Powerful Way to Build Emotional Connect with Employees
A slew of recent books and articles like “What Do We Like About WFH?” in the recent HBR (Mar-Apr 2021) provide different perspectives, survey results, and opinions about how the pandemic has and will impact the importance and meaning of being in a physical office.
One of the concerns noted in these is that people are missing the emotional connect that was easy to establish in hallways, outings, casual drop-ins at cubicle, and at the proverbial water cooler etc. This begs the question though that if all these things were happening before pandemic, why did the happiness level of employees and companies in general still varied so much? Did everyone feel well connected before with their team, their manager, and their company? Have some leaders and companies used the opportunity created by pandemic to deepen their emotional connect with their team, or we are leaving this realm to individuals?
Even before the Pandemic, I had embarked on a journey to build a deeper level connect with my team and with my peers (all of them remote to me across different time zones). This was accomplished through recurring 1:1 conversations where the ground rule was there would be no talk about work and these would be video calls (as long as the other person was comfortable). The first minute or two of the initial 1:1s were a bit awkward as people weren’t used to having a 30 min call without talking about work. And this was a big change for everyone (especially the introverts who would not open up at the water cooler too!) But things gradually changed and I realized the richness of the individuals I was working with about whom I had created stories which were my own creation. It was a humbling, enlightening, and enriching experience to hear the stories of individuals, their aspirations, their concerns, their cares, and their purpose.
Fast forward to Mar 2020 when the pandemic and the lockdown precipitated by it became more widespread. I just continued with the conversations with my team as before. The conversations still remained in the realm of personal and professional development with discussions in between of how pandemic might have been effecting our lives.
I was remote from my team even before the pandemic and I was able to build the emotional connect with them through the weekly or bi-weekly 1:1s with the ground rules:
- No office talk
- Video conference (preferred)
- Conversations remain private
- Openness and Candor is expected
- No topic is off limit
So if there is one urge or request to leaders is to create space on your calendar for 1:1 conversations with your team members where the sole objective is to know them better, hear their stories, and connect with them. There are enough other meetings and calls that are happening to discuss work, let this be about growth at a personal and professional level!