Summertime, time to… Speed up!
Remember your first student job?
Many of us once attained our first professional work experience during the summer months. Usually in the hospitality or retail industry. This could create a somewhat strange situation because you then had to work while everyone around you was on leave. It gave an extra kick to do your utmost so that people, customers, colleagues could enjoy it all the more. Personally, I gained a lot of knowledge and experience in my jobs as a student: from cleaning in factories to selling household electronics or learning how to handle IT systems. It all gave me advantages in sales techniques or developing new business… which I would gratefully use once entering the job market.
Many Interim Managers also regularly face a similar situation where they push the accelerator while others throttle back. Filling in during a maternity leave, for example. Carrying out an important, forward-looking mission while the daily rhythm in the workplace is slowing down a bit. Nowadays, senior executives also dare to take “sabbaticals”, to go on long-term recharging outside their jobs. Their every right, of course. At ADM, we like to prepare self-employed people to then guarantee continuity at management level. Nobody is irreplaceable. But the drive to move a company forward is. The moment you no longer have this in mind, you start losing ground.
Serene introspection
The summer period is an advantageous time to reflect on this. Conducting an analysis of the first six months, with a dose of introspection, can be worth a lot. This working exercise is often salutary to really go on leave with a peace of mind, knowing that one will return with the necessary determination to maintain the positive trend or turn the tide if necessary.
I also love those somewhat quiet moments that are quietly approaching – even if there are fewer and fewer of them – in July or August when you can catch up on overdue work at a more serene pace, finally shorten the to-do list a bit, but also take time for strategic reflection. Traffic reduces and, if the weather cooperates, a walking brainstorming session or an outdoor business lunch can also be extra stimulating. The longer days also give a blissful feeling that there is still plenty of time left after work hours to enjoy free time.
Timemanagement
After all, the big summer break is also an ideal time to reflect quietly, with less pressure surrounding us, on “need to do” and “nice to do”. To better fill the time, one has in a day. Also professionally: fewer mails, Whatsapps, phones, … more concentration and therefore increased efficiency. Sufficient distance to start looking at a difficult case from a new angle to crack it. Or why not, healthily opportunistically close an important deal because a competitor is on holiday and the client cannot wait for another week for a solution.
This TIP-IM is aimed mainly at those who like to dare to be slightly contrarian or are not too keen to enter into fixed patterns. As long as they can find the right balance and see working through the summer as anything but a burden, but rather find a better balance now, they will be fine.
Happy holidays, as well as fun, enriching work moments.
