And Carrie On

It’s crunch time in the higher education world. Students are feeling the sprint toward finals. The end-of-semester event season is in full swing. For marketing and communications leaders, like many on our campus, this is one of the busiest times of the year.

For my own team, here are just a few of the events and activities we support this time of year:

• Academic preview day
• Faculty excellence awards
• Eclipse event
• New hire announcements
• Classroom dedications
• Signature fundraising events
• New faculty dedications
• Student leadership awards
• Commencement

And the list can easily go on.

In thinking of all that’s asked of our teams this year, I started thinking about how we, as leaders, can support our teams in achieving this work, while helping minimize burnout and other challenges.

Five Strategies to Support Your Team:

Reconsider Meetings – Are the meetings happening in the office critical for the week? If they are not, consider pausing on these to either give people built in time to collaborate on a larger project that everyone is working on or cancel the meeting so that people can have time back in their day to tackle other priorities.

Take the Lead on Priorities – Many times in busy moments teams feel the struggle of where to focus their energy. Rightfully so, everyone thinks that there thing is the most important. And while this isn’t wrong, it does make it hard for MarComm teams to know where to start. As a leader, you probably have a good idea of the institutional priorities, so you can really assist if you’re willing to sit down with your team and help them navigate their project lists. This will also help them learn how you think and prioritize, meaning they may need less support in the future.

Pause the Projects – Our team is in the process of several ongoing strategic projects, and we’ve taken a pause on these to allow the team to work through the really busy season. Everyone on the team has some light homework to be doing, and we’ll pick back up on the projects in a month or so. However, this helps people to focus on the numerous tasks at hand that have real deadlines.

Find Time for Fellowship – Often when our teams are stressed or really busy, finding fun can help. That can look a lot of different ways. It might be a morning treat in the break room, a round of board games over lunch, or a group walk around campus. As a leader, you’ll likely have a really good idea of what’s best for your team. However, don’t overlook that group interaction can help in the busy times.

Push Back on Deadlines – Especially this time of year, as the leader, it’s critical to ensure your team has fair deadlines for projects. When unexpected projects pop up with tight deadlines, it’s on you to assess the project to see if it’s worth adding that additional stress and pull on the team. If it is, your role is to help support the team member in the project. If not, your role can be to work with the partner on what’s more reasonable from a timing perspective.

A Lagniappe

In closing, here’s one extra strategy that I think is helpful. Have grace if a deadline isn’t met or something falls behind. Visit with the team member to offer your help and understand where or why something went wrong.

I had a conversation with a faculty member last week who was behind on a project, and she shared about the personal load she’s carrying. It reminded me that it’s so easy to feel frustrated at people and not know their story and their burdens. Grace, especially at the end of the year, is never something that goes unnoticed when it’s extended.