In this conversational YouTube segment, Bernadette Boas and a middle‑manager (Speaker A) discuss the proven impact of daily personal check‑ins on employee productivity. They explore why many managers find it hard to move from a purely tactical, task‑driven approach to a people‑first, servant‑leadership style. Speaker A describes the pull‑and‑push tension between frontline staff demands and C‑suite deadlines, his own hyper‑logical, operations‑first mindset, and how a conscious habit of checking in on people for over 20 years has improved delegation and team engagement. Bernadette extracts a concrete, actionable tip: add “check in with your people” to the top of the morning to‑do list, and treat the check‑in as a genuine personal inquiry (e.g., weekend, family) rather than a status‑update on work. The dialogue emphasizes that consistent, authentic check‑ins foster trust, increase willingness to take on tasks, and ultimately boost overall team productivity.
Chapters
It has been proven time and time again when you check in on people's personal lives and their just their day-to-day feelings, when they start the day that way, they are more productive as employees.
Absolutely. Because they feel valued and important and cared for. Why is it such a challenge for managers? Because we're shifting them, right? We're wanting to shift them from bosses/managers to leaders. Why is it so hard for them to get away from that, just that to-do tactical list, to being the people side, the servant side?
Yeah, so I think it's a lot of things, especially if you're in middle management, you feel like you're getting pulled in two directions, right? You're getting pulled from the bottom, the people that are reporting to you or the tasks, and you're getting pulled from the top C-suite executives, whoever is saying like, here's the deadline I need. And so you feel like you can't win. You're moving back and forth, and so you're getting more tactical with what you're doing and you're thinking about the task.
And I get that.
I am a very hyperlogical, task-driven, I'm operations first. The joke in our office is if you wanna know if something looks pretty, don't ask Julia. She's gonna ask you if it works first. I totally understand that. And so my inclination, and I have said this to my staff, I'm very transparent about it, my inclination is to just I'm so tactical. First, I wanna know what's up. I wanna get through my task list, I wanna, et cetera. But it's an investment in the success of those tactics to start with the people. And so I often take a step back and go, okay, first thing we're gonna check on people. And it has been a conscious effort of mine over 20-something years of doing this. Yeah. To like, instead of just sit down and dive into the emails or find the thing I thought about last night. To start with the people. And I think it's hard, especially for middle managers, because you have that push and pull and you feel like, well, if I can get through a couple more items, I'll feel more accomplished, which is, I get that. I feel the same way oftentimes. But if you invest in the team first, they will be more willing to do more for you. And the delegation of the work, which oftentimes middle managers are doing things they shouldn't even be doing, as in like they should be delegating more, et cetera. That gets easier, right? Your staff shows up for you in a different way.
Absolutely. Which I have a number of questions. So, well, no, just because you're so right and I think it's really critical and I do want to actually get tactical with you, you know, for them around, first off, based on your own discipline that every morning you have your to-do list and the very first thing on your list is check in with people. So would you agree that one tool that our listeners and viewers could be doing, like, as soon as immediately after this episode, is that tomorrow morning when they go into work and they start making their to-do list, they add at the top, check in with your people. The next day, check in with your people, and here's my to-dos. The next day after that, Check in with your people.
Yep, absolutely. And you know, if, especially if it's a like change in attitude and people are surprised that you're checking in with them, maybe you're gonna get people that are like, I'm fine, what are you talking about? That's okay. The change will come. They're gonna appreciate that you're checking in with them. Don't take it personally. Don't take it as like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. You just need to shift your own way of doing things so that they can see that you're really there for them. And you care. And it, when I say check in with people, like I said earlier, I don't mean like, how's the deadline that's due today? It's more like, how's your kid? How's your life? How was your weekend? And like actually caring about what you were saying.
