S7 Ep3: Speak with Candor— Shaping a More Inclusive Workplace Culture with Kelsey Bishop
“Make your workplace a place that everybody is happy at. That’s one that goes unsaid a lot. When they’re happy in their relationship with their teammates, it’s more likely that they’re happy in their jobs.” — Kelsey Bishop
Facing barriers when working in a team where one does not feel part of it is an unfortunate reality in many companies. Astonishingly, this kind of adverse company culture is accepted and ingrained as the norm.
However, it’s high time we shift from this perspective. A workplace should be a warm and welcoming place where everyone can put forth their most authentic selves. So how can company leaders rethink this glaring issue and cultivate an accepting company culture?
As part of our newest initiative here in Essential Ingredients, we give you Founders’ Resources, a brand new series that caters explicitly to founders and company leaders. We believe that it's not just about building, it's about building right— and the first chapter of this series focuses on guiding leaders to cultivate a more inclusive company culture.
Join us in welcoming Kelsey Bishop, the creative mind behind Candor, an innovative platform dedicated to assisting businesses and organizations foster an environment of connectivity and inclusivity. Candor opens an opportunity to change what has become the ‘norm’, proving that workplaces can indeed be inviting spaces expressing collective authenticity.
Justine and Kelsey reveal the key to transforming our workplace from just being clusters of cubicles to nurturing spaces. Hear as Kelsey deftlyexplains how Candor works, who is it for, how to start a Candor profile, and how it can benefit you and your team.
Connect with Kelsey:
What sets Kelsey Bishop apart is her passion for genuine human-level connections. Candor, Kelsey’s brainchild, offers a unique solution to better comprehend the humans behind the workforce, understand what makes them tick, and how they bring their unique selves to work each day.
As a relentless force, Kelsey also extends resources, time, and support to budding companies. As an angel investor for various companies such as Noula Health, Candid Health, Taiyaki, and Areyo which was later acquired by Zillow, she demonstrates her trust and belief in their mission to make the world a better place.
Connect with Candor:
Episode Highlights:
01:34 Bridging the Gap in Team Connection
07:10 Said with Candor
11:41 How Candor Works
15:54 Company Culture is Team Work
18:51 What’s Next for Candor?
Tweets:
A prevalent but regrettable truth for many businesses is the physical and mental hurdles experienced by their members who feel disconnected. Join @jreichman and @saidwithcandor Founder, @kelseyCbishop as they share a game-changer that can revolutionize how we perceive our workplace. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #FoundersResources #Candor #teambuilding #companyculture #futureofwork
Inspirational Quotes:
05:54 “We spend so much time working that we should probably enjoy it and it should be a good experience.” —Justine Reichman
09:48 “They don't have to be your best friends. But to have that respect and understanding of each other, it does require some level of vulnerability and some level of authenticity too.” —Kelsey Bishop
10:10 “This new age of work is veering towards being who you really are and letting people see you and accept that.” —Kelsey Bishop
14:49 “It takes adoption. It takes time. It's for people who care about culture and being real at work.” —Kelsey Bishop
15:23 “It doesn't matter if you're 4 people or 400 people. You still need to have great relationships with your employees and with your teammates, especially early on.” —Kelsey Bishop
16:03 “Make your workplace a place that everybody is happy at. That's one that goes unsaid a lot. When they're happy in their relationship with their teammates, it's more likely that they're happy in their jobs.” —Kelsey Bishop
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good morning, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host Justine Reichman. With me today, I'm really pleased to have Kelsey Bishop, CEO and Founder of Candor.
Welcome, Kelsey,
Kelsey Bishop: Thanks so much for having me.
Justine Reichman: I'm so excited. When we first chatted, we came up with this little series between us to do a variety of podcasts on resources for Founders. So this is kicking off our podcast series for resources, founder resources. And while we're specifically in general, focused on good for you foods, and we're really supporting those founders to build their businesses and access the resources. So this was such a great brainstorm, you and I had that day.
Kelsey Bishop: I think we came up with a good thing.
Justine Reichman: I think so. And I think that many times where we want to share the resources, and we want vetted resources. So this is a great way to share some of those resources for those startups looking to build a business and don't necessarily have all those different skills. So with that, let's kick it off with you and Candor. Let's start first to hear from you a little bit as an entrepreneur. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey getting here?
