The CATK Interview: Shaara Roman

[00:00:00] We've been about this work diversity equity inclusion belonging Share through the voices of a white woman and a black man. We bring lived experiences We have pursued D&I progress for most of our professional lives

[00:00:16] We use Crazy and The King to cover news tips from colleagues and hosts incredible guests listeners Cat on Julie and I to transparently drive the conversation. We thank you For rocking with us check it Julie kick off the show Welcome to Crazy and The King

[00:00:39] You know, we have done a pretty good job the last couple of years of ending the year with Incredible guests and you know just hearing some of their experiences We have guests throughout the year, but this is always special because it gives us some time to

[00:00:58] You know to just decompress Refuel our tank and and get ready for for January because trust and believe January is going to bring With it the snow and the winds of all types of change, but I'm curious Julie. First of all, how are you? You good?

[00:01:18] Good good. I love this too because there are so many incredible voices in our world that you and I are getting to meet from This podcast I mean people we never would have otherwise engaged your met in our lifetime

[00:01:30] And now we get to just sit down and have an amazing conversation with them Yeah, and for those of you out there listening in case you are new to Crazy and The King

[00:01:37] You can go to crazyandtheking.com like we do have a real website that lists all of our episodes You can sign up for the newsletter that way you'll get an announcement

[00:01:48] I think the announcement comes out at some point later in the day all of our episodes drop every Thursday morning around 2 p.m Eastern 2 a.m. I'm sorry 2 a.m Eastern time on Thursday and then you at some at some point later in the day

[00:02:04] You'll get a newsletter or you'll get an email notice letting you know that a new episode is up But you said something about mentioning or being introduced to incredible voices. I want to tell listeners

[00:02:17] You definitely want to stick around to our her voice segment later in the episode Because it forced me because of our guest who's an author And a consultant any speaker because of our guest today I challenged myself julie. I said let let me go out and

[00:02:38] Uh unearth. Let me unearth fair it out some names of people that I have never Heard from or heard of before like I've never read a blog post. I've never seen a social tweet. I've never heard or read or experienced these women's name and

[00:03:01] I am assuming that they are out there doing as some would say god's work. They are doing incredible work Inside of organizations that you and I may never touch and so hopefully somebody out there listening Maybe you might know one or two of the names that we mentioned

[00:03:18] Later in the her voice segment, but i'm looking forward to our guest today. Aren't you yeah shahra roman uh author ceo is joining us uh has a fantastically interesting background the way that she grew up and and it's just i'm really excited to talk to her and

[00:03:33] And to learn a little bit more about how she engages and approaches her work as as a woman of color You know she does and you know what you said something as a woman of color you you categorize her as if

[00:03:47] And i'm not saying this in a bad way. You've been communicating You know with her her pr team and her and and so you've had more dialogue with her than I have But you said she shows up as a woman of color

[00:04:01] I wonder if she would say she shows up as a woman of color Certainly one of the things that I am going to ask um in our conversation I think i also want to ask about that eclectic background Like she has a very very diverse rich beautiful

[00:04:20] Background and and I think you know julie. I think about when I was doing Work in the early two thousands And I would go into some of the meetings here in maryland. It was the maryland

[00:04:33] It was the maryland. It was the governor's work workforce reinvestment board something like that g web governors workforce investment board and I would sit in this room at one of the community colleges Probably a room of 40 or 50 people at the table

[00:04:50] I always felt like I was the least accomplished and qualified and educated person to be at the table mind you I built a seven figure business But I still felt like I was the least

[00:05:05] Accomplished individual at the table because everyone had all of these degrees. They were heads of industry CEOs of big companies division leads And what I said people Would say to me well torn. How is it that you sit in these rooms? I said experience and exposure

[00:05:25] And what our guest brings is experience And exposure so I'm looking forward to chatting with chara. So how about we just take a quick break and Let's see if we can bring her up and get her into This conversation. Yeah, let's get at it so of course

[00:05:49] This is one of those times where we have a guest And I always say to you all I really wish that Julie would give me permission To use the video Because you never know what's happening like Offscreen all you all get to do is hear our incredible voices

