RWL180: Finding Harmony in Remote Work by Letting Go of Perfection with Alex

Speaker 1
0:00

Hey , it's Alex from the Remote Work Life podcast , and today we're gonna try something a little different . So , as well as the long form podcasts , I've been sort of playing around with the idea of doing , I guess , shorter versions , shorter bite size versions , to kind of create podcasts that highlight salient points of things that I've either learnt myself or I've learnt from other people . So , essentially , tips of the day , essentially thoughts and insights that I've sort of used myself in order to improve myself , either while working remotely , working from home or just as an individual . On these insights , these tips , these thoughts of the day can be around or I intend them to be around things like job search , general personal development or , as I said , nuggets of information that I've learnt from the many CEOs , executives , leaders that I've interviewed over the years in the podcast , but even as an exec recruiter . So I hope that you can , I guess , get something from these insights , hope they can help you to improve in any small way . And , of course , as ever , I always encourage feedback because I always want to know it's all well and good , me sitting here in this studio recording things and putting it out to the world , but I always want to know what you want to hear . Who do you want to hear from ? What do you want to hear about ? All those different sorts of things . So I want to make the show as aligned with your needs as possible and just to kick things off then , in terms of the tip of the day and I intend to post a tip of the day every Thursday , so look out for these every Thursday .

Speaker 1
1:57

Today , I'm going to talk about the importance of prioritising mental health and reducing perfectionism in a remote work environment especially , and I want to share a little anecdote and provide , hopefully , some insights that you can act upon if this is something that is close to you or something that you feel is relevant to you . I set unrealistically high standards for myself , leading to increased stress , a decline in my overall well-being . It took a toll on my productivity , my morale , and I realised that something needed to change . Now . This experience prompted me to re-evaluate my approach to remote work and prioritise mental health of myself , but also I wanted to get my team involved people in my team involved with that as well , just to make sure that they were also , I guess , looking after their own mental health as well . So here are a few things that I did , and I encourage my team members to do as well , and there may be things that you could also do .

Speaker 1
3:09

So one of the things is encouraging open communication , so fostering an environment where team members feel comfortable discussing their mental health and well-being . You can achieve this through Check-ins , so at an agreed point . So you're checking in either by phone , you're checking in via a Text message you know text messaging or you're checking in via video call , whichever suits you and suits that the people that you're checking in with , and creating an open space for dialogue . So that's the first thing , so encouraging open communication . Second thing is setting realistic expectations , so striving for excellence , but Recognize that perfection is Undertainable . You can't be perfect in everything , or there's very few things that you can be perfect in , maybe the things that you can't be perfect in . Nothing is ever perfect , and who wants perfectionism anyway ? So encourage your team and also you as well , focus on continuous improvement and learning from mistakes , rather than always hammering the the sort of drum of perfectionism with yourself . Don't be , you know , having yourself with perfection of perfectionism all the time .

Speaker 1
4:21

That's number two . The three is promoting Balance in work and life . So some people call it work , life balance and each person's perception , idea of what work life balance is different . I know that , but Emphasize the importance of disconnecting from work and taking breaks . Encourage team members , and also yourself as well , to set boundaries and avoid Overworking , because that could be a symptom of perfectionism that overwork . I used to that quite a lot . Used to work and work and work until I got to the exact point that I wanted to get to it . Even then I was still finding things that I could polish . So that can lead to burnout , and I think that did with me a few years back and I think I wrote a post about that some point ago On LinkedIn . But yeah , promote Balance in work . I'm low to say work life balance , but promote balance .

Speaker 1
5:14

So number four my list is provide resources and support . So , especially if you're a manager of a team , offer access to mental health resources and support services and Make them accessible , make them , make it known where they are , make it known that Any member of your team can access those resources when they need need them . So this can include Employee assistance programs , counseling services and educational materials on stress management and resilience . So make that known to your team and obviously , use those as you need . So another one is leading by example .

Speaker 1
5:50

As a manager , you need to demonstrate healthy work habits yourself and openly , openly discuss your own experiences and managing stress and prioritizing mental health . This can help reduce the stigma associated with mental health discussions in the workplace . And I know there's a particular team I used to work on . We we would discuss that openly , would openly discuss not only On a one-to-one basis , but we were so , I guess , tight knit as a group that we would discuss that Together as well , and that that works really well . So you got to figure out what works for you and what works for your group , what works for the team that you're managing .

Speaker 1
6:33

And I just end by saying , by prioritizing mental health and reducing perfectionism , remote managers , especially , can create a supportive and thriving work environment for their teams , and it's essential to recognize that well-being of team members Directly impacts their performance and overall satisfaction in their roles . That's really all I wanted to give today in terms of my tips for the day . I hope you've Gained something from that . You've got any questions ? Of course , reach out to me and thank you for tuning in . I'm . You can reach out to me via LinkedIn . My link to my LinkedIn profile is In the show notes below and one final thought . I just encourage you to reflect on your own approach To remote work management and consider how you can prioritize mental health with yourself and within your team , and I just want to wish you and your team Continue success in your journey with remote work and I look forward to sharing more hopefully valuable insights with you in the next episode .