In this episode, we are joined by Mohammad Anwar, the President and CEO of Softway. He’s authored a Wall Street Journal best-selling book called Love as a Business Strategy, and he’s going to talk to us about how to implement this transformational idea all around building a culture of resilience, belonging and success.
Listeners will leave this episode feeling hopeful and ready to at least begin thinking about making some changes in their business and culture after listening to Mohammad.
Culture isn’t about perks, benefits, values, and vision statements. It’s how we experience each other. It’s not rebranding or changing the benefits package, but it’s simply those little interactions that make culture.
People can see through inauthenticity, so you have to be authentic and honest when attempting to become more self aware. And you can accomplish that through introspection, looking within, and gathering feedback from people around you to validate or invalidate how people are experiencing you.
Simply saying “good morning,” taking more opportunities to just smile, or sending a thank you note. You don’t have to make a big announcement that you’re changing the way you operate. Just start with those small daily interactions and people will begin to experience you differently.
(02:39) Mohammad answers a fun question about his first car.
(04:21) Mohammad talks about his “darkest day” and what led to his transformation.
(10:00) How approaching love as a business strategy not only changed Mohammed’s business but it also changed his life.
(13:00) Mohammad goes through the 6 behaviors that define a culture of love.
(16:36) Pillar 1: Inclusion
(17:06) Pillar 2: Empathy
(17:29) Pillar 3: Vulnerability
(17:59) Pillar 4: Trust
(18:58) Pillar 5: Empowerment
(19:34) Pillar 6: Forgiveness
(22:50) Mohammad expands on forgiveness and how he learned to value it in a business culture.
(27:16) Where do leaders start if they are running an organization they know needs to change and be better in these areas?
(32:28) What would Mohammad say to a leader who decides to go on this journey but is having a hard time making changes in the company?
(34:47) The best way for our audience to get in touch with Mohammad.
(36:13) This week’s download: Mohammad is giving away a few copies of his book Love as a Business Strategy. Connect with & message Mohammad on LinkedIn for your chance to grab your free copy today!
Mohammad Anwar:
Many a times organizations misunderstand culture to be the perks, the benefits, the values, the mission statements and the vision statements, but really what it all boils down to is how do we treat one another? How do we experience one another, remotely or in person? And it’s those little moments of interactions that define culture.
Ryan Fitzgerald:
Welcome to One Next Step. The most practical business podcast in the world. You’re now one simple tip, practical tool, and small step away from growing your business. One Next Step is brought to you by Belay, the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with virtual assistants, bookkeepers, and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less, modern staffing from Belay. And now to your hosts.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Welcome to One Next Step, the practical business podcast that helps you run your business, so it stops running you. I’m LZ and with me today is my great friend, Ryan. As always, man, hey, what’s up?
Ryan Fitzgerald:
LZ. Not a lot. It’s a good day. This is going to be a great episode. We’re talking to somebody who’s kind of become a bit of a celebrity inside our Belay teams. I feel like I find myself on multiple conversations in the last few weeks talking about him, because today Tricia is talking with our guest Mohammad Anwar about this amazing idea of love as a business strategy.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Yeah, Mohammad is the president and CEO of Softway. He’s also a Wall Street Journal’s bestselling author of Love as a Business Strategy. And he’s the co-creator and facilitator of the Seneca Leaders training experience. I’m so excited to hear Tricia and Mohammad talk about his transformational discovery and how it saved his business.
Ryan Fitzgerald:
It’s going to be an incredible conversation, but before we dive into that, I want to take a quick moment to tell you about Belay. With modern staffing from Belay, businesses and leaders can focus on growth without the unnecessary overhead or learning curve associated with hiring and onboarding full-time employees. Belay is the incredible 100% remote organization, revolutionizing productivity with our virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media managers. Accomplish more, juggle less, and get back to what only you can do, growing your business with modern staffing from Belay. And now onto the conversation.
Tricia Sciortino:
Hey, Mohammad. I am so excited to talk to you today, especially about your book, Love as a Business Strategy. But before we get started, I have a random, get-to-know-you icebreaker question I want to ask you.
Mohammad Anwar:
Sure. Go for it.
Tricia Sciortino:
What was your first car?