[00:06:08] And we have incredible guests like today So our guest is chara. I believe I'm pronouncing the name correctly She's going to correct me if I'm not chara roman Roman author CEO and Founder I like founder. We could say entrepreneur We could say consultant

[00:06:30] But founder just sounds so much more exquisite chara is the founder and ceo of the silverine group a boutique culture Consulting firm that is on a mission to make the world a better More inclusive place For all now I got to tell you

[00:06:50] Char we actually uh here we end each and every show Encouraging our listeners to create better culture Better teams better workplaces. So you You are on the right podcast. Welcome to crazy in the king

[00:07:07] Thank you. I'm happy to be here toran. Thanks so much for the introduction and for the invitation I am looking for some fun times Well, we will try to do that She wants some she wants some digital fun times. Let's see if we can

[00:07:23] Let's see if we can get that festive digital fun time that chara is trying to uh To uh, see if she can cultivate because I guess that stays with her spirit of better workplaces

[00:07:36] Yeah, so as a female founder to another female founder, you have such a fascinating background You're born in bombay raised in lagoos, nigeria Educated in england lived in greece Um add some context for how we how you ended up right here in virginia

[00:07:55] Married mom got a dog all those good things All right, so um This is a long story that I'll try to make super quick So I was as you said born in born in bombay spend my childhood in legos

[00:08:11] After high school in england. I went back to legos to take a gap year and I met my husband who Was stationed uh, what was it was with the american embassy? He's a marine active duty at the time He's from porta rica originally grew up in the bronx

[00:08:28] We met fell in love And moved to greece where we ultimately got married and then came back to the us so he could continue on with his united states duty stations And he was stationed in quantico

[00:08:44] of virginia and so we ended up sort of setting up roots here and You know, I I always sort of joke about the first sort of 2021 years of my life were super Well traveled and I lived in a lot of different places and then I you know

[00:09:00] Mary my my the love of my life and have spent a lot of my life now in in virginia So not as sexy and cool as some of the other places, but you know, we're trying to get it there

[00:09:11] So that shows americans the power of a gap year. I just I always say that we need a gap year No, and when we think about that gap year, I gotta tell you I'm backing up First of all, you all both both of you both of you

[00:09:25] Just did you took me to school you took me to vocal school You know how some folks stand behind the mic and they go through vocal lessons And the instructor says sing from your diaphragm, you know

[00:09:35] Fill up the air pipes and sing from your diaphragm. Well, you didn't take me to singing school But your pronunciation I always say Legos the both of you said Lagos and let me tell you I actually was about to jump in jay when you said it

[00:09:51] I was like, you know what her flow is on so i'm not gonna mess her up And then shara you said I did I see lagos because it's legos Is it legos? Okay, so okay, so I had it right but but I got I gotta say to you

[00:10:05] You know when you give that introduction right there shara I think about our dear friend diana sing from uplifting impact And just all of what you said born in bombay living in lagos Traveling in greece or having lived in england lived in greece husband from potterico the bronx

[00:10:26] I can only imagine what the cuisine is like inside of the household You understand what i'm saying? I can only imagine you have to be But our second guest now, we probably have had some guests that are like wicked in the kitchen

[00:10:43] But I can only imagine let me not assume. Are you good in the kitchen? I'm decent in the kitchen I'm decent my husband i rough oil and I make it work in terms of what we what we cook up and

[00:10:59] Sadly though, I hate to sort of burst your bubble too much Cooking indian food takes a lot of time and effort And so there isn't a lot of that happening in our kitchen I know that's right Puerto Rican food same thing

[00:11:12] So you know when you have two working Parents and all of the craziness of of the busy lives we lead, you know food has gotten

[00:11:20] Pretty simple, but what I what I think is interesting is that first of all it's it's really a blend right like we use a lot of So you do use a lot of spices so I may not make indian food or he make Puerto Rican food

[00:11:31] But we use a lot of you know cumin and garlic and ginger and kain and you know whatever else is happening And um, we tend to lean into more of the Mediterranean style

