Care matters and here's why
- Layla Foord
- Mar 30
- 3 min read
Updated: May 9
When care is built into the system, people don’t just perform, they transform.
There’s a pattern I’ve watched for years.
Small choices. Soft signals.
Moments of care that don’t seem like much at the time, but shift the shape of everything after them.
You don’t always know what you’re building when you ask a different question, or hold space a little longer.
But then something happens.
A performance.
A painting.
A business.
A human shows up more fully.
That’s the ripple.
The quiet developer who became a frontman
He didn’t say much.
People thought he was disengaged.
I thought: What if he’s just not being asked the right questions?
So I made space.
We talked music. Childhood. What confidence used to feel like.
Not in a performance review, in real conversation.
Eventually, he stood on stage.
Not in a presentation, in a band.
Performing a rap song at the second Battle of the Tech Bands, with teammates cheering him on.
Not because he had to.
Because someone believed he could.
The band that built a culture
That show was part of something bigger.
A company band I helped start.
Our engineering manager taught himself to drum.
I MC’d the first year. Sang the second.
Another developer played keys. A quiet one took the mic.
Each time we played, something shifted in how people saw each other.
Colleagues became collaborators.
The workplace became a place of possibility.
Now the band is in its fourth year, run by the drummer.
It’s part of the cultural fabric.
And that ripple, it started with one idea, what if?
The artist who started drawing again
I hired him to help us find designers.
What he found was his own creativity.
He started painting again.
Eventually, he gave me one of those paintings, it hangs behind me now.
He’s now in a Slack group with the first developer.
Different roles. Different teams. Different years.
But connected and supporting each other’s next chapter.
That’s the ripple.
Care that outlives the org chart.
This isn’t about being nice.
Let me say it clearly: I’m not a mother figure.
I’m not here to coddle or manage feelings.
I’m seeing people.
And I’m building systems that make space for them to be seen and not just evaluated.
Because when people are seen, they scale.
Not just their output, their confidence, their capability, their reach.
Why does this matter?
Because too often, leaders who lead this way get told it’s “not scalable.”
That care is extra.
That it’s soft.
That it’s optional.
But look closely at the teams that thrive, not just survive.
They aren’t powered by pressure.
They’re held by structure.
A structure designed with clarity, trust, and care.
Culture isn’t vibes. It’s design.
And the best design doesn’t just measure what people do.
It notices who they are.
And builds the conditions where they can become more of it.
Final thought?
Performance doesn’t come from pressure.
It comes from safety, belief, and moments that ripple outward.
I’ve led teams in startups, scale-ups, and transformations.
This is how I lead.
Quietly. Carefully. Systemically.
Because I’m not just here to get the best out of people.
I’m here to help them see it in themselves and carry it forward.
That’s the ripple.
And it gives me joy.
To carry if forward, check out what Lewis, Matt and Scott are doing in their communities: Matt's building an EV comparison app Motoru
Lewis is building tools for insurance Everbroker
Scott is into the fourth year of Battle of the Tech Bands Brisbane
– Layla
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