[00:00:31] Speaker A: Hello, my name is Noor Al Masri. Welcome to Echoes of Impact with Noora. We believe that everyone is capable of making an impact and changing the world, changing the world around them. So we challenge limitation and uncover stories that inspire a greater impact for you and the world.
Welcome. Welcome to the show. I can't wait to uncover or unpack the show for today. I will be talking to my friend Dr. Maria. She was here in the show before, but right in the beginning, maybe the third episode, she was here. She's a great leadership coach. She is.
She. Well, I'm not going to talk about her a lot, but we're going to talk about leadership, how to be a better leader. What we're going to talk about practical steps that can help you be better leader. Now you might think I am not a leader. This is not for me. Let me go do something else. No, no, no. Don't leave me. Stay with me. Because you're a leader of your life. You don't need to have a team to lead. If you're a parent, you are leading at home. If you are just alone, you're a leader for yourself. Like I said. So everything we're going to talk about that some of it like can apply to you based on where are you in your life and even sometimes, like it doesn't seem like it's kind of related to you right now.
Maybe it will be very soon. So stay with me. Don't go away. And you must listen to my friend Dr. Maria when she's talking about leadership. And also we're going to talk about leadership and change because a lot of people don't like change. Or maybe we think that we don't like change, but we do.
We'll see. We'll discover that when I talk to Dr. Maria. This is a really important topic. So stay with me. But before we start with Dr. Maria, we are here in the middle of tax season and we're going to do our recurring segments Save taxes with Nura. This segment is sponsored by nu's Books tax and accounting firm. You can just go to nuurus books.com and yeah, don't go away. Stay with me.
Listen to me what I'm going to say. I'm going to give you practical steps to save in taxes because if you keep like just avoiding this topic, you're going to end up losing control of your money and IRS and your states going to enjoy your money because you're working and they're taking the money but you are not paying attention. They do. How do they do that, they send you the penalties. They send you the, hey, you did not file this. We're waiting. You, you did not pay. This being a penalty, being an interesting.
So this is what happens when you do not pay attention. So you better pay attention. How do you pay attention? How do you pay attention? You learn and you attend my recurring segments here at Echoes of Impact Safe Taxes with Noura because I'm going to break that down for you. Okay?
The what do you need to know? You don't have to know everything, but you need to learn high level. If you're a business owner or a high earner, like, or like if you're having withholding, you're paying in taxes. So the money you get at the end of the year, like when you do your taxes right now or the beginning of the year, right? So a lot of people, yay, we got back this much money or we're waiting for this money. Well, this is your money. You lend it to the government and they give it back to you because you overpay it during the year. Or maybe they said, oh, okay, you underpaid, you're making so much money, we're going to take more. Right, because you're not paying attention during the year. Especially for you business owners and also high earners if you're not. So mostly I'm talking about these people because mostly you're not eligible for the credits that the tax law offers. So you end up being so much, never getting any money back.
You need to start paying attention and take control of your money.
Sit on the driver's seats. Don't let them drive you.
You drive how much you pay in taxes legally, how do you do that? With custom tax strategy. But I'm going to give you practical things that you will be able to use and do step by step in order to achieve what you want. First, we have a business. Make sure you have the right structure.
Don't go ahead and just register an escort or maybe follow the advice of the person that you, you know, the tax professional or whatever. Someone might not be just the tax professional. They just help people fill in documents without them knowing the tax law. They just listen to TikTok like you and they don't have any information about what really needs to happen. So don't listen to these information. You need really to talk to someone who knows the tax law and there are a lot of people who cares and who knows how to navigate tax law. Because you shouldn't just be an escort. You're not always saving money when you are an escort. There's a lot of liability, a lot of work and expenses or cost attached to being an escort. Some people, for them, yeah, it's best to be an escort. But other people, they shouldn't be an escort. So this is the first thing, this is just an example, okay? You could be anything. So know the right structure. Now, it might be too late if you've been in business, okay, but never too late. We can fix anything if we know this is not the right structure for you. The other thing is organize your finances. Record everything that you do. Don't say I have everything in a bank statement, because bank statement is not your bookkeeping. It's not what's accepted.
