Feeding the Soul of Business: Why You Need to Nourish the Heartbeat of Your Organization and Your People
In our current fast-paced, overly competitive, often entitled, exceedingly busy, and profit-driven landscape, the pursuit of success often overshadows the human aspect of our lives, aligned with the heart and soul of business.
We are losing our sense of connection and community more and more these days. More and more people feel detached, disengaged, undervalued, overworked, stressed, overwhelmed, and simply lost.
The rates of job turnover, burnout, and mental disorders are on the rise. Somehow we’ve lost sight of the power of meaningful connection and work, and the value of our people. We’ve lost a bit of our humanity along the way, as well as our heart.
However, the time has come to reevaluate our current landscape, and how we are operating together in the world of business, commerce, and community. We need to reintroduce heart and humanity into the framework of business for starters.
For, it’s only in learning to feed the soul of business, that we can create deeper, richer, connected cultures, team, organizations, and communities.
The soul of business encompasses the ethical, emotional, and cultural aspects of an organization, as well as its values and integrity, that not only drive impact but also nurture and nourish the deeper purpose and mission of a company, as well.
Business needs to be rooted in the core values, a deep sense of purpose, and an overarching mission that transcend mere profits, but rather focuses on impact instead. The profits will follow.
For, it is in the integrity and ethical compass that guides every decision, along with the cultural identity that shapes the company’s behavior and relationships.
The soul of business thrives on meaningful connections.
We need to lose this notion of “it’s business it shouldn’t be personal” as it creates one of the biggest missed opportunities for most organizations. It takes the human element out of the equation. Because it absolutely IS personal. You are talking about people and their overall wellbeing, and that is always personal.
Companies often see a “lack of trust” as one of their top dysfunctions and fail to connect-the-dots back to adages such as this. To create a meaningful shift, it starts with truly valuing your people and bringing heart back to the equation.
Culture is a function of people
The culture within a company forms its soul. It encompasses the values, traditions, and behaviors that shape the collective identity. Each person’s heartbeat and soul contribute to that of the overall organization.
Building a positive and inclusive culture encourages creativity, innovation, resiliency, and adaptability. It’s about fostering an environment where diverse perspectives are not just welcomed, but celebrated, and invited into a space where individuals feel a sense of belonging and purpose.
It’s about going beyond the mere exchange of goods or services, but rather, it’s about understanding, empathizing, and nurturing relationships with employees, on teams, with clients, and within the community. It's about creating safe spaces where people feel seen, heard, respected, and valued.
Relationships being the key.
From there, you then are equipped to actively listen to and serve your clients, and explore ways to give back to your community and create greater impact.
Emotional intelligence, empathy, and heart-skills (notice I didn’t say “soft skills) play a vital role in these connections, as they foster trust, loyalty, collaboration, a willingness to take risks, innonvation, ultimately fueling greater sustainable growth.
When we don’t make our environments and organizations about people first, we lose the very essence of what differentiates us. and what feeds our own sustainability. We simply become another machine spitting out widgets and stuff.
People desperately want to feel connected to something.
When They Know the Why, Engagement Is High
Whether it be connecting to a powerful mission, to a movement, to a compelling why, or to a pathway in which they feel they bring real value, people long to feel as it they are bringing something meaningful and impactful to the table. Most are actually seeking out deeper fulfillment versus greater achievements.
People want, or better yet, need, to feel as if they are contributing something of value. They crave making a difference. It is our basic wiring as humans to serve.
This requires inviting individuals into the soul of your business, and creating an environment of love, trust, openness, freedom to fail, and vulnerability for people to feel they can perform at their highest and best levels.
If individuals don’t feel seen, heard, valued, respected and loved (yes, I said LOVED), they hold back their genius, their greatness, and their gifts. They retreat into CYA (cover your ass) mentality and a protective shell. They play small … only doing what’s required and not stepping out into more potential and possibilities.
Business ONLY happens because of people, not in spite of them. Each person has a soul, a heartbeat, that contributes to the larger soul of an organization.
WITHOUT IT, A BUSINESS CANNOT EXIST!
Products and services don’t sell themselves. It takes people. When heart is added into the equation, people are able to empower themselves to take greater risk, to innovate more, and to challenge the status quo. They lean in, the amplify their leadership voices, and they seek out new solutions to problems.
Empowered, soul-filled people dare to be courageous, creative, innovative, and are willing to have real, open conversations around how to move the needle forward, thus serving their teams, organization, and clients from a higher level.
One of the fundamental things missing in most companies today is a purposeful focus on emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and people intelligence, particularly when it comes to leadership.
In addition, more organizations don’t even realize or acknowledge that leadership is a choice, and everyone’s opportunity, as it’s a function of how people choose to show up, how they choose to serve, and how they choose to take personal responsibility inside those two spaces. Real leadership is also a team sport.
In rich, connected cultures, each individual feels empowered to lead from where they are with the gifts and talents they possess. As such, they take greater initiative and ownership around their role within the organization.
