Worried about virtual performance conversations? Lay good foundations.

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Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

It’s that time of year when annual performance reviews tend to happen. As a manager, this can be a cause of anxiety when our thinking drags up concerns about how your team member might be viewing their performance compared to how you see it.

We can have the same types of worries through the year when we need to have a conversation about how work is going and know that some constructive feedback is in order; layer on what might be perceived as the additional complexity of now holding such conversations virtually when your used to having them face to face and before you know it you can be having a sleepless night.

But.. it doesn’t have to be this way. All it takes is focusing on the right foundations for your team, as a team and as individuals, in order to boost the prospect of an engaging, productive conversation.

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Creating ‘Dynamic Stability’ as a virtual team manager

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If you’re managing a team with team members that have had to get used to home or remote working in the last few months you may have found a need to manage differently. As I’ve designed a virtual team management programme for an organisation in recent weeks, I’ve been looking into some of the context for team working and management and am sharing some of what I’ve found to help you think about what you may benefit from considering as a manager.

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Getting through the tough, slow days

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Image by Luan Luan Rezende from Pixabay 

When you are finding yourself struggling to focus, less motivated, low in mood and just not at your best, how do you manage to get through your day? Is it a case of battling through or perhaps something to be tolerated as the day passes? What if you could find a better way?

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The courage to do what is right

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Can you think of a time when you had a real gut instinct that things weren’t right in a way that made you uncomfortable? Perhaps when someone else was being excluded either unintentionally, or worse still intentionally, or when a course of action felt unfair to another? What did you do? Face any anxiety you may have been feeling and decide to act in some way to change things? Think about it for a while and then decide it wasn’t a battle you were ready to step into?

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Managing yourself for a ‘new normal’

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Image by Pintera Studio from Pixabay

Wherever you are in the world as you read this, there is a strong likelihood that your working life is different from how it was 5 months ago. We are hearing a lot about the concept of a ‘new normal’ and yet that implies some stability; at the moment, it feels as if the ‘new normal’ is a continuum where the reality of our context for work and life changes a little with each month that passes.

Given this transitionary state, how can we best lead our teams, and how can we, as team members, best lead ourselves in order to function well in our performance and for our mental well-being?

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Feeling safe enough in a team to fully show up

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Whether you are a team member or a team leader, you’ll no doubt have had experiences where you’ve been talking with a number of other people and had something you wanted to say on the tip of your tongue but thought better of it. If what you wanted to say was coming from a positive place of wanting to support the team or an outcome then that’s a waste. What happened and what can you, or your team leader, do about it?

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Finding purpose in times of uncertainty

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Do you lead a team? Are you finding it hard to maintain your own levels of motivation let alone those of your team members during this testing time? You are not alone. I’m a coach. I support others when they need to find direction, overcome barriers, gain confidence, inspire through leadership etc. So, I should be able to do the same for myself, right? Well yes .. and sometimes no .. even if only temporarily!

It has been interesting to see how I’ve responded to the uncertainty brought about by Covid-19 and lockdown. Early on, I struggled with direction, motivation and focus which is quite unlike me normally. I found a way to move through this that I’ve shared with a couple of clients who found it useful and I’m sharing key elements below which may help you to help yourself as well as your team members. (more…)

Navigating uncertainty through mindset

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We’re all adjusting to life being a little different at the moment whether as working parents who are trying to balance work with activities for their children, family mental health and being safe, or as carers of elderly relatives, or as employees getting used to connecting virtually to get things done, or as front-line workers facing unsettling emotions, long hours, and uncertainty. What we all have in common is a  need to do the best we can for ourselves. By this, I mean managing ourselves such that we are more resilient in the longer term rather than less. (more…)

Lessons in leadership from my Dad

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My father has been ill with Parkinson’s for a little while and sadly passed away at the beginning of this month. My world has changed in a way which is hard to describe. I’m taking the opportunity to use this month’s blog to reflect on the lessons I’ve learned from him about leadership, love and family and hope that something from what I write will resonate with you too. (more…)