose. Thank you for having me. I'm good, excited to have this time with you and your audience. Thank you. 

 Rose | 00:42
Wonderful. So you are a visionary leadership coach. A leadership consultant and educator at Amora Leadership with a background in law, public policy, management and leadership, and 25 years of professional experience in designing, developing and leading teams and projects. That is quite a lot to fit into 25 years. How have you managed it? 

 Tanja | 01:06
Well, like everyone, learning a lot, studying a lot, working a lot, experiencing and testing a lot, but learning from experience. From wins, from losses, from failures, but then finding the way how to do it better with different teams in different circumstances. But all I believe is just the learning. Opportunity, but then to find innovative ways how we can be better together and find better solution for today and even more for tomorrow. 

 Rose | 01:40
Absolutely. And what led you from, you know, law and public policy to being a, you know, a coach and leadership consultant? 

 Tanja | 01:50
Well, yeah, that was, I don't know, just a journey, I would say. You know, some things that... Come step by step. It's I wanted to be When I was, I started in public policy when I finished my law degree and very passionate about public policy, shared environment and how we impact each other and how we different stakeholders with often very opposite interests can be together, can cohabit and create better today and even more tomorrow. 
 So that led me further to explore in public policy, political sciences, management, to leadership. I was gravitating to leadership roles and I wanted to be a better communicator, better leader of better as myself, but how to communicate in leadership roles, and that led me to coaching. And in 2011, when I found it, I said, okay, that will be my profession someday. But eventually, I needed to develop as a leader grow as a leader, and I used coaching skills in leadership from when I was starting to learning it. And it led me... Nine years ago, I knew the point is coming up. In my previous career, things are starting to repeat, although it was challenging, demanding, always something new to create. But sometimes in public setting, you don't have... 
 So much freedom right what you can build and how to build it further on so I felt the moment that it will be a shifting moment. I needed to prepare myself for doing that, to really quit and starting as an entrepreneur, not knowing anything about it, but being successful. 
 Solid in how to be a professional coach, how to build a coaching practice. But a new life, new journey began eight years ago and a lot of learning in these past eight years. 
 So what's the business? Aspect of it, where to be, where to find the niche. And that led me to specialize in leadership coaching, in visionary leadership coaching and doing that right now. 

 Rose | 04:01
Wonderful. That's quite a journey for the last eight years and, you know, It's amazing how as we grow as a human, we change perspectives or change the design of our life by, you know, finding things that are more aligned with how we feel about life. Humanity at that particular moment in time. 

 Tanja | 04:28
Indeed. Indeed. It's... I would say... For me, Shifting into coaching role. And being so caught out of the system, supporting those who have leadership roles, teams in it, in the structure. It just helped me to get different lenses, how to perceive it. Where we have blind spots as leaders, it helped me become better leader, better leading myself. And that led me to develop content on visionary leadership and how much potential we I think drain, lose, because we just don't see better. We don't know how to do it better. We get caught up in the known, in the challenge. And I think for entrepreneurs, especially, it's important because the resources are Not that they are limited, but you need to be very wise how to manage it all. And often we forget about our own resources, right? Or about entrepreneurs, about themselves. 
 So that additionally led me how not to lose ourselves in it. And I help clients who have these challenges because often they face burnouts. They often say, I lost the passion. I gave it all. What's now? I don't know what to do after 20 years of working so hard to build this. What's next? 
 So I think here we come with additional knowledge, different perspective, different skills, how to pivot, how to reinvent and get a new vision ahead and get equipped for that journey ahead. So for me, that's a passion to explore it from personal journey, but then working with people and who else I can serve with that. 

 Rose | 06:17
It's really important too that we learn how to lead ourselves too because we can't be great leaders of other people if we can't lead ourselves. 

 Tanja | 06:27
Indeed, it's so strong, right? And often... Where we are trusted, the leadership role, it's just huge expectations. We're already doing that, right? We already know everything we need to just deliver and keep on delivering. 
 So often it's hard to then do the right process and we do transform through it. We do step into the role and grow with it, especially if there's something new that we're creating, a team that we need to develop and how we lead ourselves to be. A leader that team needs, that vision needs, and that company needs today, but even more so tomorrow and after tomorrow. 
 So it's all the time, I would say. Learning and growing up. 

 Rose | 07:15
Yeah, and, you know, it'll be interesting to hear your take on the three strategies that we need to use to develop and leverage our visionary skill set, because a lot of us don't. Have we don't take advantage of using those skills and so yeah I love you to share. 

