One More Move: What will you let go?

Posted on by Zinga H

Like a lion sleeping in the grass even the most competitive of entrepreneurs have to let go sometimes.

Just like in the Free Your Team article we must free ourselves from the burdens that hold us back from success. What can you think of in your personal, spiritual, business or community life that you wish would just go away. With our current times of ever more visible violence, deception,  and distrust we need to constantly feed on positive sensations to manage the stress of simply being in the 21st century. Now that millennials have emerged in the workforce and are slowly becoming parents, the same old song and dance starts to wear thin on our history’s books. That goes for our personal lives as well. I confess this is the seventh blog I’ve started. It has taken that many tries to fully commit to the idea that I am meant to write for the rest of my life. My true passion is to write.  Like a lifelong love that is always nagging at my spirit.

How do you envision your passions? We can discuss below. 

So here we are, where we will claim our authentic success together. In order to hold on to these values, ethics, and beliefs that build our leadership we have to make space by letting go. This means dropping safety nets and, as Daymond John would say, taking affordable steps. At heart, this is the philosophy of One More Move. Taking conscious time to connect with our inner compass and ensure we find happiness with the decisions we take.

So here’s a tiny way to practice letting go. Find a junk drawer or go through your closet. Completely clean it out and only keep what you need. Get rid of at minimum 75% of what you have. You can give it away, sell it, or have it recycled. Use Craigslist, Facebook, or even your local post office for distribution. When your done admire the clarity you created in the space. Letting go allows us to have space to accept things we truly want in our lives. Release wisely.

That’s it for this Monday! I hope you all have a great night. 

Solution Saturday: Breakthrough Moments

Posted on by Zinga H

 

Where your fears dwell is where your breakthroughs emerge.

The LeadershipFreak writes an excellent motivational article on recognizing and facilitating breakthrough moments with your self and your team. Entrepreneurs and business leaders live with uncertainty everyday. We all do in fact. Either we can try to escape or we can share and grow ways to continue molding our future’s vision of success.

Source: Solution Saturday: Breakthrough Moments

 

 

 

One More Move: Face Yourself

Posted on by Zinga H

Being an authentic leader, requires a healthy and growing amount of self-awareness. Back when I was in college (not tooooo long ago), I realized, I would avoid myself in the mirror if I was feeling the winter/semester blues. Now, I am a lot better at choosing to be positive, optimistic, and present, but back then I found this to be a big indicator that I was in a fog.

So why might one avoid seeing themselves in the mirror when they are down? 

Avoidance is a coping mechanism we think helps us escape feelings and thoughts we do not want to deal with. I didn’t want to deal with being a first-generation, out-of-state, working-class dishwashing college student in the middle of my first dreary/frozen Ohio winter. From my reflections, I saw this as a time where my mind was not happy with my situation and thus nothing was good enough, most importantly the view of myself. It was almost as if I could not look myself in the eye because then all the truth would spill out and I would have to face it. One good thing is: avoidance and other limiting thoughts and behaviors are surmountable. It just takes practice.

Here I am, growing my authentic leadership everyday, and hopefully you are too! Facing yourself in good times and especially bad times is a conversation you must continue in order to ensure your mind, body, and spirit are all on good terms. So my One More Move Challenge below is to Face Your Self.

Challenge steps:

  1. Find a comfortable place with a mirror.
  2. Stand in front of the mirror and move close enough to feel as though you are truly staring within – .
  3. Ask yourself: How can I achieve [x] ? ;  or How can I project who [I truly am]? 
  4. Answer yourself
  5. Accept your answer and express gratitude for your honesty.
  6. *Bonus*: Give yourself a big kiss. [Rarely my style, but it can be fun :)].

Seems simple, but this may be uncomfortable for some people. Facing ourselves is not a practice people delve in often. Find a moment to make friends because you are your own best friend for life. Repeat this exercise every and you’ll begin to build your confidence and character leading  to your authentic career brand. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Free Your Team

Posted on by Zinga H

free your team

Authentic talent acquisition is a key trend in corporate recruiting. It keeps companies working with the millennial workforce and helps them stay competitive in our flat economy.HR professionals, CEOs, and leaders overall need to pay attention to ensure all members of the company family are thriving throughout their career. Capturing talent is  an important best practice, ensuring your company’s people bring value on their journey.

What happens after is a road you must manage while your company and team evolve. An employee’s new career path will take them through many positions, those can either be with your company or with another. This is why it is important to develop a relationship with your employees where they feel free to grow within your company’s headquarters and global operation. Paying attention to placement, communication, and awareness of your team members will ensure you yield the most out of everyone’s purpose, passions, and contributions to the vision.

