Check the pulse of your team

When I was running track our coaches would always have us check our pulse after a long series of sprints. He wanted to make sure our heart rate was not going out of whack. Being in New Mexico and the hot desert sun, the temperatures could play havoc on our system on top of the extreme running.

When we are working in teams, we need to do the same thing. Get a pulse of your employees, get a pulse on the project. Many times we may over work our teams and not even know it. When a person starts to burn out, the project suffers, the team could suffer, and the employee suffers.

Just like my running coach would check up on us to make sure we do not pass out we need to check up on our teams.

If we do not get a pulse of the team and the projects you will not be able to make minor adjustments to keep morale high and the project inline. By waiting, you will have to play fireman when the project gets derailed or the team member stresses out to the point where they need to take a break from work. Then you will have to jump in and do major damage control.

Imagine if my coach did not get our pulse rate periodically, and one of use had an overly elevated heart rate, and passed out. Now the coach would be doing emergency procedures, water, ice, calling 911, and perhaps even more intensive procedures. But, because he checked on us, he could modify the training and incorporate more breaks as needed.