We elevate each other

Great leaders elevate others.

At PAUSE4Impact we invest in our people. That means reward, regognition, development, flexibility, focus on outcomes not hours, kindness, conduct congruent with values, safe to disagree, safe to be brilliant, safe to “fail”, safe to give credit generously- when a team mate does well, it is seen, it is credited, and it is celebrated as a reflection on them individually and on the group collectively. We see the connections between the achievements, and each other’s contributions. We acknowledge that none of us could do it alone, and it is better because we do it together.

We elevate others, including our “competitors”

At the organisational level we figure elevating others means promoting other professionals & agencies.

So, we dedicate time, and in practical terms this space- that we hope will grow overtime- to others who are doing awesome work.

There is no catch. No strings. No ulterior motive (other than creating a social transformation of course!).

It can’t be bought or bargained for, there is no quid pro quo.

We will simply use publicly available information, e.g. website/mission/bio/etc., share it, fully credit them, and let them know. And of course, if they don’t want to be included, we remove their information immediately. Hopefully, however, it will build a list of others, a community, whose mission, practices or values share some significant alignment.

It will list others who offer complementary but different strengths and services to each other, or who meet any one of the many gaps we can’t fill…

That’s nice- and we don’t underestimate nice (!)- but it’s not really new, bold, or disruptive.

More impactful, we hope, is that we are also promoting awesome folk, who are doing similar, or the exact same range of offers to us.

We want to elevate those, who in the current dominant culture, would be pitted as "competitors". We think this is when it starts to look like an antidote to competitive tendering, competition in the workplace, insecurities that get in the way, fragmented sector knowledge, and silos, all of which are barriers to genuine progress towards social change, towards Equity, for all, forever.

Bad business sense? Maybe. But hear us out, we don’t think so…

It seems to us that competitive tendering, silos, empire building, and individual agendas and ambition, are part of the problem. These practices are undermining the strength of the system- jeopardising genuine transparency, generosity, collaboration, collective knowledge. It is a deficit model, that is getting in the way of good outcomes, and damaging people along the way. An individualist, divide and conquer approach has worked to slow social change. That climate means organisations are in crisis, sectors are in crisis, including those sectors who are “meant to know better”.

So, we’re flipping it! From competition, to cohesion & community...

We practice elevating others, intentionally within our own workplace culture, and we are extending it to others.

The inspiration comes from Quality Leadership practices. It also comes from Community Action, Diversity & Inclusion, Social Justice, Social Change, even various sociological, religious or spiritual adages:

• All boats rise in a tide,

• It takes a village,

• Stronger together,

• Safety in numbers,

• Do unto others,

• Critical mass….

We hope that celebrating and promoting others is a seemingly small, and very practical, tactic we can use to be part of the change we want to see. Here's to cohesion & community! Just one of the ways we are part of creating a wave, so all rise.

For more, check out our Elevating Others section, below Vacancies…