Thriving in Business: team bonding through personal and professional development (and egg and bacon rolls!)

Posted on 24 March, 2021

This week, business owner Kirra Rankin talks team bonding through personal and professional development, The Hydro Bubble, alignment catch-ups and more food.

Do you have a thriving business and a big vision? Do you have a no phones policy to keep your team focussed, happy and emotionally balanced?

In this three-part Thriving in Business series, we’re delving into the core fundamentals of what makes Capital Hydrotherapy and Exercise Physiology business flourish. I believe that if you have a happy engaged team, you are one step closer to making a profitable long-term business.

You may recall from Part One that in Australia it is estimated that one in three new small businesses fail in their first year of operation, two out of four by the end of the second year, and three out of four by the fifth year. What essential elements are these businesses missing?

Last week, in Part One, we also covered building a trusting and trustworthy team around you, through daily huddles, core values and food—lots of food.

Today, I’d like to share some strategies I’ve adopted to keep my team happy and engaged, and my mind at ease, by investing time and money into the teams personal and professional development. I’ll explain the importance of a no-devices bubble and scheduling alignment wellness catch-ups.

Team bonding through personal and professional develoment

Professional development with Dr Kelly Teagle of WellFemme.

Two of our core values are to “create a happy and supportive environment” and “be open and inspire personal and professional growth”—so we schedule our full team personal and professional development session every fortnight.

As a team, we start our personal and professional development with five minutes of mindfulness or meditation. It’s important to fill our cup up, to make sure we have the energy to look after our patients.

The personal and professional development involves an external provider or practitioner to educate us about a certain topic. It’s lovely for our team to be supported by motivated, positive, knowledgeable and passionate like-minded practitioners, who we often communicate with over email or phone. In this “Insta world” we’re currently living in, we rarely connect with people in person.

Building a Hydro (no-devices) bubble

Don’t fall off your seat, but we have a no devices policy at work.

I’m not strict about many rules—but this particular one I’m staying strong on! Devices create too much distraction and lead to a rollercoaster of emotions. I need a stable, consistent and reliable team.

We call it the “hydro bubble”. It’s nice to be focussed on just one thing and that’s your patient, the person right in front of you.

How to hold alignment wellness catch-ups

Our 30-minute alignment meetings happen every 3-4 months where the team leader catches up with a team member, one on one.

It is all about their wellness, their work-life balance and their feedback on overall energy level from the team. It’s not about KPI’s, billing or patient retention numbers—goodness, that isn’t rewarding and it won’t motivate you to love what you do—and if they do need strict KPI’s to do a good job, then they are with the wrong team.

Here are some of the questions we address in the alignment catch-up:

1. What are your overall energy levels like at the moment over the past two weeks?
2. How happy and energetic has the rest of the team felt over the past two weeks?
3. What was your biggest win over the past month (personal or professional)?
4. I’ve been respectful of clients, team members and the flow of the day by arriving at least 5-10 minutes before my scheduled start time? Yes/No
5. I contribute on Slack and acknowledge that I have received the message? Yes/No
6. My classes run on time: Yes/No

There are also questions with longer answers.

1. What was your “one thing” action point from the past catch up, and how is your progress with it?
2. What is one thing you will achieve to make this next month amazing?
3. Do you think you have a good work-life balance? If not, how can Capital Hydrotherapy help you?

Does your team leader sit down with you and help you with your work-life balance?

Management meetings need egg and bacon rolls

Have I mentioned bonding over food?

Building a positive fun team culture takes time. It takes egg and bacon rolls, smashed avo, coffee, chai lattes and strong hot chocolates—all in a non-work environment.

Our management E&B Roll meeting happens every two months. It’s all about scheduling a ritual.

I like to take the fun casual approach (what’s the point in being in business if you can’t have fun with your teammates?!). We order food, in a relaxed environment—with an agenda.

There’s always a purpose, we make decisions on the spot and decide together who is following up the points on the agenda.

Notice the pattern here?

Everything is a planned ritual. Part Three of Thriving in Business will involve more rituals, time blocking, celebrating small wins and weekly vision planning.

Do you have a daily, weekly, monthly ritual around fun and food at work? Do you create moments to encourage banter and laughter?