Showing posts with label Women & Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Women & Work. Show all posts

June 27, 2023

The Impact of Implicit Bias

Organizations that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion can unlock the full potential of their workforce, access diverse markets, and cultivate a positive brand that will lead to ultimate growth and success. On the other hand, organizations that do not implement fair and unbiased processes to promote a culture of inclusivity will hinder their progress for business growth and credibility in the following ways:
  1. Hinder innovation, creativity, and problem-solving when their biases influence hiring decisions, promotions, and team creation and limit their ability to attract and retain diverse talents.
  2. Prevent equal opportunities for training programs and leadership roles based on subjective assumptions about individuals or groups outside a dominant culture that leads to hinged growth and potential of talented employees and limited contributions to the organization.
  3. Decrease employee morale and engagement when they feel undervalued, demotivated, and disengaged when they experience or witness biased behavior.
  4. Cause ineffective marketing strategies and exclusion of diverse customer segments because of prejudiced assumptions about customer preferences, needs, or behaviors.
  5. A negative brand reputation can damage its prominence among potential employees, customers, and partners, making it difficult to attract top talent, gain customer trust, or form valuable collaborations.

July 20, 2021

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Certification

The Entrepreneurship and Small Business (ESB) certification program prepares small business owners and leaders to succeed in today's competitive business landscape. An ESB certification will validate the skills and knowledge for individuals to work in a middle-skill trade profession, as an entrepreneur, or to pursue small business career aspirations with an understanding of core business principles and essentials to launch and sustain a successful business.

Candidates of the ESB Certification will need to have a conceptual knowledge of entrepreneurial and small business principles with a minimum of 150 instruction hours. However, students are not required to have real-world business experience to take and successfully pass the ESB exam. The ESB core concepts are:
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Recognizing and evaluating opportunities
  • Planning, starting, and operating a business
  • Marketing and sales
  • Business financials and funding
Exam criteria: ESB certification engages and prepares students to further their postsecondary training to enter the small business sector immediately after high school graduation. The entrepreneurial concepts validated by this certification will ensure these students are college and career-ready.

July 8, 2021

Management Essentials

When you’re a manager, there are some basic, essential skills everyone should have. Whether it’s setting clear work priorities, building great teamwork, listening well to others, or performing a performance review. Each of the skills impact how effective you’ll be as a manager. The Management Essentials e-course will help you build these skills and others. By giving you on the job development exercises to evaluate performance, set clear expectations, and create the right level of challenging work, you’ll build the skills required to be a great and motivating manager for each of your employees. This bite-sized course includes:
  • Giving Clear Work Priorities
  • What Employees Need
  • Reinforce Great Teamwork
  • Valuing Employees
  • Listening to Others’ Ideas and Opinions
  • Problem Solving Expectations
  • The Right Workload for Employees
  • The Great Things Employees Do
  • An Ethics and Integrity Discussion
  • Perform a Performance Review
  • Creating Challenging Work
  • Receive Feedback From Your
  • Creating a Great Work Situation
  • Evaluating Performance in the Right Way
  • Perform a Departure Review
After successful completion of this course, you will acquire skills to build basic management practices to coach employees, deliver valuable feedback, and recognize the achievements of others. Click here to learn more or to get started.

March 13, 2019

Character Assassination

”And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set amoung our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the curse of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” (James 3:6)

”But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:8-10)

The danger of the tongue. James compares the tongue with fire because it cannot be controlled and the damage it causes cannot be reversed. And, sometimes when water is added, it spreads the fire instead of putting it out!

When I worked in the corporate world, a manager attempted to assassinate my “working” characteristics with lies about my inability to perform tasks in a male-dominated career. The manager also stated, “I was not a team player and did not like to be critized.” I confronted my manager about the accusations and he denied them. In spite of his denial, the rumor had already spread.

One of my favorite scriptures that has helped me in my career is, “whatever I so doeth, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man” (Colossians 3:17). After working with this manager, I realized the importance to work as unto the Lord and not man.

I was provided an opportunity to travel to Florida to assist with deploying and upgrading a system. I believe the manager thought he was setting me up for failure, not knowing he had already been defeated.

My travel time was scheduled for three days, but was extended because of my work performance. And, one of the site managers in Florida was sending email messages to my manager’s supervisor, advising him of my good work. As a result, my assasinated character was brought back to life!

Many of us do not get an opportunity to experience life after a character assassination. Some of us only experience death because we continue to eat its fruit or bring back to life the fruit of “death”. Damaging words can leave deep wounds and scars, but it does not mean we cannot receive healing.

