The Playbook Podcast
2nd Shift Playbook aims to create a community for professional women who are all focused on addressing inequality and creating a community for them to thrive in their professional environments.
It’s not just women’s empowerment. We are focused on women who are in high stress, high performance roles and working to navigate work-life balance.
The Playbook Podcast
Tunya Smith on Creating Sustainable Communities Through Diversity and Inclusion
Discover the power of equity and self-care as Tanya Smith from the NCDOT's Office of Civil Rights joins us to weave a narrative that bridges the gap between professional success and personal well-being. In this empowering session, we'll unveil the importance of taking women's health seriously. Together, we traverse the evolving landscape of the workplace, offering actionable strategies for women to advocate for their worth and embrace the flexibility that modern careers demand.
Our conversation with Tanya takes us through the heart of NCDOT's mission to create an inclusive environment where diversity isn't just welcomed, but celebrated. We discuss infrastructure improvements and pioneering efforts in environmental justice that pave the way for family-friendly and sustainable communities.
To top off this session, we open the vault to Tanya's personal financial playbook, revealing the secrets to balancing passion with fiscal responsibility. By investing wisely in education and professional advancement, we underscore the significance of financial independence for young professionals, steering clear of societal pressures to overspend. As we close this chapter, we extend an invitation to our listeners to join the conversation and share their own stories of how they navigate the tightrope of work-life balance with finesse and fortitude.
Welcome to Second Shift Playbook, the essential podcast for women navigating the dual demands of professional careers and home responsibilities. This show is dedicated to the millions of women who've had to make the tough choice between their careers and caring for their families, and to those who strive daily to balance both. In a world where women, especially women of color, in high stress fields like the medical sector and academia, face the daunting challenge of the Second Shift at home, we're here to offer support, guidance and empowerment. Our mission is to shine a light on the stories of resilience and determination, to discuss the policies and changes needed to support women fully and to explore how we can all contribute to a more equitable society. Each episode features conversations with trailblazing women like Tia Williams, the bestselling author and Beauty Editor at Tom Ford, Lily Panchasarp, an innovative Account Executive at Disney, Pamela Price, the dedicated Deputy Director of Balm in Gilead, and Michelle Gethers, the visionary chief diversity officer and head of corporate social responsibility at Visa. These remarkable women share their journeys, the obstacles they've overcome and their strategies for managing the complex interplay of work and home life.
Allison Mathews:Second Shift Playbook isn't just a podcast. It's a movement towards creating a world where women don't have to choose between their careers and their families. As a PhD in sociology, public health researcher and entrepreneur, I have a deep understanding of stigma and discrimination, emotional intelligence, social psychology and stress management. I have dedicated my career to advocating for marginalized communities to access resources and am now committed to advocating for women to become financially independent and fully empowered to navigate life's challenges. Join us as we delve into the realities, the struggles and the victories of working women everywhere. Together, we can redefine what it means to work and live in harmony, supporting one another through the challenges of the Second Shift. Welcome to Second Shift Playbook. All right, welcome everyone. I am Dr Alison Matthews and my podcast co-host is here with me today. Introduce yourself.
Charlene Green:I'm Charlene Green. Hello.
Allison Mathews:All right. So the Second Shift Playbook is a podcast that provides professional women with advice and insights on how to succeed in the workplace and achieve work-life balance. We're here today with Tanya Smith, who is the North Carolina Department of Transportation's Office of Civil Rights Director. She aims to leverage best practices and resources to promote civil rights and programming and build a culture of equity and inclusion across the department. Wow, Thank you for joining us. Absolutely Thank you for having me today.
Charlene Green:I'm going to start out with the newsworthy event of the day, and it's actually interesting. It's a case in Australia, if you can believe it. As many have known about me, I'm an anesthesiologist physician and always see interesting things in the news. I was a neurosurgeon in Australia that was investigating a woman's mystery illness of depression and not being able to function and forgetfulness, which many people will just say that's just a woman's way of dealing with life and things like that. But it really wasn't.
