8 minute read
Three Things...
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Three With social distancing measures in place, entrepreneurs’ worlds have
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been thrown into disarray. Their once jam-packed days of meetings and
Three skills I ’ ve been working on in lockdown
travelling, have developed into days spent at home, running companies from their home office and sofas.
If there’s one thing we know about entrepreneurs, it is their incessant desire to evolve. Therefore, we asked some of our community what key skills they’ve been working on during lockdown.
Prioritising writing
Jodie Cook, JC Social Media
My role involves being both a “maker” and a “manager”. I used to escape to coffee shops to be the maker, and that’s where write my books and articles, but now I have just one work space. I’ve solved the lack of multiple work locations by being the manager as soon as I wake up, and the maker a little later in the day. I’m zoning my day rather than my physical location and so far it’s enjoyable and productive!
My team is used to working from the same office. Because we’re now all working remotely, together we have come up with ways of replicating the awesome office culture we have. This has included themed Zoom catch ups and ramping up the volume of our status updates for team projects.
Mindfulness and jigsaws
Jess Butcher MBE
Running. I have never ‘got’ running and convinced myself it wasn’t for me What started two months ago as a resilience challenge (three laps of the park, with lots of walking breaks) has progressed to 5km circuits four times a week. I’m nerding out on Strava and Fitbit data in an effort to push myself and have ploughed through audible books on my runs.
Fiction over news. I’ve tuned out of mainstream media almost entirely. I’m not a scientist nor epidemiologist and even those fields seem to lack any consensus, with everything becoming politicised. The constant, repetitive diet of doom and recrimination got me down, so a) I’ve turned my attention ‘local’, working with my local community and personal network to support where I can and b) to my delight, rediscovered fiction. Anna Karenina has been my lock-down salvation.
Jigsaws with Gin & Tonics. It’s official, I’m middle-aged. Jigsaws offer the most under-rated mindfulness… and who knew this white-wine girl could so easily switch her tipple of a life-time!
Participating in webinars
Rajeeb Dey MBE, Learnerbly
Professional: we’re going through a period of growth at Learnerbly. In the wake of COVID-19 edtech and workplace learning has become far more in focus and we’ve seen a significant spike
in interest. Our team has subsequently scaled
quite a bit recently having onboarded 6 new colleagues over the last few weeks. I’ve had to adjust my own management and leadership style in this period as well as adjust to hiring and onboarding new colleagues remotely. At the same time i’m participating in numerous webinars about scaling sales and marketing
teams in particular as that’s the area we’re
growing our team.
Personal: I am focusing on my wellbeing and exploring different forms of meditation and breathing exercises in the morning
Random: my intention is to pick up DJ skills. I
bought myself a DJ set over Christmas (a gift to myself) and have the best intentions but in all honesty haven’t got round to doing much as yet but given lockdown doesn’t look like it’s necessarily lifting anytime soon there’s plenty of time!
Three Things that keep me motivated during the crisis
Keeping yourself motivated every day is not an easy feat. Throw in a pandemic and strict social distancing measures and it becomes very hard to focus on work, especially when there’s a sense of unease and unknowing. However, it has given us time to stop, reflect and asses our wellbeing, which we regrettably sometimes neglect.
We asked some of our GBEA alumni what Three things are keeping them motivated. whilst working from home.
Come out fit and healthy
Mich Turner MBE, Little Venice Cake Company
The lockdown has gifted me a time-rich creative space - the key is routine and a daily plan that stimulates mind, body and spirit.
Baking, for pleasure. I am enjoying the opportunity to bake for pleasure at my leisure!
Exercise. I actively look forward to my one outdoor exercise per day - I have taken to walking in the countryside, appreciating the arrival of spring.
Quilting. I would never normally have time to invest in as large a project as a quilt. I love the mathematical precision, creative enjoyment and total immersion in a project that demands my full attention.
My aim is to come out of the crisis fit and healthy; having spent time caring and providing for others and keeping in contact as much as I can.
Connecting with colleagues
Chieu Cao, Mintago
I am conecting with my colleagues and the community regularly to share ideas and perspectives and focussing on the things I can control such as my daily routine, work tasks and how I relate to others.
I am also exercising daily. It’s a lockdown but don’t let that kill your ability to control your body and stay fit.
Having a good mix of activities
Julie Deane OBE, The Cambridge Satchel Company
During lockdown I have done my best to make sure I have a good mix of activities – keeping upbeat, challenged and focused. Remaining motivated is so important, here’s what has kept me on track.
New products – what will customers be looking
for when lockdown eases and life becomes more normal? This has resulted in two new bag designs.
With physical shops closed how can we make our digital presence stronger? This has resulted in a new look Instagram, writing new copy for the
website and writing a Brand Bible so everyone on
the team is better informed as to how to keep the brand pure and consistent.
Finally, for balance, I have set myself the challenge of training my dogs so that as soon as we are able to travel there will be no reason not to take my furry friends with me as we hit the road!
Three When we emerge from the current pandemic, life as
we know it will have changed. There will be air of opportunity, a time where we can adapt to
Things I resolve to do when lockdown is lifted
the new world of business.
Our alumni summarised what they were resolving to do when the lockdown rules have been lifted.
Educate and promote
Laurence Kemball-Cook, Pavegen
I’m looking forward to settling into the ‘new normal’ and delivering new Pavegen projects for clients. My team is hard at work making sure we are prepared for the world opening back up, and when the time is right we will have exciting new projects ready for launch.
Continue to educate and promote the importance of adopting sustainable practices to ensure future generations have a better quality of life. If lockdown has shown us anything it is that now is the time to act and commit to positive changes in our daily lives to help our environment.
Focus on building stronger, smarter communities through innovation and technology. The shift in societies willingness to help others is a positive by-product of COVID-19 and has formed a global community.
Create a New Kind of Normal
Jo Chidley, Beauty Kitchen
Sustainability is at the core of every decision I make in order to do better for people and the environment, both in my personal life and business ethos. It’s definitely been a motivator behind why I created the Return · Refill · Repeat programme for our reusable packagaing.
Throughout our time in lockdown, I’m grateful to learn that there is a silver lining in the sense that this experience has dramatically changed the way people approach waste. This time has allowed us to become more appreciative of our environment after spending so much time inside too. People are thinking more consciously about what they need and are being more creative with what they already have. I want this new way of thinking to become the norm, so sustainable choices can be made in every aspect of life to create a waste zero world.
Change our recruitment
Lucy Cohen, Mazuma
Work from home more: my productivity and quality of life is much better working from home. I’ve realised that I don’t need to be in the office just to show that I’m around. Instead, I’ll attend for structured meetings with teams and stakeholders and the rest of the time I’ll work from my home office.
Change our recruitment: our best people have thrived in a remote set up; I want more of that! We don’t offe a face-to-face service so staff don’t all need to be in the same room to work well together. We’ll be fully embracing tech and remote recruitment from now on!
Appreciate human interactions: even though I enjoy
staying in the house and working from home, the lockdown has made me appreciate the value of human interaction. So I’ll be working to make sure that face time in real life is valuable and enriching more than just a default setting for meetings.
