Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We need a new definition of success—one that harmonizes meaning and money.
Imagine diving into your workday with renewed energy, leaving behind the exhaustion or dread of a monotonous grind.
Traditional beliefs about success and the root cause of burnout are the same:
Prove yourself.
Work harder.
Take care of the business, and it will take care of you.
We’re recycling the mindset and practices that keep us stuck. Our souls need a jumpstart into The Age of Humanity.
Tune in for a new way of working that honors our nervous system and the bottom line, using knowledge of the brain, the Bible, and business. We’ll discuss timeless truths that amplify growth, ignite change, and reshape the world of work. No corporate speak or business BS. Let’s get to the heart of a rewarding career and profitable growth.
We speak human about business.
What’s in it for You?
Value, Relevance, and Impact (VRI): No, it's not a new tech gadget—it's your ticket to making your work genuinely matter to you and your company.
Human-Centric Insights: We prioritize people over profits without sacrificing the bottom line. Think less "cog in the machine" and more "humans helping humans."
I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hesson, your thrive guide leading you into the new Age of Humanity. I’ve navigated the highs and lows of business and life, from achieving over $40 million in sales, teaching thousands of people around the world about leadership, trust, execution, and productivity to facing burnout, divorce, raising a couple of great humans (one with ADHD), and navigating the uncertainty of starting a business.
I’m committed to igniting change in the world by jumpstarting business into profitable growth with the timeless truths of our humanity.
Sound crazy? It’s only crazy until it works.
Hit subscribe to never miss an episode, and leave a review to help other listeners discover our show.
Want insight and advice on your real career and business challenges? Connect with me on social media or email me at rebecca@wethrive.live. Your story could spark our next conversation.
[00:00:00] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Welcome back to the Business as Human podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession, and we're here to bring you episodes that blend a meaningful work with profitable success. Here to steward what I call the Age of Humanity. I believe if we transform the way we work. We can transform the way that we live.
[00:00:28] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: As always, my friendly request, if you like what you hear, hit subscribe so you don't miss any episode and leave a review to tell the other humans that they might like it too. Always looking to help you and connect with others. All right, let's get into it, shall we? Welcome back to Business Is Human, and today I'm wearing my Business is Human t-shirt, which you can also buy for yourself if you wanted to. If you go to shop, do stand tall in your story.com. You can get yourself one. You know what else you can do while you're there. There's a collection called The Badass Collection that I'm closing out.
[00:01:06] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So if you use the Code badass, you'll get 25% off any of the badass merchant there, because you know what? Sometimes things need to shut down and so I'm shutting down the BADASS Women's Council brand stuff and I'm excited about it because I know that the Lord is opening up so many new things for me that I needed to create some space.
[00:01:31] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So there you go. Either get yourself a businesses human t-shirt or get yourself a closeout sale, badass something. The mugs are really cool. Okay, back to the episode. today we're gonna talk about what it means to hold up the umbrella as a leader. So you may have heard that phrase tossed around. I've used it a lot in consulting and coaching, let's go a little bit deeper into it as I like to do.
[00:01:56] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Because it's more than just a metaphor. It's really a leadership principle that we're gonna back up with science, scripture, real world success stories. Grab your coffee, grab your journal, just tune in. ' cause this one is important. It's always important, but I would say even more so, in the environment that we're in right now.
[00:02:19] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So what does it mean to hold up an umbrella? So. Rain, sun. It's meant to shield, obviously, but picture this, your team is trying to do meaningful strategic work. They've got a plan. They're trying to to work the plan, but above them and probably above you, above. It's raining down distractions, endless meetings, shifting priorities.
[00:02:50] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Corporate politics, performance reviews that focus more on activity than real impact. Your job as a leader is to hold up that umbrella and shield them from the storm and the rain so they can focus, so they can think clearly and actually maybe enjoy their work. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's so worth it.