Charlene Green:The neurosurgeon did a brain biopsy and initially thought it was an immunological condition. But when she was getting the biopsy and using her forceps she saw something wiggling inside the woman's brain. It was actually a worm and so the whole operating room was stunned. And working in an operating room I'm quite sure they were really stunned that a lob worm was removed from a woman's brain. And interestingly it had a really good reason, because worms, eggs and were commonly shed in python snakes in that area droppings and they contaminate the grass and the areas and the forages and this woman lived near a snake habitat.
Charlene Green:So I just wanted to kind of eventually connect this with something we're going to talk about later. It's like climate change and how life and eating all affects what we do in life, but I just thought that was just a newsworthy event of the day that affected a woman, and it intertwines a lot of things that we're going to talk about as regards to valuing what the voices of women and kind of what goes on in their lives and always not just not thinking that it's something minor. Sometimes there are major things that can happen and we need to take women's concerns seriously.
Allison Mathews:So I have a question. Yes, how did the worm get into her body?
Charlene Green:So she, you know, is a woman who lives near a habitat and by ingesting some of the food because they were growing vegetables in that area, and with the shedding of the small eggs in the area it got on some of the forages in the food or she could have had contaminated hands, and so she she and her family probably ingested these worms that eventually grew these eggs. So it was the eggs that eventually grew and it just went up to her brain.
Allison Mathews:That just makes me think like this is what women have to go through. Yes, yes, you know the fact that we're out here trying to feed our families and she's probably just busy, you know, get trying to prepare her meal for her family and then she gets a worm in her brain.
Charlene Green:Yes, but, interestingly, she had a female neurosurgeon. I won't make any comments about my friends that are male neurosurgeons, but they probably would have gone down the path of couple more months thinking it was anxiety or other things before they thought it was a medical problem. So that's all I'm going to say about that, and I just want to also talk a little bit about work life balance, just to give a little hint about kind of what we're all about. You know, when you have work life balance, you know work becomes a different experience, particularly with a new level fulfillment and doing your best. You know there are many quotes about work like balance.
Charlene Green:Happiness is a matter of balance, but I'm just going to say that self care is absolutely needed to sustain great health and work ethics in the job. However, you must create it for yourself. I think that's one of the things that we, you know, season people like Dr Matthews and myself. You know you always think that someone else is going to create that for you, but you actually have to. You actually have to create that yourself, put that time in yourself and demand that yourself. I'm going to give two quotes and then we're going to move forward from two amazing people. One is Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton once said never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life Important. And Michelle Obama once said we need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own to-do list.
Allison Mathews:Yes.
Charlene Green:Awesome.
Allison Mathews:So. So, Tunya, you're, you're happily married, you're a proud mom of twin boys. Yes, what would you pay to? Or if you, if you could pay any amount of money, what would you pay for to make your life easier?
Tunya Smith:Well, I would say first is I don't equate money and material things to my value streams, you know for me. So I ask myself a question every day when I wake up. It's you know why do I wake up, what do I want to do when I wake up and what do I want my kids to do when they wake up, and how do they remember me and connect with me as a holistic person? So I really don't equate money. I build value within and kind of let that lead to the outside. And so, you know, I build my own happiness. I don't let others build happiness. But everything I do in life connects to my children, their future, and those are my motivators really.
Allison Mathews:Yeah, wow, awesome. So we're kind of going into the beginning of the school year. Wha t? How do you navigate that as a professional woman? And your, your twins, started in this new school year.
Tunya Smith:Yes, so my twins are in middle school and I have been that PTA mom, that helicopter mom, as they like to coin it, since they were in pre-K. I'm that mom that brings the cupcakes to school, that knows all the teachers. I have all their teachers phone numbers in my cell phone so I can call and text with them throughout the day. But I navigate the school year by just knowing their schedule. I carve out time. You know, one of my most sacred times is in the morning.
Tunya Smith:We have a very early start. We get up at 6 am every morning. I make them breakfast and they help me to pick out their snacks for the day, and it's a very involved process and we set up a routine and I drive them to school and drive time is the time that we talk about the day. I give them affirmations, words of encouragement, I tell them that they're great, they're going to have a great day, they can solve any problem ahead of them, and we start that routine so we all have a good morning.
