Patricia Bradby Moore has leveraged her natural people skills to navigate a diverse career path. From the music industry to the tech world, Patricia shares her insights on the power of building meaningful connections in the digital age.
Patricia has turned her gift for networking into a platform to guide others – from young professionals to corporate teams – to overcome networking anxiety and maximize opportunities from solid relationships.
We explore the intersection of technology and human connection, offering strategies for using digital tools to facilitate in-person interactions.
Whether you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert, this conversation is packed with practical tips and inspiring stories that will have you rethinking the role of connections in your personal and professional life.
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Show Outline
- 0:00 – Connections and Networking Insights
- 2:37 – The Role of Connectors in Teams
- 6:19 – Patricia’s Career Journey
- 16:26 – The Intersection of Technology and Human Connections
- 21:37 – Encouraging Networking and Overcoming Fear
- 23:12 – The Future of Work and AI Integration
- 29:48 – Social Media and Networking Tools
- 34:14 – Final Thoughts
Quotes from the Show
- “I spend a good amount of time in my current role having one-on-ones with people in other departments…I want to understand when someone new comes into our company, are they having a good experience? Do they feel like they’ve really connected with people, or do they feel like they’ve just come into a place where they’re just another number and they’re given tasks to do, because the staying power is in feeling connected to other people.”
- “The thing about tech is it now allows us to connect with so many more people than we would be able to otherwise. Instagram is technology, right? I wouldn’t have the job I have now if technology hadn’t connected me to a person who was somewhat in my social circle.”
Connect with Patricia
Episode 71 – Full Transcript
Jay Smack 0:00
Steve, welcome to the new generation leader podcast. We’re giving you the tools you need to lead in the digital world ready to reach your true potential. This is the new generation leader podcast. One
Aaron Lee 0:17
of the things I’ve noticed about you is your connections, and now you’re making that your platform. When did you realize this is something I’m gifted at?
Patricia Bradby Moore 0:29
I’ve always been a people person my whole life. If you talk to my parents, they’ll tell you stories about when we were kids and we would go out to eat, and it was like, I would always be at somebody else’s table trying to make friends. So this is just something that’s like innately in me. But I think in the last few years, I’ve been working a lot of conferences. So my full time job is working for a tech company. I work for our chief technology officer, and so lots of conversations around AI, lots of opportunity for our team in particular, to go out and represent the company. And so in doing that, I’m also seeing my colleagues out at these events. And I love going to conferences. I think it’s really fun. It’s great learning. You get to meet a lot of people. You get to see what other organizations are doing and sort of understand how your company and how you sort of fit into their story. And not everybody feels that way. And so as I’m going to these conferences, I’m noticing that, like some people, while they are doing the job of making connections, it’s not enjoyable. It’s bringing them anxiety. And it just gave me this thought around, how can I help other people walk into these kind of scenarios feeling excited and not feeling anxious. And I think even before that, maybe the real seed that was planted was COVID. So coming out of COVID, even as, like, 100% extrovert says, Myers Briggs, right? Like, that’s just who I am, even I sort of had to ease back into these in person social situations like it just wasn’t something that I had done in so long. And I just started thinking about young folks who are coming into the workforce, who are maybe going to college, who spent the last few years like not having in person social interaction. And so what a disadvantage they are at was not having built up those skills. So I think it comes from a lot of different places, but I always I’m a giver. I like connecting with people to understand, like how I can help them, connect to resources, connect to ideas, connect to other people. And so it just sort of felt like a natural extension of things that I sort of do already. One
Aaron Lee 2:45
of the things I’ve recognized, and I use this connector voice. Out of the five voices that we use with teams and organizations, connectors only make up 11% of the population. And oftentimes people look at connectors and say, Oh, that’s exhausting. There’s too much energy. On the flip side, the benefit is there’s so much energy, there’s passion, there’s excitement. I’m sure, I know there’s always something you’re passionate or excited about or putting your energy behind. And so how, how do you encourage people to temper that, not to become you as a connector, but to leverage the superpower, the energy, what comes naturally to you? How can people learn pieces of that to benefit them without, like, fully dialing in and becoming 100% extrovert?