Kelsey Bishop: Absolutely. Yeah. So I started my startup journey when I was still in college. I ended up working with one of my friends in college on a user research company. I was doing sales, and it was just kind of getting my feet wet, and how cool it can be to work in a startup with people that you love. That's what it was really about, for me, in that first experience. And after I graduated, I decided to move out to San Francisco and start working for a startup there as well. And after that, kind of stayed in the in the startup industry and had a couple different experiences. One where I absolutely loved the team and the culture, and everything about working. And then I had another experience where it was almost the exact opposite where it was tough getting up and getting excited to go to work every day because I wasn't aligned with the culture at all. I just didn't love the vibes of the players that didn't love working with those specific teammates. And it was kind of a bummer. And when I left that role, I started thinking about, how do you really get to know your teammates on a deeper level? How do you really from great relationships at work? Then it struck me as this gap between looking at someone's LinkedIn profile, and then meeting them on Zoom. You really don't get a chance to get to know who they really are. And so I started Candor to kind of bridge that gap. And today, we are a free resource for founders and teams that want to get to know each other on a deeper level. So you can sign up and make a Candor profile, which is similar to a user manual or working with me Doc. But it's meant to share how can people best work with you? And who are you really as a human? What do you value? What motivates you? What do you like to do on the weekends? All of these things that we don't really sometimes get the chance to learn about our co-workers.
Justine Reichman: Wow. That is really inspirational, and I love that you were able to do something to fill that void for something you were missing in your most recent experience. Totally, when we come up with these ideas, usually, I don't know. I was in a movie theater once when I came up with an idea, and the scene in the movie inspired my next business. Somehow, it was a totally different thing. When you think about the movie, and you think about how I connected it to my idea, that might not work for somebody. They may not come to that same realization or idea. So I'm curious, after the startup and you're coming up with all these things, what was that moment? Where were you? What were you doing that you realized and you figured out, I got it.
“We spend so much time working that we should probably enjoy it and it should be a good experience.” —Justine Reichman
Kelsey Bishop: Well, when I left that company, it was a lot of hashing out and trying to understand what had happened? What led to spending a year of my life unhappy at work? It was a super painful experience. I also got physically ill from the experience just being so stressed and just not happy in the environment. And so it was a lot of reflecting and being like, how do I avoid that situation? And I remember just getting so hung up on this like, it was to the point where I felt like I couldn't go get another job because I didn't know if I would join a team again where I didn't quite click with them. And that was super stressful because I was, as you know, 24 in San Francisco. One of the most expensive cities in the world, and I didn't have a job, and I had to pay my rent. It was like, well, how do I get a job and make sure that I'm gonna be happy there? And why is this even happening? It was one of those moments where it was so much frustration about my personal experience, and then frustration that this is just accepted. We just join companies that we don't love. We work on teams that aren't fun. So I don't think it was a particular moment, but it was almost a season of life where I was so frustrated that this was what was normal. We just had to deal with it. It was just like a part of life, and I just couldn't quite get over that.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I can understand that. A lot of times when I'm speaking with other Founders, it's either it comes from a problem they want to solve something that they're truly passionate about. Because after all, we spend so much time working that we should probably enjoy it. And it should be a good experience.
Kelsey Bishop: Exactly. We spend most of our life working. I work as much as I sleep. I probably work more than crazy.
Justine Reichman: How many hours do you sleep? Even if you sleep like 8 or 9, you're up for a lot more than that. Balance is important too. Of course, we try to do the balance then. So you came up with Candor. So tell us about Candor for those people listening and watching that are not familiar. I know you gave us a brief synopsis. But how does this change the experience for somebody? So they fill out this whole form, but what can they expect? What can the impact be? Because it's all remote, it's all virtual many times, and it's challenging without that water cooler time. So this to me kind of provides further deeper access into people. So when you do have those conversations and you are not in the same room, you maybe have greater insight, but I'd love to hear from you what that impact has been, what you've seen, maybe an anecdotal story.
Kelsey Bishop: I think about work and the crux of having fun at work, enjoying your day to day, it's about relationships. And so the impact of Candor is having your relationships be better with teammates, with managers, direct reports. Anyone that on a day to day basis might misunderstand you or you might misunderstand them. In a world without Candor, maybe that leads to an uncomfortable conversation or conflict. Or worst of all, you just never address it and you move with those kinds of tension between two people. So yeah, I think we see a lot of companies come to us when they've gone through something difficult that generally people are uncomfortable talking about, and potentially it's pretty relationships. So a great example is we had a company come to us, just had two Co Founders leave. There's a team of like three founders and two of the co-founders left. And it was a moment where I think there was a bit of trust fractured in doing that. And the team had to basically figure out like, how are we going to rebuild the trust within our teams? How can we just repair these relationships in a way that doesn't feel forced, in a way that doesn't feel super heavy, but maybe just inviting some fun and real connection among the teammates to remind them like, hey, we're all still in this together. Something like sucky just happened. But actually, you're still here with a lot of great people. And let's remember that. Let's reconnect. Remember that your teammate who's still on the team really cares about you, and you care about them.
