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Speaker 1: Welcome to Ask Fear and Greed, where we take your

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Speaker 1: questions and do our very best to answer them. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and good afternoon, Adam Lang.

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Speaker 2: Oh, good afternoon, Michael, Adam.

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Speaker 1: Ask Fear and Greed is always exciting because we never

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Speaker 1: quite know what we're going to get, and the questions

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Speaker 1: can come in through any avenue, might be through social

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Speaker 1: media on LinkedIn or Facebook or Instagram, or via the

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Speaker 1: website Fear and Greed dot com dot au. Today's question

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Speaker 1: has come in via LinkedIn and it has come from

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Speaker 1: Benjamin and Adam. It is really a question for you,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to ask it to you.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm standing by.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin says Hi, gents, that's you and me a question

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Speaker 1: for Ask Fear and Greed. Please, Yes, we.

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Speaker 2: Shall do this. No worries, Benjamin, anytime.

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Speaker 1: Benjamin. In your newsletter last week, Good Start, Benjamin, you

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Speaker 1: said the right to disconnect will change the way we

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Speaker 1: work because workplaces will be forced to have better communication

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Speaker 1: around what's expected. I manage a team within a larger

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Speaker 1: organization and want to get ahead of this. How best

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Speaker 1: to do it? Is it an all in meeting so

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Speaker 1: that everybody knows the ground rules for the workplace or

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Speaker 1: is it one on one.

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Speaker 3: Oh great question, well done, Benjamin. So first I should

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Speaker 3: say I haven't done a course in the Right to disconnect,

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Speaker 3: so may not be professionally qualified to advise. So this

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Speaker 3: is really my opinion, and I'll have to leave it

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Speaker 3: up to you to determine how this suits your team.

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Speaker 3: So i'd imagine that within your company.

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Speaker 1: Though I thought you were talking to me that you'll

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Speaker 1: leave it up to me to decide how well well

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Speaker 1: it suits Benjamin. Oh, I'm able to make these decisions

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Speaker 1: on Benjamin's behalf.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's do that next. We'll see what Michael's answer is.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, mine's going to sound very similar to yours.

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Speaker 1: I suspect, probably with a little bit more pep.

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Speaker 3: So, I think the new Right to discannlaw is a

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Speaker 3: game changer, and I know Sean put that in the newsletter.

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Speaker 3: I agree with it is. The reason for that is

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Speaker 3: it does push workplaces to better define what is reasonable

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Speaker 3: after ours contact. So I think that we would all

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Speaker 3: appreciate the right to disconnect from devices and work and

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Speaker 3: balance a life. And obviously your question is about as

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Speaker 3: a manager taking the initiative and whether you should. I

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Speaker 3: think that's smart and just as a suggested approach, I'm

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Speaker 3: wondering if instead of one or the other, you know,

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Speaker 3: one on one or group meetings. Just like the young

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Speaker 3: lady in the old El Paso ad when she gets

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Speaker 3: asked to chieve either the hard or soft tackers, why

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Speaker 3: not do both? Have the team meeting and then the

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Speaker 3: one on one discussions.

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Speaker 1: We have never had an old l Passo taking wisdom

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Speaker 1: from old l Passo. We've never had that come out

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Speaker 1: in our spirit. We've never had it come out in

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Speaker 1: fear and greed in general, let alone ask fear and greed.

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Speaker 2: But you know, why not do both?

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Speaker 3: So and obviously, Benjamin, this has to be done within

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Speaker 3: the approved constraints of your company. But talk to your

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Speaker 3: HR Human relations or People and culture team. I would

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Speaker 3: suggest start with a team meeting with your team. You've

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Speaker 3: obviously said you manage a large team. Start with a

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Speaker 3: group meeting with them to openly discuss it this change

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Speaker 3: and its implications. Obviously, the company needs to generate great

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Speaker 3: customer service, and it does have to be productive, and

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Speaker 3: it does want to achieve work life balance, So what

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Speaker 3: are those expectations. Have a conversation about that with your

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Speaker 3: team about what those expectations for after hours communication are.