Patricia Bradby Moore 3:40
I think not everybody’s gonna come 100% extrovert. And I don’t think really that’s the goal of the coaching. The goal of the coaching is really to understand, like, what are the things that do come natural to you? What are the things that you get excited about, what are the things that you feel comfortable talking about, and how do we create, like, a strategy around that. So when you’re going into conversations where you don’t know somebody, you sort of have these, I don’t want to call them crutches, but they kind of are like these pillars that you can lean back on, that are things that you can create natural conversation around, where you still feel like you’re being you. Because I think culture sort of teaches us, when we go into these conversations, to sort of reach for things that are culturally pervasive, is maybe what I will say. Like, you know, talk about sports if you’re not a sports person, which I’m not really a sports person, I don’t want to talk about sports because I don’t know what happened in the game last week, and I don’t know who’s going to the playoffs, and I don’t know who the players are. So like, you know it’s you need to understand, like the situations in which you feel comfortable, and if you can sort of assert yourself in these scenarios, so you feel like you’re guiding the conversation, or at least, you feel like you have some tips and tricks if the conversation starts to go in a certain direction that maybe you weren’t expecting it to, it’s just the. Idea of being prepared, right? Like, being prepared being yourself. I don’t want to turn everyone into some, you know, extrovert, extension of me. Like, like, that’s definitely not the goal. Like, I want everybody to be their best self. But I think some people just haven’t even taken the time to sort of sit back and think about what that really means. I
Aaron Lee 5:22
think we compare ourselves a lot, and we see somebody else and think, oh, I should be more like them. I should become them. And no, that’s not the goal in any sort of development. It’s what can I learn and apply to who I am? And I think you’re right, that foundation of who am I? What am I gifted at? And how can I build on that? I call them smart hacks, not crutches. Yeah, there you go. How can I work smarter, not harder, exactly, and we talk a lot about energy, what energizes us, what drains us, and so for so many people trying to leverage connections and step into those networking conversations is just going to zap the energy out of them. On the flip side, people who are naturally connectors thrive on the conference environment, and it seems in the 21st century digital world, we talk about how connected we are. We may not actually be as connected as we think we are, but it’s the connections that seem like that’s the future of how we find jobs and roles. And I know you’ve I’ve heard this from you about your story your career, walk us through what got you to where you are today through that lens of the connections that you leveraged.
Patricia Bradby Moore 6:48
Woo, okay, lots of twists and turns. So I’m gonna try not to keep you here all day to tell you the story of how I got to where I am. But I started my career in the music industry, so I went to NYU for my undergraduate degree. I have a bachelor’s in music, and so I had studied music business to work in the music industry in a role that I thought was gonna make me like the next ditty, which I feel like is maybe a thing I shouldn’t be saying out loud now, in light of all the things, but I wanted to be a producer. I wanted to work in music industry. And so got to school, understood that I don’t have the ear for that. Took a few classes and was like, Patricia, this is not your calling. And then I did an internship at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip. It’s no longer there, but it was a music venue in LA and loved it, and said, This is what I want to do with my life. And so the first I’m going to call it, four and a half or five years of my career out of college, I worked in the live music industry, so I did marketing and events for concerts, and that was great and exhausting. Got burnt out really quickly, maybe got a little bit of jaded, and sort of decided I wanted to just take a breath and understand, like, what is it that I really love, what’s really important to me? And then let that guide me to what I wanted to do next. And so then I had what I call like an Eat, Pray, Love moment. So moved to Malaysia, that’s where my mom is from, and worked at a resort as a bartender for five months. And that was a really interesting experience, because I was on an island where I was actually not very well connected. They didn’t have a good internet connection. Sometimes if I wanted to hop on the internet, I would have to walk 20 minutes through the jungle to the closest other resort to see if they had internet connection. And so the good thing about that is that I had time to sort of listen to myself when you’re in your regular habitat, as I will call it, you hear voices from everywhere else about who other people expect you to be. And I got to sort of silence that for a little bit. And so I think I came back sort of knowing that I didn’t want to go back into the music industry, but I did sort of want to lean into I had also ran a nonprofit while I was in New York alongside working in the music industry. I don’t want to belittle it, but it started as a program that I was running while I was in college, and got introduced talk about connections. So the program was connecting students who needed classroom teaching hours to opportunities to get into the classroom and teach marketing and business skills to art students, because at the time, the government was reducing funding in arts education, which is how I ended up studying music business was because I took arts classes in grade school, and so I decided I wanted to start this program to sort of help schools rejuvenate their budget. And the way we were going to do that was, I was a girl scout for 13 years of my formative life. We were going to sell art projects, Girl Scout Cookie style. We were going to like, make these sheets. We’re going to take orders. And so we did it. And. The Dean of the Steinhardt School, which is where the education classes are at, NYU was like, I love this idea. She told someone else, who, I guess, told someone else. Somehow this law firm got a hold of what we were doing. Someone at the law firm wanted to work with us pro bono to turn it into a nonprofit organization. So random connections. When I started that organization, it