Creating a Culture of Empathy and Engagement in Business

Claude Silver-VaynerMedia

What exactly does a Chief Heart Officer do in a business organisation? It’s probably the funkiest title you’ll hear in any sort of business context and our guest, Claude Silver, holds that position in VaynerMedia. Learn more about her role and what she does to infuse the agency with empathy.

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Topics Discussed in this Episode:

  • Claude’s inspiration for her unique way of blending empathy with business life

  • How Claude first started putting empathy into practice

  • The things that are important to Claude in terms of values

  • How has working with Fortune 500 companies challenged her values

  • How Claude broke away from the traditional ways of doing business and introduced the practice empathy

  • How Claude defines culture

  • The culture at VaynerMedia

  • The culture champions at VaynerMedia and what they do

  • Who is Gary Vaynerchuk and what VaynerMedia does

  • Claude’s role at VaynerMedia

  • How they recruit people at VaynerMedia

  • The company’s vision versus the company’s purpose

  • The millennial generation and their needs as it relates to being part of an organisation

  • Heartfulness in the workplace

  • How Claude looks after her vitality and her energy in such a fast-paced environment

Key Takeaways:

  • It’s very difficult to speak up in an organisation where one does not feel safe or respected or seen. When you don’t have the luxury of those common human needs, life can be quite lonely at work.

  • Culture shifts happen on the fringes, and then they come mainstream. And that can happen in organisations as well.

  • Culture is the pulse of an organisation. It exists in the shadows and sometimes it’s very hard to see, but you can feel it.

  • Culture and heart are very synonymous. Culture is the operating system of the organisation and heart is the operating system of a human being.

  • One terrific hire goes to the end of time but one bad hire disrupts everyone, so it’s a delicate balance.

  • The industrial revolution was all about muscle. The information age was about brains. We’re in an age now that is about heart, and the jobs today need to incorporate or take note of heart and of bringing more humanity into the workplace.

Action Steps:

  • Create a place of belonging for people.

  • Find those others that believe in positive change. Not cynicism, not gossip, but that want to change things for the better. If you’re not in a positive culture or a healthy culture because your CEO or senior leaders didn’t dictate or mandate it, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Find your crew and start small. It’s just about intention.

  • Create a place where people feel like they can be transparent or they can be vulnerable and share their feelings with you or share what their hardships or roadblocks are. And if you are in that position of being able to to do something, then do something. Move the needle, connect the dots, make things easier so that people see that you’re working for them.

Claude said:

“I really believe that as a leader, we have this incredible honour to guide people rather than to be heroes. I think our job is to turn others into heroes.”

“If you feel it, then other people feel it. Remember that. You’re never alone. And human beings were wired to belong, wired to connect with one another.”

Thanks for listening!

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Links to things we discuss in the show:

More from Claude Silver:

Claude’s Website

Claude’s Twitter (@claudesilver)

Claude’s Instagram (@claudesilver)

Claude’s Email

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Social Media Links:

Gary’s Instagram (@garyvee)

Gary’s Twitter (@garyvee)

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne Spencer
Rise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Leanne’s Email

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