As businesses navigate their work environment structure, some are coming back to the office, some are already back, some have hybrid environments and some still work from home. The same applies to entrepreneurial business. Now more than ever, resetting our goals, reconnecting with others and restoring resilience are required skills to help entrepreneurs maintain business sustainability, help employees succeed and grow with the organization, build healthy workplaces, deal with virtual burnout (zoom fatigue) and execute duties in quickly changing workplaces.
So how do we cope? What’s the solution?
Here are nine tips to help entrepreneurs, businesses and teams navigate adjustments, unknowns, and changes:
1. Review and Revise: Make sure your goals reflect your current situation and work environment.
2. Encourage and Practice Reconnection: Lead through action. Find opportunities to reconnect with your clients, team members and colleagues throughout the week. Allow some time at meetings to “catch up” and reconnect. Some may think this “small talk” is not necessary; however, if you think of it as reconnecting talk, you will see how important this is.
3. Routines and Structure: What structures have you implemented? Are they creating a sense of stability and productivity? Take time to review your routines, processes, systems and structures. Keep what is relevant and still works and look at what can be modified or eliminated.
4. Tell People What Is NOT Changing: Don’t just focus on everything that will be changing (or has changed) and how things will be different. Reminding people of what is not changing (e.g., your company values) is very important in creating more certainty and stability.
5. Schedule Regular Meetings: Be sure to allow time and opportunity for team members to reacquaint, reconnect and reset. Regular team meetings provide opportunities for the team to work together again. Regular communication with clients is also important.
6. Communicate Clearly, Consistently and Frequently: Lack of communication and poorly communicated messages will quickly impact team morale and functioning, and can result in client disappointment. Ensure that communication is a high priority through such means as cascading messages (delivering messages/information through a variety of means), such as 1:1 dialogue, team meetings, team meeting notes/minutes, check-ins, etc. This will dispel rumours and assumptions in the process.
7. Resolve Issues and Conflicts Promptly: Conflict does not improve with time and age. It typically surfaces or intensifies during times of change, stress, adversity and crisis. Regular communication and addressing issues effectively and quickly will aid in healthy resolution dialogue. Don’t let issues linger; address them at the earliest point in time.
8. Plan Transition Time between In-person and Online meetings: Transitions times are very important for your wellbeing and healthy team dynamics. Those short hallway and coffee room conversations, walking down the hallway together and stopping by a person’s office to say hello are critically important as teams return to work. Create transition time between meetings. No more back-to-back zoom calls and meetings.
For those working from home still or in a hybrid scenario, encouraging people to create transitions between home and work and meetings is an important part of returning to work. This may be a daily routine or activity that separates home from work. It could be closing the door to your home office or home working space to symbolize that “work is done for the day.”
9. Rest Is Essential. Build in and schedule time for rest and recovery. This will help you stay resilient.
Remember, every little step you take, every action you pursue every single day to foster resilience at home and at work is like putting a deposit in your resilience bank account.