Justine Reichman: I think that's so important. It's really challenging to achieve that. In this day and age, sometimes with people going into the office limited amounts of time, and then everybody's so focused on their work. You get into a call, and you're going straight for the meat. You're not taking a minute to be like, h, how are you? Because we're trying to be so efficient with our time. But I think establishing that rapport, building that trust, being curious about your teammates and your workmates, not that you have to share your deepest darkest secrets, but so that there is some vulnerability there that people can connect with and be able to build on it. I think we spend so much time with colleagues, they do become friends. We have work friends, and we've got family friends. We have all sorts of friends and I see this as a facilitator for that as well.
“They don't have to be your best friends. But to have that respect and understanding of each other, it does require some level of vulnerability and some level of authenticity too.” —Kelsey Bishop
Kelsey Bishop: Yeah, that's the hope. They don't have to be your best friends. But I think to have that respect and understanding of each other, it does require some level of vulnerability and some level of authenticity too. I think this new age of work, I don't think it's one that allows someone to show up with a work mask on and just be their work self, and then go home and be somebody else. I do think this new age of work is veering towards like, hey, just show up and be who you really are. Let people kind of see you and accept that.
Justine Reichman: I think now that we do things virtually, I can see the picture on your wall, you can see this. I mean, totally. So what is that? I will protect you by dancing. Now, can you tell me why that's interesting to you? Give us greater insights to people that we're connected with. I think that's not necessarily sharing something personal, I can tell you. Tim is a dancer, my partner, and I got it from the art show. And it usually goes on another wall, but the one that was here cracked the frame so I just put it here temporarily. But that body gives me greater insight into me. So even as we share our offices at home, and all these places, and coupled with Candor, a place where you can share your information, people get to know you a little bit better, understand where your values are,.I think it just is such a refreshing way to establish trust and connection. So tell us a little bit about, as a user, if I was going to use this with my company, we have a small startup, maybe there's four of us plus the podcast team, what would be the best way for us to start the process?
“This new age of work is veering towards being who you really are and letting people see you and accept that.” —Kelsey Bishop
Kelsey Bishop: Yeah. So generally, what we see is we'll see kind of a manager or whoever the culture champion is internally, they'll sign up, and they'll make a Candor profile.You could add things like a picture of your work setup, or your happy place. Potentially a picture of you and your partner, or what you guys like to do on the weekend. Whatever it is. You make that profile, and you share it with your teammates and invite them to make one too. So you all then kind of have Candor profiles, you share them, you engage with each other. We recently launched this concept, this feature called a team space. And a team space is a way for your entire team to be on one profile together. So you have a team directory of everyone's Candor profiles. And then you also have a profile that everyone can contribute to. So for candidates that are thinking of joining our team, they can see, okay, this is how the team works all together. And these are their recent wins. These are their favorite memories, things like that. So yeah, I would say that's kind of the big thing.
Justine Reichman: As we interview other people to come on the team, whether it's me or whomever and you want to share with them. And oftentimes, time is limited. Getting everyone on a call can be challenging. This is a great way to share a little bit about the culture and the people you'll be working with. That's very open.
Kelsey Bishop: Exactly. And it's not just an HR approved way of doing it either. I think that's a mistake that a lot of companies make is, well, one person is in charge of making the about us page or our careers page. And it's not like a true representation of the whole team. And the cool thing about the Candor team space is that everybody can contribute to it. It's like truly co created so it feels a little bit more bottoms up versus tops down.
Justine Reichman: Okay, love that. So what would you say to somebody that wants to join, but maybe wasn't sure if it was the right fit for them? And is there a right fit? Or is it something for everyone?
Kelsey Bishop: I think most of our users tend to be either remote or hybrid. We have some in person teams that just want to get to know each other. Maybe they have teammates that are a little shy, or they have a lot of different types of roles that maybe don't see eye to eye or are really different. That tends to be who can't or resonates with. But I would say that we don't really have a specific industry. We recently had a construction company sign up, and you've got they're basically like, well, we have architects on one side of the house, we have construction consultants on the other side, and they don't want to talk to each other. And we don't know how to just forge relationships. And then, of course, we have the classic tech company that has 400 employees and the head of engineering signs up. So it really runs the gamut. I won't say it's for everyone because I've also chatted with, I think some folks that aren't into the whole authenticity at work yet. I think this is definitely a new age at work. I think it's the future of work, but with time. It takes adoption. It takes time. So yeah, I think it's for people who care about culture and being real at work.
