Najera Consulting Group, Inc.

The Uncommon Hour

Posted by: Gabriela Garcia In: The Najera Notion 0 comments Tags: Career, Frame of Reference, Goals, Mindset, Professional Development, Vision

Monday Morning Musings

I came across the following blog in the Najera Notion archive. It was written by Gabriela Garcia and was originally posted in 2010. Re-reading it helped combat my Monday morning blues. I thought it may be of help to others going thru the same. Enjoy! – Gabriel Najera

The Uncommon Hour
By: Gabriel Garcia

Henry David Thoreau once said, “I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

One lazy Sunday afternoon, as I was on a quest to gratify my caffeine addiction, I passed a local newsstand. Out from the glossy covers of strikingly beautiful women, the notable Crain’s Chicago Business caught my attention as the title bellowed at me: “40 Under 40.” Read more…

Can Your Job be Outsourced?

Posted by: Gabriel Najera In: The Najera Notion 2 comments Tags: Career, Career Planning, Coping, Frame of Reference, Leadership, Mental Models, Mindset, Professional Development

Now that the recession has come and gone, what have we learned? Something that corporate America has learned is this: they can pick-up the pace of outsourcing, the practice of contracting work to people or other companies outside the traditional organizational pyramid.

During the recession the economic slump became so pronounced that even outsourcing got scaled back. In addition, executives also reined in outsourcing on concern of government pressures against it. Read more…

A Lesson from “Frank the Philosopher” – Part 1

Posted by: Gabriel Najera In: The Najera Notion 3 comments Tags: Frame of Reference, Goals, Mindset, Stress, Vision

Have you heard the expression, “Can’t see the forest for the trees”? It is meant to describe a person who focuses so much on the details that they lose sight of the big picture.

I’m usually very relaxed in my job. I thrive on taking on many projects. The more, the merrier! But I recently experienced a severe case of stress from taking on too much. Or, so I thought. Read more…

Are You Ready for the Class of 2015?

Posted by: Gabriel Najera In: The Najera Notion 13 comments Tags: Communication, Frame of Reference, Mental Models, Mindset

On Wednesday April 29th I attended Schmoozefest 2015 for the first time. This is an annual professional networking event put on by our client The Chicago Latino Network. This year’s event was held at Moe’s Cantina and was MC’d by Zoraida Sambolin, a very popular and beautiful! (my emphasis) local news celebrity.

The crowd was made up mainly of 20, 30 and 40 somethings. I met a young lady who told me she was a senior in college and would be graduating next month. We started talking about the recent Chicago mayoral election and I realized that I kept repeating the same thing to her over and over again. For a minute I thought she couldn’t hear me because of the loud music. I quickly came to the conclusion that the reason I was repeating myself was that she didn’t fully understand what I was trying to tell her. In exasperation I finally said to her, “Listen, I hate to sound like a broken record but…” She looked at me with a puzzled look and said, “What’s a broken record?” Read more…

Is Our Celebrity Obsessed Culture Hindering Young Girls from STEM Careers?

Posted by: Gabriela Garcia In: The Najera Notion 3 comments Tags: Career, Mindset, STEM

In 2011, Fast Company published an article entitled, “The Most Influential Women in Technology.” The article highlighted 30 women in all aspects of science, technology, engineering and math who had made significant strides in technology. Indeed, the list was very impressive and included women ranging from CEO’s to scientists and engineers. Shortly thereafter Digg.com picked up the article, and the comments that followed drastically altered the original intention of the article. So much so, that they were just down right disappointing:

“That woman is a stone cold fox.”
“That girl is hot. I bet she has a way of controlling the men around her.”

Other comments that followed suggested that these women got on the list by utilizing their sexuality, and so on and so forth. One mother even commented that she wished her daughters would go into a career of technology because it would offer them “a lot of money to buy clothes, handbags and shoes,” but alas, their minds just “aren’t inclined to that type of work.” Read more…