Placement

“Everybody’s a genius…”

How do you measure your organization’s genius? Every person is comprised of work preferences that ensure they will naturally thrive. Somewhat like a work destiny, work preferences could be boiled down to a six letter code, created by, academic psychologist, John Holland. He created the Holland code or RIASEC,  which covered what a person would be enjoy doing as a part of their vocation.

Learn more about the code

Of course human measurements can only test so far, and at base our guesses our 50/50. Real placement comes from experience. Set up times and opportunities for your employees to actively experiment. Encourage committees and allow employees to shadow in departments; speak with your employees about their codes and get their feedback. Over time, you and your employee will find a place within your enterprise that allows them to apply themselves in a way that is motivated by their preferences.

Communications

We are now a part of the trust economy. Building trust with your company’s leaders and team requires communication, transparency, and integrity. Corporations must brand from within in order to project their integrity to larger community. Yet, how do you communicate with your entire organization? If you are constantly pointing towards how great your company is without ensuring everyone is on board you will eventually move away from the trajectory that your employees are following. Elicit feedback relentlessly and accept all feedback equally to keep the lines of communication flowing. The best organizations do not run on emotions, yet they allow emotions to be freely expressed. Have strong systems in place to ensure everyone feels safe to share the voice and take a seat at the table.

Awareness

When you company’s tribe is just right you will feel the buzz of flow. Everyone will have a strong attention and care to what they are doing. While this is excellent and you have built a strong rapport, the final step to the employee’s buyer’s journey is leaving them feeling delighted. Take small steps to show you are aware of their lives as humans. Celebrate birthdays, appreciate their impact, highlight their hobbies. Find the time to engage and go the extra step with your employees and they will become your best brand ambassadors. 

Paying attention to your employees as listening to your overall market. A free team will be driven, motivated, and empowered to build the prosperity of your company’s mission and vision. With workforce potential declining, it is important to capture and keep talent on your side.

What is the cost of losing an employee?

  • For entry-level employees, it costs between 30% and 50% of their annual salary to replace them.
  • For mid-level employees, it costs upwards of 150% of their annual salary to replace them.
  • For high-level or highly specialized employees, you’re looking at 400% of their annual salary.

[Cited from Karlyn Borysenko]

The return on investment comes in the form of savings and revenue building from having a free and happy team.

How does your company ensure its employees are thriving?

One More Move - Sounds out the word omm which is a common chant in yoga

One More Move: Give Gratitude

Posted on by Zinga H

Back to our regularly scheduled One More Move article! This series gives you singular moves to keep you motivated, authentic, and connected as your grow you personal and career path. This week, I challenge you to express gratitude. Why? Because it is through this expression of gratitude that we heighten our life’s quality, elevate our mood, and build our interpersonal relationships with others.

The benefits of gratitude are immense. It affects our mind, body, and soul. Below is an excellently designed infographic on The Power of Gratitude. You can see how the power of gratitude can help you can gain more energy, get better sleep, be less anxious, and have fewer headaches. All these benefits are necessary to regulate in order to stay motivated on the long-haul to your legacy. In a sense gratitude is the attitude of leadership that keeps us going and connected to ourselves and others around us. How do you find gratitude through out your day? 

12 Steps to Thrive

Credit Thanksgiving Infographic from Mind Valley Academy.

Here 5 easy ways to express gratitude today!

  1. Write a recommendation on LinkedIn  
  2. Send a thank you card to a colleague
  3. Give a generous tip to your server
  4. Publicly thank someone on Facebook
  5. Handwrite a letter of appreciation to a mentor your admire

Tiny Buddha offers 50 unique ways to express gratitude, which focuses a lot of being fully present with others  and considering ways to truly touch another person as a leader. There are many places where we can express gratitude. When we take time to make this one move we ripple forward positivity and good vibrations.

To cap off, here is a TED Talk on the Transformative Power of Gratitude. Give gratitude fair value as your return on investment is worth the deposit.

Higher Education Meeting : Higher Education Needs Business Analyst Consultants

Higher Education Needs Business Analyst Consultants on Its Leadership Team

Posted on by Zinga H

I’m in higher education and I’m a business consultant. From what I’ve observed, higher education, as a whole, has some pretty heavy projects on its plate. With the incoming forces of a new generation of students, technologies, and concerns institutions are being looked towards for the ability to deliver results transparently and delightfully. How do you as a higher education leader envision the future? The plan we hold in mind, sight, and spirit is what truly maintains the legacy of an enterprising community. With the shaping culture of entrepreneurship in the higher ed field it is important to consider if your workforce is comprised of strong, agile teams in place to adapt to our very responsive world.

