Permission to Screw up | Kristen Hadeed

The Delivering Happiness Podcast

Kristen Hadeed is the founder of Student Maid, a successful cleaning company that has employed thousands of students over the last decade that is known for building the next generation of leaders. In this episode, Kristen, an optimist of Simon Sinek's community, discussed how our co-founder Tony Hsieh had changed the way she viewed culture as a young entrepreneur. Listen in to hear what “strong” and “good” leadership looks like for our time. Learn from her how to be more human as a leader, how to create organizations that are more human, and all her ups and downs in her business building and leadership development journey.

**This episode was recorded in late October 2019.

When Kristen started her journey, she had no idea what she was in for: The average turnover rate in the cleaning industry is 75%, and profit margins hover around just 15%. But even with the odds stacked against her, she built a company that blew the industry benchmarks out of the water. Her people love coming to work, they stick around for years, and some have even turned down dream jobs to join the executive team and build careers at Student Maid.

Kristen believes Student Maid’s success boils down to one thing and one thing only: creating a place with humanity at its core. A place where people feel accepted for who they are, where they are encouraged to fail and embrace their imperfections, and where they are empowered to reach their potential. Now she spends most of her time helping leaders and organizations around the world create similar environments for their people.

In 2017, she published her first book, Permission To Screw Up, in which she offers an unapologetic account of her biggest mistakes in leadership. She hopes that her vulnerability will give others the courage to open up about their own “perfectly imperfect” moments and proudly embrace them as the tremendous learning opportunities they are.

Kristen and Student Maid have been featured in news outlets including PBS, FOX, Inc., NBC, TIME, and Forbes. Her first TED Talk has more than three million views on YouTube.