153. Our Roles as Leaders in our Communities
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Transcription
153. Our Roles as Leaders in our Communities
00:00:01 Welcome to the everything coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert, Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. This is Jamie Russo. We are going to talk about some challenging topics today and our roles as leaders within our community. But before we dive in the coworking startup school is opening next week.
00:00:43 So if you are interested, I want to make sure you get on the list. You can opt in@coworkingstartupschool.com. This program is for you. If you are investing in opening a coworking space and want to avoid costly mistakes and stress, by getting expert in peer support in a highly facilitated environment, we want to make sure you create the right space for you and your target market,
00:01:09 right? From the beginning, we want to make sure that you get the business model, right? So that you're set up for financial sustainability that matches your goals. We'll walk you through step by step on how to set up your proforma, help you with your product mix design, sourcing furniture, working with vendors, getting your marketing systems down, hiring the right team or learning how to run the space yourself,
00:01:31 getting set up with the right technology, infrastructure and tools, and more, you can absolutely piece together. A lot of support from things you can find online. And certainly my podcast, this program is for you. If you want to invest in access to a package that provides the information, resources and support that you need, when you need it in the order that you need it and accompanied by individual access to me and a group of peers.
00:02:00 So if this sounds like a fit for you, you can learn more@wwwdotcoworkingstartupschool.com and onto today's topics. So we are going to dive in to talk about how to think about our roles as leaders within our communities, our communities, within our coworking space and our broader community. If we engage outside of our space, as many of us do. So I'm recording this after the devastating murder of George Floyd.
00:02:36 So that is the context for this conversation, but I think no matter when you're listening to this, it can be helpful to think about what our role is in supporting diversity and how we communicate, how welcoming we are around diversity in our space. So a lot of questions have come up for folks over last couple of weeks, about how to address, how much of a voice to have,
00:03:05 you know, how much do you want to say, how much of a stand do you want to take? These are all really individual decisions. So you can make those, you have to decide, you know, what is right for you and the voice that you want to have and the brand that you have. So a couple of thoughts about this,
00:03:27 though, certainly in light of recent events that have been so significant and have brought so much to the forefront, know that it is very possible that your members are waiting for you to confirm to them where you stand and that they are welcome in your space. And you may be thinking, of course they are, of course. And I would make the assumption that most of us who are involved in the coworking industry are very open,
00:03:59 very welcoming, very encouraging of diversity. And yet what I have learned over the past couple of weeks is that if you have been on the other side of a bias, then you don't make assumptions. You wait for confirmation. So folks have given examples. One of my flight group members shared that one of her members said, you know, look, I just need to know,
00:04:26 you know, where you stand and I need to very explicitly feel welcome or else otherwise I'm hesitant to come into the space. And this is a space where there has been diversity, but right now there's not a lot of diversity in terms of skin color. There are, of course, you know, diversity comes in many, many shapes and sizes and forms,
00:04:49 but because of what's happened recently, we're talking a lot about skin color. And so that member needed to hear. And another example came to me and someone shared with me that they had worked for someone who did not support celebrating Martin Luther King jr day. That was not a holiday, not a day off. Um, and that was not well-intentioned. And so she said,
00:05:14 you know, after that happened, I don't assume I need to, I need confirmation. And so for those of us who have not experienced those situations, we may think it's obvious that, you know, we welcome everyone with open arms. But I think the thing that we need to realize is that it's not obvious to everyone who has been on the other side of a bad experience.
00:05:37 And so we made choose to be more explicit and vocal than we typically are on a topic in order to make sure everyone is very clear and feels very welcome. So keep that in mind, as you're deciding how to address, if you haven't yet many folks already have addressed their communities, but if you're, if you felt unsure about what your role is,
00:06:03 I, you know, consider erring on the side of reaching out and being explicit. But even beyond that, I want us to think about our roles. So some of us, especially if you are not open yet or recently open, you're still really getting your feet under you in terms of running a business. And so your focus is really probably on that like marketing operations roles.
00:06:29 But as you come out of that phase, you will realize that you also have a leadership role, certainly within the community, if you are involved at all day to day in your space and in the broader community with other businesses that you interact with other organizations. And so if you are totally hands off, then it may not be the case, but know that your team certainly is in a role where they are visible.
00:06:59 So if we, whoever it is that is in front of your members, and you probably have hundreds of members, you might be a small space. So maybe you have 50 members or just a hundred members. That's still a lot of people that see you and see your behavior. And you do you or your team plays a pretty central role in their day to day experience.
00:07:22 And so sort of whether we think of ourselves in this way or not, we are visible. And in that sense, have a voice and a role if we choose to look at it that way. So I think just even, you know, by virtue of having a visible role, people look at us and, you know, think about our behavior,
00:07:44 whether consciously or subconsciously, and a couple of thoughts around that. Um, one, we shape a culture, right? So we are creating a workspace where people spend sometimes eight hours of their day. Maybe not always, maybe more than that. And that's pretty significant. And we are creating a community of humans that otherwise would not have been in the same space.
