Foundation of Ethos and Intuition in Business

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:10 Unknown You're listening to. From Illumination to Innovation, a revealing and provocative exploration of the rapidly shifting landscape of values purpose, leadership, and culture, both corporate and social. I'm your host, Stephanie Crain – and I'm your host, Shaniqua Brown. We're excited to have you join us as we shine a light on new perspectives, amplify voices of influence, and elevate bright ideas that will expand your idea of what’s possible in business and beyond. 00:00:28:10 - 00:01:02:14 Unknown Hi, everybody, and welcome to. From Illumination to Innovation, I am Stephanie Crain and I am a Corporate Mystic and the owner of Tapas Innovation, and this is a little bit of a relaunch. I started this podcast about a year ago, launched an episode, and then realized I wanted to do some things different. And one of the things I wanted was a partner in crime, and I found the perfect one. 00:01:02:14 - 00:01:36:19 Unknown in Shaniqua Brown. Shaniqua, I'm going to turn it over to you. Introduce yourself, please. Hi, everyone. I'm Shaniqua Brown. I'm the Elite TA Intuitioneer and founder of my company ElevatedTA and Stephanie I met at a Fiesta networking event... we did at Capital Factory... at Capital Factory and we really just aligned. It was very serendipitous for me when I met you and we aligned on values and business and here we are today. 00:01:36:21 - 00:02:30:22 Unknown Absolutely. And our first topic that we feel is foundational to both of our businesses is the foundation of ethos and intuition in business. And when I think about how important, you know, ethos and intuition are in business, I'm thinking about the decision making aspect. And I saw this article by Cornerstone Dynamics and they determined well, they stated that decision making with intuition in business, in the business world means trusting yourself and your initial assessment of a situation which will include a brief and often subconscious calculation of the physical and emotional environment. And think about how many and how quickly decisions can be made in an organization if we are aligned to our intuition. 00:02:30:29 - 00:03:07:16 Unknown Absolutely, and that's exactly the truth. And it's why ethos is so important and really, truly understanding your own value system, both as an individual and as an organization and how those values get activated. Because when you have clarity around your values and you understand how they integrate into your business, your ethos of the business ethos, which is really just functionally the character of your business, really just does it do what it says it does? Does it act the way it tells you it is, you know, as what it is, it projecting the truth? 00:03:07:18 - 00:03:36:17 Unknown And so if your ethos is authentic and true, well, then your intuition is going to be much more naturally able to read truth. It's going to be is going to you're going to know in your gut immediately what feels good and right. So you may be able to make quicker, more effective business decisions. Right. And this reminds me of a time when I use my intuition in the workplace to make a decision. 00:03:36:19 - 00:04:18:05 Unknown And it was in a talent acquisition team meeting where we were discussing how can we increase our diversity candidate pool. We were - our aspirational goal was to hire from more diverse communities to meet not only our needs internally, but to meet our customers needs. And what a noble way I am happy to do that. And there were a lot of traditional ideas being shopped around like, you know, perhaps we can have a diversity sourcing jam, maybe we can, you know, have a networking event where we're hosting from HBCU's or other minority groups. 00:04:18:07 - 00:04:43:20 Unknown And I raise my hand and just ask like, well, can we simply hire leaders with a diverse network, you know? And innately, I just knew that if we hired people who valued diversity at the top, then hiring like from at the bottom would be much easier. You know, I'm curious, what was how was the response to your suggestion? 00:04:43:23 - 00:05:08:16 Unknown my gosh, I was met with crickets. I was met with crickets because I guess it was kind of outside of the box. But to me, leadership is what drives a culture. Well, you know, the mission intuitively. Intuitively, It makes sense intuitively. It makes sense. And what's interesting about it is this organization that is they're trying to express an ethos, right? 00:05:08:16 - 00:05:36:25 Unknown They're trying to express this ethos that we care about the diversity, we care about inclusion. You know, we care about these ideals that that we are told. Right. Are important. Right. But if if that ethos or if that value is really, really a true core value, it shouldn't be that hard to express it. It shouldn't be something that you have to like have this big strategic, you know, like how do we how do we do it? 00:05:36:28 - 00:05:59:22 Unknown And that feels so contrived and manipulated. And the thing is, is employees of today see right through that? Oh, 100%. They know they can feel it. They can feel when the culture is authentic and they can also feel when they're being manipulated or when they're just you know, when things are just not as they're presented from the beginning. 