“People are always looking for three things. They look for something to believe in, which is the vision. They look for someone to believe in, which is a leader, and then they're looking for someone to believe in them, which is their self-worth.”

S03E18 of the Rethink Culture podcast shines the spotlight on Shivani Gupta, engineer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-educator, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and mentor for female entrepreneurs and leaders.

In this episode, Shivani dives deep into how conscious leadership and self-awareness form the bedrock of a thriving workplace culture. Shivani shares how balancing ego with clear values and even meditative rituals helps leaders stay connected to their teams and foster trust. She outlines the power of “tough love” conversations and the 4:1 praise-to-constructive-feedback ratio for fast-tracking cultural health. Finally, she emphasizes the manager’s coach mindset, teaching that regular, direct feedback and empowering employees to own decisions breaks down bottlenecks and scales high-performance cultures.

📢 Do you want to build a high-performance culture? It all starts here: www.rethinkculture.co
Production, video, and audio editing by Evangelia Alexaki of Musicove Productions.

Listen to this episode to discover:
• How self-awareness and self-management anchor authentic leadership
• Why “tough love” conversations rooted in care, not fear strengthen team bonds
• The 4:1 feedback ratio for catching people doing things right and accelerating cultural buy-in
• How shifting from authority to a coaching mindset unlocks team autonomy and growth
• Balancing masculine and feminine energies for more nuanced leadership
• Turning passion into discipline with Shivani’s ASK framework for goal-aligned culture building

Further resources:
• Shivani’s Website: https://www.askshivani.com/
• Shivani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/askshivani/
• Passion Institute: https://www.passioninstitute.global/
• You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise L. Hay: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/129603.You_Can_Heal_Your_Life
• Atomic Habits, by James Clear: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits
• Leaders Eat Last, by Simon Sinek: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16144853-leaders-eat-last
• Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Freedom