Taking a Break

It is the second-half of the summer holidays and the weather is encouraging us away from activities and into more thoughtful activities.

It does feel like we have crammed so much in the first half that we forgot to pay attention to things like the local Library Reading Challenge (we made a trip today), arts and crafts, lazing around on the sofa and just simple cuddle times.

It’s my first time school uniform shopping for more than one child and it definitely takes multiple trips to various shops to get things right. It is interesting how various shops have peculiar stock challenges in various sizes or styles or fit types. I think either the COVID ping-demic or Brexit have made an impact on stock availability whether in stores or online.

We still have a few minimal bits of school uniform to purchase but these are not urgent immediate needs. It is just nice in my organised brain to have them- I still have time.

One of my specialisms at work has always been effective risk management. Figure out a plan and the challenges that could impact my overall objectives. It isn’t easy to do in day to day life as the £financial bottom line isn’t always the measure, but can be assessed slightly differently.

I am not in a rush at all for my children to head back to school. It is a freedom not being tied to the 9-3 and having them with me, but I am looking forward to terms where we are not considering extensive isolation or lockdown periods that can cause worry in a child or excessive computer screen time.

How are you focusing on summer holidays and planning for a return to school? Do you feel your overall risk assessments have increased or reduced the probability or impact of such events happening? Let me know!

Equal leadership

‘Give it to Lucy, she will get it done’ is something you have probably heard in the office multiple times a day or when a new challenge is looming. It could be a different name or a different gender, but there is a Lucy in each team.

When something is complex or challenging, new or needs to be delivered urgently, there is always the high performer who has a larger workload than the rest of the team but still gets things done.

You may have the remainder of the team who don’t want to take anything else on, just aren’t as reliable to deliver or will not learn a new expertise. The balance is skewed and Lucy will gain more knowledge and development theough these tasks, she will feel exhilarated by it all but will later be looking for a way out as quickly there is nothing new to learn apart from she has an imbalanced workload and she doesn’t feel part of the team.

Having a leader who recognises this inequality from team volunteers for new tasks and stepping out of their comfort zone adds some way to keep Lucy engaged, but the words thank you or opportunity for growth can only be used for so long.

The main thing is understanding that Lucy will move on but spending more time on her personal development and needs will keep her perspective of your leadership positive. Aligning these extra tasks that someone just needs to get done to her future career goals whether by networking or by experience in a task, providing accreditations always helps to engage. It incentivises the remainder of the team to do these activities too.

Sometimes as a leader, it is about equitable teamwork and some of the rest of the team will have to so things they don’t want to do but are more than capable and with capacity to do so to. As a leader, coaching isn’t always about leading those that deliver and give us an easy ride, it is about providing challenge to the others too.

Do you have experience of this? Share with me below.

End of the week drop

It’s only when it gets to Friday 16.00 that I am ready to drop. I’m not working, the girls are not in school but the weekend still has it’s power over me and how I view the week. It’s a habit that hasn’t left me yet despite me making so many changes in my daily approach.

We are in the middle of the summer holidays and procrastinating school uniform shopping as late as I can into August. The days are still packed with activities and bedtimes are still late so each day can feel like a 13hour shift. As you know, I can’t lay in; being a morning person does that to you.

If this was a job that I didn’t enjoy, it would be the lead up to burn out. When it comes to family and the enjoyable nature of activities, it isn’t but I do feel the pain each Friday and my feet say no more… until we have to visit the park on Saturday ‘just for 5 minutes mummy…’

Middle of the Week

It’s Wednesday and the weather is wonderful today. We haven’t run out to the park whilst it is cool before midday; enjoying a play dough morning.

We did find some missing small lego pieces in the green play dough… a time reminiscent of lockdown at home activities that meant our living room floor wasn’t visible underneath all the toys.

I realised today that we spend more time doing physical activities rather than more thoughtful arts and crafts. Our balance is quite heavily that way due to my eldest daughter’s interests. My younger one is more at home covered in paint or using her imagination but of course is hapoy to go to the park like any other child is.

When you build your team consciously as a leader, it’s important to value all styles and give each one the right time and place to succeed.

It is the summer so taking advantage of the outdoors only makes sense. It just shouldn’t be 100% of the time spent doing interesting things; having a better balance that is openly discussed with your team allows more efficiency and inclusivity in your work output.

First Time for Everything

It’s the first time (without Covid restrictions) that I am not working during the summer holidays. Trying to organise every day to match the curiosity of the children is challenging- I would never downplay being the person solely responsible for various activities that they are interested in but may not be your own personal strength or enjoyment.

It’s not all the way into the school holidays but so far every day has been full on. It’s made me think about leadership and empathy. How do you lead a diverse team that you clearly don’t know as well as your children in areas that are both your own strengths and weaknesses? The answer; the leader uses listening, understanding, engagement and outcome based guidance understanding their team are not children.

It is challenging, it isn’t easy to coach your team on 100% everything because you can’t be a perfect performer. It’s about being confident in understanding your abilities but also the abilities of your team members that can compliment your overall team outcomes. A strong leader understands their personal weaknesses, understands how they can work with others and around them to achieve something, but then also is happy to work on themselves to learn and improve for next time.

It can be challenging to accept if this is your first leadership role and you want to assert your authority. However, leadership isn’t asserting your authority, it’s about successful business outcomes and keeping this in mind together moves everything else out of the picture.

Big Ideas

How do you feel when the schedule you have put together doesn’t go to plan? Not a great feeling, but being agile is so valuable these days and having the mental resilience to take ownership of it is underestimated.

Planning all the activities we want to do this summer with the children has of course fallen to me being the non-working parent, but also a natural planner has shown me that even the weather interferes with a plan.

Rather than see the weather as a risk or an issue to add a mitigation plan to and log it in my register, I take ownership of it as it doesn’t matter anyway. Activities in our plan can be moved around, fortunate of that, as the end goal will be the same anyway that the girls got the experiences they need during the holidays before school term starts again.

Having an outcomes focused mindset in this creative space is hard, it’s very intangible but so far there are no complaints over the things we have been up to and when and how. Holding a plan with you also means knowing your target audience, and the kids themselves don’t mind a bit of agile working until you make them join in the boring stuff like grocery shopping, again!

It just reminds me how important the creative and exploration stage is when setting up a plan, reviewing it with your team and stacking up milestones. Do you add this time consciously with your team or do you feel like you go backwards each time a change needs to be made? Let me know!

The summer start

It’s been a very short amount of time but the long summer holidays looks short. We have been spending as much time outside as possible, in parks and in the garden. It’s funny how your perspective changes whether you are in work and out of work; just recently I would’ve been in an office most of the time and felt like the holidays were extended booking different clubs for my eldest daughter so she wouldn’t get bored.

Remember in my last post I talked about doing more of what the kids do rather than just sending them to organised activities? It’s been fantastic. Tie dye (I told them to wear gloves but then I didn’t and ended up with purple hands), playing tennis in the park, kicking a ball around, random picnics, and the most amazing achievement, my youngest managing to ride her bike although I do have to help her start off and to steer, swimming and doing more artwork at home.

It’s been too warm for family baking and cooking, even during the rain. I just try to get that out of the way quickly to avoid the ovens heat.

On reflection, I realised that my working style thrives on new experiences. I like to do a bit of research and then I’m enthused to give anything a go. Some people don’t like change and that is ok but as change keeps happening around us, what are the ways we can cope to address the change in our own way? How can we encourage our team to undertake ownership of research in change?

Research doesn’t have to be giving out textbooks and running seminars, planning for change is about having conversations with people that may have been through it or are more knowledgeable, identifying new skills that excite the individual or help them do their job, immersing them in the change in a positive light with memorable dates and recognition of lessons learned type discussions once the change has been implemented. It doesn’t stop there!

Before we broke up for the holidays, I had started riding my bike again myself. It gave me the challenge of going up the hill pedalling furiously and coming down a hill with the wind in my face and the freedom of a ‘weeee’ moment. Using that experience helped me train my youngest without stabilisers, before that it would’ve just been my husband’s job as he did with our elder one. Sometimes we have to cross over our responsibilities despite not being skilled in this particular field; embracing change for the overall purpose and vision you build with your team is a huge achievement.

Brands and Freedom

So yesterday I talked about persuading my girls to take nice pictures on Eid… here is the aftermath after ice-cream; barefoot handstands and football!

Taking time out to explore your own freedoms and not being restricted by the exterior. When companies have a particular feel with their brand, sometimes doing something different reminds us of the dynamism of their brand.

It’s like my daughter wearing a perfect dress then all of a sudden breaking into football. Some brands have more of a conservative feel but can’t share their fun side externally as they worry about their reputation.

This is where employees come in through so many different platforms; sharing the employees personalities, hobbies, interests, capabilities just shows how diverse even the most traditional companies can be. Those reassure both customers and shareholders that your strategy is dynamic, changing and will adapt with alongside future demands.

Do you feel this works for you?

Unusual moments of Teamwork

There aren’t many moments when you can have perfection in and out. This picture looks like it, the girls were dressed up for Eid but what we can’t capture in the picture is the rest of the scene. The commentary of me saying ‘let’s take photos before the playground’, ‘we’ve got a few more pics and we will get ice cream’, ‘don’t do a mud-slide after a cartwheel’.

Each business has context of pressure at the time the important process or outcome is happening, but when you remember these moments, they are what remind you of what needs to be done and sets the tone and character of your business. Usually, it is a team effort to get the overall business outcome allowing teamwork in a pressured environment.

Yes, taking beautiful photos of the children is not a huge outcome, but finding a time when they are both looking at the camera is much harder than expected. Having them both looking smart without grass stains on their knees or leaves in their hair is an achievement for a short-time sacrifice to catch the perfect snap. We are lucky to be in an age to take lots of photos casually, but that can make the perfect photos even more special as they are rare.

How do you and your team remember those moments that look smooth, seamless and perfect? Do you remember the achievement or do you remember the tears and laughter as you work together? The stubbed toes and the sleepless nights? Let me know!

New things

I’ve recently set up a YouTube channel to compliment this blog through Vlogs.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCIhLxvaq-DY0iXaPzA4tDaQ

If you would like to subscribe, please do.

If there are topics you would like me to cover in these Vlogs, please don’t hesitate to reach out on any platform you find skillsrepeat on.

Take care everyone