Bleary-eyed from too many Zoom meetings or trainings lately? Pam Ryan, founder and CEO of Better Cubed and a Brené Brown Dare to Lead certified executive coach, offers seven tips that can help:
- Set agreed-upon norms with the team (for example, they are not expected to “hop on” Zoom calls in the evening).
- Schedule “walk-and-talk” meetings when Zoom is not necessary. It is great to move the body while taking care of business.
- Start each Zoom meeting with a wellness/mindfulness activity. This models that you value your team members’ self-care. Burnt-out employees do you no good. The added benefit is the activity can be shared with their teams, as well.
- If you must be on Zoom all the time, explore interactive platforms to integrate into your meetings such as Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, Mural, and Kahoot.
- Make use of the breakout room features to create spaces for more engaging conversation. This can be less intimidating for those who don’t feel confident, safe, or worthy of sharing their thoughts.
- Talk about the collective grief and loss, anxiety, worry, exhaustion of these challenging times. Be brave enough to ask how team members are doing. Normalizing the spectrum of big emotions we are all feeling diminishes our feelings of isolation and thoughts that “I am the only one struggling.”
- Implement a “happy hour.” Each team blocks out an hour a week when all are free to log out and do something that brings them joy. Play, rest, and heal fatigue.
