I’m a strong believer in healthy work cultures where people are encouraged to bring their whole selves and truly be who they are. I often find that the North American business environment is too focused on profit at the expense of people—and I find that deeply harmful. I started writing about leadership during COVID, when I realized that as a society, we need to be more open about the challenges people face. We need to create work environments where we see people through a holistic lens—with understanding, rather than judgment or punishment. The North American society tends to use fear at every level as a motivator. But I don’t believe in using fear as a tool for success. Unfortunately, fear is everywhere—it’s even used to sell us things. In leadership, fear pulls out the worst in people. It raises stress levels, and it makes people work harder. And let’s be honest—we already have enough stress in our lives. What we really need are psychologically safe environments—spaces that allow us to try, fail, learn, and innovate. Spaces where we can bring our full, creative selves and co-create without fear or pressure to be someone we’re not. In my opinion, these are some of the key things that make a work environment great:
- Hire people with different personalities and backgrounds. The more diverse your team is, the more perspective you get in your business.
- Support their growth by allowing them to explore different roles within various departments in the business based on their interests.
- Empower people to make decisions at all levels and try new things.
- Consider every idea. Every idea is a good idea—it doesn’t mean you implement them all, but you explore them with curiosity.
- Focus on strengths and let people operate in their zone of genius.
- Offer flexibility in how people learn, work, and connect. Everyone has their own style. A good work culture provides options and allows creativity in all areas.
- Allow people to work from anywhere, as long as they deliver results, and the role can be done remotely. Forcing people to come into the office when they can do their role remotely is no longer an option for those who want to maximize their time outside the working hours or have other responsibilities at home.
- Create fairness across departments in terms of flexibility and pay. Find ways to motivate those in admin roles differently than sales, so they don’t feel less than those who bring revenue since all departments contribute to overall customer satisfaction and work hard to support those who are selling.
- Encourage direct, meaningful conversations with real examples—rather than politics, gossip, or closed-door whispers.
- Don’t hold back high performers. If someone can and wants to do more, help them grow. Keeping everyone at the same level limits growth and can hurt your business. Top performers want to reinvent themselves, earn more, and thrive—support that.
- Create a culture where people talk about failures and what they’ve learned—from entry-level to leadership.
- Drop perfection; embrace authenticity. No one is perfect and this is the beauty about humans. Work with their strengths while supporting them in areas of improvements.
- Let people move within the organization. Many people are in the wrong roles or departments, but would thrive in another role or under another leader. It costs you less as an organization to move them than to bring someone new.
What else would you add?
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