83. Growing Forward Podcast featuring Zahra Roach

Tri-Cities Influencer Podcast with Paul Casey

Paul Casey:

Bulls are the gasoline that make the vision goes somewhere,

Speaker 2:

Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington, it's in Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TC podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of growing forward services, coaching and equipping individuals and teams to spark breakthrough success.

Paul Casey:

It's a great day to grow forward. Thank you for joining me for today's episode with Zahra Roach. She is the executive director of the children's developmental center and a fun fact about her. She tells me this since English, isn't her first language once in a while, she might mess up a colloquialism. So Zahra, tell us, tell us about that a little bit.

Zahra Roach:

Yeah. So my first language, thank you, Paul, for having me, my first language is the fifth, most spoken language in, in the world. And I learned like many people English when I started kindergarten. And then I went on to be an English major and teach English at the high school, high school level. But every once in a while I do use certain phrases incorrectly. Like I will say, you know, staff turnover and then my spouse, John will laugh heartedly and say, no apple turnover, staff overturn. And so it's, it's not very frequent that it happens, but you know, he gets a kick out of it. And so did others. Oh yeah, you are not a native English speaker. So yeah, that's just,

Paul Casey:

That's awesome. And what about grit and what a great way to learn English is to major in it? Well, we're going to dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsors, take back your weekends and let Senske services be your green team. Senske services is a locally owned and operated company founded in 1947. That has been working with families for nearly 75 years to help create and maintain environments that are great places to live, work and play. They're a family business built on family values and skiing dedicated to delivering quality and providing exceptional customer service. Senske offers a variety of services, including full service, lawn care, pest control, tree care, and Christmas decor. You may have seen their holiday light show at the corporate office. It is a must see every year services are backed by the Senske promise, which means the job will be done right.

Paul Casey:

Or they come back out to learn more about the services Senske provides and the offers available to you visit [inaudible] dot com. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well, welcomes our era. It was a privilege to meet you a boy. It was between two and four years ago. I was doing a strategic planning retreat for the children's developmental center. And yeah, I think you were very pregnant at the time for our member. Right. And you had barely come onto the board have moments, so your eyes were big and this was my first meeting of you.

Zahra Roach:

That's right. And that was six years ago. I know, just because my daughter's about to have her sixth birthday. And so she was an honorary board member. She came to those meetings with me first and you know, the card carrier then as she got a little bit bigger and started crawling around and we couldn't contain her to just the car seat, I had to leave her at home, but that's right. Yeah. The children's developmental centers that in my life and yeah, our children's lives for some time now.

Paul Casey:

Yeah. Look at you now, executive director so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you a bit. Tell us about the CDC. What, what the mission is there and then tell us a little bit more what you do as executive director.

Zahra Roach:

Yeah. So the children's developmental center been in existence and Benton and Franklin counties for 44 years and has been serving families, children in particular with therapeutic services for developmental delays and disabilities. So what that means is we have speech, language pathologists, occupational therapists, a physical therapists, special education teachers and educational assistants. And so they address those early interventions as early as they are made known to us. So we get a referral and we see a kid as soon as possible, because I know from my own educational experience and profession and education is that you address those interventions and delays early on. Then you have the greatest amount of success for that child in their life. So, and a little bit of what I do for my organization, you know, is to support that, you know, support the day-to-day that my staff does because it's really important work. It's transformative work in the lives of those family members and that in particular, that child, right, they may not know it cognitively yet, but they may later on,

Paul Casey:

Thanks for making a difference. That is what a great mission. And it's been great to be associated with the organization and see it go it's ups and downs through the years and how funding streams change and the school district relationships change. And here at the end of 44 years still rocking it Well in your journey to where you are today. What have you learned from previous bosses, previous supervisors? I'm sure there's good and bad that, that you keep in mind today as you leave.

Zahra Roach:

You know, I think for me the type of learner that I am, I learn, I seek out feedback. I seek out reflection as often as possible. One of the things that my mentor Jerry Bell taught me early on when I was a student teacher, was that, you know, you keep a notebook and you look back at your day or your week, whatever time increment you want and write down the things that went well and not to well, and what would you do to change it? And so I think that's one practical thing that, you know, my mentor taught me to do that I still do today. The frequency is kind of spotty, you know, these days. But I was, whenever I remember I pull out my notebook and I try to do that for myself. And I think, you know, some of the things that I have seen in terms of, you know, leaders who are in need of, of, of just either a break or they are burnt out and you can see that, that the intention is good and it's there, but they are stretched too thin.

