The Essential Self-Care Guide for First-Time People Managers

Why is self-care critical for new people managers?

Direct reports model their professional behavior entirely on their managers. If a first-time manager fails to delegate tasks, sends late-night emails, or skips vacations, their team will quickly burn out. Proactively modeling visible, healthy boundaries is the most effective way a new leader can retain their talent.

As we head into 2023, many of us will be promoted and taking on new responsibilities. Some of you will become people managers for the first time. Congrats in advance!

Becoming a new people manager is a seminal moment for a public relations professional. I remember when I learned I’d be managing someone. It was one part exhilarating and one part scary!

A transition from tactician to one responsible for another person’s professional development is an important responsibility.

The key to a successful manager/employee relationship is taking care of your well-being so you have the energy to ensure your direct reports feel supported and confident to do their job.

Helping to prevent or minimize work-related stressors by proactively discussing workplace well-being will positively impact your managerial role.

Here are three well-being tips for new people managers.

Act like you now have a new job…because you do!

Having a sense of your new role and responsibilities will go a long way to ensuring your path is successful. Before you start managing people, speak with your direct manager, secure agreement on your priorities going forward, and what should be delegated. A great manager will guide you on how to make this evolution, which includes feeling comfortable with letting some tasks go to someone else.

Letting go is one of the most challenging parts of being a manager. You now can help someone else learn how to write a media pitch, develop a press list, write the first draft of social media posts, and other tactics you’ve already mastered.

Understand people will be following your lead.

We often look to our direct managers as a model for how we should function professionally. Your new directs will look at every move you make, including:

- If you’re sending emails late at night and over weekends.

- Are you joining conference calls while on vacation?

- Are you even taking a vacation?

- Are you scheduling meetings just to schedule meetings?

Modeling the behavior as one who prioritizes their well-being will show your team the right path forward and ultimately help retain your team members who otherwise might burn out and want to leave the company. See this new role as an opportunity to establish a best practice to protect your and your team’s well-being.

Ask questions and listen.

Now you’ve established your role and the boundaries you’ll set, now is the opportunity to have discussions with your new directs. As you’re building relationships, consider asking the following questions.

- What would help you maintain your well-being while working?

- If you’re comfortable sharing, name scenarios you found challenging at work that has impacted your well-being.

- How would you like to be supported if you are feeling stress and anxiety?

- How have workplace situations caused stress in the past?

- How can I best support your well-being?

Finally, one of the most important things I learned in my public relations career: your success is measured by the success of your team. Celebrate great work from your team, share kudos with your leadership, and give your directs opportunities to succeed and shine. Their accomplishments will be rewarded, and you will be rewarded as well.

Establishing these best practices will go a long way to ensure your well-being is a priority and those of your team as well.

Beating Seasonal Executive Burnout: How to "Fall Forward”

Does the end of Daylight Saving Time impact workplace stress?

Yes. The end of Daylight Saving Time and the resulting shorter days trigger a significant seasonal spike in cortisol (the body's primary stress hormone). Leaders must mitigate this seasonal performance dip by proactively adjusting sleep schedules weeks in advance and enforcing strict "home network only" boundaries in the evening.

Happy Fall, everyone. Time for all things pumpkin spice, leaves turning, and crisp mornings. There are three months left in the year. Most of what has happened this year has been completely out of our control. I want to help put you back in the driver's seat of your car as we start the final quarter.

For a majority of Americans, Saturday, October 31 will be the end of Daylight Savings Time. A time change can impact us mentally and physically for several days or weeks. Research suggests that there are “seasonal variation in cortisol levels with significantly higher levels found in winter and fall than in spring and summer.” Since cortisol is essentially your body’s main stress hormone, it’s important to recognize the impact of how we will feel in the coming months as the days are shorter and the evenings are longer. I am here to help you prepare for this change and implement techniques to make this experience more positive.

Here are three things you can do starting today to prepare for this change and ultimately “Fall Forward.”

Shift your mindset: Typically, we get excited about “gaining” an hour when we “fall back.” We are not “gaining an additional hour” as a result of the fall clock adjustment. We are “adjusting an hour.” There are still 24 hours per day ahead of you. Waking up at your “normal” time on Sunday, November 1 is critical to having a successful sleep pattern to get you through the week.

Recommendation: Schedule something now that you can look forward to participating in on the morning of Sunday, November 1. Schedule time to get outside and exercise, see friends (physically distant, obviously), or schedule a fall photoshoot with your family. Stay away from screens as much as possible; if you must work on the weekend, spend that time on Saturday, October 31 (before the Trick or Treating starts!). Encourage your colleagues and teams to do the same.