[00:03:21] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I had a leader that was so good at this at Franklin Covey, Paul Walker, I think I've talked about him about this in the past episodes. It's worthy of revisiting a lot. and the sense of appreciation that I had for him as a human because I knew what it took for him to, to do that. I would've walked through fire for that man because I knew that he was doing the hard work to shield us from a lot of crap.
[00:03:50] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: there's also studies that show, um, in fact, uh, Amy Edmondson, who, uh, was a Harvard person gal, she's the one who coined the term psychological safety. She found that teams that feel protected and secure get this, they take more risks. They innovate more, they perform better. So it's not just a nice thing to do, it's necessary if you want great results and impact.
[00:04:21] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: what I have seen happen over the last, I don't know, 30 decades in business, is the pendulum shifts. All the time. It shifts from money focused to people focused back and forth and back and forth. And right now the pendulum has shift shifted again to a money focus because leaders are freaking out about a lot of things in the environment right now that are causing.
[00:04:55] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Money challenges for businesses, and when that happens, too often, we, we leave the people focus, we go from back to controlling everything versus connection with people. Now, you and I both know. That the sweet spot is to know that people are the one who get you the results and just stay there. And some leaders do praise the Lord.
[00:05:17] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We love them for that. Others just go with whatever is the pressure is taking them. That's not going to work. Now, as that pendulum shifts, sometimes a part of that shift is it goes from. Let's be really transparent with everyone and share openly about all the things, because transparency does build trust.
[00:05:44] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: But I'm gonna give you a caveat on this. And look, I taught speed of trust from Dr. Steven and Mark Covey's work for a long time. So I feel like I have, a lot of credibility in this topic, and I love. Stephen O Mark Covey. In fact, I just saw in my memories a picture of him and I together when he was in Indianapolis not too long ago.
[00:06:02] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We got to have breakfast and catch up. I love that man. He is good, good, good man, and has done amazing things in the world with his content, speed of trust. transparency, yes, does create trust. However, the caveat is.
[00:06:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: When we are in overload already, which is the case that everybody is in right now, too much information that isn't contextual, isn't relevant to them, and their work isn't gonna be helpful. we don't need more information. We need to be diligent to make sure that we bring them clarity on what's important.
[00:06:43] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Context on why it matters. Why is it relevant and why is it impactful? So be the one, be the leader. As you're holding up that umbrella, that helps make the decisions on what information you do share with people. So clarity plus the context is important. Why is this relevant? Why does it matter? And if it's not relevant and it doesn't matter to them and the strategic work that they're doing.
[00:07:12] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Do 'em a solid and leave it out. It's not because you're lying to them or not sharing the full story. Just give them what they need to know to do good work. And then if they have more questions, be open and share more with them. But sometimes I see like just data dumping on people and their eyes are just glazed over, like, why does any of this crap matter?
[00:07:36] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: If you can't tell the story on why it matters, it doesn't matter. let's geek out on some science for a minute. when people feel, exposed and stressed by all of the data and external demands that are happening, their amygdala kicks in. That's the fear center in the brain. Creativity plummets.
[00:08:00] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So when fear goes up, creativity goes down. So that is when trust goes out the window, because I'm afraid and I can't be open and collaborative and trusting if I'm afraid. So if there's a whole lot of information that is just information.
[00:08:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: if you're just making some guesses about things, but you're not really sure how it's gonna turn out, like don't just bring information for information's sake.
[00:08:27] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So when a leader steps in to hold up that umbrella and block a lot of these distractions, you're creating safety. And then once you've created safety, then the prefrontal cortex that makes good decisions can can kick back on. Take over and start planning, innovating, making better human connections.
[00:08:54] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It is so true. Like the example I used with Paul Walker, not the famous actor that passed away. CEO of Franklin Covey. He wasn't the CEO at the time. He was a general manager and he was my general manager and he was also, we had been peers, colleagues, and I just saw what he did for us.