 Tanja | 07:35
- Thank you. I'm just trying to help those that work with some simple solutions, right? Because the core business is to do the business, not to play around, to develop ourselves. This is the side thing that it's prerequisite and we need to do it. 
 So the three strategies that I would offer today is how to work with our vision, that we don't get stuck, that we don't get complacent, that we don't get drained by it if things are going a certain way. And it's more coaching questions behind it. First, what's blocking our vision? What's blurring our vision? And what's weighting down or draining our vision? Because all of that, it's.. Limiting us, our potential as leaders, but even as a team or as a company. And the strategies... And even more strategy behind the strategy, I play with the negative. It's scripts that we don't play. That we don't do. 
 So it's the vision that we would like to do, but then we shrink to what's possible. What's feasible, what we can do and all the time suffer with that. But that's the bigger thing that we want to do. There's the bigger thing that it's possible, but we just cannot do. 
 So this is something where we lose a lot of potential and where the visionary mindset and these unlocking the inner visionary, but that means we need to pause. We need to take some time with it. And in the schedule with the clients that I work with, I said, you just need to schedule in your, Sometimes within the week that you do some strategic thinking, that you just have some space in between, that you see the bigger picture where you're leading strategically, what you do with your resources, yourself, your team, and this is still aligned with the vision. And sometimes the short term entrepreneurs are awesome with that, right? To fix, to find solutions, to be resourceful where there's nothing to pick up. But often with the strategy, flip the script. Okay, it seemed descriptive like that, right? But if you just flip it, okay, what I'm not seeing, if I can see it with fresh eyes. If I see it today as something new, not mine, right? 
 Like observing on screen, I can see, okay, there's someone struggling today, someone who's stuck in some mindset, someone who doesn't see what's the next solution. And that gives us the new awareness, it expands us. It gives us the opportunity that we create the opportunity for better action to have this impact. And I mean, that's just the circle of one, right? But the scripts are something like we create stories, what's possible, what's not possible. 
 So this script really works well, because our mind is really strong, and we can flip it on a dime. It's but it's decision, and then it takes action that we do it, or we don't do it. But what we are aware of, we can change and what we are not. We cannot do much about it. 
 So this helps in a way. And the second I would recommend it works with metaphors, right? The strategy. And often is the bridge. And in coaching, we work where we are going, where we're currently at, and what's in a way the gap in between and how to address this gap, how we're going to manage this gap and who we will need to become to come from here to there. And the bridge analogy often works really well with everyone that I test these things or work with in whatever way, right? We can have different bridges, but it's just the analogy of how to come from one point to another. But often, what's the bridge? If we need to come together as a team, am I doing my part? How am I doing my part? How stable is my part of the bridge? And what we need to do together, either individually in relationships or in a team. And the same question in broader aspect as with the scripts not done, it's with the bridge, we sometimes don't build bridge. We sometimes burn the bridges, right? And never rebuild a new one. 
 So, There are strategies where entrepreneurs... Could find new opportunities, find better solutions, or to see what's there available. But we might, I don't know, get so many rejections, so many it doesn't go through, that we just say, okay, this doesn't work. And we just leave it out there. And it's just a potential, right? We don't do it and it might go away. And the third strategy, I would say, is the future that you create. And it's what we create right now, like we are doing, right? Today, in this moment, we can create, we have all the resources that we need, that we can create different future. But often we create from what was yesterday. From the past, right? Often we limit ourselves what is possible in the future and what we're able to do in one year time, in five years time, in 10 years time. But all of these strategies, they bring new perspective, they open the space, they create the opportunity that we can find different actions, but it's up to us how we decide how we act and what we do with it. 
 So that was something simple to use. And everyone can apply it in their own way, how they see these, maybe metaphors to work with, or these visuals to work with, but mainly what to do with it, but pick one, right? It's not everything, just something that maybe inspires you today that's talks with you, that speaks to you today and just play around if there's something valuable for you and maybe can give you additional support for this week and after to find good solutions and maybe some new solutions. 

