Here’s how to take back control of your life in 2024.
By Tony Robbins
As we look ahead for 2024, one thing is clear: We are living in uncharted territory — a time when the economic, political, and social landscapes are changing at a record pace. We are all being touched by the events happening around the globe. No matter where you live or what you do for a living, what is happening is unlike anything we have ever experienced.
While this is a time of massive uncertainty and endless complexity — if you’re prepared — it’s also a time of exponential opportunity. The winter season offers us the unique opportunity to grow, become more, give more, and share more. It can be the greatest season for any leader if you can develop an unwavering confidence amidst the storm.
What Will Hold You Back
What will hold you back is only one thing: fear. Fear that you’re not enough or don’t know enough. Fear of failure, fear of rejection. Fear can hold you back in subtle and insidious ways. Fear can also outright paralyze you from taking action.
The truth is, there is a part of you that will always be fearful — but you can’t let it be in charge because it will rob you of the life you deserve. It will cause you to miss the call — the call to become more, to experience that incredible nectar of growth, expansion, and contribution, meaning, impact, and achievement. The call to rise up and feel fully alive.
As we move forward in 2024, to have the life you desire, you must feed the best part of yourself every single day, demand the best part of you, and not settle for less than you can be, do, share, create, or give.
Here are five keys to help you to rise and make 2024 the best year yet.
Feed your mind.
You need to feed your mind daily with substance — not social media or news. My original mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me that you must stand guard to the door of your mind. Bring something new to it; otherwise, you will keep operating off the same old beliefs, the same old thoughts, and the same old emotions that will not get you to the level you want.
Growing up as a kid, I didn’t have any role models, so I found them in books. I read history, biographies of great leaders, businesspeople, philanthropists. I learned what made them successful and extracted the principles and applied them to my own life.
Strengthen your body.
Strengthening your mind is crucial, but equally important is strengthening your body. The mind and body feed each other. Go on a sprint, lift some really heavy weights, go on a really long walk. The key is to push yourself.
Every single day, I begin my morning by plunging into a pool of 56-degree water. And if I’m not home, I’ll jump into a nearby river. I don’t do that because it’s fun; I don’t do that because I want to do it. I do it because I’m training my body so that when I say go, we go. I don’t negotiate with my mind.
Priming your physical body can set the stage for the change you want to drive in yourself mentally and emotionally.
Find a great role model.
If you want the best year of your life, you need to decide to find a great role model, someone who is already getting the results you want.
Why? Because success leaves clues.
One person that I identified in my own journey was Sir John Templeton, once called arguably one of the greatest investors of the 20th century by Money magazine. He started out with nothing, just like me, and became the first billionaire investor.
Whom can you model?
Surround yourself with high-level people.
Think about whom you spend time with. If you want to raise your game this year, you must get in proximity to someone who is playing the game at a higher level than you are. Proximity is power.
Say you’re playing a sport like tennis. If you’re always playing against someone worse than you, you’re never going to get better. Always surround yourself with people playing at a higher level.
Pay it forward by giving more than you expect to receive.
In 2024, you must also find a way to add value to others. I truly believe that the secret to living is giving, and it’s what truly makes us alive and live not just a successful life, but a fulfilled one.
For me, feeding people and making sure families are nourished has been my passion for nearly five decades. I was fed by a stranger on Thanksgiving when I was just 11 years old. As a result, I started to feed others. Even when I did not have a dime to spare in my younger years, I managed to find a way to provide a meal or two for struggling families.
You can find a way to give back too, no matter what your current situation is.
As we all look to rise out of fear in 2024, one gift I would like to give you is an opportunity to join me for my Time to Rise Summit. This is a completely free virtual event that I do every January as a way to give back. The goal is to help you create momentum in your life by arming you with the psychology, tools, and strategies to make 2024 the best year yet. Find details at https://timetorisesummit.com/join-now.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Tony Robbins is one of the world’s leading life and business strategists and ranked No. 1 on the 2023 Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers list.
North America’s first zero-carbon commercial tower, The Stack, opened in September 2023 at 1133 Melville St. in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Co-owned by Oxford Properties and CPP Investments, The Stack is 37 stories tall, totaling 550,000 square feet of prime real estate. James K.M. Cheng Architects designed the unique, twisting stacked box aesthetic. The building was awarded the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard certification and is pursuing LEED v4 Core and Shell Platinum.
“The Stack is leading the real estate industry to new levels of sustainability,” says Andrew O’Neil, vice president of development for Oxford Properties.
Employee Haven
Employee experience and wellness were other priorities in The Stackʼs design, with architectural elements such as operable windows for natural ventilation, several outdoor terraces, and a landscaped pocket park that features a public art installation by Canadian contemporary artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. To foster active transportation and promote wellness, The Stack features a 5,000-square-foot fitness center, 250 bike parking stalls, and health-club quality end-of-trip facilities for those who want to bike, jog, or walk to work.
Tackling Decarbonization
Innovative features minimize carbon emissions and energy intensity, including low-carbon building systems, high-performance, triple-pane glazing, and solar panels. The Stack also deploys smart technology to provide insights on energy management, optimize building performance, and enable preventative maintenance.
“We can use the insights and learnings from this project across our portfolio and share best practices with the wider industry as we collectively tackle decarbonization as one of the most pressing issues of our times,” says Andrew O’Neil, vice president of development for Oxford Properties.
Taking Things Up a Notch
At 530 feet high, a 6,000-square-foot rooftop terrace offers unobstructed panoramic views of English Bay, Stanley Park, Burrard Inlet, and the North Shore Mountains with regular access as well as corporate events.
“We’re seeing in cities across the globe that providing employees with a high-quality workplace experience has been an integral part in successful return-to-office programs for firms looking to unlock the benefits of in-person collaboration,” says Ted Mildon, vice president of office leasing and operations at Oxford Properties.
North America’s first zero-carbon commercial tower, The Stack, opened in September 2023 at 1133 Melville St. in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. Co-owned by Oxford Properties and CPP Investments, The Stack is 37 stories tall, totaling 550,000 square feet of prime real estate. James K.M. Cheng Architects designed the unique, twisting stacked box aesthetic. The building was awarded the Canada Green Building Council’s Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard certification and is pursuing LEED v4 Core and Shell Platinum.
“The Stack is leading the real estate industry to new levels of sustainability,” says Andrew O’Neil, vice president of development for Oxford Properties.