So you have to maintain a record of what you spent, what you earn that must be organized. And you need to do a good bookkeeping that is required by law. It's a compliance work and it's going to help you save in taxes. Because if you don't know how much you're making, how much you're spending, what can you deduct or not deduct, you won't be able to plan well. So this is very important steps to take.
So, and I advise you to use a professional who's good with bookkeeping. If you don't have one, feel free to reach out to my team. We do offer bookkeeping, but a lot of other people do so and we do work with people around the US So we can help you virtually.
So this is one thing then you want to make sure you are aware of the whole picture of your business.
Not only your expenses and and income, not only the structure, but also you want to make sure you know the change of the tax law, you know your personal situation and what, how that how your business is going to affect your personal taxes, including your spouse if you have and including if you're dependent, what's happening next year, what's going on in your life, you need to have to make sure, like you have retirement plan, you have benefits.
If you do not have a good record, and there is like two things, record keeping and bookkeeping. Record keeping, you keep everything you you do.
Bookkeeping is just the financial statements that your accountant should generate for you based on the information you provide and based on the source documents, which is the credit cards and bank statements, then that is your full picture.
You would have some strategies what would apply to you, what can you benefit from, what type of taxes you should file. There's a lot of misconceptions that in business you do not have to file Taxes? Well, no, no, no, no.
In business you always have to file taxes. Once you have that ein for your business. Irs, IRS expecting you to file taxes every single year regardless of you have activities or not you have income or not you have to file taxes. So make sure you are staying in compliance because when you stay in compliance, you avoid penalty. Make sure you do not miss the deadline. That's how. That's just the ABC or the entry level or keeping control of your money.
You need to check your bank account every day. You need to check your payable, your receivable.
So your receivable, meaning the invoice you're giving to your customers, are they paying those? Do you need to change your pay your pay policy?
Should you be prepaid? Should you have people? Because people don't just order something from Amazon, for example, and then pay for it. They have to pay before. Maybe you should consider that.
Are you wasting so much time in collecting that or maybe you have a lot of bad debt, people don't pay you. Maybe you have, you are paying a lot of taxes because you're not taking advantage of the tax loophole. And let me tell you, whatever you see on the Internet, on YouTube, TikTok, whatever, they're just like very minimum. It's friction of what you should be doing and what's available for business owners.
So you need to be taking advantage of it. But the first step really is to care, take control of your finances, make sure you're organized, make sure you are in the right structure. Make sure you are getting paid the right way. You are getting paid because, for example, being an S corp, you have to be on a salary. You cannot have a withdrawal or a dividend without being on a reasonable salary. And you have to be filing payroll taxes every single quarter.
So are you doing that or are you having penalties? So a lot of things, it's the whole picture, a lot of things involved in that. And you need to talk to someone who knows what they're doing. Well, you can talk to me. And there's a lot of other good people too. So you can see around you or on the Internet, like a lot of people working virtually from wherever they are. If they are in different state, it doesn't mean they cannot work with you, just ask them. For example, enrolled agents can work with anyone or can represent people in front of the IRS offices, administrative offices all around the nation. So make sure you know the law as much as possible for yourself.
Custom, because what goes to someone else may not go to you. So have a custom Strategy, take control of your money, be on the driver's seat so you can build your empire. All right. This is your host, Noora Masri, and this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. We'll be right back after the break to talk about leadership and change.
Stay with me. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. This is your host, Noora Masri, and this is Echoes of with Echoes of Impact with Noora. How are you doing? We're back with very important segment. We're going to talk about leadership. Whether you are starting a business, starting a nonprofit, or maybe you're already there, you have or you have a leadership position at home where you're leading your family, leading yourself. Right. It's very important to learn more about leadership. This is one of the things that you will never stop learning about it.
So we like to talk about it a lot. Echoes of Impact, as you know, because we want you to carry more information, get more educated about a very important topic so you can lead your life better. There's always a space to improve.
So let's talk about this. There's no one better than my friend Dr. Maria to talk about leadership. Dr. Maria has been here before, and if you did not watch the episode that she was in, you want to go back a lot. Like almost a year ago, she has been here. Just look for the episode. We have everything stored at NowMedia TV. Just search for the show and you can find all previous episodes. So welcome, Dr. Maria. Welcome back to the show. How are you doing today?
[00:14:59] Speaker B: Well, thank you, Nora. I'm so excited to be here.
Yeah, I'm doing well today. I'm happy to talk to you about leadership and have this great conversation. And it has been about a year and I feel so lucky to know you. I think you're amazing.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. We became a great friend since last year and I really admire that. Having you in my circle and always learning from you.
So can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself so they can know, like, how great you are and what have you been doing?
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Thank you. It's just facts. It's not bragging. Right. So anyway, I started on my leadership journey in high school and that was when I read this really cool book called I Dare you. And it talked about how you can be successful and also be well. And I thought that was super important. So I've been in the leadership and development space for a long time. I'm a coach and a consultant and I've been a professor of business psychology, overseeing an Org leadership program, a doctorate, a doctoral program. So it's been an adventure. And I love working with different people about growing and shifting in their leadership skills.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Awesome. So a lot of people find it really challenging when they want to introduce change, when there's change happening in their life, changing happening in the organization. And I know you wrote the book about that called Navigating the Ride of Change. So can you tell us a little bit about that book? And how did you, like. Why did you write about that?
[00:16:44] Speaker B: So Navigating the Rite of Change is about the concepts of change, but also about my own personal story of moving through change.
That story was related to a car accident that I had, and I had sustained a traumatic brain injury. From that I had to figure out and work with a lot of different doctors to heal. So it was change because I wasn't sure what I was going to do next after the treatment. It was all this exploration of how the ways I can change my identity, how I can learn new things, upskill and reskill. And so I wrote the book about that. And when I think about Navigating the Ride of Change, I think about how if you're riding a bicycle, you have to keep pedaling or you're not going to move forward. And that's a lot like change. And sometimes people say, we don't like change, but I want to change that narrative because, well, we don't usually eat the same thing for dinner every night. We usually don't wear the same clothes every day. And then when we're traveling, we usually don't go to the same places. So maybe we do like change.
So that's, you know, that's kind of a perspective that I look at.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: It's just uncomfortable to change. Like, we used to do this this way. Why are you. Why do you want me to change it this way? This is how my brain used to think. Why should I think out of my way? Like, why should I get out of my comfort zone? But you're right. Like, I never thought about it like that.
We might have. We might like change, especially women. Right? We don't want to wear the same clothes.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Right?
And there's so many great places to go and eat, and now with social media and all the different recipes you can get, and then you could really even stretch yourself and change up those recipes by using AI. So lots of options. But yes, it is true. It is true that people are uncomfortable with change, and that's because there's several processes around it, and leaders really know that, need to know that Whether they're leading their home or in a business just leading their life. So you have to kind of know there's some emotions with that and that there are some.
Like when you're even thinking about change, it's a whole process to even commit to making a change.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So how do you think like you would as a leader, you would introduce the change to your team?
[00:19:28] Speaker B: So. Well, there's so many different ways to do that. And one of the things to think about is what are the driving and resisting forces to the change in the organization. So it's really important to look at the system impact and kind of ask questions and be curious of people in your organization of how it might impact the whole system, because that's how a lot of times organizational change fails is because people don't look at the whole system. So I guess that's one of the first pieces to consider.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: So can you give me an example of that? Just so that people, we, we have time. So. But like.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Okay, good.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: If you have an example so people can understand it more.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: So I think about.
I think. And I'll just use. This is.
When I was teaching as a college professor, there was a change from whether we were going to use the learning management platforms and grade papers electronically or continue to receive papers in paper format.
So there had to be a lot of conversations of why there's a benefit to looking at the papers electronically instead of on paper.
So it would be a matter of in that situation, thinking about what are all the different fears that go along with that. I mean, maybe people don't feel like they're tech savvy, so they might be fearful of that. And then you'd have to think about before making the change, how could you lessen that for people? Or what would you need to do to help people move through that change?
[00:21:08] Speaker A: So I'm. That you really have to plan how to introduce the change to your team.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: Yes. Yes.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes, for sure.