00:05:59:24 - 00:06:24:20 Unknown You know, it's like you get recruited, end with one story, but then your experience when you come into the organization shifts. Oh, I remember as a kid when my mother would, you know, tell me that I should do whatever. And if my mother wasn't doing exactly what she told me to do, I felt like, why are you forcing me to do something that you cannot uphold? 00:06:24:23 - 00:07:00:22 Unknown And that's the same that rings true with business. Employees want you know, they want to align with an organization, the values, the mission, the objective, like employees want to be successful. But when your leadership doesn't reflect your organization's vision, the mission and its own objectives and what is the point, especially throw in the factor of pay, right? And if we look at data, I mean, the data says right now, like people are making value-based decisions about the companies they work for and they're willing to leave based on those values. 00:07:00:22 - 00:07:33:28 Unknown So it's, it's critical for businesses to truly have a value activation strategy, to have a foundation that allows them to build and develop those values so that they can be more intuitive about things like hiring their their talent, right? Things like bringing people on board not as a culture fit, but as a culture add – something that is expanding the culture of their organization and bringing more perspective and more influence and more insight, frankly, you know, 00:07:34:00 - 00:07:56:08 Unknown Stephanie, you have a wealth of experience, and that was one of the things that intrigued me about developing our partnership and our relationship. Tell me about like how you've experience, like, ethos and intuition in in your line of work. Thank you for asking. You know, it's interesting because I have a wealth of experience, but I don't have traditional education. 00:07:56:10 - 00:08:39:13 Unknown And for a long time that was a bug. And these days it feels like a feature. Yeah. And in and my experience working in very very – I've worked in a variety I have a very diverse background in the corporate world and B to B, B to C and then very diverse industries in the context of that. And what's been interesting for me is that I've seen similar challenges no matter what, regardless of the industry that I'm in, the challenge of really being able to activate value and ethos within your culture seems to exist pretty consistently across the board. 00:08:39:16 - 00:09:06:29 Unknown And, you know, over time I started recognizing some of the, the key things that would lead to that. And so working in like really highly competitive cultures, it really diminished the ethos of the company because you're diminished when you're in a highly competitive environment. There are some benefits and some value to competition without question. You know, it's it's motivating and it can move literally the ball forward. 00:09:07:01 - 00:09:41:19 Unknown Right? But when you're in a highly competitive environment that is supposed to have a shared vision, you end up pitting teams against each other that really should functionally be collaborating together. And so, you know, silos get developed, information gets hoarded, people stop sharing and they stop trusting. And over time, this starts bringing up all sorts of different types of what I call them, like hidden cost of toxic culture, because over time these things begin to have exponential impact. 00:09:41:21 - 00:10:05:10 Unknown And at some point, you know, it's I believe and this is just again, through my experience of observation, leadership drives culture and your culture drives your brand. And so if your culture is breaking down, it's because leadership is not upholding that value system. Leadership is not expressing those values through the culture and the culture – your employees are aware of that. Oh, they can feel that. 00:10:05:10 - 00:10:37:11 Unknown They feel it, they know it, they probably experience it. And in some cases they may be it may be affecting their health, it may be affecting their family life at home. It may be permeating beyond just their work experience and into other aspects of their life. And so this is something that, you know, in the you know, it affects our world and our society is not just about, you know, about business culture and the fact that, you know, I've been in so many different types of organizations and these these things are apparent. 