Tunya Smith:But, most important, as I teach the kids, structure so small things like make up your bed in the morning, you know, take the initiative, and then I just build out my work around their schedule so they are very close by me and proximity. I make sure that my environment is very inclusive of my family, everyone around me. I have caretakers and so starting the school year is actually pretty simple for our house because we have that routine. So it's exciting. They have been in school now for a few weeks and it's been a journey, but we're really excited about their school year and I kind of lived through them a little bit because they have cool things now in schools.
Allison Mathews:Yes, yes.
Tunya Smith:They have like band and they had some new program how to be a man or something and it was an etiquette class and the instructor had them do pushups and how to pass the butter. It was really intriguing that they're teaching that in middle school.
Charlene Green:That is fantastic. You already have talked about a lot of things that maybe I was going to ask you about. How do you balance your career and your personal life? Basically, you get up early and you spend that quality time with your children. You are present in person to have that conversation with them in the morning and value what they eat, and as well as take them to school and just hear what they have to say. But now, going to the workplace, how do you think about the workplace balance and what are the things you do to help you there?
Tunya Smith:Great question, and this is something that, as women, we are always struggling and juggling all at the same time. And so, at work, the first and foremost is that everybody at work knows that I'm a mom. I make it very, very known. I don't hide behind it. I put that in the forefront, and they know that work life balance is critical for me and my success, and if they want the best out of me, they have to also value my children. So I have brought my children to the office. They have met leadership. They know if I'm going to a conference, if I'm speaking, what it's about, and I incorporate them there.
Tunya Smith:Now, as far as work goes, I'm very organized. I have to-do list. The beauty of a woman is that we are chameleons. We know how to come in and out of different spaces, and so I know how to prioritize my time. I seek only things that add value to my work day and try to eliminate the noise and the waste. I also try to engage in meaningful conversations, and that's with staff, that's with leadership, it's whomever I'm talking to, but I also value in them that I need to respect their time and their boundaries. So I try to keep meaning short. I have agendas. I get right to the point. I try to have solutions ready. So I know if I value their time, they're going to value mine, and if they know my purpose and being, then they'll respect my purpose and being. I set the course of who I am and how I want to be treated.
Charlene Green:I wanted to maybe follow up on that a little bit.
Charlene Green:Dr Matthews is, I think, one of the reasons why I think we felt that doing this podcast was very important.
Charlene Green:There are many women that have positions where they can choose their workplace environment, how they do things, but there are many women that we want to reach on this podcast as well that may not have that position to advocate for their needs at work, such as they may not be able to bring their kids to work.
Charlene Green:They may be told that they have the stringent work hour shifts. They may be told that they can't have a day off. They may be told that maybe they only have, when they start their job, only a one or two weeks vacation. So therefore, when they have work and life balances issues, such as a caregiver issue or a child issue, they really can't get off work unless they can. You know they worry about losing a job or losing their pow time I'm not sure what they call it in the government of time off time or things like that. So what are you for the women in your workplace or in the state that may not have the same privileges as someone like me, you and Allison, as regards to making our own time and maybe having a little bit more say so on our schedule. How do we support women in the workplace and give them advice on how do they advocate for their needs when they may not have that ability?
Tunya Smith:Well, that's a good question and it's a big question, right? It's really hard to say Ideally, you know you want to encourage someone to find the career path for them, but the reality is there's a lot of moms, especially single moms, who do not have a support and are in a stringent work environment and that's very difficult. I would say is, you know, one is not every situation that you're in has to be the permanent or long term. So try to find something down the line If it means go to some type of training, but try to find an industry where you know perhaps you can involve into but also know your power right. Many workplaces people think there's no flexibility and there is more flexibility than they realize. Maybe it's not achieving it at the level that we have it right.
Tunya Smith:I didn't always have an environment that was this flexible. I will say in the earlier days when I had newborns, I had a very inflexible environment where you went to lunch at a certain time, someone was over your shoulder, it was micromanaged and that wasn't fun time and I really did have to sort of deal with it and put my foot down at time. So if you didn't want to prove my week off, but then you know what value did I bring in? What were you willing to lose as well? Absolutely, because I know that I bring my A game everywhere I go. So in that, to have flexibility, you have to bring your A game right. You have to know your power and your work.
