The Spirit of Business: A Guide to Inspired Leadership

What if infusing spirit into your business could lead to unprecedented success and a thriving workplace? Join us on Beyond Common Business Secrets as we explore the transformative power of aligning business practices with spiritual principles. This episode's journey begins with the concept of spirit-driven leadership, where we reveal how understanding and communicating your business's mission and vision can inspire both employees and customers. We highlight the crucial role of passion and integrity in fostering a culture that enhances employee engagement and drives success. Plus, we offer insights on maintaining personal excitement and seeking support from trusted friends or coaches.

Are you ready to say goodbye to fear, frustration, and overwhelm when it comes to growing and scaling your business? You’re in the right place. Welcome to  Beyond Common Business Secrets Podcast I’m your host, Tracey Watts Cirino

Chapters

• 1:11 The Spirit of Business Transformation
• 17:48 Implementing Business Practices for Success
• 25:36 Sharing Business Transformation Tips

Transcript

Tracey Watts Cirino: 1:11

Hello and welcome to Beyond Common Business Secrets. I'm your host, T racey Watts Ci Serino. We are so excited that you're here For today's episode. We are diving into the fast-paced world of business. Right? Business is moving at an incredibly faster pace than it ever has before, much like everything else going on in the world, so maintaining a focus on purpose and passion can be challenging. However, when you align your business practices with spiritual principles, this can lead to more profound success and really help you become inspired as a leader. So in today's episode of Beyond Common Business Secrets, we are going to explore the spirit of business, your guide to inspired leadership, and we're really going to dive into how this can transform both your life and business. So first, we want to understand, what is the spirit of business? What is the spirit of your business and how does this go beyond profits and productivity and spreadsheets, marketing, all the ways we have to show up on social and everything else right, it encompasses this deeper purpose and passion that will drive you and your enterprise further by fostering a culture of integrity and aligning your business with your own spiritual principles so that you can create a thriving environment that benefits both your employees and your customers. So when we look at like what are some key strategies for infusing spirit into your business. So often I am speaking with leaders that are like it just isn't fun anymore. You know they have been reading the news. Maybe you've been too Like have you been reading the news. Maybe you've been too Like have you been reading the news? And every other day we're hearing of huge businesses that were wildly successful at one time that are closing their doors and we can let all this noise come in and then it's hard to find that energy, that passion, that excitement, that spirit for why we were in business anyway. Now, if you've lost your spirit and you don't feel like there's a way to get it back, close the doors, there is no harm in quitting. There's no harm in filing bankruptcy. If you haven't been profitable forever, get rid of it. You can always go work for someone else and I bet you'll make more money.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 4:20

Because so often I'm teaching business owners about profitability, where you're like you're doing all, you're working 80 hours a week and maybe you're not making what you wanted to make, and then you run the numbers. You're like oh my God, I could make more money if I got a job at a restaurant or a fast food place, whatever the thing is is, if your spirit is aligned, you don't feel all that and it's exciting and you won't mind. But if you're not in alignment, it feels soul sucking and drop it like it's hot. Nobody said you had to do it. Right, so that I know that sounds funny. Right, when we're coming out of the gate.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 4:59

But, first and foremost, get really clear about why you're in business, because you don't need to do it for anyone else but you. So some key strategies for infusing spirit into your business. Number one would be purpose-driven leadership. You want to be the type of leader who prioritizes purpose. Why are you in business? Get out a notebook, a pen and pencil. If you're a pen person. If you're a pencil person, like me, ask yourself why do I want to be in business and write down everything that pops up. Lock yourself away, cuddle up under a tree at the park and get clear on why you want to be in business.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 5:50

Right, because purpose-driven leadership is about inspiring your team and creating a sense of shared values and mission. Right, like what does that look like? This not only enhances employee engagement, but it also drives business success when we have a mission, a vision that is purposeful and purpose-driven as a leader. These are the stories that you'll hear repeated over and over again. If you know in the walls of your business or if you are, you know, remote business. These are the stories and things that you'll repeat over and over again, that your staff will repeat over and over again, that your team will repeat over and over again. The thing is is that when we are purposeful, that vision and mission gets repeated over and over and over again, and that is excitement that drives it forward. Yeah, so if you're not feeling that spirit from within, I promise, friend, you're doing it wrong. Reach out to a trusted friend, hire a coach and advisor to help you get really clear on what your purpose-driven leadership mission is.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 7:13

This is an area that cannot be outsourced to anyone else. You have to do it for yourself, but you can get help. You do not have to do it alone. So if this is an area that's been a struggle for you, hire a coach. Hire somebody that will help you get that spirit injection back into your business. Number two is passion and integrity. When we cultivate a culture of passion and integrity, this encourages our employees to bring their best selves to work.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 7:46

I talk about this a lot inside of Beyond Common 12 Essentials to Success in Life in the Workplace. Inside that book we really dive into what it's like to bring our true, authentic selves to the party, like our whole self. So think about it through that lens. You need to do that first, and that's then the spirit of your business, and then that encourages your team to do the same. Right, Like we want to create a fun, casual environment, maybe at work, but it should still be where we're bringing our best self forward. Right, because that's what it takes to constantly be growing and striving for greatness. Striving for greatness. So the results of doing this are higher productivity and a more positive workplace.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 8:42

