At work there is often a perception that being professional means being private and formal, and that this is the best way to progress and make a good impression on higher ups. But what if you were told that being your authentic self, to share your vulnerabilities, was actually a strength?

 

Redefining the way we show up for ourselves and others, particularly in the workplace, is the focus and mission of DotConnect CEO and conscious leader Dominique Farnan. As the founder of the successful recruitment agency – named one of the fastest growing companies to watch by Inc. Magazine, she has helped countless companies like Samsung, Snapchat, and Beautycounter define their culture and transform the way they hire in order to create more conscious, driven, and profitable teams.

Dom adopted this mindset a few years back after she had a realization: she was living an unhealthy, workaholic lifestyle, and it was having a 360 impact on her business. She shares her story and inner healing journey in her book, Now Here: A Journey From Toxic Boss to Conscious Connector. In the book, she chronicles what it was like to be a high-functioning depressive, the moment she realized she needed to make a change, and the lessons she learned about how shifting your mindset cannot only create personal impact, but impact that can reverberate to everyone you touch.

“What I realized in my darkest moments was that I was entering everything from a place of negativity, and that impacted my family, my friends, my employees, and my clients,” says Dom. “When I finally started doing inner work and made a conscious effort to push myself to operate from a place of positivity, authenticity, and even vulnerability, I saw a change. Everyone I interacted with felt lighter, employees were more driven and confident, relationships felt more real, and it was an overall better mindset to be in. I knew I wanted to not only operate my business with this mindset, but encourage other businesses to do the same.”

Since adopting this mission mindset, Dom’s company is one where people really want to work, even in the toughest of times. She interjects joy into virtual team meetings through sound and dance, pushes her team members to succeed in a supportive environment, and helps them find opportunities to grow and nurture the relationship they have with themselves and the world around them.

And it’s not just her team who saw the immediate shift – it was clients, too.

“I knew that as the leader, the attitude and mindset I brought into the office was going to have a top-down effect. And if that’s the case at my company, that’s going to be the case everywhere. At a certain point, you have to realize when the ‘problem’ with company culture is you.” That’s why Dom shifted the way her company works with clients, to not only help them find top talent that is qualified for a role, but to also help companies define what their culture is, but also the types of people who will thrive there.

“It’s not just about finding someone who has experience using a certain software,” says Dom. “It’s about finding someone who can functionally do the job and has the same values as the company they want to join. That is what ultimately results in lower turnover and higher employee happiness. Once we approached recruiting in this way, we saw immediate change and far less turnover.”

Dom now offers one-on-one coaching for executives to talk to them about the importance of culture and vulnerability at work, and the long term benefits of embracing an authentic workplace. “I used to think of vulnerability as a weakness, but now I understand its strength.”

At the end of the day, Dom learned that she, like others, is a human being before a business owner. “One day I can look back and see that I chose to view my vulnerability as my strength, and was able to uplift and support my team in ways that weren’t possible before,” she says. “My intention is to always show up for them and create an environment where they can grow.”