Diving deeper into lesson 2 of 2024, Nick Marvin highlights the importance of empathy in leadership, suggesting that leaders should strive to understand employees’ perspectives.
Ella Barwood asked Nick, a father of 6, how he connects with his employees whose lives may not be as “busy” as his. Nick emphasised the need for leaders to “make time” for empathic inquiry, recommending activities for deeper understanding. He finds it really healthy to spend uninterrupted listening time.
Saarrah Mathinthiran, our general manager, also shared the value of team lunches and 1o1 meetings and learned from her consulting work. She noted that marvinHR’s daily team huddles at 9.30 am sharp are for quick pulse checks: “How are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?” which she records & correlates to performance.
When asked about the limits of humanising employees, Nick Marvin suggested that simple questions about well-being, e.g. “How well did you sleep on a scale of 1 to 10?” or “Is there anything keeping you up at night?” can provide significant insights.
He cautioned against becoming so focused on team happiness that productivity suffers, stressing the need to find balance as a leader.
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Saarrah
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