Are you considering a mid-year review?

Times are uncertain, but a mid-year business review can still be a great chance to evaluate employees, see what’s working in your team and what’s not, as well as make plans and try to deal with change.

And suddenly…it’s July. How did that happen so fast?

Here at Leading Edge Life Skills we are continually taking stock, livestock that is, especially horses, so we are big advocates of a mid-year stocktake or business review. Not because we are likely to misplace or lose one of our horses (haha), but because we think any successful business needs regular evaluation, even if they don’t have physical stock.

While this year has panned out in a completely different way to how any of us were expecting, it’s still important to stop once in a while to look at where we are and where we’re going next.

Below are a few points I think are important if you do decide to do a mid-year review of your team or business.

Check how your people are doing

Earlier this year, we took on a younger horse, Darcy, for the first time in a while. We usually look for a new equine team member with more life experience, but Darcy had something special about him that we thought would enrich our team. And we were right – Darcy brought some nice diversity to the group. We need to regularly evaluate how he is fitting in and realised that while he is going well so far, he needs a lot of attention to ensure that he continues to get the experiences he needs to fulfil his role in our team.

Like with our youngest member, a mid-year stocktake can be a great chance to check up on any newer employees and see how they are fitting in. And don’t forget your long-timers either – just because they continue to do their job without complaint doesn’t guarantee they are happy. We have to also be careful of this with our longer standing team members as well. Our mare, Kylie, who has been an amazing team member for several years will remind us that we cannot take her for granted. It may be that they are getting bored and need more stimulation or want to upskill in order to take on new responsibility.

And similar to our team, diversity is important and it’s worth regularly looking at the make-up of yours. Is it working well? Do you have enough different perspectives? Skillsets? Backgrounds?

Checking on how employees are going is especially important in the current environment. Boston Consulting Group recently released the findings of a survey of more than 1,000 of its employees. Three-quarters said COVID-19 had thrown up barriers to their work, particularly those with young children at home, but at the same time almost as many said it had a positive impact on their work. Employees who work remotely want to keep doing so, but not every day.

In addition to these high-level findings, BCG also warned “there are a wide variety of personal situations, and employee needs, each one often very different to the last”.

So, in other words there is no one-size-fits-all solution. All the more reason for a detailed stocktake considering all employees!

Evaluate (the best you can)

I don’t think any of us would say 2020 has turned out the way we were planning. Despite this, there is still value in business evaluation to see how us and our team has performed.

Being the end of the financial year in Australia, you may have to deal with taxes and other financial issues. However, using that as a base for a broader review of what is working and what is not has the potential to give you a clearer picture of the impact of the past few months. Not to mention make plans for the rest of the year (and beyond.) Who knows, there may be opportunities that have arisen since the beginning of the year – and if you don’t jump on them competitors will!

The midway point can also be a great chance to evaluate your own leadership. You are probably aware of your strengths and weaknesses but how are you handling them? How are you coping with change?

Have a plan…but be flexible

Plans in the time of coronavirus…not easy. Here in Australia, restrictions are easing in some states, while other areas, such as some suburbs of Melbourne, are experiencing tighter restrictions. And just as some state borders open, others close. An uncertain economy makes it hard to predict what will happen – even the Government has delayed the budget until October.

Yet we have to keep making goals – after all, a business needs some direction – while also being prepared for the possibility of everything changing again.

Coping with change, especially unexpected change, is an important skill we bring into our leadership programs. In addition to working with the horses, one of my favourite ways of doing this is using a proprietary card game called, ‘The Future is Coming’, in which you draw cards to give a random mix of settings, challenges and timeframes to envision future states. You then have to make them into opportunities on the spot. It’s a great way to learn flexibility, enhance forecasting and creative problem solving skills, and foster resilience and innovation. Essential skills at all times!

Have you done a mid-year stocktake? Let me know in the comments. And for more information on Leading Edge Life Skills email info@leadingedgelifeskills.com.au

Overtime, anytime: how to keep working hours under control and beat burnout

Working on the weekend. Checking emails first thing in the morning. These are all increasingly common behaviours for employees who want to impress, but it’s not necessarily healthy or productive. How can leaders foster a better culture?

What time did you check your email this morning? Did you work any nights last week? Over the weekend?

The culture of working all the time has been on my mind after reading this international survey from RescueTime. It found 92% of people now regularly work on evenings or weekends, 34% check their email as soon as they wake up and over half (51%) said the time they’ve spent on communication has increased in the past three to five years.

The results are probably not surprising to you – we all know about lines blurring between work and life – but they are definitely not ideal. And with COVID-19 forcing nearly half of all Australians to work from home, the Centre for Future Work has warned some employers may take advantage of workers wanting to ‘prove themselves’ and intensify workloads even further. 

This makes no sense to me. Overworking isn’t productive in the long run; research has shown long hours negatively impacts employee productivity, performance, health and motivation. As leaders, it falls on our shoulders to avoid a ‘work ‘til you drop’ culture, taking active steps to avoid burnout symptoms and ensure teams are happy and healthy.

An easy trap to fall into

It’s easier said than done, particularly as the problem may be unintentional. I have been there, done that: accidentally over-estimating the capacity of our team in the early days of running Leading Edge Life Skills.

Our team of horses are mainly our retired performance horses and because they were used to a lot of physical exercise, I thought it would be fine switching to the less physically demanding work at Leading Edge. I was wrong. After a while I realised this entirely different style of work was placing a different burden on the horses and it was greater than I anticipated.

So, I had to re-think our schedule and find different ways to ensure the team stayed happy and healthy. Luckily, the experience taught me a few key skills to avoid it happening again!

• Know your team

It is important to remember that each team member responds in their own way to changes to their workload.

With my team, it is obvious when some of our “louder” horses like Bart have had enough – because he fidgets, swishes his tail and stamps his feet.

But others, like Vinnie, show far more subtle signs such as shutting their eyes occasionally or pausing, which can be almost impossible to interpret for those who don’t know them well.

As leaders, it is important to pay attention to our subtle communicators, not just the “squeaky wheels”.

• There are different ways over-exertion manifests

One crucial observation I made about my horses is the way they react to being tired can vary depending on the underlying issue. When they’re physically tired, like us, they will doze off (unlike us, they can do so standing up!). Less obvious is when they are feeling mentally stretched as the outward signs may look the same – the way some horses switches off from uncomfortable situations is to pause and close their eyes.  

Figures from SafeWork show 92% of all serious mental health condition workers compensation claims are attributed to mental stress, highlighting the importance of ensuring we keep an eye on both physical tiredness and mental exhaustion.

• Not all workloads are created equal

A particularly good example of this came from my horse Opal, who you may have heard me mention before. When I first started running my leadership programs, she was still competing in a few local show jumping events. While I was giving her plenty of rest days, it eventually clicked that she was tired because she was being asked to do two very different jobs.

While everyone in your team may seem to have roughly the same workload, not everyone will respond to the same workload in the same way. Perhaps they have too many tasks with not enough synergy, or alternatively not enough variety?

• Lead by example

I once worked for a large software company where I had a very understanding manager. However, he used to send emails at 4am. Because he was so reasonable in all other areas, it made his team feel like we weren’t doing enough. A great example of how an otherwise good leader was inadvertently modelling unhealthy working practices for his team.

Remember, great leaders lead by example and take responsibility for the welfare of their people.

What steps do you take to prevent employee burnout? Model a healthy attitude to overtime? What mistakes have you learnt from in the past? Let me know in the comments. And for more information on Leading Edge Life Skills email info@leadingedgelifeskills.com.au