Employee Haven
Employee experience and wellness were other priorities in The Stackʼs design, with architectural elements such as operable windows for natural ventilation, several outdoor terraces, and a landscaped pocket park that features a public art installation by Canadian contemporary artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. To foster active transportation and promote wellness, The Stack features a 5,000-square-foot fitness center, 250 bike parking stalls, and health-club quality end-of-trip facilities for those who want to bike, jog, or walk to work.
Tackling Decarbonization
Innovative features minimize carbon emissions and energy intensity, including low-carbon building systems, high-performance, triple-pane glazing, and solar panels. The Stack also deploys smart technology to provide insights on energy management, optimize building performance, and enable preventative maintenance.
“We can use the insights and learnings from this project across our portfolio and share best practices with the wider industry as we collectively tackle decarbonization as one of the most pressing issues of our times,” says Andrew O’Neil, vice president of development for Oxford Properties.
Taking Things Up a Notch
At 530 feet high, a 6,000-square-foot rooftop terrace offers unobstructed panoramic views of English Bay, Stanley Park, Burrard Inlet, and the North Shore Mountains with regular access as well as corporate events.
“We’re seeing in cities across the globe that providing employees with a high-quality workplace experience has been an integral part in successful return-to-office programs for firms looking to unlock the benefits of in-person collaboration,” says Ted Mildon, vice president of office leasing and operations at Oxford Properties.
Here’s how to take back control of your life in 2024.
By Tony Robbins
As we look ahead for 2024, one thing is clear: We are living in uncharted territory — a time when the economic, political, and social landscapes are changing at a record pace. We are all being touched by the events happening around the globe. No matter where you live or what you do for a living, what is happening is unlike anything we have ever experienced.
While this is a time of massive uncertainty and endless complexity — if you’re prepared — it’s also a time of exponential opportunity. The winter season offers us the unique opportunity to grow, become more, give more, and share more. It can be the greatest season for any leader if you can develop an unwavering confidence amidst the storm.
What Will Hold You Back
What will hold you back is only one thing: fear. Fear that you’re not enough or don’t know enough. Fear of failure, fear of rejection. Fear can hold you back in subtle and insidious ways. Fear can also outright paralyze you from taking action.
The truth is, there is a part of you that will always be fearful — but you can’t let it be in charge because it will rob you of the life you deserve. It will cause you to miss the call — the call to become more, to experience that incredible nectar of growth, expansion, and contribution, meaning, impact, and achievement. The call to rise up and feel fully alive.
As we move forward in 2024, to have the life you desire, you must feed the best part of yourself every single day, demand the best part of you, and not settle for less than you can be, do, share, create, or give.
Here are five keys to help you to rise and make 2024 the best year yet.
Feed your mind.
You need to feed your mind daily with substance — not social media or news. My original mentor, Jim Rohn, taught me that you must stand guard to the door of your mind. Bring something new to it; otherwise, you will keep operating off the same old beliefs, the same old thoughts, and the same old emotions that will not get you to the level you want.
Growing up as a kid, I didn’t have any role models, so I found them in books. I read history, biographies of great leaders, businesspeople, philanthropists. I learned what made them successful and extracted the principles and applied them to my own life.
Strengthen your body.
Strengthening your mind is crucial, but equally important is strengthening your body. The mind and body feed each other. Go on a sprint, lift some really heavy weights, go on a really long walk. The key is to push yourself.
Every single day, I begin my morning by plunging into a pool of 56-degree water. And if I’m not home, I’ll jump into a nearby river. I don’t do that because it’s fun; I don’t do that because I want to do it. I do it because I’m training my body so that when I say go, we go. I don’t negotiate with my mind.
Priming your physical body can set the stage for the change you want to drive in yourself mentally and emotionally.
Find a great role model.
If you want the best year of your life, you need to decide to find a great role model, someone who is already getting the results you want.
Why? Because success leaves clues.
One person that I identified in my own journey was Sir John Templeton, once called arguably one of the greatest investors of the 20th century by Money magazine. He started out with nothing, just like me, and became the first billionaire investor.
Whom can you model?
Surround yourself with high-level people.
Think about whom you spend time with. If you want to raise your game this year, you must get in proximity to someone who is playing the game at a higher level than you are. Proximity is power.
Say you’re playing a sport like tennis. If you’re always playing against someone worse than you, you’re never going to get better. Always surround yourself with people playing at a higher level.
Pay it forward by giving more than you expect to receive.
In 2024, you must also find a way to add value to others. I truly believe that the secret to living is giving, and it’s what truly makes us alive and live not just a successful life, but a fulfilled one.
For me, feeding people and making sure families are nourished has been my passion for nearly five decades. I was fed by a stranger on Thanksgiving when I was just 11 years old. As a result, I started to feed others. Even when I did not have a dime to spare in my younger years, I managed to find a way to provide a meal or two for struggling families.
You can find a way to give back too, no matter what your current situation is.
As we all look to rise out of fear in 2024, one gift I would like to give you is an opportunity to join me for my Time to Rise Summit. This is a completely free virtual event that I do every January as a way to give back. The goal is to help you create momentum in your life by arming you with the psychology, tools, and strategies to make 2024 the best year yet. Find details at https://timetorisesummit.com/join-now.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Tony Robbins is one of the world’s leading life and business strategists and ranked No. 1 on the 2023 Real Leaders Top 50 Keynote Speakers list.
Retiring Soccer Megastar Megan Rapinoe kicks up her fight for equality in the world arena — and shares why businesses have no excuse but to close the gender pay gap now.
She has been cheered from the stands by pro soccer fans for 15-plus years. She has been called upon by Congress to testify in a historic fight for gender pay equality. And she has become synonymous with being a disruptor on both world stages. Megan Rapinoe may be hanging up her cleats this year, but her advocacy work is far from finished. In fact, she tells Real Leaders that she is just getting started.
Hanging Up Her Cleats: Rapinoe’s Transition to Full-Time Advocacy
Rapinoe will retire as one of the most influential athletes on the planet with two World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and one of the first soccer players to publicly come out as gay. Now, Rapinoe is taking the field for gender equality in full force and is kicking up her activism efforts for LGBTQIA+ rights and racial justice.
