Authentic Bell & Swift by our MD, Dawn
As Bell & Swift approach 5 years in business, the team have been having a lot of meetings to discuss where we are and where we want to go from here. All those studio wide chats and discussions have resulted in us going on to update our mission, vision and values as a clear signpost for what we at Bell & Swift are about and where we are headed to.
Our updated values are Ambition, Creativity, Team, Quality and Authenticity. Of all the values we have settled on, authenticity has to be one of the most important to me personally which got me thinking why is that? As a team, we are aligned and believe wholeheartedly in our core values such as teamwork, creativity and quality which should then make it simple for us to be our authentic selves, but maybe it’s not that easy.
I am passionate about the power of a diverse team and gender equality which may have stemmed from having worked for quite a while now in a largely male dominated construction industry. Although I am glad to say things are improving, looking back, there have been times in my career when I have been told I was being too forthright or over-emotional. As a result, I did start to tone down my ambition and passion for my work to avoid being seen as pushy. I’m sure many women within the construction industry can relate. Now that Craig and I have the opportunity to build our own studio environment I realise that’s absolute rubbish. The qualities that make women fantastic leaders in construction is their ambition, passion and empathy.
The number of women in the construction industry is certainly improving which is fantastic but it is more than just numbers. I would encourage more leaders and business owners to give women the opportunity to become leaders as their true authentic selves. I would also welcome the change in narrative that successful women cannot have lives out with the office. Women can be leaders and mothers for example. I feel too many women give up their careers when they have a family or are side lined. This certainly affects the interior design industry which happens to be weighted towards females, although not necessarily in leadership roles! The result of resisting to move away from out-of-date preconceived ideas is the loss of hugely skilled and valuable talent to our industry which is such a shame and could be avoided through discussion and flexibility.
It has taken some time to unpick some of the bad habits I’ve learned over the years, but I can now say that as co-leader of Bell & Swift I now bring my authentic, human self to the studio each day and encourage my team to do so also. Our mission for the future, which I am extremely hopeful and positive about is ‘to nurture our team to become authentic leaders in hospitality design’.