wasn’t an organization, it was just a program I was doing on the side, and it sort of morphed into a nonprofit organization. And I learned a lot from that, but how I’m going to parlay this is like when I came back from Malaysia, I decided I should go back to business school. If I want to pivot out of one industry into another, I should probably get some extra education, because I have a Bachelor of Music at this point. And so business school was something that I was only able to afford through a connection somebody that I went to undergrad with had gotten a scholarship to go to UNC Chapel Hill for business school through this organization called the consortium. That’s really about dei for business leadership. So if we’re going to have more diversity at the top in our fortune 500 companies, that means we need more diversity feeding into the top business schools. And so she had gone through the consortium to get into UNC Chapel Hill. After talking to her, I applied to business school through the Consortium, which is how I ended up at the University of Texas at Austin, and went through business school, decided that was going to turn into maybe a role in corporate social responsibility, because that’s how you do nonprofit work and make a for profit salary that didn’t turn out the way that I thought it would. And so after I graduated business school, I ended up working back in the music industry for a little bit, just to sort of figure out, what am I going to do next? And while I was working on some music festivals, I said to myself, if I can’t figure out a full time role when this contract work is over, I’m going to go home and spend some time with my family. And that’s how I ended up back here in Richmond. And I’m gonna try to go through the next piece much quicker. But once I got back to Richmond, I reached out to people that I grew up with that were still in the area, and I said, Hey, I’m not really sure what’s next for me, but I would love any introductions that you can help me make to folks that are here in Richmond and are sort of moving and shaking, and can help me get an idea of the landscape here. And through those connections, I found out about TEDx RVA, which was happening at the time. That was our local sort of TED Talk affiliate, if you will. So I ended up on their organizing committee that introduced me to some people, and the same person that gave me that introduction also told me about an open role at leadership Metro Richmond, and I ended up working at leadership Metro Richmond, doing marketing and programming, which was very similar to the work I was doing in the music industry. Just transferring those skills to the nonprofit world, and that opened up all sorts of connections for me, the opportunities that I’ve been afforded, I sit on two nonprofit boards right now, and I know I wouldn’t be doing nonprofit board service if it wasn’t for my role at LMR. But while, right before I started the role at LMR, I had started a company doing Tea Party catering services, because I said, if no one’s going to hire me, maybe I’ll hire myself. So I just love doing two things at once. So while I was working at LMR, I had this Tea Party catering business, and I did that for about three years, and when I closed the business, randomly, someone I knew at VCU was looking for an adjunct professor to teach product innovation. And she said, we really would love somebody with entrepreneurial experience. I know you have this tea business here, you had a nonprofit in New York. Is this something you would be interested in? And so for two spring semesters, I taught for the VCU Da Vinci center for innovation, and I loved that. And from that experience, someone that I knew through my church actually rewind we had not met before. So I take notes during church on Sundays, sermon notes, I post them to my Instagram Stories. Talk about the power of social media our church repost those notes. Somebody saw the notes and reached out to me and said, I love the way that you take notes during the sermons. Do you have notes from this past message? Sent him those in my profile. He saw that I taught a course at VCU, and he said, let’s hop on a call and you can tell me about this course that you teach. I’m so curious, and so I get on the phone call, and it’s him and two of his coworkers, and he worked for at the time, the company I work for now. And so through a series of conversations with other folks on that call, what started as we want to learn more about your program, because we’d like to hire maybe some of the students coming out of your program, if you’re teaching innovation. And so I put them in contact with the right person for that because. That was not necessarily a thing I could help them with, but through a few conversations, someone said, Would you be interested in working in tech, which is something I had never considered. And so you can see that this was like very happenstance, but kind of not right. So like my dad always says, you create your own luck. And I think, over time, as opportunities that have presented themselves, I have just been in a place where I’ve built up my confidence. I think that’s the number one thing, is building up your own confidence that you can do something different and do something that you haven’t done before, no matter where you are in your career, and also just being open to connecting with people, right? So it’s that person who reached out to me on Instagram and I hadn’t responded, like, maybe I wasn’t checking my message requests from strangers, because a lot of times that is spam, but sometimes it’s not. And so you know, just being open to conversations and being open to trying something new has allowed me to work in, I think, five or six different industries now, just from talking to people,
Aaron Lee 16:11
it does feel like a meandering journey, sometimes from the inside, but when you do look at that, there’s a whiteboard sitting behind You. If we were to whiteboard this out, you would naturally see connections and and how each one led to the next and the next and, and really, the sum total, what you’re doing now is a combination of all of those past steps. One of the things I think is interesting in your story, where you’ve ended up now, your passion for making connections, and you’re in a high tech company, making connections is such a low tech activity because it’s people. It’s relational. How do you see that intersection in in this digital, fast paced, high tech world we’re in where everybody’s thinking about AI and how do we advance more, but there’s still a human connection there that we need to foster.
