Ep 51 Empowering Latina Leaders: Embrace Culture, Foster Self-Worth, and Lead with Compassion

How can you transform your leadership skills and elevate your self-worth? Discover the secrets with me, Smilie Filomeno Rodriguez, as I share my personal journey of self-empowerment, embracing my identity as a proud Puerto Rican life coach , Social Worker and podcaster. Celebrating the resilience and determination of Latina women, we'll dive deeper into the significance of self-discovery, self-love, and the joy of representing our culture during the National Puerto Rican Day Parade. You'll learn how to harness key leadership skills at any level, whether you're an executive or just starting out, through three powerful questions that can transform your approach to leadership.

Explore the critical importance of managing team dynamics with empathy and clear communication, drawing from my 18+ years of successful leadership experience. We'll discuss how to foster a culture of accountability without sacrificing compassion, and why continuous self-improvement is vital both professionally and personally. Reflect on your own growth and leadership over the past six months, focusing on self-worth, confidence, and the profound impact of your internal state on your ability to lead. This episode is packed with insights to inspire and empower you to embrace your dreams, cultivate empathy, and move forward with passion and authenticity. You got this!

Chapters

• 0:03 Empowerment for Latina Women
• 11:01 Leadership
• 28:01 Reflection on Self-Love and Leadership

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hola, boss Chica. Welcome to the Smiley Empowerment Podcast. This is where we celebrate the strength, resilience and determination of Latina women and all women who are constantly on the go, pushing through challenges and achieving their goals. I like to call these women Boss Chica. Like me, if you're a busy woman ready to be uplifted, inspired, empowered to take charge of your healing journey and be a Boss Chica, you've come to the right place. We can all agree, life can be hectic and overwhelming, but anything is possible with the right mindset, attitude, tools and support. Let me introduce myself. My name is Smiley Filomeno Rodriguez and I am a Latina life empowerment coach and a social worker. I started this podcast because I know what feeling alone and overwhelmed with past wounds and challenges feel like. I want to help you with self-discovery, self-love and self-empowerment so you can grow and thrive. Do you sometimes feel alone, desiente sola? Well, you're not alone. No, estas sola. You have me, your coach, smiley.

Speaker 1: 1:20

In each episode, I'll share personal stories of resilient healing, tips, practical advice, strategies for managing your time and priorities for improving your relationship with yourself and others, and insights on cultivating a positive and fulfilling joyful life. So grab your earbuds and tea or coffee, take a deep breath and get ready to be inspired and encouraged. Let's begin this journey together and empower each other to become the best versions of our lives. Let's get started. You got this. What a treat. What a treat I have for you today.

Speaker 1: 2:17

If you are a leader, a leader, an executive in your business, in a corporation, in a nonprofit, or even if you are a line staff and you are looking to climb that ladder of success, of leadership, this episode is for you, leaders. I want to help you to transform. Now. This is the time that I want you to elevate your game, make sure that your leadership is tight. Elevate your game, make sure that your leadership is tight. But for that, I want you to really take this time to be real with yourself and to help you to do that, I have about three questions that you need to ask yourself now.

Speaker 1: 3:02

This is the time for you to ask yourself these three questions that I'm going to jump into in just a few minutes, but before I do that, I want to say that I am super proud that I am a Puerto Rican podcaster de Puerto Rico, rio Piedras, puerto Rico in the house. I am a hundred percent Puerto Rican. My parents are Puerto Rican. I am so proud and you would say, oh, why are you saying this right now? Because the day that I'm recording this is the National Puerto Rican Day Parade and I am so proud to be Puerto Rican, puerto Rican, boricua. So if you are Boricua, puerto Rican, and you're proud, let me know, give me a shout out, let me know in the comments. If you're Latina, latino, let us know as well, because Latinos we rock. We're all together.

