The Yegi Project

How to Be More Transparent in Your Business and Personal Life | Creating a Positive Work Culture

August 17, 2022 Yegi Saryan Episode 22
The Yegi Project
How to Be More Transparent in Your Business and Personal Life | Creating a Positive Work Culture
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Yegi goes over the importance of transparency in business and our personal lives. By becoming a more transparent person, manager, business owner, wife, daughter - whatever the case may be - you will positively impact those around you. Employees will work harder, your loved ones will feel comfortable communicating with you, and your environment will always be a more positive space. Transparency isn't easy, but it is necessary for building a strong foundation in anything you do.

Tiny Habits (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3pov2np
Ted Talk mentioned: https://youtu.be/RyTQ5-SQYTo

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Yegi is a young entrepreneur who has always been curious and hardworking. You can say she has always seen things out of the box and been able to creatively solve difficult problems. Her cool and collective spirit in life and business makes you want to be around her. She thrives on inspiring others and helps others see things from a positive point of view.

The Yegi Project, is the podcast for the young entrepreneur who may not know where to start, doesn’t have anyone to guide them in the right direction and may not have full support from others. This podcast is called The Yegi “Project” because although Yegi is happy with where she is now, she knows that she still has a lot to do to complete her mission and purpose in this world. She aims to use this podcast to work hard alongside all of you to grow to a point where she can make a lasting change in people’s lives and in the world. 

If you would like to be a guest on a future episode of The Yegi Project, please email info@yegiproject.com

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#transparency #theyegiproject #smallbusinesstips

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If you would like to be a guest on a future episode of The Yegi Project, please email info@yegiproject.com

The Yegi Project is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and more!
https://linktr.ee/theyegiproject