We live in a world where people are vicious like roaring lions that thrive on bringing others down. We do not have control of what people will say or think. However, we have control over our response.

The devil is like a thief. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy our character, but he can never destroy our spirit. Satan uses the tongue to divide relationships. John 4:4 tells us, “greater is He (God) that is within us, than he (Satan) that’s in the world.”

Proverbs gives four types of tongues:
  1. The Controlled
  2. The Caring
  3. The Conniving
  4. The Careless
The first two, should be practiced diligently to bring forth life and unity in our homes, work, and church. The Conniving and Careless tongues should be avoided at all times because they’re poisonous, and do not bring glory and honor to God.

Deborah M. Avens

June 26, 2017

Stand Out from the Crowd!

According to CIO.com there are thirteen IT certifications that have emerged that can help you get a leg up on your career. Whether you're a seasoned IT professional, recent college graduate, or an individual transitioning to an IT career, an IT certification can help you stand out from the crowd and show hiring managers you have the credentials to meet their IT business needs.

We've highlighted our IT certification courses that made the list to help you emerge in your business and/or career.

Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)

The Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) is a certification program developed by ISACA to develop an individual's career as a a security manager. Once certified, the CISM qualifies students to design, manage, asses and oversee an enterprise's information security infrastructure.

IT Security without question is one of the hottest and most lucrative areas of Information Technology and the CISM is one of the most valued credentials in the marketplace. This online course promotes international practices and provides management with assurance that those earning this certification have the necessary knowledge and experience to provide effective security management. This course is best suited for IT professionals like risk managers, security auditors, compliance officers, information security managers, security analysts, and IT security architects. Learn more.

Annual salary for individuals with a CISM certification is $59,000 - $225,000. (Source: PayScale)

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

Created by ISACA, the CISA certification is globally recognized and is commonly associated with every phase of the IT auditing process. This online course will help professionals gain the knowledge, skills, experience and credibility to leverage standards, manage vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, offer solutions, institute controls and deliver value to the enterprise. CISA is commonly associated with IT auditing roles like senior information technology auditor, information security manager, and security analyst. Learn more.

Average salary for a CISA certification is $48,000 to $171,000 per year. (Source: PayScale)

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

A Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification demonstrates your ability to manage large-scale business projects and serve as a servant-leader to ensure Scrum team members work together to learn the framework commonly used to develop software and hardware. CSMs understand Scrum values, practices, and applications and provide a level of knowledge and expertise above and beyond typical project managers, which makes this certification a valuable skill to add to your resume. CSM certifications are best suited for IT project managers and software engineers. Learn more.

Average average salary for a CSM certification is 56,000 to $142,000 per year. (Source:PayScale)

MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure

Microsoft Cloud certification validates you have the experience, knowledge, and skills to manage and implement Microsoft cloud computing technologies. It also certifies you have the expertise to build a Microsoft private cloud solution and gain IT infrastructure automation and flexibility. This certification will benefit IT managers, directors, system administrators, system engineers, and network administrators. Learn more.

Average salary for an MCSE certification is $47,000 to $145,000 per year. (Source: PayScale)

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)

Individuals with a MOS certification demonstrates their skills and efficiency in using one or more products in Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, or Access. MOS certifications are great for office managers, executive assistants, administrative workers, and individuals transitioning to an entry-level technical career.

According to an IDC White Paper, individuals that hold a MOS Certification can boost their salary by as much as $16,000 more than individuals not certified based on their current job title and certification level (i.e., core, expert, or master). Learn more.

Average salary for a MOS certification is $45,000 and to $65,000. (Source: PayScale)

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Project managers who have proven skills and experience can find exciting, highly-visible opportunities in a wide range of fields. This course is specifically designed to provide the proven, practical body of project management knowledge and skills you need to demonstrate your project management mastery. Additionally, this course can be a significant part of preparation for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam.

The skills and knowledge you gain from this course will help you avoid making costly mistakes and increase your competitive edge in the project management profession.

IT professionals who can benefit most from a PMP certification are: IT project managers, directors of operations and IT directors. Learn more.

The average salary for an individual with a PMP certification is $58,000 to $177,000. (Source: PayScale)

June 16, 2017

She's Not a B****, She's Confident

Why are women called a B**** when they exude confidence? Confidence has nothing to do with lewdness, selfishness, or being a female dog. It has everything to do with relying on an inner power and strength to achieve and succeed in life. Once a woman reaches a level of self-confidence, she doesn’t need to be torn down. No one knows her journey to reach her height and our level of confidence will never increase when we tear women down.

We've launched a tee-shirt campaign to end negative languages and images associated with confident women and women in general. And you can show your support here.