Weeknotes 30
Closing my annual review & making plans for personal growth
What I did
- We had Chayn Day (where volunteers and staff come together once a month to work on all projects) on Sunday, and two new staff members joined it for the first time. They were quite excited to see what a work session looks like. The day started with a budget call, an AMA session with me, and then working on a new Bloom course and podcast.
- We’ve instituted spill, the therapy on demand service through slack and calls, for staff. We’re trialling it for 6 months to see how much the team uses it. We had a talk from them to give us a tour and everyone was very appreciative of it. I wish we could offer it to all our volunteers too but the cost would be too high. Instead, volunteers get to peer support from our Executive Team, access to monthly collective care sessions with a therapist and if there is a crisis or retraumatisation, two private sessions with a therapist.
- I stepped in last minute to host a Tech for Good Live podcast. The last one I did it out now too — give it a listen!
- I met with our trustees to close my annual review from last year. It’s been delayed because we couldn’t find time to do it in January. More on that in the next section.
- I ended up working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week too because I could not disengage from an investigat-ish podcast we’re working on. I reviewed dozens of police files for that and contributed to a script Aiman had written.
What I learned
My annual review is complete.
I’ve previously written about it. Some take-aways from this I wanted to share. As a follow up to the few points of critical feedback, one of our trustees held 1 to 1 calls with staff to get an overall idea of what it is like working at Chayn, and specifically, their impressions of me. Thanks to Nissa for providing detailed notes. Here were the highlights:
“You have the trust of the team. You are passionate and committed. You genuinely champion wellbeing and protect them. People love their jobs and feel so fulfilled in them. They feel no matter what level or function, there is scope for creativity and collaboration; and people’s interests and talents are acknowledged and explored. They like that they can work across different projects. They feel like you always have time for them. Some of the team really like your direct approach (other’s struggle with this).”
On challenges and areas for growth for me:
- Trusting and delegation. The the team knows that you are working on this! But there is still work to do here.
- Giving feedback. For some staff and volunteers, Hera can come across as blunt in feedback or closing down (bad) ideas quickly. This is totally fine in itself. However, the team want to learn more from Hera.
- Funding and financial pressures are creating anxiety around getting things cheap and quickly or spending money (even if it has been planned)
Together, the trustees and I agreed that the Chayn team is very passionate and committed to our mission, but many need th etime and support form me that I cannot provide at the moment. That the team knows I understand this, and my stress around not having enough time is felt by them and they don’t want to add to my burden. However, there remains a culture of constantly checking with me and thinking I should be involved in everything. This is an area for development for everyone.
There are some concerete ways I can meet this feedback and challenges. Many of the suggestions I’ve already implemented since December. such as a new line management structure and Team Retreats.
- Workload oversight and better project planning. I’ve moved the team to Toggl plan for all of our projects which gives a great GANNT and Kanban view. Nadine also came up with the great idea of reviewing this every Monday stand-up.
- Delegation If I have to step in and takeover a task, I need to make time after to give detailed feedback about why and what I would like to see done differently next time — so that team member can learn from it.
- Feedback. Creating more time to discuss and input on why ideas may not work — so that the team can benefit more from my experience. I should be very clear on deadlines and what I expect as an output (sometimes I let people have control over this but it creates problems later on when I ask them to change it). I should have all of this in writing because people can forget, and this way all can refer back to it.
- Line management — The new line management structure has been successful but I am still required to or expected to be too involved in every project. I need to find ways to be involved without having to go to every call, and use the support of line managers to give critical feedback and recognition around quality of work.
- Values alignment: Include a reflection on how every member of staff is showing up with the organisational values in development reviews. This provides a structure for self and peer reflection.
- Professional coaching: Many peers and trustees have suggested I find a coach to help me reflect on, and grow my leadership skills. I’ll be making this happen.
Communication styles
The Clore management training course continues and last week was about communication styles. I did the quiz and this was my result:
5 Direct
3 Initiating
3 Supportive
1 Analytical
This feels very accurate, especially the direct and initiating part!
- I’m working out consistently now. I walk every morning for every day of the week but also am doing light cardio and dedicated strength training every other day. The days I work out, I really need two naps during the day. I even tweeted about it and looks like some of you do the same!
- Did script writing and really loved it; it was a nice change from managing timelines and deliverables of other people.
Something else
I heard the Sweet Bobby podcast and I am obsessed. I heard it in two days! Not only is the story wild, it’s also the type of investigative podcast that is the most close to the one we’re producing.