Mohammad Anwar:
So I was supposed to have a Nissan Sentra, but before I could take possession of the car, my sister had an accident in it and it got totaled. So my real first car ended up being a Toyota Camry, 1992. It was a V6 engine one. I still remember. It was quite speedy.
Tricia Sciortino:
Oh. Little sports car.
Mohammad Anwar:
Well, it was fast as a sports car. Didn’t look like one time, though.
Tricia Sciortino:
Camry that looked like a sports car, through.
Mohammad Anwar:
Yes. So, yeah, that was my first car and I was 17 years old when I got my first car.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yes. Nice. Yeah. I had a Honda Accord, so probably in the same vein, I probably look just like you, driving around in your Camry. And my father helped me buy it and it was a stick shift and I had never learned how to drive a stick shift in my life. And my dad said, “No, it’s okay. You’ll learn in 15 minutes.” And I’m a 16-year-old girl and I’m a like, “Okay, dad. Whatever.” So we buy a stick shift car. And I remember that first day getting back home, my dad teaching me, driving around the neighborhood, how to do a stick shift and stalling out every four seconds. The whole neighborhood is watching. It was so horrific of a memory. But now I can say, as a grown woman, I know how to drive stick shift car.
Mohammad Anwar:
Well, that’s actually a pretty good skill to have, because different parts of the world, you don’t find automatics.
Tricia Sciortino:
You don’t have a choice. That’s true.
Mohammad Anwar:
Yeah. You pretty much have most of the cars out there are stick shift, so that’s good skill to have.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah. So if I move abroad, I’ll be set.
Mohammad Anwar:
Yeah.
Tricia Sciortino:
Awesome. Well, that’s fun. Good story. Thank you. Well, so let’s dive into it and talk about transformation. So you talk about your darkest day and I would love if you would tell us a little bit about that story and those moments for you and what happened and how that gets this whole thing started.
Mohammad Anwar:
Sure. Not a problem. So I started my technology services business when I was 20 years old, still pursuing my computer science degree. And so starting off a business, I had one goal, one ambition was “I want to become a millionaire as fast as I can.” And within 10 years of starting the business, I believed that I had hit the pinnacle of success. I had more than 300 employees at the time, successful technology business. I was driving my fancy cars, flying planes across Texas and leading the entrepreneur’s life and living the American dream, especially for me as an immigrant to this country. But in 2015, all of that started to change. Our company was on the verge of bankruptcy. We were losing employees left and right. We were losing customers, contracts. And I had a realization, especially after our darkest day, which is essentially when we had to lay off over a hundred employees of a 300-employee organization.
Mohammad Anwar:
And I had to do that to make that decision to save our company, struggling company, make that layoffs. And unfortunately we did it in a very inhumane manner. I’m very embarrassed by how that whole process went and I’m still reeling from it. But as a result of that layoffs and what I call our darkest day, it led me to be really introspective, because I really had no other answers. I didn’t know how to run the business anymore. I felt like I had tried everything and here I am. I was forced to do layoffs for the first time in my history. And in a moment of introspection, which was derived after watching a football game, surprisingly of University of Houston, my alma mater, and I had witnessed just this amazing comeback of their football team in the fourth quarter, losing by 20 points, coming back to win with 30 seconds to spare.
Mohammad Anwar:
I was really inspired watching that game in person. And I was looking to try and replicate that at Softway. So I was like, “I’m going to go back. I’m going to fight. I’m not going to give up. This is my challenge.” I started to see Softway through the eyes of the Houston Kruger football team and I envisioned our own fourth quarter financial comeback. And on Monday, I logged into Facebook Live to see then coach Tom Herman, who is a rookie head coach, having this Cinderella season. And he was being so successful. I was very inspired to hear what he had to say. And in the interview with the press, it’s what he said that changed my life and my perspective, is when one of the reporters asked what had led to his team’s resilience and comeback win that night. And he attributed it to the culture of love.
Mohammad Anwar:
He attributed to the love and support that each player had for one another. And he said, “This is not the love you doubt kind of love. This is the genuine, you-have-my-heart-in-your-hand type of love, where the team members go on the field to not fight for themselves, but they fight for the brother next to them. And that’s the culture of love that wins championship teams. Not a team of all-star players, but an all-star team that loves one another.” And it just blew my mind watching that. And I’m sitting there thinking, in an introspective moment, “Do I love my team?” And the answer was a resounding, “No. I do not. I don’t care for my team the way coach Herman just described.”
Mohammad Anwar:
And that’s when I started to commit to going on this journey of “Okay, I need to create an environment where there is a cultural love and that starts with me. This all has been my fault. My selfish behaviors, my selfish attitude. The way I treated my team created a toxic workplace environment. And every one of my leaders, my team, all the way to last seat last stroke tried to emulate my behaviors, because I set the tone. And so I am guilty and responsible for why our company is almost out of business.” And so I had to go through that feeling and introspection and commit to going on a transformation journey where I need to first change my behaviors as the leader of the company, learn to love my team before I ask them to love one another. And that’s how we went on this journey and we ended up surviving, but also ended up thriving. And that’s just the genesis of how I even encountered this concept of love.
Tricia Sciortino:
That’s a very profound story. Obviously, life changing for you, personally. Personally. The business transformation and what that’s able to do for a business is amazing, of course, but I imagine for you, the transformation, personally, also was profound for you. Did you see that shape into how you lived life?
Mohammad Anwar:
Oh, absolutely. It was something that maybe my case for change began with saving the company, but really as a transformation of my behaviors, it’s a part of life, because it’s helping me become the human I need to be for the world, not just for my teammates or the clients and the customers that I work with, but for my family, my children, my neighbors. And it just helped influence how I saw the world and how I interacted with the world. And it just helped me uncover the self-awareness gap I had. I had imagined myself to be the successful leader that knew how to build a company starting off as a 20 year old and it had clouded my ability to understand how I was perceived. I was seeing myself coming across as this great boss. And on the other hand, people were experiencing me entirely different than what I thought I was being experienced as.
Mohammad Anwar:
And that was a gap I had. And it took me this football game to recognize that, “Oh, my gosh, I actually don’t treat people well. I like undermining them, belittling them,” even in the most subtle ways. It’s not like I was always outright yelling and screaming and banging on a table. I would do it even in the nicest ways, I would insult people and call to judgment what they had done or how they had failed and blame others. And my team just replicated my behaviors and it just became toxic through and through the organization. And, unfortunately, people looked up to me as well, “If I need to be a leader, that’s how I got to behave. That’s how you climb the ladders.”
Tricia Sciortino:
There’s also so much for me sitting on the other side, listening to you say all this, all I keep thinking is, “Wow, you’re so brave.” The courage to even just sit here now, even after the fact, and be able to say those things, in my opinion, requires so much bravery. It’s hard for people to admit they make mistakes. And maybe you can, but to be able to sit here now and talk to me and just say those things about yourself and how you’ve transformed some of them to me is just very courageous. So thank you for your courage, and just downright vulnerability, honestly. Sometimes people show us a mirror and we don’t want to see what’s in the mirror, but gosh, they can be the most amazing moments in our lives. And it sounds like that experience was really a mirror for you.
Tricia Sciortino:
And so the benefit on our side is that you get to put all, that penmanship to paper so that we could learn a little bit about your strategies. And so I’d love it if you wouldn’t mind taking a few minutes and go through the six behaviors you define that help create a culture of love. I know there are the majority of organizations, I’m saying majority, that’s probably pretty brazen that I say majority, but I am going to say majority of organizations don’t function in a way where a culture of love and empathy and care exists. But I believe so much it is the future of work, that that’s where work is headed. And that’s why I think we’re in this great resignation and all these things is I think people are looking and seeking to find cultures of love at work. And so I think that your book is so timely and these principles and behaviors are so timely for everybody to read right now. So anyway, I’ll stop babbling. I’d love to hear you talk about the six behaviors.
Mohammad Anwar:
Sure, absolutely. So before I just drive the concept of the six pillars of behavior for culture of love, I wanted to just set the tone that culture is nothing but a culmination of how we treat one another. Many a times organizations misunderstand culture to be the perks, the benefit, the values, the mission statements and the vision statements, but really what it all boils down to is how do we treat one another? How do we experience one another at a workplace, remotely or in person? And it’s those little moments of interactions that define culture. And when you really think about transforming culture means you have to transform behaviors. You cannot change cultures of the organizations by doing a rebrand or by instituting more benefits and comps alone. You also have to understand how to change how we behave with one another. So we believe behaviors are the bottom line.
