Before They Walk Through the Door: Redefining Engagement for the Modern Worker

This morning I spent three hours cleaning my bathroom, doing dishes, getting the little dust spots out of corners of rooms.

It’s probably been six months since I’ve had the chance to deep clean anything. Sarah once told me that cleaning is deeply therapeutic and she was right. When I remember not to rush. The ritual of cleaning the dishes is what I need to break away from the screen glaring at me in my office. 

Working from home has been a wild experience. Trying to find a rhythm, have discipline, and somehow still find time for me. My kids. Just the normal routine. 

At the start of 2020, the whole world was sent into a new shocking reality - no more structures or systems of normalcy. 

The kids’ schools were absolutely wild - new rules and new communication systems. The sudden call for immunization records that were treated like membership ID cards - no entry without proof. I look back on that time and am disappointed in myself - disappointed for complying. It’s a strange reality when it’s clear that the fear got the best of me. 

Was it fear for Marin and her health, given the unknowns with her kidney? Yes. Was it fear for the kids staying away from their friends and any normalcy again? Yes, that too. It’s been impossible to know where the fear and the worry is supposed to live. Inside of me, or outside of me, at school with kids, or here at my desk, where I hear there’s been a report of a shooter at their school. 

Washing dishes is simple. Routine. Folding laundry and mopping floors - watering the flowers and making sure Macy runs once a day. 

The ritual of being a mother and a homemaker - it’s given me the strength while trying to navigate entrepreneurship and running a tech company, in Texas. Because in that world, there is little ritual or predictability, and there is rarely a resource to visit for real and practical help. 

The routine.

The act of taking care of your home.

Creating a space of warmth and love.

Showing that you thought about people before they arrived.

Maybe that’s what care is:

Proof that someone was considered before they walked through the door.

It makes me wonder how companies today imagine engagement and care. The numbers don’t lie, and exhaustion is being reported, felt, and seen in the last performance execution.

I remember a time when I worked with companies that worked hard to treat talent like they mattered. Working around the early stage ecosystem has really challenged that notion. Very few venture funds talk about the experience for the worker, the impact on engagement or the impact on satisfaction from the customer. Where the conversation and energy is focused, culture follows. 

Executive teams at the early stage are navigating a landscape of unprecedented hurdles. They face a volatile consumer sentiment that oscillates between a deep-seated apprehension toward AI and a genuine excitement for its potential. Consequently, founders are grappling with how to integrate this technology into their business models and personal lives, while simultaneously attempting to tune out the relentless discourse surrounding it. 

Innovation in modern day starts with the customer. To impact the customer, though, it starts with the culture.  

1. What does your culture stand for? Who are you, and how do you want your people to show up? What should they care about and what’s fine to ignore? To rally a team to execute together in today’s economy and noise reality; proactive leadership to emphasize the mission and the customer experience matter more than ever.

2. How are you generating and prioritizing trust with your customers in the market? Do you know where you stand and whether you should step back and rethink how you’re approaching things, or if you should double down and go faster? Teams have navigated relentless disruption since Covid and the rise of AI. It’s time to pause and redefine innovation and excellence. Since AI is here to stay, teams must adapt to increase their creative capacity. While many are already testing new operating rhythms and change strategies, true success begins by transforming the culture of leadership first.

3. Your brand in the community. What does the community mean to you, and how can you factor in the latest realities for locals into your hiring strategy? Talent recruiting is noisy, but expressing your differentiation and commitment to culture, trending development, and workplace system is how you attract people today. Exhaustion has sent in engagement-required effort. Be the brand that shows up first.

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