 Rose | 13:33
It's really important that we sort of don't live in the past and don't keep doing things because that's the way they've always been done. It's always good to revisit, I guess, strategies and the way we do things and, you know, look towards the future because especially now with AI being so prevalent in society, I think, you know, we have to change the way that we're doing things, you know, where the... Whether we're writing a blog or a newsletter or something, you know, retraining our staff or team members, you know, AI really has a role to play in all of that and will do in the future as it keeps growing and building, you know, on its memory. But I think it's important that we know we don't just live in the past or just for today, but we have to make plans for the future. And this is where, as you say, your vision comes into it. And what do we want the business to look like? What do we want ourselves to look like? 
 So I think, you know, Using a visionary leadership is a good thing to have within an organisation. 

 Tanja | 14:46
Yeah, I would totally support this perspective and what you shared because I mean, If you don't have it in certain, it is the need to create something, right? What could be the opposite or the better or a new opportunity? And I think for entrepreneurs, This is like embedded in how They leave. But sometimes it's just day to day, right? That it's maybe training, it's maybe limiting this vision. 
 So it's just a good reminder, okay, lift up, right? Look up, or maybe connect with someone that can help you, I don't know, gain different perspective, or maybe just from the distance. 
 So this is what a vision and refreshed vision can do. And strategies, I really support what you shared, because we need to be agile and not to be afraid of. I like to run with personally leading myself with I think it's Kant saying the only one you need to be afraid of is yourself, right? Your thoughts, your behaviors, your actions, your habits, everything else is figure out, well, we can do it, right? And learn how to be together and do something. 
 So not to into question. I would say to question what we know, what we think we know, our successful ways. We often say what got you here won't get you there. 
 So it's more like, is this still working for us? Is this still the best way to go about it? If there's a better way, what's the best way? That would be. 
 So just opening few easy coaching questions, self-coaching questions to just open up the space is this is still valid. A best way, how we can make a new way, just check one, two, three possibilities, so that we get variety, that we revise, that we refresh. This is important for the vision itself, but strategy is just aligning the vision, how to implement it and then do the action steps, right? And I think it's agility with ourselves. Yes. With self-leadership, leadership, but how we see vision and how we do our business nowadays, but then owning. I remember one coach said to me when I was stuck in it, I don't know, I said, I don't know, right, where I am somewhere in between. And he said, look, I said, I think I need to find what I don't know and go there. And he said, yeah, but it's important to acknowledge what you do know. 
 Right? And use that better. And I like in coaching to use Maya Angelou's quote. She said, today do as best as you know how to do. And when you know better, do better. And I found that we often don't do either of that, right? Don't do the best as we know how to do often. And when we know better, we don't do better. 
 So I think we are hardwired to do it in certain way, to leave our habits, our behavior. So just to catch ourselves on habits and behaviors, what kind of habit I need to maybe change a little bit to support the future we want to live in and develop? And what kind of behavior? I need to develop to support it, especially if we have a team to work with, right? Or in units, in families, in communities. I think it's that simple. It's a very human aspect of it, but it's work, it's decision, it's commitment to it, and it's daily practice, I would say. 

 Rose | 18:20
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, without change, we don't grow. And if we keep staying in our comfort zone all the time, we're not going to learn anything, we're not going to progress anywhere. And we're just going to stay stuck in the same old of doing the same old every day. And you know, that's not really life, is it? 

 Tanja | 18:39
It's a choice. I think if it reflects who we are authentically, if these are our values, principles, although if it's the same thing, we just know that there is just a certain audience for us that likes that will follow that. If you want to address something else, if we maybe need to shift something to be still relevant, to still be in a business, to still provide the value that the audience is searching for, then It's really not about us, right? We need to just own it and adjust if you want to stay on the market and deliver the word, the value that is required from us. But it's really personal, I think, decision and up to teams and companies what they want, where they want to be and how they want to serve. 

 Rose | 19:32
It was true, but if you're not adding or giving value to the... To your customers or clients, you know, and if you're just going to stay stuck in the same old mould all the time and just continue to be... There and not, doing anything. 
 I mean, you can't make your company better. Well, I don't think unless, you know, prepared to make changes of some type. 

