Dear Team Leader

I think we all agree 2020 has been a challenging year. Organisations and businesses have had to make tough choices to adapt and try to survive. I get that.

I too am thinking about what choices I have; where I want to adapt; and how I want to thrive, not merely survive. Sometimes organisations like to think of themselves as a family. When they say this, it makes the tough choices more challenging to accept because we don’t really have the enduring relationship and depth of shared commitment to fall back on. And like families, it’s good when you’re no longer a child to move away from parental control and lead your own life.

I’m already an adult and have made and enacted my own choices. I want to do more of that in how I think about, and approach, work. Yes, I’m going to accept new responsibilities.

Like any big transition, support from those around you is helpful. I’m hopeful you will be a team leader who is willing and attentive to give me some support.

I’ve found the Self unLimited framework which gives me a way to understand and apply a useful set of responsibilities. I’m learning that my work/career/job sits in a broader concept of my workscape. It’s my workscape that I’m responsible for leading and part of that includes the job I have here and now.

The potential of being Self unLimited can be good for you, my job, as well as me. We all, including this organisation, need to consider what’s best for self and figure out a way together so there’s mutual benefits and a useful amount of harmony.

One activity where you and I could start to make a shared understanding is the Value Exchange Ledger. (We explore about value to contribute, and value to create.) I’d like to do this for myself as a priority, particularly as my performance review is scheduled for next month. I think that talking about value-adding will be a great foundation for that conversation for both of us. (And if you like this, Questo have a team workshop on this, and maybe the whole team could do this together. )

Given how challenging 2020 has been, with us working from home and having to learn to do things differently, could I suggest that as a whole team, we do some development around self-care?

I’ve had a look at the Self unLimited collection of resources and learning, and there’s some that could make sense for our team. The one I want to recommend is Self-care Practices. I read this article about Thriving People; Thriving Workscapes. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be a team that thrives? Right now it feels like survival only.

There’s an option with a small eLearning program that we could all do it our own pace, focusing on self, then come together to focus on shared self-care. I really like the mix of self and shared practices, because as you know we are a really diverse team and we won’t all want the same things. This seems like a good way to get the best of something for self and something for the team. There are other Self unLimited for Teams options too that could be good for all of us.

Thank you for reading this letter. I wanted to put my thoughts down in writing, and then find a time to talk about this further with you.

Please see this thinking and action as me applying a growth mindset, and applying one of our organisation’s stated values: Growth, embrace opportunities to learn and improve.

Kind regards
Naomi