Tunya Smith:How we support women is that we do it collectively right. If you have a sister, you have a cousin, you have a friend that you went to college with and maybe you delayed your. You know you're having children or family, or perhaps you just have a really great support system, lean in and support them. You know often to be that day here, I think one of my biggest challenges when I was, when I had the twins, was them getting sick running to the day here. That's stressful. It is, it's so stressful.
Charlene Green:So I'm going to lean in. I'm going to be one example on my job. I was a I was the only woman on my job for about maybe 10 years or even more, and so I made it a pact that I'm going to recruit a lot more women and things like that, and so we do have probably like four or five new women in my group. I've been on my job for about 29 years.
Charlene Green:One of the things that I could say that I could do for my job and everybody doesn't, really just not just the women is like today there may be a time that I'm off If someone calls me immediately and say, hey, I need to go to my kids recital, I need to do this, and I'm off, or post call or anything like that. We have made a pact amongst our whole job that, hey, we're going to come in, we're going to send out an email and we're not going to you know, criticize why the person needs that time off. But hey, can you come and cover for two hours? And so that's what we do on our workplace and I think that is help, having women in the workplace that can do that at any moment when someone wasn't feeling. You know well, the other day, you know, someone came from an hour away to recover to leave that person. So I just want to give an example of what can happen. So thank you, dr Allison.
Allison Mathews:I love that. I love that, Cause I was, you know. I think your question is really important about what do women do when they don't have flexible. I think I'm privileged, and Tanya's privileged, in the sense that we have very flexible work experiences. I can work from home, I can work from Australia. It's fine, you know. But for people who don't have that, you know, I love the fact that you can create this kind of support system within your work, where you can, you know, help another person out when they need you know, when they need time out for that, when they let's switch schedules or something like that to make it work and it's, it's. But that also takes a supervisor who allows it. But, yeah, no, I think I love that. So, Tanya, so what? What are, what are some of the challenges that you've faced as a professional woman?
Tunya Smith:Oh, so lots of challenges, especially being not just a woman but a woman of color, and being a younger woman that came up in a mostly male dominated industry. Most workplaces is still is still exists right. Unless you work for all women's organization, you're going to be in a male dominated industry. So some of the challenges is really being stifled. You know that stymie of you know you're not ready yet. You know not being too aggressive, not not showing that you're assertive, don't be the smartest person in the room. Those are all bad advice that I've received, but microaggressions are still real. But for some reason with women especially minority women, women of color is that we work harder to get where we're going, so you're always bringing your A game, and so that those are some of the challenges. I don't think there's anything I couldn't overcome and but it's something that I helped to mentor other women to say know your value, know your word and if that lane is not open for you, create your own lane. Since I built my career on creating my own lane, Awesome.
Charlene Green:I'm going to ask a question about just something really important as well. What are some of the things you've done to make your workplace a more inclusive and equitable place for the citizens of North Carolina, not just women? I'm going to lean in on a couple of things and I'm hoping I'm in the right departments. I think your, or your department now has implemented improvements for North Carolina citizens to go online and do their license renewals. Yes, huge for women. I love that. What I'm going to tell you was even huge.
Charlene Green:Your is the queue anywhere that allows, you know, people to avoid the waiting lines. And I'm going to mention another project that I want that hopefully you can comment on that. It's huge too for women and other businesses in the state. So I think the projects for businesses working on North Carolina, the OT, bicyclists, pedestrians where you guys have just up that game and all over the state where people women can walk in and women and men, of course, but women can walk in strollers or do like that and take their families better. And the last thing is that the environmental compliance part, how you guys incorporate on making the world in the state healthier for what you do. So those three things if you could touch on those briefly. But queue anywhere yes.
