Before you close your laptop and your office door (whether physical or virtual) for the holidays, OR before your year-end comes to a close, there are some things you need to do!

Yes, as much as we might want to make things a “next year” problem, wouldn’t you prefer to start the new year with a calm saunter back to work, instead of rushing, thinking of all the things you have to do?

Well, we know which one we’re choosing, but we’ve put together a list of essential end-of-year reviews, and what you do with it from here is a Choose Your Own Adventure story!

There’s a lot that comes with managing a team, but what about managing yourself?

How do you expect your team to be engaged when you are feeling the burnout yourself?

Which is why I’ve put together a few critical things that only increase burnout as a business owner:

Taylor Swift said, “You know there’s many different ways to kill the ones we love, the slowest way is never loving them enough”, and it applies more to your business than you think.

And when we talk “love”, we really mean care for (because let’s keep it professional).

Your behaviour matters just as much as theirs, and as a leader, you need to evaluate how you show up for your team and what their experience is.

People are looking for purpose, and the most common way is through their work, so let’s look at the three critical ways that discourage team engagement and investment (so you can keep your team happy, aligned and driven):

Emails and messages are great for communicating with team members, but not everything can be explained over text; sometimes you need to call.

Having weekly calls means that there is a specific dedicated time to follow up with tasks, troubleshoot live, or explain more abstract concepts that could be harder to understand just with reading a message.

Are you secure?

Not in an emotional security way (that’s between you and your therapist), but when it comes to your cybersecurity!

If you want to keep your company’s data protected, you need to assess your cybersecurity habits, as a worker and overall as a company.

Make security a priority in your culture through these key tips:

Companies that value power and the all-mighty dollar above human decency are exactly what DEI exposes in a deeply flawed capitalist system.

These companies expose themselves as late adopters of a society, of a humanity, built on mutual respect, because their own greed and prejudices blind them.

So, we at Signal wanted to make something very clear.

We move forward, not backwards.

You CAN sit with us. That’s what diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is all about.

Your policies, your processes, and your practices should allow everyone the opportunity to have a seat at the table, as well as be supported and uplifted within your business.

At its core, it’s about removing barriers that hinder and exclude your employees, barriers reinforced through the systems that we live in day in and day out.

So, we’re going to break each concept down and give you a start to examining your business through a DEI lens.