[00:11:41] I think our couple of years that we lived in greece in terms of grilled meat or fish and You know kind of just fresh veggies and that's kind of where we lean into um But it's a big smorgasbord that word came out. Okay

[00:11:57] I like that it did it did so your experience chara has positioned you in a variety of organizations and What you've said is that over time you've helped organizations through some of their inflection points

[00:12:09] You've transformed leadership. You've done quite a bit inside of the companies that you've supported I'm I'm wondering what have you seen has as being the greatest action The the single greatest thing that you've been able to do or that you've encouraged others to do

[00:12:30] That has brought about organizational impact Yeah, that's a great question and The one thing, you know, it's it's hard to sort of always pin it down to one thing But I think the single most thing is when We have helped

[00:12:46] I've helped my team has helped right a leader Have that aha moment where that light bulb goes off where they start to shift how they think and how they see the world

[00:12:57] And the impact they can potentially have by being more inclusive by being more curious by sort of really Thinking about their people first and not just saying those words because a lot of people say those words a lot of companies Say, oh we're people first but truly

[00:13:13] Being intentional about that concept around Wow I have to recognize that the people that I work with Are unique individuals they all have their own Their own back stories their own lived experiences And how do I really help?

[00:13:31] Each of them bring their unique talents to life when that light bulb goes off and they sort of realize that Then that has that just opens the floodgates right to real change happening because We always talk about sort of change management and changing organizations and transforming organizations

[00:13:50] And and yes, ultimately that's what you want But you have to transform and change the individuals in the organizations in order for that to happen Right because the organization is an entity and it's made up of the individuals and the people

[00:14:01] And that's what we have to focus on And I want to say that for just a moment what what I appreciate in your response is And i'm not criticizing so when people hear me say this out loud

[00:14:14] I want them to know where it's coming from what I just heard you say shara is that There is no magical Potion there is no red or blue or green or yellow. There's no one pill

[00:14:29] There's no one prescription and and here's why I like your response. I like your response because I ask that question for a reason I when people ask me what torum what's what's been the greatest impact you've had In consulting over the last three four five years

[00:14:47] I always say The one thing that I do is I get all of my organizations to try to ask On the performance evaluation What did you do To help with our d and i efforts if I can get companies to do that

[00:15:04] For 500 people 10,000 people 100,000 people. That's the one thing that i'm pointing to Yeah, I like what you said everyone arrives at that aha moment differently Yeah So you've you've been a c hro

[00:15:23] You've helped drive employee and business success as we've been talking about you've been advising companies on creating successful strategies around organizational design leadership Eliminate eliminating toxic stressors in the workplace. That's one of my favorites and

[00:15:41] You decided hey, you know what I need to put this into a book called the conscious workplace Tell us why you decided it was time to share that knowledge with the world

[00:15:51] Um, yeah, so I'll just start by saying I had no plans ever um to be an author so What's not why not I mean where you like It hesitant to get into the writing process. You didn't want to do the whole

[00:16:07] Lock myself in a hotel room and no one could talk to me. What what was your hesitation? around it was just Yeah, sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there. It was just more like i'm not a writer like

[00:16:20] Why would I do that? I'm more of a get on stage talk about it, right? That's right. That's right. So um so for so for me when I

[00:16:29] So I do a lot of speaking uh, and I do a lot of consulting and uh, I've stayed in touch with a lot of the people That I've worked with and I kept hearing this common theme of

[00:16:39] Do you have a book? Did you write? Do you did you write a book? You should write a book? You should really put this down on paper. So that was it a lot of the the groundswell sort of, you know, kind of organic

[00:16:49] Sort of movement, right? Sort of saying you should you should write a book And then I was approached by a firm that wanted to You know, they work with entrepreneurs the whole time blah blah blah and they were like you should write

[00:17:00] You know, we'd love to help you tell your story and I gave that some pause You know in reflection, right to say, you know what maybe I really should take that time and let me really think about um

[00:17:11] What it is that I can add value to and you know, toran maybe part of what was holding me back Although not a lot holds me back. But what I think might have been holding me back is

