Why I send a video to my team every Monday and what it includes.

Photo by Harry Cunningham on Unsplash

Being on the other side of the planet in a very different time zone to most of my team makes connection difficult. Deliberate effort is required to keep it alive.

As the CEO of a small business I believe that it is essential to continually be sharing what I am focusing on, struggling with, observing, learning and thinking about with the team.

Too many times I have been so wrong about assuming that every one was aligned and that everyone knew what I was doing and where we were taking the business. This, I have come to realise is arrogant and I know now never to take it for granted.

I have the luxury of being able to spend a lot of time thinking about and working on the business, the rest of my team don’t have this luxury and it’s my job to bring them along with me.

Before I get into what the Monday Video looks like, it’s important to clarify what this it is not.

• This is not a company wide stand up (that gets done separately every week).
• This is not instructive — this is about sharing, transparency and connection.
• This is not real time. I send the video to our Whatsapp and Slack ‘Announcements’ channels and it can be watched at anytime.
• This is not compulsory. I do encourage everyone to watch it and most do but if people don’t find it valuable I don’t want them to feel pressured to watch it. It is my job to make it something that people want to watch and even look forward to.

So, every Monday morning I send a video to the team. I keep it under 5 minutes and I cover the following topics.

1.This is what I am focusing on this week.

Here, the idea is to zoom in and zoom out. I try to share something that is required now, in the weeds and necessary and then to also share something that is bigger picture thinking and moving us forward beyond the day-to-day.

This actually helps me focus my thoughts and intentions for the week so it’s as much a benefit to me as it is an update for the team.

For example this might include:

Zoom in: I’ll be spending a lot of time this week on business development to help the team fill the sales gap for Q4.

Zoom out: I am working on refining positioning as we lead up to quarterly planning.

2.These are notable meetings that I have this week.

I spend a large portion of my time in meetings, both physical and virtual. These meetings span across a very broad range of people and topics.

A lot of these meetings are with really interesting people and I learn a massive amount through these meetings.

By sharing this with the team, I open an opportunity for anyone to ask me more about a particular meeting, whether it is about the person, the topic, the intention of the meeting or the outcome.

This section also gives everyone a window into how I spend a large portion of my time and why it matters.

If I’m travelling on a Monday I’ll do the video from the airport. It’s a small detail but it’s a little more immersive.

3. These are some observations over the past week.

As with most entrepreneurs, I consume a huge amount of content in various forms. I do this to make sure that I am continually learning and improving.

As mentioned above I speak to a lot of interesting people and I attend a lot of events.

Through all of this I have a lot of observations and learnings and it’s really a waste if I am not sharing these with the team.

By sharing these observations I am essentially doing three things

• Inviting in engagement to discuss them.
• Opening a subject that someone might want to explore that they otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to.
• Sharing how the decisions that I am making are being influenced.

4. These are the things that I am thinking about.

I spend a lot of time thinking about Nona. About how we can be better, about our positioning, about where we are headed. By sharing this every week it helps me to articulate my thoughts and it helps give everyone a window into where my head is at and where decisions and directions are coming from.

Again, it invites engagement and discussion from anyone that might be interested.

5. This is the content that I am consuming at the moment.

We have a strong culture of continual improvement at Nona. In fact it’s one of our core values ‘Continual Improvement as a Way of Life’.

This manifests in many ways and for me it’s mainly about seeking out and consuming a huge amount of content and then taking action on that content.

This section is about that, it’s about sharing what I am consuming that week, which will always include the books I am reading, the podcasts I am listening to and when relevant the courses that I am busy with.

I always end off by sincerely inviting anyone to reach out to discuss / challenge /add to any of the things that I have mentioned.

This is a very simple and easy thing to do and the results far out way the effort. I am frequently thanked by my team for these videos and it really does help to stay connected at a time that connection is difficult.

I hope this was useful and that it gives you a tool to stay connected to the people that you lead.