Mohammad Anwar:
If you’ve heard a Peter Drucker’s statement, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” which I completely believe. Then behaviors eat culture for lunch. So it must start with behaviors. So in order for us to help our own organization go on a journey of culture change, we had to define these behavior pillars for all of us to behave with, to strive to behave under, because we’re always going to be a constant state of transformation. So the six pillars, which we call the pillars of love, are inclusion, empathy, vulnerability, trust, empowerment, and forgiveness. And these six pillars are not in any specific order of priority or one is more important than the other. In fact, they are like the six cylinders of an engine of a car. It’s funny you asked me that question about my car earlier. So to stay in the same team, it is like a six cylinders of a car engine.
Mohammad Anwar:
They have to fire at the right time in proper harmony and synchronous manner to create the maximum horsepower or maximum performance of the engine. If any one of the cylinders or the pistons don’t fire at the right time, you can lose efficiency of your engine or even fail. Engine can have a failure. So think of these six pillars of culture of love as those six cylinders of an engine. They all have to coexist. They all have to work in harmony with each other to realize the culture of love in inside of your organization. So inclusion is the first one, where we are not just looking at inclusion from the physical elements of diversity, but we are trying to help people understand that it’s not just important to have a seat at the table, but a voice at the table. And that could be from how we think, how we value stuff, how we make decisions, how we behave. All of these invisible elements of diversity are just as important to be included, number one.
Mohammad Anwar:
Second is empathy, being able to practice empathy, not just with people that we feel like we relate to but with those that we don’t relate to even, trying to have that emotional intelligence to understand other people who may not be like us, think like us, behave like us, but being able to empathize from their lens. So that’s second. Third is vulnerability, which is the ability to just say, “I messed up. I am sorry.” It’s as simple as that. We’re not talking about vulnerability in the context of sharing your deepest, darkest secret, but yet it is the hardest thing for individuals to do, to have the courage to be vulnerable. And through vulnerability, we demonstrate strength, not weakness. The fourth pillar is trust. And when we speak about trust, everyone will say, “Yes, we have trust with each other.”
Mohammad Anwar:
While that fact is true, we do believe that maybe it is just from a layer of a predictive trust, meaning “I will trust Tricia that you are amazing at hosting this podcast, because I’ve heard your podcast. That’s all I know. So that’s your visible capability set, so I trust Tricia in this podcast. But anything beyond that, I may not trust you because I have not witnessed it or have not seen you perform in the past.” And many organizations survive today on predictive trust. But if you must break through the ceiling to high performance, we need to practice what is called vulnerability-based trust, where we will trust people despite their failures in the past. We will trust people, even if they have not demonstrated certain skillsets or capabilities, but we are willing to trust them to say, “Yes, I trust you. I trust your intent. Go for it.”
Mohammad Anwar:
And that’s what leads to empowerment, true empowerment, which is not just through delegation, but through trusting and trusting those from a place of vulnerability. That’s when you unlock what we call the power of empowerment, because the person or people who are being empowered from that layer are going to do everything in their capacity not because they are scared, because they’re scared of their boss, but because they don’t want to disappoint the very person who has empowered them. That’s when they do above and beyond to not disappoint the very who’s empowered them. And that’s what we call the power of empowerment. And lastly, forgiveness, probably something corporate environments don’t talk enough about, but it is probably one of the main reasons why organizations fail or unable to break through higher a performance, because we are all human, at the end of the day. We hurt each other or get hurt from each other, intentionally or unintentionally at times. And for as long as people are unable to process that forgiveness and we hold on to unforgiveness, it changes the way we interact and behave and trust one another and work with each other. And it could lead to retaliation in forms that may not be overt, but it happens.
Mohammad Anwar:
And so forgiveness is very important to be talked about, instituted and create the environment for being able to forgive one another by first seeking forgiveness, but also finding in our hearts to forgive, whether that forgiveness seeking comes or not. So when you have an environment where these six pillars of behavior are being experienced by everyone through and through the organization, then you have created an environment of culture of love, where people are able to bring their full self, feel respected, feel included, don’t hesitate to give feedback, receive feedback, are not fearful of sharing ideas. They are okay to be not embarrassed to give a bad idea, because they believe that they are psychologically safe to bring their full self. That’s when you unlock high performance for your organization that leads you to achieve any business outcome you put in front of them. So that’s how we look at these six pillars of love.