Higher Education Leadership Meeting

One team member to seek immediately would be the highly valued Business Analyst Consultant (BAC). From a business analyst, you will find a team member that is able to find and communicate the real problems within your operations, plans, and technologies. From there they work on the team to ensure the solution solves the problem, which can be a lot trickier than one might guess. As a consultant you will find they have the ability to develop and maintain relationships with the long-term goal in mind, making the solution-building process a lot less stressful over time. The BAC can be the backbone of a project acting as the communication center so the rest of your community body can act towards the common mission. There are three skills your BAC should bring to the table.

Enterprise analysis

What problems is your organization facing today? Are you aware of all the moving pieces and are they producing as effectively as they can? In this world no leader has time to focus on the ever-changing landscape. A BAC will. A good business analyst consultant review the external and internal factors and analyze how they may converge, so you can make effective decisions to prevent or solve any impending issues.

college seats communicating with new generation of college students

Elicitation

Once you’ve decided on a solution to create, the BAC will go to work to discover the true requirements needed to make your solution work as it should. Who will use the solution? Who needs to authorize? How can build as simple a solution as possible within our budget limits? Answering these questions thoroughly and early on helps straighten out what could spiral in the future.

Documentation and Communication

Once an authentic solution is discovered, the BAC will then get to real work. Designing, documenting, and communicating the solution over and over until it is clearly understood by all parties involved in the style they want to hear it. How does your VP of Finances? Director of Technology? Your students? Your alumni? Who really needs to know about the solutions your planning and how should they be engaged? Ensuring everyone can come on board with the plan ensures the solution grows organically within your organization and it will be adopted by the community.


Higher education is the “village” of modern civilization. As higher educators we have to ensure our practices, processes, and tools contribute to the development of every learner we welcome. We must be more agile than we balance the seemingly infinite capabilities of technology within the limits of human needs. Ensuring every member of your team is contributing to their fullest means leadership that respects and properly places their talent. A BAC will help you keep the problems your mission seeks to solve in mind, while finding its root causes and ensuring the solutions resolves or prevents the cause. Invest well in your consultant as 66% of success may hinge on their talents.

Akron Women in Tech: One Year Grown!

Posted on by Zinga H

I didn’t post a One More Move article yesterday because I was attending the One Year Anniversary of Akron Women in Tech! It was at the Nightlight Theater in Akron and the event went pretty well. Here’s some highlights:

The Group

I found Akron Women in Tech on MeetUp. The group hosts discussion meetings, workshops, and work meetings for women to come together learn, code, and grow. Every event I have attended (around 3) has been a great way to bond, talk latest tech trends, and just meet other women in Northeast Ohio. They’ve had 20 MeetUps so far and have definitely gained credibility quickly in the community.

Check out their online slides!

The Venue

I’ve never been to The Nightlight Cinema Theater, but I will definitely be back. The quaint venue was spacious enough for a mid-to-large group and the mix of theater seating with antique coaching helps make you feel like you’re balling enough to be in your own home theater. The Nightlight shows independent films for you Netflix scrapers and on Mondays they contribute to good community causes. Definitely worth supporting.

The People

Networking with others is a cornerstone of leadership and knowing there is a community of tech interested women in Northeast Ohio is definitely worth meeting. The discussion on crappy C- movies, latests technologies, and new tidbits like FreeCodeCamp being recognized on LinkedIN as an educator was definitely worth carting out my daughter and driving to Akron for a great celebration.

Props to Akron Women in Tech! I wish you all well with your new 501c3 status and hope you can collaborate with Limitless Ambition one day!

One More Move - Sounds out the word omm which is a common chant in yoga

One More Move: Solidify Your Top 5 Values

Posted on by Zinga H

Knowing what values we hold dearly saves us a lot of time in decision making. Take a moment one day to set your top five values that motivate you towards your chosen success. One exercise I like a lot was one shared by Warren Buffet. Here are some tweaks to his prioritization system, which focuses on goals versus values.

Choose Your Values: OMM Against Green Bamboo Backdrop

Check out this list of values, that I found on a great blog post. Choose your top 25, then choose your top 5. It’s a simple exercise, but you will build character strength upon completion.

Lists of Personal Core Values photoshop

So what are your top five values?

I ended up choosing: Beauty, Connection, Creativity, Abundance, and Wisdom.