2nd Annual Queer Fashion Week celebrates its second year as the Bay Area’s premier queer fashion event, celebrating diversity and the expression of individuality. QFW opens its doors at the historic downtown venue, VENUE at 420 14th Ave, excitement builds around this glamorous event. Queer Fashion Week & Conference takes place September 28 – October 2.
Author Archives: Kim Rescate
Storytelling in Leadership
Storytelling is important in leadership because you cannot simply tell your team members to be motivated, be more creative or start being more invested in their job.
We use stories to learn, grow, and share our experiences with others. As a leader, you need to be able to use storytelling as a tool to connect people to the organization’s vision. Storytelling is your power to persuade.
Here are five elements to turn a good story into a great story:
1. Know your audience.
When you know who you’re talking to, you’re able to adjust your story for a better emotional response. It’s important to truly understand your audience – their emotional triggers and what type of stories they are drawn to – to be able to bring them into the story to form an emotional connection.
2. Be authentic.
A great storyteller knows their deepest values and reveals them to their audience with honesty and candor. If you are seeking change within your team, you must embody this change. Being authentic involves sharing and showing emotion to your audience. By exposing your vulnerability, you’re allowing the audience to identify with you, and be moved into action.
3. Get personal.
Each of us has a story to tell that can move others. Share your passion and motivation with your team members – what gets you up in the morning and why you continue to fight for your organization’s vision. Communicating who you are reveals your values as a leader to create trust and invite collaboration.
4. Powerful stories touch emotions.
When we experience values emotionally, it moves us to act. If you are facilitating change or transformation, paint a compelling picture and engage the hearts of you team members. People may know what you want them to do but if they are not emotionally engaged they won’t do it. Logic alone cannot persuade a person to act.
5. Let your audience uncover their own meanings.
As a storyteller, you have the responsibility to lead the audience through the story. But don’t tell the audience what the ending of the story is. Your job is to evoke powerful emotions and share ownership of the story with your audience that they leave motivated to act. Give them the space to discover the meaning of the story, realize what’s there for them to learn, and own what they need to do.
Leadership: Walking the Talk
Modeling behavior is necessary for your own well-being as well as those of your team member’s.
Leadership is not just bringing people together and ensuring that they are working towards the shared goals of the organization. It’s also about ensuring your employees are able to grow professionally and personally by following your words with actions.
What does it mean to walk the talk?
Lead with integrity.
Owning your mistakes and weaknesses make it safe for your team members to own theirs. This environment prevents the time-consuming and negative practice of blaming others for mishaps. A culture of blame will quickly create dissatisfied employees.
Some leaders mistake humility with constant apologies about their shortcomings. Apologizing for situations that you were a participant of shows vulnerability that strengthens the team. But don’t dwell on your shortcomings. Apologize with sincerity, then focus your time and brain power to fix the situation. Move past the blame and towards solutions. When you admit your shortcomings and learn from them it creates an environment of transparency.
Set and follow boundaries.
What’s great about technology is that we can easily check what’s happening with our work via phone, text messages, and emails. The downside is there is no real boundary of when our work hours start and when it ends. This means it’s up to you as a leader to be a champion of self-care for yourself and your team members. Unless it falls in the “need to take care now or the organizations sinks” category, don’t email your reports in the middle of the night, when they’re on vacation, or during weekends.
“Well, it’s their choice if they want to read and answer my emails”, you’re thinking to yourself. No. As a leader, you work hard to establish connection and trust with your team members. When that happens they will, of course, go above and beyond to support you. You’re putting them in a situation where they have to choose between themselves and their career. When you say that you care about your employees and their well-being, you need to actually put these words into action. This also means that when you are supposed be away from the office, on vacation or out sick, you don’t respond to emails or calls unless it’s a real emergency. This is about mutual respect and trust. Respect for your well-being as well as your reports’. And trust in your employees’ skills and integrity to complete their projects.
Share power.
Create an environment where everyone feels acknowledged and empowered. Start by only asking employees what you are willing to do yourself. Flaunting special privileges as a leader only invites resentment and will get the team nowhere. Aside from showing that you are more than willing to go in the trenches with everyone else, give recognition to others. Promote and elevate your team members. Not only will this build morale for the whole team but will make the whole organization stronger.
Sure, you can continue being that type of leader who sets guidelines but feels too privileged to follow them. But it’s easier to lead by example. Your behavior at work is the lesson you teach.
Leadership Quotes by Lexa from CW’s The 100
Lexa, played by Alycia Debnam-Carney on The CW’s The 100, is the commander of the Grounder clans. She’s a skillful Heda (Commander in Trigedasleng) and fearless warrior.
Let’s put aside the fact that The 100 character who is cunning and able to separate her feelings from her decisions was killed by a stray bullet after consummating her romance with Clarke. It’s 2016, can we stop Bury Your Gays and Dead Lesbian Syndrome already? LGBTQ fans deserve better.
Sigh. Back to Lexa’s leadership prowess. She’s as tough as nails who stops at nothing to protect her peoples. Here are three quotes by Lexa to inspire you to greatness:
“Sometimes you have to concede a battle to win a war.” – Lexa, The 100.
