How are you developing deeper connections with people in a hybrid work environment?

A concept I'm hearing more about is stay interviews. When people resign, HR normally does an exit interview to find out why the person is leaving. But now they’re conducting stay interviews instead as a way of getting to know your people in more regular periods. It's all about finding out about their likes and aspirations. For example, you could say: “As your manager, what can I do for you in the next six months that would make you happy at work? What block do I need to remove?” 

As far as the team, I’ll travel to them if they want to go to a cafe or the restaurant of their choice. Obviously that’s for the folks that are comfortable with doing that. I really make it a point to travel to wherever they are to get that human contact. So even though it's still deliberate like a virtual 1-on-1, it still has the casual quality of just having a coffee and conversation, and I don't have to stop talking for the other person to start talking. Those are times where you have to have that synchronous meet up. If the office won't let you in, then I will pay for a WeWork space. We’ll go in there and just have a jam session because those are the best places for ideas to come about. So some of it is just my own doing.

As leaders, many of us understand how important connective tissue is, whereas someone starting their career might think, "This is the coolest thing ever. I can work from home and show up to a meeting in my bathrobe." But working under those circumstances doesn't build that sense of identity and loyalty to the company; it's just a paycheck. And then it's easy when a headhunter comes to that person and says, "We'll offer you X amount more." They’re ready to leave for that offer because they didn’t really build a relationship with anybody at your company. So these conversations are very different depending on where you are in your career, as well as how much you rotate on talent versus how much you rotate on pure output.