Speaker 1: 3:57

All of us as human, we want to make sure that we are better, and this podcast it's all about the self-love, the motivation, the kindness, the guidance that you need. So if you're listening to this in another part of the world like I have so many listeners in India, in oh my God in Australia it's amazing In Slovenia, wherever you're at and you're listening to this, know that here in New York City today, june 9th, we are super proud as Puerto Ricans and just unite with us, right, just elevate each other up. It's so important, all right Now, that I said that and I got that out of the way, out of my system, because I'm so proud to be a Puerto Rican podcaster of my system. Because I'm so proud to be a Puerto Rican podcaster, I keep saying that and I love the way it sounds, because Smiley Empowerment is an amazing company that I founded and that everything comes out with so much love, like my Boss Chicas Club, like this podcast, the Smiley Empowerment podcast, and so many other things that are going to flow out of me.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Even though we talk about flowing, it doesn't mean that dreams don't come with a price, don't come with sometimes hard work, other times less of work and more right and more passion and play. It all depends. Our dreams are in different stages. So just know that you can achieve your dream. You can dream bigger. Palante mi gente, let's go forward. My people, I love you guys and I love the support that you've given me.

Speaker 1: 5:35

A small business, being an entrepreneur, it's exciting and with that I have to say that so many life, people, clients, everyone that participated in us making sure that people in need get the services and the help. And now that I'm doing my own thing, I am still with the same mission of elevating and helping people. Since the age of 18, and helping people Since the age of 18, I started working in the human services industry, helping people get better, loving to study about human behavior and help, and then later in my years I love that, 18 years plus it was amazing to be a program director, but that didn't come with a lot of dedication. A lot of times that I felt that sometimes we as leaders may feel defeated. We may feel, at times, the pain of seeing people not getting the services that they need and so many things and systems not working the way we would want it to work. However, we still have to lead.

Speaker 1: 7:11

So that's why this episode is so special for me, because I wanted to offer you the leader, and the leader, however you describe yourself, you could be again, I said, an executive at a nonprofit, at a private company, in your own company. You could be the VP, you could be the founder. You actually be a leader within leaders, right? And it's so important for you to take a closer look of you, the individual, the human being. I've always spoken about this. I've always spoken about number one thing is for us to understand that we're human and that we need to start with ourselves first in order to then be able to lead, to create, to share, to create our legacy, right? So it's so important.

Speaker 1: 7:54

So I want to give you three questions that I know that you are going to tackle it with sincerity, because I believe that that's what you are about, right. You have to be sincere with yourself because often us as humans, we point the finger right. We say, no, it's because of you, it's because you didn't do this, you didn't do that, the team didn't do this right. If you work with a staff, it doesn't matter if it's two people on your team or you have 30, matter if it's two people on your team or you have 30, 200, 500, I believe that, as leaders, we have to take responsibility of our leadership and management as we then try to execute the mission, the goals, right. And also, you could be a leader in your home, so you could be a stay-at-home mom, a stay-at-home dad, you could be a stay-at-home person or you're working remote and you're a leader.

Speaker 1: 8:47

This episode it's also for you, because what I'm going to share here you can apply it to yourself, regardless of where you're working or not working, but it's important for you to look and examine yourself in the inside, right Inside. That's what I want you to do. So, if you're driving, be careful as you're listening to this. If you are at lunch, right, I love that you're listening. I know some people tune in in the morning. Some people tune in when they're taking a break at lunch. So enjoy your lunch.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Stay hydrated. I know I am. I'm drinking my ice water, which I know I'm not supposed to drink ice water, but it's so refreshing. It's been a little humid out here in New York so it refreshes me. Excuse me, but I know that it should be more like a warm beverage, especially when you're speaking. So don't do the cold water when you are recording your own podcast episode. Or you're just speaking and you want to save your voice Okay podcast episode. Or you're just speaking and you want to save your voice Okay.

Speaker 1: 9:48

So I wanted to share with you some recent surveys that I was looking at and I share with you this with a lot of love and kindness and grace. I share with you that recent surveys have pointed out and revealed that some of the top interpersonal problems among teams and at work are about one, two, three, four, five, like about four to five top interpersonal problems. So you see, they suggest some solutions that I also agree with, which is promoting the open communication and transparency which I always did with my team in the 18 years plus that I was leading them and also so many years before I was a director. In all the work that I did with other nonprofits as I was climbing the ladder of success was always promoting open communication, whether I was in management or not, but especially when I became a leader in those 18 years plus, that was super important. So, if you are a leader, if you are a leader in your own organization or you're working for a nonprofit or a business, private corporation, consider yourself a leader or you're working yourself to go up that ladder. I need for you to understand that.

