Reflection 30 — Be Gentle with Yourself!

When the pressure of work is being felt and our normal go-to strategies are not quite hitting the spot to silence the self-doubt, and we may find ourselves perhaps not taking the best care of our wellbeing, perhaps it is time to slow down the process and put ourselves back up the priority list!

We are reminded of a quote by Charlie Mackesy in his book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm: “One of the kindest things you can do is be gentle with yourself.”

Let’s dive in.

Monday — Client Day & Site Visit

The day started bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (a bit like the fox in Charlie Mackesy’s book) at the HQ of the South’s leading fencing specialists, New Forest Fencing & Gates. The day started with an installer team toolbox talk regarding the importance of workplace hazard spotting and recording via the point-of-work risk assessment system through the Monday.com platform. From this, we moved to the development of project-specific safe systems of work and honing the Monday.com system as new tools are discovered and learning from site feedback is received. This is all part of the continued development of systems and the organisation. We were also active on a heritage site in Portsmouth, continued building an O&M Manual for another heritage project, and provided CDM advice and guidance. Phew!

Tuesday — In & Out of the County

We were back out on site, in Hampshire and further afield, requiring an overnight stay to make the best use of the time between visits and to be prepared for the following day. The first visit, in Hampshire, was to a project nearing completion, with second-fix works progressing and the first phase in occupation. The second was in Bedfordshire, for a meeting with our client’s insurers to better understand their considerations when underwriting a policy. This will ultimately help us to be more precise when developing and amending systems. The second site visit of the day was also in Bedfordshire: an initial site tour as the site was being established and enabling works were progressing. This is an interesting heritage project in the middle of a new housing development.

Wednesday — BSA, Site Tour & End of Defects

We delivered BSA Awareness training to one of our client’s teams at their premises, helping the team to be better informed about how to apply in practice the duties they are obligated to discharge. This prompted some great conversation, with the team working out their own compliance solutions under the guidance of our trainer. From here, we travelled to A&S Motors in Gosport, a project Birchen successfully completed and handed over 12 months ago, for the end-of-year defects tour; just two minor defects were identified! Well done to all involved. One of the team headed by train to Oxford for a planning meeting for a new heritage project with various challenges requiring input from the outset.

Thursday — LCS End of Month Principal Day

Off to Regus, at the foot of the runway at Southampton Airport, for our planned monthly Principal Day, including our team catch-up calls, planning, and development conversations. This is a vital aspect of our business; it is where we prioritise our business functions to ensure that we deliver to our clients’ expectations. It is also an excuse to watch a plane touch down or take off and perhaps witness the Air Ambulance helicopter operations. Much achieved!

Friday — ISO Catch Up & End of Month!

A desk day for the team. An ISO catch-up ahead of a Stage 2 Quality Certification Audit next week, providing contract advice and guidance, and tying up the remaining loose ends from the week, ensuring that they are resolved ahead of next week so that a clean start to August can be made! This was not all we did today; we also continued to provide clients with support on specific projects.

Closing Thought – Progress over Movement

Progress over movement is a useful reminder: just because we are busy, active, or constantly moving does not necessarily mean that we are progressing. Real progress comes from purposeful action, reflection, and moving in the right direction rather than simply keeping pace for the sake of it. Sometimes slowing down is progress too.