Marc Pitman: Welcome to the Concord Leaders Podcast. I’m Marc Pitman, the CEO of the Concord Leadership Group, where we’re helping leaders keep focus and move forward through these trying times. Today our guest is Mirjam Adolphi. She’s the founder and executive director of the Children’s Embassy, and I am so excited to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for saying yes.

Mirjam Adolphi: Thank you, thank you. That’s fun.

Marc Pitman: We’ve known each other online for years, we still haven’t yet met face to face, but I am a big admirer of yours. I’d love to see what you’ve been doing — based out of Sweden. Tell me, for listeners to just understand a little bit, you communicate your work in — is it three different languages?

Mirjam Adolphi: Yes, it’s Finnish, Swedish, English, Russian, Ukrainian.

Marc Pitman: Five.

Mirjam Adolphi: Five.

Marc Pitman: And so you create different websites for each audience too, is that right?

Mirjam Adolphi: Yes, yes, because we really believe — or I believe — that traditions and cultures are so different, so you need to start trying to express things in their ways. And sometimes it’s like seasoning, putting some Ukrainian stuff within the Swedish, English, and Finnish stuff.

Marc Pitman: Sure. So, I’ll explain to people also what you do, if you could.

Mirjam Adolphi: I try to do it very — I’ll do it in my own way. It is that we are helping children who would end up on living streets. It’s very difficult to understand, but we actually started with helping three children. And then, now, we are helping very, very, very poor people, where the children would probably run out to the streets.

Marc Pitman: That’s great. Well, I think of you as a really effective leader. What do you like the most about leading?

Mirjam Adolphi: I have been thinking about this question, and I came to that — that to really understand it, you need to understand why, and to understand my own why — why I am doing it, and why I’m leading the charity 29 years in Ukraine, in a country like that. And when we normally talk, we talk about what we are doing, how we are doing it, when we do it, and also with whom. But the real thing is to understand why I am doing it. And I think it comes to that — we are like a mirror. And I think that you, and everybody else, has seen or remembers somebody from their school times. I had a teacher in biology, and she really affected the whole school — it was like an epidemic, not like Corona, but it was an epidemic. When we came to school, first class, she gave us her books about biology, and she said, “You don’t need them, I will teach you everything,” but if you were interested, look then. And she was so inspiring, and she so much loved the subject she was teaching, so we had several, several clubs about biology. And it was because she had the why she was doing that. She was also playing chess with us kids. And even today, when I’m really tired of problems and my head is really like, “Wow, wow,” I play chess to relax. And it was inspired by that teacher. And it’s like that — the people we meet, we are like mirrors to one another. And that has helped me also, because most of our team members, they are former street children. And for me, it’s easier to start understanding their why, why they are doing this work. And I think it has a lot to do with understanding what they have been — they have been hungry, they haven’t been going to school because they didn’t have the clothes, they didn’t have the shoes, they have been mistreated in many, many ways. And they really have the heart to help other children so that they would never enter into that. And that is why — what is so important. And right now, Ukraine is in war. And to really understand — it’s not only the poverty, it’s the lack of everything. There are about two million people who are internal migrants, and we also help them. And to really understand — it’s easy to understand, okay, I understand the world, street children, but how is it to be a street child? How is it to be a child who has experienced war? I have made a little sound thing for you.

Marc Pitman: Okay.

Mirjam Adolphi: [Sound plays] War is strange. So it was only that — hearing the voices and being scared. And these kids, when they lived on the streets, they were scared. And today, leading them, it gives great joy. And I believe that they will become good leaders in the future.

Marc Pitman: Wow. Well, you’ve been at this for a while — you said 29 years?

Mirjam Adolphi: Yes.

Marc Pitman: So we all know that leadership doesn’t always go as planned. When was a time that you tried something that didn’t work out?

