Before The Long Weekend

Welcome back to another Culture Junky LinkedIn Exclusive article. It’s great to see you here before we check out for the long weekend and crack those ice cold beers in celebration of Independence Day. I hope this week has been a great one for you and your team Lao far as we wrap up the month of June.?

Before we wrap up the week here I want to commend you. You see, I made sure to put this week’s LinkedIn Exclusive out just a little bit later than normal. Why? Because I wanted to see who would be around for it. Depending on what time zone you’re in, this LinkedIn Exclusive is coming to you sometime around your lunch time. The week isn’t over yet by any means, in fact in my time zone it’s only about 1 o’clock. But that hasn’t stopped folks from cutting the week short and ducking out early for the long weekend.?

Leaders, if you are one of the folks sticking around, but your team members are all gone for the week already chances are they could be and should be more engaged. The same way we can assess engagement by looking at how our team members are doing after returning from a long weekend, we can assess how our team members are doing as we prepare to go into the long weekend. ?

If everyone was neglecting their responsibilities because they were looking forward to the weekend, chances are engagement can be improved.?If important things were pushed off until after this weekend then chances are engagement can be improved. If all you heard all week from your team members this week was how much they can’t wait to be out of work for the long weekend, then I can all but assure you that your team members would benefit from more engagement.?

But what can be done? I mean it’s natural to be excited for a long weekend with friends and family, right? Of course it is. But the telltale sign of when that excitement crosses over from normal excitement to problematic comes when things that should get done, just aren’t being taken care of. When things that would be important any other week, suddenly become things for next week.?

When the long weekend becomes a ‘free pass’ to deviate from the systems and strategies you have in place, something needs to change.?

So if you’re here reading this today before ducking out for the weekend, and you can see your team members hitting today hard, then good on you. I’d?be willing to bet your culture is a pretty good one.?

If on the other hand you’re reading this Monday because you chose to cut Friday short at lunch time, or if you’re reading this and seeing a whole lot of uninspired faces simply running out the clock before the long weekend, then chances are some systems and strategies to engage your team members is needed.?

I hope you have a great rest of the day, a great weekend, and a great start to July. We’ll talk soon.?