3 Tips to Help Leaders PIVOT!

Pivot.

It's a word we used a LOT during the early days of COVID-19 pandemic, when nothing felt settled. Plans constantly changed - at work and at home - due to the unknown virus surrounding us.

It's also a word I've found the best leaders embody. The strongest leaders are constantly shifting their attention from one thing to another. Meetings. Documents. Strategies. Events. And when each item touches on a different area of their purview or members of their team or even sides of their brain, it can be a lot.

Being able to shift topics after every meeting or appointment is definitely a skill.

I've learned to thrive in the pivot, but sometimes it can be difficult. Here are three tips that have helped me pivot:

• Come prepared to the right degree. This sounds basic, but it's not. You cannot know everything about everything about everything all the time. So you need to prioritize what information you need to be equipped with before you go into a meeting. Focus on that data set or perspective.
• Stay active throughout the day. So many people are not going to an office in a remote/hybrid work setting, so it becomes easy to just sit in the same chair all day long. I try to get a Peloton ride and/or weight session in before signing on and then move locations around my house at least 2-3 times per day, if not more, and change up the rotation. The combination of breaking the routine and getting some steps in throughout the day keeps me fresher.
• Camera-off is A-OK sometimes. I'm a camera-on kinda guy. I find it easier to co-create, discuss challenges, and bring empathy to my day. However, everyone has those days where they just don't want to be on camera. Knowing which meetings are good to be camera-off is important for mental health, plus eating food! (Note - you can...pivot...on and off camera during a meeting.)

Things Worth Reading

1) Ask a MarCom Exec: 5 Questions on Post-Pandemic Communication Trends with BAE Systems’ Caitlin Hayden

Anyone that's been lucky enough to work with Caitlin Hayden knows that she is just the best. Full stop. This quick interview she recently did with WashingtonExec is fantastic.

Note the two things she said her team at BAE Systems was focused on this year: talent and culture. Furthermore, this explanation of the role of communications on culture is spot-on.

It has been a difficult past few years between COVID-19, racial reckoning, and now, inflation and supply chain challenges. We know our employees are under pressure at home and in the workplace. Communications is on the frontlines of listening to our colleagues, understanding what’s going on in the world around us and communicating our company’s values, mission, objectives and culture.

2) No, Remote Employees Aren’t Becoming Less Engaged

As companies are grappling with remote and hybrid work, this Harvard Business Review article by Andrew Brodsky and Mike Tolliver is mission-critical.

They outline how remote workforces have adapted - they analyzed 48 million virtual meetings to get their data! A key finding shows that workers are starting to transform how they meet via digital platforms to be more like the in-office experience. Very cool and somewhat unexpected!

This data also suggests that remote interactions are shifting to more closely mirror in-person interactions. Whereas there have been substantial concerns that employees are missing out on the casual and spontaneous rich interactions that happen in-person, these findings indicate that remote employees may be beginning to compensate for the loss of those interactions by increasingly having impromptu meetings remotely.

3) What to know about Lensa, the AI portrait app all over social media

Based on my social feeds over the past two weeks, we certainly love our Lensa "Magic Avatars."

I mean, I do! I got 100 of them recently, with the overall vibe being “Barry Gibb + Indiana Jones + Star Lord...who may also be starting a cult.”

Seeing alternate interpretations of yourself is very cool, but it's not without some controversy.

Z?e S. breaks down the good and the not-as-good for CNN .

One of the more alarming items is how women's avatars are being sexualized in ways that men's are not.

In one of the most disorienting images, it looked like a version of my face was on a naked body. In several photos, it looked like I was naked but with a blanket strategically placed, or the image just cut off to hide anything explicit. And many of the images, even where I was fully clothed, featured a sultry facial expression, significant cleavage, and skimpy clothing which did not match the photos I had submitted.