Achieved Strategies

In the hustle of the day we comfortably let our schedule harness us into routine. And when the routine is interrupted, anxiety, stress even anger rise to the surface.

It’s incredibly difficult to listen to what’s happening around you with your schedule whipping you into submission. Heck, it’s nearly impossible to connect with employees, have one-on-ones or even take time to reflect on the day’s events.

Over time our daily schedule becomes priority over setting aside time to connect with employees, to collect your thoughts.

Let me boil it down more simply: are you choosing meetings over spending times with your team?

What’s at stake is

• Undiscovered passions
• Significant advances in work products
• Quality
• Satisfaction
• Well-being
• Low attrition rates

Undoubtedly the demands on managers are often overwhelming. Yet, when you extend your gaze to the horizon, don’t be left wondering why the good ones leave or why things aren’t clicking.

Let yourself be interrupted by your routine, your schedule. Let yourself be interrupted by the needs of your employees. The need to establish a connection with your team.

1. Make time on your calendar. Block time on your calendar to meet with your staff. Hold the time as sacred as project meetings, strategy meetings, speaking engagements. You are as strong as your team.

2. Jointly created one-on-ones. In your frequent one-on-ones, co-create the agenda of what you want to discuss with your employee. Let it be personal in nature of solely focused on work.

3. Build time for socializing. While talking with a manager with one of our clients, I was amazed by how he built time into his agenda for socializing. In one meeting he had 45 minutes of agenda items. He had an hour of time for his team to catch up with one another. Awkward silence was felt in the first few minutes. But they watched him pull up a chair to talk with an employee. They modeled his behavior.

You may need to defend your choice to make time for employees, sadly. But your choice signals a much more desired message, and certainly more desired outcomes. It’s just lost in the shuffle.

Image by Shawn Murphy