An overflowing inbox, a diary filling up before your very eyes, projects to get back on track, meetings resuming…
When the new term begins, it’s very tempting to hit the ground running straight away.
However, after the summer holidays, a manager’s role isn’t simply to get all the projects back on track. It’s also the perfect time to re-engage the team, refocus on the right priorities and re-establish an effective working environment for the months ahead.
Before you tackle the 147 emails that have been patiently waiting for you, here are 7 essentials to add to your back-to-work to-do list as a manager.
📌 Key points to remember
- The start of the new working year is a strategic moment to get the team back on track after the summer break.
- Managers must rebuild connections whilst providing clarity on the direction, priorities and organisation.
- The aim is not to get everything back up and running straight away, but to focus the team’s collective energy where it will have the greatest impact.
- A successful return to work is built over time, with a sustainable pace, useful routines and time to step back and reflect.
Reconnecting with your team
Before targets, progress reports and deadlines: the team.
After several weeks’ holiday, sometimes taken at different times, not everyone returns with the same information, the same rhythm or the same energy levels.
The first step, therefore, is to rebuild connections.
A team coffee break, a lunch, an informal get-together or simply a few minutes at the start of a meeting can help everyone reconnect, share summer updates and catch up with one another in a way that goes beyond a succession of operational requests.
The aim isn’t to organise a team-building event on the very first Monday in September.
It’s simply to remind everyone of one essential thing: a team doesn’t get back on track with just a to-do list.
Prioritising cases in A&E
À la rentrée, tout peut rapidement sembler prioritaire.
Les sujets laissés en suspens avant les congés ressurgissent, les demandes se sont accumulées et les nouveaux projets commencent déjà à arriver.
Mais petit rappel utile : ce qui attend depuis juillet n’est pas automatiquement devenu urgent en septembre.
Avant de foncer tête baissée, prenez le temps de distinguer :
- ce qui nécessite réellement une action immédiate ;
- ce qui peut être planifié ;
- ce qui peut être délégué ;
- ce qui n’est finalement plus nécessaire.
Ce tri permet de sortir du mode réaction et de retrouver l’une des missions essentielles du manager : arbitrer.
Fixer les prochains caps
Once the situation has been thoroughly reviewed, we need to provide clarity.
Where do we want to go in the coming weeks?
What are the key deadlines?
What results do we want to achieve?
After the summer break, reaffirming our direction helps everyone regain a clear picture of the path ahead.
This doesn’t necessarily mean dusting off a 42-slide strategic plan.
A few simple, clear and shared objectives are often enough to ensure the team knows where it is going and why it is going there.
Re-establish priorities
Having a clear direction does not mean that everything has to be done at once.
In fact, that is where a manager’s work really begins: making choices.
What are the three issues that matter most right now?
What can wait?
Where should the team focus its energy?
Clarifying priorities prevents people from spreading themselves too thin and enables everyone to manage their day-to-day work more effectively.
Because a team with fifteen priorities… probably has none at all.
Check the workload and allocate the work
The priorities have been set. But we still need to check that they are realistic.
The start of the new term is a good time to take a fresh look at the team’s workload:
Who is responsible for what?
Which staff members are already under a lot of pressure?
Where are the bottlenecks?
Do certain tasks need to be reallocated?
The aim is not to achieve a mathematically perfect distribution.
It is about ensuring that the targets set actually correspond to the time, resources and skills available.
And to avoid discovering three weeks later that one member of staff was single-handedly dealing with half of September’s urgent tasks.
Re-establishing the right team rituals
Weekly meetings, project updates, feedback sessions, one-to-ones, team-building sessions…
Rituals provide rhythm and structure for the team.
The start of the new term is therefore the ideal time to reintroduce them, but also to question them.
Does this ritual really help us work better?
If so, we keep it.
If it can be improved, we tweak it.
And if nobody really knows why this meeting still exists… September might just be the perfect time to wish it a happy retirement.
A good managerial ritual must have a clear purpose: to share, decide, coordinate, learn or build relationships.
Set aside some time for the group… and for yourself
One final classic pitfall: trying to cram the whole start of the new term into the first week.
Meetings, projects, one-to-ones, urgent requests… your diary can fill up before you’ve even had time to think.
However, being a manager isn’t just about going from one meeting to the next. You also need to be able to take a step back, plan ahead, make decisions and remain available to your team. So avoid filling your diary to 100 per cent.
Deliberately keep some slots free for the unexpected, informal chats, steering the team… and your own substantive work.
Because a manager who no longer has a single spare minute will also find it much harder to be there for others.
Developing your management practices ✨
At Groupe DMM, we have been supporting businesses and their managers for over 30 years in developing their soft skills: management, leadership, communication, feedback, emotional intelligence, change management and augmented management.
Our approach? Practical, engaging training courses that can be directly applied in everyday work.
Would you like to improve your teams’ managerial practices?
