As the Co-Founder & CEO of AwardSpring, a SaaS Scholarship Management platform, I work to create a positive, energetic work environment where employees can find opportunities for personal and professional growth while serving our customers in higher education and non-profits.I try to take an employee-first perspective in my leadership style: what would motivate someone to want to work at AwardSpring? What would entice them to stay? Ideally, it's stems from creating a flexible environment built on trust: trust that they'll do their job well with the customer in mind; trust that they'll work to find better ways forward, and share those ideas with their peers; trust that they'll be honest about things that are going well (or not so well). Once the employee is taken care of, I believe our customers then find a partnership they too can trust: they'll believe we have their best interests in mind; they'll understand we want them to succeed - ideally by maximizing the impact of their donors on their students/applicants - with everyone (from students to donors to scholarship administrators) enjoying a great outcome.