Dealing with pressures on you and your team
There has never been more pressures on you and your team. Since March I’ve seen these issues increasing in teams and I’ve enabled them to create solutions to be adaptable, resilient, creative, less stressed and more productive.
Issues include;
- A dip in confidence and more of the dreaded imposter syndrome – in my experience the imposter syndrome can be fixed in 1 x 2 hour session. Click here to download the free eBook on fixing your Imposter Syndrome. And this website is packed with solutions to boost your confidence – not least this course. It is essential you deal with your staff and your own confidence issues because I see it impact on so many areas of business and performance.
- Overwhelm and emotional staff.
- Fire fighting and a need to find all the solutions for your team – a reduced ability to feel safe to think for themselves.
- Working too many hours.
- Increased responsibilities and demands on you and your teams time.
- Feeling guilty for not answering the phone or email straight away or taking breaks.
- A growing malignant acceptance that “This is just the way it is” and “We can’t do anything about it.”
- The boundary between personal and professional so blurred it’s hard to focus and meet deadlines or targets.
Here I will share advice, coaching strategies and further reading for you and your team to enable you to thrive in these working from home, challenging times.
Core essentials – How to achieve more every day with your team
Use this article to look at the what you, your team and organisation stand for. You need to accept and utilise the power of the science of each individual so you can then help them all to go down the same path but honouring the person they are. Sounds impossible right? With 1 concentrating on budgets, another on customer experience and another on KPI’s?
However when you can see how everyone thinks, acts, works and they see how you think, act, work, you can create a strategy that enables everyone.
This is critical in these challenging times so that people feel honoured and respected. Listened to and safe to say “Help!” or “What do you mean by that?” or “Can I make a suggestion on a better way here?”
Those water cooler moments are missing from our fast paced zoom/team overloaded days. This helps re-establishes these essential office ethics.
Mandie Holgate
You can use this article to help your team to understand how they manage their time and what they deem to be essential/urgent/the priority. Which leads us on to…
Not enough hours in your day? The 10 day week
This is something I created for a client who told me it didn’t matter if they had 10 days in a week their boss would still fill it! When we looked at their list of tasks we could see that there were tasks that were assumed to be essential that actually weren’t. We often add things to our to do list that honour who we are. So for instance if you are someone that worries what others will think, you are likely to spend valuable time emailing people when it is not necessary. A solution could be a quick word in the next meeting, establishing expected boundaries and you instantly could be saving time.
Got someone that copies everyone into everything? Have you considered they lack confidence and don’t want to risk upsetting the team or letting you down? Seeing things from a new perspective usually removes at least 25% of most people’s deemed essential tasks.
If you can’t find anything, then its’ highly likely you are assuming you have to do everything and there is not a better way.
There is, you just haven’t explored this to a deep enough level yet to discover it. This article explores what those hidden issues may be.
- Exploratory questions to ask yourself and your team to help understand how productive people are with their time.
- Who is setting the plan?
- Are you reactive or proactive?
- Does your plan of action have space for additional tasks or is every day packed? And why this is bad.
- Is there agreed quiet hours in the working week? How are they discussed, planned and observed?
- How will you review what actions you take and adjust accordingly?
How to keep you and your team motivated and productive
When you are all heading down the same path to the same goal research says that your team are far more likely to rise to any challenge when they feel like they helped create the plans and actions. (They will even do this with no pay rise as long as fundamental things like gratitude and respect are practiced – see we aren’t all money orientated?)
Therefore it’s imperative that you understand how to keep everyone (including yourself) motivated and productive, especially when they have to be self sufficient and work in an unnatural way to them. This article looks at how to achieve that, covering;
- Company ethos and communication policies.
- Boundaries and the confidence to speak up.
- Company Goals.
- How and why to stop panic and catastrophising.
- How to create and handle change.
- Creating the right level of structure for you – it won’t be the same for everyone and strategies to discovering what that looks like.
- Science of being you.
- Targets.
- Checking in and mentoring.
- Honesty not judgement; how to coach yourself and others.
- I’m just going to….how dangerous those 4 words are to your productivity
- Fear and lack of confidence – what you think they say and what they are really dealing with.
- Mindset and working environment.
- Commuting time is not owned by the company.
- Learning on others and lastly warning signs.
It greatly concerns me that absenteeism is going to rise due to poor mental health causing many physical health problems as well as increased anxiety and depression. Did you know that mental health conditions cost UK Businesses £8 billion every year and that’s a pre-Covid 19 year!