Known to passionately speak her mind, Rapinoe reflects with Real Leaders on her leadership lessons from the game, why businesses have no excuse but to close the gender pay gap now, the impact company she recently launched with her fiancée, WNBA legend Sue Bird, her desire to make politics “cool,” and a whole lot more. Rapinoe’s new chapter is shaping up to be her most impactful one yet, and in true Rapinoe fashion, she is embracing it with arms wide open.
Real Leaders: Congratulations on your upcoming retirement from pro soccer. How did preparing for and competing in four World Cups, including as co-captain in 2019, transfer into your leadership strategy in business?
Rapinoe: When you’re playing on a team that has been as successful as the U.S. Women’s National Team where you’re literally playing with and against the best players in the world all the time, you need to have a level of even aspirational confidence in yourself and your teammates. If you’ve made it to the World Cup on the Women’s National Team, you’ve run the gauntlet. You’ve been in a pressure cooker. You’re resilient.
I apply these same qualities — confidence, teamwork, performance under pressure — to leadership in business. For me, I was born with this amazing talent to be an athlete. Just as I grew into a leadership role on the team and tried to be the best player I could be, I’m trying to leverage these skills off the field as well.
Being a leader on a team or in a business means you have to be accountable to yourself and to your teammates. I’ve always been a team-first player, and that definitely carries over to my businesses outside of soccer. I want to be successful, of course, and I want everyone to be successful with me, and I want to be successful with them. I don’t think individual success actually exists, and the foundation of that belief came from playing on the biggest stage with my teammates. You need everyone to really win at anything.
RL: You helped lead the charge in the U.S. Women’s National Team’s class action gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, settled in 2022 with a promise for equal future pay with the men’s team. How is this affecting employee equity in business today? How would you characterize the progress that has been made, and what will it take to reach equal gender pay everywhere?
Rapinoe: We’re definitely experiencing a paradigm shift in how we understand the value and potential of women, which has been undervalued for so long. The Equal Pay Act became law six decades ago, and yet we still hear the statistics: Women make 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. For Black women and women of color, the gap is even greater. The wage gap has hardly moved in 15 years. It’s absurd. It’s not acceptable or sustainable, and finally it seems like enough people are starting to say “enough” — whether that’s U.S. women’s soccer, protesters, investors, or employees.
Our victory as a team was really momentous for women’s soccer and for all of women’s sports and the equal pay movement, but the average person doesn’t have the platform — much less the bandwidth or the ability or the freedom — to engage in a fight like we did. We need to ensure all working women and all marginalized groups are being paid equitably. As chief equality officer for Trusaic, my goal is to use my platform to bring awareness not only to the problem-because we all know by now that there’s a problem- but also to talk about the solutions.
And it’s not just about compensation, although obviously being paid fairly is important. For the team, it was also about equal investment and equal caring — that’s equal access to resources, investment in coaching, marketing, ticket sales, sponsorship, all of it. In a corporate setting, that looks like equal access to opportunity — who gets the new assignments, the great projects, who gets additional training and development, and who gets promoted.One thing I believe is that you have to create a space that signals to people that it’s safe before they even enter that environment. Maybe that’s diversity training, but it’s also: What are your hiring practices? How diverse is your workforce? Who do you do business with? What does your executive suite look like? Does everyone look exactly the same? Because that’s not going to signal to other people that there’s space for them there.
The pressure’s been turned up. We know investors are looking more closely at companies and their workplace practices, employees want to work for companies that pay fairly, and customers want to do business with companies that do the right thing. So the pressure is coming from a lot of places, and industries and companies should also put pressure on one another. There should be an element of holding their feet to the fire in this. Legislation and legal action are obviously part of that pressure too.
Companies hold the key to closing the wage gap. There are no longer any excuses. At this point, we have enough information and the tools, like Trusaic’s PayParity technology, for companies to get on the other side of this in a real, meaningful way.
Megan Rapinoe and her fiancée, WNBA legend Sue Bird, recently announced their retirements from sports and co-founded A Touch More production company to give a voice to underrepresented groups.
RL: As a mission-oriented leader, what are your personal and professional missions right now? Rapinoe: My professional mission while I am still playing is to be the best teammate and the best player I can be and to leave the game in a better place for the next generation of players.
My personal mission is to use my platform to fight for gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, racial justice, and equal pay. I hope to inspire others through my advocacy and actions to join the fight for equality and justice and help create a more fair and inclusive world.
I am very selective about who I work with, and value alignment is something I take seriously in business. I became chief equality officer last year for Trusaic, which I know your publication recognized earlier this year. (Trusaic was a 2023 Real Leaders Top Impact Company.) They are a workplace equity technology company focused on achieving pay equity, which is obviously very close to my heart. And, of course, I’m involved with my own businesses as co-founder of A Touch More, the production company my fiancée, Sue Bird, and I have formed together to really change what kind of stories are being told and who is telling them.
RL: Speaking of co-founding A Touch More with Sue Bird, what are you learning about yourself and each other in this process? Rapinoe: A Touch More was actually created early in the pandemic as an Instagram Live show really just for fun. We had games and different guests. Sue produced the show and it was a blast. It really became about creating community in new ways under unprecedented circumstances. There was so much heaviness, and we just wanted to be a light however we could, even if it was just for a few hours.
So we kept that title for the production company, and our goal now is to create content that centers on stories of revolutionaries who move culture forward. If we can get eyes on these stories, we can broaden the cultural understanding of what it means to move in the world and to be successful when you don’t look a certain way or fit a certain mold. We want to partner with people and organizations and brands who want to do the same kind of thing: uplift the culture through powerful narratives.
We’ve never had any qualms about working together professionally. This experience just reinforces that we’re really passionate about the same things. We probably appreciate each other’s unique strengths even more, and we can pick each other up in those areas where the other one might fall short. It’s really cool to work with someone you love to advance your shared vision for the world. I truly think Sue’s brilliance is one of her most underrated qualities publicly.
RL: Do you and Bird have any other projects in the works together? Rapinoe: In terms of future projects, activism is probably always going to be at the heart of what we want to do. It’s what we both have always believed in as individuals, so it makes sense. We’ve both had these really influential platforms as athletes, and we know the impact we can make on the world together. It’s not about our story and our personal success. Everyone’s heard our story. We want to get eyes on things that we feel are really important and not getting enough attention, and we have the resources between us to turn up that light.
Fueling Change for Future Generations
RL: What areas of your work and mission excite you the most? Rapinoe: I’m really fueled by the opportunity to make a difference for the young athletes who look up to me, for women in the workforce, for trans kids, for marginalized groups that deserve to be championed and to be seen and heard.