Patricia Bradby Moore 17:08
The thing about tech is it now allows us to connect with so many more people than we would be able to otherwise. So I mean, like Instagram, is technology right? So I wouldn’t have the job I have now, if technology hadn’t connected me to a person who was somewhat in my social circle, will say, but the church I go to has over 1000 people at it, like I’m not gonna meet everyone. And so the thing I love about technology is it allows you to sort of hone in on the networks that are built around the things that you’re interested in and find the people that are like minded, who you might not stumble upon through your everyday life. And I do think that there is real value in face to face connection and being in real life or sitting here in this room. We could have done this digitally, but I wanted to be in in the same room and feel that energy. But that’s not always possible. And so I do think that technology, honestly, is just extending our ability to connect with people. And also we can look at it as a jumping off point, right? Like you can meet someone through a digital connection and then be able to meet them in real life later on, like, maybe on purpose and maybe not right? Like, sometimes life just brings people back around to you, or maybe you do some traveling to a part of the world that you didn’t think you were gonna travel to. That’s happening to me right now, actually. So I went through a business coaching program, and one of the women that’s in my group coaching cohort lives in Brisbane, in Australia, and my full time job is taking me to Australia in a couple weeks to speak. And I reached out to her, and I said, I’m going to be in Australia. I don’t know if I’m going to be close to where you’re going to be. And it turns out I am. And so now what went from being a digital virtual connection is going to turn into an in real life connection. And I’m not sure everyone’s always thinking that way, but I hope that more people start to think that way. Like I lead an employee resource group at my company, and work a global company, people are all over and I was having one on one conversations with other members of the group and starting to plan for our programming next year to sort of say, what kind of things would you like to see us do? And over and over again, I kept hearing I would love to have in person meet ups. And the reality is, I’m not going to get the budget for that. I’m not going to get the budget to fly several people to a city and put them up in hotels. But I do think what we can do is facilitate an understanding of where people are located. So I was recently in Austin, Texas, someone that’s in that erg that just started at our company is based in Austin, Texas, and he posted that in the Slack channel for our group that he was in Austin. And so I sent him a message, and I said, I’m going to be in Austin for something at UT. I would love to meet up for happy hour. And so I think I might be the first person he met in real life at the company. And that’s so cool. Like now we have that bond, and we message pretty regularly, and that’s something our relationship probably wouldn’t have gotten so close so fast if I hadn’t reached out to him and said, Hey, let’s just grab a drink. And so I would love to encourage more people to do that, both at my company and just in general, when you’re traveling around, thinking about, who do I know that lives in this place? Could we meet up for lunch? Could we meet up for coffee and creating stronger bonds with people when those opportunities do present themselves,
Aaron Lee 20:37
I think back to your story of the person from church reaching out through Instagram. And you think about the progression of that relationship, from impersonal, digital, but if facilitated and then moved to a conversation live, so from asynchronous to live to, you know, just being open to looking at the progression, and I think, not keeping relationships segmented in Hey, this is an online only relationship. Let’s keep it that way. Well, where can we pull these relationships into real life? We’re coming up with a new generation that’s been in school through COVID, through a pandemic, where they have been maybe separated or segmented. What’s your encouragement to people to overcome and step out and get back in person? Hmm,
Patricia Bradby Moore 21:35
I look for things that you’re excited about. I think it all comes back to how much you want to be there. And so if networking is the thing that doesn’t excite you, what does excite you? Because there are going to be opportunities for you to meet new people. And I think if you have energy and excitement around the things that you can learn. So sometimes I think what’s stopping people from doing more networking is their fear about what they’re bringing to the conversation. And I think there are things that you can do to prepare yourself for what you can bring. But I also think the other perspective is, what can you get out of that conversation? So what kind of questions can you have prepared? What kind of things do you want to know? And also think of it as an opportunity to learn from other people, and maybe you are asking more questions and doing less talking and letting the other people do more talking, which maybe would make you more comfortable if you’re a person that doesn’t like to sort of just speak on the fly.