00:10:37:14 - 00:11:08:16 Unknown It doesn't really it doesn't matter, you know, but this is more of a systemic issue of how businesses have been taught to be successful. Yes. And what we need to do right now sort of have an unlearning and then a resurgence of awareness that, you know, as as Mark Cuban was recently quoted as saying, I believe, you know, he was he was on a podcast and giving an interview and he said, I wish that if I had one wish, I wish that people had taught me to be nicer. 00:11:08:19 - 00:11:34:20 Unknown When I was younger, you know, just kindness pays and it pays beyond profit. I find that to be very interesting that, you know, he has that like reflection of what was once praised as being like a hard core leader that doesn't, you know, take any crap and you have to work long, hard hours to be successful. 00:11:34:20 - 00:11:56:20 Unknown And he's like, I could have been nicer. Yeah, that's what I think is takeaway. It is huge – you know, it's really interesting because I got to meet Mark Cuban about 15 years ago when he was a keynote speaker for the organization I was working with at the time. And I, you know, I was on the marketing team and we were responsible for just making sure that he got to where he was going. 00:11:56:20 - 00:12:22:11 Unknown He needed – we needed to make sure he got on stage right. So we were his greeters. And then and then I guess his handlers, so to speak. And we were all our team, you know, like we were excited and nervous. You know, I remember that because back then he did have a little bit of a reputation of, you know, maybe being a little fiery or, you know, we didn't know sort of what to expect from his personality and in the end, you know, we met him. 00:12:22:11 - 00:12:55:09 Unknown He was just unbelievably humble and gracious and kind. And he just treated everybody was so much respect. He came in. He did a great, fantastic job, is inspirational to me. I started following him from that day. Everything my whole perspective about him changed in a moment of just experiencing his energy directly. And I felt like that he was probably when I met him in that period of self-awareness and transition of growth and that period of literally becoming a better leader, figuring out what his values really were. 00:12:55:15 - 00:13:15:26 Unknown Because from that point on, he only continued to just kind of vibrate higher to just excel and elevate in the way that he presented himself and business. So yeah, it had an impact on me and I and when I saw that quote last week, it brought back all those memories and I was just like, wow. So, I love the full circle moment of that. 00:13:15:29 - 00:13:43:11 Unknown You know, for me, it felt that way. Just a full circle moment of awareness. It's really it's really beautiful to have that reflection. There is this Gartner article. I can't recall which one it is. Well, possibly linked it later. We'll do that. But the article is so timely because they're discussing, you know, the coined term, the Great Resignation. 00:13:43:14 - 00:14:07:22 Unknown Gartner said that this is actually a “Great Reflection.” And this goes back to why it's so important that we cultivate the ethos and intuition in our business, because employees, people are looking for, you know, like to have value-based decisions in like in their work, in their personal lives, in their, you know, social groups or other areas of their lives. 00:14:07:22 - 00:14:29:06 Unknown And it's it's really awesome to see leaders, business leaders like Mark Cuban, like ushering in the nice the niceties where you do have some leaders that are saying that you have to get back to work or we're going to use this recession against you, you know, like so it's really nice to see that you have two sides of a different coin, I would say. 00:14:29:08 - 00:14:55:19 Unknown Well, for me at least from my perspective, it's really the difference between approaching your business and your business mindset from a space of abundance or from a space of fear. And if you're approaching from a place of fear, then you're going to feel the need to control instead of lead. And those are two very, very different things. Those are two very different energies that are happening. 00:14:55:21 - 00:15:25:01 Unknown And leaders, you know, they – their opportunity is to inspire and to actually allow people to express more than they even thought was possible. Right. Right. Leaders like take you to your own next level of possibility. That's the truth. And we have we have we're coming out of an age where you you really can't manage people anymore. You know, you can manage your time. 00:15:25:04 - 00:15:48:00 Unknown You can manage a project, you can manage data. You need to lead people, you know, people. You need to inspire them. You know, they need to be led. And and that that leadership comes from understand being yourself, knowing what your values are, knowing, knowing even, you know, to the degree it's like, yeah, you need to know your flaws. 