When individuals realize that leadership is a choice, and one in which they will be nurtured and supported for growth, they rise up to challenges and shine. This all happens ONLY when we choose to lead from love, with love.
Embracing the soul of business isn’t just an idealistic pursuit. It’s a strategic, intentional move. Companies that prioritize bringing heart back into the equation, and making it their number one priority, along with feeding the soul of their organization experience numerous benefits and more sustainable growth.
before you goi thinking I am trying to be all woo-woo with you, the numbers prove it. Organizations where people feel seen, valued, and empowered are far more successful in the long game than their counterparts who focus solely on the bottom line, the EBITDA, or the next quarter's OP.
If you want sustainable growth, and a foothold in the long game, you need to create a culture where people truly are first. Meaning, you MUST walk you talk. Lip service doesn't cut it. Stop claiming you're about people, when in reality, your focus solely is on the bottom line and your revenue and profitability.
It's time to shift the lens in which we use to look at our ROI away from simply a money in versus money out equation, and expand our evaluation into a function and equation of time, money, energy, resources, people, culture, lifestyle, and impact.
When we focus on impact first, people first, the money always follows. So, how can we start to bring more heart back? Here are a few things to consider:
People Are the Heartbeat
First, we must remember that at the core of any business is its people: your employees, teams, partners, clients, and communities. It goes beyond the lip service of many leaders who profess it’s “people first” to actually creating and cultivating a culture that embodies and walks that talk.
For most organizations, the emphasis on productivity, throughput, efficiency, profitability, and financial gains takes first priority … despite what they profess, especially when push comes to shove, and things get a little tough. This mindset results in a detachment from the human side of their operations.
It’s amazing how many companies that spout “people first” will throw said people under the bus when the financials falter, or they feel a need to pivot.
When profit is first, it almost always comes at the expense of people and the culture.
Nevertheless, businesses are not just entities producing a widget, a product, or offering a service. They infrastructures with a soul that are composed of real people, with real heartbeats, whose experiences, expertise, knowledge, passion, emotions, creativity, and motivations are the real assets of the organization and should not be so easily disregarded in the pursuit of profits.
Business Should Be Personal
Second, while profit is absolutely critical and a necessary metric for a thriving and sustainable business, a myopic focus on it alone can lead to a slew of negative repercussions, such as: employee burnout, disengagement, a lack of trust, feeling undervalued, and heightened customer and employee dissatisfaction.
Realigning the scales to balance profit with purpose is a key factor in bringing more heart, soul, and humanity back to an organization. A healthy, sustainable, and thriving business need both a focus on its people and its profitability.
Feeding the soul of your business needs to be both a priority and commitment ... by your entire organization.
By creating connected cultures that allow people to shine and feel valued, contributing to the community in positive ways, and fostering ethical standards and practices, the company then creates meaningful impact. Through this approach, the company becomes highly profitable, as well.
Creating A Ripple Effect
Third, a business that embraces the notion of bringing more heart and humanity back also catalyzes a chain reaction of positive outcomes.
Employee morale, trust, and loyalty increase, leading to greater innovation, creativity, and productivity. Customers are delighted to be served at the highest level, and become more engaged, resulting in greater growth.
A business built with heart is one that recognizes the importance of empathy, integrity, kindness, compassion, and grace. It understands that the welfare of its employees directly impacts its productivity and innovation.
By feeding the soul of your business, you promote an environment where individuals feel seen, heard, valued, and respected. Thus, collaboration flourishes, ideas are generated, calculated risks are taken, the well-being of stakeholders is a priority, and the fire of passion is stoked for greater engagement, where people then feel tremendous pride, value, and connection to their work.
Employees lean in, as they want to enhance the quality of their work. They explore ways in which they can find new solutions and serve more and better. They begin to function as high-performing teams, and they feel a deeper, more meaningful sense of purpose and ownership to the outcomes.
The time is now. We need to reshape our perspectives, shift our mindset, and move beyond pure profit as the sole focus and value we place on a business.
It’s time to infuse heart back into our businesses.
Business leaders seeking to feed the soul of their companies should start by defining and reinforcing core values, ethical standards, demonstrating their own vulnerability, fostering open communication, nurturing emotional intelligence, integrating a sense of play, and cultivating a diverse and inclusive cultural environment. This requires a commitment by the entire leadership team.
These deliberate practices and inspired actions then create a fertile ground for the soul of the business to flourish. If you find your leadership team isn't committed to the this vision, discussions around rempoving sacred cows need to be had. For one "bad seed" can sink the ship. Again, leadership is a team sport.
It’s not just a choice, but a responsibility towards a more sustainable and humane future. It’s time to shift the narrative from merely profit-focused to soul-nourishing business practices. We as transformational leaders have a responsibility to change our business model and to lead from love, with love.
It’s time to shift consciousness and raise the level of leadership, overall.
Access my FREE Guide: How to Be A More Effective Leader here.