Leading with Human Kindness and a Full Heart with Zuhairah Scott Washington

“When you’re an entrepreneur, you build that culture. Founder-led companies are usually more culturally-aligned and driven with a purpose and a mission that drives business results."

Welcome everyone to this episode of the Conscious Culture podcast with Sarah Riegelhuth, CEO and founder of Grow My Team!

Sarah and her guest Zuhairah Scott Washington were connected through Sarah’s partner, Joe, who is participating in a accelerator group for developing keynote presentations with Z. Having heard Zuhairah’s keynote presentation and hearing the similarities with Sarah’s upcoming book, Joe had to make the introduction for the pair to talk all things conscious leadership and conscious culture.

Zuhairah Scott Washington is a tech executive, entrepreneur, and angel investor. She’s lived multiple lives in the industry over the last 15 years, most recently as an executive in high-growth start-ups including Uber and Expedia Group.

Zuhairah is now working on answering the question: what is missing from the leadership space?

She has the credential of an MBA and works in business, yet, as an African-American woman, brings a different perspective to the traditional learnings about what it means to be a leader. Her keynote is about bringing your humanity to work and leading with human kindness and a full heart, something that is rarely spoken about in a corporate context.

So, how can we embrace over this missed opportunity in corporate culture and our own businesses? Let’s dive in.

-

“I think more and more people are hungry for connection. And not only connection to others on their team, but a deeper connection for what their work means for their life purpose."

In this episode, Zuhairah Scott Washington and Sarah Riegelhuth get into leading with courage and compassion, the validity of our feelings as a leaders, and the next generation demanding more authenticity from their leaders.

As we globally transition from the old world archetype of corporate culture and what leadership is into the new one that is being shepherded, this conversation with Zuhairah is one that will resonate: change and evolution is uncomfortable sometimes. The fear of going into the unknown will show up.

But every time we test the reigns a little bit, we’re choosing expansion and possibility. Thank the fear, and do it anyway.

-

“How do you show up in that way and still succeed in a world that is largely on the evolution, on the journey, of leading in this way?”

-

On this episode of Conscious Culture, Sarah Riegelhuth and her guest Zuhairah Scott Washington also discuss:

• Making space for emotions and bringing our full selves to work
• Not showing weakness as a leader
• Self-awareness versus pushing our emotions down
• Vulnerability and fallibility
• Seeing each other as humans on the journey to do the best work of our lives
• Working from a position of cautiousness
• What we think we should be compared to what is really in our hearts and minds
• The freedom of the gig economy
• How millennials are driving the change to purpose-led work
• The generational shift in workplace culture
• The changing barriers to self-actualising work
• Living in the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Self reflection and doing the inner work as a leader
• Awakening to racism globally and awareness of judgement, privilege, bias and the work that needs to be done
• Creating containers for risk and opportunities for our teams
• Being a leader is not a title, and a title does not make you a leader
• Resonating with people and making them feel psychologically safe

-

“We don’t even know the stories we create sometimes. Check me, because I don’t want to write any bullshit. I want to speak our truth as a company, our truth to where we are right now, what we’ve learned, our culture. I want to speak it.”

-

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Zuhairah: zuhairahwashington.com

-

Thanks for listening to this episode of Conscious Culture: The Evolution of Work. A podcast for conscious leaders, brought to you by Grow My Team.

Follow us as we further explore real stories of remote companies and the thriving cultures they’re creating. To stay updated with all of our episodes, subscribe to the podcast in your favourite podcasting app.

-

For more information about remote work, check out more of Grow My Team here.

Or email Sarah directly to have a chat about remote work, how it’s done and how it can benefit your company: