As a New York-born first-generation American, Nora Osman was raised by her immigrant parents, who instilled the values of working hard and taking care of others as a priority. At a very tender age, she learned that everything is possible if you believe in the American Dream. Nora also believes, “you alone are responsible for mapping your own journey in life and making your dreams a reality.” Until high-school, Nora travelled to several countries and attended international schools, which eventually gave her exposure to a diverse world and unique learning. This life-changing experience taught her to be independent, curious, and open. After completing her High School, Nora attended a state university in Long Island, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree with a focus in Business Management.
Professional Journey
Nora’s professional journey started with her role in accounting. However, she soon started showing interest in mainframe, networking, and personal computers. By the time Nora left her first company, she was handling their entire IT portfolio, serving as the Operations Manager. This experience gave her much-needed exposure to multiple stacks of technology. Additionally, it also opened the door for her to work at a software solutions company. While developing her systems engineering skills, Nora also started cultivating skills in communication and sales. This background helped her to take on her first true management role in a health insurance company in New York City. Over a span of a decade, she began her journey in service management and learned about people, processes, and tools. She managed multiple areas like Service Desk, Desktop Support, Engineering, Application Support , and Budget management.
Nora’s vast knowledge in ITIL helped her gain an edge in building sustainable business processes with her team. However, this expansion eventually catapulted her career and resulted in multiple roles like Director, Sr. Director, and VP of different technology areas in different industries.
Later she started her own business in partnership with her husband and co-authored a book with three other writers. To date, she remains most passionate about helping people in many areas of professional development.
Although Nora had direct experience and exposure as a business entrepreneur in the culinary space, she takes pride in herself when it comes to having a business-centric mindset in IT in general. She loves to understand the business purpose first and foremost and build others’ respect for this same calling.
Motivating the Team
Nora is a huge fan of Simon Sinek and she truly believes in his mantra “Start with why.” She makes sure that she and her team start the work with an understanding of the true purpose of the work. People want to know why what they are doing matters, and once they do, they then need to feel empowered to figure things out and to use creativity to achieve the goal. Nora encourages her team to “think outside of the box, assume there are no constraints, and then answer the question, how would you approach things?” And aside from giving them space to think and develop a plan, she loves to encourage them along the way, showing genuine interest in their progress, giving constructive feedback, and taking pride in their evolution.
Awards and Accolades
In her 25 plus years as an IT leader, Nora has championed innovation and problem-solving in the service management space of multiple organizations, ranging from commercial insurance, software development, health insurance, financial services, and healthcare. Amongst Nora’s biggest accomplishments is her specific track record of establishing highly functional/motivated teams that transform the organization, exceeding its mission, and delivering an outstanding customer experience.
Nora is very proud to have developed leadership skills in many individuals and having helped them to choose a career path, which otherwise was beyond their wildest imagination. Exponential growth is of utmost importance to her, and she hopes to leave a legacy of servant leaders, who could make a difference in this planet we live on.
“With that said, I’m proud to have seen several members of my team achieve personal recognition and awards in customer service and also climb the steep ladder of success with promotions.”– Nora added.
In 2021, Nora was recognized as a finalist for an Employee Engagement Leader of the Year award by Reworked, which was a notable accomplishment for Nora.
Tackling Customer Experience Problem
Nora Osman believes, while in the technology space it’s all about solving a business problem. Technology doesn’t exist for its own purpose, it solves our needs. She is passionate about solving the customer-experience problem, developing strong people awareness of how process and human interaction matter even more than tools.
She has also found that many leaders are entirely focused on getting from point A to point B, but they aren’t thinking of how that journey will impact others, including the employees who have to do the work to deliver service or the customers who are using this service. So she helps to connect the dots in these areas, and motivates everyone to keep the balance between employees and customers.
Helping Others to Lead
Nora’s vision is entirely centered on elevating others, their strengths and talents, and igniting the flame that’s within them. She lights the torch that they carry, and then she likes to provide a sounding board and support along the way. The combination of Nora’s strengths helps her to be a natural change agent. Because she capitalizes on her innate creativity and her ability to truly understand people while being a skilled problem solver, she embraces the challenge with less resistance than most. The striking thing about Nora Osman is her ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable, as that pit in the stomach excites her since she knows she is learning and growing and doing something that’s real and of value. Intuition for Nora Osman is a catalyst for action, and she trusts it innately.
When it comes to suggestions for budding entrepreneurs she advises, ‘look, listen, and learn’. She adds, “Look with curious eyes, and see the world around you, the need, the pain, the problems, and the ways to solve them, and see the beauty in all this. Listen with an open heart, with the intent to understand, and with a kind spirit, and listen to your own thoughts and intuition. Learn all that you can, about others, and how to help them, about ways in which to do this, and always learn to focus on the why.”
Quote:
“Do what’s right, and not just what’s easy…what’s easy isn’t always right, and what’s right isn’t always easy!”