We are half-way through the financial year.

How are you, your team and your business tracking against plan and budget?

It is critical that you check in now and conduct a mid-year review. Are you in front, on par or behind your expectations for the year so far?

In this 2-Part Blog, I outline the critical areas to review at the half-year mark. While monthly and quarterly progress must be monitored, the mid-year review is the key milestone before hitting the end of the financial year.

In Part 1 I will outline the ‘Qualitative’ areas to review, and next time in Part 2, I will pivot to the ‘Quantitative’ factors.

So let’s get started on considering the qualitative areas to consider in conducting a mid-year review.

I recently heard a way of thinking I hadn’t heard of before.

Explore versus Exploit.

In this blog, I will workshop scenarios around whether we ‘explore’ an activity or whether we ‘exploit’ an activity.

Prior to the pandemic, an ever-shrinking world was evolving behind the digital curtain. Phone conversations were replaced by texts, while texts were replaced by likes and emojis.

Post-pandemic we saw this accelerate through Zoom meetings and virtual relationships. Working from home created even greater separation within our traditional workplaces.

So many people from all walks of life have commented to me on the reduction, or even absence of human connection. Social catch ups, work meetings, business development meetings and general interaction in person have dramatically reduced.

It got me thinking on how we stay connected.

Us humans fundamentally are herd animals.

How do we stay connected in an ever-increasing virtual world?

In Part 2 of this blog, I’ll share with you more six more compelling hacks and tactics to make this year in a business more enjoyable, productive, profitable, and sustainable.

In this 2-Part blog, I’ll share with you compelling hacks and tactics to make this year in a business more enjoyable, productive, profitable, and sustainable.

Let’s go.

Recently I have commentated on mental health and burnout in relation to business-owners and their teams.

Overwork is where an employee works beyond their capacity. This may be voluntarily, implicitly (through cultural expectations) or explicitly (requested). Overwork blurs the line between working hours and private hours.

Overwork typically presents as significantly extended working hours over a working week. This can include bleeding into day and night as well as 7-day working weeks. Symptoms of employees suffering overwork can be exhaustion, stress, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, poor diet, extreme behaviour, infidelity, drug and alcohol abuse. Overall, overwork leads to a loss of self, personal relationships, hobbies and interests.

In extreme cases, overwork has led to death as strung-out workers can’t keep pace with the expectations of perceived work deliverables.

In this blog, I explore the issue of overwork which has presented itself in a new form within post-Covid virtual and hybrid workplaces.