✈️ Vacay? No way!

Tis the season for coworking leaders to slow their roll for a minute and  gather with the other unicorns. Conferences and retreats - and just good ol' vacay - are critical for us to continue learning, gain inspiration and shore up our resilience.

Over in the Coworking Marketing Lab, a question was posed:

"Hey everyone! I'm headed out for two weeks out of the office. So exciting but also, whoa! Two weeks felt a lot shorter when I booked this trip months ago. Any best practices with your team to maintain motivation/keep them engaged and innovating when you're not in each day?"Such a great question. And here are a few of the great answers!

From Hector Kolonas at included.co:
"I always plan my handovers based on the character/strengths of who’s taking over for me. If they’re great at follow through, but not at interpersonal skills, prioritize who to ping when and about what. But if they’re more outgoing and less todo-list oriented, I like to set reminders for them to check in with X and follow up with Y about Z. Of course it’s a little different within a space-operating business, but hope it helps. Most of all, take the time and know that whatever happens, you can deal with it when you’re back."

And from Iris Kavanaugh:
From my experience, your team is going to grow up and into themselves while you're gone. So there's already an awesome upside to you taking two weeks away.

A couple of things that come to mind:

Priorities matrix: creating a matrix for what to handle and what to let go can be helpful for new leaders. This could look like:

1. members always take first priority,
2. then keep the space in order,
3. process all mail and packages,
4. Onboarding and payments

Then permission to let other things slide until there's more staff if needed.

Another thought: setting up 2-3 members to help out in different areas to support the staff in making sure important things happen that make people happy:

1. Staff lunch breaks
2. Member coffee gets made
3. Desígnate a member as a back up to open the space in the event something happens and staff can't get in on time.

And giving everyone a little time off before you go and after you come back. Even a half day on either side… this shows your appreciation and understanding that it's a big job to run the space with limited staff.

I just love both the graciousness and specificity of these two answers. They really speak to how much these two leaders care about their people. 🍏

If you aren't yet a member of the Lab, it's highly recommended. You can get a free glimpse this Friday at Coworking Convos.