Tunya Smith:Yeah, so I won't take credit for all that you mentioned. I would say ncdot in general has been, has an administration that has been very inclusive, and really it's top down, from the governor himself to our secretary of transportation, to all of our senior leaders. And he is the one who promoted me into my position, secretary Eric Boyette, and he saw the value in me, but he also really believe in equity and inclusion, and so one of my first projects was diversity, equity, inclusion to start an advisory group and to come up with the key pillars of that advisory group. So, as I sat there at every night you know when working a second this is a second job for me at this point you know you have your main duties during the day and then you work on this after hours at that time, and so one of the things we came up with was to embed diversity and equity and inclusion into all of our programs and services and recognize that one person couldn't be that that ally, that that person that makes it happen. It has to be across the organization. So we had several strategic planning sessions with all executive leadership to say this is your responsibility, let's look at creative ways to include inclusion for our customers participating in our programs and services, but also for the employees. So out of that was a kind of a birthing of all these equity initiatives, and we also have really creative and inclusive leaders who have said, okay, where the impact? So you know, walkability, having the green trails. We also part of a team that developed a clean transportation plan, the natural electric vehicle infrastructure plan, the charging stations for those electric vehicles, and one of the key components for that that we drive is what we call equitable outcomes right, how to service the community, whether it be from environmental, justice and compliance programs to work for us development, to supply diversity. We encapsulate all of that.
Tunya Smith:So I lead a lot of that equity work. I serve kind of as a chief diversity officer for the agency, as well as the civil rights director. I meet with the secretary and deputy secretary and every other month we go over a plan that we're going to execute. They keep their pulse on things, and so I think that's how we've been able to move a lot of these programs. We also put in performance measures Right.
Tunya Smith:So the big thing that I'm most proud of is capturing this. I'm having data, having a data story. We have several cool projects right now where that's all we're doing. One of my biggest ones is creating equity threshold analysis and I'm also going to meet the needs of the community Right. What does equity me? Is the same, right, or is it different? So I'm really proud of the work that Department of Motor Vehicles has done in the online accessibility and that has greatly impacted not only mothers and people of color, who there are some statistics out there that in certain counties there's even a DMV office and mostly communities of color that in tax voter locations access to government services, so having it online is important but also for immigrants, refugees, poor areas, and so I think that's the impact for them. So hopefully I covered that. But you touched on something the environmental part, and that's something we're really pushing heavy right now is the environmental justice and equity.
Allison Mathews:Yeah, and how do you?
Charlene Green:I'm sorry. One more thing In your on your information that you guys have online. It talks about being compliance with the Environmental Protection Act. Right, is that your your job to enforce that, or your team? Or is that another team?
Tunya Smith:No, great question. So in my area, as part of civil rights, we have the applicability of the environmental justice. We have a separate division that enforces the EPA guidelines the national and the state level EPA but we work together as a team. Now I want to separate. Being in compliance with the the environmental laws is very different than community resilience and environmental equity. There are so many components that are not attached to that. So my office has that in its scope, in its duties.
Tunya Smith:I hired my first ever environmental justice policy advisor just to address, yeah, the community impact. So some of the projects that we have right now we're working very closely with research and development is on cemetery mapping for indigenous and tribal communities and so ridership and the impacts. In North Carolina 60% of people of color ride transit. However, in the state there's more vehicles registered than there are citizens, so we can do the math, the lock side of this right. We focus on those inequities across the state, but we know a lot of families are single women and poor areas who can't get their kids. Today here we have elderly who can't get to medical appointments, to doctor appointment. So my office handles all of those EJ and equity components.
Charlene Green:Awesome. You know there are a lot of areas in North Carolina that have increased cancer, increased environmental issues and hopefully your offices is tagging that along with the projects that are in the future and that type of thing. Awesome, yes, thank you.
Allison Mathews:So I was going to ask what are some of the things that you've learned about leadership and I and I want to also think about that in the in, in the sense of creating an equitable workplace with the people that you immediately work with. You're doing amazing work out in the community right in North Carolina, but how do you, what have you learned about creating that kind of equitable workplace within your four walls?
