Nurture Your Team Culture

If you’ve grown your team, a new element has emerged in your business – culture. As the founder, you’re modeling + shaping the work culture through your leadership.

Most of us have grown in discipline, hierarchy & competitiveness. We’re often told that empathy, receiving advice or even trusting are weaknesses, they make us soft (as if this was an insult!). As women, we are soft – our bodies, our emotional intelligence, our intuition (thanks estrogen cycle!) differentiate us from our male counterparts & can be our unique strength.

When done authentically, designing your business around these humane values won’t sacrifice your team’s creativity or productivity, it’ll enhance it.

Team culture & leadership is intimately connected to the concept of moksha (the spiritual liberation that comes from self-knowledge + consciousness of oneness). The more you embrace the other in all their complexity + nuance, the more universal love you’ll feel. As codependency falls away, boundaries are embraced & your team’s happiness at work will go through the roof. This is the most sustainable + honest way to run an innovative + responsive business (vs through fear, pressure & control).

Several proven best practices support this conscious model of leadership:

Decentralizing power

As the founder, you don’t need to make all the decisions for your business. Just as you trust your team in their expertise, they also have the capacity to make better decisions than you because of it.

Let them make decisions on your refunds policy, your launch calendar, or your ads budget. For this to work, you’ll need to be completely transparent about your finances & your vision. And your team will be required to seek your advice – but not your authorization.

It shifts the power dynamic from a parent-child relationship to one of trust + accountability between equals.

A life-affirming workplace

There are 2 gold standards for great environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices.

The Just label is a self-reporting tool for social justice & equity transparency. It ensures that your workplace is diverse, inclusive, equitable, healthy, generous in its benefits & responsible in its stewardship.

For example, is your recruitment process clear + fair? Are you paying everyone a living wage? Do you offer flexible working hours &/or a 4-day work week (with full pay)? How do you support their mental health? Do you offer a stipend for financial literacy? Are you making an effort to source your talent locally?

B Corps is a legal framework & a certification program for organizations that focuses on governance, community, the environment & having an ethical, mission-driven organization.

For example, do you track your social or environmental objectives? Are you committed to making donations to charitable causes? Are you aiming to be at least 95% zero waste? Do you offer guarantees on your online programs? Do you screen your service providers for ethical + environmental practices?

Both standards are worth exploring, even if you don’t officially adopt them – they’ll give you plenty to aspire to. This is what compassion & generosity looks like in practice.

Spirituality

As you invite more team members into your business, their own purpose is shaping your business. You’re now functioning inside an ecosystem of dreams, passions, skill sets & destinies. Just like a kid entering kindergarten, you (as the founder-parent) are now at the stage of inviting team members (teachers) to shape your business, its operations + evolution.

Your business’ mission will shift & is separate from your own (though intertwined). As you make a practice of listening in to your business entity & welcoming your team’s input, you’ll create a nimble + sustainable business.

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Now I want to know:

Are you making the most of the power of self-management? Where might you be holding back?
Let me know in the comments below!

Marie xo