Make small changes week over week: Making habits permanent doesn’t happen overnight. When I started my 150 pounds weight loss journey in 2007, I started examining my breakfast and my breakfast only. The same approach works with how we can thrive during a time change. Start slow and with purpose.

Recommendation: Every week in October set your alarm to wake up 5 minutes earlier. If you typically wake up at 6:00 a.m., set your alarm to 5:55 a.m., the next week at 5:50 a.m., and so on until you wake up 20 minutes earlier in November. Spend that extra time on YOU. Read, meditate, journal, exercise, or get another kind of a quick, early “win” that can set your day off right.

Create your “home network only” time every evening: Studies show that time on our smartphones late at night has negative effects on our sleep patterns and daytime productivity. Focusing exclusively on your immediate home network – your family - in the evening can help you sleep better at night and feel more refreshed in the morning. Trust me, your social networks and all your notifications will still be there in the morning!

Recommendation: Set a reminder on your phone every evening that starts your “home network only” time. No more email or scrolling social media endlessly every evening!

Please take these recommendations to heart so you can start the last few months of the year on the right foot. Have a wonderful start to the fall, everyone.

Placing Well-Being at the Center of the Employee Experience

How does employee well-being drive corporate recruitment and retention?

The global pandemic has permanently rewritten the relationship between public relations agencies and their talent, elevating well-being to the ultimate deciding factor in job retention. To remain competitive and minimize turnover, executives must ensure that empathetic well-being practices aren't just corporate lip service, but are aggressively modeled by every immediate people manager.

The pandemic accelerated what was already a critical topic in our profession; how will we, as PR leaders, act as trusted advisors while ensuring our well-being is a priority?

In the beginning of lockdown, we focused on survival. We took virtual yoga classes, wine tastings, and art classes, among other activities to stay active and connected.

Then, in-between COVID variants, came the off/on switch of staying at home and going to the office. At the same time, the economy was doing well, the job market opened up, and employees were leaving for greener pastures.

Now we are in an awkward phase of balancing the flexibility and balance of working from home with the social and relationship-building benefits of working in person.

This sudden change has caused us to reexamine how companies are providing the right benefits and well-being support to their employees. And employees are taking that information and comparing it to prospective employers.

One thing is for certain: the pandemic has permanently changed the relationship between employees and employers.

The employee’s experience at their company needs to be designed with their emotional, financial, mental, and physical well-being closely in mind. That experience starts with the website, the job description, and recruiter interview, continues through the hiring, onboarding, and training process, and will ultimately be examined during employee satisfaction surveys, exit interviews, Glassdoor ratings, and the company’s financial reports.

Employers need to consider the questions employees are asking themselves:

• How is my life positively impacted because I work for this company?

• Money is and will continue to be the primary compensation for employees. However, we’ve witnessed people leave jobs for others at a reduced salary or stay at their companies at the cost of earning more elsewhere. Why?

• Does my manager care about me as an employee? My company places a lot of emphasis on C-level support and participation in well-being practices. From audio-only calls to email-free vacations, we continue to see members of the C-suite promoting this through internal communications and on social media channels such as LinkedIn. However, if my immediate manager doesn’t model this behavior, how do I empower myself to follow the path that’s best for my well-being?

Finally: will addressing the above questions positively impact the company’s business goals? Let’s not dance around the obvious; companies have business goals they need to meet. Any initiative needs to have business goals in mind. Recommendations need to be research-based through first-party quantifiable and qualifiable data from your employees, designed with measurable objectives in mind, and paired with relatable, practical, and actionable tactics that will benefit the employee and employer.

This is a new era in the relationship between employee and employer. I look forward to seeing how this evolves in the coming months and years.

Why "Toxic Positivity" is Destroying Your Team's Resilience

How does toxic positivity impact team mental health?

Forcing a “positive vibes only” culture during challenging times invalidates authentic emotions and drastically harms team mental health. Leaders must eradicate toxic positivity by deeply recognizing complex emotions, openly expressing vulnerability by saying “I don’t know,” and pausing automated business-as-usual messaging during crises.

In the public relations industry, it can be easy to focus exclusively on having a positive mindset. The issue with that mindset lies when we are working with those who are going through personal or professional challenges. While with good intentions, phrases like “They’re in a better place now,” “Get on with it,” and “Positive vibes only” can cause more harm than good. These phrases are examples of Toxic Positivity, defined as “the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset.”

If you’ve been a recipient of toxic positivity, it could have had a negative impact on your mental health. In short, overcoming toxic positivity is about reading the physical and virtual room. As business leaders, we not only need to recognize our own emotions, but our colleagues and clients as well.

