This is the 7th in a series of business tips from industry leaders that Enterprise Times has interviewed.
Enterprise Times recently interviewed Jonathan Richards, Founder, and CEO of Breathe. Enterprise Times asked him about ensuring employee wellbeing. With the move to remote working the individuality of each employee has become more important. ET asked Richards whether if he thought there is an evolution that business leaders have to be more aware of individuals in their team?
The importance of one-to-one meetings
He replied: “Absolutely, there is. I’m a huge believer in one-to-one contact and that has never been more important than it is now. Yes, a team needs to be treated equitably, but they need to be treated as a group of individuals. With whole companies working remotely, it’s so easy for people to be lost, to drop out of sight. That’s a massive alarm bell. If a leader sees somebody in their team, dropping out of sight or dropping out of view, maybe the camera not coming on sometimes or from not attending team meetings, then that’s a massive warning sign that something might not be right.
“That works at every level. I clearly don’t have one-to-ones with everybody in the company, but our team leaders have one to ones with everybody. That’s where the relationship works. You can stare at somebody on a Zoom or a Team’s meeting, but you’ve got to try and understand, you’ve got to see in their eyes, whether they’re in good shape. They’ve got to trust you to be able to say, ‘I need help’. So totally, one-to-one, personal relationships with everybody in an organisation have always been important, but now it’s essential.
“There’s a huge amount of press around at the moment. I do strongly believe we’re in, or certainly heading into a mental health crisis. I don’t use the word crisis very often, but it’s something very serious for us as a country, and certainly for us as business leaders to try and get to grips with.”