WALKING THE WALK
Is this still a values-led consultancy practice?
How time flies! It’s been nearly six years since I set out to work on my own, away from the company and the structure within which I’d worked for seventeen years. It felt bold yet necessary to leave, and also scary because in front of me was the vast unknown. I had no idea who I’d be once I wasn’t ‘Anne from Louboutin’ anymore.
Thankfully, I followed my instinct, which guided me to trust that I had made enough of an impact over the years, that my working style, my spirit and my abilities, would be recognised out in the world, even once I had set up on my own.
Around the time I was struggling with making this move, I discovered what my personal guiding values were and with them, a new way of looking at how I make decisions.
They came in the form of an unexpected exercise while I was listening to one of Deepak Chopra’s audiobooks. I could have ignored the prompt and fast-forwarded to the next chapter. However, I felt a sense of urgency arise in me. ‘Hey, I need to do this,’ I heard myself think, or did I say it out loud? So I grabbed my notebook, and the first pen (red) that I could find and got to it.
The process was intuitive and simple, my notes, however, were very messy. Yet moments later, I stared at the no-longer blank page, having identified and marked my top three values within three big red circles.
Passion/enthusiasm
Generosity
Courage
They felt so ‘me’, as if someone had just narrowed down my strongest personality traits, traits I didn’t recognise in myself until that moment. These simple words staring back at me on the page explained so much about who I was and how I’d gone about my life since I was a teenager. At times it had felt like I was stumbling around because, well, my path was certainly not a smooth linear journey, and yet.
A few years later, I worked on these alongside my company values with another wonderful teacher, the transformational coach Rajesh Ramani, over the course of a weekend workshop. As I always direct my coaching and consulting clients, values are foundational for every company. But they are only effective if they are embraced and applied in the day-to-day, particularly when it comes to choice-making.
‘The way we think about our priorities makes a huge difference.
Leaders of every stripe make one thing more than any other: decisions.
In any environment with constraints (which is, actually, any environment), the decisions about time and resources–about what to do next–change everything.
How do we decide what’s next? Is it based on urgency, proximity or values? First in/first out is not a strategy, it’s an excuse. Even worse is the one about the squeaky wheels.’
- Seth Godin
So in 2021, certainly moved by the experience of the pandemic, I reconnected with my values and chose to have five guiding company values instead of three (which is the norm). Because I’d decided that the new additions needed to be a new baseline, the floor upon which I’d lay the foundations that are the other three. From this solid base, I imagined that my business could flourish. The two new concepts are simple, you’ll hear them everywhere, but here I’ll explore how they have inspired me to change how I work by keeping them front of mind:
Sustainability
Making a difference
EASY TO DO, NOT SO EASY TO KEEP UP
This being the beginning of the year (I started writing this late January), I thought I’d explore how this set of five values exists in my consulting practice, a good follow-up from my yearly review. Working solo, I don’t have anyone to evaluate me (although I invite my clients to give me feedback on a regular basis), so this is my way of keeping myself on my toes. Do I actually walk the walk, not just talk the talk?
After all, how can we do better if we’re not aware of where we stand? I’m aiming to make values the lens through which I evaluate my business, making this a yearly exercise, although it could come in a shorter version.
Starting from the bottom up:
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: THE SNOWBALL EFFECT
Writing: It may be obvious that I’m hoping to make a difference and challenge my own perceptions and others via my writing. The Mettā View is a vehicle for me to reflect upon ideas, concepts, and stories which I can learn from and help others learn.
I’ll quote Hannah Arendt again, who said that “even the smallest actions can be the seed of a boundless future.”
I believe the themes and topics that matter to me are important for everyone, even though they are meant for a niche audience.
These themes of compassionate leadership, the future of work, mindful communication, self-expression, values, boundaries, the mind-body connection (and how it matters even when we talk about business), sustainable living, and self-improvement define for the readers the kind of business I run and the kind of support I give to the people I work with. With this endeavour, I’m hoping to plant seeds.
Also, with The Weekly Digest, I shine a light on the brands and people who are themselves paving the way in their respective fields and making a difference - in doing so, I am hoping to pay it forward in a way.
Perhaps my example can also inspire others to make a difference in their own way, a snowball effect. If we can empower others, encouraging them to also plant the seeds of change, to support each other’s ideas and businesses, and hold each other through growth (because growth can be a painful process), that will certainly make a difference.
Aligning clients and values
After my last solo values exploration, I made the bold choice to restrict my corporate client base to those who would also be making a positive difference in the world. I’m honouring my value in putting my energy and know-how to the service of those who have that similar sense of mission. It’s radical in many ways and a departure, given my industry.
Coaching: the change accelerator
I’m hoping to make a difference in the lives of my coaching clients by helping them find their way through whatever issue they need help figuring their way around. Whatever the problem may be, coaching can create surprisingly fast internal shifts. It’s a very practical tool and a methodology which I’m learning to apply to a corporate business setting.
