022. What are the things you need to know before you get started?
Every issue of Moment comes with a question designed to gently nudge you towards working well: making your mental health part of your self-employed business plan.
022. What are the things you need to know before you get started?
The first stages of any new project are often exciting - a new challenge to get your teeth into, perhaps a new client, a new group of people to work with, a new context to learn about. But those first few moments of a project can also be filled with unknowns and gaps, which as someone who is new to a business or team, you need to quickly navigate, in order to understand how you can do your best work.
In my years of freelancing, the range of client-led “onboarding” on a new project has dramatically varied in its quality and depth - from days of meeting people and documents to read, to literally sitting in a reception for three hours, waiting for the person who was running the project to come and get me.
Whilst most employee onboarding, hopefully, is well designed and structured, employees have the benefit of getting to know a team over a matter of days, weeks, months - yet as freelancers, we often have to jump in with both feet and figure out what’s happening within minutes. What’s the wifi password? What tools do you use to communicate? How do I get back into your office if I go out for lunch? Who am I reporting to? Why is this project happening?
You’ll have many questions, small and large - and making sure you have them answered early on can often be the difference between doing good work and feeling anxious and unclear on what’s expected of you.
Each project is different, for sure, but having a standard set of questions which you know you need answering in order to get off to a good start means if your client isn’t providing you with an onboarding, you’ll have a handy list of things you can ask straight off, saving time and effort.
These questions don’t always need to be client-facing either - sometimes, having a list of questions we ask ourselves at the start of a project can be useful. Is this project for the cash, or for the opportunity to learn? Is this project a quick and effective project, or is it likely to run on for a long time? Does this project align with my values and motivations?
Being clear up-front can help reduce frustrations later - for instance, if you know you’re accepting a project because it pays well and you need the income, but you know it might not be as fulfilling as you’d like, accepting this early on helps. Returning to those questions you’ve asked and answered, as you progress through the project also helps to identify if you’re veering off track, into something you never really signed up for, and creates a moment to reflect and review your progress.
Take today’s Moment to think on some of the questions you’d want to ask and answer on day one of a project.
WORKING WELLBEING PLAN: TASK
At the start of your next project, create your own onboarding document - list the questions you need to undertake at the outset of a new project.
Split this document into four sections:
A. Things you need to know from your client
B. Things you need to communicate to your client
C. Things you need to know for yourself
D. Things you are happy not to know yet
As the project progresses, or when it has completed, add a new column: Things you wished you’d known before the project started.
After you’ve done this a few times, review the onboarding documents you’ve created for yourself - are there any common questions or gaps? Use this as a template for next time, and build up a structure for how you onboard yourself on to new projects.
Leave a comment below to share your reflections,
or visit Leapers to discuss the question further.
Things we read this week:
How to network in online business groups without spamming - Underpinned
Can’t Even: Millennials as the burnout generation - Anne Helen Petersen
How to give constructive feedback - Radical Candor
The real solution to imposter syndrome - Medium
Mind Management, not time management - kadavy.net
Emotional Agility at Work - AmazingIf