I’m excited about finding ways to get more people interested and invested in politics to make politics “cool,” not necessarily in the traditional sense, but actually getting people to understand that politics is engaging with you, whether you’re engaging with it or not. So those could be the decisions that your school system, city government, and insurance company are making. If people realize that when they participate in politics at whatever level, then policies will better reflect the needs and desires of their communities. We can impact our ability to live a better life by being a little bit more involved. If we take the time to understand all the issues we can have a say in, we can hold our elected officials accountable, so that’s a big mission of mine.
RL: How can you leverage your personal brand as an advocate for the businesses you align with? Rapinoe: Many of the brands that approach me do so because they feel a connection to what I’m doing on the field or what I’m doing and saying off the field, probably some of both. So that might be finding a way to win or to push yourself to the highest level or taking a stand for things that matter — justice, equality, fairness. I’m obviously not shy about putting myself out there, and so I imagine the brands that want to work with me and the brands I want to work with feel the same.
For me, it’s how can I leverage my personal “brand” — who I am — for good? How can I make a difference? I’m fortunate to have people who do pay attention to what I say, so I feel a responsibility that comes with that — a responsibility to do what I can with that influence and try to make the world better, whatever that might look like.
Megan Rapinoe delivers remarks during a virtual Equal Pay Day event Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
RL: You’ve spoken publicly about impact investing. What led you to commit to it? Rapinoe: Values apply to every aspect of your life, not just some. My personal financial advisor and firm are really committed to impact investing. We definitely want to be successful and make money, but we also want to think about a new path forward. Doing the same things obviously isn’t working. I like to invest in companies that are disruptive and progressive and concerned with making a difference in people’s lives. My goal is to keep doing this. My portfolio includes Mendi, which is run by my sister, Rachael, and makes CBD products for athletes; Real, which is a mental health startup; and STATSports, which makes wearable technology for athletes. We are just getting started in this space. There will be more to come. I want to continue to carve out a path for women — who don’t acquire as much capital — to come together and build for everyone.
RL: Whose leadership has inspired you the most — in sports or otherwise? Rapinoe: My biggest influence on leadership is my mom, Denise Rapinoe. She has always been the leader of our family and like so many women, has worked tirelessly her entire life to provide for her family, herself, and anyone who needed her. My mother gave me the strength to be who I am today. She taught me how to stand up for what is right, fight for myself, and fight for others who need a helping hand. I absolutely would not be the person everyone knows today without her leadership.
RL: What is your definition of a real leader? Rapinoe: A real leader is someone who is confident and accountable and creates an environment where everyone feels seen and heard and like they have a place on the team. Being a leader is about being faced with the choice to make the right decision for the greater good and actually choosing it every time. A real leader is not afraid to challenge the status quo to make positive changes within their company, industry, or the world. I don’t think there’s one right leadership style. It’s about serving the person next to you and the people around you and giving them what they need. Real Leaders need to make a point of understanding the people they lead and then being intentional in their actions to support them and bring the very best out of them.
Rapinoe Embraces Her Next Chapter
RL: What’s next for you? Rapinoe: Knowing this year would be my last in soccer, I’ve just tried to really enjoy every moment and appreciate what a special opportunity I have had playing for so long. I’m so grateful for everything this game has given me and so honored to have represented my country for so many years, and it, of course, has opened up many other doors.
I definitely want to continue to use my platform to expand the conversation. It would be irresponsible of me not to. I want to push people and companies to re-imagine the status quo. We obviously need more women in leadership positions. We need more gay and trans people in leadership. We need a bigger commitment to pay equity and inclusion. It’s easy for everyone to say they agree with this until it comes time to actually invest in or hire or promote someone who doesn’t look like you. We’ve made some progress, but we certainly have a long way to go. I think a lot about how we can break down these barriers and open more doors for women, Black people and all people of color, gay people, and the people who live in intersecting spaces and have so much perspective to offer all of us.
I’d like to continue to be involved in more projects that get people energized about the civic process and more active in their communities. I don’t think enough people get involved when it’s not literally their skin in the game, but if you look at the intersectionality of everything, it is all of our skin in the game, so I hope to encourage people to speak up or to take positive action. The most important thing for anyone is to do something — and you don’t have to do it perfectly. You don’t have to have all of the answers, but don’t be scared into inaction because you don’t think you have it exactly right.
I feel strongly that the business of Megan Rapinoe can go in all kinds of different directions. I have a lot of irons in the fire. Soccer will always be that touchstone for me, but how can I use that foundation to enter other spaces? That might be fashion, technology, investing, or who knows? We’re just getting started.
Cleancult keeping your home and the planet free of waste
Ryan Lupberger is helping lead the movement to clean up the cleaning industry. The Colorado native grew up valuing natural products, and upon reading the ingredients in his laundry detergent, he was concerned to see so many unrecognizable ones.
Lupberger started researching and became even more disheartened when he learned that many of the chemicals allowed in the U.S. are banned overseas, and there is no regulatory body overseeing cleaning products in the U.S. So, he was inspired to start Cleancult, a natural cleaning product company, in 2019. Cleancult sells hand soap, dish soap, all-purpose cleaners, and laundry detergent.
“As we further our mission, the goal to bring accessible sustainable solutions to more and more people is not only a fundamental business model, but also an innate responsibility to our community and the cleaning industry,” Lupberger says.
Not only does Lupberger care about what is in the products, but he also has achieved zero-waste packaging, as opposed to the industry-standard single-use plastic bottles. After all, Americans dispose of 40 million tons of plastic every year, only 5% gets recycled, and it takes over 500 years to decompose.
Lupberger spent a year traveling the U.S. to find the best solution and ended up having his own machinery built to create a patented, recyclable cardboard refill packaging similar to milk cartons that consumers are encouraged to transfer into glass dispensers (which they can purchase from Cleancult) for at-home use. The company uses Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper. Recently, it also introduced refillable aluminum bottles. Cleancult has diverted over 7 million pounds of plastic from landfills and oceans.
While other eco-focused cleaning product companies sell concentrated liquids or powder alternatives, Lupberger sees Cleancult as preferred for consumers who don’t want to add a step or change to powder.
“We want to go after the 99%,” Lupberger says. “We have to meet them where they are with ready-to-use formulas and ready-to-use bottles.”
