If Not Now, When? Don’t Put High Performance On Hold…

Welcome to the people leaders podcast, the audio resource for managers and business leaders, creating high-performing teams, join leadership and team development experts, Jan and Michelle Terkelsen each week, as they explore both subjects from every angle through practical tips, valuable insights and compelling interviews with leadership experts around the world. You'll learn how to bring out the best in your staff and how to give your best as a leader.

Hi Michelle.

Hello? How are we.

Great? So, I have a question for you.

Yes.

If not now, when?

Great question Jan, because if it's not now, when are you going to make those changes as a team? The most successful teams have been the ones that have continued to put learning and development, team building, working on themselves, up there with getting the work done and staying safe.

And so the teams that are waiting, waiting, waiting till this is over, you will have missed the boat. You will have missed the opportunity, one of the best and biggest opportunities that you're ever going to have as a team to inch up to that high-performing mark is now.

Yeah. Yeah. And the, and the reason why it's now is because things are different and the invitation is for you to be different.

So if you've been someone that hasn't been able to, I don't know, extend trust, this is the time that you can practice that. If you've been the type of person that hasn't actually spoken up in meetings before, this is the time to flex those things. So start to think about, you know, if you're a people leader and you've got a team,

and the reason why we're doing this podcast is because we've been running so many sessions with people on particular issues. And so what we wanted to do in these podcasts is share with you seven of our most popular virtual team sessions that we've been running, but also give you some strategies and something useful that you can start to use, or have a conversation with your team.

So shall we kick off with number one?

Yeah. Number one.

So, the first one that we do is the MBTI.

That's right.

Team sessions with teams on personality.

That's right. And so one of the things that most people would know, one of the dimensions is introversion/extroversion, which is where you get your energy from. And so if you have a hybrid working environment,

you might have some people working from home and you might have some people still working at the office or out on site or something like that. Be mindful that people with a preference for introversion are going to respond and react or want information in a different way. So what we do know is everybody wants to be in the know and to be kept up to date with what's happening,

whether you're introvert or extrovert. However, the way that they get the information, process the information, then give you feedback about that is going to be very different. So people with a preference for extroversion, they're going to want to talk it out. They would want a group session. They want to like, you know, talk, ask questions,

and then that's how they're going to process. People with a preference for introversion however, give it to them in writing, give it to them in advance, send a note and let them process in that way. And they're going to do better with one-on-one like coming back to you one on one with some information or some questions. So again,

same information, you're just packaging it up differently and you're providing a different platform in order for them to process that information.

And if we were running a session on the Myers Briggs, these are some of the strategies that we would share, but also individually as teams, because as you know, there are some teams that have mostly extroverts and maybe one introvert, and that's a real opportunity to,

bring a different perspective to the team because when you've got a difference in the team, it allows your perspective to grow. So the more diversity you have, I think the more opportunity there is to gain a lot more insight and perspective.

Yeah. Great.

So the second workshop that we've been doing with teams is wellbeing. So, Wellbing Working From Home and,

you know, we've run a whole series of these wellbeing workshops. And you know, the biggest tip for me is to get up and move. And unless you have it in your diary, or written down, that at 11 o'clock and at 2:00 PM, you are going to stand up, you are going to go for a walk. You are actually going to move your body.

Now, hopefully at this stage, there are people who have the opportunity to either have a stand-up desk or to create their own stand-up desk. Because if you're sitting down for most of the day, half of your energy is being blocked. As soon as you stand up, all your organs and everything are going to run more efficiently. So the more that you can actually stand up and move your body,

the better it is. So number one, get up and move.

Number two, is more of a mental technique that you can start to incorporate. And that is to use reflection. At the end of the day, reflect on your day in terms of, "So what did I learn about myself or about others, and is there something that I would do differently?"

And then another question could be like, "What could I be looking forward to to tomorrow?" And just by starting that process, subconsciously you're embedding those questions, knowing that you need to answer them the next day or in a couple of days' time. And reflection is one of the best ways that you can gain greater self awareness and then moving in to making those minor shifts.

Very simple mental strategy that you can use in order to move forward in a positive way.

Yeah. And like, you always say Michelle, this is the time where you actually can create those changes because you are working from home. You do have a little bit more control over your environment.

So that means getting up early or going to bed a little bit early, so you can revitalise yourself.

And I suppose the third tip that I would really offer people is that, have you got a practice of actually just sitting down, closing your eyes and focusing on your breath? So for us, we meditate every day, but for those other people who haven't,

let's just start to inquire into that because there are so many psychological physiological benefits of meditation. And the tip that I would give you is to always be seated upright, your spine nice and supported, feet on the floor, relaxed position, closing your eyes and, just breathing in and out and just focus on the beginning, the middle and the end of every inhalation and in the beginning,

the middle and the end of every exhalation. And if you can do that for five minutes, I promise you, you will feel different.

And I'm gonna give one more tip Jan. So this is the emotional tip. And that is when you are feeling a little bit triggered, or a little bit frustrated, a good strategy is just to name it.

So how am I feeling? Am I feeling angry? Am I feeling frustrated? Am I feeling overwhelmed? Once you can name it and put a label on it, then you can ask yourself the question. Okay, so what emotion could I start to move into that moves me up the scale of being less angry. So can I go from anger to frustration or could I go from frustration to feeling a little bit tichy.

When you can start to name it and use your thought process to move yourself, because emotions are just energy and they're your thoughts and you can control them, once you can start to do that, then you have a language around it and you can coach yourself. You can move from that negative state to a more positive state.

And that's an emotional strategy that you, that you can use at this time as well.

Yeah. And we based that off Abraham Hicks, which we've listened to quite a bit, so you can look that up on YouTube.