PILLARS
(WHAT INFORMS OUR APPROACH AND ACTIONS)
Values
Reflecting the fundamental beliefs of MatterOfCulture, our values guide how we interact with one another, and the behaviors we advise our clients to adopt.
Our ABCs
We live these by...
Authenticity
- Celebrating everyone’s distinctive characteristics, as we believe we do our most remarkable work when we feel safe to be ourselves.
- Connecting with one another with a healthy combination of respect and curiosity.
- Communicating in frank, kind and transparent ways.
- Seeking and giving timely feedback, as that’s a surefire way to grow.
- Being vulnerable, as we believe that is a strength.
- Bringing our best selves to every conversation, activity and project, and encouraging the same from everyone with whom we interact.
Balance
- Practicing smart living, balancing work with a healthy dose of fun and rest.
- Ensuring all voices are heard.
- Consciously interrupting biases.
- Actively seeking POVs different from ours.
- Practicing reciprocity as key to successful relationships.
Clarity
- Listening empathically.
- Asking probing questions to better understand challenges before offering solutions.
- Communicating expectations and confirming they’ve been clearly understood, so we can hold ourselves and others accountable.
Emotional intelligence
Relationships are everything. When we understand and manage our emotions, and are able to tune in to the emotions of others, relationships deepen. That’s why emotional intelligence (or EQ for emotional quotient) is the linchpin of all our development efforts.
Leveraging Daniel Goleman’s EQ model, we focus on building:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management (aka self-regulation)
- Empathy (aka social awareness)
- Social skill (aka relationship management)
Growth mindset
As life-long learners, we strive to consistently adopt a growth mindset.
We know that our mindset fuels our behavior. Much of that understanding stems from Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, whose work explores the power of our beliefs, and how changing even the simplest of them can have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives.
In her research, Dweck found that people with a “fixed mindset” assume that their character, intelligence, and creative ability are static. For that reason, avoiding failure at all costs becomes a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled.
People with a “growth mindset,” on the other hand, thrive on challenge and see failure as a springboard for growth, not as evidence of unintelligence.
We strive to adopt a growth mindset, and encourage others to do the same.