Cleancult’s Support for Innovative Waste Management Projects
Cleancult is an activator in the U.S. Plastics Pact, a global network working toward a goal of having all plastic packaging be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. The company is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition to take action toward packaging sustainability. Plus, it joined rePurpose Global, and its Plastic Neutral Certification helps fund and support sustainable waste management projects that recover and remove as much plastic waste from the environment as it uses in its packaging.
Among these initiatives lies Sueño Azul, supporting a cooperative of waste workers who have revolutionized waste management practices in Bogotá, Colombia.
When Lupberger started Cleancult, he launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) website. “I really hoped D2C would work long-term,” Lupberger says. However, he found the digital marketing and shipping costs to be challenging, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, in 2021, Lupberger shifted the company’s focus to retail sales, debuting in a handful of regional grocers. In 2022, Cleancult entered Walgreens, CVS, and Bed Bath & Beyond. This year, in its largest retail expansion yet, it hit shelves at 3,000 Walmart stores across the U.S., as well as on its online marketplace. Plus, Cleancult is available on Amazon.com’s marketplace. Lupberger has been pleased with the results, with sales growing 50% year over year for the business overall (while sales are flat on Cleancult’s website).
“Through key retail partners, including Walmart, we have grown the brand’s retail presence by 7,500% since 2019 and are excited to continue on this positive growth trajectory,” Lupberger says.
Cleancult keeping your home and the planet free of waste
Ryan Lupberger is helping lead the movement to clean up the cleaning industry. The Colorado native grew up valuing natural products, and upon reading the ingredients in his laundry detergent, he was concerned to see so many unrecognizable ones.
Lupberger started researching and became even more disheartened when he learned that many of the chemicals allowed in the U.S. are banned overseas, and there is no regulatory body overseeing cleaning products in the U.S. So, he was inspired to start Cleancult, a natural cleaning product company, in 2019. Cleancult sells hand soap, dish soap, all-purpose cleaners, and laundry detergent.
“As we further our mission, the goal to bring accessible sustainable solutions to more and more people is not only a fundamental business model, but also an innate responsibility to our community and the cleaning industry,” Lupberger says.
Not only does Lupberger care about what is in the products, but he also has achieved zero-waste packaging, as opposed to the industry-standard single-use plastic bottles. After all, Americans dispose of 40 million tons of plastic every year, only 5% gets recycled, and it takes over 500 years to decompose.
Lupberger spent a year traveling the U.S. to find the best solution and ended up having his own machinery built to create a patented, recyclable cardboard refill packaging similar to milk cartons that consumers are encouraged to transfer into glass dispensers (which they can purchase from Cleancult) for at-home use. The company uses Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper. Recently, it also introduced refillable aluminum bottles. Cleancult has diverted over 7 million pounds of plastic from landfills and oceans.
While other eco-focused cleaning product companies sell concentrated liquids or powder alternatives, Lupberger sees Cleancult as preferred for consumers who don’t want to add a step or change to powder.
“We want to go after the 99%,” Lupberger says. “We have to meet them where they are with ready-to-use formulas and ready-to-use bottles.”
Cleancult’s Support for Innovative Waste Management Projects
Cleancult is an activator in the U.S. Plastics Pact, a global network working toward a goal of having all plastic packaging be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. The company is a member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition to take action toward packaging sustainability. Plus, it joined rePurpose Global, and its Plastic Neutral Certification helps fund and support sustainable waste management projects that recover and remove as much plastic waste from the environment as it uses in its packaging.
Among these initiatives lies Sueño Azul, supporting a cooperative of waste workers who have revolutionized waste management practices in Bogotá, Colombia.
When Lupberger started Cleancult, he launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) website. “I really hoped D2C would work long-term,” Lupberger says. However, he found the digital marketing and shipping costs to be challenging, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, in 2021, Lupberger shifted the company’s focus to retail sales, debuting in a handful of regional grocers. In 2022, Cleancult entered Walgreens, CVS, and Bed Bath & Beyond. This year, in its largest retail expansion yet, it hit shelves at 3,000 Walmart stores across the U.S., as well as on its online marketplace. Plus, Cleancult is available on Amazon.com’s marketplace. Lupberger has been pleased with the results, with sales growing 50% year over year for the business overall (while sales are flat on Cleancult’s website).
“Through key retail partners, including Walmart, we have grown the brand’s retail presence by 7,500% since 2019 and are excited to continue on this positive growth trajectory,” Lupberger says.
Retiring Soccer Megastar Megan Rapinoe kicks up her fight for equality in the world arena — and shares why businesses have no excuse but to close the gender pay gap now.
She has been cheered from the stands by pro soccer fans for 15-plus years. She has been called upon by Congress to testify in a historic fight for gender pay equality. And she has become synonymous with being a disruptor on both world stages. Megan Rapinoe may be hanging up her cleats this year, but her advocacy work is far from finished. In fact, she tells Real Leaders that she is just getting started.
Hanging Up Her Cleats: Rapinoe’s Transition to Full-Time Advocacy
Rapinoe will retire as one of the most influential athletes on the planet with two World Cup titles, an Olympic gold medal, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and one of the first soccer players to publicly come out as gay. Now, Rapinoe is taking the field for gender equality in full force and is kicking up her activism efforts for LGBTQIA+ rights and racial justice.
Known to passionately speak her mind, Rapinoe reflects with Real Leaders on her leadership lessons from the game, why businesses have no excuse but to close the gender pay gap now, the impact company she recently launched with her fiancée, WNBA legend Sue Bird, her desire to make politics “cool,” and a whole lot more. Rapinoe’s new chapter is shaping up to be her most impactful one yet, and in true Rapinoe fashion, she is embracing it with arms wide open.
Real Leaders: Congratulations on your upcoming retirement from pro soccer. How did preparing for and competing in four World Cups, including as co-captain in 2019, transfer into your leadership strategy in business?
Rapinoe: When you’re playing on a team that has been as successful as the U.S. Women’s National Team where you’re literally playing with and against the best players in the world all the time, you need to have a level of even aspirational confidence in yourself and your teammates. If you’ve made it to the World Cup on the Women’s National Team, you’ve run the gauntlet. You’ve been in a pressure cooker. You’re resilient.
I apply these same qualities — confidence, teamwork, performance under pressure — to leadership in business. For me, I was born with this amazing talent to be an athlete. Just as I grew into a leadership role on the team and tried to be the best player I could be, I’m trying to leverage these skills off the field as well.