00:15:48:00 - 00:16:07:03 Unknown But more than anything, to me it's like you need to know the kind of energy you're bringing forward. And I don't like to judge things as sort of like flawed or negative. I like to look at things as, is this workable? Does this take us to the next point? Does this take us to the next level? Is this doing what it needs to do energetically? 00:16:07:06 - 00:16:31:27 Unknown You know, and if you're just screaming at your people and you're not taking into consideration what their needs are and the value that they're bringing you every single day, like the exponential value, then I feel like that is a it's it's the recipe for unsustainability in a business these days. 00:16:31:29 - 00:17:02:24 Unknown I think that’s such a good point. And like a segue way into like what? Like, how are we seeing ethos and intuition in business today? Like, how is that showing up? And there was an article that you, you shared with me before and before the Forbes Supercharge article. It says like there's 90% of US companies report using values to shape culture and guide decision making. And like they understand that that's something that needs to happen, but it's not resonating in their culture. 00:17:02:26 - 00:17:35:16 Unknown As the ethos, as the Corporate Mystic, like, what are your thoughts around that? You know, I found that article fascinating because it points out that statistic so that 90% of companies have values, but then it goes on to suggest that maybe they don't know how to apply them. You know, that that while they can write them down on paper and look good on paper, you know, like the the actual experience of those values are not resonating. 00:17:35:19 - 00:17:56:20 Unknown They're not coming through to the employee, they're not coming through to the customer. And so that, you know, I see that there's a real opportunity for businesses to really slow down. And I know, I know, I know. Businesses hate to hear that. I know. It's just, you know, we have to be like, go, go, go – forward, forward, forward. 00:17:56:20 - 00:18:37:26 Unknown COVID really, honestly, did give us that opportunity. And what happened was a lot of people, a lot of individuals did that. They slowed down and they reflected. The businesses, got scared. They didn't take the same opportunity to reflect. And so and there's a variety of reasons. You know, I, you know, I saw something not too long ago and it was talking about, you know, the only people that want to go back to work, it was it was somewhat disparaging, you know, so the only people that want to go back to work or, you know, mid-level managers who are afraid of losing their jobs and, you know, property, property management people who, you know, have you 00:18:37:26 - 00:19:00:02 Unknown know, businesses holding leases. But one it said it said something that resonated with me. You know, some people who are unhappy with their home life. Right. And I thought about that particular bullet point in a particular way and I thought, you know, there is a need and a balance there. It doesn't have to be this fear-based, 00:19:00:04 - 00:19:29:19 Unknown “You have to do this because we can't lose control of our employees.” You can recognize that your employees want to be connected to their business. Yes. They want to be connected to the purpose. Right. Right. They just don't want arbitrary rules that don't take their value in life into consideration. And it's just simply not workable anymore. It's not I mean, think about like the generations that are now in the workforce as Gen Z has entered the workforce. 00:19:29:19 - 00:19:51:29 Unknown You have millennials, Gen X, Boomers, right – Gen Z has entered the workforce?! Have you told anybody else? – They’re adults... Have you told anybody else that Gen-z is in the workforce? It's insane that people still confuse millennials with Gen Z. We're all – Because all Millenniala are 25 right? We are still 25. They're going to be forever 25. With participation trophies.. 00:19:51:29 - 00:20:17:29 Unknown Forever21 is literally going to just have a tagline that says the Millennial Store. Here we are. But like these generations have entered the workforce. And I think when you know, a few, maybe a decade and a half of back when millennials into the workforce, they got us with ping pong ball tables and beer and, you know, coffee and lunch, free lunch, you know. 00:20:17:29 - 00:20:42:21 Unknown Hey, free food in some places is a big deal. I. Love. Free food. That's one of my requirements. But, you know, so like, you saw the tide shift. I remember I was like telling one of my family members about it. I'm like, that's you're playing games at work? Yeah. It's like to help me, like, get more creative strategy. It was just like a different, like, idea ideology behind like what work was for about, like our generational gap. 00:20:42:27 - 00:21:04:27 Unknown And now Gen Z is here and I feel like this generation is just so value based that, you know, I'm like, wow, yes, I agree. Let's let's ensure that our values are in sync, are aligned because why would you spend your precious time of your life experience in a job with a company that does not value you where anyone could place you? 00:21:04:27 - 00:21:27:14 Unknown And and that's just like I think that's where you can see that it's not to be to have a successful company, successful business, successful leadership. It also starts at home in your personal life to like being able to connect with yourself. And that's why intuition is so important. And you speak about using both the left and the right brain. 