Loyalty as a Verb: The Actions That Create a Strong Workplace Culture with Theshel Govender

In this special episode, I've invited one of my team members to join me. You're about to hear from Theshel Govender. Theshel is a Senior Learning Architect on our team at Curious Lion and the recent author of a post on our blog that went viral in our corner of the world.

We started a project this year in which everybody on the Learning Architect team started to write articles and publish them on our blog.

Our goal is for the world and our clients to hear from our team and for us to expand our own understanding of our expertise. Theshel has stepped up as a leader of this project.

The article that you'll hear came, at least for me, out of the blue. I didn't even know she was writing it. I hadn't seen an early outline for it; I didn't know anything about it.

And I will never forget this - I was at a brewery with my wife and son. I got a notification on my phone from Slack, saying that an article had gone up on our website. Whenever I see that, I’m immediately drawn to reading them.

So, I quickly asked my wife, who said it was okay, and I just started reading this article while sipping a beer. My jaw just started to drop as I was reading.

I don't want to give too much away, but a big theme of the piece is loyalty. It's an incredibly vulnerable piece in which Theshel shares a difficult period for her creatively and personally that she overcame, and that she feels like she's overcome by working at Curious Lion with the incredible team we have.

It made me think about my style of leadership, which I can best describe as inclusive leadership. I've realized from reading Theshel’s article that inclusive leadership is what inspires loyalty, and loyalty creates massive leverage.

That's ultimately my goal - to create a workplace in which everyone feels like they can bring their best selves to do their best work.

I'll hand over the microphone to Theshel, who's going to read her amazing article. Please sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode with Theshel Govender.