Connection, trust and empathy: Tracey Ezard’s advice for implementing a positive workplace culture

Tracey Ezard knows what it takes to foster a strong workplace culture. She is a leadership and culture expert with decades of experience when it comes to identifying the drivers for success.

Explaining her three pillars of learning-culture, Tracey joins Cec Busby, editor of Flying Solo, to share her top tips to develop more empathy and explains how to cultivate a culture of curiosity within your business.

Sink or Swim: navigating the post-pandemic workplace

After an extensive career immersing herself in the cultures of workplaces in need, Tracey notes the incomparable influence the pandemic has had on the way people approach culture and leadership.

“I think there’s been a real realisation for many organisations of how important people’s ability to thrive in the workplace is,” Tracey says. “Whether we are working from home or whether we are in the workplace, our connection actually makes us work better.”

After two years of hybrid work, lockdowns and never-ending zoom meetings, the workplace culture expert has seen many businesses either thrive or crumble under the pressures of COVID.

“For some organisations, I think there was a real lack of understanding of the depth of people trying to survive through that time,” she recounts. “You sort of had both ends of the spectrum; people and organisations that were really focused on supporting and making sure that their people were able to do the best they could do in really challenging times, and other ones where the relationship stuff just wasn’t worked on at all.”

One major shift, according to Tracey, was the rise in empathy across many teams and professional cultures.

“I do think some people just got more of an insight into how hard and challenging some people’s work is,” Tracey says.

The power of empathy and psychological safety

The increasing presence of empathy within the workplace, from both leaders and the wider team, can be seen in an extremely positive mindset shift. The benefits of collective empathy extend far beyond understanding people’s professional responsibilities and capabilities.

“It’s the work that connects us together as human beings,” she explains. “So it’s majorly human work, but it’s also about getting us to think better, collaborate better, problem-solve better and decision-make better.

“Sitting down and actually connecting and getting to know people, understanding strengths, understanding what it is that is the unique thing that everyone brings to the table,” says Tracy. “This creates a connection that allows people to feel like they can bring their best.”

According to Tracey, another hallmark of a strong workplace culture is implementing psychological safety. Feeling supported in voicing one’s opinions, concerns and ideas is fast becoming a crucial component of collaboration.

“We have complex problems that could be solved if everyone’s voice came together to co-create a solution,” she says. “But instead, what we often know is we just listen to the louder few who may have some good ideas; but I bet they’re not as good as the ideas that could have been created if everyone had a voice.”

Understanding what vulnerability in the workplace actually looks like is key, according to Tracey.

“We assume that we’ve gotta lay everything out on the table, all the skeletons in the closet,” she says. “Our vulnerabilities are so unique to us and I tend to look at it as, anytime we feel that we need to be a bit courageous and step out of the way we’ve always done it – that’s a vulnerability.”

Listen to Tracey Ezard on the Flying Solo podcast:

Developing curiosity in your team to support collective learning

Developing a collaborative mindset relies on three main focus areas, a ‘mind, moment, mouth’ approach Tracey has curated from decades of experience.

“Great leaders actually create that collaborative workplace culture that says, this is complex work, I need to be able to ask you questions,” Tracey says. “Then we move into discussing and looking at solutions and coming up with a whole range of ideas. But we don’t do that until we’ve gone through that real curiosity phase of sparking ideas in our heads.”

Tracey’s mind, moment, mouth approach firstly calls for leaders to recognise how they create a collective growth mindset together. Once a team sees themselves as a collective agent of change, they are able to learn together. Next, it is crucial that a compelling environment is created to foster authentic growth. Lastly, all teams should dissect their language, assessing whether or not the dialogue used is effective.

“In many teams that is work to do because our conversations can be very transactional,” Tracey says of workplace dialogue. “They can be very didactic; they can be very closed. We often don’t make time for them.”

Most importantly, Tracey urges listeners to recognise their vulnerabilities, as well as the power that lies in their potential. If the last two years have taught workplaces anything, it’s that a strong culture across the entire team has the potential to impact every aspect of a business.

“I think it’s becoming so much more competitive for business owners to attract talent; not just because of the talent and skills shortage that we have across so many industries, but also because of that purpose piece.”