We are all far too familiar with how difficult the last 18 months has been. From a professional perspective, businesses have struggled and subsequently this has had huge impacts on many peoples’ personal lives.
During the lockdown many businesses managed to adopt a more remote and flexible working policy. This meant that they could continue to operate and saved thousands of jobs across the country; we can all agree this has been a long time coming and is one of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic.
However, the dream of working remotely has quickly thrown up problems of its own.
Blurred Lines
In the past the general working public has bemoaned the ‘rat race’ and ‘working 9-5’, we have found ourselves automated into our routines on the commute to work becoming semi-autonomous robots chasing goals it would be almost impossible to achieve.
Then, in March 2020, this mostly came to an abrupt halt as we were advised in the UK to stay home in order to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Home used to be the place you returned to for some solace, a safe space away from the stresses of your working life. The last 18 months have forced us to bring our work into our homes, destroying our sense of detachment from our professional lives.
This new way of working and living has meant that we no longer have that important period in the evenings to decompress and, with lockdowns and travel restrictions preventing us from getting a much-needed change of scenery we are unable to restore our physical and mental energy reserves.
Restoration and Renewal
This article comes at a time when a few people in our team have managed to gain a little time abroad and away from their work responsibilities. The general consensus was that they didn’t realise just how much the last 18 months had affected them and just how much they needed the time away. The words ‘restorative’, ‘renewing’ and ‘rejuvenating’ have been used to describe even the shortest of breaks.
The simple fact is that everyone needs some renewal time. Teams and leaders at work need time allocated to renew and refocus, especially in times of difficulty. This is not to say everyone should holiday together, the process of renewing can be undertaken within a professional environment.
For example, Leaders need time out to think and develop – this could be through coaching or a more structured development programme; while Teams need time out to reflect, think, have some fun and play together to refocus, re-energise and renew.
In each case, facilitation is key. A coach is a natural facilitator, teams get the best from their downtime together when they are guided through the process, the facilitator ensures that everyone is included and balances any tensions.
Facilitation also ensures time is focused around objectives and enables the entire process to be truly restorative.
How do you implement your renewal time? Is this something that you have thought about? We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
If you would like to speak to us about coaching within your business, culture change or developing leaders, make sure you give us a call on 07854 315 665 or email us. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