Hey beauty lovers and fellow  entrepreneurs. I'm Yegi,   the owner and founder of Yegi Beauty.  Within five years of being my own boss,   I was able to grow Yegi Beauty into  a multi-million dollar company.   This podcast is where I share what it takes to be  a successful entrepreneur in the beauty industry. Hello hello hello welcome back to The Yegi  Project. Today we have a solo episode especially   for you and it is about transparency and taking  responsibility - the importance of it in business   and in your personal life. Let me tell you  guys a little bit of why I want to talk about   transparency today, here's a little story time.  So I have two tiny kids six-month-old and almost   a two-year-old and they are kind of driving me  crazy with their sleeping patterns - we're going   through sleep regressions with the two-year-old  and you know the six-month-old has never really   gotten a routine just yet, so we're getting very  little sleep. And of course getting little sleep   is affecting me being in the office more regularly  or being here on time. Since I do want to balance   that life and work and I think that's super  important I do want to attend to my kids. So   this is taking away from my work but then it's  making me feel guilty when I'm coming in later   than our start time or missing days of work and  I really don't like talking about my personal   life with my employees or colleagues and all of  that so it was starting to make me feel really   bad about being a bad employee myself.  I I was thinking to myself hey if   I was my own employee I would probably fire myself  because I'm missing days I'm coming in late and   you know people are probably looking at  me and judging me because I also believe   in leading by example. Anyways long story short  I was getting these negative emotions about this   and I really started thinking and then I was  reminded of transparency because when I thought   about okay I can either really like let the ball  drop with my family situation or work situation   or you know I'm human I can be transparent with my  employees and let them know kind of what's going   on in my personal life you know and hopefully it's  temporary and they could be more understanding of   why I'm coming in late or why I'm missing some  days and that really just such a simple solution   when you think about it right but in reality in  life sometimes we don't think that just being   transparent and fully clear with the people around  us will make the difference, but it made me feel   so much happier once I started communicating that  with them and it did it got rid of that negative   emotion of feeling kind of guilty in a way, and  everybody was really understanding actually and   very supportive and very you know encouraging.  So that's kind of why I want to talk about   transparency and I want to apply it to business  and personal life and why it's so so important.   Before we jump into the importance of transparency  in business I want to talk about the "feeling   good factor" I was actually reading  a book last night and it's called   Tiny Habits - I've mentioned this book in the past  - but I was reading a section and it reminded me   and this is science they've done research and  research and they've come to this behavioral   solution. In life if we want to create a habit  or do something we're way more likely to do it if   it encourages a positive happy feeling. So that  also kind of stuck to my head is the importance of   feeling happy or that satisfaction of doing things  and that's how we're going to be able to be more   productive and successful as well in our life, in  our work. So before we jump into the importance of   transparency I do want to say that it really leads  to feeling more happy and content and therefore to   more building better habits and being more  successful in the long run. I guess what   I'm trying to do with this podcast episode is to  bring awareness of the importance of transparency   so you guys can really think about your own  life and how you react in situations where   you have the option to be transparent or not. Why  is it important to be transparent in business? So   first of all this is how you're gonna build trust  between your team and also have a good reputation   as a company if you're gonna be transparent with  your customers, with your employees and everybody.   So this is a very very simple thing to be in  order for you to have a very good culture with   your employees and customers. And like I said  more than likely when you're transparent even   in negative situations your customers or employees  are going to be way more understanding compared to   pretending that everything is okay. Being  transparent and encouraging people to be   transparent in your company really is going  to solve a lot of problems in the long run.   For example if an employee makes a mistake and  you yourself have made a mistake as a leader   and owned up to it and corrected your mistake  then your employees are more likely to come   up to you and say hey I made this mistake but  let's solve it let's figure it out together,   compared to you not knowing about this  mistake and it really affecting your business.   Here's an example for you guys. So my employees  have access to adjusting our inventory given   for whatever reason that's needed and one time  an employee actually made a mistake of deleting   a bunch of stuff from our inventory and you  could see why this would be a problem and   you know when we have a big inventory I may not  have caught that online or in store that hey this   item is out of inventory so therefore nobody is  buying for it or shopping for it online. It might   have taken some time for me to figure that out and  that would have negatively impacted our sales. So   by me encouraging transparency and people not  being afraid to own up and take responsibility,   that employee actually came up to me and really  owned up to it and we fixed it right away   instead of it being kind of hidden and had  negative results in the long run, right,   um so definitely definitely that's the small  kind of smaller big example but definitely it   just helps if you yourself can be transparent  and encourage your employees to be transparent   and that's the way you're gonna act too. If  somebody makes a mistake or if you make a mistake   don't make it such a big deal instead learn  from it and move on. There is no mistake   big enough that cannot be fixed and being in  business for a decade I could tell you that   there's going to be lots of mistakes and it's  the way you handle those mistakes that's really   going to make the difference and transparency is  key since that's what we're talking about today.   Another thing transparency can do in business  and by you owning up to your mistakes as a leader   it can really build stability and trust with your  employees where they can come forward and help you   with whatever is going on and have creative  control of really helping you, compare them   just always knowing that you're just gonna pretend  that everything's okay all the time. So I remember   listening to a Ted Talk and really resonated with  me and it kind of gave me like a reassurance that   okay I'm running my company the right way because  sometimes it's I contradict myself I either want   to be super corporate and be like no we have to  do everything super by the book or I want to be   like oh no you guys are my best friends let's all  be friends so it's been really hard finding that   balance in between not being super corporate  and very like oh this is only business for   versus oh we're all friends but we work together.  So what I found that is like okay we're gonna keep   it, we're gonna keep business business and we're  gonna focus on our objectives and goals and get   everything done. We want to keep in mind that we  also have our personal lives and sometimes that   may mean that if something is not going perfect  in our personal life our work life no matter what   is gonna you know drop the ball a little bit  and I'm talking from experience like even me   as a business owner my business I drop the  ball on my business if something's off in   my personal life so I know this happens to all  my employees too and I've experienced it and   been able to work through a lot of it with the  employees. So I remember listening to this Ted   Talk and um like I was saying he really mentioned  that you know instead of us just assuming that an   employee is not performing and is being bad at  that moment their numbers look off or you know   you just feel like they're really distracted  their head's not in the game at that moment,   instead of us just assuming they are not doing  well, we're gonna go ahead and take a moment   and try to have a conversation with them and allow  them to be transparent with us. You know because   somebody might really have something horrible  going on in their lives and all they may need is   their boss or a coworker or somebody to hear them  out for a second and help them get through it,   right? So always keep that in mind and encourage  transparency so overall you can have a better work   environment and therefore if your employees are  happier and feel like they can share if they need   to, but of course maintaining that balance um you  would definitely have a more dedicated employee   compared to somebody who's gonna you know not  care about their job or their or your company.   