“It takes adoption. It takes time. It's for people who care about culture and being real at work.” —Kelsey Bishop
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I would agree. And I'm curious when people come and they may be saying, there's just a few of us, but we're all over the place. Is it still a good resource?
Kelsey Bishop: Oh, yeah. We're a small team of nine, but we've been using Candor since day one when I was a team of one. And I think it's so helpful, especially for onboarding new employees. You're a small team, it doesn't matter if you're 4 people or 400 people. You still need to have great relationships with your employees and with your teammates, especially early on. Especially when you're a small team, it's even more important to have everyone bought in.
Justine Reichman: So you've mentioned a few ways to use Candor for these companies. So if you were gonna say, if you could choose your top 5 reasons, or top 3 reasons as to how this could help companies, smaller, large, support their team, what would that be?
“It doesn't matter if you're 4 people or 400 people. You still need to have great relationships with your employees and with your teammates, especially early on.” —Kelsey Bishop
Kelsey Bishop: Improve your company culture, manage your people better, know who they really are, form the right relationships. And I would say make your workplace a place that everybody is happy at. I think that's one that goes unsaid a lot. It's really important. And it's hard to know if everyone's happy at work. But I think when they're happy in their relationship with their teammates, it's more likely that they're happy in their jobs.
Justine Reichman: I like that. I have not seen many products like this out there. In fact, I don't think I've seen any within this space. Are there other ones that you compare to that you see that are trying to pop up? Because this is new. Just to compare against, and why? And how?
Kelsey Bishop: So there are a lot of culture building tools out there. But I think the difference is a lot of the products in the market, whether it be Culture Amp, 15Five, those are a couple of the big ones. They're much more top down driven. Leadership saying, hey, we all have to do performance reviews, or everyone needs to tell us if they're happy at work. And it's not very fun. It's kind of the old way of doing things, forcing your people to do all of these different parts of these products. And I like to think that Kinder feels a little bit more fun and a bit more lightweight. It's actually fun to talk about yourself and to share these different things that make you unique. And I also think it's not one size fits all. That's the cool part. You choose what ends up on your Candor profile, you choose what ends up on your team space. It is just kind of customizable in a way that's a little bit more fit for a unique human versus a one size fits all feedback process.
“Make your workplace a place that everybody is happy at. That's one that goes unsaid a lot. When they're happy in their relationship with their teammates, it's more likely that they're happy in their jobs.” —Kelsey Bishop
Justine Reichman: Yeah. I think that's great, because no two people are alike either. No two companies are alike. We need to be able to be malleable and agile to adjust for these discrepancies or not discrepancies, but differences between people and companies, and what they're comfortable sharing, and how it supports their culture. Because culture is a little different. I might fill out a profile in one way and highlight certain things because that's what's important to me. So I really appreciate that flexibility that you have built into Candor. So if folks wanted to try Candor, how could they do that? How would they start?
Kelsey Bishop: Yeah. Our website is joincandor.com, J-O-I-N-C-A-N-D-O-R.com. You can sign up for a free profile and get started. So yeah, super easy. Just go to the website and sign up.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. That sounds super easy. For me, who's curious about your next steps and how you're going to be growing, what do you have on the horizon for you?
Kelsey Bishop: Yeah. Right now, we've got these profiles that are really beautiful and they're shareable, and they kind of show who you are as a unique human. And right now, we're working on, are there ways where Candor could help teams grow together? Could we help teams actually strengthen their culture? So we're just launching this set of features now that are meant to be culture exercises. Ones that are still lightweight, ones that are fun, but they sent around giving each other shout outs. For example, we just launched that last week, then the way that works is thanks. Yeah, the way that those work is, we ping everyone once a week and say, hey, who gets a shout out for living one of your company values? All right, easy, feel good, fun. So we're launching a few other exercises in that realm.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. So this is how people can get involved, they can go to joincandor. What's next and what's new? Are all these new little ways to shout out and support your colleagues? So I hope to see some of our community join Candor.
Kelsey Bishop: Thank you so much.
Justine Reichman: The culture and get more connected. I appreciate you helping me spearhead this resource center for founders, the founder of resource now. Thanks so much.
Kelsey Bishop: Yeah, happy to. Thanks for having me.
