by STRONG | Apr 12, 2020 | Learn + Grow
Leadership is a word that is often tossed around and loosely used this day and time. So, what makes a good leader? Is it their ability to lead or their ability to follow? People spend millions of dollars each year in an effort to empower and equip themselves with the tools they believe are necessary to achieve their goals. However, there are usually 8 characteristics you should seek in their quest for leadership. These characteristics are not rocket science, but they are simple enough that many people forget just how impactful they can be. Grab a pen and paper during this quarantine lesson and see how many of these you can implement in your journey to enhance your leadership skills.
1. Connection : Either you have it or you don’t. Leaders speak in a language that interests their audience. They are clear about what they are offering and why it adds value to a particular area.
2. Direction : Great leaders will not dote over you following them. they want to see how what they offer gives presence to your growth. No to be confused with, taking credit for your accomplishment, but acknowledging your process in your evolution.
3. Perception : When things are implied, but not clear, true leaders speak to the elephant to find a resolution versus applying a bandage in hope that the wound will not seep through.
4. Redirection : Understanding when it is time to redirect is a leader’s trait. Leaders do not rest in the failure they use it to push them further into the pivotal direction of their next opportunity.
5. Critical Thinking : Having data and information from research is important. however, the ability to encounter situations that have not been charted before and come out on the other side is vastly more important. Leaders will not be bound to information they are given, they have to execute based on long vision.
6. Empowerment : Leaders are not opposed to building others. Creating opportunities for others to do what they do best can generate new ideas, build morale and possibly the bottom line. A leader who understands a person’s strengths can help curve weakness and inspires self-development.
7. Clarity : A leader is clear on their vision. There is no question as to the vision and what task needs to be accomplished once a direction has been given.
8. Co-Communication : Effective communication is the cornerstone of leadership. being able to convey what you mean and what needs to be done is paramount in leadership. While giving direction is often spoke about, receptive communication is not always addressed. The ability to listen and interpret what someone needs is just as important as telling someone what you need. Leaders co-communicate, meaning they do both efficiently.
After reading through these 8 characteristics what areas do you think you are strongest and weakest? What can you do this week to start improving in the areas that need work and enhance those where you currently deem yourself to be effective. Remember, leadership isn’t just about running a business, leadership is about running your life. The better you become at growing in who you are the more it spills over to other aspects of your life.
by Kasmine Roach | May 4, 2016 | Learn + Grow
Call me crazy, but I love storms. I hate driving in them and I despise going out while it’s storming, but the best feeling is being nestled in your bed, your lights off, and just enjoying a sense of peace from the pecks of the rain hitting your window and the rumble of thunder in the background. It’s the best sleep ever.
I understand that it’s quite common for people to fear not necessarily the storm aspect but the results of a bad storm. Whether it’s a tornado or a hurricane, obviously storms can create hazardous situations. It’s been many times that people have found themselves seeking shelter in a storm room, hallway, basement, or even a bathroom when storms threaten our safety, but I can honestly admit that I’ve never felt the need to “take cover” during a tornado or thunderstorm. I can find all of the comfort and protection I need wrapped in a blanket with my head buried underneath a pillow in my bed. Slightly crazy, but for me it’s a blissful feeling.
How do I find peacefulness among all of the chaos that’s going on outside my bedroom window? I don’t think that I’ll ever have a logical answer for that question but I do have an explanation that may seem wacky to most people. Weather storms are relative to the constant storms that we all face in life. If I could gather one thousand random people from multiple demographics, ethnicities, countries, and religions they would all have one thing in common: dilemmas in life. No one is exempt from struggles or storms. That’s what I like to call them.
Growing up, my mother always told me, “You’re either entering a storm, going through a storm, or coming out of a storm.”
That is the true circle of life, Lion King!
When she would say this, it would make me feel some type of way because if you overthink the statement, it can have an underlying morbid theme. However, when I became older and started to face these storms alone, I was able to understand the hidden message behind my mother’s words. “How are you going to handle your storm?” Where are you going to find your peace?
I find my peace spiritually and through my faith. Without having something to trust in, I can easily get trapped in the storm that’s coming toward me. If I don’t seek shelter within the arms of God, then my personal “storms” will immediately grab me and absorb my life.
Instead of focusing on the storm, I have to remain focused on the promises of God and the hope that he has for my future. Spiritually, God is my bed that I can snuggle in my blanket and rest my head on while the storm attempts to destroy my life. I can rest peacefully and know that he replenishes, provides, and protects me through everything.
Ultimately, this is why I enjoy storms. It gives me the opportunity to rely on someone greater than myself. It’s like a faith building strategy too, if you must add something logical to this message. However, I’m a free spirit and a believer in the unexplainable, which is why it’s easy for me to believe in a God who would create tumultuous tornados yet you can find peace within the eye. It’s just another way for nature to be a testament for our life.
