Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in training and development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Sandy Burgham, Founder of Play Contemporary Leadership CoLab, located in Auckland, NZ.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Play CoLab is a professional development practice that serves the intention of raising the consciousness of leaders. We are particular in declaring it a "practice of" rather than a "business about" contemporary leadership, i.e., the way we are structured (as a collaboration), our philosophical approaches (which are in simpatico with indigenous frameworks for being), and our deep area of interests (including Jungian processes and stages of adult development) mean that our essence challenge traditional professional development approaches as reconstituting patriarchal processes. Our work spans the deeply personal to the global, and in so doing, we fundamentally disrupt the worldview of leaders, including how they view themselves as agents of transformation. We are fortunate to work with a variety of senior executives in large organizations, both private and public sector, plus those who lead their own businesses and may be referred to as entrepreneurs. While we work within the organization at the CEO/exec team level, our public courses ensure a mix of backgrounds and sectors.
Tell us about yourself
I fell into this area by accident rather than design. I had already enjoyed (sometimes!) a working life that spanned leadership in three quite different sectors - advertising, research, and fashion retail. But I had always considered my basic skillset as a strategic researcher. In my 40s, I became deeply interested in how gender played out at senior levels in an organization - in male-dominant, female-dominant, and mixed-gender organizations. This leads me to pursue gender and history university studies. I was planning to give up business and pursue a life of study, but around the same time, I was invited to lead large-scale women in leadership program looking to create a pipeline of female CEO talent, amongst other things. This got me studying cultural beliefs around gender as it relates to business both at university and in real life. I observed that despite millions spent on " women in leadership" development and training initiatives, gender parity in business was glacial. So I decided to experiment with how it was all done and challenge fixed mindsets on what a great leader looks like. Clearly, it was critical to work with males too. So I started Play CoLab as a practice (and research lab) in contemporary leadership approaches. After researching 'men in leadership' courses alongside 'women in leadership' courses, we have settled on mixed gender and preferably mixed ethnicity as a preferable approach. What motivates me is the impact the work we serve can have on individuals and their leadership. It is difficult to work for the participant as we are challenging many deep-seated beliefs they have about themselves, others, and the world, but every couple of weeks, I will get an email or phone call from someone who says something like "I didn't fully get it at the time, but the work has been game-changing."
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Hmmm. Sometimes I call myself a recovered careerist and/or reformed strategist. I no longer set goals or plan where Play CoLab may be going. We believe that if we are serving something greater than ourselves and if we are meant to be doing this, the work will carry us to where we need to play. This was nail-biting, to begin with, but surrendering the practice to the higher good has turned out to be liberating to me. In practical terms, our biggest accomplishment is yet to come, but I am sensing that it will be our online self-directed course on Shadow Work which is set to launch in 2023.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Getting one's ego out of the way. Hence we have created the online Shadow Work course! One's ego is both the biggest driver and potentially the biggest derailer.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Stop mucking around and just start it.
- Reframe what you are doing as a 'grand experiment' vs. your identity or, even worse, 'your passion.' In fact, ban the word 'passion' - it just gets in the way.
- Meditate daily - yes, you can do it....ten minutes a day a least. Get to observe the monkey chatter and remember the chatter is not you; it's your fearful ego.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.playclc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandy_burgham/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyburgham/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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