Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to round early. Making yourself available to your
Speaker 1: colleagues well before the end of the workday and perhaps
Speaker 1: to your kids well before bedtime means you'll be more
Speaker 1: likely to stick to your schedule without sacrificing connection. You
Speaker 1: have probably heard of medical rounds. Medical providers make their
Speaker 1: way to see each of their patients in the hospital
Speaker 1: to check on them and be available for any questions.
Speaker 1: Even if you work in an office, you can take
Speaker 1: a page from physicians playbooks and round. That is, you
Speaker 1: can proactively walk the area where you're tea works and
Speaker 1: either verbally check in with each of your team members
Speaker 1: or simply make yourself visible so they can call you
Speaker 1: over if there is anything they need to talk through.
Speaker 1: You may feel like you are already fielding a thousand
Speaker 1: questions and the last thing you want to do is
Speaker 1: an invite even more. But here's the thing. Your team
Speaker 1: probably has questions and updates they want to share. Rounding
Speaker 1: lets you address those questions and updates at a time
Speaker 1: that works for you. Rounds are like office hours, but
Speaker 1: in reverse, you go to your team instead of being
Speaker 1: available for your team to come to you. Because rounds
Speaker 1: make you available to your team, your team members are
Speaker 1: less likely to email you or send a chat message,
Speaker 1: or to make a guess about how they should handle
Speaker 1: a tricky situation. As rounding early, I mean plan on
Speaker 1: doing this, circling a significant amount of time before you
Speaker 1: plan to walk out the door. Here's why. If you
Speaker 1: round early, you might ward off that tendency for a
Speaker 1: colleague to approach you with just one quick question right
Speaker 1: as you need to leave. You may be on your
Speaker 1: way to pick up a kid, or meet a friend
Speaker 1: for a drink, or change clothes for a yoga class
Speaker 1: that starts really soon. You may not really have time
Speaker 1: for the question, but you also don't want to leave
Speaker 1: your team member hanging unable to move forward in their work.
Speaker 1: So why not give people a chance to remember and
Speaker 1: ask those questions earlier in the day. It might not work,
Speaker 1: but it also just might. A similar approach can work
Speaker 1: at home. I hear from parents of tweens and teens
Speaker 1: that their own bedtime gets through thrown off when a
Speaker 1: usually silent child suddenly wants to open up When the
Speaker 1: parent sticks their head in to say good night, leaving
Speaker 1: the parent torn between spending meaningful time with a kid
Speaker 1: and getting to bed in time for a good night's sleep.
Speaker 1: I have definitely been there to create opportunity for connection
Speaker 1: and sleep. I find it can help to round earlier
Speaker 1: instead of waiting until bedtime to engage with your kids.
Speaker 1: Consider making the rounds an hour or so before. My
Speaker 1: kids are required to be in their bedrooms without devices
Speaker 1: an hour before lights out, so it is possible to
Speaker 1: stop by earlier. If I want to get to bed
Speaker 1: as early as possible. Perhaps a similar approach might work
Speaker 1: for you, just as it pays to round earlier at
Speaker 1: work and in your home. In other contexts too, there
Speaker 1: is wisdom and making sure that you connect before the
Speaker 1: window is closing. Don't let a lunch with a friend
Speaker 1: pass with just chet chat about Taylor Swift's new album
Speaker 1: and your commuting woes. If what you really want to
Speaker 1: talk about is whether you should move in with your partner,
Speaker 1: that big topic warrants more time, then you can give
Speaker 1: it if you bring it up only as you are
Speaker 1: waiting for the check. Don't spend a week at your
Speaker 1: parents house playing bridge if what you really want to
Speaker 1: do is talk with them about where they want to
Speaker 1: live when they can't live independently any more. Get to
Speaker 1: the big topics sooner. We have all had the experience
Speaker 1: of big, schedule busting matters coming out at the end
Speaker 1: of a meeting or the end of any sort of gathering,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that is just life. But it might also
Speaker 1: be possible to round early and encourage these big matters
Speaker 1: to surface at a time when you have enough time
Speaker 1: to deal with them in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the moose of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.