Being a leader on a team or in a business means you have to be accountable to yourself and to your teammates. I’ve always been a team-first player, and that definitely carries over to my businesses outside of soccer. I want to be successful, of course, and I want everyone to be successful with me, and I want to be successful with them. I don’t think individual success actually exists, and the foundation of that belief came from playing on the biggest stage with my teammates. You need everyone to really win at anything.
RL: You helped lead the charge in the U.S. Women’s National Team’s class action gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, settled in 2022 with a promise for equal future pay with the men’s team. How is this affecting employee equity in business today? How would you characterize the progress that has been made, and what will it take to reach equal gender pay everywhere?
Rapinoe: We’re definitely experiencing a paradigm shift in how we understand the value and potential of women, which has been undervalued for so long. The Equal Pay Act became law six decades ago, and yet we still hear the statistics: Women make 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. For Black women and women of color, the gap is even greater. The wage gap has hardly moved in 15 years. It’s absurd. It’s not acceptable or sustainable, and finally it seems like enough people are starting to say “enough” — whether that’s U.S. women’s soccer, protesters, investors, or employees.
Our victory as a team was really momentous for women’s soccer and for all of women’s sports and the equal pay movement, but the average person doesn’t have the platform — much less the bandwidth or the ability or the freedom — to engage in a fight like we did. We need to ensure all working women and all marginalized groups are being paid equitably. As chief equality officer for Trusaic, my goal is to use my platform to bring awareness not only to the problem-because we all know by now that there’s a problem- but also to talk about the solutions.
And it’s not just about compensation, although obviously being paid fairly is important. For the team, it was also about equal investment and equal caring — that’s equal access to resources, investment in coaching, marketing, ticket sales, sponsorship, all of it. In a corporate setting, that looks like equal access to opportunity — who gets the new assignments, the great projects, who gets additional training and development, and who gets promoted.One thing I believe is that you have to create a space that signals to people that it’s safe before they even enter that environment. Maybe that’s diversity training, but it’s also: What are your hiring practices? How diverse is your workforce? Who do you do business with? What does your executive suite look like? Does everyone look exactly the same? Because that’s not going to signal to other people that there’s space for them there.
The pressure’s been turned up. We know investors are looking more closely at companies and their workplace practices, employees want to work for companies that pay fairly, and customers want to do business with companies that do the right thing. So the pressure is coming from a lot of places, and industries and companies should also put pressure on one another. There should be an element of holding their feet to the fire in this. Legislation and legal action are obviously part of that pressure too.
Companies hold the key to closing the wage gap. There are no longer any excuses. At this point, we have enough information and the tools, like Trusaic’s PayParity technology, for companies to get on the other side of this in a real, meaningful way.
Megan Rapinoe and her fiancée, WNBA legend Sue Bird, recently announced their retirements from sports and co-founded A Touch More production company to give a voice to underrepresented groups.
RL: As a mission-oriented leader, what are your personal and professional missions right now? Rapinoe: My professional mission while I am still playing is to be the best teammate and the best player I can be and to leave the game in a better place for the next generation of players.
My personal mission is to use my platform to fight for gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, racial justice, and equal pay. I hope to inspire others through my advocacy and actions to join the fight for equality and justice and help create a more fair and inclusive world.
I am very selective about who I work with, and value alignment is something I take seriously in business. I became chief equality officer last year for Trusaic, which I know your publication recognized earlier this year. (Trusaic was a 2023 Real Leaders Top Impact Company.) They are a workplace equity technology company focused on achieving pay equity, which is obviously very close to my heart. And, of course, I’m involved with my own businesses as co-founder of A Touch More, the production company my fiancée, Sue Bird, and I have formed together to really change what kind of stories are being told and who is telling them.
RL: Speaking of co-founding A Touch More with Sue Bird, what are you learning about yourself and each other in this process? Rapinoe: A Touch More was actually created early in the pandemic as an Instagram Live show really just for fun. We had games and different guests. Sue produced the show and it was a blast. It really became about creating community in new ways under unprecedented circumstances. There was so much heaviness, and we just wanted to be a light however we could, even if it was just for a few hours.
So we kept that title for the production company, and our goal now is to create content that centers on stories of revolutionaries who move culture forward. If we can get eyes on these stories, we can broaden the cultural understanding of what it means to move in the world and to be successful when you don’t look a certain way or fit a certain mold. We want to partner with people and organizations and brands who want to do the same kind of thing: uplift the culture through powerful narratives.
We’ve never had any qualms about working together professionally. This experience just reinforces that we’re really passionate about the same things. We probably appreciate each other’s unique strengths even more, and we can pick each other up in those areas where the other one might fall short. It’s really cool to work with someone you love to advance your shared vision for the world. I truly think Sue’s brilliance is one of her most underrated qualities publicly.
RL: Do you and Bird have any other projects in the works together? Rapinoe: In terms of future projects, activism is probably always going to be at the heart of what we want to do. It’s what we both have always believed in as individuals, so it makes sense. We’ve both had these really influential platforms as athletes, and we know the impact we can make on the world together. It’s not about our story and our personal success. Everyone’s heard our story. We want to get eyes on things that we feel are really important and not getting enough attention, and we have the resources between us to turn up that light.
Fueling Change for Future Generations
RL: What areas of your work and mission excite you the most? Rapinoe: I’m really fueled by the opportunity to make a difference for the young athletes who look up to me, for women in the workforce, for trans kids, for marginalized groups that deserve to be championed and to be seen and heard.
I’m excited about finding ways to get more people interested and invested in politics to make politics “cool,” not necessarily in the traditional sense, but actually getting people to understand that politics is engaging with you, whether you’re engaging with it or not. So those could be the decisions that your school system, city government, and insurance company are making. If people realize that when they participate in politics at whatever level, then policies will better reflect the needs and desires of their communities. We can impact our ability to live a better life by being a little bit more involved. If we take the time to understand all the issues we can have a say in, we can hold our elected officials accountable, so that’s a big mission of mine.
RL: How can you leverage your personal brand as an advocate for the businesses you align with? Rapinoe: Many of the brands that approach me do so because they feel a connection to what I’m doing on the field or what I’m doing and saying off the field, probably some of both. So that might be finding a way to win or to push yourself to the highest level or taking a stand for things that matter — justice, equality, fairness. I’m obviously not shy about putting myself out there, and so I imagine the brands that want to work with me and the brands I want to work with feel the same.
