What Everyone Ought to Know About Providing Down Time for Their Teams

First published on Huffington Post – 30 January 2016

In days gone by we used to go to work, do out jobs and then go home.

We disconnected the second we walked out the door and we entered a zone where time was ours to do with as we wished.

Today, we’re surrounded by technology and connected 24/7. We walk out the office doors and our work and our colleagues walk with us connected through the techno gadgets in our pockets. For those of us who are extroverts, we thrive in this environment because we constantly regenerate our energy by being around, and being engaged with others. For those of us who are introverts, this situation drains our energy and causes us to experience exhaustion and overwhelm.

We often have someone in our space and the pace of modern day society demands that we push ourselves to continue even though our energy battery is drained.

If we don’t un-plug ourselves regularly we can very quickly drain our energy supplies and then we’re operating on the equivalent of a dead battery.

Teams operate at their most efficient when ALL team members are operating on peak energy. Highly motivated teams are high energy teams; and high energy teams are teams who have regular down and/or quiet time scheduled.

Organisations that thrive are the ones that look after their employees and the most effective way to look after your employees is to teach them simple ways to protect their energy and efficiently re-energise themselves.

It’s important to program down time into every day for each member of the team. This may mean quiet time away from the rest of the team members. It may mean you introduce a team meditation or yoga practice into each week. You might encourage each team member to get 15 minutes outside in the fresh air.

There are lots of ways to provide an environment that re-energises your team. You can access lots of simple tips and tricks in ‘Keep It Super Simple’ (you can buy a copy from my website) or call me on +61 (0) 438 624 868 to discuss how I can help you to implement simple steps to re-energise your team.