Servant Leadership in Action

EQ was created with the concept of servant leadership at its core. Servant leadership is a leadership style, which attempts to promote innovation, empower employees, and ensure the well-being of those around them. This is an approach whereby employees with different roles in the company see it as their job to serve others in order to build synergistic relationships.

EQ’s servant leadership approach enables the team to build on our mission and sets the foundation for our corporate and sustainability strategy. It is demonstrated in the following behaviours:

1

Serving each other: each staff member of the EQ family is responsible to deliver and accept honest, transparent, and frequent feedback to foster a culture of innovation and professional growth. Employees’ development is supported through regular trainings.
Sustainability training is required as a part of the onboarding process.
2

Serving our partners: each staff member of EQ is encouraged to build respectful relationships with all stakeholders - both internal and external - and to put their needs at the center of their work. As a global company, EQ values diversity.
3

Serving as an example: EQ is committed to living up to the same standards that it holds its investees’ to and with that, EQ is therefore always open to feedback and suggestions from its portfolio companies. Through serving by example, we encourage our employees, investees, investors, and partners to follow good governance practices and we educate them about social and environmental risks and how to mitigate them.
4

Serving the planet: EQ is committed to a continuous process of innovation towards developing more products and services that address the climate crisis.

While it’s easy to speak about servant leadership, we recognize the need to ensure we ‘walk the talk’ and live up to our values and guiding principles. Since inception, EQ has spent considerable time and resources to ensure a satisfactory and efficient work environment as we strongly believe that team members who are satisfied on a professional level show their fulfillment through higher engagement levels and quality of work. Through servant leadership we are able to build a better corporate culture, as employees strive towards a common objective.

Another way that we implement servant leadership governance, is by ensuring transparency in our decision making processes. The managing partners present at least twice a year the financials of the company and its proposed direction for the coming year, tracking progress against objectives. Input from team members, and the impact that decisions may have on them is also carefully weighed by the senior management team.

We look forward to continuing to lead by example, ensuring that we demonstrate the values and behaviors we want to see in others. Our hope is that this will ultimately improve our operations under the servant leadership philosophy.

Luis Gabriel Alba, Associate Vice President from Mexico and Chuck Olsen at a team event in Nairobi

”EQ completes a social rating just like many other impact investors. The difference between EQ and our competitors is that we also try to live up to the same standards that we hold our investees to, which is what a good servant leader would do.”

Chuck OlsonCo-Founder & Managing Partner
In Memory of Jim Anderson, IC Committee Member of the EMF Microfinance Fund

”In July 2022, Jim Anderson died in a tragic accident in the mountains. Jim was an important member of the EQ family and a beloved son, husband, father, and friend. Jim is survived by his mother, wife and young daughter. He impacted so many lives that his absence is deeply felt. Jim spent most of his career supporting the microfinance and international development sector. He worked at the IFC, UNCDF, Mercy Corps, Asian Development Bank, Xac Bank, Kompanion Bank and a newly entering MFI into the EMF Fund, Asian Credit Fund, before joining us at Enabling Qapital. Jim’s contributions to the inclusive finance sector go far beyond the number of organizations he helped shape. Many micro, small, and medium-sized businesses are in much better shape as a result of all his efforts. Jim loved his role at Enabling Qapital. He was a friend, mentor, and voice of reason to all. Jim left a lasting impression on many and will be missed way beyond the four virtual walls at Enabling Qapital.