Guest: Carolina Lasso | Book: The Path to Flourishing
Why Flourishing Matters Now
The world of work has never been more demandingâor more distracting. Leaders and employees alike face constant change, rising expectations, and pressure to perform. In this environment, career success alone isnât enough. People crave meaning, purpose, growth, and impact.
Thatâs what we explore every week on Working on Purpose. Each episode is a field guide for leaders who want to ignite passion, rally their teams around purpose, and build cultures where people come alive.
This conversation with Carolina Lasso, author of The Path to Flourishing, offers a blueprint for moving beyond mere survival into a lifeâand leadershipâdefined by flourishing.
Carolinaâs Turning Point
After years of high-profile roles at Google, American Express, and Telemundo, Carolina looked accomplished but felt empty. Exhaustion and a panic attack in front of 200 people became her breaking point.
She reflected: âI did everything I thought I was supposed to do to be happyâgreat job, marriage, Silicon Valley life. But inside, I kept asking, âWhy am I not happy? Whatâs missing?ââ
Instead of pushing harder, she paused, reevaluated, and rewrote her rules for living. The result: a framework leaders everywhere can use to flourish.
The Seven Principles of Flourishing
Pause â Step back before the world forces you to.
âIn a world obsessed with doing and hustling, pausing is almost a revolution.â Pauses create space for wisdom over reactivity. Consider this: when you build in stillness, youâre not falling behindâyouâre pulling ahead.
Presence â Your power is in the room youâre in.
Carolina admitted she used to live in the future, planning and worrying. Presence changed everything: âRight here, right now, I am okay.â Think about it: how often do your people truly get the gift of your full attention?
Compassion â Drop the perfection shield.
Perfectionism, she explained, âis a twenty-ton shield we carry around thinking it protects us. But really, itâs what keeps us from taking flight.â Compassion reframes mistakes as learning and opens the door to innovation.
Perspective â What you feed, grows.
âNeuroplasticity shows us that our brains physically change based on what we focus on.â Gratitude and reframing setbacks rewires the mind toward resilience. Did you catch that? Your mindset doesnât just shape youâit shapes your culture.
Curiosity â Stay hungry, not certain.
Curiosity, Carolina says, isnât nosiness but openness. She urges leaders to adopt a âtourist mindsetââthe same wonder you feel in a new cityâright where you are. In uncertain times, curiosity may be the only certainty worth having.
Purpose â Your gift isnât yours to keep.
âThe purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give it away.â Anchored in purpose, leaders radiate energy, inspire loyalty, and give their teams a cause worth following.
Acceptance â Let life be what it is, then lead forward.
Acceptance isnât passivityâitâs equanimity. Itâs recognizing whatâs within your control and releasing what isnât. Hereâs the paradox: surrendering what you canât control is often the most powerful move you can make.
Why Leaders Need This Now
Flourishing is no indulgenceâitâs the new standard for effective leadership. Leaders who live these principles multiply their impact: their pause calms chaos, their presence reassures, their compassion builds loyalty, their perspective reframes setbacks, their curiosity sparks innovation, their purpose inspires commitment, and their acceptance steadies the storm.
And the research is clear: inspired employees in purpose-driven companies outperform satisfied peers by more than double. Flourishing leadership isnât optionalâitâs decisive.
Key Takeaway
If youâve been âgetting by,â this is your wake-up call. Carolina Lassoâs seven principles arenât lofty ideals. Theyâre daily practices that start working the moment you try them.
The true measure of leadership isnât how much you achieveâitâs how many others flourish because you led.
Your Call to Action
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đ Explore the Gusto, Now! Academy â Where Purpose, Belonging, and Growth Come to Life. Life tests usâquietly and seismically. We lose, question, hunger, shoulder, doubt. In those moments, the question is: What now?
