Kindness is not a Weakness

I have to pinch myself sometimes when I take a moment to look at my company, TishTash Communications, and realise what I’ve achieved. It was never on the agenda, to be the founder and CEO of a large multi-award-winning marketing and public relations agency in the Middle East, but hey, here we are!

The term, CEO, gives me mixed feelings. On one hand, I have to chuckle. Me? A CEO? Where are my shoulder-pads, killer heels and single-raised eyebrow? And on the other hand, I feel uncomfortable. The responsibility is huge and the decisions are tough. If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I’d be in this position, I’d have never believed them.

And yet, here I am.

I am not cut-throat. I - admittedly - cry at my desk sometimes and I’ve locked myself in the bathroom at work after having fired someone feeling like the worst person alive having taken away their livelihood, albeit temporarily. I believe in keeping it real, including writing a warts-and-all diary on my Instagram, and if you’ve read any of my daily entries, you will know how brutally honest I am about sharing my feelings. In the past, these sorts of character traits have been labelled as weak. But they are not weak. They are from a strong heart. I don’t want to cover up the difficulties I’m facing. I don’t want my life to be a glossy overly curated and filtered version to the outside eye. I want others to know that they’re not alone and that kindness, has a lot to answer for.

I put my team first. Not clients. Team. When I started out, I was flying solo, and over time, naturally, a team started to grow. Many lessons were learnt along the way, and whenever I landed with success, it was down to managing the team - whether it was one colleague or 30+ - with care and respect. I look after my people; my ‘TishTashians’ as I fondly call them. I put their best interests at the heart of all I do and in doing so, the rest simply falls into place. We offer truly flexible working conditions, continuous support in well-being and invest in up-skilling. I always want my team to feel as though they can be trusted. A happy company breeds a happy - successful - outcome.

Business leaders have had a long-time stereotypical reputation of being cold, unapproachable bullies. The term, ‘treat ‘em mean, to keep ‘em keen’ probably springs to mind. If we were to watch a Netflix comedy about a CEO, the lead actor would likely be put in a suit and directed to be angry or stern. But in this day and age, we laugh and cringe at that sort of character. They have fallen from being “the norm”, because we live in a post-pandemic unsettled world that has never been more desperate for kindness.

I talk about gut instincts a lot. Many times, I’ve not listened to my gut, done whatever I thought I was “supposed” to do in business, and fallen flat on my face. We all have an inner voice, made up of our core values and beliefs. One of the hardest things about being a CEO is having to fire people when it’s not working out, but I have a choice; whether or not to approach this with empathy and kindness. Hiding my feelings and leaving my heart outside of the room is inhumane. Being true to myself - and to the person hearing the news - is being human. It’s genuine. It’s kind.

I deal with clients daily who don’t practice kindness and I pick them up on it and the way they deal with my team making it very clear it’s a non-negotiable to me. Seriously, I could write a book about it (… actually, I’ve already started, so watch this space!). Of course, sometimes I’d love to bite back, give them a taste of their own medicine, but that attitude gets you nowhere. It’s a waste of time and energy, and it will be no surprise to hear that I firmly believe in karma and what goes around, comes around.

So, forget that hunger for power, status and for greed. It all comes at a price. I’m going to stay ME - light, with an honest and open heart and yes the girl that sometimes does cry at her desk and I remain positive that it will all work out for the best and as it’s meant to.