00:21:27:21 - 00:21:51:26 Unknown Absolutely. Not just for work, but also in your personal life too. So that way you can actually bring your best self into the workplace. It's so critical and we have such an even, you know, this is like this is like an irk for me and it’s one of these things that annoys me, and we have so much of an emphasis on, on just logic. 00:21:51:26 - 00:22:29:15 Unknown Right. And even to the degree that we have STEM right, which is great science, technology, engineering, math, very important stuff, it is my belief that STEM is just a stick and STEAM – with art is power. And I don't understand why we don't recognize the value of innovation that comes through art and design and whether it's music or whether it's physical art or multimedia or graphic design or anything that you're looking at that's using and stimulating both sides of the brain. 00:22:29:17 - 00:22:49:25 Unknown And when I look at organizations, I sort of see them the same way, like when they just tend to be very logic-heavy, very process heavy, and they're using processes to solve emotional issues, which that used to be kind of a mantra that I was taught, you know, all processes solve emotions in business, right, there’s no crying in baseball. 00:22:49:25 - 00:23:16:18 Unknown Right. Like and and at the end of the day, though, there there is there are actual human beings who live actual lives, who have actual needs. And even if we're just looking at Maslow's hierarchy, you know, is our or is our business culture meeting our social human needs, you know, and I would question that it's really only at a bare minimum. 00:23:16:21 - 00:24:05:07 Unknown And we, you know, we see what's happening. You know, we talk about mental health, we talk about valuing people, we talk about these different things. But we see the struggle through our entire culture of how these things are affected. And a lot of this sounds, you know, like I read one – one study that was talking about managers impact the mental health of their employees more than any other person in their life, including their physicians, their spouses, like any other person, because the manager has so much externalized control over the stress that that employee is going to experience because they control their livelihood and a good manager is not going to make that the priority and focus. 00:24:05:09 - 00:24:31:20 Unknown But an unskilled manager and somebody who is not leading their employee but is really truly just micromanaging that, you know, they're going to use that almost as a weapon to try to motivate their employee to do more work. And that that stress translates into employee health and disease. It translates into breakdown in relationships and stress, and then it translates into a super high turnover in your environment. 00:24:31:23 - 00:25:03:08 Unknown You mentioned like the motivation of employees. Is that like what managers do and I can't recall the article, but they were stating like that, Like people want to understand the why. Like because I feel like they motivate you. They tell you the what, they tell you how, but when you're already doing two jobs. Because in my mind, every like corporation, like corporate job, you kind of have two jobs. 00:25:03:09 - 00:25:27:13 Unknown You're your own admin, and you actually have the job that you signed up for, you know, so, so, so since you're your own admin and you're here to perform the actual function at hand, and then your managers try to motivate you to do more. Right. But why? But why? But why? And I think that's like what we're missing here is the why and how this is like me doing this work impacts the business. 00:25:27:13 - 00:25:48:14 Unknown Are you coming? Why are you asking me to do this? Is it because I'm more skilled at X, Y, and Z that's required for this extra work? And I think without with the ethos, without the intuition the leaders are having, the managers are having a difficult time conveying the WHY and inspiring people to then do the work, you know. 00:25:48:16 - 00:26:43:14 Unknown So I think this point is critical and I think it's a great segue into our next discussion, which is shining some insight and giving some maybe some solutions to what that, how or that why looks like. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and we'll talk about that. So we're back. And Shaniqua was just discussing something that I think really brings us to the heart of what this topic is all about, and that is the the WHY and how to really convey that WHY – how to get employees to connect into the purpose of what they're doing and how to make leaders understand why that's so important, why that really, really matters. So what do you mean, do you want to take that a little further? 