OTS 313: Authentic Change - Farzana Nayani

Today’s guest believes that healing, awareness, empathy, and engagement are critical in today’s increasingly connected, yet polarized world. Her work aims to support deeper connections and mutual understanding among different groups, toward a more equitable society. She is a diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist, coach, and international keynote speaker. She has worked with organizations across all sectors on DEI, intercultural communication, supplier diversity, and employee engagement. Her expertise has been featured in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR, and the Washington Post. Her latest book “The Power of Employee Resource Groups: How People Create Authentic Change” shares how to build ERGs to empower underrepresented employees and positively impact diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within organizations and society. Please join me in welcoming Farzana Nayani.  In this episode we discuss: her thoughts on leadership: “Leadership is finding yourself and knowing who you are and using that to reach people.” the importance of being a model of leadership to those around you. how sports played a large role in her leadership journey and how that experience even helped her get comfortable around other genders. her path from grad school to becoming an entrepreneur. the traumatizing moment as a mom that catapulted her decision to be an entrepreneur. the impact of all that she is on her business. why she considers herself as a cross-pollinator with her clients and the benefit of being industry agnostic. the impact that the murder of George Floyd had on her business and how it inspired her to write “Raising Multiracial Children.” the importance of strategic volunteering. how she builds connections and maintains that to grow her network by speaking pro-bono or at a lower rate. how she nurtures the outer levels of her network. what she’s looking forward to in the year ahead. Listen, subscribe and read show notes at www.OnTheSchmooze.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices