Find a portal with your teams and your kids to open lines of communication.
I do this a lot with my kids. As I’ve said, they’re all off at college and I’m an empty nester now. How do I stay in touch with them? One way I keep in touch with my sons is through social media. We’ll share sports news, updates, funny memes, etc. It’s an easy, open line of communication. Oftentimes, we’ll start by sharing a social media post, and that will lead to other areas of conversation through text or a phone call. It helps to get the conversation flowing.
I now do the same thing with my daughter. She just started her first year of college, and we both like to do the daily Wordle. I’m usually up earlier than her, so I’ll send her my score, and then she’ll send me hers. That opens a line of communication to check in and ask about her day. We’ll also send memes and funny things, which can lead to text messages and phone calls to catch up.
It’s important to open those communication portals with your teams as well. I talked about closing your laptop and spending time with your people in my recent blog, Connect With Your Team. Whether in meetings or walking around to visit, it’s important to get in front of your people. Find the areas of common interest that you can start with to open communication that can lead you to other areas you may want to explore.
I have a few people at Service Express who share my love for the show Justified and the character Raylan Givens. Through Teams or in person, we’ll talk about the show and character before leaning into other areas. I try to do this with every group that I connect with. Find common ground or a portal to start the conversation, then see what flows from there.
I’d love to hear how you open communication with your team and your families!
