Don’t you just love the buzz and hype of Christmas! I’m sure you are just like me and feel that your Christmas to do list is growing faster than you can cross the completed items off the list. But this year I made a huge over sight, I left one of the most important to do’s off the list. And I would have frantically sailed on in to holiday mode and not given it a single thought. If I’m honest I didn’t just forget, I wouldn’t have even thought to add it to the to do list!
Thankfully my team member Jo, brought my oversight to my attention. She asked if before we finished up for the Christmas break could we lock in some time for the team to come together for a 2015 Reflection. She wanted us, as a team to look at where we started the year, what we achieved, how far we had come and she also wanted the bad and the ugly; where we hadn’t met our goals or our budget, where new ideas and projects hadn’t succeeded like we had anticipated.
I’m all for reflection. I had been planning on doing a lot of it during my holidays, I’d just planned on doing it on my own, by the side of the pool and in conjunction with setting my goals for 2016. I’ve blogged before about taking time out to stop and smell the roses and I don’t tend to do it enough throughout the year but the end of the calendar year and the end of the financial year is when I tend to do most of my reflection. Yet I made this same mistake back in July when I was doing my reflection, I didn’t include my team. Luckily for me this time, I had a team member confident enough to speak up and bring it to my attention.
Now I’m excited and can’t wait for our 2015 Reflection meeting on Monday. As I’m gathering and collating the info that I intend to share with the team, it’s a welcome reminder of the year that has been. Even just collating the info has been a positive experience and reminded me of all that my team has achieved this year. It’s not going to be just about the dollars, budgets, placements and number of clients but it’s also going to be about what each team member has achieved, how they have grown professionally and contributed to the good the bad and the ugly. And I’m pleased to say there is hardly any of the ugly, a little of the bad and a lot of the good.
So in winding down for 2015, have you overlooked the importance of reflecting on the year that has been with your team? It’s not too late if you forgot to add it to your to do list like me.
Here’s why I think every team should be having a 2015 reflection:
- It will improve employee engagement – Get your team’s buy in and engagement will increase significantly.
- It will help them understand how the role they play in the team contributes to the bigger picture – the end goal.
- It will help give your team members ownership, if they own it they’ll be much more passionate about making it a success.
- It will give them peace of mind, even if it is ugly, its better they know the situation at least then they can commit to trying to improve or turn it around with you. If it is ugly, they’ll probably have an inkling anyway, don’t let doubt and innuendo drive down engagement and create uncertainty.
- It creates an environment for the sharing of ideas and sharing of different perspectives.
- It will drive team work, no one is in this alone.
- It will help them understand the why – from the decisions you make to the ideas you implement, they’ll get the why.
- The majority of team members want to help, they want to contribute, to share the load – this reflection will let them see where they can help and make a valuable contribution. If you’ve got team members that don’t want to help or contribute, you’ll identify who they are at a reflection; then it’s up to you how you manage them.
- It will help when it comes to setting new goals for 2016; fresh ideas, new perspectives, engagement. The benefits for goal setting are endless.
- It’s a great opportunity to acknowledge and thank your team for their contributions. Much more meaningful than a quick speech of thanks to everyone who’s at the Christmas party. It’s about delivering the right message, in the right context, in the right environment.
Give it a go with your team, you’ve got nothing to lose. A reflection meeting is now officially a bi-annual tradition (end of financial year and end of calendar year) at Inspire HQ. I’m already looking forward to our goal setting meeting in the new year and I can guarantee you it will be a team session, not just goals developed by me as I chill out by the pool this holiday season. I’m already looking forward to sharing the value and benefits with you in one of my blogs early in the new year – stay tuned!
Good luck with your 2015 team reflection.
The team at Inspire HQ would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. We look forward to keeping in touch in 2016 as we have some exciting and innovative new projects to launch that we can’t wait to get your feedback on. Thanks so much for your support, feedback and interest in our blog this year.
