Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Nazeera Dawood. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dr. Nazeera, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

Many businesses still shy away from entering into a contract with the government due to several reasons. Among many other reasons, here are a few

1. the stringent application process
2. slow ROI
3. mistrust in the government
4. complicated documentation
5. overwhelming from reading through lengthy solicitations
6. putting together a comprehensive proposal that meets many specific and detailed requirements.

We recognize that many small to mid-sized clients don’t have the resources to maintain a team of experts for bidding in the public sector. That shouldn’t hold back providers of great solutions from bidding in the government space.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am the Founder & CEO of Vendorship Inc. At Vendorship Inc, we coach small business owners, under-represented minorities and others secure government contracts. Combined with my prior experience as a public official and medical doctor, I have tried to dedicate my life to having a meaningful impact on the betterment of the community – economically, politically and health-wise.

Vendorship was established out of the need for a liaison between innovative solutions providers in IT, construction, commodities (such as PPEs), Architecture, Construction & Engineering (ACE) and professional services, and multi-level government operations for the optimization of government’s service delivery responsibility.

Several of our team members like myself have worked in public administrations and understand the request-for-proposal (RFP) and procurement process. The RFP process is designed to be results-oriented and impartial, but the requirements tend to be complicated. I found that few innovative providers had the knowledge to position themselves as viable and competitive, and to also effectively navigate RFP ‘red tape’ along the process.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Yes. Good to Great by Jim Collins. It continues to resonate with me because it talks about the core principles of a good leader. It is a great book for anyone who has aspirations of running a company or a group or nonprofits to measure and demonstrate excellence. It helped affirm for me that the one common thing about successful leaders is their humility and their focus to do the right thing for the company, and not themselves.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Various levels of stress come with any and every kind work we do. It can be very hard to achieve balance in our life of work. Many times we normalize having little or no balance there at all. At Vendorship, we’re a team of social entrepreneurs; we are passionate about the purposeful value of our work and hence we tend to spend more time at work. Enjoying the value and always reflecting on the purpose of our work keeps us in balance. We also make sure to take frequent walks during the day to get some fresh air and rethink some of the day’s work activities.

Key meetings with team members can go in any direction, toward set goals or completely against plans. I have usually taken a few minutes prior to the key meeting to recollect my thoughts and relax. You have to be intentional as it is essential as a component of responsible preparation. Then, I always check the pulse of my team with a few words of encouragement to ensure that we are all set and reset on the joy of serving needs.

Leadership is a core set of principles that allows for a group or a company to set pathways and trends towards excellence. Leadership has various styles. The ultimate role of a leader is to make the world a better place. There are some basic traits that are helpful for successful leadership. Empathy and compassion are not usually correlated with the corporate-sector, but they are vital.

In the post COVID era, the mindset of leaders has to incorporate the current realities of flexibility, understanding of the personal situations of their employers and providing enough training opportunities to advance, flourish and grow in personal value. In my case as Vendorship CEO, I made the decision to defer maintaining full-time office space and instead use the resources more efficiently on staffing and client needs. Our company has a total virtual presence since then and we have been doing pretty well. The team also appreciates the flexibility to work from home.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Vendorship.net
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vendorship/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vendorshipinc
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/_Vendorship
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCgnpSOM59LgsuN9a4VG1sTg