Here's another example for you guys. So I have  an employee that has been with me for a long time   and she also wants to pursue an acting career  and that means that sometimes she's going to get   a last-minute gig to call out the next day. Now as  a leader if I didn't encourage transparency in the   work environment and really have that culture,  what could have happened is that she could have   not told me that this is something that she really  want - is pursuing and loves but that doesn't mean   that her work needs to suffer from that right.  She's also a dedicated employee of what she's   currently doing for me in the company and she  has her place but I need to be understanding that   she's human, she has this priority or this dream  of hers that she's also pursuing for herself, so   that's kind of okay and it's kind of - it may be  hard as a manager or a business owner to kind of   come to a place to have that mentality but I want  to share with you guys the benefits of it. Because   this is a real life example of what happened to  me I initially I might have thought oh you know   does that mean she's just like gonna do her own  thing during our during her work hours or she's   not gonna care or be dedicated to her job, if I  kind of give her flexibility to take off when she   needs to for her auditions or her gigs and stuff  like that, but in reality what ended up happening   is us being transparent she didn't have to  lie and call in sick the next day, she can   freely tell me hey I have a gig the following  day I'll make sure whatever I need to do on my   um work responsibility is taken care of the night  before, you're all set and I'm gonna you know go   do this and I'll come back to the office when  I'm done, and it has worked so wonderfully and   she shared with me since we were talking about  it because I was gonna record this episode,   that it encouraged her to actually want to work  harder because I'm being nice about it in a way   right a simple way to put it and it really really  works to be understanding of each other, to be   transparent, to communicate and again it goes back  to that feeling good in order to build a habit.   So by doing this it makes her feel good that she  can pursue what she's pursuing and therefore she's   going to be more likely to be happier in her work  and perform and and move on and be better. Now   let me jump into the importance of transparency in  our personal lives. I really think as human nature   as we grow it has never been encouraged to really  be super transparent because we think that people   may judge us or I don't know we're afraid to even  say no I think that's like a whole other topic,   but I really think just being transparent and  really like saying what we're thinking and feeling   will solve a lot of problems. For example, if  my friend has invited me to an event tomorrow   night but I'm really exhausted or I'm not feeling  that well to go instead of me making an excuse to   cancel on her and I can be honest with her and  tell her look I'm feeling really tired it's not   personal like it's me I really want to be there  for you but I really need to sit this one out,   more than likely they're gonna understand, but  if you find an excuse and say for example, I know   because a lot of parents use this one, my kids are  sick and you don't go, more than likely they're   going to know you're bs'ing them and again creates  negative emotion and whatever results, right.   You feel guilty you lied or your friend knows you  lied you're like oh whatever this person always is   kind of trying to find an excuse right but if  we're more transparent and we explain ourselves   I promise you people will understand you. And in  the past in my personal life I really initially   had a really hard time saying no to people and  this was causing almost stress in my life because   I never had enough time to do the things that I  really wanted to do until I worked on myself to   pick and choose and how to kind of say no as well  again a whole other topic, but um again being   transparent was a huge part of that. And one way  that I was saying no to certain things was saying   look it's not that I don't want to help you with  this item but it's just that I really don't have   the time to right now with my current work or  school schedule. So here's another example and   it's kind of making me want to laugh when I talk  about it because it's about my mother-in-law.   Um I love her so much and she's such a sweet  lady and her - I know her love language is giving   she always wants to give and do stuff  for you and just give and buy stuff right   and it's great but sometimes it's hard for  me to be transparent for the things that she   brings to my house. Here's a very specific example  - a raspberry cake. I think one time I mentioned   that I liked like Porto's raspberry cheesecake  or something and then she took it as an I love   raspberry cake so she kept on bringing over  this raspberry cake to my house almost like   every week when we had an event, but I didn't  really love that cake and she was so excited to   give it and it was so hard for me to kind of break  it to her that, hey, I don't love this cake and   I was forced to eat this cake that I didn't love  every week because she was so excited for it, um,   until finally actually I was still having a hard  time being transparent so my husband broke it to   her and said um you know she doesn't love that  cake so maybe instead bring like a chocolate   cake cause that's what she likes and then you know  she still bought the cake, it still made her happy   but she brought the cake that I wanted to get.  So yeah symbolic but literally this happened,   um so pick the cake you want and be transparent  so you get what you want instead of feeling   like you know and then I felt like I was lying  to her, I was feeling guilty that she was like   it's good yummy. Anyways I hope that helps  um but yes think twice. So the way I want   to wrap up this podcast about transparency  really is it's a habit right, I feel like   lately I'm realizing everything is a habit  and we need to constantly work on it and maybe   because I'm reading that habit book right now but  really like everything almost that we do as humans   ends up being a habit that we're doing or a  habit that we're not doing. So for right now if   you guys want to practice transparency, one way  you can do it is literally pay attention to any   time that you can be more honest with yourself and  the person in front of you with what's going on,   compared to trying to kind of cover it up or  sugar coating it and see how that works out   for you. And I want to share one other thing  about building a habit is it is practice too   and the best way to build it is with having  positive emotions when you're trying something   new. So for example if I'm gonna try to be more  um transparent what I can do is that every time   I'm more transparent about even a small thing  I celebrate right and again that's a behavioral   theory that this book Tiny Habits really focuses  on, is you have to instantly celebrate something   if you're trying to make it a habit, because that  feeling good right after you celebrating is what's   going to encourage you to want to do it again. If  there is negative emotion more likely you're not   going to want to do it again. So now the way we're  going to practice to make transparency as a habit   is we're gonna every time we notice we do it or  we're gonna actively seek to be transparent we're   gonna celebrate. So if you're a person who goes  woohoo when you celebrate, or if you're a person   who goes yey or if in your head you're smiling  like oooooh - you know I'm a person who kind of   does like a stupid silly happy dance, that's what  you're gonna do and literally right now I have so   much happy emotions in me that it makes me wanna  do this more. So hopefully that makes sense but   yeah I would really recommend if you're trying  to build new habits really read that book called   Tiny Habits um it's not sponsored or anything I  really like this book - it's a way it puts habits   it makes you think oh this is simple let me try  it and see if it works. So I'm still personally   applying it to my life, I will share more more  with you guys how it has it has helped me build   certain habits in my life um once you know I have  a little bit more data within my myself, but with   that said I hope you guys enjoyed this episode  please um comment, share, let us know what you   think - I'm very curious about uh what you guys  think about transparency and how it worked for   you - let's talk about it. I hope you guys have  a great rest of your day see you next time bye! Thank you for listening. Please rate and review   this podcast. Follow and engage with us  on social media under @theyegiproject   and if you’re interested in being a  guest, email info@theyegiproject.com   and don’t forget to subscribe so you  don’t miss out on any future episodes.