Tunya Smith:Yes, and you asked about wellness earlier. One of the things that I do as a director of my unit is that I've instituted what we call wellness days and we take we are in a hybrid work environment. We telework some days, we are in office other days and so as additional layered to that, I've said, less designate maybe one to two days a month as a wellness day. As advocates and serving the citizens, we're also traveling around the state. We're driving. If you've been to Asheville, you know there's no airport that you can take from Raleigh there, commercial, that you know or train, so you're. So staff is driving all around the state and I know that can be burdensome on, burdensome on them. So I instituted wellness days and say you know what? Take that one or two days a month extra. Go for a walk. We can have walking meetings. We have all these beautiful devices and laptops and phones where we can have teams. You don't have to be at a desk. Take meditation Tomorrow we're having a retreat for all staff, including our HBCU students and staff, and the theme as wellness we have a yoga coach coming in, someone to address stressors and breathing exercises and really about taking care of self. So I move that as the forefront of everything that I do. I also recognize that I manage a group of advocates.
Tunya Smith:Advocates are very impassioned individuals. We give our whole self to the work that we do. So with that comes a high rate of burnout and we're not immune to what's happening around us. So I I take a very passionate approach. I'm very forgiving. I always ask the team to extend grace and mercy. I say it so much they kind of get tired of hearing about it, but it's really true because we're going to, in the heat of the moment, say something we perhaps regret. We may come across in the heat of the moment and staff of you know of being intolerant or sometimes being one sided. So I create an open space where they feel safe to discuss but also explain that. But we need structure, right. Having words and no action, not having to come, leaves us nowhere, right.
Tunya Smith:So let's take that and come up with planning. So we do a lot of strategic planning. That's probably overused in my area, but we do what we call landscape analysis pretty often, at least once a month, where we assess the environment and come up. We pivot with what we need to do because we have a lot of different fires thrown at us at any given time. We get citizens complaints, we get new issues, but we also have cool things like disruptive technologies, the electric vehicle plan and I may get invited to a planning session for that and I think that's cool. And I think that's a great thing in IT conference, where we were learning about large language models and generative AI and how to incorporate that into equity work, and so the team gets excited about these new innovations and they want to be a part of it, and so I allow them.
Tunya Smith:Right, anyone that wants to tag along. As long as you can keep up with your work, let's go. Let's, let's think about problem solving together. So I try to have a an environment where I encourage all ideas and opinions to be put on the forefront and I just give realistic expectations about what we can and cannot do, what needs to be parking lot, but I also challenge myself to say maybe I'm not the one who say we can't do that, maybe we can do it, maybe I'm putting a limitation on the group, and so I think that has helped us to be successful and the outcomes that we have. I love that, yeah.
Allison Mathews:I was going to say when I was in grad school I benefited from going to this.
Allison Mathews:It was like a two day training by Carrie Ann Rockmore on how to schedule in your work life balance, basically.
Allison Mathews:And I'm hearing a lot of what you're talking about and I'm like it's so parallel.
Allison Mathews:You know talking about like, okay, if you have these goals that you want to accomplish for six months, in the next six months, what do you have to do, you know, to get there right.
Allison Mathews:So you map out all of the tasks, all of the you know, and then, and then you're adding in all of the other things that are happening in your life, like you want to exercise, you want to eat, you want to spend time with your family, want to go on vacation, you need travel time, etc.
Allison Mathews:And so she suggests you actually map out and plan for each one of those activities in your calendar, because a lot of times we think, oh, we can get all of these things done, but you're not actually thinking about the time that it takes to, you know, to wash your clothes and to clean your house and take care of your kids and get up early in the morning to take them to school and that kind of thing before you even getting to your goals, your professional goals. And so you know, I just it just makes me think about what, what you're saying, and I think it's an excellent tool. It's really helped me to better, you know, balance and kind of schedule in that downtime, that wellness time, you know, and that, and then also over estimating the amount of time that I think it will take for me to accomplish those goals. So you know, I have some padded time in there to get that work done, and if it doesn't take as long, then I have some extra time to do other things.
Tunya Smith:So just wanted to share that because I thought I think you know, kind of the catch 22 is that, especially as a woman, we are a task driven, we know how to multitask to a fault, right. And sometimes I often talk to my colleagues and we feel like we're spinning our wheels because we create these monster list where we've planned everything out and we haven't built in flexibility because we feel like at the end of the day, I want to achieve it. Most of my colleagues I talked to say you know, I have all these lists that are scattered everywhere and all these different. I feel like I'm not achieving anything. So, being realistic and knowing that, you know, create that downtime. I schedule, it's on my calendar, so fixtures been there for years.