Speaker 1: 11:01

It's very important that we look at interpersonal dynamics within our team, and here in the survey, it was showing that personality clashing is like a number one conflict between coworkers and team members. Right, the lack of communication and trust was another one, and one that I was like wow, it took me back, but I could see it was the unresolved tensions and many unspoken issues, as well as different personalities with working styles that are different, different ways to approach tasks. What most people in leadership were seeing as a struggle across their teams, and it's amazing to see that the personality clashes are very prominent in these teams, right, so the conflict between the team members. Now you would ask, okay, what does that have to do with me and the three questions that I need to ask myself? Well, as a leader, it's important for you to check yourself, because if you are not on point, then from the point of leading, it would be more challenging.

Speaker 1: 12:15

So, these interpersonal problems that you may be facing in your team, whether you face them already, or even in your home life, or even in your businesses, or if you're working for someone else, at the end of the day, we're all human, having different personalities that may clash at time and actually add to the conflict and the tension that you may be experiencing with your team and you, as the leader, are like. Can we stop with the pettiness? Can we work on really what we need to work at hand? But we're human, so these things happen. It's so important to foster an environment where there's more understanding, there's more empathy, right, there's more accountability of how people are showing up in the workplace within your team.

Speaker 1: 13:05

It's so important to know what are the clear roles right, what is everybody's role and the accountability to those roles, and doing your best to have some conflict resolutions where there's empathy in the center of it, all, meaning leading from the heart, and many leaders struggle with this. Many leaders struggle with leading with the heart. They may think it's a sign of weakness, right? So I understand that not everyone will be the same. Like me, right that I led, and I still lead, with my heart. For some people, that's not the way to lead.

Speaker 1: 13:40

However, we're seeing more and more the need for compassion, the need for empathy, the need to elevate our people's emotional intelligence in the workplace. Right, there's so much more of a need. I'm going to have some surprises for you coming soon, because I'm going to be offering some opportunity for you, as the leader, to really work with me and get trained by me, because I had so much success and still continue to have success in my leadership and it's not by just me saying, well, I had success. It's actually proven year through year in those 18 years and a half plus that I worked the leadership, the things that I worked with my team, fostering the very things that I'm talking about, and having our funders, our top top funders and city officials looking at me and my leadership with my team and saying, wow, we really want to model that.

Speaker 1: 14:38

Can you help others that are coming up the ranks in their leadership with their team? Right? Can you help them in? How do you cultivate this working environment where there's empathy, where there's collaboration with team, where it's not that we had an absence of conflict or an absence of turmoil within the team 18 years and a half, building, programming, building teams, hiring, reconstructing teams, offering them the support that they need so much, that it goes into when you are elevating your team? But you first have to elevate yourself as a leader, and this applies for your home life, right? If you're the leader in your home, this applies to you as well. So this applies across, because I want to talk to you, the human being, not just the role and the title, right? So the three questions that I have.

Speaker 1: 15:38

I'm going to jump right into it because I want to keep this short, right and simple for you, because it's important for us to not overwork our brains, especially you're in the beginning of the week, maybe, when you're listening to this, and I wanted you to get a fresh start. You can have a start whenever you decide. Whenever you decide, you don't have to wait to go to sleep, to start again. You don't have to wait till the next week. You can start now, the moment that you are listening to this, at this moment, you can already start your leadership transformation, whether you are a leader in the making or you are already an established leader, and if things are going well or super great in your organizations, your businesses, the place of work, your teams, I applaud you and I love it. I also ask you to always stay on your toes. What I mean by that is always stay refreshing your trainings, always stay refreshing yourself, getting more knowledge for yourself, working on yourself, because getting to a place of excellence and where there's a collaboration with the whole team and having this harmony within the team is work.

Speaker 1: 16:54

What goes, then, into this is another layer, which is sustaining that. Right, because, like everything, things change. Right, and there are many things that affect us. Right, interpersonal conflicts within your team. It could be something that came from the left that you're like wait a minute. We didn't expect that funding was going to get pulled. Oh, wait a minute. We didn't expect that funding was going to get pulled. Oh, wait a minute. We didn't expect that we were not going to have capacity for all of this work. We didn't expect the pandemic, right.