[00:09:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: and it was amazing in the way that I felt safe and protected and able to be bold and innovate and make really good decisions for my clients. And, I made them a lot of money Again, we can go to some of the studies if you need more proof of this. The Aristotle Google Project,
[00:09:34] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: one of the well-known studies on psychological safety, they studied 180 plus teams to find out what made their highest performers successful. The number one factor wasn't intelligence, wasn't their background. Experience resumes. It was drum roll please.
[00:09:53] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Psychological safety. The teams who thrived were led by managers who protected their time, shielded them from distractions, and created environments where they could experiment without fear. This didn't happen by chance. It happened because the leaders were intentional about holding up the umbrella. So here's why it's more important today than an even in recent past.
[00:10:20] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I did an episode about this a while ago, the manager crisis, right? people don't wanna be managers because you get it coming down and going up and people are exhausted. And so. The people who have primarily been asked to hold up the umbrella are barely keeping it together. In fact, many of 'em just said, Nope, I'm out.
[00:10:44] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So middle managers are burned out, overwhelmed, not feeling supported. That's what the studies show, and that's what my experience with clients and their stories validate. 75% of millennial managers report being stressed. Or they've considered quitting. gen Z just said no thank you. And I can say that because I have kids that said, I don't that job.
[00:11:11] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I don't blame 'em. And so the pressure is real and our response can't be, we'll suck it up. Those young kids just don't wanna work anymore. Well, that's not true. They wanna work. They just don't wanna work in these conditions. And listen, I'm here for them challenging all of this because I didn't wanna work in those conditions either.
[00:11:35] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I just didn't know that there was another option. the pressure's real. managers are being squeezed from the top and the bottom, and the umbrella is sort of just like falling apart. So we. As leaders need to better understand how to do this for managers and for the frontline. Now, I have some clients that are small and mid-size business, and I have some that are Fortune 500 big.
[00:12:03] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: anytime you're in a, company that. You have a money first system, so publicly traded venture capital private equity is a money first system because you answer to somebody about money. Now, I'm not saying that small and midsize business who are privately held or entrepreneurs don't have a money making model, but they have more freedom to make decisions that are people first decisions versus money first decisions.
[00:12:34] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Because of the nature of the structure. I'm not judging people's character, I'm just giving you the facts. And so when you have a money first system, like a publicly traded company, you probably have a global CEO somewhere who has. Has to answer to the stockholders and a board of directors. And oftentimes when there's money challenges on high, the highest levels of the organization will come down and start mandating things that need to happen because they're afraid that they're not gonna hit the targets.
[00:13:10] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: They're afraid that they're not gonna hit. And they can't just sit and hope that things get better. They gotta take some sort of action. So the more that you can do to be a good filter, to understand that that leader isn't making these decisions usually just to be a pain in your ass, they're making these decisions 'cause they gotta report to somebody that they're doing something to get better results.
[00:13:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I get it that sometimes it's really disconnected and they're like that really? They thought that was gonna be the right answer. Well, they had to have something. So the more that we can be good at holding up the umbrella and saying, look, we gotta get better results. We gotta do whatever we need to do to comply with what's being asked of us.
[00:13:57] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: But if you know that it's gonna tank the system to do what this leader has asked, find some middle ground. 'cause really what they want is better results. If you can increase the moneymaking model, it buys you a whole lot of not needing to do what is being pushed down from the top. That was always my strategy.
[00:14:15] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Get good enough results that people left me alone because when you're making money and you're producing the results, they do leave you alone. But if you're not. Then you're gonna have to show some sort of plan that says that you're going to turn that around. And so that's a part of holding up the umbrella to say, okay, I gotta hunker down, get this done.
[00:14:37] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And recognize that the enemy is not the leader who's making those decisions. That's a leader who's under immense amount of pressure, and they're just trying to do what they can do to make sure that they can give the results that they promised. So.
