Is your organization’s schedule running like a well-oiled machine?
If not, my question is, why not and are you willing and able to scrap your old approach to the way you do The Schedule and trade it in for a new approach?
The purpose of this 3 part blog series is not to give you a step-by-step process on how to exactly manage or coordinate The Schedule. This series is designed to provide a high-level perspective to The Schedule with what matters, so that you can win at scheduling and retain your people.
With that said, if you do need help executing the “nitty gritty” of The Schedule, here is a great resource for some strategy to do so.
https://www.icmi.com/resources/2014/10-scheduling-strategies-to-optimize-your-workforce
Here are 1 of 3 practices to help you as you grow in a new approach towards managing people and coordinating The Schedule.
Practice #1 BREATHE
“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.” – George Steinbrenner
Let’s stop and do a breathing exercise.
Take 5 deep breaths in and 5 deep breaths out.
Did you do the exercise?
No?
Do you find yourself saying, “I’m just too busy.”? or “I don’t have time for this.”?
Let me propose to you this, if you did not have the white space or time to stop and do a simple breathing exercise, your organization may be experiencing deeper rooted problems than just a talent shortage and managing The Schedule.
Why Breathing Is So Important
Breathing helps to increase blood flow to the brain, improve posture and release tension in the body.
Incorporating a deep breathing exercise BEFORE, DURING and AFTER working on any challenging task or project like The Schedule will be crucial to your organization’s success.
We want to aim to be organizations who retain our people as best we can.
Unnecessary stress in the work environment will not achieve high retention.
The goal as managers is to contribute to the reduction of unnecessary stress and anxiety in the workplace, but how do we accomplish that?
The Schedule is oftentimes a negative trigger point for both managers and employees.
Being aware of our triggers is vital to managing our own leadership anxiety.
Triggers cause stress, and stress left unchecked leads to anxiety.
This downward spiral towards stress and anxiety happens within a matter of seconds and/or minutes.
However, most people are not aware of this or at least, not aware of what is happening quick enough of the anxiety rolling in.
Why is this so bad?
Again, stress left unchecked leads to anxiety which is not an ideal state of being.
Anxiety is a learned behavior, which can be unlearned through self-awareness and incorporating intentional practices to reset the mind, brain and body.
Anxiety spreads like a wild fire.
As leaders in our organizations, we do not want to negatively influence our people and teams towards anxiety.
We have to become self-aware to learn what negatively triggers us, so that we can keep our stress in check.
Incorporating deep breathing exercises into workflow throughout the day will be beneficial to both the leadership and the team as a whole.
The Challenge:
Before jumping into a challenging task at work such as tackling The Schedule — incorporate deep breathing exercises, like the one above, into your workflow and coach your team to do the same.
This practice will bring a sense of calm to the storm of challenging tasks like, The Schedule.
Stay posted for Part 2! 🎉
– Coach Carissa