Greetings, manager!
Happy Easter to all who celebrate, and I hope the bunny brought you more chocolate than you can cope with.
Tip: Holiday managemnent
This week's tip is not about chocolate management, sadly, as I have absolutely no skills in that area at all. Instead, I'm going with holiday management.
Someone on a call this week said "I'll be honest, the email is scheduled to go even though it's a bank holiday because I completely forgot about Easter". If you don't have the children's school holiday schedule to live by- and to be honest, even if you do- it can be easy to forget bank holidays. And when you do forget them, it almost never leads to happiness.
Four-day weekends can be an absolute kicker for everyone involved- that hot mix of everyone getting time off while simultaneously trying to cram five days of work into four days, leaving everyone a bit antsy about it.
So my tip for the week, albeit maybe too late for you this time- is to have a check-in two weeks before a bank holiday and have a think about what will be affected. Set yourself a calendar reminder for two weeks before every bank holiday and you'll be amazed at how many problems you catch in advance.
Tale: Lassons from Lasso
Friends was a hit, so I'm going to talk about the best lessons from Ted Lasso. If you haven't seen it, do, but also—don't worry too much, as they are pretty globally applicable.
1. Everybody loves an underdog. It might sometimes feel like you need to 'fake it to make it', but I couldn't disagree more. Pretending you know what you don't is a really quick way to lose trust and damage relationships. Being an underdog can feel like you're not getting the attention you want or deserve, but in the long run, being likeable is a super strength (a strength Ted has in spades!).
2. Read the play before jumping in. Ted knows nothing about football (soccer)- but he understands the core principle of bringing people together brilliantly. There is something super intimidating about being promoted into a new role or moving sideways in an organisation. The temptation to prove oneself is overwhelming. Ted learns what football is before he starts making suggestions, and even then- you may notice- he doesn't have any ideas of his own. He just uses the ideas coming from his team really well- the perfect leadership style.
3. Relationships take time. Last week I met someone I really wanted to like me- the twin brother of someone really important to me. I was desperate for him to think I was cool (unlikely), but at least worthy of his brother's attention. For most people, they'd take the time to ask some polite questions- about where they live, or about their kids. I asked where he'd proposed to his wife and what he'd beat his twin at in a fight.
The thing is, as much as we may want to build immediate genuine connections with people, this doesn't really happen. Ted wants Rebecca to love him immediately, and bakes her biscuits to build the connection. Instead of getting disheartened when the connection isn't immediate- he keeps baking those biscuits, every day, until he feels like it is reciprocated (and he keeps baking them even then).
At work, especially when that person is important to us, we want a bond that is instant- but recognising that relationships can, and often do, take longer is a real asset.
4. Believe.
5. Everyone has their own baggage impacting their work. I am a strong advocate for not bringing 'your whole self to work'. That said, Ted does a great job of working out the personal motivators and restrainers for the people in his team; and then helping them work out a way to leave those things behind when they are on the pitch. It's not about being nosey, or even asking the right questions, but observing someone as a full human instead of a drone in a hive will almost always help you get more out of them, and make them feel better, too.
The other things I learned were mostly about the offside rule and the different 'leagues', so I'll stop there.
Sending love for a short week,
Bee xoxo