So for sure.
Because the first thing people are going to ask is what's in it for me? You know that radio station wifm, like, what's in it for me? So they're always thinking about that.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So what do you think like happening? Because you know a lot about psychology. So inside of the human brain, like, what would happen? Like, what would be going on, resisting the change? And is there anyone, like, would be excited to have changed?
[00:21:54] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. So what's going on is it is like, where do people fit in? And so there's this concept or theory and it's called Neuro Leadership, and it's by David Rock. And in that model, he has an acronym and it's called scarf. And so when people are thinking about or going to experience change, they really need to know all about the following. What's their status? Certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. So those are all the different things that are going on for people. And so when a leader looks at change, they'll want to make sure that they're thinking about addressing that. So then people's brains don't run into a real big fear state for that change.
So everybody just has to think about the scarf when they're leading change.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Can we repeat that again? Like, what is it?
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, the scarf. The scarf. And I should have brought a scarf to wrap it around, but yeah, it's a scarf. So status, people want to know what would their status be? You know, are they going to have their job description change or they're going to move up or maybe drop down a couple lateral levels. What's certain for them? The certainty. So the, the more clarity the leader can give. That's really important.
Autonomy is where will they be able to lead in their own role? So how can they. Not that they're being micromanaged, but how can they be out on their own in this change then relatedness. And that's a little bit about how they relate to others in the organization. Will they have new reporting structures or how will they fit in in a relatedness category? And then is it fair? Is it fair? So sometimes when two mergers happen in organizations, there's going to be two HR directors or people leaders or there's going to be two COOs at all these different positions that are duplicate. Well, there has to be a way to figure out how they can maximize and use the strengths of those talents and then give people certainty while they're making that change.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for this information. We're going to be right back with you, Dr. Maria, after the break to talk more about leadership and change. Guys, this is your host, Noora Masri. And this is Echoes of Echoes of Impact with Noora. We'll see you right back.
Welcome back. This is your host, Noora Mosri. And this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. We're still talking to Dr. Maria about leadership and change. Change. Welcome back, Dr. Maria.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Sure. So we were talking about the scarf and you mentioned, like, how people are afraid when there would be changing acquisition. So how would leader navigate through. Okay, like making sure their staff or their team, they're really aware and they like or maybe not they like but they're gonna be okay and understanding what's going on. So they. Because any change in performance might affect the company in a negative way, affect the team spirit. Like the communication between the team. And you never know what could happen. Like good people, different people have different reaction. Like and the thing that how they react to any change. So how would the leader make sure like everyone on the same page and really communicate that effectively with the team?
[00:26:18] Speaker B: So they. Part of it is I mentioned before driving and resisting forces. So part of that is talking with people who are advocates or allies of the change and building a team around that. And then people that are resisting the change going out and talking with them to find out what do they see that the leader may not see about this change. Because usually even though someone may be complaining about a change, there's some truth in what they have to say. So we can always make the change better by having those conversations and involving more people. Because the worst thing is when you walk into the office and then everything has changed and no one knows about it. So a leader really, really needs to prepare and really have allies for change and then hear out and be curious about people that are maybe not bought into it yet or can see some flaws that maybe need to be adjusted. So just finding out that information helps.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Awesome. So you do, I know you do coaching for teams and you do a lot of workshops about leadership.
So can you tell me like the mo what the leader usually asks you for, like what their most struggle, like when they deal with the team, regardless if it's. If it's with change or outside of the change. Like I know you have so many workshops coming up this year in 2025. So. Yeah. Can you share with us like the leadership out there, like how do they feel?
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Sure.
So sometimes.
So we've had some changes around how leadership works and the means that of course it's always built on relationships. So a long, long time ago, the early theories of leadership were called the great man theory and that was that one person is the strong leader and telling everyone what to do. Well now since there's so many different ways that people work, people need to know how to adapt and engage with people more. Instead of all the top down leadership, it's a little more of a lateral leadership. So they have to work on communication and if they're definitely in hybrid or remote environments, they need to figure out how do they build team when people are not in the office. Another aspect is taking a look at how they really listen to people and understand them. So expressing emotional intelligence and empathy.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: You brought a really good point about like having a virtual team.
