Being shortlisted for The Women of the Future Awards this year means so much to me and Unleash. A big thank you to Shell UK and Real Business for recognising our attempt at making a dent in the universe.
When my co-founders Corrina Kane, Robert Thong and I set out to create Unleash, we wanted to do more than just start 'a company', or even worse 'a consulting firm'. Our objectives were simple: 1. Do well by doing good and 2. Create a business and brand that will live and grow long after we're gone. We were passionate about it to say the least. A lot of consultants preach about employee engagement, innovation and strategy to their clients, but are pretty useless at doing it in their own companies. With the launch of Unleash, we were determined to practice what we preach and develop the poster child for the sort of living strategy organisation we help our clients create.
So, what have I learned so far? It's hard, takes constant focus and effort in everything you do, and you need to make some compromises. But when it works, it's nothing short of magic.
Companies that grow beyond a lifestyle business do so by engendering loyalty and passion in employees and customers alike. As an entrepreneur it's easy to focus all your effort on customers and not enough on how to make your own team thrive and excel. Illustrated in Daniel Pink's The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us and Julian Birkinshaw's Why Good Management is So Difficult, what motivates employees is often a far cry from what they get.
Most companies have values and mission statements, but very few of them have people who live and breathe those beliefs and values in everything they do. A purpose-driven organisation is one whose people live its purpose and core values in everything they do. In the early days of Unleash, we spent weeks discussing with clients, academics, other consultants and each other. We asked ourselves: Who are we? Why are we here? What value do we bring? What, ultimately, is our reason for being? We went beyond the usual corporate branding stuff to genuinely capture who we are and what we believe in, and came up with The Unleash Core Beliefs. This has been the most valuable investment to date. It gives us focus and clarity in everything we do, from recruiting to business development to brand.
When you want to do it right, everything takes more time. What used to be a simple Companies House registration exercise turns into a two-month process as you figure out how to create the right legal, governance and ownership structure for the future. What would normally be a simple interview or two, turns into a five-round recruiting process of interviews, essays, case studies, and workshops as you try to find people who share your core beliefs and have the skill-set and gumption to make real change happen. And after several drafts of that all-inspiring purpose statement, we still haven't got that one magical sentence right.
Every where you turn, people try to dissuade you with comments like "Surely by helping clients do it themselves, you will run out of work?" or "Your people are too happy and you're spending too much time on developing your culture." But I've learned to believe in myself and what we set out to achieve. My job isn't to control or manipulate, it is to guide, challenge and inspire us to achieve great things together.
Our people are as diverse as they get, but through a combination of vision; determination, and authenticity, we have created the most vibrant; collaborative, and purpose-driven team I have ever been a part of. Someone much wiser than me once said 'hire great people and then get out of their way'. At Unleash, we believe in giving people challenging work and freedom to execute. No fixed working hours, no boss breathing down your neck, no secret strategy sessions reserved only for management. The challenge with this kind of approach is that to avoid complete anarchy and people running off into various disjointed directions, leadership and synergistic co-creation (to ensure ownership and alignment) is crucial.
We all come with some baggage. It's easy to draw up new project models and work processes that represent your values - it's a lot harder to do in practice. What we've found works is keeping each other accountable (if someone is behaving in a non-Unleashy way, we let them know). We even have a "wanky consultant tin" that gets donations every time someone accidentally uses phrases we've eradicated like 'control' or 'staff'.
This way of working is not for everyone. Some people have command and control so ingrained in them they cannot operate any other way. But for the millions of intelligent, ambitious and driven people out there who are fading away in a company that isn't brave and smart enough to inspire them to greatness, there is hope. One of our new Unleashers recently visited her old office and her former colleagues told her: "God, you've changed. You look so happy". Another one recently wrote: "We are constantly being challenged, our work is never easy but that's how we like it! Unleash doesn't just pretend to care about us, it genuinely does and in return we care about Unleash." This is worth more than any money or award - and is the reason I believe more in Unleash now than ever.
When I attended the Judging Day for shortlisted candidates for The Women of the Future Award, one of the questions, after I had been talking a lot about Unleash, was: "Tell us about you as a person." I found it hard to answer. As any entrepreneur, especially one that has created a brand and business that represents their own personal beliefs will tell you, work and life become one. Unleash is me and I am Unleash. Sure, it would be nice to take more holidays and sometimes the stress and responsibility of it all gets to me. But I also know that I am one of the few people who are blessed enough to be able to say I love what I do.
Therese Kinal is a shortlister of the 2012 Women of The Future Awards.
The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday 20 November and is hosted by Real Business in association with Shell.