Tunya Smith:Focus time I get an hour every day for focus and I decide what to do with that focus time, right. And I also, instead of focusing more on tasks, I have my task list, but it's short. I try to keep it to five things a day. I have goals list. So what are my short term, long term goals? And how does that fit into family? Right? So you know, what benefit does it bring?
Tunya Smith:And I, but actually having goals, I mean it sounds kind of simple, but how much time did I spend with my kids. How much time did I give to my husband today, you know? Because we forget about that as being task driven and knowing that you can cut something off and feel okay by saying hey, it's three o'clock, it's three o'clock, I haven't taken a lunch, I haven't called home. I'm going to stop what I'm doing and I'm going to go and drop lunch off at my kids to go pick them up and get them some ice cream and have some time for myself, right Cause my kids for me bring me joy. So it's not it's a de-stress for me, but also know that I'm probably out of balance if I have these long less so so again, I make it more goal oriented and less yes, I think Awesome.
Charlene Green:I wanted to have a follow up question or just a question about, or just talk about what are some of your favorite books or articles or podcasts that help you navigate your life? I just want to maybe talk about one briefly book, because you mentioned something about task and objectives. So one of my favorite books is a measure what matters by John Doar. He was the Intel exec that helped Sergey Bren and Larry Page start Google with the initial $12 million venture capitalist funding and basically he the book talks about okay ours and I was wondering you know, how do you guys at the North Carolina DOT incorporate objective, key results into your, your work organization, because you had mentioned that you guys have so many projects. Right, you gotta have evidence based data and have that. It has to be data driven. Do you guys use okay ours?
Tunya Smith:We have something similar that we utilize in our workplace. So our organization is mostly engineers. We love to plan out and design out plans and create SOPs. So really what my goal is is that we have that structure, we have that governance in place so that the staff, the groups across the the enterprise Nobody each other is doing so. We have these dashboards, dashboards called key performance metrics. On a performance management dashboard it's a big screen that shows different units and it's kind of simplify where you have Are we trending? Well, we trending down. So we, we do have that, but anyone inside the agency can see that so they know at down to our cash balance, they know workforce trends. Any staff can see that to know that, so they can feel part of the organization but also know how we're trending Right. But then we also use these plans to help guide our work and then we create that inclusionary part by getting feedback from the staff. We have several, or a couple now, employee resource groups, ones launching today as a women's connect, we have a downtown, we have a HPC resource group. So we have different avenues to create that level of inclusion. But we'd recognize that what gets measure gets done.
Tunya Smith:So my office just launched our first study with North Carolina State University independent research group. Dr Forrest Thompson is wonderful is conducting our first economic impact study. So a dollar invested here today yields what to the community? And of course my focus is under serve diverse communities. We also have our disparity study, that which measures contracting impacts. So we have different guides to help us measure. And then in the clean transportation plan and also on the national electric vehicle plans we have built in program areas. I had asked for metrics to be included to measure the impacts on workforce and business development and underserved community. So there's a lot of different tools. I know our transit area has online tool to show you demographics and studies, but we track a lot to be able to inform our decision making and to tell us how we're trending.
Charlene Green:Awesome. Yeah, I think, evidence based that is really important for being strategically effective and in being using money wisely. So, yeah, thank you Awesome, dr Matthews.
Allison Mathews:Well, so we're. You know, we're kind of wrapping up this podcast. I wanted to go into some of the tips, just kind of last tips or strategies that you would give to women who are struggling to achieve work life balance. What, what would you say? 10 years?
Tunya Smith:Well, I would say definitely know your work, your worth. Too many times we are insecure in the workplace. So, knowing how to have value, create your own lane. Oftentimes I see women chasing behind what was done before them. So I really encourage you, know women and communities to look at new lanes.
Tunya Smith:I was reading a periodical. I read a lot of publications on innovation and technology and when I was reading about new job titles Right, a new title in the future might be a metaverse accountant or a metaverse lawyer Right. So if that space wasn't open for you before, look for something new that you can open up and create your own. But don't forget about your values. Right. Lead with that. Know what makes you happy when you wake up in the morning, what's going to make you want to continue on? Right. And last but not least, I say that every workplace in every industry can be refined Right. Be a focus leader, not a singular leader. You know, lean towards innovation and interconnecting concepts and ideas.
