Leading with empathy means gaining genuine insights about your people, what affects them, what their intrinsic motivators are and how they connect to the work they do and people they work with.
The thought of formal reviews and these taking place quarterly/annually is now becoming a thing of the past and more and more businesses and leaders are recognising the need to connect regularly and in a more meaningful and connected way, with a focus on individual’s wellbeing, specific style of engagement and with a focus on people holistically.
‘We all bring our whole selves to work and to perform at our best, psychological safety is key and directly correlates to high performance cultures’
Start with these Questions:
- What is their “why” around work and how do they associate work to their personal self-worth?
- What are the perceived barriers to adding value and experiencing satisfaction in their role?
- What does being recognised or valued at work mean to them and how does this look in action?
- What do they want from their team and leader day-to-day?
- What parts of their role causes frustration and what challenges them?
- What would help them to do their job better ?
- What would enhance their experience at work?
Checking in with people for short and impactful sessions, around some common themes and assessing how these may change and evolve is a really helpful mechanism for how people are feeling, performing and acts as risk assessment, a performance indicator and a wellbeing thermometer.
‘ Whilst you are not required to be a counsellor, demonstrating genuine human connection and interest in your people is key to successful leadership. As such these questions should be about the person as a whole and not limited to their life at work, including any challenges working remotely/ at home/ around factors that may be affecting their wellbeing so that people feel comfortable to discuss them with you as a leader, without judgement.’
On a regular basis – you may wish to then ask the following:
- What is going really well and why?
- What is not going so well and why?
- What support do they need to help them progress things further?
- Is there anything slowing progress/ barriers to performing in their role?
- What aspirational goal are they working to currently? How can you support this?
For further questions that may assist and be helpful, check out the following:
‘Remember that the more regularly you connect, in an informal and engaging manner with your people, the more you will understand, be positioned to coach and uplift capability, engagement and most importantly, create a space for people to thrive and do their best work.’