The Kindness Change is thankful to interview Nellie Hayat who embodies a positive, warm and invigorating ability to connect with audiences on topics relating to work, workplace design and workplace experiences for distributed and remote teams. Her unique style of bringing joy and expertise in the workplace industry makes her a great future of work leader to watch and learn from.

In this interview, Nellie shares her perspectives on the Future of Work and Kindness.  

The power of “outside of work” skills

The flexibility we have nowadays with our new ways of working enables us to shift our working schedule and dedicate more time to “outside of work” activities during the “normal working hours”; and it makes a big difference. People with hobbies, passion projects and families get more time to learn and develop new skills, and give back to local communities.  It has shown to make them more creative, mentally and emotionally more balanced, and more compassionate. They seem to be happier and they bring this energy to work. They are generally better teammates and the most appreciated leaders.

How have you navigated personal change to progress in your life?

Everyone should learn to embrace change. As a kid, I travelled far and often with my parents and that shaped my own practice of embracing change. I got exposed to various and diverse cultures, languages, traditions and rituals during each trip. Through this, I learned to appreciate change and still to this day, I move homes every 2-3 years. It forces me to never be “comfortable” and always reevaluate my choices, priorities and must-haves, while letting go of things that are not bringing me value or happiness. I bring that mindset to my work and it allows me to be resilient and driven in an ever-changing world of business.

How has kindness showed up in your life?

I think it was taught to me in a very gradual manner. First I ought to be kind to my siblings. Then be kind to people outside of my home environment: the teacher, the cashier at the store. Then it moved up the needy, the stranger. And today, I view kindness as: be kind to the world and to humanity at large, people you don’t know, see or hear. I aim to be kind to even people that are not born yet by creating a world of work today that is safe, inclusive, not toxic nor polluted, empowering and more equitable.

Any words of wisdom you’d like to give entrepreneurs or people looking to change their futures?

There’s going to be ups and downs, there’s going to be people out there telling you you’re too naive or too ambitious. Take it all in. These voices are pushing you to become stronger, more creative and innovative as well as more resilient. And when at times the voices are too strong and overwhelming and you want to give up, just remember. You’re out there trying to create a better future so yeah, pretty ambitious. But no one else can do it but you!

Finally, I leave us with a quote from Nellie to inspire us to take action to shape our future pro-actively.

“The future will not happen by chance or by mistake. Some people, before us, have designed the experience that we call work and life. If we want to create a better and kinder future,  we need kind leaders to shape it”. Nellie Hayat