Mike Clark's Business Bites: Focus on what you can do during lockdown

Regular team check-ins allow team members to share what they are going to be working. Photo / Unsplash

How are you using this time? Are you forward focused or stuck in time? Do you have a plan?

As I write this we are at day nine of our snap three-day lockdown. I have spent many hours on phone calls and Zoom sessions with clients from all sorts of industries.

Unlike the first time this happened, people have a greater sense of what to expect and a little bit more knowledge and wisdom around what they can do and the potential impacts on their teams, customers and business.

For many the challenge around being at home and working is the degree of urgency is not as high due to a multiplicity of factors, including having family around, being in an environment your mind associates with rest and not quite knowing what the future holds.

Doing a Zoom presentation to a team I was asked to focus on 1) How to use this time to best effect, 2) Maintaining focus during lockdown, 3) Keeping mentally strong and a positive mindset in a lockdown. These three points are common and capture what a lot of people are looking for.

The key to success is to focus on what you CAN do. Brainstorm this is a team.

Call clients to see how they are managing lockdown (make these care calls not sales calls). Clear your inbox and any queries you were "just waiting for enough time to do".

Plan – What focus will you need when lockdown lifts? What marketing will be useful? Who will need to be updated on delivery dates?

Learn – Online learning, create standard operating procedures, training manuals, frequently asked questions. Once you have a list of what you can do, ensure you prioritise the actions that will have the most impact.

Mindset has a huge impact on health. What do you set your mind to? Energy flows where focus goes. You get more of what you focus on so focus on what you want more of. What you put into yourself comes out in your thinking and conversations – watch the balance between watching the news and social media to be informed and drowning in negative news.

If necessary, time how long you spend in apps that tend to be negatively focused. I use an app called Rescue Time to give me hard data on where I spend my screen time. It works across all my devices so is good at providing accountability.

As shared in former articles, the human mind needs autonomy, achievements and relationships. How can you help your team to ensure they are well equipped to be receiving good amounts of all of these?

Regular team check-ins (via phone or Zoom) allow team members to share what they are going to be working on and allows the team to keep a list of what needs to be done, what has been done and to share goals and results.

Is this something your team could benefit from now?

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.