How can we reverse toxic positivity? Here are three ways.

Understand and communicate our emotions.

Much like a heartbeat or breath, an emotion is a physiological experience to give you information about the world. Research from UC Berkeley says there are 27 human emotions. From admiration, boredom, and calmness, to disgust, fear, and surprise, how we feel and communicate these emotions is critical.

When we recognize these emotions more profoundly, they can positively impact our personal and professional relationships. Understanding and expressing our feelings is fundamental to having good mental health. Next time someone asks you how you’re doing, particularly during a challenging time, go deeper by examining and sharing one of the emotions identified.

Be vulnerable by saying “I don’t know.”

We are often quick with our responses. As leaders, problem identifiers and solvers, we feel under pressure to have all the answers. We don’t have all the answers and can’t solve all the problems! We must respect ourselves enough to say when we don’t have a reply to a question. We must stop putting pressure on ourselves to have answers to all the questions. It’s also a sign of vulnerability; a positive trait people look for in leaders. Saying, “I don’t have all the answers,” or “I don’t know,” is incredibly powerful and ultimately shows leadership.

Have a social media pause plan in place.

Consider pausing your brand’s social media channels when a local, national, or global emergency occurs. The last thing your fans and followers want to see in their feed during a crisis is a sunny, cheerful post about an upcoming sale. Social media community management tools help ease the challenge of scheduling content. However, if you use an automated scheduling tool, please make sure you have a pause plan in case of an emergency.

Installing these recommendations will help retain and grow your relationships, even during the most challenging times. Be safe. Be kind. Be well.

The 6-3-1 Method: A Proactive Approach to Executive Paid Time Off

Why do executives struggle to use their paid time off?

Executives chronically underutilize their earned vacation days due to artificial guilt and a lack of pre-planned coverage. Leaders can permanently solve this by implementing the "6-3-1 Approach"—proactively scheduling their PTO for the entire year and utilizing a structured communication and delegation plan before logging off.

Heading into springtime, many of us are thinking about ways to enjoy time off away from meetings and deliverables. Unfortunately, recent data shows we are not entirely using a vital employee benefit: getting paid not to work. Brand-new research from the U.S. Travel Association says in 2021:

- Only 25 percent of Americans used ALL of their earned time off.

- American workers left an average of more than four days or 29 percent of their paid time off (PTO) on the table.

- More than half (53 percent) of remote workers work more hours now than in the office.

In an era in which we’re seeing companies attempting to offer four-day work weeks and unlimited paid time off, without a structure in place, issues of burnout will continue to soar.

Beyond the data, we continue to have the following perceptions:

- “It looks good to the boss if I’m available 24/7.”

- “My boss never takes a vacation, so I won’t either!”

- “If I take time off, I’ll have to do more work in less time.”

This month, I challenge you to take a different approach to your time off. Don’t expect your manager or human resources department to micromanage how much PTO you have remaining. Set your boundaries and take your earned time off!

Here are some actionable tips on how to use your earned time off.

First, create your proactive system.

In my public relations career, I used a 6-3-1 approach. I would take a week off every six months, every three months I’d take a long weekend, and every month I’d take a half day or full day. Setting this in my calendar gave me the confidence I will use my time off and set boundaries with my colleagues, managers, and clients. Design a system that works for you.

Once your vacation is scheduled, it’s time to set yourself up for a stress-free time off.

At least 1-2 weeks before your vacation, create a pre-vacation priorities plan. The process is as simple as getting out a piece of paper and sorting your priorities into four categories:

- Pre-vacation priorities: what must be done before you leave, and how are you making time for these priorities?

- Delegate: what project(s) will continue while you’re away, who is your proxy, and do they know what they need to execute?

- Post-vacation priorities: what are your work priorities when you return, and when will you work on those priorities?

- Delete: what is NOT a valuable use of your time or anyone else’s time?

Additional tips before you leave on vacation:

- Block out at least 1-2 hours in your calendar for your first day back. This time is for you to review your email inbox and get caught up before diving into meetings and other activities.

- Build in a recovery day. If you’re traveling, the stresses of doing so on a Sunday before going back to work on Monday won’t make you feel refreshed. Consider leaving for home 48-72 hours before you return to work.

- Ask your team to send you a “while you were away” email. I always appreciated a “what you missed” email when my teams shared immediate highlights, issues, and questions I should start reviewing upon my return. And I worked with my teams to return this in kind when my colleagues were away.

This approach will empower you to take the time off you deserve guilt- and stress-free. Now, get planning and enjoy your vacation!