Put Your Phone Down – or You’ll Regret It!

Last week I wrote about the importance of not being a helicopter parent… you know, the one who always swoops in to rescue their kids and make sure they complete the tasks they’re responsible for. This week, I’m switching gears and talking about the parent who isn’t as involved as they could be. We typically tend to lean one way or the other… and sometimes a little of both. Where do you fall?

Are you having meaningful conversations with your kids on purpose? 

We live in a fast paced world and phones are a great communication tool. They help us set schedules, reminders, communicate with friends and colleagues. They provide entertainment through the internet, videos, music apps, brain games, audiobooks and podcasts. It seems these little devices are truly a gift that help us centralize everything so that we can be more effective. We can do our online banking, deposit cheques, accept paypal payments, respond to email and text messages. We can even use it to record notes on projects and activities; and let’s not forget about the all important social media updates on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s so convenient to have all of this information at our fingertips… or is it?

Have you counted the cost? The benefits that our phones provide are becoming impediments to our connection with the people we care about most. If we aren’t careful, we can waste hours on our devices without even realizing it. Hours turn into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. All of a sudden our teens will be moving out of our home and we’ll wish we hadn’t spent so much time on these “helpful tools” because they robbed us of precious time that we can never recover. Time is the one thing that you can NEVER regain. It is precious. It is a true gift. We need to use it wisely and make the most of it.

What will you do with your time this week?

What would you like to do with it? Are you just passively going through the motions or do you have a plan to connect with your family and friends? How about scheduling some time in that handy dandy calendar of yours for some good old Rest and Relaxation. Schedule time on your calendar for yourself and time for your family. If you don’t schedule something in, someone else might fill your time for you.

Last week I told you that your teens are responsible for their own lives… You need to model that by being Responsible for Your Life!

Don’t say that you’re too busy. There’s no such thing. We’re all busy. Life is busy. You can spend your time being busy on things that you won’t remember next year let alone next month, or you can spend time laughing and growing with your family. Be a student of your spouse and your children. What do they enjoy? How can you bring a little more of that in to your lives?

Here are a few tips to capitalize on your family time:

• Sunday Family Day – we’re showing our kids that they are valuable to us and we enjoy spending time with them. We set aside this day every week just to hang out with our favourite people in the world, make homemade pizza and watch a movie. We all look forward to Sundays!
• Read books aloud – it’s so interesting to be able to have real life conversations through a story. We can get into deep subjects and find teachable moments without having any emotional involvement. It allows us to see things from another perspective and carry it in to areas of our lives.
• Praying together – we pray together as a family every evening. Everyone has an opportunity to share what’s on their heart so that we can pray for those things and for the things that are coming up. It models to our children that we need help too and what an amazing faith builder when we see our prayers answered!
• Device-free times and zones – we eat as a family and devices are not in the kitchen at meal times or in bedrooms at night time. Charge your phone in a central location to avoid interrupted sleep and late night surfing. Experts recommend turning off devices an hour before bedtime to allow the melatonin to build up and help you fall asleep faster. We also avoid electronics on Sundays. Parents included. 
• Work on projects/chores together – we often dump all the clean laundry on the bed and play music while we fold laundry together in the master bedroom.
• The Great Outdoors – Take walks, go on bike rides, plan a camping trip. Camping was one of my favourite memories growing up and now I’m building memories with my kids. Outdoor fun in the wilderness is good for everyone!
• Play – Take time to play! My kids love making up recipes in their own Master Chef Junior competitions (would love for this one to really take off… they did an amazing job at re-enacting the show and we all had so much fun!)

A Family that Plays and Prays Together, Stays Together!

 

Leadership for Employee Retention and Satisfaction

I’m a Leadership Coach and my heart is to see Leaders lead in such a way that they feel energized and empowered so that those sentiments trickle down to all those who are influenced by them. Leadership is a skill that is valuable in every workplace, school and home. It’s a skill that everyone can and should develop.

Are you already an amazing leader and think that this kind of post won’t apply to you?  I dare say, if you think that you’ve got it all figured out… you need to read more on the subject of effective leadership.  One of the key characteristics that differentiates good leaders from great leaders is that great leaders are life-long learners. If you are one of these great leaders, please share some of your secrets to success in the comments below so that we can learn and grow together. Knowledge is power.

Here are my 5 steps to produce a high-functioning team of people who have strong skillsets, are motivated and want to work with you.

1. Include: Invite your staff to be a part of important discussions and encourage them to share their insight, especially in areas that affect their work.
   

   They want to know that they’ve had their say, even if they don’t have their way.

2. Empower: What are their strengths? Matching tasks with strengths will do wonders for productivity and confidence. Once you see that they have mastered an area, empower them to make decisions in that area.
3. Develop: Stretch yourself and your staff. As a leader, you set the tone. If you take time to develop yourself and push yourself to new heights, your employees will do the same. If the budget permits, provide learning and coaching opportunities for them.
4. Value: People need to know that they are more than just the work that they produce. Connect with them regularly and schedule occasional off-site team meetings to review upcoming priorities and encourage team building. This doesn’t have to be expensive; be creative.
5. Emotional Intelligence: Self-awareness is so important.  You can’t expect anyone to work on a weakness that they aren’t aware exists… and let’s face it, annual or bi-annual Performance Reviews aren’t quite doing the job we had hoped.  Instead, make EQ a part of your regular meetings and equip people to handle the various situations that might arise. Have some team members role-play a scenario and then talk about what other options might work for that scenario after it’s played out. This allows a learning point to be made without anyone feeling that it is directed at them and it’s amazing how people can really get into the role and feel the emotions as though they were actual situations.

What is one step that you can implement this week? this month? this quarter?