The Work I Love

Welcome friend!

Over the past two weeks, I’ve opened up about love—love lost, love found, and today, the love I have for what I do. In this episode, I’m speaking directly to my professional single moms and every working woman balancing career and family. If that’s you, this one’s for you.

One of my biggest passions is helping others discovey their full potential and communicate effectively because words have the power to transform relationships, influence teams, and create lasting impact. Leadership isn’t just about strategy—it’s about knowing yourself, knowing your team, and communicating in a way that builds trust and clarity. If you want to lead well, you have to invest in your personal and professional growth.

Other episodes: The Love I Lost and The Love I Have

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Let’s build a life and career we truly love—together!

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Transcript

Welcome to the pod, friends! it is good to be back for another episode—

In the past 2 weeks, I have talked about love in a way that most people never do. I put the walls down and talked about two kinds of love that I’ve lost. Then I shared about the kind of love I currently have in my life, and today I want to talk about what I love doing.

I invite you to go back and listen to those episodes; the links are included in the podcast notes. My goal is to connect with you and create a presence that you can relate to and feel seen and known. And, of course, you can always reach out to me to share your story  

This episode is dedicated to all my professional single moms, all moms who work full-time or part-time jobs to help or fully provide for their families. It is not easy to be a professional and a parent at the same time. So, if you are a working mom this episode is for you to help you be a more successful professional. 

So, let’s get to the work I love!

First, let me say that not many people love their jobs, and I think that’s one of the saddest things ever. 2024 reports showed that many more people are dissatisfied with their jobs, which usually leads to disengagement. 

We know that when people are unhappy with what they do, they are miserable and make everyone around them miserable as well.  In the February issue of my Newsletter, I wrote about this and provided some practical tips leaders can use to connect with their team and influence positive actions to bring back employment engagement.  

How many of you have ever found yourselves in a place you didn’t want to work? I think that is something we all have experienced.  

It is easy to love a job, if we find it to be meaningful, which is also why I am passionate about leadership development and encourage people to learn about team dynamics; because if you are paying attention, you can easily identify someone’s strengths and use that knowledge to position them in a place where they can shine. That is something every good leader would want to do.  

I have to tell you, professionally speaking, not many people have helped me or mentored me to the next level. Why is that, you may ask? Well, most people have seen me as the competition. That’s right! It’s sad, but it is the truth.

Also, when it comes to women in the workplace, I have found that older women tend to be friendlier, more honest, and more willing to teach me a thing or two. When I reflect on why those women were different, it’s because I did not pose a threat to them in any way. They were so secure in who they were that they didn’t need to fear my talents or who I was.  

Few people have impacted my professional life. But I would say I have been very, very lucky that those few are great leaders who never felt threatened by me and went above and beyond to help me develop skills that would help me not just at work but as an individual. That is because these people were secure in their professional knowledge and personal identity.  

If you are a working professional, I want to challenge you with two questions I often ask myself? 

·      What do you love a bout you job? Why?

·      How are you using what you love to serve others? 

So, I have been in the field of project and product management for the past 10 years. It may be surprising to some of you to find out that what I truly love about managing projects is being able to influence teams to work together and to accomplish a goal. 

I believe a team that can identify a problem, understand it, and overcome it becomes unstoppable. Once that team is able to identify, understand and overcome a problem, they will start to look in other places where they have already identified gaps and roadblocks that affect their productivity, and that, my friends is music to my ears.   

For three years, I managed one of the most productive software development teams in a CRM company. As a product manager, that was one of the best experiences of my career. 

I am a firm believer that your success is 100% based on the people on your team. So, it is important that we, as leaders, have enough knowledge to understand what skills are needed in a team. We need to be secure in our mission and vision to decide what character traits we want in our team members. Above all, I think it is our job to protect the integrity of the team and the people we work with.  

I hear people say they value college education over job experience and others value job experience over education. And in the past couple of years I’ve seen this trend where people are saying you can train anyone to do a job but the fact that someone has gone to college shows that they love to learn.  

What I can say to that is, I have my personal opinion and I do not agree with that, but as a business owner I get to decide how I want to build my business and my team. And every business owner has the same right. 

 Some of the most successful people I know don’t have a college degree. They are smart, very successful, and people of character. However, going to college for four years is not enough evidence to support the statement that someone loves to learn. 

I know people who graduated college and have not completed any other kind of professional or educational training. 

 As a business owner, I prioritize learning. I don’t get caught up in the type of learning, as long as individuals are adding value to themselves. 

That is why team dynamics coaching makes my heart so happy. When a team works together, a learning cycle is constantly running, whether they know it or not.  

Another thing I love about my job is helping people fully discover their potential. We are all leaders; we just have to determine whether we are leading effectively. In my experience, individuals who do not excel in leadership often struggle because they have not recognized their strengths and weaknesses.  

If you, as a leader, keep trying to do what you don’t do well, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. If you are a small business owner, this will affect your team and your company in a negative way.  

So, investing in your professional growth is important if you want to succeed. When you make learning a habit, you don’t just become a great leader; you become a person of better character. 

Being a great leader doesn’t just affect your business or professional life. Being a great leader affects your personal life and the people you live with. 

When I help someone grow as a leader, it reminds me that I am doing what I am called to do and what I am passionate about. 

Lastly, I love having the ability to help others communicate better. Listen, your words matter more than you think. 

The way you communicate has the power to influence transformation. Your words have the power to give life or death. You can use your words to motivate or to discourage your team.

You can use your words to lift yourself and others up or to tear them down. It is always your choice. 

I believe in always being honest, kind and transparent when communicating. 

Communication is a skill that can help you not only at work but also make your life so much easier. If you learn to communicate with kindness, you can improve your relationships with loved ones and your friendships as well. 

Most importantly, knowing how to communicate builds one's character. The more successfully we communicate our needs, desires, feelings, and boundaries, the more peace one will have in life, both personally and professionally.  

If you are a professional, you can’t afford to miss my monthly newsletter. The Lead Well: Live with Purpose and Influence Transformation newsletter is sent out on the 12th of every month. It is designed to equip you with powerful leadership insights, team-building strategies, and faith-driven encouragement to help you lead with confidence.