As the workplace has turned more and more virtual over the past year, teams can fall easily into the trap of getting onto a meeting and only discussing the projects at hand. At the end of the day though, we are all still human beings. Humans require connection and building trust with your team will actually increase productivity. 

Today Katja von Bergen joins Deepa to discuss attitudes and dialogue. She ventures to say that managers and executives should lead the way to create meaningful conversation for their teams and organization. 

Key Points from this Episode:

• In the Virtual environment, it can be easy to jump directly into business and tasks. We cannot forget to connect with each team member directly and get to know them as a human.
• Be aware that these valuable dialogues are going to be different and possibly outside of your team’s comfort zone. It’s good to make it fun, like bring a game. Keep it fun, the conversations do not have to be hard work. Try it once and see how they react. If it works, great. If not, try something different next time.
• These meaningful conversations lead to teams listening to each other deeply.
• You get to decide how deep you go. You cannot build trust unless you get vulnerable.
• Be easy with these valuable conversations and have fun with it. Be the example for your team.
• Create a space that is non-judgmental. 
• If the person does not want to go deeper, accept that. Do not force anyone to give more than they are willing to.
• This can be a great tool for inclusion.
• Here are 5 great questions to start these conversations-
• What was the best decision in your job and why?
• What are you most proud of?
• What are you grateful for?
• What gives you energy to get up in the morning?
• What is your type of humor? What do you laugh about?
• You must first open yourself in order for others to be open.

We hope you enjoyed this episode! Thank you for listening. Tell us in the comments, how are you taking one step towards meaningful connection today? 

About Katja

Katja von Bergen is the Managing Director and Entrepreneur of Agile Transformer, business unit of the German consultancy Kraus & Partner, but starting her own business in 2022. She has been in change consulting for 12 years and has been involved in quite a few projects, some of which went well and some of which went badly. Make sure you write to Katja on LinkedIn to get your free copy of questions for your next meeting! 

Deepa will be starting another Rethink Leadership Bootcamp in October. Please get in touch to find out if this could serve you in your leadership journey. You can send a message through LinkedIn or email deepa@meetmypotential.com. 

Thanks for listening and stay cool!

Visit the show website at (http://www.meetmypotential.com)

Follow Deepa on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepanatarajan/)