Zahra Roach:

And that, that becomes really clear and evident when you're in close proximity to them. And yeah, it's not necessarily feedback I would give unsolicited, but, but, but definitely visible. So I think that's something that I have to check into too. It's counterintuitive, right? Every Sunday I get, I take out my work laptop and I try to get ahead of the week by doing work before the week starts. And the counterintuitive thing to do is completely allow myself to enjoy the downtime that I have so that I am re-energized for the work. So yeah, that's just, I guess those are just a little bit of tidbit to buy a house.

Paul Casey:

That's so good. I love the celebrating of wins that your mentor shared with you. I try to do that with all my clients in every session, whether that's an individual session, a group session, often when I do strategic planning with the company, we talk about the winds. So it was just something that, what it does for your morale when you, when you go back, because our heads go down and we just like keep grinding on the next thing and what's the next problem to solve. And it's great to capture those, those thoughts, those positive thoughts. I I'm, I'm a journaler. And so I try to capture my wins or what I'm grateful for from yesterday. When I wake up today and I've been doing that for so many years, I've filled many journals and it is just a great practice to do. I love also what you shared about the, you know, the, the, the leader who may not be aware of how they're coming across, when they're running ragged. And what, what advice would you give to leaders to help them be more self-aware because clearly you've, you've experienced leaders who weren't self-aware and they're that you were getting some backlash from their over busy-ness and they're not stepping back and relaxing enough and recovering. What, what, what advice would you give?

Zahra Roach:

You know, just, you know, the advice that I did give, but I guess to get into more specificity, it would be too. I think we all, as individuals know the places that allow us to unplug go off the grid and recharge, whether that's in a book, whether that's going swimming, a hike, I don't know a certain place, but allowing for it to be a certain amount of time, because you do come off of work and you're still charged from it. You're still processing. Well, this conversation took place. How do I resolve this problem? And so it takes we're humans. It takes time to kind of decompress from that, to be able to enter that sort of reset space, allow yourself that, that time, you know, whether that's a day, two days a week, I'm not sure, I guess people would have to ask that themselves for me, I think it's, I think it's a week minimum week to decompress.

Zahra Roach:

And then I think too, for me, it's, you know, really emphasizing just the importance of sleep. And I get to the place where I am physically tired at night and, but my brain is still going. It's still actively like, oh, I've got this tomorrow and oh, this on Thursday and this on Friday. And if I do this before Friday, then I'll be even better prepared. And so kind of creating routines that help to have healthy habits around completely unplugging mentally, even if you're physically away from that workspace so that you can just recharge and come back to it with a smile.

Paul Casey:

That's so good. Totally agree with you. And yeah, they say that they people say, ah, you need at least three days on vacation to just flush work before you're totally pro. Especially if you're more type a wired, you know, it takes you a long time to purge work and I've found that true. Then I'm like the third day of vacation. That's when I really sleep in, like, my body's still wants to wake up at work time for a few days. And then it's like, oh, now I'm officially relaxing. So like you said, a week is probably a good timeframe for a vacation, but we also need those small recharge times as well, daily and weekly, so great stuff. So that's the decompressed times is there, we also have to fire ourselves up as leaders when we're not feeling motivated. You know, even in this last year, year and a half of COVID, where do you go for inspiration as, as a leader?

Zahra Roach:

You know, as strange as it sounds, sometimes I would say a couple of places sometimes within, and I have to ask myself if I weren't in the position that I were in, who might be doing it. And oftentimes I see people in leadership positions and this is, this is one of my motivations to, to get into leadership is that we see people in leadership positions who are, they are there for the ego part of it. And that is not a healthy leadership stance. And then you can see it in their organization or their work or their speaking. And so I think that, you know, one of the places that I have to go is within to ask myself that question, when I don't feel fired up and say, who would be serving in this space, if I weren't serving in a space, you know, my leadership philosophy is very much a servant leadership philosophy.

Zahra Roach:

You know, I'm not too good to change a paper towel roll or put on my jeans and Tenny and come to work and move boxes out to the shed or storage shed with other staff members and do the work side by side with them because all of the work is my work to do. And so those are the types of things that I have to kind of just revisit for myself. One of the, I guess, inspirational people that I just, you know, found when I was doing my master's in education was Parker Palmer, the author Parker Palmer, the courage to teach. And so whenever I pick up one of his books and revisit, just, you know, open it to a random page and go, oh yeah, you know, like this is the, this is the vocation. And to be honest, everybody, everybody is in some sort of leadership position. It may be more evident for some of us like myself and less evident, you know, like a child who might be the eldest in their family. Right. So it's all about what do we do with that, that power, that authority, how do we use it? How do we communicate with others? And so I've always just felt like tapping into Parker Palmer's books have just always reminded me about the, the servant leadership philosophy and why it's so important to, to continue to, you know, lead in, in that, that lane, that philosophy.

