Its been about 1 week since I travelled to my very first global team offsite in Barcelona (yes after 2 years of never meeting the team including my peers and boss) with my current company. I never had the opportunity to actually meet the entire team before, whom I have been working with for the past 2 years. While I met my own team, this was my chance to meet the global team for the first time.
When the plan to meet for an offsite was made I was excited and then closer to flying my anxieties and inhibitions kicked in making it completely unimaginable for me to be in a room with 10 people for 3 full days in the office. To the extent I was even wondering what would happen without social distancing (clearly I am still paranoid).
The entire team met for the first time at dinner on Monday last week. For me it was such an interesting experience because everyone was talking and connecting (including myself) with each other as if we had met before in person and this truly did not feel like the first time we were meeting each other. Whats more interesting is that on Day 2 I felt so much more like myself and so much more comfortable in my own skin that all my anxieties and inhibitions (normally I am very weird on Zoom) just disappeared. I felt more social and more connected with my own self and the people around me. To the extent that a lot of the team was surprised by me, my style and my personality (zoom is really not my friend in this regard). I even got called out as being more feisty - I think of it as my true self came popping out when I was with one of the best teams I have worked with.
We connected, we wined and dined, had some very powerful strategic conversations and had a whole lot of laughs (there were moments of very intense laughter). The last week was so amazing that it actually got me thinking about a lot of the perceptions I have built over the last few years.
For me I am my best when I can build a connect in person with people I work with regularly.
I have been hiding behind zoom as I am in a Global role and did not need to always be in the office. (I am definitely more productive)
Meeting people regularly in my personal and professional space is important not only for my wellbeing but also for me to feel more like myself everyday
Its always good to let my hair down every now and then - a glass or two of wine never did me any harm.
So here is my food for thought for the week -
Working from home is our current reality and while this reality may not change 100%, what can you do to connect with your team more often?
Can you make the effort to go to office for 1 day a week to connect with people in person?
If you cannot connect with your team in person regularly - can you plan short strategy trips or project based work trips so that teams can connect more frequently?
Can you make the time to build connections in office even though they may have nothing to do with your day to day work?
Best Regards,
The Reflective Lens
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