[00:14:55] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I. Love some Starbucks. You can love 'em, you can hate 'em, whatever. It's just a pattern that I have with all of the travel that I've done my whole life.
[00:15:04] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It was a constant. I knew if I could find a Starbucks, I knew what kind of experience I was gonna get, and I knew what kind of coffee I was gonna get, and so I, I worked from there. I knew I was gonna have some wifi. Starbucks has been part of my life now. I love me some lavender cold foam.
[00:15:20] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I have upped the amount of trips that I've been making to Starbucks recently because I know it's not gonna last forever, and the scarcity of the day that it leaves has me going to get one every day, almost judge me. I don't care. Recently I had been getting little messages on my cup. Now I'm a very faith-filled, prayerful person and I try to give God credit for every good thing that happens in my life.
[00:15:44] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so I was getting these messages and I was be like, you're awesome. You're a rock star. And I was like, oh look, the Lord is blessing me today. And I would post my picture of my cup on my Instagram story and I'd be like, oh look, yay. And then he started getting like a half done star. Or a scribbled heart.
[00:16:07] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And I was like, why would you even bother to put that on there? And it, it only took me like four days to figure it out. And the consultant in me was like, red alert. Red alert. So I was like, oh, I bet there's a new executive at Starbucks in charge of customer experience.
[00:16:24] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Seriously, it took me four days. I got two really great messages that I posted on my story and then I was like, wah.
[00:16:30] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Sure enough did a little search. There was a new executive for customer experience that was hired the end of 2024, maybe even the beginning of 2025, And the mandate is that we're gonna create better experiences in our stores. And so two things happen. You write a message on the cup and you offer, Glass cups if they're staying inside. Now, listen, I have been a waitress and a bartender. I've never worked at Starbucks, but I have served the people, okay. Mandating a human experience is never going to give an actual human experience because when it's busy and they have been told they have to write on a cup and they've got 45 people waiting in line and 50 to go orders those tickets are just, ain't nobody caring about me being a rock star.
[00:17:24] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Get the latte out the window. Okay. Half star, half heart, just comply, comply, comply. do you think people working at Starbucks want to now do dishes for the glass cup? That I don't want because I don't, I might not finish my drink before it's time to go and I don't wanna have to go get a to go cup.
[00:17:44] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I ain't got time for that. So you can see where somebody in a corporate meeting said, remember when we used to be friendlier? Remember when it used to feel more homey, because here's the pendulum that has swung at Starbucks, and I know this because I've been a lifelong customer. Like I said, hate me if you want, the pendulum has swung.
[00:18:04] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: It used to be that Starbucks was known as the third place. There was home, there was work and, it was your third place where you went and there were fireplaces and leather chairs, and it was homey, and you could get your coffee in a mug and people would come and stay a while. Then the pendulum swung to a money for system why are these people loitering?
[00:18:28] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Get your coffee and get out. And so it went to hard cement floors and metal chairs, which this is usually what drives me out is when people start pushing in that metal chair on that concrete floor. And the screech of that is enough to send me into a different planet of nervous system dys, circulation.
[00:18:46] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And I usually just have to get up and go. So the message then was get your coffee and get out. Well, the pendulum has swung and now they're trying to be nicer, and now they want you to feel more homey like they're nice people. Look, I don't care if they're nice people. I want my lavender cold bone. That's actually not true.
[00:19:06] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: I love my local barista conversations. I love that when I pull up and I order my vente iced. Latte with coconut milk. Two pumps of chai and lavender cold foam. Yes. Steal that recipe because it's amazing. And a pup cup, oftentimes for my afternoon break with olive in the car, my barista knows it's me. And sometimes she'll even say, is this Rebecca?
[00:19:36] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Nothing lights my heart up more than being known and seen from my Starbucks order. Yes. Do you want anything to eat today? No, thanks. I love that. That's not a mandate, that's a relationship. It has nothing to do with a half written star on my cup. She likes me. I like her. We have a little moment. That is what we want.
