Investing in People

You’re the daughter of Iranian immigrants.
You have a diverse background yourself. How do you foster excellence in a team of diverse individuals? You oversee a lot of people at Compass?

bsolutely. We have this expression at my company, and I really believe it. It’s around making sure that everybody has a sense of belonging. And what I identify as is not just what may be obvious to you. I identify as a woman in the workplace. I identify as a mother in the workplace. I identify as a New Yorker. I identify as so many things as a daughter of immigrants.
And I think the most important thing around fostering these diverse and successful teams is making sure that you are peeling back the layers and the people you work with so you understand the full diversity that they bring to the table. Maybe not just the things that you can assume or that are obvious.

So, how do you do that, Neda? Are there certain techniques or strategies that have worked for you?

I’ll say a couple of things, and I think this gets more challenging in this environment where a lot of times we’re working with coworkers on Zoom, and so we don’t have the benefit of the water cooler talk or the hallway conversation or “I’m going from the 6th floor to the 8th floor, do you want to come take a walk with me up the stairs?” You lose some of the organic ability to peel back. Then you have to be really intentional. How do you make the most of those moments in-person together? I almost would say, like, productivity and efficiency when you’re in-person, if you’re a partially remote organization or team, productivity and efficiency for those days where you’re in-person together should go right out the door. It should be about team building.
I’m not saying you spend a whole day doing activities and bonding. But how do you schedule less in those days? How do you leave time to walk the halls? How do you actually carve out time to not get coffee by yourself or not grab lunch at your desk by yourself? Spend 15 minutes grabbing lunch with someone and walking back to your desks together, whatever that is. How do you insert that into the day?
But I think it’s also in the zoom context, you know, my one-on-one that I have with each of my direct reports, my team members, you know, what I do? I always, at the end of the one-on-one, will write down something that they—people will tell you things, and you may not even notice in passing.
They’ll say, “Oh, I got a really busy weekend. I got to take my son to travel soccer in Pennsylvania,” or, “I’ve got this great thing coming up,” or, “I’m hosting family.” I keep a spreadsheet of the tactical business things I need to talk to everyone with in the following one-on-one, but I also write down the personal things that they’ve shared with me.
So at the beginning of the next one on one, I can say, “Hey, how’s the soccer tournaments in Pennsylvania go? That’s amazing. Is that what happened? Oh, when’s the next one?”
You have to be intentional. You have to build systems around it. I would love to say that it happens organically or that I have room in my brain for all of it, but I think the way that you’re systematic about business results, you have to be systematic about your relationship and people results that you want to drive too.