[00:17:21] I'm not a writer, but i'm not like this this person that's arrived in the world like who am I to sort of Take pen to paper right and and and tell a story

[00:17:32] But as I really thought about what is the impact I'm having when I go and I talk to a group of women that Want to break into entrepreneurship or want to grow in their organizations or I talk with leaders that

[00:17:43] You know, even in a in a 15 minute speech kind of have sort of that moment of Awakening right to say oh, I might want to look at this differently So well if I can impact people right by putting these thoughts my perspective as

[00:17:57] A woman as a woman of color as an immigrant essentially to this country as someone who Lived a very good life prior to coming here and then That life didn't sort of quite carry over right because when you come to the u.s

[00:18:10] It's sort of like a blank sheet of paper and you got to prove yourself in america and all of that contributes to who I am and how I've Maneuvered my way for lack of a better word through the the corporate world

[00:18:24] And now how I lean into both sort of driving the business building a business and sharing that with Everyone so those were all the things that were were happening and I Think it's an important story actually for people to read

[00:18:41] About and it's not a story about me right, but it's a story from the perspective of Of me Yeah, i'm gonna get to I want to get to the subtitle But you actually said something which I want I don't want to I don't want to speed past that

[00:18:54] You said um lived a good life Coming to the u.s things were a little bit different. You said a woman of color immigrant So i'm curious char how do you show up? um From day to day in professional environments

[00:19:10] Maybe an uncomfortable question, but do you show up as a woman of color? Do you show up as if this is appropriate? I might even be wrong in saying this Do you show up as an immigrant?

[00:19:22] Do you show up as I have a dear friend aubrey blanche who's a white passing latina? And she admits that she she can lean on her white passing side even as a latina How do you show up?

[00:19:37] Yeah, and that's a really great question and how I've showed up and how i'm showing up is evolving right day by day Oh, thank you for that. So I I didn't show up for a lot of time embracing woman of color

[00:19:50] Or embracing my indian heritage because quite frankly i don't have much of a connection to india Right. I was born there and then I moved to nigeria when I was a baby

[00:19:59] My parents grew up in a very western my parents and my grandparents even grew up in a very western type of way um, which has its own sort of pros and cons but um, there was a

[00:20:11] There was a time when I was actually at cgi and I had taken over um of fairly large team And the the young women that came um Sort of saw me as this, you know super strong super together

[00:20:27] um very poised professional woman and and in a way was very intimidating to them because they're like Well, you're so perfect and everything is perfect. How can I ever get like this? So that was sort of one of the moments probably what 15 years ago now

[00:20:41] 10 12 whatever somewhere in that, you know in the early in the early 2000s That was a light bulb moment for me in terms of how do I really show up more authentically as a woman and as a mom and as a wife and then as I've kind of

[00:20:55] continued that learning and that that journey I Realized that I have been able to claim some success because maybe I'm white passing right maybe because Maybe not it just depends on on how that is but I don't make people feel super uncomfortable

[00:21:13] Right because I talk like I've grown up here and and lived here my whole life I um I think because of being a child and moving around and living everywhere else I'm easy

[00:21:24] I can easily adapt and and sort of conform and I sort of know how to make people feel comfortable um, but More and more as I introduce myself. I I do sort of

[00:21:37] Talk about hey, I'm not mainstream right? I do think differently. I have different experiences and backgrounds I come at this as as really a very intersectional person Um So it's it's a growing it's a growing piece right the immigrant piece is

[00:21:57] A little bit more challenging in the sense that I don't Lean into it um or try to take advantage of it I guess is in in one respect because immigration and and immigrants there's Whole different sort of set of circumstances and stories sort of behind that

[00:22:15] But ultimately I didn't grow up here and I don't have a lot of the the baggage and the um I haven't had those experiences as a child growing up here And so those were not my formative years

[00:22:30] But now as an adult sort of looking at all of it from the outside or actually looking at it kind of more Introspectively, I see how that plays out for so many different people The subtitle of your book the conscious workplace

[00:22:43] The subtitle is fortify your culture to thrive in any crisis now. I'm wondering like inside of the book Did you put case studies like um? Navigating a poor economy a global climate crisis war a pandemic

[00:23:02] Or shara is it a bit more predictable like dealing with a boss that Has micro aggressive tendencies and other examples like that Yeah, so we actually so I didn't talk so much about war or any of that climate crisis or any of that right?

