Learn & Grow Spotlight: maintaining normal in the “new normal”

This month’s spotlight article focuses on the new normal, which is about meeting your normal work responsibilities when times are anything but normal.

Team members
Staff members on teams should feel free to use their one-on-one meetings to discuss with their managers how they are feeling, what’s on their minds, and what help they might need right now. In times of uncertainty, emotions can make it difficult to think clearly so it makes sense that airing these feelings can help with anxiety, make you feel heard, and help you sort out your thinking. Then staff members can move on to discuss what is going well, where they are getting stuck, and what they would like to do differently since they should have a clear sense of priorities and goals.

Managers of Teams
In your role as a manager, how do you keep your team positively engaged and productive? In your role as a leader, how do you show the way forward and instill a sense of energy and inspiration? It is important always, and especially in times of change, that the team as a whole remembers to connect and reinforce how their work contributes to the mission and goals of the university, and what makes them unique. While change may bring growing pains, focusing your team’s energy on the opportunities of working together in new ways will help everyone succeed. Look to the individual and to the team to provide input into what is motivating and energizing and what is draining about the current circumstances.

Support
Your Learning Center team continues to curate content on “Learn and Grow”. This month take a look at our Learning Collection on Working Remotely and Managing Stress available on LinkedIn Learning to all those with a Yale NetID. Please use the browse button at the top of the page to find all Yale University curated content.  

We have also collected LinkedIn content on Performance Feedback. Check these easy to watch, concise reminders on delivering and receiving feedback. You’ll be preparing for year-end assessments soon and these quick hits will sharpen your ability to have clear, collaborative, productive conversations, an essential skill as we move through COVID-19 together.

Other Resources
In addition to LinkedIn Learning, everyone with a Yale NetID, has access to Skillsoft, an alternative online learning content option: Skillsoft. If you need to take a break, remember that the Yale University Art Gallery, Peabody Museum, and other venues and institutions are offering content as well.