Building A Strong And Thriving Work Culture With Leading Lotus Founder Umadevi Gopaldass

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The lotus is a flower that not only survives but thrives and prospers in muddy, murky, unclear water. Companies are like that, they need to strive and adapt to hard times. You need to build the right culture so that your company can go through those times. This is exactly what the founder of Leading Lotus, Umadevi Gopaldass does for her clients. She helps them build a strong ecosystem or work culture so that they can achieve success. Join your host, Stephen Jaye as he talks to Umadevi Gopaldass about her many work experiences with different cultures. Learn how to emerge from this muddy, murky place and thrive. --- Listen to the podcast here Building A Strong And Thriving Work Culture With Leading Lotus Founder Umadevi Gopaldass For the vast majority of people, work is a major part of our lives. One key aspect that impacts our work experience is the culture of the organization that we work for. Work culture is one area where I believe that we’re in serious need of making work, work better for more people. With that being said, I want to bring up my guest, Umadevi Gopaldass, who started her own business called Leading Lotus. That is leading the charge in bringing us a better, more useful work culture. Thank you for joining us, Uma. Hi, Stephen. Thank you for having me. It’s my pleasure. Tell me a little bit about Leading Lotus and what your goal is for our work culture. I started Leading Lotus a few years ago. I incorporated on February 14th on Valentine’s Day. I had nothing else to do that day, so I was a rebel. I had quit the corporate world. I had 26 years of working and living all over the world. I was in oil and gas, working offshore on oil rigs, platforms, and remote towns. I was with Accenture Management Consulting for several years and then had high-powered jobs and careers, followed by the gold mining industry. Part of it was, I was struggling to find a purpose for my own life, which was pulling at me. Even though I had great careers, the remuneration was great. Work-life balance was an issue, but then financial stability was not an issue. That was the struggle. I didn’t have to change anything except I had to. It was like a conundrum. It wasn’t like just yesterday. I woke up and decided, “I want to do this.” It was starting to happen six years before I even quit my last high flying job. When it was time to let go of a paid job, the decision was very natural. I quit end of 2016 after finishing all my projects. I didn’t leave. I had a three-year project that I completed and I left. I disengaged from everything for three months and founded Leading Lotus. The company had an underlying theory that we all need to come out of the book, the muddy, murky consciousness of mess that we go through every day in our minds, where a lotus grows. Lotus is actually like a weed. It only grows in muddy, murky, unclear waters. It always comes out of the water pristine because it’s got a self-cleaning technology built into it. We call it the Lotus effect. It’s a scientifically proven design that’s used in control towers. Not many people know the biology of a Lotus. It’s a revered plant and had been around for 150 million years. I said every day we do need to come out of that muddy, murky messiness. We need to think clearly, see the light, and make the right decisions. That’s a tough call, every day, day in and day out. I designed my company based on that. The tagline was, “Decide with clarity.” It’s supposed to help people, individuals, professionals, businesses, corporations, and nonprofits get out of the struggling mode and get into the striving mode, and then end up in the thriving mode. Because if you look at the Lotus, they thrive in a murky environment, but it’s an ecosystem where it’s always going to shine bright when the sunlight’s out. That was the premise of Leading Lotus. "I hire people telling them that they can only work for me or in this role for two years. I need to see them progress.