Kaya Reader

Have you ever received feedback that immediately made your stomach drop?

Perhaps a client told you they felt confused.
Disappointed.
Excluded.
Or maybe they quietly stopped engaging, and you only discovered later that something hadn't felt right.

If you're anything like the business owners I work with, your first instinct probably wasn't,

It was more likely,

For values-led business owners, feedback can feel deeply personal.

Not because we don't care.
But because we care so much.

The Subconscious Pattern

Socially conscious business owners often spend enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid getting things wrong.

We carefully choose our words.
We think deeply about our decisions.
We genuinely want people to have a positive experience with our business.

Those are good things.
But sometimes that desire to avoid mistakes can make feedback feel like evidence we've failed.

And when feedback feels threatening, it's easy to start explaining.

• Defending.
• Justifying.
• Trying to prove what we intended.

Yet the moment someone offers feedback isn't usually the moment our leadership is judged.
It's the moment our leadership becomes visible.

The Inclusive Reframe

Inclusive Business Leadership invites us to think differently.

Instead of asking,

we begin asking,

That's a very different leadership question.
Because accountability isn't about proving we're good people.
It's about taking responsibility for the experience another person has had.

Those aren't the same thing.

Someone can experience exclusion even when we genuinely care about inclusion.
Someone can leave feeling unheard even when we believed we were being helpful.

Acknowledging that doesn't weaken our leadership.
It strengthens it.

This Week's Inclusive Business Leadership Principle

For many people from marginalised communities, giving feedback isn't a simple business interaction.

Past experiences may have taught them that speaking up leads to being dismissed.

• Misunderstood.
• Expected to educate.
• Or labelled as difficult.

Those experiences don't disappear when someone becomes our client.
They influence whether they ever tell us something isn't working.

That's why feedback, repair and accountability matter.

• Every time we respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness…
• Every time we acknowledge someone's experience before explaining our intention…
• Every time we repair rather than retreat…

We don't just strengthen one relationship.

We help create businesses where more people (especially those who've too often been ignored, dismissed or excluded) feel it's worth speaking up.

And every business that does that contributes to a more inclusive society.

Because businesses don't just provide services.
They shape human experiences.

Louise's Weekly Leadership Question

This week I'd love you to sit with this question:

If someone told me they'd felt excluded, misunderstood, or harmed by an experience in my business, what would my response teach them?

Sometimes our greatest opportunity for leadership doesn't come before trust is broken.
It comes afterwards.

Explore Your Business Through This Lens

One of the questions I hear most often from business owners is:

The truth is...
That's incredibly difficult to answer from inside your own business.

We all have blind spots.

If that's something you've been wondering, reply to this email.

Together we'll explore one place where your business may unintentionally be making feedback feel risky, and I'll share the first leadership questions I'd ask to strengthen trust, repair, and accountability.

There's no cost and no obligation.
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Sometimes one fresh perspective is all it takes to notice something that's been hiding in plain sight.

Continue the Conversation

If you'd like to continue exploring Inclusive Business Leadership on an ongoing basis, I'd also love to tell you more about the Inclusion Creators Collective (ICC).

Inside the ICC, we explore one aspect of Inclusive Business Leadership each week, then unpack what it looks like in the everyday systems, decisions and interactions that shape how people experience our businesses.

Membership is AUD $33 per month, with quarterly and annual payment options available.

There are no lock-in contracts, so you can stay for as long as the conversations continue supporting your growth.

I'd love to welcome you.

Until next time, may your business become a place where feedback is welcomed, repair is intentional, accountability is practised with humility, and every person leaves knowing their experience mattered.

P.S. If you know another service-based business owner who genuinely cares about creating a more inclusive business, I'd love you to forward this email to them.

Every thoughtful business has the potential to create experiences of dignity, belonging and trust. And together, those everyday experiences help shape a more inclusive world.