Tricia Sciortino:
I could not agree more. I think that a lot of people get it maybe backwards. And I think that the priorities are you have business goals that you set, and then you have people that you put in place to achieve those goals. When really, if you have the right people who are empowered, they will show up and exceed your goals. The business goals will come. So I would say, Belay that having a healthy organization that’s built off great culture actually is the fuel to our organization’s success is that every man and woman who works for Belay, bringing their whole selves and committing to what their job is every day is the reason why we are able to be successful.
Mohammad Anwar:
I believe it.
Tricia Sciortino:
It’s not the other way around. It’s not, “We have a great company and you get to work here with great culture.” It’s “No, we have a great company, because we have great culture and we have great culture because you brought your whole self here and you do that every day.” And so I love this so much. The one that stuck out to me, of course, is forgiveness, because I hadn’t and thought about it in the context of work culture. And I think, after hearing you talk about it, it is very important. So very important for those other fives to really function correctly, you have to have that right forgiveness. So I love that that one’s in there.
Mohammad Anwar:
If I may, I’d like to just quickly share how I came to learn about this. And the importance of it. So back when I was going through my transformation, about two years into the transformation, I had made a lot of changes, not just to how I behave, but also to the processes, policies, benefits, everything. I had tried to change inside out, inside of the company. And I was visiting our Bangalore offices in July of 2017. And I had a town hall meeting and I, basically, took a poll in the company of 100 plus employees at the time. And I said, “Hey, has trust improved between you and I?” And to my surprise, only two out of 100 plus people raised their hands saying, “Yes, trust had improved.” I felt like somebody just punched me in my gut. I was incredibly embarrassed, disappointed, and I was unable to contain my emotions.
Mohammad Anwar:
So I just prematurely ended that town hall meeting and left, because I was like, “This is not what I was expecting after all those sacrifices and changes.” And a few days later, I had an opportunity to address the company again. This time I mustered up the courage to apologize to our team and I said, “I’m incredibly sorry. And I want to seek your forgiveness for all of my past behaviors of how I treated you and of all of the policies and benefits I had Institute that hurt you and your families. And I wish that you will forgive me.” And I remember myself crying as I was sharing that message of seeking forgiveness. And I, again, became very emotionally unable to contain myself. And I had to leave that meeting also prematurely. And then the last day arrived, I was going to fly back to Houston and they arranged a farewell gathering for me.
Mohammad Anwar:
And in that gathering, I was surprised there and they gifted me this book that said, “We love you and we trust you, Mo.” And they filled it up with messages of love and support, signed and written by every person in the organization. And I began to cry again. This time, they were tears of joy. And something you’ll know about me, I cry a lot. But this time it was tears of joy and I was so happy. I was just wanting to get this validation from our team that this was working. This is needed. But I learned a very valuable lesson that day that I can change my behaviors. I can change policies. I can do all the right things I’m supposed to do as a leader.
Mohammad Anwar:
But at the end of the day, if I don’t seek forgiveness for my past behaviors, no matter what I do, it didn’t matter. My team still did not want to trust me. And without that act of seeking forgiveness, I don’t know if my team would even have given me a chance to go forward through this journey of transformation. So it was an eye-opening experience for me.
Catherine Bowman:
So one of my favorite things is getting on a Zoom call and a couple of times I’ve looked into the eyes of some exhausted and tired leadership. I implemented, really, a focus for my clients on delegation and had one leader in particular who just held it all then. I said, “Let’s start with delegating and doing that from a financial perspective.” And so we built his budget and his chart of accounts around what ministry head is going to own this. I challenged him to not look at the nitpicky line items, to just look at the overall budget for a couple of months and he quickly became relieved of that stress. And that was a huge win for that client. I remember talking six months later and he was not the same person he was six months ago. And it was a win-win for both of us, because I could do my job and his people could do their job, and then he could do his.
Ryan Fitzgerald:
Their story can be your story too. And all it takes is One Next Step to get started. You shouldn’t have to do everything. And with a Belay bookkeeper, you don’t have to. Visit belaysolutions.com today to start accomplishing more and juggling less.