Paul Casey:

Oh yes. I really believe it's the only philosophy for leadership is that servant leadership philosophy. For sure. And I'm glad you've got a book to go to that sort of gets you recharged. I was just reading Patrick Lencioni's newest book, the motive. And by the way, if you like Patrick, Lencioni's five dysfunctions of a team guy, the death by meeting the advantage, he's got so many good books. He says the read this one first, you know, it's his most recent book because it's all about the motive in leadership. And like you mentioned, a lot of people get in there for ego or for the perks. And that is not the right motive to lead. It is all about being a servant leader, good stuff. Well, leaders also have to continuously improve right. To set the tone for leadership development of their team. So Zahra, what are you currently working on to better yourself as a leader?

Zahra Roach:

No, I am right now just working on jelling with my supervisors. So we are engaged in a year long process of just training where we, once a month, we have an hour and a half of kind of training or professional development in which we engage in, like, what are our learning styles, communication styles, how to give him how to give feedback, how to receive feedback, how to deliver difficult news. And so it's, I think that's one way in which, you know, I, I learned who my team is and they learn who I am and we learn how to best serve our organization and mission to the best of our capability.

Paul Casey:

Yeah. Great stuff. And, and you've been in your position for how long now? Your executive director position.

Zahra Roach:

Yeah.

Paul Casey:

I, I totally recommend like you're doing just to build relationships with your, your core team and, and get, like you said, get to know them, their personalities, their learning styles. So if you're, if you're a new leader, Tri-City influencers relationship building is really agenda item, number one in those first 90 days, because that's where you're building trust with your people. Great stuff. Well, how do you balance or integrate family time with work time? So you're, you're a mom, you're a wife, you're a nonprofit leader, your community focused a lot of different hats that you, you wear in life. How do you make sure everybody gets priority? Because we all know work-life balance. Isn't a real thing.

Zahra Roach:

Yeah. And sometimes my family suffers sometimes work suffers. Sometimes council suffers. I mean, it just is like, it is an ongoing struggle, and I don't have it perfected. So I couldn't tell you what the secret sauce is. Cause I don't know. I'm still figuring it out. I think it's a lot of it has to do with time management and figuring that out. My solution might go to seclusion for that every time it was like, well, if I do this the night before, if I make my breakfast the night before, then that I don't have to think about so I can actually eat and have mental energy do the work if I, so yeah, I think it's, it's the time management piece. Definitely a big part of it. I think it goes back to the time to unplug and just say, okay, I'm not looking at my phone.

Zahra Roach:

I'm, I'm fully paying attention to whatever my son is. Teaching me about Minecraft, that he is speaking a different language to me, but I'm going to pay attention to it, you know, and, and kind of just accepting out loud and saying it to people, not necessarily apologizing for it, but thanking them for their patients. Like, yeah, I was, I was disconnected for a week cause I was on vacation or I was, you know, thank you for waiting for me. I had this happening, you know, a back-to-back zoom meeting all day and I just needed to take a few bites of something before I joined your meeting five minutes late, you know, whatever it is, it's, it's, I'm still learning it. And I think that, you know, this last year has definitely taught us a lot of different lessons about time management, you know, early on in the pandemic we thought, oh, we're home. We can get so much done because now we can just go to meeting after meeting, after meeting back to back. And that's not necessarily the case.

Paul Casey:

I know, right. It was like, I don't even need my travel break, you know, in between clients. And then I realized, wow, that's sort of wears on, you know, looking at a screen for six, seven hours a day. So yes, we did learn a lot about time management in this pandemic, for sure. Well, Hey, before we end our next question on a, I'm going to ask her about hiring and retaining great employees. Let's do a shout out to our sponsors. Are you dreaming of a lush weed free lawn? Have you heard what your neighbors are saying about their Senske lawn, a lush weed-free lawn in, within your reach? Don't just take it from us. Listen to what people in our community are saying about Sinsky services. Lavando Elle of Kennebec said I've been a customer for several years and I can depend on Senske to take good care of my lawn.

Paul Casey:

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Zahra Roach:

Paul, it is so difficult to be at an employer right now. And there is, you know, I think we are hiring and hiring for multiple positions. And I think that, you know, this past year has just caused so much change in the nature of how we work, that it's got people exploring other options. And so, you know, how do I attract the right personality? It's, it's really difficult. And I would take, I mean, you may know, I think you do know my spouse, John, and, you know, has his own company called full story. And that's what his company is all about. So I have gleaned a lot of information from him about just how do you have an authentic interview? How do you pull out relevant information about a person's character, not just their technical skills. And so it's really in the quality of questions that are asked at the time of an interview, it's about knowing your own organization and knowing your own team dynamics well enough to know what it is you're looking for in, in the soft skills of an individual and how you want them to fit into your team.

