Preparing your team to return to some form of office contact is going to be challenging on many levels, are you prepared?
As PeerThinc Resilience and Well Being coaches, we are hearing plenty of feedback from employees who are enjoying spending time working from the safety of their bedrooms, lounge rooms or home offices. They mention things like saving time on commuting and feeling more productive during the time they would normally spend on public transport or the drive into the office.
However, one major feeling is that of joy! People are feeling happier not listening to the vocal negative whinger most offices have. You all know the ones; you hear them in those god-awful open-plan setups where they have a platform to vent in front of everyone. Often the leader is subconsciously or consciously letting it happen, rather than having that “uncomfortable” conversation asking them to cease. TIP: This is NOT missed one bit by your people.
As leaders and business owners, several areas need to be considered when asking your people to spend time back in the office.
Through our Working With Resilience program, we support leaders and business owners on their journey through these challenges.
Areas we focus on and questions to reflect on – is your team and business:
Robust: Do you have a shared purpose, meaning and goals? How adaptable are they to change and being proactive when team issues do arise?
Resourceful: How do you harness the team’s strengths and build a culture of continual improvement? Have you worked out a way to develop an effective team process to enable clear thinking?
Perseverance: How will the team persist in the face of obstacles and will they be able to collaborate to come up with solutions rather than just focus on a problem?
Self-care: How will you promote and deploy good routines to work with stress management and work overload?
Capability: Are you prepared to continually build capacity by accessing your teams’ networks and support mechanisms? Will you seek feedback on what is working well and what needs to change and be nimble in your thinking?
Connected: This is a major focus now with so many people feeling isolated or anxious about returning to the office after being ‘safe’ in the comfort of their chosen surroundings. How will you support each other through team cooperation?
No alt text provided for this image
Alignment: What support will you create to reach desired team outcomes? How optimistic will you be and how will you celebrate success – both big and small?
Team Cupcakes anyone?
All of the resilience areas are interconnected, by focussing on only one you will leave other areas exposed. How can you build this into the way you are engaging with your people now?
Forward planning is critical during this time of uncertainty, you owe it to yourself, your people and the clients you support.
What are you going to do differently tomorrow, that you didn’t do today?
Kristen Raison – High Heel Consulting and PeerThinc