Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Devin, I’m new in role as a leader in the retail world. I feel like I have so much to learn, but work is so busy and my team is stretched so thin that a lot of the time I spend most of my day helping others, which doesn’t lead to much of my own development. I’m struggling to build my own routines and starting to fly from the seat of my pants. My boss is also new in role. I want to support them and the store as they learn, but I’m afraid this happens at the cost of my own growth sometimes. What advice do you have for me?
Well, well! So much newness — congratulations! I’ve been there more times than I can count. Oddly enough, every job I’ve ever had, I’ve been the first person in the role. I guess I just like the chaos that comes with building out what a role looks like (haha).
For internal comms especially, I think it’s really easy to feel like we (or our small teams) have to do it all. Every newsletter, message and memo, town hall… and yes, that will very quickly eat up your schedule. I also want to name that sometimes that feeling isn’t just a feeling — it’s reality. But there are a few ways to protect your time and your growth.
One of my favorite tips is batch scheduling. It’s actually a strategy I picked up from my mentor, Morgan DeBaun, and it’s helped me a ton. I try to schedule my day in a way that avoids constant context switching — for example, putting 1:1s back-to-back, then reserving the later part of the day for heads-down work… or vice versa! Something she always tells me is, “Busy doesn’t mean productive,” and that has really stuck with me.
I’d also suggest intentionally reserving time for your own professional development — even if it’s small! For example, I have an “AI hour” blocked on my calendar every day. It’s nothing intense: sometimes I’m watching a short video or listening to a 30-min podcast, other times I’m just experimenting on ChatGPT or Claude. But having that time protected has left room for me to stay curious and not feel like my own growth is getting deprioritized with everything else that requires my time and attention.
Another thing that’s helped me is building up the confidence of other team members to run comms on their own. Managers, in particular, are one of the most slept-on ways to do this. They have a level of proximity to their teams that we, as internal communicators, just won’t have — and frankly, don’t have the capacity to replicate. I’d suggest lightweight trainings or making sure they have the assets they need to create their own on-brand, beautiful comms.
And lastly, I’d encourage you to share this experience with your manager and your team if you haven’t already. Sometimes people don’t realize how busy you are because they’re caught up in their own busy. Sharing isn’t necessarily about taking things off your plate, but more about rearranging how people show up and support you — especially as everyone learns together. Sending good vibes!
