Speaker 1: Today's episode is another my favorite Tip episode where I
Speaker 1: go back to interviews from the past and I dig
Speaker 1: out the thing that was my favorite tip, like the
Speaker 1: thing that I got out of the interview that really
Speaker 1: impacted or resonated with me. So today's extract is from
Speaker 1: my chat with Mia Freedman, and this was actually the
Speaker 1: second time I've had her on how I work because
Speaker 1: I loved her so much the first time that I
Speaker 1: was really keen to check in with her during COVID
Speaker 1: to see how she was going and how her working
Speaker 1: life had changed. So if you're not familiar with Miya,
Speaker 1: Miya is the co founder and chief creative officer of
Speaker 1: the Mamma Mia women's media company in Australia. Mama Mia
Speaker 1: has an audience of more than five million women each
Speaker 1: month and includes the largest women's podcast network on the
Speaker 1: planet with over sixty seven million listens and twenty eight
Speaker 1: different shows. So the extrac that I've pulled out of
Speaker 1: my full chat with Meat was a strategy that she
Speaker 1: was using to get a quick read on how her
Speaker 1: staff were going and their mental well being, particularly during COVID.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if she's continued this, but the strategy
Speaker 1: really resonated with me, and it was something that we
Speaker 1: tried out at Inventing for a while as well, and
Speaker 1: I personally found it really helpful. So on that note,
Speaker 1: let's head to me up. The other thing that you've
Speaker 1: said that kind of found quite interesting is when you
Speaker 1: were saying how when you started your meeting towards the
Speaker 1: beginning of lockdown, you'd start them with everyone giving a
Speaker 1: rating out of ten as to how they're going. And
Speaker 1: I don't think I've heard anyone else say that, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to dig into that. I think that the
Speaker 1: closest thing I can think about that I've heard was
Speaker 1: I think I've read an article about how Brene Brown
Speaker 1: was kicking off all her meetings with everyone doing just
Speaker 1: a two word check in, and particularly for big meetings,
Speaker 1: you know, just doing that on Zoom, which I have adopted.
Speaker 1: It I find really useful. But tell me more about
Speaker 1: this rating out of ten check in.
Speaker 2: So we did that as a just we did that
Speaker 2: first in the Senior Leadership team, just as a way
Speaker 2: to cut to the chase, because you know, as Brene
Speaker 2: Brown quite rightly pointed out, or Esther Perel said this,
Speaker 2: if you ask someone how they are, or if you
Speaker 2: ask someone how they were during those first few weeks,
Speaker 2: they'd usually say, oh, you know, can't complain. We're all safe.
Speaker 2: You know, I've still got my job, and that often
Speaker 2: disguises what's going on. And so we did this at first,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't work in big groups because people can
Speaker 2: be feel a bit put on the spot. But because
Speaker 2: everyone was dealing with so many different things, the out
Speaker 2: of ten personal and the out of ten work just
Speaker 2: gave us away and we wouldn't make anyone really elaborate,
Speaker 2: but it just gave us a way to say, Okay,
Speaker 2: this person needs some more attention and this person needs
Speaker 2: some more support. So, for example, there were a lot
Speaker 2: of things that we didn't all know about our colleagues
Speaker 2: until this happened, and suddenly we were literally looking into
Speaker 2: people in their homes and oh, so you know, the
Speaker 2: first thing that people were asking in those first weeks
Speaker 2: on Zoom were like, so, who were you locking down with?
Speaker 2: And that's how you found Some people were married, some
Speaker 2: people were in same sex relationships, some people were living
Speaker 2: with their in laws, some people were separated from their partners,
Speaker 2: some people had gone home to live with their families.
Speaker 2: You know, where they hadn't lived at home for a decade,
Speaker 2: and they were all very unique.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Some people had kids with additional needs that they had
Speaker 2: to look after, and that just gave us a sense
Speaker 2: as managers, Okay, who do we have to be on
Speaker 2: the lookout for, because we don't want anyone you know,
Speaker 2: we have a strong duty of care and we don't
Speaker 2: want anyone to slip through the cracks. We want to
Speaker 2: make sure that no one just goes. The other thing
Speaker 2: is that sometimes people would just go very quiet, and
Speaker 2: that's when someone usually in the team would go need
Speaker 2: to check on so and so they've just gone pretty
Speaker 2: quiet the last few days, you know, because we've got
Speaker 2: ninety five percent of our team of female. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot of good communication that goes on. A lot
Speaker 2: of talking at the best of times, but this even
Speaker 2: ratcheted up for us a notch to that extra level.
Speaker 1: That is it for today's show. If you want to
Speaker 1: listen to the full episode, I linked to that in
Speaker 1: the show notes, so you might want to check that out.
Speaker 2: And if you.
Speaker 1: Are enjoying how I work, I would be so deeply
Speaker 1: grateful if you just take five seconds out of your
Speaker 1: day to leave a review in Apple Podcasts. It might
Speaker 1: be a star rating or a few words, and by
Speaker 1: doing so it helps other people find the show and
Speaker 1: it also brings a huge smile to my face. So
Speaker 1: thank you to the hundreds of people that have left reviews.
Speaker 1: It is so deeply appreciated. So that is it for
Speaker 1: today's show and I will see you next time.