Zahra Roach:

And, you know, to, you know, pull from somebody famous Brine brown. It's a lot of it is about vulnerability. How do we, how do I attract somebody who is able to be vulnerable? Who knows, you know, has the humility to know that they are not perfect. They are not the expert. They're not the best they have room to grow because I think that's one of the things that no, as I said before, I am really committed in my organization to professional development and training staff and supervisors. And that goes for me as well as a former teacher, I think, you know, being a lifelong learner, that's one of those habits of mind that I have never departed from. And I still feel very strongly about that. I'm still growing and learning. And if you know, that's, what I want out of out of a staff member is that they still have that mindset as well to, to grow and learn.

Paul Casey:

So good. It's, I'll do a quick plug for your, for your husband's company. What's the website,

Zahra Roach:

It's whole story, hq.com,

Paul Casey:

Whole story, hq.com. Awesome. I think that's going to be even more and more important for hiring here in the, in the future. So it tries to the influencers. If you're hiring, you've got to get this information from John Roach. Yeah. I love the Bernie brown stuff too. I can't wait to listen to another audio book by her. I just bought it at the store. And all of that, the power of vulnerability is such, it builds trust so much and those soft skills are the strong skills. Right. And that's, that's what we want to listen for in those interviews. And it's tough. So the power of a, of a, a powerful question is huge. Well, there's so much to do while in the leader's chair. So there are, how do you feel about delegation? Do you struggle with it? Is it easy for you got any delegation tips that you'd like to throw out there today?

Zahra Roach:

Yes, I would. I am a type one personality reformed OCD, individual, and, and I still slipped back into it. Right. And it happens when I'm at my worst, when I'm at my worst, I slipped back into that. Like, if I can control everything, it will be all right. And that is completely wrong. I can't control everything. That's an illusion not possible. And so, yeah, learning to delegate is something really difficult to do because if I'm a good leader, then I know what my staff is capable of, but I simultaneously know what their deficiencies are. And so, you know, and sometimes I think, gosh, if I give this work to so-and-so, it is, there's the possibility of ABMC not happening correctly or, you know, I can identify what the potential pitfalls will be, but if I don't do it, what I have more work on my plate.

Zahra Roach:

Right. And, and then I'm stretching myself too thin to go back to what I said before burnout. But then also, I, I kind of robbed the opportunity from a staff member to, to push beyond what their capabilities are, what their natural talents are. I Rob both of us from a learning teaching moment and you know, me of the, the leadership moment of being able to coach a staff member into something that they haven't been able to do before. And so I have to just be more strategic about, well, what, you know, I want to set them up for success, not failure. So, you know, giving them a bite size amount of, of challenge with that delegation of doing something that they haven't done before, instead of overwhelming them with too many things at once. So yeah, it is, I would say it's, there's, there's degrees of, of how I have to handle that delegation and, and make sure that it goes off, that I handed off well, but I handed off with still a little bit of a challenge for that receiving that, that task or that project.

Paul Casey:

Yeah. Tri-City influencers. Anybody else struggled with that? When you get your back against the wall, you want to control everything. I think there's probably some others nodding their head with that as well. Is that interesting that we do that? We feel like we've got to control something because our life feels a little bit out of control. So we've got to be self-aware of that, but delegation is one of the ways out of the prison of that burnout and feeling overwhelmed. So love your tips on that. Delegation develops, it's a two word sentence, delegation developed period. Well, what key moves did you have to make for your organization? Just since you've been in the leader chair, maybe you're in, you're currently having to make those, you probably inherited some of the pandemic changes for just serving the children that you serve. How are you strategic in this very uncertain time,

Zahra Roach:

Not live inside of your strategic vision? I would say being able to modify it to what is more important right now than other strategic email objectives during this pandemic, because, you know, for us, I think it's been watching other local nonprofits who have been really successful in the virtual online space. And that has been a place where this children's developmental center has not thrived. And so that was something, as I, you know, as I interviewed for my position was something that I brought up and it was relevant. And six years ago, we were not doing that way before the pandemic. We're not doing that during pandemic either. And it does not allow us to engage with community in the place that is really the place where we're mostly at right now. And so, yeah, I've been working actively with, you know, with, let's see focal point media, we are doing a kind of a refresh of our logo.