For me, it’s how can I leverage my personal “brand” — who I am — for good? How can I make a difference? I’m fortunate to have people who do pay attention to what I say, so I feel a responsibility that comes with that — a responsibility to do what I can with that influence and try to make the world better, whatever that might look like.
Megan Rapinoe delivers remarks during a virtual Equal Pay Day event Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
RL: You’ve spoken publicly about impact investing. What led you to commit to it? Rapinoe: Values apply to every aspect of your life, not just some. My personal financial advisor and firm are really committed to impact investing. We definitely want to be successful and make money, but we also want to think about a new path forward. Doing the same things obviously isn’t working. I like to invest in companies that are disruptive and progressive and concerned with making a difference in people’s lives. My goal is to keep doing this. My portfolio includes Mendi, which is run by my sister, Rachael, and makes CBD products for athletes; Real, which is a mental health startup; and STATSports, which makes wearable technology for athletes. We are just getting started in this space. There will be more to come. I want to continue to carve out a path for women — who don’t acquire as much capital — to come together and build for everyone.
RL: Whose leadership has inspired you the most — in sports or otherwise? Rapinoe: My biggest influence on leadership is my mom, Denise Rapinoe. She has always been the leader of our family and like so many women, has worked tirelessly her entire life to provide for her family, herself, and anyone who needed her. My mother gave me the strength to be who I am today. She taught me how to stand up for what is right, fight for myself, and fight for others who need a helping hand. I absolutely would not be the person everyone knows today without her leadership.
RL: What is your definition of a real leader? Rapinoe: A real leader is someone who is confident and accountable and creates an environment where everyone feels seen and heard and like they have a place on the team. Being a leader is about being faced with the choice to make the right decision for the greater good and actually choosing it every time. A real leader is not afraid to challenge the status quo to make positive changes within their company, industry, or the world. I don’t think there’s one right leadership style. It’s about serving the person next to you and the people around you and giving them what they need. Real Leaders need to make a point of understanding the people they lead and then being intentional in their actions to support them and bring the very best out of them.
Rapinoe Embraces Her Next Chapter
RL: What’s next for you? Rapinoe: Knowing this year would be my last in soccer, I’ve just tried to really enjoy every moment and appreciate what a special opportunity I have had playing for so long. I’m so grateful for everything this game has given me and so honored to have represented my country for so many years, and it, of course, has opened up many other doors.
I definitely want to continue to use my platform to expand the conversation. It would be irresponsible of me not to. I want to push people and companies to re-imagine the status quo. We obviously need more women in leadership positions. We need more gay and trans people in leadership. We need a bigger commitment to pay equity and inclusion. It’s easy for everyone to say they agree with this until it comes time to actually invest in or hire or promote someone who doesn’t look like you. We’ve made some progress, but we certainly have a long way to go. I think a lot about how we can break down these barriers and open more doors for women, Black people and all people of color, gay people, and the people who live in intersecting spaces and have so much perspective to offer all of us.
I’d like to continue to be involved in more projects that get people energized about the civic process and more active in their communities. I don’t think enough people get involved when it’s not literally their skin in the game, but if you look at the intersectionality of everything, it is all of our skin in the game, so I hope to encourage people to speak up or to take positive action. The most important thing for anyone is to do something — and you don’t have to do it perfectly. You don’t have to have all of the answers, but don’t be scared into inaction because you don’t think you have it exactly right.
I feel strongly that the business of Megan Rapinoe can go in all kinds of different directions. I have a lot of irons in the fire. Soccer will always be that touchstone for me, but how can I use that foundation to enter other spaces? That might be fashion, technology, investing, or who knows? We’re just getting started.
Have you noticed the pace of change is getting faster and faster?
Would it surprise you that the ‘pre-historic’ part of our brain is struggling to cope?
Are you wondering why absenteeism caused by mental health illness is rising?
If the answer to all of these questions is ‘yes’ then read on.
I love Ruby Wax and in particular, I personally recommend her podcast appearance on ‘Happy Place’.During the podcast, Ruby talks about the brain and in particular a pesky part of it called the amygdala . In all seriousness, the amygdala does have an important function, if you are being chased by a bear. When the amygdala becomes stressed, it sends a distress signal via the hypothalamus to communicate a signal to the rest of the body that it needs energy to fight or flee. This is handy if you are in real danger. Due to the modern fast based and aggressively competitive modern day world however, our amygdala is mis-firing and giving out distress signal when there is no imminent danger. Ruby believes we can temper the amygdala in part by acknowledging that mindfulness based cognitive therapy – which she studied extensively at the university of Oxford-is a practice that teaches you to observe rather than react to your emotions. In essence you observe the mis-fire as if it is happening to someone else but you can catch it in progress and say ‘aha that is anxiety’. Labelling it is thought to lessen its effect.
How can we try however to avoid the amygdala mis-firing in the first place?
The sheer intensity and impact of the constant contact culture through social media and the ‘I want it now’ amazon culture means our brains are mis-firing faster than we can catch it. This is literally changing the brain for the worst as MRI scans show. Mindfulness helps beef up the amygdala to respond but the continuous hyper-vigilant state we end up surrendering to, causes anxiety to become chronic and mental health illness becomes more prevalent. ‘In a world of distraction’ as Ruby describes it, we need to dial down the impact on our amygdala and reduce its signaling. That way the toxic effects of too much cortisol can’t wreak havoc on the system and cause us to be ill.
Post pandemic, however what do you do though when everyone around you is burning out and we are on the tipping point of a mental health pandemic?
A lot of mental health training focuses on the ‘self’ which whilst effective at building resilience and helping others on the approach to crisis, does not tackle what you do if you are on a burning platform nonetheless, due to your organisational culture.
Compassionate Leadership is not a panacea per se, but the evidence of its success is pretty compelling. This leadership tool promotes going beyond empathising with each other to taking action by signposting, effective and attentive listening and calling out bad behaviour whilst offering support. The Harvard Business review undertook research as part of the potential project and found that of 350 CEX and CHROs across 15K leaders and 150K employees in 5K companies across 100 countries including involving some big players such as Netflix, Yahoo, Lego and KPMG and produced these key findings:
Those who exercised compassionate leadership were:
-Promoted faster
-Were double less likely to quit
-14% higher performance
-Greater job engagement
Hougaard, R; Carter J. (2022) Compassionate Leadership, How to do hard things in a Human Way.
