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There is a growing trend of businesses with no actual office space. How do you keep your growing team connected and on task when everyone lives in a different city? In the process of training to be a new DH coachsultant, I learned that the one company that does this best is Delivering Happiness!
Recently, I applied for and was fortunate to be selected as one of the new members of the DH Global coachsulting® team. By going through their US Masterclass Certification program, I finally have inside knowledge of how culture really works at DH. Wow! Delivering Happiness really KNOWS how to WOW.
Despite the fact that all the team members are all over the world, this is one purpose-driven team that leans on self-management and loves each other truly like family. I am forever grateful to have met these awesome people and to be joining the expanding team. I want to write down a few insights here and share my experience the best that I can.
Purpose and talent alignment inspire self-leadership at work. When there’s total alignment, there’s no need for a manager. Because you are already doing things that you love in alignment with a purpose that you care about. This is the key to having a high-performing team. Teaching you some DH terminology, I am going to share my perspective on how DH created a sense of connectedness, sense of control, and a sense of progress for the new coaches in our onboarding process.
When DH went out to search for new coaches to join their teams, they looked within their community for referrals first before extending out to the public. DH believes in showing up as 100% yourself at work and we want to love the people we work with. While the application asked for my experience, it also asked about what drives me, what my talents are, and why do I think DH would be a good fit for me. It wasn’t just about being a skill-fit, it was about being culture-fit too.
We started our 8-day training in a beach house where we got to know each other, share meals together, and experiment with the tools and lessons we learned in the process. Reflecting on this experience, one of the most powerful tools we learned was the purpose exercise, which challenged me to align my purpose with this group of talented people that I just met and co-create our group purpose.
I have done purpose exercises before, but seeing my connections with others really created a strong sense of clarity within me.
When there’s clarity, you don’t need motivation. After just 2 days of experiencing the Masterclass like a participant, I began to trust the rest of the team like family. We all have had our own individual transformations through the training. For me, it was confirmed that I can be (and actually need to be) 100% myself at work to reach my full potential. After another 4.5 days of training on how to coach the Masterclass, I felt like I’ve known these people for a decade. Now that I am home, the fact that nobody actually works in an office also creates a sense of connectedness. We are all in this together “to inspire people at work and in the world” (our group purpose).
Do you feel like you are working with your closest friends and family? How can you create more connectedness in your workplace?
Related: The Easiest, No-Cost Activity Used to Build Team Connectedness
When it came to putting on the Masterclass on our own, we were asked to give feedforward (feedforward because it’s meant to move us forward) to ourselves first and then open ourselves up to receive it from others. Integrating all inputs into our coaching process, we were given a chance to try again to see our own progress. We were also “forced” to give ourselves praise before tackling our areas of improvements. Through this self-evaluation process, we not only sharpened our expertise and facilitation skills, but we also improved our levels of self-awareness. It’s like we also coached ourselves in the process! Jenn Lim (CEO of DH) showed up at the end and shared with us all the awesome progress that DH has had in the past decade and the company’s plans for the future. The senior coaches also shared with us their journeys, both the rough patches and the smooth sailing periods. I really felt that we are joining DH at the right time and am excited about the ride.
What’s your process to celebrate successes as well as look for ways to improve your business? How do you provide a sense of progress for your team?
Independent yet collaborative is one way to describe how it feels to be on the DH team. Everyone is encouraged to have his or her own business or other projects going on at the same time. The company doesn’t try to tie us down with rigid contracts but reels us in with an awesome culture, fun people, and projects that align with our interests. DH is a platform to connect our talents with what the market needs--a shift towards happier, purposeful cultures. Though DH is a business, the organization prioritizes the needs of their team members. The culture encourages open communications and support during life changes to create a sense of control for the team. This sense of control also allows people on the team to feel empowered. I have never felt so in control but also with so much belonging at the same time.
How can you foster more autonomy at work? How could you create a work culture of self-leadership that scales?
If there's one word a great culture is built on, it would be "trust". I used to think that trust requires a long time to build. If there's one key takeaway I had from this experience is that a deep level of trust can be built in a short period of time. The issue with trust is that we are not going deep enough in our day-to-day conversations with the people closest to us, the people that we spend the most time. The Masterclass isn't just some passive workshop for your teams, it's an intentional experience that goes above-and-beyond in bringing people together. Alignment of purpose and values is an essential tool for our fast-growing coach|sulting team. The world finally gets it and is finally ready for more happiness at work. Would you like to join us?
Do you have a fast-growing team or a company that's about to scale? Learn how to incorporate the Science of Happiness to get the culture you need to grow:
