Get 2024 Ready

Heading back into work after your year end break could leave you feeling a little, well... lost. You may find yourself needing to do a ton of password resets, or needing to re-read old emails to see what you said, or what you're meant to be doing next on projects you're working on.

Don't worry - these are all signs that you had a good break. You really switched ALLL the way off, and like your computer, a restart needs a couples of minutes!

At the start of the year I find it useful to refresh certain aspects around how I work, and how my team works to make sure that don't unconsciously take things that weren't working last year into the year ahead.

Here are some tips of things you can refresh as you prepare for your 2024 leadership journey.

Take time to tackle your mailbox

Your mailbox will no doubt be fuller upon your return than when you left. Trying to get to inbox zero on Day 1 is a recipe for despair.

Instead, judge the size of your mailbox, and then set up 1-hour blocks over your first week back in the office where you will work through your emails. You can then work on your emails during these specific blocks, starting with the most urgent issues, or starting with the most important senders.

By spreading the load over your first week back, the task becomes immediately more manageable. And instead of getting lost in a sea of emails, you can actually get up from your desk and connect with your team, more!

Review all meetings in your calendar

Spend some time reviewing your calendar and see which meetings you are invited whether once-off or recurring.

For all meetings, ask yourself:

1. Is this meeting essential. If so, keep it in the calendar. If not, then send an email to decline the meeting moving forward.
2. Is the current scheduled slot for this meeting at the optimum time for the structure of my work day? If so, then keep it in the calendar. If not, then send an email asking for the meeting slot to be changed. If you're the owner of the meeting, then go ahead and change it.
3. Is the meeting duration accurate? Sometimes we automatically put in a meeting that is 30 minutes or 1-hour because that's how the slots work in our calendars, but in reality a meeting could be 15 minutes! Go through your meetings and dial back the ones that are too lengthly, or lengthen the ones that continually go overtime and wreak havoc on your day plan.
4. For non-recurring meetings, would it be necessary to have this meeting again? If so, proactively schedule the meeting into your calendar at the cadence that makes sense.
5. Were there any meetings that were not a productive use of your time? Make a note about this so that you can decline these meetings in the future.

Make the adjustments you need to. This will give you greater control and predictability with your meeting schedule.

Review your team meeting schedule

Take a look at how often you connect with your team and for what purpose.

My recommendation is that you meet as a team in the following ways:

• Weekly Kick Off: Meet with your full team at least once a week to review your strategy, values and your plan for the week. Schedule this in at the start of every week.
• Weekly Check-In: Schedule at least one team check-in meeting to meet as a team to share wins, discuss progress, brainstorm around road blocks and identify opportunities for collaboration.
• Working Group Meetings: You will have team clusters that work together on specific deliverables. Encourage these team members to set-up a recurring meeting timeslot as required.

Consider when is the best time for these sessions for your team's work cycle as well as individual team member work flow.

Set-up your 1:1s

The best way to make sure you do your 1:1s with your team is to schedule them in. Consider each team member's time in their role, time at the company, frequency of connection they desire and your capacity in cases where you have multiple team members.

From there, determine the frequency of the 1:1s. A new team member may need bi-weekly 1:1s, whereas a very experienced team member may only need a bi-monthly 1:1.

Meet with your Line Manager to revisit the strategy for your area

Take some time to connect with your Line Manager and discuss the strategy for your area for the year ahead. Get an understanding of the strategic direction of the business, the goals for your area and any important dates, events and/or priorities.

Ask these questions to get some useful insights:

1. If our team only solved three problems for our company this year, what should we focus on?
2. What opportunity did we miss last year?
3. What would you like us to do differently in the year ahead?

Take careful note of their answers, and use this to direct and guide your strategy and planning for your team for the year ahead.

Facilitate a Strategy Session with your team to uncover learnings from the previous year

Take some time to meet with your team for a Strat session. At the session, conduct a simple SWOT analysis with your team.

Ask them to brainstorm:

1. What did your team do well last year? What was achieved? What are the team's strengths.
2. What were the challenges last year? What were the road blocks that we came in touch with? What are our team's gaps? What were our missed opportunities?

Give your team time to really think this through. To get your team's best thinking, implement these strategies:

• Ask them these questions before the session, so that they can think about it independently and bring their findings to the session.
• At the session, put up several flip chart pages on the walls, and give each team member a pack of post-its. Ask them to write each of their findings on a post-it and stick it on the relevant flip chart pages.
• Once all of the information is on the walls, talk through each point with your team. Invite anyone to add their view, connect and group similar points.

From there, place your team in working groups, and ask them to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses, and identify the opportunities and threats facing their working group and the team.

Ask them to prioritise the Top 3 Opportunities and Top 3 Threats to work on together in the year ahead.

Schedule your leave for the year

We know the year gets full fast. So, be proactive about taking time off and avoiding burnout. Look at your year plan, as well as your personal priorities and identify your leave days for the year ahead. Then, chat to your Manager about them, and book them in.

Once they're approved, mark those days in your calendar as OOTO!

Now that you have implemented these tips, you should feel a whole lot more energised for your year ahead.

I know you'll do great. And, if you need any support on your leadership journey, feel free to reach out to me.

Connect with us

To stay in touch, subscribe to this newsletter and follow our page: https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/lead-with-sheree, or follow us on Instagram @lead_withsheree, or on YouTube @LeadwithSheree. You can also visit our website at www.leadwithsheree.com.

If you have any questions you would like me to address in future posts or newsletters, please comment below or send me a DM.