Aaron Lee 22:35
So you mentioned asking questions and being curious, and I think that’s something that if people are armed with the right question, there’s nothing they have to prove they’re not trying to give a keynote when they meet somebody new, or an elevator pitch. They can just ask their question. What’s a good question that somebody could ask?
Patricia Bradby Moore 22:57
I mean, it depends on the situation, right? Like the context of how I’m meeting that person and where and why I’m meeting that person is going to influence what kind of question I’m asking.
Aaron Lee 23:08
One of our partners is exploring, how do we use AI to facilitate the people side? And so understanding, you know, you and I are wired differently. We communicate differently. You’re off the charts extrovert. I’m off the charts introvert. And so how do we problem solve? How do we if we encounter a challenge, how do we solve that? And how can we use AI to leverage that? And I think that whole framework that you were just describing, how can we use technology to work smarter, not harder? How can we use technology to set us up to do the things that only we can do, and what are the things that only we can do? Understanding that and tapping into how we’re wired, how we’re gifted, what brings us energy and where we most want to spend our time is really, at the end of the day, one of our recent guests, Rachel, talked about, we aren’t workers who go home, we’re humans who go to work. And so how do we be more human? Because
Patricia Bradby Moore 24:13
right now at work, we are just so tuned in to AI. I think my back pocket question for people is, are you using AI, and do you even really understand it? And depending on how they answer that question, I ask them, What are you most afraid of with AI? Because I think there is a lot of fear around it, and I’m trying to wrap my head around how to take those fears and balance them with opportunities. And so if I can get to the heart of why people are not embracing AI and the reality is we have to like it’s not coming, it’s here. It’s already here, and it’s only going to continue to become more. Evasive in our everyday life, everyone is using it, whether you know it or not, but some people are more intentionally using it, which I think is the heart of my question, like, are you using chat G, P, T, or perplexity, or Google Gemini, or whatever the AI chat bot is that is in your devices? Maybe you’re using Alexa and have been for a long time, right? Like a different type of AI, but I think the opportunity for artificial intelligence to just enhance our abilities to get work done and to get things done so that I personally as a tech worker, can spend less time at my computer and more time with people, because the artificial intelligence can do some of that monotonous work for me, and the hope is that shortens my work day and my need to be doing those tasks, and frees me up to do other things, which for me is spending time with the people I love. And so the more I can try to impart that perspective on other people, the more, I hope that folks will be open to learning more about this technology and how it can help them in their everyday life. So, you know, like all tides rising, so
Aaron Lee 26:11
in your current work, you’re working in in the tech world, making connections, doing your day job, you’re also spinning up coaching to facilitate connections. What does that look like? How? How are you engaging with leaders to help them make connections? It’s a
Patricia Bradby Moore 26:30
good question. So I’m starting up what I’m calling the catalyst course and connectivity, which is group coaching, because you know, you’re here to make to learn how to make connections. So let’s create a cohort where you can do that in a safe space. So I think that’s one piece, is folks who are looking for opportunities to learn some new strategies, to test those out, to sort of think tank ways that they can be doing more networking to reach their goals. And so group coaching as a part of that, I think another part of that is corporate coaching. So again, going back to the conferences, sort of where we started, if you’re sending teams out to go to these conferences as a business, you want the highest ROI like you want folks making connections while they’re there, so that the work isn’t just being done on site at that conference, it’s also being done in the follow up. What are things that they learn that your business can put into practice? Who are people that they’ve met that you could partner with, or that maybe would be potential customers, or maybe that have some sort of technology or product offering or whatever it is that your company could take advantage of. And so helping businesses do that, I haven’t tapped into this quite yet, but I really do want to get into an education space, working with young people and understanding how they see the world, and I think this is going to be a two way street of learning, right? Because Facebook became popular when I was in college, and so I grew up on the playground and outside with my friends. And so the way this new generation in the workforce thinks about connecting with their friends is very different. And so I think part of that is listening and learning on my part, and part of it is teaching and helping them understand the value of in person connections, and even in a world where it feels like jobs are coming becoming more and more remote, I think if you were to really look at what’s happening with the workforce, a