So yeah, really a lot of people like I see, I see, I see my, maybe some of my friends and other their work, they call them back to be an office because they're not sure how productive they are. Not only these people but you know, like all the team like in general even, even sometimes their positions would be easy to be done in a virtual setting regardless if there's hybrid work environment or not. Actually they might be more productive from working virtually than being in the office. But still some leaders, they really want people to go into the office because they feel like sense of they cannot control. They don't see, I know a lot of leaders, if they don't see you working, they don't believe you are working. And it's happened to me before when I was working at one of the places, I'm not gonna say what time, where, but I understood that my boss at that time, in order for him to know that I'm working, I need to copy him on every single email because he felt, I mean he didn't ask me to, I just did that to show him that I'm working because I saw that like a lot of people in that company or organization, they did not.
He always like feel like no one is working even though they are working. But he did, he did not see so he did not know they are working. So he's always complaining. So I noticed that. I got that and then that's what I did. Like I would he copying him. I was copying him in emails like even if he doesn't need to, to be there. So yeah, what do you say like to that? Like how, how do you think the leadership should navigate that? And also how do you think the employee or the team members can really tell their leader that hey, we are working, we're productive without copying them in every single email like I did.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well the two, the two kind of go. So it's how the team is communicating overall and the leader sets the tone for that. So maybe there's a Monday check in. Everybody checks in and says hey, this is my focus for the week. And then they can report out. And so that's kind of letting people know what they're doing. And then at the end of the week they have a follow up check in. Like what were your wins? Now you could do that on a daily basis or you could do it on a weekly basis. So it's Just a matter where there's open communication to find out, you know, what's going on with different projects, what people are working on. And so that's a really important part, is to establish a communication pattern.
You know, the meetings are stable time, so people kind of know what's going on. And then the other question that you asked me about is instead of CCing your boss on every single email in, when you're having one on ones or when you have great wins during the week, that would be a way to make sure that you're communicating upward. You know, what were your successes for the week, where maybe you have some questions so you're still in line, so your boss knows what you're working on, your successes and wins, and maybe where you could get some extra assistance or perspective from them.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: Sounds good. Now, like sometimes there are some positions, it's easier than others to report a winner. For example, like if you are in sales, if you are, maybe let's say, like I have someone who does taxes like to tell me, hey, this is how many taxes I got done, or this is how many whatever it is like the business is about. But sometimes it's not really that easy to report on a win for some positions like it, or maybe like software engineers, some stuff like this, or maybe even H R Person. So for those positions, like, what do you. What would you say? Like, it would be effective for them.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: So usually they're on larger projects, so it's not like there's an ending to it. So how. Depending on how they have their project set up, you know, any of the projects that they're working on, you know, what are. Where are they heading with it? So it doesn't necessarily have to be always a win or how many taxes. You know, it's just a matter of being able to find a way to communicate that you're fulfilling the mission of the organization.
And it could be, you know, a client story that you have that you could share. So that would be another way to kind of share. And not necessarily always in that win category, but just what's happening.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Awesome. So do you find that it's easier from the team side or from the leadership side? Because I know like a lot of leaders, like they're put in the position, not necessarily they like that they're being a leader. It's just something we have to do.
[00:34:15] Speaker B: They fell into it.
[00:34:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:17] Speaker B: They were so good and they got promoted.
[00:34:20] Speaker A: Yes. And then what, like, from your experience, who do you think it's more challenging, you know, for like, is it the team or is it the leader?
[00:34:30] Speaker B: Oh, when that situation happens, I mean, I think. I think there's a big. A big gap of the leader's skill. So they're going to struggle for a while, you know, and then the whole thing is really about how everybody communicates because a leader is also influenced by their followers. So are they going to want to do their jobs or not? And so those are some of the other pieces to it because sometimes the followers take the lead.
