At Life Size, we’re committed to creating safe spaces for emotions to be expressed freely and transparently. Whenever a Life Sizer experiences the weight of their negative emotions, we encourage them to let these emotions out instead of bottling them up.

We also recognise that it is equally important to take time to celebrate the wins and uplift one another, and ourselves, so that our achievements – big and small – do not go unnoticed.

This blog explores our methods and policies for regulating our emotions in the workplace. From regular meetings with managers to private coffee calls and moments of reflection – we’ve got you covered.

Regular check-ins with the managers

Every two weeks, each Life Sizer has a 1-2-1 with their manager. These meetings are an opportunity to share achievements and challenges, work on training and ask for support where needed.

We use a template document that must be completed before the meeting to ensure a clear and consistent structure. It includes achievements and challenges of the week, a stress and capacity check-in, a value stream conversation, client concerns and space to address anything else that might be on the employee’s mind.

These regular and honest check-ins aim to assist with sustainable, healthy growth. Whether we have a good week or a difficult one, this is the time to share it!

Regular check-ins with the team

We also have team meetings on a weekly and monthly basis where we all come together to discuss business-related topics. How do we feel about our campaigns? Are there any issues with clients? Is there anything we should change about our current strategy? Vocalising any doubt or difficulty helps the whole team understand the situation and find a solution together.

We always discuss highs and lows during these meetings too – sharing a personal highlight forces us all to reflect on what went well and sharing a challenge allows us to be open about the things that didn’t go so well.

Our help section, at the end of our weekly meetings, was introduced as an opportunity for the team to ask for support when needed. It could be with a particular task, dealing with an uncomfortable client situation or advice on something specific.

Then there are coffee calls – private conversations between two colleagues that aren’t necessarily work-related. These 30-minute calls are all about catching up and chatting about anything and everything. It can be about a book we’re reading at the moment, a recipe we tried or private issues weighing us down.

As a remote-only company, we don’t have a shared kitchen for a quick chat while making some coffee, so we introduced these informal calls as our version of this. They allow us to take a break from work, vent or voice our struggles and develop our relationships as colleagues.

Embracing the highs and promoting praise

It is just as important – but often a lot harder – to make space for the positive emotions that we feel when we accomplish something at work. This could be securing a piece of media coverage for a client, getting great feedback on a blog or finding the time to go for a walk every day.

We embrace the highs and promote positivity in several ways. We have a praise channel in Slack where we can publicly share our appreciation of members of the team when they do great work, at the start of team meetings each Life Sizer must share a highlight from their week and we have a celebratory moment each time we win a new client (it involves music and dance moves).

Good teamwork begins and ends with communication

As you can see, it’s all about open, honest and clear communication at Life Size (something we’re great at, given we’re a strategic communications agency). Whether in a formal setting, such as a team meeting or 1-2-1 with a manager, privately with a good cup of coffee or tea, or in our public Slack channels – we want our Life Sizers to be heard, supported, celebrated and understood. Bottling up emotions is neither healthy nor helpful, and overlooking the highs can leave you feeling unappreciated so it is important to create spaces for negative and positive emotions to be reflected on and discussed.

As a team of communications experts, we understand the importance of being able to express yourself clearly and in a way that resonates with those you are speaking to.

If your climate tech company is struggling to tell its story and share its news in a way that connects with the right people, then we’d love to hear from you! Drop us an email or reach out to us on LinkedIn.