A war is a series of small battles. There will be times in your career where you will have to concede defeat. You have to hedge your bets while you make progress. These small battles are lessons to be learned and nobody, not even you, can win all of them. Keep you focus on the big picture.
“Victory stands on the back of sacrifice.” – Lexa, The 100.
Every leader who has achieved any success has made sacrifices to get there. These sacrifices can be for your organization or your colleagues. These doesn’t necessarily mean money, time or energy, it can be a shared power and responsibility – sacrifice some of your power and distribute it to your team members. The more you trust your team members, the more empowered they are to make effective decisions. Sacrifice your self-interest for the common good.
“We are what we are.” – Lexa, The 100.
Acknowledging who you are means learning from your experience. With self-awareness, you are mindful of your strengths, limitations, and emotions. This can be achieved with self-exploration and opening yourself to honest feedback. When you accept your authentic self, you’ll be able to exercise integrity and be able to admit your mistakes in front of your peers. You will become a stronger leader by facing your weaknesses, understanding your purpose, and practicing self-discipline.
10 Leadership Quotes by Women of Color
Mastering leadership takes time. Being a leader can be challenging, stressful, and lonely at times. For leaders looking for inspiration to get better at what they do and need an occasional reminder that self-care is as important as success, here are ten empowering quotes by women of color:
Beautiful and Unusual Bookshelves You’d Want in Your Home
We’ve rounded up 10 beautiful ideas on how to display books in your home. Let us know which one’s your favorite.
1. Candle-lit bookshelf
2. Fluid bookshelf
3. Skateboards bookshelf
4. TV bookshelf
5. Guitar bookshelf
6. Plumbing bookshelf
7. Bathroom bookshelf
8. Leather and wood bookshelf
9. Tardis bookshelf
10. Clothespin bookshelf
Restaurant Review: Tacos El Paisa
Address: 3096 National Ave (b/t 30th St & 31st St ), San Diego, CA 92113
Price: $
Rating: 4/5
Review: The food here is incredibly delicious; fresh, and spicy. You go up to the cashier to order your food and they bring you a platter with free chips with different types of salsa, carrots, slices of radish, and cucumbers.
I was going to order Tripa burritos until we saw this sign behind the cashier. We decided to order Molcajete and share.
We made the right decision. The asada was tender, chicken pieces were mouth watering, shrimp was tasty, nopales were great (we’re not fond of them normally but we tried a couple of strips), and the longaniza was nice and spicy. It was topped off well with queso fresco, aguacate, and salsa molcajete. I loved the longaniza the most. I have a fondness for spicy food and it satisfied my palate very well. The order comes with warm tortillas. You can choose between corn and flour tortillas. Best part? It’s only $14.99 for such a complete meal.
If you’re looking for the restroom, it’s outside in the parking lot. You need to ask for the key from the cashier.
Creative Block
Creative Block group show is back. The show mashes the ideas of a white walls gallery show with the raw outdoor urban feel of SILO in Makers Quarter. Situated on well-lit white walls, the huge group show featured fine art and photography from 50 participating artists with live murals from Honkey Kong, Mike Maxwell, Nekoes, CatGods, and Mr Dvice.
Featured Artists:
EXIST1981
Spenser Little
Carly Ealey
Christopher Konecki
Dolan Stearns
Neko
Joey Vaiasuso
Kevin Peterson
Sergio Hernandez
Brooks Sterling
Jaclyn Rose
Denial
Matt Stallings
Nicole Waszak
Onions
Tocayo
Bart Club
Celeste Byers
Aaron Glasson
Eno
Joshua Krause
Diekuts
GANE
Brisk
Buffalo Viez
That Kid Peep
SenzWen
Letter Cat Sign Co.
Wendy Teague
Brian Hebets
Paul Drohan
Randall Christopher
C. Bilyeu
Maxx Moses
Nick Mcpherson
Gloria Muriel
Julian Martin
Dion Terry
Eye Gato
España Garcia
Yarns and Noble
Keemo
Sonia López Chávez
Cory Ring
Jeff Raddatz
#CohortCollective #MakersQuarter #SILOSD #CreativeBlock
Take Back the Alley Photos
Take Back the Alley is a fun-filled day organized by Radio Pulso and Roots Factory held at the alley behind Bread and Salt Art Gallery in Logan Heights on Saturday, May 16. It’s part of Media Arts Center San Diego’s (MACSD) initiative and aims to help redefine and transform alleys into safer and friendlier areas of congregation. The next Take Back the Alley event will be held in City Heights on May 29.
Janet Jackson: “new music, new world tour, a new movement”
Last year, Janet Jackson tweeted:
If there is a new project, you’ll hear it from my lips.
— Janet Jackson (@JanetJackson) August 1, 2014
A year later, Janet announced she’ll be releasing new music and going on tour later this year.
Script: “I promised you’d hear it from my lips. And now you will. This year, new music, new world tour, a new movement. I’ve been listening. Let’s keep the conversation going.”
Janet hasn’t released an album since her 10th album “Discipline” in 2008 and hits compilation “Number Ones” in 2009.
Click here for more details about the video.
Her last tour was “Number Ones, Up Close and Personal Tour” in 2011. The majority of shows in 18 countries were sold out.