Alicia Davis
So, Stacie, we wanted to make another video about the Harvard Business Review article on how burnout looks different across the organization, right? So last week, we were talking about how burnout might look like at the delivery level, right? At the staff level, right? Now we want to talk about that middle manager level.

Stacie Watson
Definitely.

Alicia Davis
How is it different there?

Stacie Watson
Yeah, well, that’s a tough level to be in an organization, right?

Alicia Davis
Sure is.

Stacie Watson
It’s kind of in the middle of the sandwich. You’re kind of compressed on either side, expectations from above, and then trying to manage the messaging, and, you know, the work that happens with your team.

Alicia Davis
Right.

Stacie Watson
And I think, I think that one of the things that the article really talks about is the importance of just really being clear. We talked about that last time, but clear in terms of, you know, do we need this meeting? Do we not need this meeting? Thinking about how many meetings we have because we’ve just always had that meeting… So how can we use our time, perhaps a little bit differently? And then I think another thing they talk about is just really trying to bring the good enough spirit to some of our work. Meaning, I used to work with the woman, and she said, you know, sometimes you do “A” work, and sometimes it might be “B” work, and maybe sometimes it’s “C” work, not that often, but, you know, just really understanding that sometimes our good enough might exactly be good enough, and maybe that’s where we can gain some capacity for ourselves and even to the team, right?

Alicia Davis
Well, yes. And even when you think about, like, how many meetings are we having? Like, I think it’s also really important to, like, can we have a 15-minute stand-up meeting about this and make a decision, right? Or can we, like, we don’t have to talk around and around for an hour about something like, which I think part of it is, who are the right people to have in the room? Who needs to make the decision and implement it? And how can we just get into a little bit more of a focus on even regular meetings that we have, like, you know, we’re used to, like these hour-long meetings. Well, what if we just started having 45 or 50-minute meetings so you got 10 minutes, you know, between the top of the hour and, you know, like a therapist hour. Or you know, just getting this idea of, okay, what’s the information that we need to make the decision that we need to make right now, and implement that, and then what’s the next best step after that? Right?

Stacie Watson
Absolutely.

Alicia Davis
We don’t have to figure it all out. Or we’re not just talking it and talking it, and then we walk out, and we don’t know what we’re doing, right? It’s like decision-making, action-oriented meetings.

Stacie Watson
Absolutely. And that ability to be more efficient with our meetings, with our decision making, it’s just going to translate into feeling like there is more time and more capacity. So it’s a win-win for you know ourselves as middle managers, and also for the team that we supervise, right?

Alicia Davis
That’s right, that’s right. So let us know what you think about the article. We’d love to hear from you: info@tlstransforms.com. I’m Alicia Davis…

Stacie Watson
And I’m Stacie Watson.

Alicia Davis
Thank you so much.

Stacie Watson
Thank you.