lot of companies are calling people back into the office, and there’s some pushback on that, but I do think that there is value, and if your teams are in the same place, having them meet in person, it is a different kind of connection. And as a person who works fully remote, I think that our team does great work, but we also are on camera for every meeting like I feel like I see my coworkers a lot. We whiteboard and we meet daily, and not a lot of teams do that. I know people who work remotely who maybe talk to their boss once a month, like the community building is not really there, and so if your company wasn’t prepared to go remote, and you haven’t had time to look into those strategies for how you get your teams energized in this very remote work environment, I understand why you would want to bring people back into the office, beyond just wanting to get your money’s worth out of your lease. I do think that there are productivity gains to be had there. And so anywho, there’s a couple different of audiences I want to reach, but I think first and foremost is just sort of like educating people in general. So beyond me coaching people, one on one or me group coaching people, it’s also just posting to social media, because that is the greatest place to sort of bring awareness. So taking some of these tips and tricks and putting them out into the world and saying, Here, try this and let me know what you think. Or I have a question, like, what do you think about this thing? I think I posted one a few weeks ago that was about business cards. So I go to a lot of conferences, right? And people are like, Can I have your business card? And I don’t have any business cards, because when I first started in this role, I wasn’t doing a lot of traveling, but now that I am, I still don’t want business cards because I don’t feel like I use the LinkedIn app every single day, multiple times a day, but you can tap the Search bar in the LinkedIn app and it will give you access to a QR code that someone can just scan and connect with you on LinkedIn. And so that’s what I use in place of a business card. But some people like having, like, that physical business card, and maybe they have it in an interesting shape, or it has a QR code on it, or it has a discount code on it, depending on what your business is or what you do. And so I just thought it was an interesting dialog to sort of understand, like pros and cons of having business cards, if that’s something that you’re thinking about, and that is a big part of networking, is, how do you stay connected? And so getting on social and handing out information, but also creating a public forum for people to sort of learn from each other’s experiences, and for me to also learn from what’s working for other people. Because what’s working for me is not going to work for everybody.
Aaron Lee 31:15
It’s important to learn. We never stop learning. Nope. Always Learning. Lifelong Learner. Here’s my hack with the LinkedIn QR code as I make it the lock screen on my phone, so I don’t even have to at a conference. I don’t even have to go into the LinkedIn app. I just pull up the QR code.
Patricia Bradby Moore 31:34
I love it. I love it. For me, going through the app is like my moment to sort of impart knowledge, right? Like I was saying when you go into a conversation with somebody new, you want to sort of bring something to the table. And as somebody that likes to network, a lot of folks don’t even know that that QR code sits within that app, and that it’s just that easy. And so part of sort of my talking points when I go into conversations with people is showing them what I’m doing when I’m on the app because if they don’t know that’s something that I’ve taught them, that they can walk away with, which is pretty cool.
Aaron Lee 32:05
That is, it is better than my lock screen. So maybe I’ll get rid of my lock screen. That
Patricia Bradby Moore 32:10
is time efficient, and I like it Well,
Aaron Lee 32:12
I think that’s it’s such a great platform. You’re talking students, you’re talking learning, you’re talking, you know, all the things that I think about all the time in meetings, meetings and productivity. And how do you do that? You know, we we think about how work went remote, but we just took the same habits with us. We just took them online. And so the people who don’t see a boss but once a month, probably only had a one on one once a month, in person in the office, they just sat in their corners. I saw an interesting statistic on productivity and engagement, that there’s a 20% difference in engagement simply based on whether or not you have a regular one on one with your supervisor, 20% difference, and not even a specific accomplishment or agenda, not a specific roadmap, just having that regular conversation. And so that’s one of the key things that I encourage leaders to do. Don’t make it complicated. I have a simple process I give to leaders, and it’s questions. It’s not an agenda. It’s not anything you’re bringing it’s questions you’re armed with. The questions you can ask good questions. And I had a business owner a few weeks ago tell me, yeah, I’ve been doing this for a few months, six, eight weeks now, and my direct reports tell me it hasn’t just changed their work, it hasn’t just changed their productivity, it has changed their lives. I’m like, man, just because you had a regular one on one conversation, not about the sales report, just about who they are, what they’re working on, what’s going on in their world.