Kas
by Taylor Gardner | Mar 16, 2016 | Learn + Grow
Since it is Women’s History Month and we live in a world where women make at most 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes, it is important that we stay encouraged and continue to fight for what is rightfully ours. With that being said I just wanted to highlight three young ladies all under the age of 20 who are stepping out, speaking up, and showing that age is truly nothing but a number.
Zendaya Coleman- The 19 year old singer and actress has always made it known what she believes in and she refuses to allow anyone, especially a “dude in a suit,†to change or rearrange her dreams. She has called out a magazine for photoshopping her without permission and has released a Barbie doll featuring her dreads and all. She has proven that feminism is about fairness and she has taken steps in her career to get women that much closer to equality.
Amandla Stenberg- The 17 year old actress known as Rue from the Hunger Games, has had a lot to say about Women of Color and has encouraged young girls to take an interest in STEM. She even won Ms. Foundation of Women’s Feminist Celebrity of the year.
Rowan Blanchard – The 14-year-old actress from the Boy Meets World spinoff, Girl Meets World, has had a lot to say about women’s right. She wrote a powerful essay about the intersection of women and how White feminists rarely consider the needs of Women of Color and Trans Women. She has always used her voice and knowledge to lift and educate others, which is commendable for someone so young.
I say all this to say that you are truly never too young or too anything for that matter to make a change. It is easy to think that you are not capable of making a difference because of your age, race, size, gender, or situation. However, that is simply not true. It is never too late to get up and just go after it, whatever IT is.
inspired,
Taylor G.
by Kiersten Homalon | Mar 16, 2016 | Learn + Grow
The parents in this generation are in a very unique predicament. We are in a world where vaccines, outbreaks, home births, Surgical births, GMO’s, Naturopathic care, birth defects, Organic food, and reclaiming our right to make educated decisions are on the rise. Yes, many of these are contradictions to themselves; like GMO’s and Organic food both being on the rise, but this is the reality of 2016. It is crucial for parents to rise up and educate themselves to make decisions that they know are suitable for their families. In this interesting time, this is really key in handing down the power of doing research and standing up for what is right to the next generation. This is a movement of empowerment, in many realms.
These are some of the many reasons Colleen Chapman founded the Non- Profit Organization O.H.A.N.A. here on the Island of O’ahu. Her whole drive is to create a “Healthy future for our children and community.” O.H.A.N.A. stands for O’ahu Healthy Agricultural Neighborhood Alliance. The group started just recently in September of 2015 and is still ramping up to add members to the group and solidify their role in the community. Colleen knows that they are passionate about four main points:
- Community
- Health
- Awareness
- Education
Colleen really hopes to spread knowledge with this organization to families on O’ahu and inform them about the reality of Environmental threats, GMO’s, agricultural knowledge that every family should possess and the boldness to stand up for the healthiest and best options for our Island! Colleen lived out this mission by her recent submittal of testament for the HB2564. This bill intended to create a vegetative buffer some between GMO’s crops and schools. This is a solution to something that, honestly, I never even knew was a problem! This just goes to show how powerful it is to have women like Colleen Chapman creating Organizations like O.H.A.N.A. to educate the community on topics that everyone will care about if only they were EDUCATED on these topics!
We cannot sit around and be Naive anymore. Colleen really hopes to make the understanding of these bills and legislative issues easy for the public so that they can play their role in effecting positive change for the next generation and our own, by voting, lobbying, and doing their part within their own neighborhoods. If this is something that you are interested in learning more about, or are well versed in these topics and want to join forces with O.H.A.N.A. Then please Get in touch with Colleen!
To connect with Colleen you can find them on their Facebook page! Also if you do not have this as a Local Resource to you Reach out to Colleen to see what some other options might be for you! She is a wonderful Wealth of Knowledge!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1647724872180007/
With Grit,
Kiersten H.
by Kiersten Homalon | Feb 23, 2016 | Learn + Grow
Kathe and Kaja Gibbs are a mother & daughter duo that serve Oahu women and families in the childbearing years as Licensed Midwives. They offer well-woman’s health care, midwifery care for pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and birth photography/videography! They are passionate about empowering women and creating community amongst mothers. Kathe is a longtime Licensed Midwife who provides Women’s Health Care as well as Home Birth/Birth Home Services to Mothers from the coming-of-age years, through pregnancy and birth, and completion of the childbearing years. Kaja is like-minded and a recent graduate and Licensed Midwife, thrilled to join her mom and live the dream of practicing together. When I had the honor of meeting these women, I was met with open arms and bright eyes! They are undeniably passionate about women reclaiming our right to birth at home, and to do so with a powerfully supportive community behind them!
