How menopause champions can shape culture one small action at a time
By Carly Cannings, The Happy Business School
Let’s be honest. When someone tells you you’re now a “menopause champion,” it can feel a bit like being handed a gift you weren’t quite sure you asked for. The weight of responsibility can feel heavy. The expectation that you’ll somehow shift the culture of an entire organisation, have all the right answers and navigate some of the most sensitive conversations a workplace can hold.
Here’s the thing though: that’s not actually the job.
The role of a menopause champion isn’t about fixing everything or knowing everything. It’s about starting something. It’s about being the person who chooses to show up differently — with curiosity, with kindness and with the kind of quiet consistency that slowly but surely changes what’s normal in an organisation.
And that, it turns out, is how culture actually shifts.
Culture is Built in the Small Moments
We tend to think of culture change as something that happens in boardrooms. A new policy lands, a strategy gets signed off and, ta-da, culture changed. Except it doesn’t work like that.
Culture is the collective mindset of an organisation. It’s shaped not by what gets written in a values document, but by what’s said, what’s ignored and what gets repeated. Repetition creates normality. Which means the quiet, everyday actions — the way you respond when someone brings something difficult to you, whether you follow through on what you promised, whether you actually listen rather than just waiting to speak — those things matter more than most of us realise.
As a menopause champion, you are a culture shaper, whether that feels dramatic or not. Every time you create space for an honest conversation, every time you treat someone’s experience with respect rather than awkwardness, you are nudging the dial. Micro level, moment to moment — and those moments ripple outward.
Where Does Influence Actually Come From?
A question I ask participants during the fourth and final part of their menopause champion training is: where do you currently have influence and where would you like more?
Influence as a menopause champion doesn’t come from a job title or a formal mandate. It comes from trust, from credibility, from showing up consistently and from being visible in the right ways. These things take time to build (but can be undone much quicker) which is why integrity in this role matters so much.
Building trust as a menopause champion is both simpler and harder than it sounds. It means listening — really listening, not just nodding while you mentally compose your response. It means holding confidentiality like it actually matters (because it does). It means following through on the small things, keeping promises and being honest about what you can and can’t do. What erodes trust? Not leading by example. Breaching confidentiality. Saying you’ll do something and then not doing it. The good news is that these are all things within your circle of control.
Working Inside Your Circle of Control
One of the most useful things any champion can do is get clear on what they can and can’t influence. Not because the things outside your control don’t matter, but because energy is finite and focusing it where it can actually make a difference is how you avoid burning out in a role that asks a lot of you.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s worth paying attention to. Learn to recognise the signs — what does overwhelm feel like for you, what tends to trigger it? Verbalising how you feel is often a more powerful first step than people expect. You don’t have to have it all together to be effective in this role. In fact, being willing to say “I’m not sure” or “I’m finding this hard too” is a form of leadership in itself.
The Aggregation of Marginal Gains
Sir Dave Brailsford, the man behind British Cycling’s extraordinary run of success, had a simple philosophy: think small, not big. Forget perfection. Focus on progression and look for improvements everywhere, however tiny. Those marginal gains compound.
It’s a philosophy that translates beautifully to culture change. You don’t need to overhaul an entire organisation’s approach to menopause by Thursday. You need to start small, experiment, share what you learn with others, celebrate progress and keep communicating.
Consistency creates normality. Small actions, repeated, become the new standard.
Making It Stick
The challenge with any behavioural change – whether personal or organisational – is making it habitual. It’s one thing to resolve to listen more attentively or to check in on a colleague you know is struggling. It’s another to still be doing that six months later when the energy of a training programme has faded and work has got busy again.
The science of habit formation is actually quite practical. Strengthen the neural pathways by repeating the behaviour. Decrease the activation energy – make the new behaviour as easy as possible to do. Remove the need to make a choice every time by building in simple rules or rituals. What’s one change you want to make habitual? How are you going to make it happen? Write it down.
What Fingerprint Are You Leaving?
Just like every time you touch something you leave behind a fingerprint, every interaction you have leaves a mark too. What that mark looks like is up to you.
Are people more at ease for having spoken with you? Do they feel heard? Do they trust that what they’ve shared is safe?
Amelia Earhart once said that a single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and makes new trees.
You are not going to change everything. But if you show up with curiosity, vulnerability and kindness — and you keep showing up — you will start something valuable and meaningful.
And that is more than enough.
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Carly Cannings is founder of The Happy Business School. Carly is passionate about creating thriving workplace cultures and helping leaders gain the skills they need to help their teams (and themselves!) flourish. Carly delivers part 4 of the Making Menopause Work champion training which helps champions get ready to put their learning into action.