 Tanja | 19:55
Yeah, I agree. And this is where the script's never done, right? It could be a nice vision, could be nice strategy, it could be a nice idea, let's go this way. But if you're not I don't know, sensitive enough. To acknowledge what's going around and how we need to adjust and who do we need to become to make this vision a reality or this strategy, it won't happen. 
 Right? So it could be a good strategy, but bad execution. It could be just old execution, but not really a good fit for what's needed. 
 So I think that's. Yeah, that's necessary in the market for entrepreneurs to find that. And that's why it's good to have some support to help you with that. It's often analogy I give with athletes, right? They have huge support team watching them, supporting them where they are at the, playground, courtyard, doing the thing, right? When you're in it, you just try to do your best. You don't see everything. 
 So that's why they have so strong support team to do all the other aspects. I think often entrepreneurs struggle with that. Small businesses, because they need to be savvy where they put resources, where they use the money. But often entrepreneurs, They might not succeed because of that or not grow where they want to be and not serve those that they are meant to serve. 
 So I think your point, it's even more important in that regard to change how we do business. Who is with us, how we build the support system so we can support the vision and the service that we need to deliver the added value to. 

 Rose | 21:36
Yeah, absolutely. I think support services is, you know, vital and it is hard as an entrepreneur, you know, you sometimes don't get that support, especially if you're doing it by yourself, where are you going to go to get the support that you need, you know? 
 You know, other than a coach or a mentor. And, you know, and if you can't afford to go down that road, you know, what other, you have to look within yourself and you have to, you know, why am I doing this? Is it, it's obviously not working. Let's try something else and just keep going. Plugging away until you find what's working. 

 Tanja | 22:09
Yeah, I want to acknowledge you and other content creators providing this knowledge in short snapshots, right? What's available for people, how they can work with maybe three easy strategies, just a foot for thought, right? To do it maybe differently. I think that's so important what you do. And I acknowledge after, I recall after the COVID, my clients who are Used to be like great leaders, always great responses, but they were struggling whether they were doing it good remotely, whether they will be able to be good leaders for their team, what they need in circumstances. And after that, they got fired. I was overwhelmed with all this online information and activity. They said, we cannot do the same coaching as we did before. Can you record yourself and just give me a thought of inspiration, one coaching question for the day. And when I wait in a queue for my child, when I do this, I can listen, I can partner up and then we do coaching session. And I found it so awesome that they reflected this back to me because then I was able to provide the service that they needed I would otherwise create a content do these exercises and but we figured out what they need and I think it's important what you're creating and others in podcasts and elsewhere because this is the knowledge this is the how-to you don't have to take any of it but could be just one thing in it that might help you that day or someone that you know and you can help with it So I think we need to make it lighter. Business is not easy and there are so many challenges, but these shifts and changes and changing our perspective. It's not huge action that it's needed, but sometimes it's the thought that we need to change, it's the belief that we need to change and it makes all the difference. 
 Sometimes just, yeah, it's possible. Yeah, there's a better way, right? We can find it, we will develop it. It's just the belief to go there and it can make all the difference. 
 And then it's easier to be committed to change the habit. Habits are hard to change, right? Put a lot of energy to develop them and then to change them. 
 So it starts with really what we choose to think, believe, and then with our decisions and then act upon. 

 Rose | 24:31
Absolutely. Now, if you want to find out more about Tanja or what she can offer you can find her on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and on her website at Tanjabogatai.com. And you would like to promote something today, Tanja? 

 Tanja | 24:47
I would offer the... We have open I call it mastermind group, but it's really group coaching on visionary leadership. It's visionary accelerator, but it's linked to a personal aspect, how you can grow as a leader, either for your business, for your team or just your life. 
 So it's coming up new group, new cohort in September. So everyone who's interested to get more information, please feel free to connect and I will provide you with more information and we launch you and your vision and your team in September. 

 Rose | 25:25
Can I find that on the website, Tanja? 

 Tanja | 25:28
Please connect with me on LinkedIn. The information for September will be coming up, but we keep informing on my LinkedIn profile and the company's page. I think that would be the best way to provide you with all the information that you need and where we start, what you need for and who will be together with you. 

 Rose | 25:50
Absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that information with us. It has been an absolute pleasure, Tanja. Thank you so much for sharing about visionary leadership. It's something that is not often talked about and is something that we all need to probably take a bit more interest in. 

 Tanja | 26:09
Yeah, thank you so much, Rose. And thank you for the inspiration and having me here and sharing this with your audience. All the best to you and all of you. 

 Rose | 26:18
It's my pleasure. Bye for now. 

 Tanja | 26:20
Thank you. Bye-bye. 

 Outro | 26:22
You've been listening to Talking With The Experts, hosted by Rose Davidson. Make sure you have a look at our back catalogue over at talkingwiththeexperts.com. And be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss out on any episode. We look forward to your company next time.