Kathe has been practicing Midwifery for three decades all over the world, allowing for very unique and diverse experiences. These experiences opened Kathe up to powerful doctrines, educational relationships, experiences and vigor for increasing awareness in women about normal physiologic, instinctual, empowering birth and parenting! In her travels, Kathe learned about women’s health, healing, movement, bodywork therapies, homeopathy, naturopathy, and nutrition. Kathe has attended more than 1,600 out-of-hospital births in her years of practice and there is no sign of her wanting to slow down. Actually, I see an intensity in her and in her daughter
Kaja to continue their work to effect even more change in the birthing world!
Kaja moved to Hawaii to embark on a nursing school path in order to become a CNM. During that time, she became pregnant with her daughter and had an amazing, documented home birth with her mother as her Midwife. That experience reaffirmed to her that becoming a Midwife was what she wanted to do. She began her training in California with her mother for two years, and then completed her training in the State of Washington to receive certification as a CPM, and then on to become a Licensed Midwife. Kaja put her certification to work at a local birthing center, as she and her mother cultivated a big move back to Hawaii.
In my interview with the two, I was impressed by the way they complemented one another and their wealth of knowledge! They had imagined partnering together to support women in their birthing experiences, and now they are thrilled that they are in Hawaii doing just that. Kaja recalled memories of “sitting in the corner of the birthing room” when she was old enough to watch her mother assisting laboring mothers. She knew then that was her inspiration to go down the path to be a Midwife herself! It took several years to get where she is now: with much ‘due diligence’ in education, clinical training, and dedication to this work.
Kathe opened up about her history of becoming a midwife as well! She was actually in the FIRST class in the FIRST state to offer Midwifery Licensure! She was licensed in 1981 in Washington state, and after a move back home to California was among the first midwives to become licensed there. Her wonderful career is blossoming into fulfilling a long-held vision: to create a sanctuary for women, a center for women’s
health care and family wellness…a place to go, receive information, support, share… She mentions that women are very open-minded during pregnancy because they are aiming to do their best in birth and beyond. She feels that this then is the time most ‘ripe’/receptive for education and information.
Just exactly what services do Licensed Midwives provide? What are their education and training? Consumers and professionals alike are confused. It has been studied and proven that midwifery care for women out-of-hospital for the low-risk population, is as safe, if not safer, and is definitely more cost-effective, as well as demonstrates improved statistics on a range of maternal/child health matters. Midwifery care has always existed worldwide, and its resurgence into primary care in the U.S. is yielding fantastic statistics! It’s time to for midwifery care here and now.
This realization inspired Kathe to create the film: “Birth – A Full Circle of Seasons in the Childbearing Year”, which showcases Kaja’s photography. It has the intention of opening women up to the possibilities of safe, sacred, family birth in an out-of-hospital setting. It is not a documentary Kathe claims, rather she describes it as “to be experienced through the senses: eyes, ears, heart, mind, spirit! It is a visual landscape of that transformative year”
Kathe and Kaja are located in the Hawaii Kai area in a beautiful space where women come together to begin building community with events, support circles, film showings and receive personalized family-centered health care. These women are stunningly involved in the community, effecting positive change and passionate about working with women and families.
You can meet these powerful women in person, and view a clip of the film at this summer’s Mama Makeke, June 25, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm at the WAC in Hale’iwa. See you there!
To connect with Kathe and Kaja, please check out their websites:
www.hawaiimidwives.com | www.borntwobirth.com
or email:
Kathe@fullcircle-midwifery.com Kajamadronegibbs@gmail.com
by Altimese Nichole | Feb 23, 2016 | Learn + Grow
Corporate America is full of great opportunity and deep land mines. As you climb the corporate ladder, it’s critical that you learn the career pitfalls through shared wisdom instead of personal experience. Although experience is the best teacher, learning from others can help you miss the mistakes and mishaps that could be avoidable.
Here are five words of wisdom that were passed on to me from career mentors and professionals:
- Stop asking if you can have it all. Men have been doing it for years, so the question is unnecessary. Just go after what you want and just do it.
- Balance is not only important but it’s necessary. Don’t spend so much time investing in work that you forget the ones and things that truly matter.
- Attire does matter so dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.
- If you’re in the midst of a difficult conversation via email, it’s best to type your response and hold off on sending it.Walk away or come back to it later in the day to review the draft.This will allow you the opportunity to ensure the appropriate tone and response. When in doubt, save draft.
- Do not participate in gossip. Simply don’t do it. People that you think are not paying attention, see and hear it all and your association with the drama can become detrimental to your career growth.
What are some words of wisdom that have helped you navigate your career?
XOXO,
![STRONG, Inc. [Simple Transitions Render Opportunity Necessary For Growth]](https://www.knowyourstrong.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NewLogo.png)
Recent Comments