So that's kind of interesting. So you can have, like I had mentioned before, sometimes when people are not liking change and you want to have a conversation with them, that's where a follower is really leading the team. So I think that that's an important point to think about today. Is that a team focus for leadership. And there's this one research, Joseph Raylan, who talks about how you can be leaderful and that's where you have enough, I guess, where you don't have to be prideful in your leadership. You can just say, hey, I'd like to find out how you think this is going to go better or ask good questions and engage people. So be more leaderful, where you're kind of sharing the power across the team instead of just being a stakeholder of a leader.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: And how can you avoid. Like, this is a very effective and very good strategy, but sometimes some people may misuse that power and they start to disrespect the leader. Like, how can the leader avoid that? But yet to get the team to buy and anything that they are going to do.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: So there has to be a careful conversation. And really, as a person, as a leader starts to notice a difference in an employee's performance is to have those conversations to really dig in to figure out what's going on because it could be unrelated to the job.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: Okay.
Everything comes down then to communication and leadership. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Maria. We're gonna get back to you after the break for the last segment of the show for today.
Guys, stay with us. We're going to talk more to Dr. Maria about leadership and change. This is Echoes of Impact with Noura. We'll be right back.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Foreign.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Welcome back. This is your host, Noora Masri. And this is Echoes of Impact with Noora. We're still talking about leadership, but now we cannot talk about any topics almost without addressing the AI. A lot of people are afraid to lose their job because AI now can do a lot of things, especially for some positions like contents. Well, maybe some people agree or disagree with any of this. Topic like, oh, no one, AI cannot do the job of the person or the human. But there is a fact there is AI coming up and a lot of people might lose their job, or at least they are afraid to lose their job, including leaders.
So, Dr. Maria, like, what would you say? Like, would you say AI would affect the work opportunities out there or the leadership type?
What's your thought about that?
[00:38:28] Speaker B: I love this topic. I love this topic. It's such an important topic for leaders. And so really there's recently been some layoffs and the company has said it was specifically at workday and they said we had to lay them off because of AI. So I don't exactly know all the details, but the thing is, as a leader, when you're thinking about AI is you have to continuously keep up to date on what's happening in AI. So it's a term called learning agility. So you have to pick and choose where you want to focus on what you need to learn about AI related to your field, related to jobs in your area. So that's a really important point to look at and work with AI. I mean, one example would be is some people just immediately say AI and ChatGPT, but there are probably hundreds of different AI programs to test and look at. And it's important to know what, what could be impacting your industry in AI.
[00:39:37] Speaker A: So you mentioned learning agility. So what does it mean? I know like some people are like, okay, what is this agility? Is it just to keep learning or what do you mean with learning agility?
[00:39:49] Speaker B: So it is to keep learning, but then also it is a response to change too. It's how you kind of move through change and you have to learn new processes. So maybe there's a software change, you need to be open to learn that maybe there's a huge shift because of AI. You have to be ready and be willing to learn. So it's always good to keep track of how you're learning and who's reading often what's happening and hot in your industry area, paying attention to AI. And there is two other terms that I'll add is upskilling and reskilling. And so upskilling is building upon your talents that you have already or yes. And then reskilling is changing directions. So then you're adding a brand new skill. So there's lots of ways to do that. There's lots of ways and freeways. So it's not something you have to run out and pay for because there's learning everywhere.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. So who who's responsible for the learning agility? Would it be the leader like responsible for how, how do they learn or what they learn and to director team on what should they learn or would it be everyone responsibility to do that?
[00:41:08] Speaker B: I think anybody managing their own career, they need to figure out what they want to learn and how they want to keep learning. I also think it's important for organizations to have a perspective of a continuous learning culture. So it's okay to learn. It's not a, it doesn't, it's not scary that people are leaving because they're learning. I mean there's, you know, just around the AI piece that there's lots of free learning that people can do. And I know for myself I'm trying to take a prompt engineering class right now for AI so I know how to better use AI. And so I guess back to your original question. I think you have to take a look at for yourself and where you want to take your career and maybe if you want to even switch directions. But also the organization should foster learning learning, you know, but there's a lot of it out there. So a lot of free learning on different platforms where universities like the prompt engineering class that I'm in is from Vanderbilt and it's free, so gotta love that.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: Nice. So as an organization, how should organizations, especially small businesses like where you don't have tons of budget, you don't have a lot of budget, maybe you don't even have enough time. So what would you say the most effective way to really give a direction to employee and make it available to them? Tell them, hey, for your type of shop, maybe you want to focus on this. And I understand sometimes like you don't want to be as a leader to tell them what to learn they should know.