00:26:43:16 - 00:27:09:16 Unknown So I was reading the the INC magazine. There's Marissa Levin. She wrote the article, “The Nine Ways to Reinforce and Live Your Company's Core Values Every Day.” Yes. We got to load this up. It's so good. One key takeaway before I get into the nine ways to do this. 00:27:09:17 - 00:27:37:16 Unknown Yeah, one of the key takeaways that I enjoyed the she she stated that values lose their credibility when leadership talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. And when they lose sight of what the values mean to both employees and customer experience. Yes. So in my mind, no matter the level of leadership, it matters. And we know that the employee, their direct experience with leadership is their manager. 00:27:37:16 - 00:27:58:04 Unknown So when the manager doesn't talk the talk or walk the walk, you know, they're it's impossible to reinforce and live your company's values. So she lists that there's nine specific ways that CEOs in their leadership team could integrate core values in everyday fabric of business. So what are some that – Give me a couple of them. I'll give you a couple. 00:27:58:04 - 00:28:24:18 Unknown Yeah. So lead by example is the obvious one. The obvious one. Everybody should lead by example. Do as I say, not as I do. It's like ethics. And then you see a company and then it's like, integrity, ethics, as are core values. Like, I don't know, because you're not leading by example. And then another thing that I think is really helpful for the masses to see is recognize and reward values centric behavior. 00:28:24:20 - 00:28:49:19 Unknown Ooh, I love that. So you're not promoting that individual bashers, you know, brown nosing their way and never doing work. You know, maybe stirring the pot company drama you're promoting and you're recognizing those that are living and breathing the values of the company. Absolutely. And you're and when you do that, you're really, truly empowering people to express those values like you're showing the it it's okay because a lot of those employees don't know. 00:28:49:19 - 00:29:09:11 Unknown You know, not only do they not know even if they know what the value is, they really don't know how it affects them or how it relates to them in their job or how, you know, maybe it's super, super obvious in some particular way. But a lot of times I think company values feel kind of nebulous. You know, they told they feel sort of canned. 00:29:09:13 - 00:29:29:24 Unknown Yeah. You know, like somebody sat around and said, well, we've got to have integrity. Like, I don't have a company without integrity and you know, it. I don't know. I guess sometimes. QUESTION like, are those values that need to be stated or should they just really be assumed? I mean, I think they should be assumed, you know, like I think they should be assumed. 00:29:29:24 - 00:29:48:15 Unknown Look, you should not defraud the government. You should not, you know, drive slave labor here. But I mean, like, these are just things that you like. Integrity, like that should be a part. But it's it's what happens. And I think that this is I think that this happens quite frequently in organizations. I think that they run into a couple of different issues. 00:29:48:15 - 00:30:07:27 Unknown So I think companies that are starting up, especially when they're in the entrepreneur stage, they're just developing, they're not they're a company yet they're not really a company they haven't really had to hire yet. So they've had to work with each other and they've had to just, you know, usually they might be friends and they're connected in some way and they adapt to each other and that's great. 00:30:07:28 - 00:30:45:03 Unknown And then they get funded and now they're going to hire 20 people and they maybe take the time to scramble and put together some values and some organizational structure, or maybe they don't. My experience, both, you know, and in the case especially where they don't, if they do, it helps them a little bit more. But when they don't do that, it really the dynamic becomes toxic very quickly because while they are all adapted to each other, what happens is they tend to tolerate certain toxic behaviors of themselves, right? 00:30:45:03 - 00:31:05:21 Unknown Because they have a shared vision and a shared purpose and a shared mission. And it's it's more important than, say, calling out some toxic minor toxic behavior or that, you know, this person just, you know, intends to blow off, you know, blow off the handle. And, you know, every now and then they just stress out, scream, you know, or whatever, you know, call people names. 