[00:23:22] I'm not necessarily an expert in that space. But what did did feature fairly Fairly prevalent in the book is is the whole pandemic right and but and because that was so centered to what was happening for the workforce for employers

[00:23:42] um, but if you think more globally about esg, you know environment sustainability and governance That if you're at the board level and you're able to sort of drive that conversation in a much more global way

[00:23:57] Um or broad way. That's what we want people to do. But really the thrive of in crisis Um was really about it could be anything but we use the pandemic as the example of listen. We had to overnight

[00:24:11] Completely pivot reshape rethink how we were doing things and unfortunately not everyone has really adapted right? We are still we're saying oh the new normal and we're just bolting on things Uh in an organization

[00:24:27] Versus really exploring and examining. Well, how do we really structure our organizations to begin with? Why are we you know, we're saying we're really productive But we're really productive because people are working, you know, 50 percent more than they were working before

[00:24:42] So how do you ensure that people have proper workloads? Appropriate workloads that people are Leaning into their strengths that you're really making those human connections because hybrid is great remote is great But not if you leave people in their own little isolated

[00:24:57] Sort of window screen right and you're not really engaging them So that was really the the backstory or the kind of the theme that we have through the book and and you know kind of sticking with this

[00:25:10] Belonging empowerment, you know, why do you feel that de I isn't enough until your You get paired with the critical components of belonging and empowerment and in a culture Yeah, I so you know from from a belonging perspective um

[00:25:30] It really at that point allows us to bring our whole selves into the workplace, right? And we talked about this just earlier that you know, I'm a mom. I'm a founder. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a ceo. I'm a wife I'm a

[00:25:43] Woman I'm a woman of color. You know all of those pieces and if if you as an individual Can't feel sort of fully safe fully connected into the organization Fully know that your Boss your manager the leadership really have your back

[00:25:59] Then you're going to always hold something back So and if you hold something back then you're not fully bringing all of those strengths and talents that you have And then you're not able to really

[00:26:11] Bring everything into that organization to help the organization be more creative and be more innovative and ultimately be more profitable and You don't feel like you belong With in terms of sort of the empowerment piece because so much again going back to what we were talking about earlier

[00:26:30] So much of our work life Is prescribed right like our bosses want to tell us what to do and how to do it and Instead of saying hey, here's what I need done and here's when I needed done by

[00:26:43] Instead of forcing the this is the way we've always done it right. We don't allow that creativity We don't allow that exploration And so when you are empowered you have opportunities to make decisions on your own

[00:26:57] You're allowed to sort of figure out how you're going to get to the end game Of course within the the parameters the organization sets When you have sort of that ownership you can have a you can have an element of You know

[00:27:11] Opining on the future of the organization. So you want to bring all those pieces together Because we know that diversity is about facts and numbers, right? It's a good thing We need to know it but it can get very

[00:27:24] Metric driven and more people sort of feel like well, I have to do this and can easily check the box When you have inclusion people are are sort of included and you want people to managers to ask questions and drive curiosity

[00:27:38] But unless you really put all those other pieces in place People aren't going to feel like they belong and they're not going to feel like they can really be Empowered does that make sense? It does in the book you talk about the best friend

[00:27:53] Being a critical component to productivity and to engagement I'm wondering as we close out the segment shara. Why is the best friend important? So your response to That criticality and and then maybe something you want listeners to absolutely take away

[00:28:11] From your time here with us on crazy and the king Sure You know the best friend concept was introduced by gallup many many years ago, right? And it's a question they ask on their on their q12 But essentially, you know having a best friend at work is

[00:28:28] Like having having a friend having someone that you can lean on someone that you can You can talk to about what might be bothering you without holding back So much of the time we are afraid to Share what is truly going on for us in the workplace