Tricia Sciortino:
So for anybody listening today, who knows they’re leading an environment that needs to change and maybe it isn’t okay and everything isn’t okay, where would you tell them to start? Is it with the forgiveness piece? What advice would you give a leader who is in a position where they know they need to do better?
Mohammad Anwar:
I would say start with trying to unlock that self-awareness, because people can see through genuity and authenticity. So we can’t just go apologize, because that’s the right thing to do, but we must do it from a place of authenticity. And for that to come truly from your heart, it does require unlocking that self-awareness and the way you can accomplish that self-awareness is through introspection, looking within, holding up the mirror to yourself and trying to see how you see the world. But then also gathering feedback from the people around you to really validate or invalidate is how I see people experiencing me, the real way they’re experiencing me. And when you’re able to put the two together, the introspection piece and the feedback piece, you will really understand your gaps. And when you’re able to have that realization, then the next step is to commit like, “Okay, I want to change. I need to change.”
Mohammad Anwar:
And then just take small, micro steps to make those changes happen. It’s not this grandiose transformation, like you announce to the world, then you’re going on this big mission. It starts with small things, as simple as just saying good morning to everybody walking in or smiling.
Tricia Sciortino:
Smiling. Yes.
Mohammad Anwar:
Instead of being stressed out, or just writing a thank-you card to your team. It’s a small, little micro act that make the big difference. But without that self-awareness, you can’t even get started. So forgiveness will come. You will find your opportunity to ask of it, because you need everyone in the organization to rally around the leader and to help take the company in the direction that you need to or your team, but you can’t do that alone. You can’t do that by yourself. You need the support of your team and you have to take them with you on the journey, but you must set the tone. You must start walking the talk before you talk the walk and ask others to join you. So start small. It makes the big difference.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah. And I think part of what you said, which is huge, I know it has been for me is really soliciting that outside feedback and more importantly getting real feedback, not the yes men, who are going to tell you, “No, you’re a great leader. You’re a good boss.” Really putting out, even anonymous, 360 feedback, so that you will get the truth about how you show up to people or how people perceive you. And that’s where some really good work can begin, because it’s the most honest answers you get.
Mohammad Anwar:
Absolutely. I always say when you first go get feedback, you’re probably going to get “100%. Everything’s great. Nothing’s wrong.” Don’t be flattered by that. It’s probably not honest feedback. And for me, I’ve had to struggle with that. But I think what helped me… Anonymous service is definitely the starting point, but also to get real-time feedback in the moment, what has helped me, and I can share with the audience, is being able to be vulnerable and just saying, “Hey, you know what? I take ownership. I messed up. I made a mistake or I don’t know everything. I actually don’t know the answer to that question. Or I’m sorry I made that bad decision,” it creates a totally different environment where people are given the permission to be vulnerable, but also gives them the permission to say, “Okay, my leader is apologizing and saying sorry, then I’m sure I can be safe to go give feedback in real time,” because that vulnerability creates this trust.
Mohammad Anwar:
And that allows you to get that real-time feedback. Because the more real time you can get feedback, the better leadership decisions and mindful you can be. So I’d say vulnerability also can help a lot with that feedback situation.
Tricia Sciortino:
Yeah, absolutely. Putting yourself out there. And we like to say, being palms open, palms up, showing up with the intent to receive. Opening the door, basically, as a first step and it’s never easy. And I always tell people the first time you get real feedback, it’s probably not going to feel good. There might be tears involved. There might be some crying like, “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe they think that about me.” But then when you do some introspect, you realize, “Yes, this is exactly what I needed and this is who I am.” So what would you say to a leader that’s made the decision to go on this journey and is struggling with making changes in their culture. Any advice for taking the hard step to do it?
Mohammad Anwar:
First of all, this journey is going to be never ending. It’s a permanent state or transformation that you’re signing up for. Second, so to manage that expectations, you will fail a lot. You will still make mistakes. You will still mess up. You will still have mishaps. The best advice that I’ve had to give to myself is I needed to learn to forgive myself. And I think that was the hardest part, is I would still have issues. I would still behave outwardly that was not appropriate. Or I said things that I shouldn’t have said. And I couldn’t transform overnight. I’m still on this journey and I’m still far from perfect. But what was helpful for me was, first of all, once you realize that about yourself and you have that self-awareness, you’ll catch yourself doing those things. And in those moments, you might feel really guilty and bad.