But also sometimes not every position they will know. Like some positions, some people like, they want you to tell them and they need that action. So what's the most effective way and how do you make sure people are really taking those steps of learning?
[00:43:01] Speaker B: That's a lot in that question.
I think for my, for myself is, I mean I, I think a very good tool is LinkedIn. And so if you can find a couple of voices of people that are kind of researching or leading the way in a certain topic area. It's not a lot of learning where you're investing hours and hours. It's maybe reading an article every once in a while. So that's one way and that's actually how I've learned a lot about the AI is following certain People that are testing everything. So, so then I know there's more than ChatGPT, there's Claude and all the others. So that's one way is to kind of help somebody along the way of how to become a lifelong learner. And then as far as companies and specifically small business, just taking a look around at what's. To lower the cost, taking a look around at what's happening with different associations around the area because those are usually more accessible cost wise. So there could be a specific professional association chapter that maybe they're having a good speaker that they could go and see. That wouldn't be as expensive as having something designed fully for the company.
But it is about encouraging people not to stop doing their job, but just to have something like even asking them and having the conversation, what are you interested in learning more about this field or your position or how you work and helping them together talk through what might be a learning plan.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: Nice. I know like conferences sometimes can be a very great tool to learn, especially the latest in any industry.
So would you say like who an organization should send to learn more? Like mostly in small businesses? I would say like the, the owner itself. But sometimes like it won't, it wouldn't be the owner like who can. How can you really make sure the person that you are sending is going to really attend, really get the value that you want out of that investment that the business is doing.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: So I think it is talking a little bit about how you work with your one on ones. So then goals that people have set for the year. So I know for myself, some organizations I've been in, they've had a requirement on our performance review that we did take a technology class. So we were constantly staying up to date on technology.
And then some of it is sometimes people are burnt out in their positions and so sometimes you may want to have a conversation and say, hey, how is this position going for you? Because maybe they could be more effective in another area and then they can learn and go that direction. So then you're not having to hire a different employee. You can hold on to a good employee. Just maybe job craft a little differently.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: That's awesome. So before we leave, I want to make sure like we tell people how can they find you and what can you offer for business owners?
[00:46:12] Speaker B: Oh yes, yes. So I have a website, docmaria.com and so there's a lot of information there. I'm also on LinkedIn, you could find me there. And Instagram. And so what I offer is, I offer executive coaching, leadership Coaching trainings, speaking, special engagements. And then I have a really great class called Positive Intelligence where people learn more about emotional intelligence and change their mindset and some public events. So that's how you find me on docmaria.com or infoocmaria.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Maria. This was an awesome episode. We definitely learned a lot from you. And. And guys, you want to make sure you visit Dr. Maria's website again, go to docmaria.com and see the amazing things that she offers and engage with her. Connect with her to bring your value for your employees. To be coached yourself as an executive and leader or have her speak at your next event.
She's amazing and you don't want to miss that. She's very sincere. And the program she mentioned, the Positive Intelligence, I did join myself and it's an amazing program. I got a lot of value of that program. I learned things that I didn't think of. I'm not going to tell you a lot about it because you got to join that program in just six weeks, right? So, Dr. Maria.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:47:53] Speaker A: Six weeks. Yeah. And you're gonna learn a lot in that program. So you can be anywhere in the US or anywhere in the world. Just connect with Dr. Maria and she's going to help you join. But now we came to the end of this episode. I can't wait to see you next time. But before you go, make sure you connect with me at. Hello. At echoes of impact.net hellochoesofimbact.net Tell me if you would like to be on the show. Tell me if you want me to discuss something in specific you are looking to see on the show. I would love to hear from you. I would love to have the guest that can ask you or can answer your questions. So again, email
[email protected] this is your host, Noora Masri. Until next time, keep making an impact.
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