Reducing absenteeism
Here in this article we explore key strategies I use with teams to help them create a mental health tool kit, revisiting some strategies that you may recognise. Learn not to fight who you are and how being honest and communicating your needs will lead to greater resilience and adaptability.
If you fear doing this then item 4. Looking at guilt will be essential. I’ve never seen guilt be good for a person. Some negative emotions and feelings can force us to find a more powerful and better way of working. I’ve never seen guilt do this for a single client. https://www.mandieholgate.co.uk/howtoreduceabsenteeismtozero/
Team Spirit – how to kill it
And lastly when you face adversity and control seems to have been removed from your working life it can be hard to stay positive. Here we explore the key mistakes leaders make when engaging with their team and how to remove yourself from the equation so your team can be honest and get what they need at this challenging time.
I recommend that companies create a plan of action together. I usually hear it’s far harder to do in your organisation because you’ve got your own views, experiences, beliefs, values and expectations impacting on how you view what others see and feel. This often stops people from hearing what is actually going on, adding their own twist and perspection.
The above article will you help explore how different personalities may not fit well with yours and what you can do about it. (Without expecting a personality transplant!) It will help you explore better ways to phrase things and how if you aren’t dealing with these key areas that impact on what your team are saying and feeling can impact on inter departmental relationships, negativity and a feeling that we are all doomed!
No matter which articles you read or share with your team, ensure you don’t add more than a few actions on your plan to achieve it. 3 to 5 is plenty. It ensures momentum and continued accountability an action. This needs to also have a date in your diary to reflect and review.
A note on confidence
Ensure you don’t underestimate the dip in confidence can have on you and your team. There are so many articles on this site about boosting your confidence and what is the underlying cause it’s easier to use the magnifying glass to find what you need. Taking Control Of Your Mind and Fight the fear are 2 of my books that I know have a exceptionally high success rate in helping people build confidence, honour who they are get what they want in life.
Test and measure
By starting this process with “Where are we now?” you can look to see where the improvements are and aren’t and adapt your plan accordingly. I like a 1 to 10 scale. Because those that like the big picture right through to those that like the detail can get on board with this simple system. Here is an example of one that was created for a team. A benchmark graph can be a visual tool that everyone has a copy of and can compare over the weeks. It leads to a great follow up session of questions like;
- What did we notice?
- What impacted on results?
- Did you feel more in control?
- Did this help you to be more productive?
- Do you feel everyone was on board with this idea?
In this session the circles including the following words that mattered to them as leaders;
- Communication/Listening/Message.
- Visibility.
- Honesty.
- Flexibility.
- Belief/Trust.
- Availability.
- Boundaries.
- Knowledge.
- Vision.
- Consistency.
- Authentic/Be Yourself.
- Change.
- Processes.
- Resilience.
I would have added (personally but it wasn’t my list!)
- Accountability.
- Failure – the safety to.
- Role model – influence the ability to.
- Mindset.
- Outsourcing, delegation, automation.
This is an depth study of many coaching sessions looking at leadership, time management, increased productivity, KPI’s and team relationships. Let me know how you get on and what additional opportunities you would like for you and your team. I’d be happy to explore how we best create this.
(44) 1206 381482
Time Management – too many tasks and not enough time – 10 day plan
I once was sat with a client who protested “I could have 10 days in a week and I’d still not have enough time to get everything done!”
We went on to create a 10 day week and they were right, they had too much to do! But through their coaching session they created this plan and now miraculously have more time, less stress and achieve more. The 10 day week is a strategy for time management that is so powerful that I share it with many business owners, teams and leaders and it helps increase productivity and creativity and reduce stress too.
Below you can download your own version and ensure you also ask the below questions(these are some of the ones that featured in my session with my client), because often when you don’t have enough time in your day these things are the real issue;
- Not wanting to upset someone by not replying immediately.
- Not wanting to look like you can’t cope.
- Fearing missing out or of what people will think of you if you leave the task they’ve asked you to do.
- Fear of missing out on opportunities.
- Getting on with the unimportant tasks because they feel easier and you assume the big tasks will fail, be hard or not work.
- Lacking confidence.
- Lacking skills.
- Lacking communication skills to ask for what you want or need.
Questions to ask yourself;
- At what time of the day do I set my to do list? (Last thing at night is the key time.)
