Dog-Gone Leadership is effective in pet-friendly Workplaces

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I know you say that one of your sweet spots are pet-friendly companies. Can you tell us why?

Yes, of course. I love pet-friendly companies for several reasons.

  1. They are employee-focused. They understand that they have to serve their employees and provide a convenient workplace to get equal commitment and engagement from their team. Gone are the times when companies just had to supply a desk and salary and people were happy. Instead, when people are required to show up at their best, the condition that they work in has to be the best as well.
    Dogs in the workplace can provide a lot of benefits to people as long as the dogs are well-behaved. But we can get to that topic at another time.  And so these are companies that are committed to the well-being and growth of their employees and therefore engage coaches and trainers to advance their skills, performance, and well-being.
  1. At pet-friendly companies, it is a given that people either love dogs or accept dogs. So using my stories and analogies is a very natural fit.
    Now here is where I can take the workshops to another level. When I talk with an HR person or a business owner and we identify the challenges that people have or the topics that they want me to address with their team, I can use real-life examples with the dogs. In other words, I ask the person who hires me about the dynamics that they observe between people and their dogs, or if the company is here in town, I can come by and watch and talk with a couple of employees to see how they interact with their dogs. That tells me so much about people, more than when I see them interact with people. Because with our dogs we let our guards down and show our true us. With people, we sometimes feel we have to protect ourselves and we have to be someone else. So again, in pet-friendly companies, I can take my approach to another level because of the relationship that people have with their dogs and the customized approach that leads to deeper learning, broader application, and therefore greater success.