You’re halfway there!!!
The first half of the year is over! At the time of writing, we are starting to see Canada open up again.
June has been a really exciting month at Admin Slayer. We had an awesome online retreat with our good friend and facilitator Pam Schmidt, who has helped us create a great culture together since our first retreat in 2016. We’d missed each other so much! On top of that, while we don’t often toot our own horns, we’re pretty thrilled about our CEO being recognized for her work with Admin Slayer and our sister company, Spring Planning! Julia was awarded the YWCA Vancouver Women of Distinction Award in the category of Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Leadership has a trickle down effect, and in our case, we’re elated that our CEO is being recognized for the incredible work she has done and still continues to do every day.
As we mentioned last month, we do hope you’re taking time off to recharge, and turning your Canada Day Thursday into a four day weekend is probably one of the smartest ways you can sneak a little of that time in. We always recommend that you take time every quarter-of-the-year to reassess. You started the calendar year with some general ideas of what you hoped to accomplish, with some rough metrics on how to get there. Then reality showed up and threw several wrenches into the works.
It doesn’t matter if they were positive or negative: wrenches were thrown.
Where did they end up? Did you catch them and put them to use? Did they smack you in the face and take you out for a while? What did you learn? How will you put that knowledge to use?
As you hopefully already know, our theme for this year is recovery, and your first step is to take stock. Following that, there’s nothing quite like a little self-reflection, which we hope will help you become a more flexible leader.
How have you been communicating with your team and your customers or clients? Is it time for a pivot? Do you need to make some staffing changes?
One of the very best times to think through these things is when you’re not forcing yourself to think through these things. Around here, we’re big fans of “shower thoughts” - those little epiphanies that arrive just when you weren’t really planning on having great ideas. Idle moments of spare time when you were doing something that allowed your brain to rest, whether you were taking some time out for yourself, playing with your children, gardening, or whatever else allows you to simply release. They often free up your brain for genius, and that’s why we keep hounding you to take a holiday.
While we greatly encourage you to give yourself more time off than you might think is reasonable, so you can get struck by your own genius, we know that’s not always how things work out. There’s another great time to be struck by genius, however.
It’s right when everything goes wrong. When an emergency has a key team member away from work for several days. When a client is deeply disappointed and doesn’t mince their words. When a great new staff member decides to work somewhere else. When you lost all your data in a breach.
What do these terrible things have in common?
They’re all breakdowns in institutional memory. This is the unique, special information that you and your team collectively understand and use to run your business - it is where it all can go terribly wrong, or incredibly right. If this isn’t written down, recorded, and clearly shared it’s known as tribal knowledge, and that’s where the loss of one key person or data resource can throw you into a tailspin. You don’t want tribal knowledge, you want powerful foundations. Sometimes it takes a crisis to force you to strengthen those foundations. You can find our tips for how to do just that, right here.
Speaking of specialized knowledge, we’re excited to introduce you to our very own Social Slayer, Austin! A digital native with wide-ranging experience and education, Austin has been the keen eye and mind behind our own social media postings since the fall of 2020. He’s also interested in helping you make an impact with online audiences. If you want Austin on your own team, just let us know - right here.
Happy Summer from Your Admin Slayer Team!
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