Patricia Bradby Moore 33:57
I mean, they say people leave managers. They don’t leave companies like That’s why people hop jobs sometimes on a lot of times, and we can’t undervalue relationship building in the workplace. When I’m mentoring young people, I tell them, when you’re interviewing for a job, make sure that you get to meet the folks on the team that you would work on because interviewing is a two way street. They’re interviewing you, but you should be interviewing them. Like, can you see the working relationship they have in the way that they converse with each other, in the way that they talk with each other? Does it seem like it’d be a place where you would want to work? Is it a good cultural fit for you and for me, I would say at this point in my career, who I work with is almost more important than what I do. When I started my career, I wanted to work in the music industry because I thought it would be fun, and it was, I’m not gonna lie, but part of what made it fun was that a lot of the folks that I worked with when I first got out of college. Were my friends from school. We all went to school for music business, and so we all worked in different parts of the industry. And so when we would have to call, I worked at a music venue, when I would have to call the record label or the agency, eight times out of 10, the person that picked up the phone was somebody I went to school with, and that was really fun, right? Like having this community that just sort of continued on beyond the classroom was amazing. And I know very few people have that kind of experience, but I think because that was the experience in the beginning of my career, I didn’t understand how special that was. And so when I got to points in my career where I walked into a new role at a company where I didn’t know anyone, I like making friends, so not necessarily a barrier to entry for me, but it is a very different work environment when you don’t know people and you haven’t built up that rapport. And I spend a good amount of time in my current role having one on ones with people in other departments, partially because my role is about cross collaboration, like cross functional collaboration, but also partially because I just want to know what other people are working on. I want to understand like, when someone new comes into our company, are they having a good experience? Do they feel like they’ve really connected with people, or do they feel like they’ve just come into a place where they’re just another number and they’re given tasks to do, because the staying power is in feeling connected to other people, and so those regular meetings like that statistic does not surprise me at all. I’m really lucky to have a great boss. We had our one on one yesterday, and he’s C suite, and so he doesn’t always have a lot of time. Sometimes our one on ones are only 15 minutes, but he prioritizes having just time to say hi and check in. And we didn’t have anything in particular project wise to check in on yesterday, but following the election, he lives in Canada, so it wasn’t even his election. But you know, the whole world is watching. So following the election yesterday, he was just, like, I just want to check in on you and see how you’re doing. Like, how are you as a human doing today? And that means a lot to have a boss that just wants to check on you, not just check on your work, but check on you. Like, how are you mentally, emotionally, physically? Like, how are you doing? Makes all the difference. And so I love my job, like I started doing this coaching thing. But it’s not necessarily me trying to leave my job. It’s just a thing that I think is fun, that I want to test out, and I want to help people. But my boss is also my biggest champion. I’ve gotten opportunities to do some really exciting things. The speaking opportunity that I have coming up in Australia is because he is using his platform to help elevate his direct reports, like he’s saying my name and rooms that I’m not in. And the only way that that’s going to happen is if you have relationship building, is if people understand who you are, and what you’re good at, and what environments you thrive in. And you’re not gonna get that just from Project check ins. You have to really get to know people well. There’s
Aaron Lee 38:09
no surprise that you are working on a side project. I mean, let’s be real. You sound like me as well, that I’ve always had a side thing, and it’s interesting, and it helps with growth and personal development, and it’s a passion project, and anytime we can focus our energy in that way, I’ve always believed not just because I was doing it, but it brought something back to the table for my full time role as well. Absolutely. All right, great conversation today. Loved diving into this idea of connection with you. How can people connect with you and follow along with what you’re doing? Sure,
Patricia Bradby Moore 38:47
LinkedIn, obviously, if you’re on LinkedIn, Patricia Brad B Moore is where you can find me. If you are on Instagram, it’s Patricia dot b dot Moore. And I’m always checking the messages, so like, please do connect with me. I’m happy to chat anytime. Oh,
Aaron Lee 39:04
link to all that in the show notes at New Generation leader.fm. Thanks, Patricia,
Patricia Bradby Moore 39:09
thank you. This was fun.
Jay Smack 39:11
Thanks for listening to the new generation leader podcast. Subscribe today on your podcasting platform, download the show notes and unlock your true leadership potential at New Generation leader.fm thanks for listening today, and we look forward to seeing you next time on the new generation leader podcast. You.