Mirjam Adolphi: Many times. Because it’s very easy to hold on to things that you have already done, and then the changes come — and they are always coming. It’s a question of how you take the changes. I am a believer, and I think in the Bible there is a good expression: every time and everything has its time. And the most difficult is letting go when things are getting different. When we started to work with children on the streets only, we didn’t have any office, we didn’t have any place — we were there where the children were, together with our two dogs. Then the time changed, we got a rehabilitation center. Then the time and the rules and laws changed again, and we could have a private children’s home. Then it changed again, and they were about to throw us out of Ukraine. Time changed again, and then I really felt, okay, I want to give up — but when I remembered and saw our leaders, coming leaders, and the kids, I knew why I needed to stay there. So we started everything new, and the most difficult thing was letting the old go — the things we had been doing for so long. And we loved to do that, and we did a good job, and the children had a home with us. And letting all that go, it was painful.

Marc Pitman: I bet. And so now, you let go of certain things, but you adapted to the new.

Mirjam Adolphi: Yeah, we started anew, and it took — I must be very honest — it took about two years until we really could let go, that we are no longer a children’s home, that we are a children’s “other home,” when there is a storm in a child’s life. So we could have them with us, they could have somewhere to go. And nowadays, we help the children and the families so that they would never, ever enter into the streets, or they would never, ever enter into an institution or a children’s home.

Marc Pitman: Wow, that is powerful. It reminds me of your saying about understanding your why, and understanding the why of the people around you. Have you found, over the years, any tools or methods that could help some of the people listening to this discover their own why?

Mirjam Adolphi: I think the main thing is asking why you are doing what you do. To be really honest, it took a very long time for me to find out why I am doing this, because it’s not always so easy. It’s not bringing you glory, and it’s not giving you money, and sometimes you are a hero and sometimes you are a crook — you just need to leave the country. So you really need to have a very, very strong why.

Marc Pitman: Yeah, that reminds me of pastoring a church for four years. I realized how bad a leader I was, but people were very quick to tell me I was missing God’s voice and doing everything wrong. Some people — not everybody.

Mirjam Adolphi: I was also thinking about this, because people who are in those situations, they are survivors. And there is a Jewish philosopher who spoke about people who are extraordinary, who have survived something very, very difficult. I will put one more sound here.

Marc Pitman: Okay.

Mirjam Adolphi: [Sound plays] You probably recognize this. [Music] Édith Piaf.

Marc Pitman: I’m sorry, Édith Piaf? What does that mean?

Mirjam Adolphi: Édith Piaf, she was a singer. And her grandmother was keeping the prostitutes, and they took care of Édith Piaf. Charlie Chaplin, he was dancing on the streets and gathering money for the family to survive. Stephen Hawking’s theoretical journey — he has made something for this earth, for these people, for this world.

Marc Pitman: Wow. And you’re right about surviving — even the Holocaust — it was finding that reason, why. What is it you’re living for?

Mirjam Adolphi: Yes. And even it doesn’t matter what the situation is, you can always keep the life growing out from you, and you can live differently when you know what your why is.

Marc Pitman: That’s great. Well, Mirjam, I’m so inspired. I could definitely listen to this over and over, and I know others will. Where can people find you, or find out more about your work?

Mirjam Adolphi: We have a website, Children’s Embassy, but it’s right now hacked. That happens all the time — something goes wrong. If it’s not technique, it’s the administration, or it’s the money, or some problems, or it’s the police. Sometimes I have been taken to the police stations, being there with the kids. I have been in civil wars three times, and when you are in those, you find your why you are doing these things. So now I don’t know why the site is hacked, but we are on Facebook, we are on Instagram, and hopefully this problem will be solved with the Children’s Embassy site. So it’s Children’s Embassy dot com, on both Facebook and Instagram — Children’s Embassy Ukraine on Instagram.

Marc Pitman: I think I know what you’re going to say, but if there’s one thing the listeners would do listening to this, what would you suggest they do?

Mirjam Adolphi: I think they should find their why, and then help their staff find their why. Because people do great work, but if you don’t know why, that’s everything.

Marc Pitman: Wonderful. Mirjam, thank you so much for being a guest on this episode of Concord Leaders Podcast. I know that people will want — if you’re not listening to this in your favorite podcatcher yet, you can catch all the episodes from season one and this season at concordleadershipgroup.com/podcasts, with an S. Please, if you’re listening to this on a podcast app, please rate and review the podcast — it helps other people find it. And until next time, remember that healthy organizations start with healthy leaders.