Because corporate advice only goes so far. To find the right solutions, we just need to answer the right questions, with someone to hold space while we do the work, who holds us accountable because, you know, fear and procrastination are universal problems. Yep, I believe in the coaching model.
Mindfulness
By including notions of mindfulness and self-care in the context of a business and communications consultancy, I aim to support the normalisation of using these techniques in a professional setting. I hope that it will generate an evolution towards greater care and wellbeing for those who trust me enough to explore the resources I share and give this a try. It takes time to blend this into communication and workshops, so it doesn’t feel like I’m superimposing this on top of my consulting work. It’s starting to shape up but WIP.
The link between business and mindfulness
With Out of the Clouds the podcast, I have created a platform at the crossroads between business and mindfulness. In editing and sharing the best of our long-form conversations, my mission is not just to make my guests shine but for my listeners (myself included) to find inspiration and learn from them.
DEI
I work with a talented network of freelancers, agencies and other service providers. But when I need to hire someone new, I am committed to supporting women and minorities by hiring them over cisgender white males as much as I can. However, I note that while the podcast OOTC is overall diverse, it’s not as diverse as I’d like it to be. I felt a bit irked by this when it came up in my journaling.
‘I’m doing great’, I thought, and while the excuses piled up, I realised I must make this a conscious priority. Because if someone was using the same excuses about something for women in government, like ‘we are doing as best we can’ instead of passing legislation aiming for parity, I’d think they weren’t doing enough. So there we are. Need to do better.
SUSTAINABILITY
The business has a minimal footprint, but I could do with reducing it even more. Like trying:
A low carbon website
First up: consider this in the redesign of my website so that it uses less energy. Apparently, my homepage is very ‘dirty’ (as in, it consumes lots of energy). Until I get started on this, I’ve learned that the host Cloudflare runs on 100% renewable energy. Phew, not all bad, then.
Small choices that go a long way
Buy less, especially on Amazon. I only do it a handful of times per year, grouping the deliveries because it’s not easy to find the English books I want in Switzerland. I choose it for convenience, prioritising time management over sustainability, but there is also a cost factor I can’t ignore. I regularly purchased books on Apple Books, Audible and Kindle to reduce print purchases. Do better here.
Beyond the books I buy and gift, the rest of my operation is very lean, so I feel like I’m doing my bit. All the products I use to clean my home office are biodegradable. I recycle ♻️ conscientiously. The food I eat is as local and as organic as possible. My work lunches are mostly home-cooked and vegetarian.
Mindful travel
Working from home means I have no costs when it comes to transport. However, I am going back to regular business travel and need to consider how to make it the greenest possible. I was a frequent traveller before the pandemic (I was in an airport weekly). Obviously, it wasn’t sustainable, neither environmentally nor personally, and I’d planned for change before we all got grounded in 2020. Air travel is the problem; I’ll only fly when it’s the absolute best solution. Thankfully the train is easy for European journeys. I’m definitely not perfect; I’m not Greta Thunberg, but I am committed to doing better.
Work/life balance, the other ‘sustainability’ priority
Through my work, I support my clients in finding their own work-life balance, a sustainable pace and a sense of fulfillment in their life.
Although it’s challenging at times, I also continue to work on achieving balance in my life, something you’ll read about regularly in the Mettā View.
The pledge
As a business, like the above, with my “making a difference” pledge, I support and work with companies that embrace sustainability at the heart of their mission. Away from greenwashing, it’s essential so my work doesn’t clash with my personal values. A challenge nonetheless.
COURAGE
From the word ‘coeur’ or heart, courage is an attribute, not just a value. And it’s one that we can all choose to cultivate.
Writing the Mettā View
You may not know this, but I’m pretty shy. Opinionated, certainly, passionate, yes, but shy as well. However much I care about building my business, writing and expressing my thoughts online through this medium is a huge challenge, which I have to overcome weekly in order to press that publish button. Because I find it such a Herculean task, I came to recognise that it is courage that powers me through it every week. My writing really does come from the heart; it’s love, not just instinct, that helps me through my creative procrastination habits.
From this action of overcoming the fear (of being disliked, ridiculed, ignored, etc), I get great joy first because I love writing (surprise!) and also because often the more personal I am in a piece, the more uncertain I am about how it will be received, the more it seems to resonate with my readers.
It’s also via the pages of this newsletter that I get to regularly re-evaluate, explore and, like today, reaffirm my values, as I am doing today.
Sticking with values
Since not all businesses embrace the non-negotiable values of ‘making a difference’ and sustainability that I superimposed on my own model, I am now challenged to turn down work (even when I am enticed by the copious amounts of money offered).
It denotes a certain courage because it means sticking with a different success metric than the one I grew up with, breaking with the mould.
Yoga, mettā & mindfulness
Blending influences from mindfulness and yoga philosophy into my business was something that crept up on me. The effect of my studies on my professional conduct and beliefs were not planned, but instead of covering them up, last year, I chose to let them exist more fully, meaning I talk about them more openly and include them in my writing and coaching. As for the consulting piece, I can’t tell you that I’ve used yoga modalities in that area of my work, but watch this space.
