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7. Be Intentional with Dena Bunnel, Nuru International
Our guest for episode 7 is Dena Bunnel. Dena and I met 15+ years ago, and I have enjoyed watching her grow and create change throughout her career. She has recently taken a role with Nuru International where she will step out of her traditional international development government roles and into a non-profit leadership role in west Africa. Nigeria to be exact. Dena has intentionally dedicated her career to helping bring individuals and communities out of poverty by creating opportunities for growth that is right for them. She sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t she? Well, that’s because she is. Dena and I chat about the opportunities to take intentional steps in your career, no matter what phase you are in, to discover your true passion, and find a way to create or modify your career to focus on that passion.
CONNECT
Dena and I chat about the importance of making connections when you are both in the discovery phase and the building phase of your intentional career building.
If you are a student, take classes that will help you learn the skills that you need to succeed in the career, not just the major that sounds like the best fit. If you want to work internationally, consider taking a foreign language, but maybe also look into organizations that work with international students to learn about different cultures and make global connections. Or, you can take it head-on like Dena. She realized that to help individuals make real, long-term change she needed a stronger economics background, and she decided to go back for a masters in economics to gain the tools she needed to intentionally position herself for success.
Maybe you are currently out of work, or looking for your next move. Ask yourself some hard, but important questions: 1. What do you like to do for work? 2. But why do you like that work? 3. Why is that work fulfilling? 4. Do you have the skillset to continue to grow in that type of work? 5. If not, what skills do you need to refine? 6. Look back at your current or your last job.What happened in that role, that you could’ve done better? Not what could others have changed, but truly, what could you have done better? The answer may be nothing, but if you dig deeper, I bet there is something you can take away from that experience that you could have changed. Now, set up a plan to intentionally capitalize on what you do great--grow a business or organization by doing the great stuff even better, but most importantly, write down 3 ways you can grow in the area that you could improve. Make your weaknesses stronger and stretch yourself.
CHANGE
Dena and I have both worked with farmers in various roles. Farmers are very similar whether they are in southeast Kansas where Dena grew up, or in Bangladesh or Nigeria. You give them the challenge of growing a crop and they will conquer it. They will care for the seed, grow the crop and harvest the fruit. However, there are many different ways to approach the process and inputs that can change the outcome. Through Dena’s work, she has seen firsthand that many times we will go into a first world country, see what their problems are with growing crops, and make the recommendation for change in practice. What we don’t do is take time to understand the local approach to why each step has been chosen to grow the crop. As highly-productive farmers, we see a need for more fertilizer, but what we don’t always consider is if that farmer is producing on low margins and delayed payments, then he might not have the cash flow to purchase that fertilizer. If he does, he has to give up something else. The expense that he sacrifices could cover the cost of sending his daughter to school.
These are choices that luckily for many Americans, we don’t have to make. Dena’s intentional suggested approach is not only to help them produce a high-quality crop, but also to find ways to build more processing facilities in country to add value to the local economy, consider transportation of the crop, seasonality of the harvest, financial support for costs associated with growing a crop and growing a business. The holistic approach takes an intentional look at the issues and a solution that will be helpful in the long run versus a band-aid approach of just adding fertilizer to grow a better crop.
So, how can you change your approach? How can you change your approach to not just solve the short term issue, i.e. not having in-person events in 2020 and look at the long-term opportunities? Think about being intentional with your budget, your team’s time and your customer or audience’s time. I’m a hard-core extrovert and love to be around people and gain my energy from others; however 2020 has made me take a step back and evaluate work travel and time away from my family. So, as an audience member, I want to host and attend in-person events when it’s safe to do so, but I will be very choosy as to who gets my time moving forward.
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By Stacy Mayo-MartinezOur guest for episode 7 is Dena Bunnel. Dena and I met 15+ years ago, and I have enjoyed watching her grow and create change throughout her career. She has recently taken a role with Nuru International where she will step out of her traditional international development government roles and into a non-profit leadership role in west Africa. Nigeria to be exact. Dena has intentionally dedicated her career to helping bring individuals and communities out of poverty by creating opportunities for growth that is right for them. She sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t she? Well, that’s because she is. Dena and I chat about the opportunities to take intentional steps in your career, no matter what phase you are in, to discover your true passion, and find a way to create or modify your career to focus on that passion.
CONNECT
Dena and I chat about the importance of making connections when you are both in the discovery phase and the building phase of your intentional career building.
If you are a student, take classes that will help you learn the skills that you need to succeed in the career, not just the major that sounds like the best fit. If you want to work internationally, consider taking a foreign language, but maybe also look into organizations that work with international students to learn about different cultures and make global connections. Or, you can take it head-on like Dena. She realized that to help individuals make real, long-term change she needed a stronger economics background, and she decided to go back for a masters in economics to gain the tools she needed to intentionally position herself for success.
Maybe you are currently out of work, or looking for your next move. Ask yourself some hard, but important questions: 1. What do you like to do for work? 2. But why do you like that work? 3. Why is that work fulfilling? 4. Do you have the skillset to continue to grow in that type of work? 5. If not, what skills do you need to refine? 6. Look back at your current or your last job.What happened in that role, that you could’ve done better? Not what could others have changed, but truly, what could you have done better? The answer may be nothing, but if you dig deeper, I bet there is something you can take away from that experience that you could have changed. Now, set up a plan to intentionally capitalize on what you do great--grow a business or organization by doing the great stuff even better, but most importantly, write down 3 ways you can grow in the area that you could improve. Make your weaknesses stronger and stretch yourself.
CHANGE
Dena and I have both worked with farmers in various roles. Farmers are very similar whether they are in southeast Kansas where Dena grew up, or in Bangladesh or Nigeria. You give them the challenge of growing a crop and they will conquer it. They will care for the seed, grow the crop and harvest the fruit. However, there are many different ways to approach the process and inputs that can change the outcome. Through Dena’s work, she has seen firsthand that many times we will go into a first world country, see what their problems are with growing crops, and make the recommendation for change in practice. What we don’t do is take time to understand the local approach to why each step has been chosen to grow the crop. As highly-productive farmers, we see a need for more fertilizer, but what we don’t always consider is if that farmer is producing on low margins and delayed payments, then he might not have the cash flow to purchase that fertilizer. If he does, he has to give up something else. The expense that he sacrifices could cover the cost of sending his daughter to school.
These are choices that luckily for many Americans, we don’t have to make. Dena’s intentional suggested approach is not only to help them produce a high-quality crop, but also to find ways to build more processing facilities in country to add value to the local economy, consider transportation of the crop, seasonality of the harvest, financial support for costs associated with growing a crop and growing a business. The holistic approach takes an intentional look at the issues and a solution that will be helpful in the long run versus a band-aid approach of just adding fertilizer to grow a better crop.
So, how can you change your approach? How can you change your approach to not just solve the short term issue, i.e. not having in-person events in 2020 and look at the long-term opportunities? Think about being intentional with your budget, your team’s time and your customer or audience’s time. I’m a hard-core extrovert and love to be around people and gain my energy from others; however 2020 has made me take a step back and evaluate work travel and time away from my family. So, as an audience member, I want to host and attend in-person events when it’s safe to do so, but I will be very choosy as to who gets my time moving forward.