- Do I open emails at all times of the day or at a set time? (Opening emails and not actioning them wastes precious time, my clients learn to handle every item, message, email task only once.
- Am I on my agenda or manipulated by others needs? (Can you Justers feature in my book Fight the fear in Chapter 6. Learn how to communicate with them so you achieve more.)
- Do I have clear goals for this week? This month? This year?
- Do I honour my needs?
- Do I put myself at the bottom of the importance list?
- What stops me from believing in my ability to achieve?
- What stops me from picking up the phone so I hide behind email?
- What assumptions am I making on the outcome of this activity? Is it helpful or hindering.
There are lot of questions you need to ask yourself, but if you aren’t achieving it is more likely to do with your perception of what is importance, your confidence and communication and prioritising what your success needs. I’m happy to have a chat to look at this in more detail.10 day plan
- When you set up a 10 day week, start on any day you like. You can include weekends or block them out so you only have the working days featuring.
- Follow the instructions on the worksheet and question what reasons there could be on inaction or lack of completion.10 day plan
- Personally I use an A3 piece of paper and different colours to denote money making jobs, clients needs, silent working time, etc. You don’t have to include lines to your day column although for me I find it makes me take time seriously. I quite often find that I’m so focused on the goals for that week/month/year that I can get ahead of schedule and I’ve never been so update on emails too – hope it helps you too.
My online mastermind group is only £5 a month and gets incredibly results. I’ve just launched all my courses for my mastermind group at £1 each so that I can add more low cost ways to support those looking to achieve more no matter what. Learn more here.
I know why you will work on a bank holiday – and you aren’t going to like it.
I know you have a mountain of things to get done and the bank holiday seems like a great opportunity to get ahead, right?
But here’s the thing, I once created a 10 day week for a client, and they could see that no matter how much time you create – you will fill it.
Mountains of research points to the benefits on your minds ability to problem solve, get creative, get productive and even sell more from having a bit of down time. Space.
That’s not checking your phone. That’s going for a bike ride. Painting a picture. Walking the dog. Yoga. The Gym. A barbecue with friends. Reading for no other reading than you love the book. Tinkering in your garage/studio/hobby room or garden.
Just real brain space from work.
The reason you won’t do it is because there’s a real fear hiding there;
- The fear that you will let someone down.
- That you will miss out on an opportunity.
- That someone will think badly of you.
- That you will look unprofessional.
- That you won’t get it all done. (MYTH; No one ever gets it all done. Those that are looking to achieve big, that believe in more will ALWAYS be able to find something else that “needs to be done.”)
- That you believe the only way to success is through agonising hours and making sacrifices (Assumptions are never good for success.)
The list of excuses for not turning off the phone and stepping away is endless. And I’ve probably heard them all;
- You don’t get it.
- It can’t be done like that tin our industry.
- It must be done immediately.
- I’m very driven – and it has to happen today.
- No one leaves these.
- Etc, etc.
In every case the client has been able to see the detrimental effect that needing to work 24/7 has on their long-term success, their happiness, their family and friends, their health even their ability to make more money.
So, trust me when I say, step away from the phone/laptop/report.
Escape.
If you want lasting success – Escape. It’s just one day.
But before you escape you need to;
- Work out what fears stop you. Fixing one day won’t fix the fear – find it, take ownership of it and get a plan of action to fight it. (I’ve seen this work so powerfully, thus please do take action.)
- Put into place clear structure to your working day – that others know and respect too. You may work at 7 am and 8 pm but is that 7 days a week? Is there an hour on a Thursday where you go to a class that is yours? Don’t be afraid to own time.
- Put boundaries in place – if you will answer emails 24/7 do you expect everyone else to as well or is it just you that needs to be a superhero?
- Know your goals. If your goal for this month is to achieve X – how will that still happen with 2 working days off? What needs to happen? Who needs to know? What adjustments do you need to make? (A great thing to remember here is if you can make 2 days disappear for fun this month and still achieve your goals, think how much more you could get done next month since you will be gaining 2 days!)
- Trust – have faith. Don’t get me wrong I can still hyperventilate if there’s a lot going on at work about turning the phone off for 17 days (last holiday duration) but with the right processes, the right clients, the right team, the right attitude and the right believes – wow it’s good for you and your success.
Not feeling it?
Feel this is impossible to do?
I’m more than happy to have a chat anytime. Well you know how it is right?