Speaker 1: 17:23

So we have to be prepared, and to be prepared to excel and, as well, maintain what you do create with yourself and the team, and if this is at home, it can apply as well. Right, you could be a team of four, it could be you with the kids, it could be you and a roommate. Whatever the situation is, this can apply to your life, but I want you to elevate yourself. Don't wait right. Don't wait till the end of the year to be like, oh, wow, I didn't do that. I'm in the same place. The team and I are in the same place. We're not growing. Oh, why are we not seeing more opportunities coming our way as a team, right With funding? Or why are we not expanding? Why are people not coming to us with opportunities, grant opportunities, or why am I having a high turnover?

Speaker 1: 18:16

This is so important, and if you apply it to your own personal life as a human being, it could be hey, why are my friends not reaching out to me? Sometimes it's not about oh, those friends are not cool. Sometimes you're not cool, right. Sometimes you're someone who you may not be looking at. What are the things that you need to work on to make yourself be more fulfilled, in harmony and in peace? Therefore, what you put out then attracts people more to your life in a way that's with ease, right, with pleasure. It feels good to be around you, you feel good to be yourself. Okay, if that makes sense. So let's get right into it, let's do this, let's do this. If you're a leader, walking that path right Of leadership and working on expanding your team and building team.

Speaker 1: 19:10

This is very important for you to ask yourself, okay. So I want you to ask yourself what legacy do you want to leave as a leader? Okay, how do you see yourself doing this on the daily? How do your daily activities, your actions, align with that vision that you hold for yourself? I want you to consider this as a long term concept.

Speaker 1: 19:37

This is not just of the now, but what do you want to leave as a legacy? What are you contributing to in the place of work, in your home life, in your circle of friends? Right? How are you as a individual? What do you want your legacy to be? And right now, that legacy? Right, you could be like I don't know. Well, that's why I want you to think about. And right now, it could be a living legacy, right? I believe that my life being of service to others for over 30 years in the social services industry over 18 years when I worked in the nonprofit sector, working in building, programming, helping clients, doing collaborations with city officials, state federal, working along amazing, amazing leaders, as well as my team that I love so much, because we became family, and the clients that I served over the years, not only in that nonprofit but in my whole career life. That's a living legacy, right, because I'm living it right now. I'm still living it with this podcast, with the coaching, the life coaching and empowerment that I do, not only with women but individuals.

Speaker 1: 21:00

It's so important for us to look at our body of work. What do we contribute towards? Are we adding value and is it aligned right? Is it aligned with the vision that we have for our life? So I want you to ask yourself what legacy do you want to leave as a leader and how do your daily activities, the daily actions, align with that vision that you have? Because the way you think about yourself and the legacy that you want to leave behind and that you're living at the moment and creating will say so much about how you treat others and your team and how people feel around you. And what is it that fulfills you. And then, when you lead from a place of wholeness of purpose, direction and intention. It reflects in your team, it reflects in your home life, it reflects in your friendship group, because you're that leader across your team, right In your leadership at work. But this is a cross as a leader right Of your own home life, of your business, of your workplace. It's so important to think about that.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Number two how can you cultivate a culture of emotional intelligence within your team? I want you to think about that, and why is it crucial and very important for your organization's success? Why is it so important? But I want you to think about that because the emotional intelligence within your team, starting from you to everyone on the team, is a key component of leadership. It's a key component of effective leadership. So I want you to really think about and reflect how do you cultivate a culture of emotional intelligence within your team? And that, for me, also equals to are you leading with your heart? Are you heart-centered as a leader? Right? Many folks don't lead with their heart. They only lead many times with their brain. Right, and just saying, hey, with my mind, and I am going for the goal, I'm goal-orientated and that's it. But more and more, we're seeing that, as we are together with human beings. We need that emotional intelligence, we need more empathy, we need compassion, we need to soften the edges and I want you to ask yourself why is it so important and crucial for your organization's success that you do cultivate that culture of emotional intelligence? Do you think it's important to you?

Speaker 1: 23:57

These are questions that are powerful because they get you to start thinking. And please, answer these questions sincerely to yourself. You don't have to show it to anybody. You don't have to share them with me If you don't want to. Actually, if you do want to reach out to me and tell me what question was challenging, what did you like? Please do share, but it's not mandatory, because it's important that you go within and answer honestly. Sometimes we answer certain questions either too quickly or superficially because we are more concerned of how we sound and what we say to the other person and what they're going to think about our response. So I want you to think about this for yourself, not for someone else. Don't judge your other co-director or another boss lady or another VP or another executive.