00:08:09 And so we are shaping how people interact with each other, what the community norms are. And oftentimes we're explicit about how we treat each other, but we probably don't cover things like diversity and, you know, welcoming explicitly folks that are in the community. And the other thing that we do is we normalize by example, and I think this concept of normalizing is really important.
00:08:35 So in case you're not familiar with the term, I had to learn what that meant many years ago in a role that I had. And the example I'll give you two examples. One was the, um, related to the role that I had, which was, um, I worked at a startup company that education pro products for people with chronic illnesses.
00:08:59 And so the approach was to have folks learn in groups. So, um, type two diabetes was one of the chronic illnesses that we worked on. And one of the benefits of doing group education, according to our, um, healthcare professionals that we work closely with to design the program was the, the way it helped to normalize the things that folks with type two diabetes need to think about.
00:09:28 Um, you know, counting carbs, being more conscious of what they eat, exercise. And just some of the challenges that come with dealing with a chronic disease, people can feel really alone and really frustrated. And when they're in a group of folks that are going through the same challenges, it helps them to feel like they are normal and not alone.
00:09:49 And so it sort of normalizes the things that they're going through and that can make all the difference for people. And a broader example would be Uber. So it did not used to be normal that we would think it was totally okay to use an app on our phone to call a stranger, to come drive us to the airport, right. That would have been crazy,
00:10:12 you know, not that long ago. And now it's totally normal. Uber has normalized this idea that there are people with cars that can drive us places really quickly, and that we can have access to them through an app on our phone. So that's an example of normalizing and to bring it into the coworking world, we control a lot of content, which I think is the other way that we're very visible,
00:10:38 right? So, and if you're not doing content, we should be doing content. And we'll talk about that later. But member features on social media luncheon learns speakers that we bring in to do events outside organizations that bring speakers in or host events in our space, newsletters, social media. We have a lot of kind of outbound communication blog posts. And if we are not integrating diverse voices,
00:11:06 then we are normalizing the idea that content can be created by humans that are very much alike, right? So that is something I think I am suddenly much more aware of and working on we'll be working on correcting. So I think in terms of thinking about our explicit roles, just think about the voices that you're representing, and that may be, you know,
00:11:36 braces, one type of work that people do, the LGBTQ community. There are a lot of, um, you know, diverse audiences out there that likely many of us don't represent very well and don't amplify those voices. And so again, our choice as to how we run our business and, and what we choose to do with that, but just some food for thought.
00:12:01 Certainly that's something that I would like to do more in my content and the podcast and with my GWA hat on, we've talked a lot about how to do that with our content and being more inclusive. So I will pause for a moment and say, if you are aware of folks that have stories to share experiences, to share in the coworking industry that are diverse voices,
00:12:24 that don't get amplified and shared enough, please let me know, please reach out and share their info with me so that I can integrate them into content that I'm responsible for. So that's one of my commitments coming out of this. So I think we don't, you know, decide whether it's part of your brand to sort of be, you know, publicly making stands about issues that come up,
00:12:54 either the what's been happening recently or any issue that, that is challenging for our community over time. And, um, whether you want, you know, we, some of us may be sensitive about, you know, sort of being political and things like that. So certainly use a voice that is comfortable to you, but also be aware of our role as leaders and the things that we're normalizing and,
00:13:18 you know, kind of a responsibility that I think we have to at least be aware and be intentional about what we're doing. And for me, that's the thing that I, sorry, need to work on the most is being more intentional about my content and the voices that I, um, you know, bring to light. So just some food for thought.
00:13:40 I think these are challenging times. And I would ask that we be kind to each other and give ourselves the opportunity to learn. If you have ideas that you can share or resources that you can share that can help us think about our roles, specifically as coworking space owners that are fostering communities, please reach out and share them. I would love that.
00:14:03 And others would love that. I do want to plug really quickly. Liz ELAM, who is the founder of juicy has put together a panel and it is on June 10th. So if you're listening after this, you will have missed it, but you can go to GCU c.co I think in register, she's put it on LinkedIn and whatnot. I will, um,
00:14:25 put a link in the show notes, but if you just go to the juicy site, you'll see it. Um, the topic is communication and connection during racial unrest. And she has a panel. That's gonna talk about diversity and inclusion. So if you're looking for resources, that's one that, um, you can leverage. So I'd love to hear your input.
00:14:46 Love to hear your thoughts on this. These are, you know, for, for many of kind of new voices that we're having to find. So have grace and give yourself some patients, but be thoughtful about how you want to contribute to the world in this role.
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