Human Skills are Business Skills: an interview with Joe Staples
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Human skills ARE business skills. You cannot create lasting, high-performing teams without paying attention to and caring for the actual humans on your team.
This is something that my guest, Joe Staples, has seen again and again in his years of work. We are going to talk about tips and tactics to build connection (hint:nothing brings people together like food), how walking a mile, literally, in someone else’s role can build empathy, and why a group softball game was one of Joe’s biggest misses in team building. You will hear stories of high school bullies and reflections on the changing expectations of generations in the workplace.
You can find the Handle with Care: Empathy at Work podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And you can listen to the episode here:
Joe and his grandchildren at the family cabin
Here are three key takeaways from my conversation with Joe…
Be purposeful and inclusive with the sort of team-building activities that you choose. Softball lets people feeling “out” while eating together truly brought people together. Joe made a point to create connection over a shared meal, both with his teammates and also with new hires through monthly lunches. How can food or a similarly inclusive activity bring your people together?
What are you doing to “skill-up” your human skills? Does this desire show up in what you are reading or thinking about in the course of a given month? Joe is a lifelong learner, when he had a chance to read or engage in personal development, he was consistently choosing books and degree programs that emphasized understanding the person, because he found that this was the capacity that differentiated true leaders within the workplace.
What is your long-term goal at work? Are your metrics of success comprised mostly of financial goals or power designations? Joe talked about his father, who cared deeply about connection and had business friendships that stretched over 50 years. This has shaped his own trajectory and goal. So here is his question, as a closing thought, will you be the person that, 15 years from now, somebody looks back and says, and “I loved it at that company because I worked with her or because she managed me?”