DENKie’s programmes are designed to empower people to activate their talents to serve their employer and, ultimately, society. With Safetyboarding, our mission has always been to do business with impact. To ensure that organisations suffer less from absenteeism and lack of engagement. But if entrepreneurship is a marathon, as is often said, entrepreneurship with impact is a triathlon or an ultra run. Since DENKie is fully committed to mental safety and wants to make an impact by making companies and their employees happy, safe and sustainable, here we consider how DENKie sees its role as an impact company.
Doubt and commitment
Every entrepreneur can testify that he or she has had moments of fatigue and doubt. With impact entrepreneurs, this is perhaps even more so. Because simultaneously ensuring healthy financial results, looking at the long term and having an eye for social impact, as the so-called zebra companies do, is not exactly easy. On the other hand, of course, nothing is more satisfying than contributing to something bigger than yourself. Being involved makes you happy. It gives meaning to your life! It gives energy. But therein also lies a major pitfall. Because there are lots of examples of impact entrepreneurs who go to such extremes in self-sacrifice for the good cause, only to eventually end up burned out.
The importance of reflection
Faced with the sense of urgency of the challenges they face, they are sometimes no longer able to rest, step back, take time for reflection. Often, impact entrepreneurs also struggle with a chronic lack of resources, requiring them to pursue additional activities to sustain their mission. Also, the difficulty of measuring tangible impact, especially when it comes to big issues like climate disruption and the loss of biodiversity, can sometimes make impact entrepreneurs feel as if their efforts are just a drop in the bucket. This is exactly why DENKie has created very simple formats with Safetyboarding that do include a number of metrics to measure the results of creating that safe working environment. After all, doing business with impact also means having patience to take things one step at a time. It’s important to keep in mind the adage that says “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Taking care of ourselves
The most important capital of impact entrepreneurs is their energy. It is therefore crucial to take care of yourself as an impact entrepreneur. It is a conditio sine qua non to have a lasting impact. We in Safetyboarding cannot take care of others – employers and employees – if we do not also take care of ourselves. Because otherwise there is a risk that our beautiful impact project will bleed to death. For us, that means above all keeping things very simple and occasionally taking the time to reflect on how we cannot and should not necessarily do more, but rather how we can do things better. In co-creation with all stakeholders. By fully focusing on mental safety in companies, we are helping to blaze a trail towards the zebra economy.