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Speaker 3: And then one on one, I think it's a really

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Speaker 3: healthy conversation to have follow ups, have those individual meetings

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Speaker 3: to address everyone's specific circumstances, because they may not want

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Speaker 3: to talk about them in a big forum. They may

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Speaker 3: have just individual needs that they're happy to bring up

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Speaker 3: with you but not more broadly, or just want to

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Speaker 3: try and set some parameters without disclosing what their reasons are,

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Speaker 3: and they could impact there after hours availability. So I

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Speaker 3: think those two things are a good way to proceed

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Speaker 3: a team meeting.

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Speaker 2: And then one one.

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Speaker 1: Now out of I suspect I should probably actually explain

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Speaker 1: kind of why this is a question that is so

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Speaker 1: that you are so well suited to answer, And you

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Speaker 1: started with a disclaimer as to why you wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: able to do a professional, kind of standard job of it.

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Speaker 1: But you're doing an outstanding job as far as I'm concerned.

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Speaker 1: You of course have led large teams, you have been

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Speaker 1: the CEO of an ASX listed company. You are kind

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Speaker 1: of a CEO coach and an executive kind of coach,

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Speaker 1: so you are talking with a lot of kind of

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Speaker 1: business leaders as well.

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Speaker 2: Is there an.

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Speaker 1: Element of it that that can be kind of less

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Speaker 1: structured because you talked about, say, the team meeting, You've

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Speaker 1: talked about the one on one kind of meetings to

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Speaker 1: kind of go into the specifics and if anyone has

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Speaker 1: questions that they don't want to ask in front of everyone,

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Speaker 1: that that's the kind of the perfect place to do that.

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Speaker 1: But is there is there kind of a less structured

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Speaker 1: way to do this as well? Kind of is it

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Speaker 1: you mentioned just then leading by example and respecting kind

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Speaker 1: of boundaries. Is it just more I suppose I'm asking

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Speaker 1: a question almost aboutture. Is it something that you can

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Speaker 1: just kind of instill within your entire team just by

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Speaker 1: setting the right culture from day one?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Of course it is. My god, it's a great point.

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Speaker 3: And I think within every business you're setting expectations every day.

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Speaker 3: Some of them you are showing by just the way

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Speaker 3: you show up to work and the way you communicate

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Speaker 3: talk to people. So very much it's around how you lead,

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Speaker 3: understanding what the tasks are ahead. So for example, some

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Speaker 3: of the businesses that I work with are twenty four hours.

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Speaker 3: You know, they have people working twenty four hour shifts,

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Speaker 3: and so people are working all the time, and they

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Speaker 3: don't get to see people all the time. Some of

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Speaker 3: them have night events, some of them are hospitality venues.

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Speaker 3: So the number of hours and different tasks is just

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Speaker 3: so vast it's really hard to give a generic answer.

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Speaker 3: And so I think the best way you can do it,

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Speaker 3: to your point is role modeling and talking to people,

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Speaker 3: being present on the floor and knowing what's going on,

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Speaker 3: making sure people are okay.

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Speaker 1: And the funny thing is that people will generally not

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Speaker 1: complain about over communication. They will tend to complain when

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Speaker 1: they don't hear anything or when you don't kind of

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Speaker 1: when there's no feedback, no communication at all. It's probably

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Speaker 1: better to have kind of too many of these conversations

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Speaker 1: and people to feel like they've almost got too many

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Speaker 1: opportunities to raise concerns or ask questions than they do

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Speaker 1: the other way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's true, Michael.

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Speaker 3: One of the greatest things leaders can do is be

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Speaker 3: present and pay attention, you know, observe what people are

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Speaker 3: doing and going through, and if you get a sense

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Speaker 3: that someone wants to have a chat, follow it up.

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Speaker 1: You made that sound all very straightforward, Adam, And look,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to take a punt here and say that

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Speaker 1: I suspect Benjamin would be satisfied with that answer.

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Speaker 2: Please let us know, Benjamin, I like feedback excellent.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much Benjamin for the question, and thank

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Speaker 1: you Adam for answering it so comprehensively.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Remember if you've got something that you would like to know,

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Speaker 1: then please send your question through on LinkedIn like Benjamin did,

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Speaker 1: or Instagram or Facebook, or jump onto our website Fearing

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Speaker 1: Greed dot com dot au. Send it on through and

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Speaker 1: we'll pop it on the list. I'm Michael Thompson and

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Speaker 1: this ask Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: M