Speaker 1: 24:56

I want you to analyze and answer this question for yourself and, lastly, I want you to think about and ask yourself how do you actively pursue diverse perspectives and how has this shaped your decision-making process? This is extremely important as well. It's crucial because diversity is something that we need more and more, but I'm interested to know, for you to know, how do you see that? How do you see diversity in your leadership? Right? But it's important because these experiences that we have together, they are impactful. So, are you one that you promote diversity? How do you actively pursue diverse perspectives in your place of work? How is this shaping your decision-making process? Are you inclusive, right? Is inclusivity integrated into your leadership style, organization's practice, right? Are you inclusive?

Speaker 1: 26:04

So these three questions are questions that I want you to take time to process, to journal, to write them down, to think about them. It could be while you're running, it could be before you go to sleep. You take a notebook and you write these down. I believe that they are going to help you to start thinking and shaping your transformation to the next level. It's so important and, as a bonus, I'm going to throw this in as a bonus.

Speaker 1: 26:35

As a bonus, I'm going to throw in three more questions that I want you, not only as a leader, but as a human being, to ask yourself today, besides the other three. So you're in for a treat because I'm giving you three for three, right? I'm going to give you three extra questions that I want you to ask yourself. Now. It's this is the time. If not now, when? Right? So don't prolong these questions, because I want you to think about your leadership. I want you to think about your life plan, right? I want you to think about where you're heading in the next days, in the next weeks, in the next quarter. What is the next quarter going to look like for you in your own home life experience? So these three questions are pretty straightforward, but I want you to think about them.

Speaker 1: 27:26

Along with the previous three, these three are more geared towards you as a human, regardless if you're a leader, regardless if you work or you don't work, right? I want you to ask yourself this what do you need at this moment to shift and become the best version of you? So the way you're going to write this down is like this what do I need to do to shift and become the best version of me? That's one. This is part of the bonus, so I hope you're enjoying this bonus.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Number two what areas of my life should I focus on over the coming months? We're almost ending, right, 2024,. We're six months in, six months out, so we're almost ending 2024. We have six more months right. So what areas of my life should I focus on over the coming months is the second bonus question. And, finally, the third bonus question that I have for you and ask yourself this is what does the last six months of 2024 bring me? So, what has the last six months brought you? I want you to reflect what have you done? So maybe we could put it a little different. What have you done in the last six months in 2024? It a little different. What have you done in the last six months in 2024? Because the year itself, there are things that have come at you that are for you to give you the lesson. There might be some tough lessons, but I want you to think about what have you done? How have you been showing up? What have you done Right, and this is important so you can begin to shift.

Speaker 1: 29:10

Wherever you need to make a shift, go for it right, because you want to be the best version of yourself. I want to be the best version of me, right? We all have flaws. Nobody's perfect. I need to say this because many of us right, we struggle with perfectionism and that is not real. No one is perfect the highest, most successful person as a human being. Everybody has imperfections. However, we're perfect beings if you think about it right Spiritually. I think about myself right, in the spirit of my soul. I'm here in this vessel, in this body, having a human experience, but I am beyond this body, so are you, regardless if you agree with me or you don't, or you're spiritual or you're not, you are an amazing human being. You're an amazing human being that has not only great potential, but you have so much power within, so I want you to tap into your own inner strength. I hope that this episode has motivated you, inspired you, guide you a bit to asking yourself these powerful questions that ended up being six, with the three bonus and get to work, get to work right and make sure that you're strengthening that leadership. Make sure that you strengthen it by first strengthening yourself. You know that I was looking at some other surveys that talked about especially with women and their self-love and their self-worth as women, and I'm so fascinated by it Mind-blowing to see that the Body Shop Global Self-Love Index study found that one in two women worldwide feel more self-doubt than self-love and 60% wish that they had more self-respect.

