Increasing YOUR Energy and Performance

How do you, your teams or organization adapt to adversity? How did you innovate your operations differently or on-line to serve your customers because of the pandemic? In what ways did you manage your own stress or protect your organizational culture as you faced managing remote school schedules, fluctuating workloads, cutbacks or perhaps your own fears?

Regardless of your response and energy, GAERI will never judge. Whether you were prepared or caught off guard, you can choose lessons from the challenging times to incorporate in your daily life or organization moving forward.

Effective Communication Practices

Did you adapt to ZOOM up or are you “ZOOMED out?”  The GAERI team read an article in The Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) magazine.  We predict ZOOM is certainly here to stay!  In fact, there is high adoption of ZOOM where you, your employees or teams are scheduling meetings and working on innovative projects. The pandemic also accelerated the development of new digital, e-commerce, wellness, and diversity and inclusion efforts. 

  • What practices/systems do you plan to implement or maintain to support individuals, teams or your culture to improve communications, wellness or inclusion?

  • What are some creative what ways you can better connect with your family, friends and colleagues? 

Doubling Down on Strategy

While the pandemic may have created that “survival” mode instinct, with little time for innovation, it is never too late to consider what you as an individual, your team or your organization really wants. This may be your opportunity to stay true to your overall life, team or organizational strategy. 

  • What are the top 5-8 organizational priorities (not 20-30) in which you plan to maintain, what we refer to at GAERI as your strategic stealth fighter focus?

  • What personal goals have you identified and what strategic stealth fighter focus accountability do you need?

Simpler Processes

As employers, we may have felt scrambled in processes such as hiring during the pandemic. Others per SHRM took typical in-person processes and modernized them for speed and efficiency outcomes. As a result, you may have less costly and time efficient talent acquisition tactics to support your growing workforces. We at GAERI had a personal case in point on feeling “scrambled.” Running out of pet food during a freezing rain storm no less was cause for process improvement and simplification. Networking saved the day by remembering a colleague by the name of Ann Gleeson who spoke about her company www.HealthyPetFoodsandMore.com. A quick call to Ann and our problem was solved with in-home healthy pet and treat delivery saving time, money and the opportunity to support Ann’s business. Our pets, Buddy and Abby are so happy and so are we! 

  • How have you, your teams or organization grown because of taking your “typical” personal or professional processes and simplifying them? What will you do next?

A Better Flowing Workday

A big lesson learned from the pandemic – many full-time employees proved they could effectively work from home, said Jo Deal, Chief Human Resources Officer of LogMeIn, a software firm in Boston.  Research and trends show that remote work will continue to grow in popularity.  As safety increases and folks return to work, offices that once housed individuals are being re-designed with more collaboration and networking in mind.

  • On a scale of 1-10 with 1-being very low and 10-being very high, how is your energy around your own remote home or remote school arrangement?  

  • If you own a business or lead an organization, in what ways have you or will you drive for higher collaboration when you feel it is safe?

Workplace Empathy is UP

In 2020, you, your employees or colleagues may have lost family members to COVID-19 or were infected yourself. We at GAERI experienced transitioning to remote schooling for our children. Some of you even added home-schooling younger children to your job description while working or you needed to change your hours to accommodate family demands. As a result of these challenges, workplace empathy grew significantly, said Cara Brennan Allamano, senior vice president of people and HR at Udemy, a learning platform in San Francisco.

  • How will you encourage deeper conversations within your teams and organization about navigating home and work while keeping an eye on big picture goals?

  • To whom have you turned to share your energy and/or stress experiences in the past year to ensure you are moving forward positively?

As you consider the practices to start or continue in your personal or professional life, repeat these affirmations for added energy and performance:

I AM … resilient.

I AM … gifted.

I AM … ready.

Source: Excerpts from SHRM Article: What HR Professionals Are Looking Forward to in 2021, By Kylie Ora Lobel January 8, 2021

Kelly Pingleton