Psychological safety, every day: 

Lead with vulnerability and courage, and model inclusion everyday – credit ideas, invite challenge without blame, rotate who speaks first, and step in as an ally when bias or exclusion shows up. Create space for smart risk-taking with small, reversible experiments and clear guardrails. Keep feedback channels open and hold yourself and the team to visible standards – when something isn’t right, speak up and show what changed.

You will create a culture where people speak up early, learn fast, and trust the process – the foundations of a high trust, high performing and neuroaffirming culture.

• This also supports colleagues who may mask: safer norms reduce the pressure to hide needs or concerns.

Sensory-aware, decision-ready meetings:

Set agenda standards so people join prepared, and send agendas 24-48 hours in advance, depending on the level of pre-read materials, decisions to be made, or participation needed. Default to captions on and share concise meeting notes and actions within 24 hours. Shorten meeting times (everyone will thank you), and create buffers for bathroom breaks, refill water bottles, urgent actions, or to get some fresh air.

Your team will experience lower cognitive load, clearer decisions, and better quality follow-though. 

• This also supports team members who are working in a second language: pre-reads and concise actions give time
to process and check understanding.

Structured 1:1s:

Protect consistency and create rhythms for yourself and your team with scheduled weekly or fortnightly 1:1s at the same day/time, and keep a simple agenda: wins, blockers, priorities (maximum three), support needed. Send the agenda 24 hours in advance and avoid last-minute cancellations.

Keep development 1:1s separate so career conversations have their own priority time.

You will build trust, surface issues early, and keep momentum between meetings.

• This also supports colleagues who may experience anxiety: predictability and a clear agenda reduce social load and the pressure to think on the spot.

Communication Channel norms:

Create clear team channel norms so communication is easy and predictable, and agree light response windows to protect focus. Understand each team member’s preferred style (voice notes, email, chat) and build in flexibility.
Create a template library for efficiency. Pin the norms and library link in a central place (e.g., Intranet, SharePoint, Teams, Notion) and make them part of onboarding so new joiners ramp quickly.

• This also supports multi time-zone teams: agreed response windows protect focus and removes pressure to be “always on.”

Visual schedules + clarity-first tasking:

Specify the required details at the start and in one place – outcome, owner, review date, final due date, stakeholders, support, and what “good” looks like. Share an example or short screen recording, remove ambiguity so they can
focus their energy on the work. Make progress visible on one simple board with clear stages (Plan → Draft → Review
& Update → Finalise → Publish/Deliver → Retro). Keep a lightweight decision log (date, context, owner, rationale)
and run obstacle-first updates: “What’s blocking you? What would help?”

You will reduce rework, lower anxiety, improve quality, and make it easy for anyone to get up to speed quickly.

• This also supports stakeholders who dip in and out: they can see what changed and why without another meeting.

Wellbeing by design:

Protect deep-work/focus blocks in calendars, avoid lunchtime meetings as a default, and model wellbeing behaviours yourself. Use schedule/delay send to prevent out-of-hours emails/pings and keep an easily accessible and centrally located single resource page with links to signpost supports (EAP, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), buddies, adjustments, relevant support teams such as IT). 

You will lower burnout risk and sustain performance over time.

• This also supports colleagues in perimenopause/menopause: protected focus blocks and breaks norms help
manage symptoms like heat sensitivity. 

Use & know the tools and supports – model universal design: 

Lead by example and know what’s available. Switch inclusive tools on by default and make their use part of your
normal ways of working practice. Share a one-page “How we work inclusively” (settings to switch on, tips to reduce cognitive load), add it to onboarding, and run a quick monthly ‘workflow tools’ check-in, seek tips from employees
and keep the on-pager current. Treat every improvement as for everyone – embrace universal design.

You will reduce cognitive friction, and widen equitable and fair access to work.

• This also supports second-language speakers: multi-format, captioned content gives time to process and check understanding.

Skills + ambitions (skills-first planning + live sponsorship): 

Plan work around strengths and skills, not just roles. Keep a living snapshot of each person’s core strengths and emerging skills, tag tasks by skill (e.g., data analysis, stakeholder narrative, QA), and pair “skill buddies” so people practise on low-risk tasks before owning bigger pieces. Top up with 15–30 minute micro-learning in the flow of work.

You will align strengths to work, speed delivery, and create fairer access to stretch development opportunities.

• This also supports under-represented talent: deliberate sponsorship counters “out of sight, out of mind.”

Structure + flexibility: 

Define outcomes clearly, then flex how work happens – allow sequencing/time-of-day flexibility where outcomes permit, agree core collaboration windows, and encourage asynchronous paths for input and decisions. Keep weekly rhythms steady (short plan, quick retro) so pace is calm and predictable.

You’ll protect focus, respect different energy patterns, and keep delivery steady.

• This also supports parents and carers: outcome-based flexibility avoids penalising people for when work happens.
 

Measure what matters (little and often):

Track a small set of signals: weekly leading indicators (e.g., % meetings with pre-reads; focus hours per person;
count of obstacle-first check-ins) and monthly lagging indicators (rework/missed handoffs; meeting fatigue; “I can
do focused work when I need to”). Share one improvement action for the next month. 

You will build accountability and show progress without creating reporting burden.

• This directly supports leadership visibility: light, regular metrics make it easier to remove barriers quickly.