Speaker 1: 31:00

Wow, this is a lot of lack of self-love, self-worth among women. Also, there was another research and study that showed people under 35 are significantly more likely to be in the lowest 25% of the self-love scores 41%, compared to only 9% of those 55 and over. And then he talked about single women at 37%, and minority women at 38% are more likely to rank in the lowest quartile on the self-love index, compared to married that are at 21%, and non-minority women at 25%. Then it goes on to saying that LGBTQ plus people and people with.4% of global participants in the 2021 Women's Confidence Report rated their confidence at nine, between nine and 10 out of 10. And this adds to a lot of the also employee turnover and decrease at times of productivity or getting along in the workplace, not only with women but individuals, right? But it's interesting to see how, among women also are lack of self-love and self-worth as well as people, right?

Speaker 1: 32:28

So, as people as a whole, it's so important for us to look at our own self-love, our own self-worth. How are we as individuals and especially I always highlight women how are we showing up and how are we becoming more confident? I've spoken before of this false sense of confidence. It's so important to look at yourself as a leader. Is your confidence in all areas and aspects of your life, if it's in good standing, if it's strengthened? Because sometimes we walk into rooms feeling very confident and somebody says just one, two things, look at us a certain way and some of us crumble within inside a certain way, and some of us crumble within inside and we go back home and we're lacking self-love and we're talking very negative to ourselves, even as leaders that are very successful.

Speaker 1: 33:18

I'm keeping it real because I've seen it and I myself have experienced it and I consider myself a very highly successful person and, as a leader, a very highly ineffective leader, and there were times that I had that I had to check myself and that's where I was like wait, a leader, a very highly ineffective leader. And there were times that I had that I had to check myself and that's where I was like wait a minute. I thought I was confident in this, but actually, when I look at myself a little deeper, I actually need to do some work for myself, and that's important because that is then key on how you manage your team, your people, the people that are counting on you as you leading them, whether it's in a workplace, a business or a home life, or in your friendships, right? So it's so important to look within. So I hope that this episode really got you thinking on how you are as an individual in your leadership transformation. How are you showing up, what's the legacy you are actively living and want to leave right, and how do you better foster more empathy and emotional intelligence within the groups and the circles that you are leading or you are a part of? Okay, it's so important for us to talk about these topics and normalize them. It's super, super important.

Speaker 1: 34:40

So I hope that this episode was helpful, thought-provoking, got you thinking and I will be soon, soon, soon being able to offer you some great, great tools for you to transform yourself as a leader and add value to your existing training that you may have in your workplace or that you've been following in other people, or self-studying for yourself, because some people nowadays you go to YouTube, you go to different platforms and you can really work on yourself and grow right. But it's so great to offer more tools, more trainings, right, more of a variety in styles, because you may like my voice, you may like what I stand for, you may like my teaching methods and then you may like someone else, and that's okay. It's good to be diverse in what we learn in our toolbox. So if you love this episode or enjoyed it, found value, please rate it. Take your time to rate my podcast and episode, Like it, follow me, share it with someone else Because you just never know who may need it and continue to support me.

Speaker 1: 35:57

I love that. I love that this podcast has gone international. I love that, and the best way that you can support me is by tuning in, downloading the episodes, sharing them with others, following me on other platforms like TikTok and Instagram and LinkedIn and Facebook and YouTube, and really encouraging others to take a look at my stuff, to take a look at my content, because it's there with a lot of love and it's there for you. You can also check out my website, smilieempowermentcom. So so that's smiley empowermentcom. There you can learn how you can support me and also how I can be of support of you. So I always enjoy getting feedback, learning from you, as you also learning from us in the community. A big shout out to my boss, chicas Club, to the chicas that are in the club. I love you, ladies. I love that you jumped in and you're trusting me. I love that. If people are interested in knowing more about what is the Boss Chicas Club, please message me. In the show notes there's all the information on how you can reach out to me.

Speaker 1: 37:06

Take good care of yourself, wherever you are. Know that life can be difficult. However, you have to show up with courage and know that this, too, shall pass. It's how do we, together, how do we move forward? And I hope that these questions help you in you elevating yourself, shifting your leadership, enriching the people that are around you, with you being a model of what leadership is about embracing yourself and working on yourself. Work on yourself. Do things that elevate you, enrich you, add value. So I hope that this episode did add value to you, because it was recorded with a lot of love and that intention of elevating and guiding and offering you reminders right, because many of you may know this, but they're friendly reminders for you to take time to elevate yourself. Take time for you to work on you. Make sure that you're taking good care of yourself and of each other. Give it a like, share it.