With most of us still working remotely, many of the conventions we created to tune-in and support our team members have to be rethought. I have two favorite hacks that work regardless of your location. One puts you in the right frame of mind for managing and leading, and the other helps your team frame the day for success.

1. Bring Your Great Attitude to Work Today and Every Day

I learned this from a workshop participant who volunteered that her approach to being at her best was to spend a few minutes before each workday preparing her attitude. Here’s my translation of her approach:

Take a few minutes right before starting work to focus and recognize what a privilege it is to manage, lead, collaborate, and help solve problems.

Push out all of yesterday’s distractions and setbacks and recognize this is a new day.

Ask and answer: How am I going to succeed at every encounter today?

I’ve taught this to hundreds of clients, and some of their answers to this question merit repeating.

I’m going to smile and focus on every individual who reaches out to me.

I’m going to work harder at listening.

I’m going to try and leave every situation, meeting, and one-on-one better than I found it. (Note: this individual focused on creating value for every encounter.)

I’m going to focus on what people do that is great and give more positive feedback. 

In my case, I strive to learn at least one thing from everyone I encounter. This commitment forces me to remain in beginner’s mind mode and to ask a lot of questions. 

With a few simple minutes and a bit of mental discipline, you have the opportunity to improve the day for everyone you encounter, including yourself. 

My client mentioned above confessed that she rarely succeeded at every encounter in a day. “I’m never perfect, but this technique helps me strive to get better every single day.” 

2. Help Your Team Frame the Day for Success

It’s great to set your attitude to positive in the morning; however, what about your team? One of my favorite tools for improving the weather with my team involves bookending the day with our focus on success. With a little bit of time and discipline, it works just as well in the virtual world as it does in person.

Here’s the approach:

At the beginning of the day, connect with your team members via your favorite virtual tool for no more than ten minutes. The focus is on answering two questions:

  • What dragons do we need to slay today?
  • What help do you need from one of your team members?

At the end of the day, reconnect for no more than a few minutes and ask and answer:

What did we do today that worked great that we should do more of tomorrow?

That’s it.

Don’t spend any time listing things that didn’t get done or commiserating over dragons that got away. Keep the focus on what worked great that, when replicated, will create more success tomorrow.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Given the overwhelming number of stressors in our world today, a bit of focus on succeeding at every encounter and replicating what works will go a long way to improve the working environment’s quality. Use the ideas in great, daily health! 

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