The world might be back to ‘normal’, but working from home is here to stay.

You might have hybrid working in place to provide flexibility for your team. Or you may have fully embraced remote working to attract the best talent from across the globe.

Regardless, you still have a responsibility to look after your people – even if you never see them face-to-face. A positive workplace culture and wellbeing initiatives now need to stretch much further across borders than before.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I believe physical activity sessions are one of the best ways you can support your remote team. From lightening the mental load to building connections, the benefits speak for themselves.

So, let’s get into them!

Keep your people healthy

In today’s digital world, most of us spend a lot of our lives sitting at our desks and

looking at screens.

A few years ago, your commute probably involved some form of walking, even if it was just to and from the train station. Now, the furthest your remote team may need to travel is to the kitchen to pop the kettle on!

We have become more sedentary, which has an impact on our posture and can eventually lead to cardiovascular health issues and conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Building physical activity sessions into your team’s working day takes people awayfrom their chairs, even for a short time, and encourages a more active lifestyle.

Encourage breaks

For remote employees, the boundaries between work and home are increasingly blurry. You can easily fire up your laptop at any time of the day. The less distinction you have between your professional and personal life, the more likely it is your team could be prone to burnout.

Suggesting breaks may not be enough in these cases – so build them into the working day as non-negotiables.

You don’t need to force everyone to break a sweat in the middle of the workday. Exercise can be as rigorous or gentle as each individual chooses it to be.

A stretching break or a quick walk around the block at regular times throughout the day gets people away from their desks and makes a world of difference.

Develop Connections

With remote working, it’s very easy to lose the social side of the workplace that is so integral to building strong relationships.

Physical activity sessions don’t just have to be about getting the heart rate up – they can be fun too! Set challenges and targets for people to hit – such as a combined weekly or monthly step count – and get your employees to compete in teams.

Encouraging your people to interact in non-work activities helps to establish relationships and reduce isolation.

Solve Problems

Not only does a walking break help to improve our mood, but taking time in the fresh air increases focus, encourages creativity, and makes us much more productive when we are back at our desks again.

If a team member is struggling to unpick a particular issue, a walk could be just what they need to have that lightbulb moment.

At Club Synergy, we are big fans of Walk ‘n’ Talk sessions. First, your team will join a call to check in, perhaps watching a presentation on a specific topic. Then, the conversation continues on the phone in pairs, to allow the opportunity to dive deeper into any issues raised in the group discussion.

It’s a brilliant opportunity to connect scattered team members in a fun and productive way and helps to strengthen relationships between colleagues at the same time.

Increase energy

We’ve talked a bit about the perils of a sedentary lifestyle already, and here’s another biggie: it leaves remote workers feeling lethargic. If you spend your entireday working on your computer, at some point you are going to lose focus and concentration, which can lead to mistakes.

If you’re interested in online workouts for your remote team, the brain-boosting benefits of exercise will inject a whole heap of energy into the rest of each person’s day.

Our Active Learning Sessions allow team members to share any challenges or opportunities they would like feedback on before everyone gets stuck into an endorphin-packed workout. Then, the group comes back together for short and sweet focus sessions to share feedback and commit to action.

Hopefully, this blog has helped you see just how effective physical activity sessions can be in supporting your remote team.

Committing to hosting physical activity sessions for your employees regularly helps to improve their physical and mental health, their connection with one another, and their creativity, productivity, and efficiency in their roles. Wins all around!

If you would like to learn more about how Club Synergy can help keep your remote team FIT for business, head to this link or book a virtual Walk ‘n’ Talk with me to have a proper blether about the detail.

by @soyhivan

As a small business owner, it’s normal to feel a wee bit lonely at times.

If you’re used to a bustling office and then you transition to working alone, it’s normal to want to find like-minded people you can celebrate with and confide in.

One of the best ways to find your people is through networking.

And successful networking is so much more than going to an event, handing out your business card and ‘elevator pitching’ to anyone that will listen.

Not quite sure where to start?

Here are some networking tips for small business owners, that will hopefully help you find your supportive tribe.

Attend a Variety of Events.

If you’re new to networking, it’s normal to feel a bit overwhelmed.

From speed networking to in-person meet-ups and online meetings, there are soooo many events out there!

When you’re starting out, sample a few to see what you like the best. A good place to start can be industry-specific events that complement your services, and professional organisations that host regular networking events.

You need to find events that fit your schedule and your business type. However, you should also prioritise meeting like-minded people – these connections can be so crucial in the good times and the bad.

Do Your Homework.

Once you have signed up for an event, try and find out a bit more about it.

For example, can you find out the names of other attendees in advance? This would help use your time in the best way, as you will arrive knowing exactly who you want to talk to.

Think about People, Rather than Clients.

The real key to finding your tribe in business is getting to know people.

Think about it – approaching someone new, immediately pitching your services and thrusting a business card into their hand isn’t that natural, is it?

You need to talk to people about your business, as you never know the business they could send your way. Or they might become a client themselves!

But to feel like they can recommend you, they need to feel like they know you personally.