Sure, it’s not going to appeal to everyone, but as I’ve established before, I’m not trying to do this work with just anybody, this is meant for a specific crowd.
Talking about how this has been received, so far, the results are good. I am still evolving the concepts, but it’s wonderful when I am able to successfully blend communication, coaching, and consulting with that mindfulness lens. More to do here but feel free to check the website for testimonials to see how this has been received.
WIP
I have more work ahead! I’m not done with the studying department, particularly on mindful communication, DEI and non-violent communication training, the blend of which I have big hopes for within my methodology.
Speaking up
One can communicate mindfully and talk about the elephant in the room, whatever kind of elephant is taking up metaphorical space that day. Mindful communication means cultivating presence and awareness, observing not just what happens outside but inside of me, and that also means speaking up about the mistakes I’ve made.
GENEROSITY
This is a tricky value for a consultant because, in the six years since I established myself as a consultant and now coach, I have done quite a lot of free consulting out of, you guessed it, generosity. And not always feeling so good about it. When it’s a choice, it’s great. But the alternative is less so. And there were instances (even recently) when I went too far.
Generosity is an attitude; it forms a mindset. It’s a felt belief that there is plenty to go around, it feeds positivity and a sense of abundance. That’s why I love to share contacts, recommendations, resources, introductions etc.
I’m more self-aware now: we can be too generous and make it unsustainable for ourselves (financially and energetically), or we can be generous and have integrity, setting boundaries to make sure people don’t take advantage. I’m angling for that second style.
Giving ideas a chance
My generosity has, in the past, taken very interesting turns. For example, it’s letting a business partner present an idea I wasn’t interested in but giving them the time and the opportunity to be heard. Generosity was also allowing myself to be changed by their ideas and proposals, learning something in the process. Giving people a chance has proven a wonderful learning experience.
Being there for others
Generosity has appeared in the form of mentorship of other consultants or business owners, though I wouldn’t have called it that (they did later on). This manifests quite naturally. I found it comes from the heart, as the French say: un élan du coeur, a tug of the heart in English, perhaps? While this doesn’t create revenue for the business, it brings me a lot of joy.
Resource-full
Finally, generosity is also offering resources and recommendations for free and writing in the most concise form I can make them (in the time I have) or the most digestible in The Weekly Digest.
PASSION/ENTHUSIASM
I’ve bundled the two together because, in my life and my work, they feel like two sides of the same coin.
For a long time, I thought enthusiasm could be seen as a flaw rather than a quality, as in, ‘Oh she’s so ‘enthusiastic.’ (annoying!)
Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string. - Pele
This quote calls to my word of the year, ‘Vibrancy’. Enthusiasm is a vibration, and I’d wager that for me, it emanates from my passion, my inner fire. So I am naturally enthusiastic, but in my business, this quality is expressed as passion.
When yielded adequately, it can light up and ignite others, and inspire them, something I have found a useful tool when one leads teams and invaluable when guiding others through change.
The passion-connector
Despite a natural slight introversion, my passion style can express itself when I have the chance to lead a brainstorming session or workshop. There’s something about seeing collective wisdom emerge that feeds my fire. From naming a new brand to creating strategic communications plans, working on values or redefining business objectives, this kind of work can easily feel like a chore to teams that receive that calendar invite. What, another meeting?
But passion pulls at our hearts and can feed our inner motivation. I love seeing clients jump into a new project with both feet, so I make sure to create an experience (yes, it’s true!) over the course of a workshop. My goal is for everyone to find their own connection to the project and fully integrate with the most valuable elements so that the learning leaves a mark.
When passion meets vision
In exploring the meaning of passion in this context, I realised that in the realm of my consultancy, this value is intimately connected to vision.
Here’s how: in order to create holistic strategies, I ask a lot of questions to start. Like a lot.
In order to look deeply into the heart of a business, I conduct my own business archaeological dig. However young or old a company is, there’s always something forgotten that I can unearth to help serve the mission or the objectives set out in my assignment. Even in one initial meeting, I always find glorious gold nuggets.
Because I thrive in linking values, mission, product, and communication, my inner fire drives me to go look where others don’t. As a result, I see possibilities and connections, and that’s how I make magic happen. You think I’m exaggerating? Try me, and I’ll prove it to you.
CONCLUSION
It certainly feels like I’m connected to the values I have chosen for the business. I’m sure I could do better, and this write-up is bound to keep me thinking about how I can raise the bar for myself and those I work with.
I hope you have found this public exercise useful. If you’d like to give this a try yourself, publicly or privately, remember that in doing this, the goal is not to boast (I certainly hope that’s not how I came across) but to find proof points for your values and areas for improvement that you can concentrate on, so that your values can continue to take a meaningful place in your personal or your company strategy.
Thanks as always for reading me. Until next week.