[00:20:02] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And so if you were holding up the umbrella as a manager at Starbucks, you would say, Here's the things that we need to do to make sure our customers are happy, be friendly, be nice, and they will appreciate us for that. And if they want their coffee in a mug, they can ask for it. But if you are the manager at Starbucks who says, look at the memo I got now a bunch of idiots at corporate telling us what to do now, which kind of response?
[00:20:33] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Are you gonna get from people if that's how you present it as a manager. So there's all kinds of ways to communicate with people when you're in the middle. And if you wanna talk more about that for your team or your organization, I have lots of thoughts and ideas. let's book some time together.
[00:20:50] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: But that's what happens. And if you've been with a particular company as a customer for a while, you can start to see the signs. Like I said, as a long time consultant and coach, I start to just see these things happening. So hold up the umbrella. Make sure that if you are communicating a corporate strategy that you think is dumb, if you communicate it as dumb, you're gonna get dumb results.
[00:21:16] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: If you communicate it with empathy and say, Hey, we've got to start presenting better results as a company, I know our stores fantastic. Here's the deal. Keep being fantastic. Keep loving on our customers. If they want a glass cup, give it to them. And if you need to write on cups. Trying to make it as wholesome and as loving and kind that represents your heart.
[00:21:39] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And if you're super backed up and busy and you don't get it done, no harm, no foul. Just be real about it,
[00:21:46] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We're not meant to lead alone. It's okay to work together with your team, ask for support. It's okay to set boundaries. Be real, be a human. Protect your energy so you can protect your team. Communicating in ways that are loving and kind. So some reflection questions, if you will. Are you holding up the umbrella or are you caught in the storm too?
[00:22:09] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: 'cause you might need some stillness practice to get yourself regulated enough to even go find the umbrella. It's probably in the trunk. You're sitting in the car in the rain, can't even find it. Number two, what distractions are pulling your team off course. Just sit down and make a little list. Still in this time, if you have a monthly clarity day, you'd be discovering this who's holding you up when you get tired?
[00:22:36] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: What are your soul food practices that make sure that you've got. Ability to do this for your team. So think about those things. You could actually run a distraction audit. What meetings, emails, reports are draining your team and not adding enough value. Get rid of them. Eliminate 'em, delegate 'em. Pause 'em.
[00:22:58] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: Could just pause it. We for the summer and be like, you know what, if we miss it, we'll bring it back. Give yourself a little test. Clarify the priorities every week. Not every quarter or when things are falling apart every week, just make sure people know, Hey, this is what's most important. This is who we serve and why it matters.
[00:23:17] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: We serve Rebecca and Olive. Make sure she gets her lavender, cold foam, and a bup. Check in on psychological safety. Ask your team. Ask them, do you feel safe to speak up or push back when things aren't going well? listen to how it feels when they respond. Because sometimes people's energy says something different than their words.
[00:23:38] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: So really tune in when they respond and protect. Focus time, schedule it, guard it, model it. If somebody has something on their calendar, don't double and triple book them. That's just mean. The other day I was talking to a potential client, I said, okay, we're we're at time. you probably have another meeting scheduled.
[00:23:56] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: And he said, actually, I had two other meetings scheduled at this time and I chose you. Yay. Thank you for choosing me and hire me so we can take care of that triple booking problem. That's no bueno. Leadership isn't about doing more. It's about protecting what matters. When you hold the umbrella, your team can do their best work.
[00:24:18] Rebecca Fleetwood Hession: They feel seen, supported, and safe. That's not just good for business. That's human. Be a Paul Walker. Until next time. Remember, Business is Human and you're not alone. Love you mean it.
Thanks for being here. You can follow us on Instagram, Business Is Human, or TikTok, Rebecca Fleetwood Hession. It's a great way to share some of the clips with your colleagues and friends. Alright, make it a great day. Love you, mean it!