Welcome to the Digital Marketing Inner Circle

This dynamic of working longer with less is no doubt creating a stress for our teams.  Basically, this means more times than not that the quality of life suffers as people put in more hours at work and stress over things that need to get done within an unrealistic time line.   So what should we do as leaders? Here are a few ideas that might help your teams regain a sense of balance (I am also very aware that some of these suggestions will cause a number of your to raise your eyebrows in surprise).

• Prioritize projects:  (A) must do now  (B) can do this week  (C) can do this month
• Ensure that everything your people are working on adds value to the brand.  This means can the re-do of Power Points over and over.
• Review all meetings and eliminate meetings that don’t add value.
• Ensure that your people are using their vacation time. 
• When people go on vacation do not allow them to check voice mail or company email. (I know that this is near impossible these days but try and encourage some VC/email free days)
• If senior management wants more and your department is already maxed out ask for more resources.
• Allow your team to have casual Fridays (no ties allowed) or to take a half-day off on Friday each month.

If you want to keep your team functioning and working at its best you need to ensure that as their manager you listen to their concerns and ensure that the work environment helps them do what they need to do while they balance work and quality of life.

I have also added this poll to gain a view on just how much vacation people took over the past year. 

So in this period of festive exuberance, try and get some downtime and reflect on your own work/life balance.