With this evidence as my momentum, I set about understanding what it meant to be compassionate in a practical way that Middle and Senior management can use. This lead to the creation of the ELEVATE model. The model is predicated on the assumption that humans are naturally capable of compassion and therefore this is available to everyone as a bolt on to an existing leadership style.
Before anyone claims this is too time-consuming, think about how many pointless grievance processes or painful tribunals your organisation has attended and think again. In addition, for anyone who thinks it is too soft and fluffy- This does not avoid the tough stuff. To the contrary it is engaging with the challenging themes of organisational life in a human way. The beauty is, it can also be used to look at systemic leadership across the whole employee journey from attraction to exit. This can be a stress preventative strategy as revisiting policies that often are parental in their nature and re-designing them to focus on the 2% that may underperform rather than the 98% that perform just fine through culture building. Utilising this tool helps to create a culture of understanding which in turn builds psychological safety, inclusion and a sense of belonging. Working in environments of safety naturally lowers stress and drives performance so, why would you prefer to do anything else?
Before anyone gets excited though, this takes work. Fear and insecurity often breeds the reverse type of behaviour and that isn’t going to stop people behaving badly. Some persistent perpetrators may even fake it in public but covertly practice the opposite e.g. bullying. This is a very real issue in the UK press right now. Creating a compassionate culture however enables people to feel confident to call out this behaviour and therefore dilute its impact. This may diminish the use of soul-destroying processes like grievances and disciplinaries that are drainers of valuable time.
So where do you get started?
Compassionate leadership workshops are a really positive way of raising awareness of the need in the first place. Working through the ELEVATE model and providing business statistics to support its success can help gain the relevant buy in and trust to change culture for the better. This may give you the edge, rather than cost you time in a competitive and challenging environment as a healthy team is a happy team.
Have you noticed the pace of change is getting faster and faster?
Would it surprise you that the ‘pre-historic’ part of our brain is struggling to cope?
Are you wondering why absenteeism caused by mental health illness is rising?
If the answer to all of these questions is ‘yes’ then read on.
I love Ruby Wax and in particular, I personally recommend her podcast appearance on ‘Happy Place’.During the podcast, Ruby talks about the brain and in particular a pesky part of it called the amygdala . In all seriousness, the amygdala does have an important function, if you are being chased by a bear. When the amygdala becomes stressed, it sends a distress signal via the hypothalamus to communicate a signal to the rest of the body that it needs energy to fight or flee. This is handy if you are in real danger. Due to the modern fast based and aggressively competitive modern day world however, our amygdala is mis-firing and giving out distress signal when there is no imminent danger. Ruby believes we can temper the amygdala in part by acknowledging that mindfulness based cognitive therapy – which she studied extensively at the university of Oxford-is a practice that teaches you to observe rather than react to your emotions. In essence you observe the mis-fire as if it is happening to someone else but you can catch it in progress and say ‘aha that is anxiety’. Labelling it is thought to lessen its effect.
How can we try however to avoid the amygdala mis-firing in the first place?
The sheer intensity and impact of the constant contact culture through social media and the ‘I want it now’ amazon culture means our brains are mis-firing faster than we can catch it. This is literally changing the brain for the worst as MRI scans show. Mindfulness helps beef up the amygdala to respond but the continuous hyper-vigilant state we end up surrendering to, causes anxiety to become chronic and mental health illness becomes more prevalent. ‘In a world of distraction’ as Ruby describes it, we need to dial down the impact on our amygdala and reduce its signaling. That way the toxic effects of too much cortisol can’t wreak havoc on the system and cause us to be ill.
Post pandemic, however what do you do though when everyone around you is burning out and we are on the tipping point of a mental health pandemic?
A lot of mental health training focuses on the ‘self’ which whilst effective at building resilience and helping others on the approach to crisis, does not tackle what you do if you are on a burning platform nonetheless, due to your organisational culture.
Compassionate Leadership is not a panacea per se, but the evidence of its success is pretty compelling. This leadership tool promotes going beyond empathising with each other to taking action by signposting, effective and attentive listening and calling out bad behaviour whilst offering support. The Harvard Business review undertook research as part of the potential project and found that of 350 CEX and CHROs across 15K leaders and 150K employees in 5K companies across 100 countries including involving some big players such as Netflix, Yahoo, Lego and KPMG and produced these key findings:
Those who exercised compassionate leadership were:
-Promoted faster
-Were double less likely to quit
-14% higher performance
-Greater job engagement
Hougaard, R; Carter J. (2022) Compassionate Leadership, How to do hard things in a Human Way.
With this evidence as my momentum, I set about understanding what it meant to be compassionate in a practical way that Middle and Senior management can use. This lead to the creation of the ELEVATE model. The model is predicated on the assumption that humans are naturally capable of compassion and therefore this is available to everyone as a bolt on to an existing leadership style.
Before anyone claims this is too time-consuming, think about how many pointless grievance processes or painful tribunals your organisation has attended and think again. In addition, for anyone who thinks it is too soft and fluffy- This does not avoid the tough stuff. To the contrary it is engaging with the challenging themes of organisational life in a human way. The beauty is, it can also be used to look at systemic leadership across the whole employee journey from attraction to exit. This can be a stress preventative strategy as revisiting policies that often are parental in their nature and re-designing them to focus on the 2% that may underperform rather than the 98% that perform just fine through culture building. Utilising this tool helps to create a culture of understanding which in turn builds psychological safety, inclusion and a sense of belonging. Working in environments of safety naturally lowers stress and drives performance so, why would you prefer to do anything else?
Before anyone gets excited though, this takes work. Fear and insecurity often breeds the reverse type of behaviour and that isn’t going to stop people behaving badly. Some persistent perpetrators may even fake it in public but covertly practice the opposite e.g. bullying. This is a very real issue in the UK press right now. Creating a compassionate culture however enables people to feel confident to call out this behaviour and therefore dilute its impact. This may diminish the use of soul-destroying processes like grievances and disciplinaries that are drainers of valuable time.
So where do you get started?
Compassionate leadership workshops are a really positive way of raising awareness of the need in the first place. Working through the ELEVATE model and providing business statistics to support its success can help gain the relevant buy in and trust to change culture for the better. This may give you the edge, rather than cost you time in a competitive and challenging environment as a healthy team is a happy team.