So here's the thing I had a business owner client recently that runs a huge office where it's a media company and they all work in the office and she had a team member that was coming to work in sweatpants and just looking a bit lazy and kind of like hit, like just a little bit of a drag, like started complaining, like it kind of reminds me of if you've seen the movie Inside Out Inside Out, the Disney movie that the kids love, but it kind of like the sad emotion and just dragging, and it's my client was looking at this through the lens like, oh, she must've just fallen on hard times. So she wanted to give her some some leeway, because life could be giving you some you know lemons that you needed to work through and we all have stuff going on, right. Well, what ended up happening is everyone else in the office started feeling down, started acting like depressed, started complaining they didn't want to work with someone like that, but then it started bringing everybody down. So here's the thing you have to decide what type of culture and environment you want to work in. Yes, we are loving, kind and we want to provide the help, resources, tools that people need to feel their best, but we don't have to subject everyone in our office to this. Because it happened so quickly. She could not believe it and it was such the wake-up call because her star players were getting affected. The wake-up call because her star players were getting affected. So by letting somebody that was kind of a D player on your team drag everyone else down, she started losing credibility and leverage with all the amazing A players.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 10:52

So my advice in this situation is then immediate when you see a shift in someone's behavior, ask why? Bring the awareness to it. There's always a reason that people are responding different and if there's outside stuff, get people the help they need but allow them to work in a different environment that doesn't bring everyone else down. This would be someone I would let work from home until they get it together if their work was still producing. Now, if their work was suffering, quality of work was suffering, then obviously that's a different story.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 11:27

But you cannot allow your kind heart which I know you have, because we all do right, we all do. That's why we're in business Can not let your kind heart tank the spirit of everyone else on the team. This is a hard truth but so important. It's like we want to be there and get people the tools, resources, support therapists, whatever, whatever it is that they need. But we cannot do it at the expense of everybody else that has trusted us with their wellbeing, right, with their-being. It's just not conducive. So think through these things and be aware of how they affect everybody.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 12:16

Number three I would say is spiritual principles in your business practices. So by incorporating principles such as empathy, compassion the person that was suffering probably was unaware of how dark and sad it had gotten so by coming at this with compassion and empathy and helping her get the love, support and guidance that she needs. She will actually appreciate that, because nobody wants to be the person that brings everyone else down. You don't like when you're in the presence of that person and you definitely never want to be her right? So know that most people feel this way and if you have someone on your team that is the person that wants to bring everyone down, then they're a bad fit anyway. They're the wrong hire anyway. So we need to let them go and that is okay. There's nothing wrong with that. So we want to do this due diligence on the front end from a place of mindfulness so that we are making the best hires, because when you incorporate these principles, such as empathy, compassion and mindfulness, into the daily practices of your business operations, you will see a significant improvement in the workplace overall. You will see a significant improvement in the workplace relationships and the performance. This will help your team bond in a bigger, better, beautiful way. It will help your team have better relationships with your clients as well.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 14:09

So do not think for one second that it's insensitive to help someone talk through their pain, suffering, sadness that they might be going through, and get them the help that they need, because you don't want to take everyone else. And it's so interesting because the sooner that you address these things, the better. Right, it's better for everyone, and this is real world. So I will often say at work it's like we are here for a good time, not a long time. So while we're here, let's operate from the highest level, because even when I have incurred a great loss in my life I've had a loved one die, I've had a loved one going through surgery, cancer you know all sorts of different things happen when you are going through stuff like that. You may, by accident, unconsciously fall into sadness, but you don't want to be the person that brings everyone down.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 15:17

