One of the biggest challenges for founders is often retaining the best talent over time. Imagine having to do this… but not being able to pay your employees a penny.
For some of you, this would seem impossible, but for the last 25+ years as CEO of the Australian Thyroid Foundation (ATF), this has been the reality for my latest guest on The Wisdom Of… Show, Beverley Garside.
For nearly thirty years, this historic organization and its volunteers, in partnership with the ATF Advisory Team, have fearlessly and faithfully become Australia’s largest non-profit dedicated to advocating, supporting, and educating patients afflicted with thyroid disease.
Throughout our conversation, her message resonated with a profound depth of empathy and grace that seeped through her every word. Her mission and message reveal profound truths about how we, as business leaders, can better attract and retain our most loyal talent, create a culture of cyclical contribution, and ultimately turn every customer into a lifelong ambassador, whether we run a non-profit organization or a Fortune 500 company.
Want more inspiring insights on how to turn your employees into loyal brand evangelists? Watch the full interview with Beverley Garside now.
The Beginning: From Patient To President
“All the things I’ve done in my life have been training for what I do now.”
This reflection is one Beverley now says to herself often, but on that day roughly 30 years ago, she couldn’t have imagined what that operating table would lead to…
Back in 1996, Beverley had a severely damaged thyroid and two autoimmune diseases: Graves Disease and Hashimoto’s Disease.
The thyroid gland produces hormones that regulate metabolism and energy, which feed every cell in the human body. While not as common in the public eye as heart disease or cancer, thyroid issues can become very severe, and Beverley needed to get hers removed.
After her life-saving surgery to remove her dramatically enlarged thyroid, she learned that her surgeon was a guest speaker for the Australian Thyroid Foundation, which was founded in 1995 by Gale Ballentyne, who beat thyroid cancer.
She would find just how prevalent conditions like hers were over the coming decades.
“1,000,000 Australians today are walking around with an undiagnosed thyroid condition, and most of the time, these conditions are passed along genetically,” she said, reminding me of just how much work there was left to be done.
But on that first day, she told Gale, “I have no idea how I could help.” And at that time, this was true. She didn’t know how she would help, but she knew that she would, and for the sake of herself and others… she must.
This single thought illuminated what a servant-leader in the making believes.
Leadership Vs. Stewardship
This thought soon expanded into a belief that formed the backbone of Beverley’s decisions as she slowly began to shape the company after being elected President in 1999.
“I remember that at every meeting in the past for a while after becoming President, my husband would say to me, ‘So when you come home today, you won’t be President, will you?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t know’.”
“In all honesty…” she recalled. “It’s not because I want to be there, ’cause I try encouraging others to get more involved. I guess because everyone has a working life as well. I’ve given up my working life to do what I do. So, this is my full-time job and I am very fortunate that I’m in a position to be able to do that.”
As strange as this may sound, this is an excellent example of the difference between leadership and stewardship.
In leadership, there is a task to be done and a goal to be completed, which we as leaders seek to accomplish.
In stewardship, though, a lived experience often calls them to the cause or, more aptly, calls the cause to them.
This is one of the fundamental differences between leaders and stewards: Leaders choose their responsibility, but stewards find themselves chosen and only step down once they find another suitable steward who will carry on their role and, as I like to say, pay it forward with increase.
This is the path that Beverley found herself on—dedicating her life to a noble cause that played a significant role in saving her.
Sounding The Call - Lessons From Finding Volunteers
This theme of servant leadership then pivoted a bit as we looked at it from the other end.
How did Beverley and so many others become interested and get involved to the point where they could keep this organization going with volunteers only for nearly three decades?
Volunteers who, keep in mind, aren’t paid, are in total control of their time, and are not beholden to many of the traditional “draws” for standard employment (such as financial compensation and career development).
And how can the lessons learned from creating such strong initial devotion teach owners of for-profit businesses how to serve their teams more effectively?
Much of the latter half of our interview focused on this, and the takeaways here are nothing short of profound.
First, we must look at what drives the decisions of many newer non-profit volunteers.
They begin with reciprocity in place: When seeking to join the organization for the first time, they’ve already had a life event (in this case, a thyroid condition) that has caused an internal pull toward the organization.
They have clear, aligned, mutual goals: They believe in the same, unified goal that the organization does, as they share the same life experience that the others have had and wish to give back to others through the organization.
They feel appreciated for what they can do: The leader appreciates the possibilities and impossibilities of the member’s situation regarding their service and their capacity to contribute or not contribute their time.
Beverley used many of these principles, which can be instrumental in turning any business’s customers into more loyal advocates from the start.
For example, if you run a for-profit dog food company, you can create a meaningful goal you firmly believe in, such as donating $100,000 worth of dog food each year to local animal shelters.
This would be effective based on the need the company solves. If customers already trust you with their dog’s health, they are very likely to become advocates if, through you, they can also help other dogs in need without paying more themselves.
This act of service would likely create a lot of word-of-mouth buzz, increase current customer retention, increase employee morale and camaraderie, increase average order sizes, and potentially open up collaboration opportunities or even exclusive licensing agreements between the company and the shelters.
Creating Deeper Connection - From Idea To Identity
But it extends far beyond how they feel when they first make contact. Giving back and knowing they are part of a cause might get them to attend the first few meetings, but longevity is based on a more profound, identity-level shift.
A shift that involves “getting those who work for you to see that THEY are the difference” they are seeking to create, as Beverley put it.
While this may sound a tad esoteric at first, when thought of logically and granularly, the implications are profound.
It means that every thought, hour, and action is a net positive for the mutual mission. This starkly contrasts with how most for-profit companies operate, in which there’s an expected return (time, amount of work, etc.) in exchange for money.
Under the paradigm of being the difference, a culture is created where every employee you have owns their work and their contribution because, at every level, it is appreciated for what it is in service of the whole.
These simple but profound concepts of customer/volunteer attraction and retention can give companies of any size a massive advantage, not only in how much more profit they can make but also in the lifelong quality of contribution they can offer and the good they can leave behind in the world as a whole.
If you enjoyed what you read, I encourage you to watch this episode.
Immerse yourself in Beverley Garside’s inspiring journey from a sufferer of a lethal thyroid problem to running an impactful organization for the last 25 years that has gone on to impact millions of lives and directly save quite a few just as that surgeon did for her.
Join the transformation and conversation…
Watch the full interview with Beverley Garside on The Wisdom Of… Show
And don’t miss Simon Bowen’s transformative masterclass on unlocking your hidden genius. Your future self will thank you.