Mohammad Anwar:
Please find it in yourself to forgive yourself. Because in this journey, if we are unable to, as leaders, forgive ourselves, we won’t be able to have it in us to forgive others or seek forgiveness. So for me, I had to get out of that guilt. I had to find myself to forgive myself and say, “You know what? It’s okay. I made a mistake. I’ll try my best not to do it again. I’m not perfect,” because if I held myself into a place of self condemnation, I behaved differently with others. I avoided people. I became apathetic. I became scared to be myself and it did not benefit anyone. So I had to learn to forgive myself.
Mohammad Anwar:
So that would be my biggest advice to leadership out there, is this journey is hard. Being a leader is hard. I fully empathize and I feel bad for many leaders getting the heat for everything that goes in the company. There’s a lot of responsibility bearing on the shoulders of leadership. There’s a lot that they have to deal with. And I would say find it yourself to forgive yourself, because that will help you go a long way.
Tricia Sciortino:
I love that. Progress, not perfection.
Mohammad Anwar:
Yes.
Tricia Sciortino:
One step forward every day is all we’re going for.
Mohammad Anwar:
Absolutely.
Tricia Sciortino:
Thank you so much. What is the best way for our audience to get in touch with you, find you, learn more about you?
Mohammad Anwar:
Yes, I am very active on LinkedIn.
Tricia Sciortino:
Okay. LinkedIn.
Mohammad Anwar:
So LinkedIn would be one of the best ways to get hold of me. And my handle on LinkedIn is Anwar Softway, which is my last name. Anwar and Softway, the company name. So if you Google Mohammad Anwar, Love is a Business Strategy, you’ll find ways to connect with me, but my easiest way is LinkedIn.
Tricia Sciortino:
Awesome. Perfect. Great. Well, thank you so much. This has been such a great conversation Mohammad.
Mohammad Anwar:
Thank you.
Tricia Sciortino:
I also would love it, if you wouldn’t mind, hanging around after this interview for one more question? I want to ask you about the tactical side of Love as a Business Strategy, how that all works together, if you don’t mind.
Mohammad Anwar:
Sure.
Tricia Sciortino:
Awesome. Okay, guys, you are not going to want to miss this bonus question. So to hear that clip, subscribe to our email list, and we’ll send you a link to our bonus content or visit onenextsteppodcast.com where you can find a link in our show notes.
Ryan Fitzgerald:
Gosh, what a great conversation with Mohammad and Tricia. What was your favorite takeaway LZ?
Lisa Zeeveld:
I know, that totally was an amazing conversation. I love the way Mohammad described the six pillars of culture of love. And I thought Tricia call out about forgiveness in the workplace was particularly insightful. Now, as always, we have a special download for our listeners. This week, Mohammad is giving away a few copies of his book, Love as a Business Strategy. Head to the show notes page to find Mohammad’s LinkedIn handle and connect with him for your chance to grab your free copy today.
Ryan Fitzgerald:
Well, thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s One Next Step. To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or follow us on Spotify and feel free to leave a review while you’re there. And if you’re ready to start accomplishing more and juggling less go belaysolutions.com.
Lisa Zeeveld:
Join us next time for more practical business tips and tools to help you advance your business, one step at a time. For more episodes, show notes and helpful resources, visit onenextsteppodcast.com. Next week, we’ll be joined by Catherine Bowman, one of Belay’s very own bookkeepers. She’ll talk with us about how she helps her clients save time and money, and how she helps them to wisely manage and spend their hard-earned dollars. Here’s a quick preview.
Catherine Bowman:
So the big win is that he has delegated off some of the tasks that he and his wife were doing together, and he has put a team in place to handle finances. He’s let it go. And we have a weekly call and week by week, I see him trust it a little bit more, a little bit more. So to see his facial expression change week to week, he’s starting to breathe a little easier.
In this episode, we are joined by Mohammad Anwar, the President and CEO of Softway. He’s authored a Wall Street Journal best-selling book called Love as a Business Strategy, and he’s going to talk to us about how to implement this transformational idea all around building a culture of resilience, belonging and success. Listeners will leave this episode feeling hopeful and ready to at least begin thinking about making some changes in their business and culture after listening to Mohammad.
