The Dogs Days of Summer are the Perfect Time to Foster Connections and Learning

Over the fourth of July week, traffic was light, the city was a ghost town and many inboxes got back to zero. With many clients enjoying time off as well it allowed my team some extra time for learning and networking – something we plan to continue all summer long. It can be hard to keep teams engaged in the dog days of summer, but over the next eight weeks, we will be looking to stay engaged by using the summer as a time to make new connections, foster old ones and work on growth areas.

Connect

While many of us think of fall as the time for events and conferences, there are still a ton of opportunities to connect, network and learn throughout the summer. For one, our team is doing a tour of the STAT offices to meet some of the editorial staff. There are several great conferences scheduled for the coming weeks, including The State of Boston Healthcare being held just around the corner from our office at the Westin Copley Place on July 26 and The Voice of Healthcare Summit, taking place on August 7 at Harvard Medical School.

Network

I’ve also encouraged the team to use the summer as a time to foster and cultivate their network. It’s much easier to get former clients, prospects and other connections out of the office when others are on vacation and their inboxes are a little more under control. Everyone wants an excuse to enjoy the sunshine, so if you offer to buy someone a coffee, chances are the will be more than happy to set a meeting.

Learn

Summer is also a good time to share learnings as a team. While we are constantly talking in person, over the phone, via Skype chat and email all day every day, we don’t often take the time to share learnings with one another. In an effort to share more knowledge, we are building time into each weekly team meeting to talk about lessons learned from a client project, share slides from an internal training, or discuss ideas, headlines and trends to help drum up pitch ideas in the dog days of summer.

In addition to team learning sessions, this summer I’m using one-on-ones to start to dig into key growth areas for each team member to ensure that they feel they have the resources they need to learn and grow.

Hopefully all these tactics will lead to a team that feels empowered, smart and ready to hit the ground running when everyone floods back into the office and back to reality in September!

Jen Toole
Vice President, Healthcare

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