So if there's a standard set that we're acting a particular way where our spirit is nurtured and loved and appreciated, and we're acting in that manner at work, it will help us rise up and actually help give us the tools to release those sad feelings in a way that is more uplifting and transformative, because everybody's going through something, because everybody's going through something. But we don't have to set up camp in those emotions right. We can allow them to process through us so that we can go to the next level of where we want to go right. And when you help your team members do that, they learn how to help. Do that, they learn how to help your clients do that, they learn how to help solve problems in so much bigger, better of a way than we ever thought possible. We have so many different success stories of businesses that have successfully integrated different spiritual principles. Even if you don't feel comfortable calling it that, I always call it. It's like that shot in the arm or how I'm a loving kick in the pants to help you get that positive energy and that spirit going in your business. Because if you have lost that, if you've lost the luster and excitement for it, it's really hard. Do you ever notice that when you're in this like highly excited, motivated state, your business can handle like bumps and bruises, like problems that happen because you have that momentum, you have the spirit of all the reasons why you are in business and all the past female entrepreneurs that have gone before us to help pave the way so that we could do this, that we get to do this amazing thing. When that is at a high vibe, you can hit the biggest potholes and you're like, oh, that was fun. We just zoom, you know, like we just zoom through it. But when you're down and you're in this level of sadness, the smallest little pothole, like tanks, you and everyone loses that momentum. So we want to keep the momentum as high and high vibe as possible because it keeps it going right. So some practical tips for implementation. I'm going to give you just some practical tips for implementation right away that you can put into action right away is number one develop a clear mission statement. You want to articulate your business's purpose and ensure it resonates with both your employees and customers and have it be so crystal clear that you can share it and that you share it everywhere. It can't be something that you write on a document that then goes in a drawer. It needs to be this like living, breathing thing that's always evolving and even if you read it like we used to. We used to in the salon industry. We used to have our daily meetings where we would read just a one-liner to help set the tone for the day and that allowed everybody to really be diving into the mission and vision. Now my team is different now, so when we have our group meetings with everybody, I will read the mission statement or somebody on the team will, and it just sets the tone of what we're here to do. So that is a really useful way and if you haven't found the time to do this, reach out. This is even a one-off, one-to-one thing I work with some business owners on is helping you develop a very clear mission statement. So this is an area that when you have that and then you have the buy-in from your team, it really helps support you. When things are really good, when things go off the rails, it just kind of helps keep that high vibe and spirit activated in your business. Number two is promote ethical practices. So foster a culture of integrity by promoting transparency and ethical behavior in your business dealings. So the story that I shared about my salon owner client she wasn't stealing from her business but she was using the drawer as like petty cash and it was setting this tone, this value that everybody could do it and that created an environment where people, then everybody, did it. So think about ethical practices. Like what's going to set everybody up to win right? Like what's going to set everybody up to win. Like are you going to say one thing to your staff and then do something completely different? Are you going to scream at the top of your lungs and like and be your children and then turn around and have a show about how you are, you know, the most loving parent in the world that never loses their shit. Like, no, like. The thing is that that would be unethical, that would be out of alignment, and you want to be the person that says I breathe the really deep breath to make sure I don't lose it. I put my like. This is me speaking from the truth. I put myself in a timeout so I'm never driven to the point that I want to hit anybody. So I learned ways to process anger. You know that's being truthful and honest and real. Not pretending that we never get upset or we never have areas that we lose it, yes, but having practices in place that help you process anger in any way. Like. What does that look like both in your life and in your business, right? You want to really think about it through that lens. Complete transparency is what's most important. I will down-and-dirty share the secrets. That's why our podcast is called Beyond Common Business Secrets because it's so much about the stuff behind the scenes that nobody talks about. It's not always that forward facing. Oh, it's so amazing. You know, most people say they want to be in business the day that you receive an award, the day that your book becomes the number one bestseller, the day that you're on the cover of a magazine. That's when everybody oh, I could do that. You absolutely can't. Everybody can. But what about all the days that being in business feels like a gut punch, all the days that people told you they can't stand you? You suck and forcing them to be at their highest level and show up as their best self. Show up as their best self. They are angry about it. They don't want to. Well, are you going to slide down or are you going to help people rise up? Because one of the best ways to deal with that is I respect and appreciate your opinion. This is how we do it here. You are invited to stay and play when you want to operate at this high vibe level. If you are feeling that that doesn't work for you, it's not in alignment with you, you are free to work wherever you choose. But this is how we work here. And then, quiet, you invite people to decide what's best for them. I don't force people to do anything. This is where we play, period, and you are so invited to the party because we love playing at this high level. So these are things that when you put them into practice, they're not easy but they are powerful. So you also want to encourage. Number three would be to encourage employee well-being. So implement programs that support physical, mental, emotional well-being, creating a more balanced and productive work environment. So these could be little things when you're just getting started. This could be having outside coaches that come in and help your team process. Maybe there's been a lot of death and loss. People need to process their grief. Maybe just getting like physical activity, maybe doing like a fit app where everybody's in a contest of getting the most steps, like we want to get 10,000 steps every day or 20,000 steps a day, you know, whatever that looks like. Maybe there's going to be a 10K that everyone trains for, or you're going to do like the team Olympics, whatever it is.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 24:37

Give people access to the tools and resources that allow them to be fully supported physically, mentally, emotionally and make well-being and self-love and empowerment part of how you work in harmony. That creates a very productive work environment. So this is why we started at the beginning with you know, the spirit of business is more than just financial success. Right, by aligning your business with spiritual principles like the ones we've talked about, you can create a thriving enterprise that is both profitable and purposeful. This is where you create that impact. You really make a difference in people's lives and, my friend, it's not easy, though it is simple, right.

Tracey Watts Cirino: 25:36

So I hope that you've enjoyed this episode and I cannot wait to hear what you implement. First, please, reach out, let us know what transformation happens for you and please, if you found value in this episode, share this episode with a business owner, friend or someone you know who wants to get into business and give us a five-star review, the more that of the five-star reviews that we get on different podcast channels. So, wherever you're listening to this, and share it with us. We love to hear what is working for you and, as always, I hope you have the most beyond amazing day and we will see you on the next one. Take care.