00:31:05:23 - 00:31:30:14 Unknown And it's like we just ignore that, you know, that's just what ‘Bob’ does, you know, whatever, you know, Sorry, Bob. Sorry. All the Bobs. I love Bob's. Okay. You know, So it's it's I think that that's one thing that happens is that they don't really know how to grow into that leadership space. They don't know themselves enough and they don't realize what they're going to project into their organization once it starts to expand. 00:31:30:21 - 00:31:51:26 Unknown You know, they don't understand how that energy is going to get received and how it's going to be returned back to them. Right. And I think the other challenges happen when people come into environments. And again, a lot of individuals aren't very in tune with their own values. So most people don't really realize what their values are until somebody offends them. 00:31:51:28 - 00:32:10:04 Unknown And then they're like, “Oh my God, that pisses me off. I value that,” you know, and it's like a thing. And so a lot of people sort of or really nebulous about their own values because they are assuming so many values from so many different systems in their lives, right? So it's like they have family values and church values and community values and school values. 00:32:10:04 - 00:32:51:09 Unknown And if they're a member of an organization or whatever, all of these values, they're taking them on and negotiating them. And when but when they're working with an organization, that relationship is so much more intimate. And so that value impact is stronger. It just has so much more influence on the employees life. And that's why we see today these younger generations who have watched their parents not align their values, who have seen them work really, really hard and maybe not reach that point of security or happiness that they're told they should reach. 00:32:51:11 - 00:33:29:14 Unknown And they're reevaluating. they're looking at that and they're going, well okay, those values didn't work right. What values are going to work? Great, and I, and I think it's important for us to like highlight that we're empathetic on both sides. Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, it's people that are clearly hurt, you know, and personally where they're unable to hold like really feel safe enough to tap into their intuition, you know, like and so I'm we're empathetic of the the from the C-suite down to, you know, the entry level worker. 00:33:29:14 - 00:33:52:02 Unknown And it's something that everyone is and is empowering for everyone to be intuitive. So it will actually take the company to the heights that they're seeking, the objectives that they claim that year. You know, Absolutely. You mentioned that work is like one of the most intimate like relationships. Why would you like what do you say that? Like what? 00:33:52:02 - 00:34:23:05 Unknown What leads you to that? I think the it doesn't necessarily have to be. I mean, there's plenty of people the can, you know, walk in and just kind of work for the paycheck and they have external lives. You know, again, this is about values, right? It's not what you value. But in our society, we're pretty conditioned to sort of dedicate our lives to career in a very particular way and usually in service of others. 00:34:23:08 - 00:35:11:22 Unknown Yeah, usually it's a sort of, you know, serve them higher profit, serve the boardroom, serve that shareholder, you know, whatever that looks like. But most of us attempt at least to try to do something that's going to fulfill us, right? Most of us like, have some baseline desire to be fulfilled. Yeah. And when you spend 40, 50, 60, 75 hours a week putting your energy and your spirit and your commitment, your dedication, your thoughts, your everything, you know, you're you're making choices about the amount of time you care for yourself. 00:35:11:22 - 00:35:33:12 Unknown You're making choices about the amount of time you spend with your family. You're making some really, and you may be making those choices based on values. You know, I care about my family. Therefore, I have to provide right there. I have to be here to do this. But but at the end of the day, there's a toll and a cost to all of that. 00:35:33:14 - 00:35:58:05 Unknown You know? So from that perspective, I feel like more and more we just see that businesses and everybody has to heal from this process. You know, you know, to your point, we are wholly empathetic. Leaders are struggling right now, to really sustain their businesses. I mean, literally just simply sustain. This is a hard market that we're in right now. 00:35:58:05 - 00:36:15:21 Unknown And there are a lot of challenges. And it doesn't help that everybody's taking a look at their personal values and deciding, like, hey, I don't want to work, you know, And it's I hear it all the time. You know, it's like I ask business leaders, you know, like what's what's your biggest challenge right now? They'll come right back and say, people just aren't loyal anymore. 