185: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation | with Dan Schawbel

The relationships between your team members make a big difference — both in terms of business results and each person’s wellbeing. As tempting as it is to rely on virtual communication and collaboration, technology too often contributes to workplace isolation and even loneliness. In today’s technology-driven workplace, particularly if some team members are working remotely, how can you cultivate a sense of community?

This is a big concern for me as a leader of my own team, and I know I’m not alone. I’m a big proponent of using technology for greater efficiency, but I recognize we often miss out on opportunities to build deep, authentic relationships at work. That’s why I’m excited to talk to career and workplace expert Dan Schawbel about his new book, Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation.

Back to Human addresses how 21st century leaders can foster the connections that motivate and support workplace teams. In this episode, Dan joins us for a conversation that includes these topics:

* Why electronic communication and virtual collaboration, though vital and useful, contribute to isolation at work

* How leaders can decide when and how to use technology to communicate and collaborate

* Why workplace loneliness is bad for business

* How a more socially connected workforce creates greater fulfillment, productivity, and engagement … while preventing burnout and turnover

* How to better engage remote workers

* How to create a safe, supportive culture so you teammates can freely share new ideas

* How to inspire shared learning

Dan Schawbel is a New York Times bestselling author, Partner and Research Director at Future Workplace, and the Founder of both Millennial Branding and WorkplaceTrends.com. Previously, he wrote two career books: Promote Yourself and Me 2.0. His new book Back to Human was selected by The Financial Times as the book of the month. Through his companies, he’s conducted dozens of research studies and worked with major brands including American Express, GE, Microsoft, Virgin, IBM, Coca Cola and Oracle. Dan has interviewed over 2,000 of the world’s most successful people, including Warren Buffett, Anthony Bourdain, Jessica Alba, will.i.am, Michael Bloomberg, Chelsea Handler, Colin Powell, Sheryl Sandberg, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is the host of “5 Questions with Dan Schawbel,” a podcast where he interviews a variety of world-class humans by asking them 5 questions in less than 10 minutes. In addition, he has written countless articles for Forbes, Fortune, TIME, The Economist, Quartz, The World Economic Forum, The Harvard Business Review, The Guardian, and others that have combined generated over 15 million views.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

* Website: danschawbel.com

* Book: Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation

* Instagram: /danschawbel

* LinkedIn: /danschawbel/

* Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/DanSchawbel" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noo...