Meet Hamse Warfa

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

Hamse, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I am a former refugee, born into the war theater of Somalia and raised as a teenager in the daunting refugee camps of the Kenyan desert. During these formidable years, I learned that with character and healthy imagination, one can turn a world of misery into a beloved haven. I have carried this attitude with me since settling in the United States in 1994 with my family. While I have faced tremendous economic, racial, and religious obstacles in this country coming from a poor, black, Muslim family, I turned my status as a disadvantaged minority into a psychological source of strength, one that I consistently draw upon to be an inclusive and innovative leader across sectors. My story of resilience and ability to imagine hope in the face of adversity convinces me that a more equitable, just, and abundant future is achievable.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My works is all about transforming leadership for exponential impact across the public and private sectors. I recently took a leave from government service in my presidential appointee role as a Senior Advisor in the U.S. State Department advancing U.S. president’s democracy strengthening agenda at home and at abroad including the 2023 Summit on Democracy supported by 74 nations. I have received a U.S. State Department 2023 Meritorious Honor Award for innovation and advancing equity. Prior to this role, I served as an executive leading Minnesota’s Workforce Development System, Office of Economic Opportunity, Governor’s Workforce Development Board and the State’s fifty job centers (known as careerforce) locations. Additionally, I served as a trusted economic advisor to Governor Walz and Lieutenant-Governor Peggy Flanagan serving in numerous working groups focused on innovation economy and advancing equity in our education and workforce systems in Minnesota. When I started serving in this role, Governor Walz and Ltg Flanagan administration asked me and their administration leadership to bring a holistic systems perspective to the administration’s efforts focusing on three main goals:
• Advance equity through workforce, education and economic development approach using recognized matrix of evaluation to track progress
• Play a major role in state government-wide approach to improve internal culture to create greater sense of belonging for all while building a strong innovation economy for our state’s future,
• Modernizing government’s approach towards service delivery, bringing my philanthropic, community building and business experience to the role and concentrating on critically needed reform.
In September 2024, I published a narrative and values based leadership book that became amazon bestselling and #1 in three major categories. There will be leadership courses, retreats and partnerships connected to the book with the goal of guiding and supporting 1 million leaders within a decade. Additionally, I was selected as the CEO of World Savvy, a national effort to reimagine how we prepare young people for a more thriving and peaceful world.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Adaptation as a way of life
2. Self identity and authenticity
3. Owning my story and narrative

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Man’s Search for Meaning- this book has shaped me in so many ways and has inspired me to write about own book about leadership. The biggest lesson for me was about how to turn hardship into leadership.

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