Hi Reader,
In this month’s issue, consider taking just one idea that might be helpful in your leadership and finding a tiny action you can take to move it forward (send a note to a colleague, add something to a team meeting agenda, etc.). If there are more ideas you want to come back to, hit the Snooze button in Gmail or Outlook and let this email come back to the top of your inbox in a month or so, and consider the next thing.
Let’s get to your Monthly Management Memo - as always with something bold, something new, something borrowed, and something to pursue.
🔥Something Bold - Stop Emailing About Urgent Issues
If urgent work messages can come from 5 or 7 different places (Slack, email, text, WhatsApp, phone calls, Asana, document comments, etc.), then 2 things are true for your team:
- They can’t turn off all the noise to focus on important, deep work for a few hours.
- They can’t disconnect from work to take care of themselves and recharge.
I recently helped a client’s team with a session to work through agreements for what communications platforms they want to use for which things, and which were going to be their designated “urgent” platforms.
That way, the team knows they can close most things for a morning to focus on something important as long as X channel is available and will ping them if a truly urgent issue pops up. They can close their laptop and take the night off, knowing if the rare thing pops up that they need to work into the night about happens, that they’ll hear about it via the one designated channel they can keep open.
When I was leading a nonprofit team, we decided that text and phone calls would be reserved for urgent things. Other communications went through other channels. There’s no right answer to which channel your team should use for urgent messages, but having AN answer is critical.
Otherwise it’s a recipe for overwhelm and distracted, less-quality work. Take time to discuss this in your next team meeting.
🆕 Something New - If You’re a First-Time Manager
I enjoyed connecting with this reporter about his article with advice for new managers from those of us who have been there, and I was glad he included my suggestions about delegation and appreciation as a new manager. In the article, you’ll find great tips on topics from decision-making to credit-giving and micro-managing.
🤝🏼 Something Borrowed - If You’re Co-Leading or Want To Consider That Model
I thought this episode of Gather at the Well’s podcast (with my brilliant friend Lindsey) was really helpful for anyone who wants to hear more about how she and Marisol co-lead at their organization.
🏃🏾♀️Something to Pursue - Tips to Implement a New Team Tool
I recently finished-up a 3-week series for a team of leaders across the US and Canada about how to become an excellent project manager. One of the questions that came up was about how to effectively implement a new software tool with a team. This is such a great question because it shows that the asker knows that you can’t just hand out logins for a new system and expect everyone to know how to use it well and love using it.
Here’s what I shared with them: I’d start out with a pilot group of a few folks or a small team to learn if this tool is going to be a fit at your company. You’ll also get a few folks who can travel up the learning curve first and refine the use of the tool to be a better fit for your work. If you decide to roll it out to a broader group, start small with a handful of high-priority use-cases (for example, with a project management software like Asana you might say we are going to start using it for Event Planning and our Communications Calendar for now, and we might add more workstreams later on). Next, get clear on your guardrails - what is it important people definitely use this tool for, and where is there choice for how they use it? Communicate those norms transparently. If you are thinking of implementing project management software in particular, I have some additional tips here.
Bring your team; I’ll bring my A-game. I love helping teams with workshops on productivity, team culture, and effectiveness at work. Find out more and book a free chat to see if I can be helpful to your organization.