[00:28:43] Because we feel like we'll be judged we'll be marginalized We'll show a sense of weakness and then that will be used against us somehow somewhere sometime And particularly for women particularly for people of color particularly for people from other marginalized groups

[00:28:58] Whether you have a disability whether you're a member of the lgbtq plus community Whatever right you don't want to share because you're you're worried so when you have that friend That person you can fully trust and hopefully you have lots of friends

[00:29:11] Then that just really helps you again feel more connected feel like you belong feel like you can really Be who you are and if you're not spending all that mental energy holding things back

[00:29:22] Then you're bringing it all right like you're not worried about all these other things that are that are distracting you so You know, I think as a final takeaway um I think that if leaders in organizations and even

[00:29:37] Work work. I look at leaders as is not just sitting in the c-suite right like we're all leaders We all have a way we can um lead change and drive change in the organization but if we come in with this mindset of

[00:29:50] Being intentional about our culture being really Intentional about how we show up how we want to lean into Curiosity and learn about the people that we work with then it'll just end up leading into trust and belonging and creativity and growth and really

[00:30:11] A place of abundance that we can all thrive because that's what we want right we have Close to 65 percent of the workforce is disengaged and unhappy about the places that they work with That's a serious problem So

[00:30:30] If we're conscious and we're intentional and we lean into how we can how we can create um Places where people can thrive Then it's a win-win for everyone The conscious workplace fortify your culture to thrive in any crisis author founder consultant CEO mom

[00:30:52] Incredible speaker all of those things shara roman. We appreciate you for joining us here on crazy and the king people that are listening You can find shara on her website shara. That's s-h-a-a r-a roman r-o-m-a-n shara roman.com again

[00:31:14] Shara roman.com and are you active on like social twitter instagram any of those places? Um, definitely active on linkedin. Um, okay, probably the best place to To find us. Yeah That works absolutely shara roman. Thank you so much for joining us

[00:31:30] Absolutely. Thank you both torian and julie real pleasure to to connect with you both All right her voice is where we amplify women that are making Moves and in the spirit of our fun conversation. Shara said that she wanted to have some fun

[00:31:48] I hope that julie and I Enabled her to have a little A bit of digital podcast Recording fun, but in the spirit of our conversation We decided to feature women that are authors consultants or speakers women that have done

[00:32:07] Some things and so our first person is coming from shara. She actually raised a name jennifer Ives she's a friend A colleague Shara says that you jennifer are brilliant You are a thought leader

[00:32:25] In the tech space and in sales that you are also generous you lift up other women you mentor and you lead Inclusively so shout out to you Miss jennifer Ives and the next one which i am so pumped about

[00:32:43] Marisa nisley who is an undergrad student at georgetown. Yay Who is doing her podcast to help others? Understand the world of people living with disabilities. She hosts a podcast called legally blonde and blind Shara loves her energy smarts and action orientation to making the world a better place

[00:33:05] Name drop to you miss marissa Adriel parker she helps leaders teams and organizations improve cultural competence She helps them to identify and disrupt systemic barriers and she also builds more equitable and inclusive spaces

[00:33:22] For all now what I like about adriel is that she also coaches black women and has an awesome youtube channel You can find her on twitter at adriel parker. That's a d r i e e parker adriel parker

[00:33:38] And finally this week we have tiffany grand champ founder of women lifting women a consultancy and all women leadership team We're so happy to amplify tiffany if you reach out to her let us know about the experience her website is womenliftingwomen.org womenliftingwomen.org r gene

[00:34:03] Moving through the holiday season so appreciate you j Appreciate char roman for coming through we close reminding each and every one of you to share the pod with your digital tribe and to find your individual unique and Special voice

[00:34:18] Let's do everything that we can to be a better human build better teams better culture and Better workplaces for now j&i eggnog style We ghost Do you love news about linkedin indeed google and just about every other recruitment tech company out there? Hell yeah

[00:34:48] I'm chad i'm cheese. We're the chad and cheese podcast all the latest recruiting news and insights are on our show Dripping in snark and attitude Subscribe today wherever you listen to your podcasts. We out