Kindness as KPI: Why Empathy at Work Is the New Power Move

Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. With more and more work becoming virtual and or automated and the pace of life moving just as fast as ever, where does a company's culture fit in? Our next guest says connection at work is both measurable and meaningful. Joining us now is Amy Summers, an entrepreneur and the author of Lift, 10 Mentorship Touchpoints to Empower Your Team and Accelerate Your Career. Amy, so good to have you with us this morning. I am so looking forward to this discussion. I mean, you know, they say measure what is meaningful and what you want to continue and accelerate, and yet somehow company culture goes by the wayside so many times or it gets mangled in some way. So what does, you know, kindness as a KPI really mean here? Well, I think it's a good reminder, right? Because leaders are really enamored by AI and automation and tech and the latest thing, but they have to remember that a lot of young professionals coming up, that's all they've had. So they've been inundated with tech and what they're really craving is more connection and more human touch. So whereas technology is really important to making us more productive and streamlined, we need to balance that with human connection as well. And when you think about high-performing teams, you think about sort of like these athlete performers. You don't really think about, oh, let's be, you know, politically correct and shiny and fuzzy, but you're saying it will actually respect and care results in more performance. So how do you square that? Right, and kindness is, you know, kindness can be also just telling the truth to somebody and saying, hey, I'm noticing that your work is not as good as it normally is. I just wanted to call and check in and see how you're doing. I mean, that's also being kind, you're being truthful. So it's not always just a warm, fuzzy situation. You know, we have a bunch of athletes competing in the Winter Olympics. I'm sure a lot of them didn't get there just because their coaches were just nice to them. I mean, they're pushing them, right? So a kindness KPI can also be, you know, telling the truth about someone's performance, but doing it in a human way, not shooting off a message, calling them and finding out, hey, what's going on? How are things going? And I know that your book really looks at the idea that basically anyone can be a mentor. And how does that play out for you in daily habits? Yes, so I think the word mentorship and mentor, it sounds really intimidating. It sounds like it has to be a title or you need to have a program. But in the book, I really advocate that that's not necessary. We should be incorporating mentorship into our leadership lifestyle every single day. And mentorship is as simple as relationship. And that's why I want people to reframe the word. It's just the relationship that you're having with your coworkers and even people at your house, right? So we're mentoring every day, whether we call ourselves a mentor or not, we're modeling behavior that we wanna be replicated or maybe you're modeling behavior that shouldn't be replicated. And you should be aware of that. You know, just over the weekend, I was talking with somebody who leads a small team. And she was saying how this one person that she would need to let that person go. And when I think about feedback and how hard that is, you know, this is a person who she was giving feedback over and over again, and the person just didn't really wanna move toward where performance was. So how do you be kind and truthful, but ultimately, you know, use feedback in a way that supports the needs of the business? That's a great point you're bringing up. And it's actually a touch point in my book. It's the last touch point is supporting healthy exits. And it's something that we don't talk about a lot, but sometimes people just aren't a good fit for your team, your company, or maybe they've kind of, you know, run their course with you and it's time for them to take the next step. I think that leaders get very mechanical at the end. You know, we get kind of legalistic. We worry about the company and how everything looks. We forget about the people. The way you leave somebody, whether it's a happy situation or kind of a tough situation, that's what you're gonna be remembered by. So I have a whole touch point, a whole chapter in the book talking about how to have healthy exits. You wanna leave on a good note. I mean, you're gonna run into these people again. You never know when someone that may be working for you might be your boss one day or even a client. What are some of the ways that company culture goes by the wayside that go unnoticed, like that could get caught and nipped in the bud early on if people were more aware of it? Well, I think that first of all, all this technology we have is really keeping us from connecting with others. I mean, even my phone asked me the other day, do you want me to screen your calls? I mean, it sounds great, but what if somebody just wants to call me out of the blue? It's gonna screen my calls now. So these screens are keeping us from those, connecting with people. It's so easy to toss someone an emoji or give a quick directive, but especially this week is a great example. This past couple of weeks we've had here in New York with the blizzard. I mean, people are probably working from home. There's probably all kinds of different situations going on. It doesn't hurt for a boss or a manager just to make some unscheduled phone calls, check in on their team. Hey, how's it going? How's your Wi-Fi? How's the childcare situation today? Be a little bit more flexible, but to really show up with your voice and communicate to them that you care. And you write about how the team often reflects or is a mirror of their unit leader or their team leader. How does that manifest? Absolutely. Well, just watch Devil Wears Prada movie and the new one's coming up. So maybe we'll have a better model, but you don't wanna be a Devil Wears Prada boss, because whatever you model is how everybody else in the office is going to behave. So that's why I say you can do this at any stage. You don't have to wait to your boss or manager. Whatever level of employee you are, start modeling the behavior that you want to see, how you would like to be treated. And it's contagious. People will start behaving that way in your office. I love that. And I think one of the key barriers here for a lot of people might be just feeling so busy. What are some things that people can take away right from today and implement in their day to contribute to a positive company culture? Well, you hit on something very important. We are all so busy. And so the thought that always goes in my head is, I don't have time to call my team member right now. It's gonna be so much quicker if I just text them or send them a quick message. But I will tell you 100%, every time I pick up the phone, I either discover a problem that I didn't know we had, or we brainstorm something really innovative and something good comes out of it. So time is always well spent when we're exercising our vocal communication with people. And if we were to just give one summarizing point of the essence of the book that you want people to know, who might be in need of this book, Lift, what would that be? Mentorship is relationship at its core. It's how we treat others. So it's not a program, it's not a title, it's not a hierarchy. Mentorship is your relationship with the people around you. Amazing. Well, Amy Summers, the book is Lift, 10 Mentorship Touchpoints to Empower Your Team and Accelerate Your Career. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me.