00:36:15:24 - 00:36:35:22 Unknown People just don't want to work anymore and all. And I'll challenge them all day like it's not really true because that's not my experience. That's not what I witness. Especially in a capitalistic society. I think it's a cop out to see that people do not want to work. If that were the case and are unhoused, population would be through the roof. 00:36:35:22 - 00:37:02:26 Unknown I mean, it's bad now, but it would be through the roof. People would just So I'll foreclose on my mortgage and I shall sleep outside. I do not care to participate. And that's just simply not true. You know, And I think with the return to the office, going back to what I said earlier, providing why it would be nice for these organizations say, hey, we have these these leases, we don't we would love for you to come back into the office. 00:37:02:29 - 00:37:23:02 Unknown I think some of these organizations are clients. The people who don't want to work for them are actually starting their own businesses and developing their own WHYS and then that's the key to it, you know, And so these companies that they're viable and they're and they should be strong and they should be able to pivot and adapt. 00:37:23:04 - 00:37:50:08 Unknown Right. Leaders have not been given these skills, soft skills, I'm quoting somebody I believe is the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, I believe is quote is something along the lines of soft skills are actually harder than you think. yeah, right. They're pretty hard and have gotten away for a long time with being able to compartmentalize that skillset away. 00:37:50:10 - 00:38:28:26 Unknown But it can't be contained, you know, you cannot just contain one entire half of a human's existence. And so leaders are going to be really, really served by understanding the need to kind of expand and integrate at this point to really look at emotional intelligence. Right. To really look at value activation strategies. Like let's not just name the values, let's talk about how they get activated all the way through the ecosystem of the brand, all the way out to the customer and beyond. 00:38:28:28 - 00:38:53:26 Unknown Right? So that your values do have purpose, so that the why is super clear, right? Is this We're not sitting here trying to, like, scratch your face and wonder like, what? What are they trying to tell us? You know, it's like that We are we see organizations who express their values. Right. You know, I regardless of how you feel about any particular brand, you can look at them and you can observe that brand. 00:38:53:28 - 00:39:21:05 Unknown You may disagree with that brand's values, Right? That's perfectly fine. Right. But they're expressing their you know, I use Nike is an example. Nike's values, They're pretty clear and they're pretty defined and they've held true. They've they have refined their values over time and they have evolved them and advanced them. But ultimately, the core of what Nike wants you to do is just do it right. 00:39:21:05 - 00:39:50:07 Unknown Exactly. It's not a big I mean, there's a lot of mystery, right? Like we understand what is important to them. And so, you know, I look at that like every organization, obviously every organization is not Nike. And sometimes it's not that easy to express, but it's worth the time, it's worth the reflection, and it's worth really taking that step back so that you can truly leap forward like I think. 00:39:50:08 - 00:40:21:02 Unknown And I think companies that are functioning out of fear right now are really missing opportunities. This is such a great opportunity to change and expand and like really embrace possibilities that just simply have not been there before. Yeah, and they are there now, you know, and we should not fear that. it's such an exciting time now. And I, I think what we're experiencing is like when you're not well, you're not prepared, you fall back on your lowest or your highest level of proficiency. 00:40:21:09 - 00:40:46:13 Unknown And we haven't healed from, you know, our exploitative labor, at least in our country, right? So we're falling back on exploiting labor. However, there's such an exciting there's such an exciting time right now because the people, the labor market has evolved and we're saying this is that we want and I think when leaders listen, it would be a great opportunity for for innovation of how we work together. 00:40:46:19 - 00:41:10:12 Unknown What does this look like? So it's a fantastic time. I feel like that's a beautiful note to end on Shaniqua. I don't know what more to add on this conversation and this has been great, so I hope everybody takes some time to really take a look at their own values personally and professionally and find the alignment. Oh, alignment. 00:41:10:15 - 00:41:14:05 Unknown We'll see you soon by all. 00:41:14:05 - 00:41:42:09 Unknown Thanks for listening to our show. Show us your support by following us on your favorite podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. You can also find us on Castos at fromilluminationtoinnovation.castos.com. 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