When I stepped into the UK CEO role a year ago, one of the things I heard loudly and clearly from the team about Vested’s future, was that they didn’t want our culture to change. I was simultaneously proud of what we have created and challenged at the same time. It is this living, breathing nature of culture that I feel a sense of responsibility towards in my role – a guardianship.

My pride was rooted in the confirmation that we’ve been doing something right and have created a culture that people want to be a part of and feel protective towards. It’s a key part of how and why they show up every day, enables them to uniquely contribute to our business and is a very important part of what makes them stay (as confirmed by our annual listening survey). 

However, to me the challenge was clear – we’re a fast-growing business and as a result our culture is going to evolve and change. As our team expands, every new Vestie will be additive to our culture and evolve it in their own unique way. So, as we grow from a scale-up, how can we meet in the middle? 

To me, meeting in the middle is about knowing what the core of our culture is, what our non-negotiables are, and where we will all evolve and grow by retaining flexibility and an appetite to embrace variety. This is consciously building culture. We are nurturing our culture, guiding and directing it through consistency, energy and active discussion about what is working and what isn’t. In doing so, we are creating a space for our culture to grow and evolve. 

And what are we doing to create this space? This is made up of a million small things, some naturally more deliberate than others. Some driven by the team, others driven by the passion of our leaders. It’s how we each show up every day, how we treat others, how we treat our clients and how we expect them to treat us. It’s emotional, behavioural, practical and strategic. We have policies, benefits and approaches that we know make a difference to our team – in how they do their best work, how they have time to rest, how they are rewarded and the opportunities they have to learn, grow and give new things a try.

But fundamentally it is based on trust as well as the time and interactions we have with each other and our clients. We trust each other to do what we need, in order to show up at our best. When people need time, they take time. We prioritise ‘together’ – thinking, talking, planning, learning and having fun … together. I’m excited to see where this approach takes us as we grow. What will our culture evolve to be? And even more importantly, what opportunities will that culture give to our team?