1/ Burnout. Boredom. Grief. Languishing. Grace. The pandemic gave us a new vocab at work & I've been thinking about how to turn crisis-forged ideas into lasting intuition.
Here's a pandemic retro 🧵 on my lived experience as a manager who cares about team #wellness
Here's a pandemic retro 🧵 on my lived experience as a manager who cares about team #wellness
2/ Lesson 1: Name it to tame it 💯
The biggest leadership moments I saw last year were when leaders named their emotions. Feeling sorry about missing seeing coworkers? That's GRIEF: the sorrow felt from a sense of loss.
The biggest leadership moments I saw last year were when leaders named their emotions. Feeling sorry about missing seeing coworkers? That's GRIEF: the sorrow felt from a sense of loss.
3/ Asking "What is the name for what you are feeling about this project?" is a powerful 1:1 convo tool for managers.
4/ Lesson 2: Burnout, Boredom, and Flow 🌄
Our jobs were upended & everyone was pushed out of their flow state into burnout or boredom territory. I love asking colleagues to place how they feel on this simple chart:
Our jobs were upended & everyone was pushed out of their flow state into burnout or boredom territory. I love asking colleagues to place how they feel on this simple chart:
5/ I find 40% of team is in the flow on average. 20% in challenge territory and 20% boredom danger - both of those require plans to fix. A final 20% is in challenge but that's OK - they are finding their flow on a stretch project. Here's a table on action plan:
6/ Lesson 3: Find your First Team 🤗
First Team is the people at work you can be yourself around. Joke. Make mistakes. Share news (important and irreverent). @TedLasso's coaching staff is a first team.
First Team is the people at work you can be yourself around. Joke. Make mistakes. Share news (important and irreverent). @TedLasso's coaching staff is a first team.
7/ I used to think finding a First Team was a trivial afterthought in my work life; I now know it's the most important part.
8/ Lesson 4: Stress Dashboard 📊
I have a new relationship with stress as a result of the pandemic. I used to think stress was a binary state – either an “I’m stressed” or “I’m not stressed” state.
I have a new relationship with stress as a result of the pandemic. I used to think stress was a binary state – either an “I’m stressed” or “I’m not stressed” state.
9/ Instead, I realize it’s more like the barnacles that build upon the underside of a ship that’s been at sea a long while. It creeps up on you slowly and builds on itself.
10/ Let me reframe stress management for you. It's not about starting with the hard-to-find causes of stress after you are already maxed out. It's about creating early warning signals using the easy-to-measure symptoms of stress, like this:
11/ It comes down to this:
https://twitter.com/_/status/1420107543758589953
12/ Lesson 5: Set boundaries 🧱
This damn pandemic changed our equilibrium overnight, forcing us to relearn where our mental limits and stores of energy were - changing the wings on the plane while it was still flying.
This damn pandemic changed our equilibrium overnight, forcing us to relearn where our mental limits and stores of energy were - changing the wings on the plane while it was still flying.
13/ If it helps, here the new set of boundaries I created over the past year or so. I didn't let the job define my boundaries, I optimized for my own peak performance and fit the job to match.
14/ I think if we do this right, we make ourselves more resilient, empathetic, gracious, and more. A silver lining of sorts.
More thoughts on all this: mindthebeet.com/pandemicretro
More thoughts on all this: mindthebeet.com/pandemicretro
15/ 🙏 Thanks for reading! Share out your own thoughts on managing through all this and what works/doesn't for team wellness.
16/ My wife @helenharmetz and I publish thoughts like this every Sunday morning on leadership, career, product management, and life. Subscribe! blog.mindthebeet.com/about
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