Zahra Roach:

We are working with underground, creative on updating our website, working internally with staff about how to use Facebook and social media platform to better communicate our mission and what we do on a day to day basis. And those little baby steps are making a huge difference. So we have, you know, our, our supervisors are now sharing a little bit more about with parents, parent coaching tips on Facebook, they are sharing a little bit about just, you know, developmental markers to be on the lookout for. And it's driven our Facebook engagement up considerably just in the month that we started doing it. So, yeah, I think not losing sight of what are the most relevant strategic objectives for your organization.

Paul Casey:

Yay. Just embrace that technology. And I love what you said, focal point underground, creative, the website, the logo, I'm doing that right now as well with Spotify, digital going to refresh my website and logo. And there's just some, some, some groundedness, some foundation that links to that strategic vision that we can do when we can't do all the other live in person, things that we want to do. So kudos to you all for taking leaps forward and it's already paying off with the parents. That's pretty cool. Well, finally, Zara, what advice would you give the new leaders or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?

Zahra Roach:

Yeah, I think, you know, for me, particularly right now, it's one of those counter-intuitive things. Strategic vision is like my that's my map as an executive director, how do I, you know, how do I lead this ship into the future? And, and, and then ask myself how I'm going to do it. And we are, so we are amidst like a time of so much change that it's being very intentional about how much more change to introduce right now. And so it's this balance that I have not ever had to strike before, because I'm very much, like I said, before, type one do, or like let's cross items off the list, let's get it done. And I have to be more intentional and mindful about what are already, we went from last year, never doing tele-health to completely 100% doing telehealth. And now we are in a hybrid form that we also never did before.

Zahra Roach:

And so I just have to know that everybody's along with me and if I charged forward and I still have people adjusting to whatever the last changes, I'm going to lose folks along the way. And so, yeah, I'd have to, I just think that it takes mindfulness about your strategy or your visioning, hold that vision you've been in your head, don't lose the vision and I'm, I'm not trying to live by fishing. I see a bright future out of all of this, but I think it's how for me, how I set the pace to get to that vision is that is the key right now.

Paul Casey:

Well-spoken be careful of the pace, keep the vision in mind, but be careful to pay especially of introducing change so that you can still bring everybody with you on that journey to that awesome vision. Love that. Well, how can our listeners best connect with users and also the CDC?

Zahra Roach:

Well, definitely connect with us on social media. I'm with the children's developmental center, there are ways with, in which people can get involved, that they can give their time or can pass forward to others in this community. The mission of what we do, because I think there's probably at least one person that we each individually know in our friends or family network that have a delay or a disability. And so I think a lot of people encounter us when they are the parent or grandparent and their child or grandchild is receiving services. And so many times I encounter people who have that moment of like, gosh, I never knew you existed before until, you know, we got our referral. And so that's something we, you know, we want people to know who we are that we've been serving this community for 44 years and doing it in a reputable way that we have been, you know, for years the lead agency in Benton and Franklin county. So I would say until we get that new website up and running, which we anticipate to be in the next month or so. Yeah. You can engage with us on social media, on Facebook.

Paul Casey:

Awesome. Well, thank you again for all. You agree to make the Tri-Cities afraid place and keep leading. Well,

Zahra Roach:

Thank you.

Paul Casey:

Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend. I don't know if you're a team leader and you would just love to have some plug-in plate tools to be able to implement with your team, or that's a performance review form or a one to one agenda or anything like that. That's, that's what I offer through a program called bullseye. It's a new membership community that I've just launched. And if you're a team leader, it's for you, I've got videos that you can play for your team and, and at staff meetings where you can send them an email to inspire them. I have recorded some audios for you as the leader to help you as you just work on your own mindset and to have that leadership view of things, there'll be icebreaker questions for your one to ones. There'll be links to other great leadership resources. You get a discount for growing forward products and services. And once a month, I'm going to bring in an influencer here in the Tri-Cities for a live Q and a that you can ask questions to someone you might normally not normally get a chance to connect with. So check out, bulls-eye go to Paul casey.org, and it's just $29 a month. And you're going to get just action packed stuff every single week on Thursdays.

Paul Casey:

Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests, our approach from the children's developmental center for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. We also want to thank our TCI sponsors and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to help leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence it's from Zig Ziglar. He said, gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you'll have even more to express gratitude for until next time. Kgs keep growing forward.

Speaker 2:

Thank you to our listeners for tuning into today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with [e-mail] for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you is free control my calendar checklist, go to WW dot, take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message 2 7 2 0 0 0, and type the word growing

Speaker 4:

The Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by bill Wagner of safe strategies.