So take some time to find out more about your new connection – interests and hobbies, how they spend their time when they aren’t working. Then you can move on to how you can work together.

Oh, and make sure you speak to new people at every event you attend. It might feel scary at first, but you never know whom you will meet!

Connect After Events.

The secret of good networking is that the events are only the beginning. Building strong relationships and finding your people come later.

If you’ve met some people that you particularly liked, or spotted someone who gave off good energy, reach out to them and ask for an individual meeting.

You can have these meetings on Zoom for efficiency, plus if you meet online, you could be hundreds of miles away from each other!

But I’d always suggest meeting in person where you can. Having a proper blether over a coffee or lunch is where you have the chance to talk about anything and everything. In my experience, that’s where some of the strongest relationships are forged.

Remain Consistent.

Building relationships takes time – you can’t go to one networking event and expect to walk away with a bunch of lifelong friends.

When you find the networking events that work for you, try to go along as often as you can. The more you show up, the more people will start to recognise you and what you do.

So even if you’ve been networking for a while and you don’t feel like you’ve found your people yet, keep at it! Go into every event with a positive attitude and a big smile on your face – people will naturally gravitate towards your warm and friendly presence.

Hopefully, this blog has given you a few nuggets to help you approach future networking groups, and find your supportive community in the process.

Networking doesn’t have to be something you dread. It can be loads of fun! You just need to find the right group of people.

If you’re interested in trying some supportive networking with like-minded small business owners – and a bit of exercise thrown into the mix for good measure –then I would love to welcome you to a Club Synergy session very soon.

From netwalking to yoga, and active accountability, there’s something that will suit you. If you would like to find out more, let’s book a call and I’ll walk you (both literally and physically) through the options.

by Katerina Wright

Well folks, it’s January, so you know what that means...the whole world is setting resolutions for the year ahead!

Setting resolutions sounds great in theory – so why are they so hard to maintain?

According to studies, around 75% of people stick to their resolutions for more than a week. After 6 months, that figure drops to 46%.

The problem with resolutions is that they generally require some kind of huge change. If you don’t have the proper building blocks in place, big changes are hard to maintain.

Our mental energy, willpower, and motivation will naturally ebb and flow over time.If we rely on them, we can quickly become overwhelmed in the face of a huge goal– and it might feel easier to just quit.

So, what is the answer? It’s all in one word: habits.

Habits are small and sustainable actions over a prolonged period that can lead to some pretty amazing results.

Read on to find out exactly why habits are more powerful than resolutions.

Give Yourself The ‘How’

The New Year’s Resolutions that usually fail focus on an outcome, rather than the behaviour needed to create the results you want.

This means you understand the ‘what’ but not the ‘how.’ It is the ‘how’ that, over time, creates results.

A goal that a lot of people set at the beginning of a New Year is to lose weight. If you focus on the ‘what’, you could find yourself in restriction mode, removing everything you love from your diet.

Instead of focusing on loss, focus on gaining new habits.

Add more activity into your routine, as gentle as you like. Add more vegetables to your meals, rather than cutting all sweets from your diet.

Once this becomes sustainable, you can tackle something more challenging. Every action and habit you introduce gets you closer to your end goal – because you’refocused on the ‘how.’

Create Consistency

Resolutions are typically supposed to be achieved in a short time. Then you have achieved your goal and you can go ‘back to normal.’

Here’s the problem: quick fixes usually don’t work. You aren’t giving yourself enough time to create meaningful change.

If you do something every day, it eventually just becomes part of your routine –like brushing your teeth or making a cup of coffee in the morning.

It can take anything from 21 to 60 days to build a new habit into your routine. The more your behaviour becomes habitual, the more consistently it will show up in your life until you no longer think about it at all – it’s something you perform automatically.

Set Realistic Goals

Another benefit of starting small with your habits is that you set yourself attainable objectives.

Take running as an example. If you decide you want to complete a 10k and you’ve never run before, this could feel like a huge task.

Break your goal down into small chunks. Make a habit of going on a ten-minute run, get comfortable with that, and then increase your time.

Add these smaller goals into your diary, then set them as a meeting if that’s a sure-fire way to get you to commit to yourself.

You’ll be crossing that finish line in no time!

Celebrate Your Wins More Often

The beauty of habits is that instead of just waiting until you achieve one huge goal, you get to tick off lots of little ones on the way there.

This is a huge confidence booster, and one of the best ways to stick to your habits is to associate positive emotions with them.

Make sure you actually celebrate! Whether it’s taking yourself out to your favourite coffee shop or going somewhere special at the weekend – the more you celebrate your achievements, the more energised you will feel to keep going.

So, there you have it! If you’ve struggled to keep your resolutions in the past,setting up good habits is going to be your key to long-term behavioural changes and sustainable results.

If you want to learn more about the power of habits, the book ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear is an excellent place to start. Or why not come to one of Club Synergy’s Active Accountability Sessions?

The session is set up to allow for forty minutes of exercise (any kind you like) and forty minutes of deep work to banish some tasks from your to-do list. It’s a supportive space for you to put new habits into practice, with like-minded business owners cheering you on. Find out more here.