Wow. A decade. Forshay is a 10-year-old, and to toast to our anniversary, we wanted to celebrate with you (cue your favorite dance tracks — ours is Prince!). With excellent music in your head, let’s rock and roll with how our history is relevant to our shared future.
What will remain true and important in the future of work?
- High-quality Relationships
This may appear obvious, yet it’s not exactly flourishing at the corporate level. When we started, we did the crazy thing of only promising what we could deliver, and then being as easy to work with as possible. The trust we built, and the ease of working with a team who genuinely cares about you and solves whatever challenge you have, is still solid gold (sorry, can’t stop with the musical references). Artificial intelligence undoubtedly will become more prevalent and useful, and what will continue to matter in the future of work is being a trustworthy human who cares about others and delivers on what is promised (or communicates ahead of time when expectations need to change). - No Asshole Rule
Thanks to Bob Sutton at Stanford, we can say what we mean (#NoAssholeRule) and still be professional. What that means today may be different than when we started 10 years ago. At first, not working with assholes was our way of keeping our energy up. It was our strategy for working hard without the emotional exhaustion that comes with people who are brash and have zero listening skills (or the obvious real asshole stuff that shall not be named). But our rule has widened to not work with those who are stuck in their perspective—people who are uninterested and unwilling to acknowledge the impact of their actions on others. Because for us, not being an asshole means staying humble, curious, and having a learning mindset. We all make mistakes. So we practice owning up to our mis-steps and adapting with new information, new experiences, and increasing our empathy. Work is where we spend a significant amount of our time, so we choose to work hard for people who are worth that energy.
What wasn’t important but is now?
- Bathing + Zoom Filters + Dry Shampoo
First, much of America is in a drought, so those of you skipping a day or so of bathing, it’s just good community action there. Not only are we saving time from our commutes these days, but a lot of time to “look good” can be solved with a zoom filter and some dry shampoo. Haven’t had a haircut in months? Meh. Turns out, after 10 years, getting all done up to see clients and coworkers was something we all could dial down a bit. Athleisure without zippers and buttons for the win! Use that time saved to do something that really rocks your world.
As we look ahead, we’re grateful that in 10 years we’ve built a community focused on avoiding burnout (through load-balancing with interim professionals), building more diverse and inclusive teams (executive search), and making work better for all with some fun along the way! And we remain a work-in-progress, doing that load balancing and inclusive work ourselves (oxygen mask first) and want to thank each of you for being part of this journey.
Here’s to the next decade (fingers crossed!). We can’t wait to keep learning, and getting the right sh*t done, with you.