Tunya Smith:I have listened to my mentors and they have said you know, surround yourself by like minded people, by people that can motivate you and not tear you down. Right, so I've built that. I've built people. I built an atmosphere where you know if you're around me. I'm looking for someone who's positive and supportive. I want to be around people who value family and the way that I value family, right. Who's not steering me in a direction that they want to be in themselves? So it's really it's easier said than done. It's a work in progress, but give yourself some grace. Be a chameleon. That is our superpower. We know how to navigate and just know your worth.
Charlene Green:I wanted to share two that I have that I live by every day. One is just from my upbringing of knowing I wanted to. Reasons why I think we wanted to do this for women particularly is because I think sometimes women at times and men do too have imposter syndrome, where they don't think that they are good enough or they don't think they're valued enough. I will say to Dr Allison Matthews and myself don't have imposter syndrome, but it's okay. No, I never deal with that, it's okay if you do. We're trying to teach women and men how to think through that and how to understand their value and also to know your limitations, cause that's part of imposter syndrome too you have to know what your limitations are. So therefore, you know your strengths and weaknesses. So that's really important.
Charlene Green:I was gonna say multitasking does not work. I've learned that you have to stay focused on the job at hand. But, more importantly, one of the models that I live by is do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain. One example would be maybe you're not great at IT or something simple Learn it, own it, get help with it, and that fear is certain. But my job is more detailed than that. That maybe a skill set that you may be fearful of, that you actually need to do. You got to learn it, or you've got to tell people you don't know it because you can't fake it. So that's my model Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain. I'm hoping to teach my daughter to not be fearful of spiders, so it has not worked yet, but yes.
Allison Mathews:If I had to stay over there, I'm over here, that's good. That's good, I was gonna add. I think one of my tips is to, as professional women we have income right Use some of that income to pay for things that we don't necessarily have the time to do, and that's okay. I think we feel guilty, we feel like we need to do it all, and you can hire someone to help clean your house, even if it's once a month. You can get ordered the groceries to come to your door rather than having to go grocery shopping. You can pay for things to make your life easier or to simplify your life so that you can kind of have more time for yourself. So I would say for women to not feel guilty about doing that.
Charlene Green:And some women may not have some of the money, but you can barter. At times I barter, I say some of the women will say, hey, I'll fix you a ziti meal if you do this or whatever. So you can use whatever skill sets in your village, Because there are some of my friends that may not have a lot of discretionary income but they make a good pound cake or whatever it might be that they can do, or they can pick up my child or things like that, and then maybe I could help them do other things. So sometimes you can have to think out of the box about how you can help each other in a village.
Tunya Smith:I love it. And, if I can add to that, don't forget about our elders, our matriarchs, who are in the community. Many times they're one phone call away, could be a neighbor. Of course you wanna do your due diligence, don't just leave your child with anyone. But there's a lot of neighbors or young people, even students, who may want to clean the house or cut the lawn, or student drivers who would drive your kids to school. So and it may not cost you as much as you might think it's more affordable I just told someone yesterday I think something I did right is that I didn't spend a lot of money on frivolous things as I was coming up through my career.
Tunya Smith:So I was able to save and invest back in myself. I paid for conferences and classes myself, and if I wanna get a car wash or get a personal trainer, I could, because I had that flexibility. I think a lot of the youth is so, or young professionals feel like they have to go out and buy this big fancy car and big fancy house and they stretch themselves too thin. So that's just an added layer of stress. So it is something to think about as well.
Charlene Green:Thank you, thank you.
Allison Mathews:Well, we certainly appreciate the time that you have taken out to speak with us and impart your wisdom and life lessons with us, tanya Smith, this is the second shift playlist where Dr Charlene and Dr Matthews have come together to empower women and find ways to create more work-life balance. We want you, we encourage listeners to share your own tips for work-life balance. Visit us on social media second shift playlist on Instagram, facebook and YouTube and we hope you have a great day.
Tunya Smith:Thank, you, thank you for having me. Thank you so much. Thank you, stay care.