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Leading Together

Will You Let Summer Happen to Your Team?

Published about 2 months ago • 3 min read

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Hi Reader,

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Summer is just around the corner.

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Some of us are already picturing the vacations we’ve been planning for months.Others are wondering how they’re going to keep their kids busy for 10 weeks and still get their job done. For the record, Joe and I are guilty on both accounts :)

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No matter your summer plans, one thing is true: it’s a season where teams easily lose focus.

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Meetings get pushed. Priorities drift. Momentum slows. Before you know it, you're playing catch-up heading into the fall. So here’s the question: Will you let summer just happen, or will you proactively plan for it?

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Here are three ways your leadership team can stay focused and aligned over the next few months:

1. Revisit Your Annual Goals

Summer is the perfect time to pause and re-center.

  • What did you set out to achieve this year?
  • What still feels urgent and aligned? Is there anything you can let go of?
  • What can your team realistically move forward between now and Labor Day?

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As we wrote in At the Heart of Work, “Focus is the difference between intention and momentum.” Regrounding your team in what matters most- right now- isn’t a step back. It’s what allows you to keep moving forward with clarity.

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And in the summer, a mindset of essentialism matters more than ever. With less time, competing demands, and stretched attention, the ability to say “this matters”, or “this can wait” is a leadership superpower.

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Get clear as a team on what’s possible and don’t waste energy chasing everything else.

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2. Adjust Your Rhythms- Don’t Leave Progress to Chance

Summer doesn’t just disrupt schedules, it can disrupt momentum. That’s why the most effective teams don’t push through, they adapt. With the right planning and team agreements you can enjoy moving at a slower pace in summer AND still make progress.

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Now is your opportunity to reset your team’s rhythms intentionally:

  • See where you might be able to shorten meetings, shift some to async, or build in structured pauses
  • Use shared docs, quick Loom videos, or Slack threads to keep updates flowing asynchronously when you aren’t able to get schedules to align.
  • Create lightweight check-ins to track progress and surface blockers

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Strong rhythms don’t always mean more meetings, they mean smarter ones or just a quick async update- realizing this is more important than ever in summer.

3. Reaffirm Ownership Across the Team

As people take time off and availability fluctuates, clarity of ownership becomes essential.

  • Who’s responsible for what this summer?
  • What decisions can be made without a full team sync?
  • Are roles and responsibilities clear enough to keep progress going, even when people are out?

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This is where shared ownership matters most. “When everyone sees themselves as stewards of the whole, not just their part, leadership becomes collective.” (Focus Chapter, At the Heart of Work)

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Reaffirming ownership isn’t about adding pressure, it’s about building alignment and trust.
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When everyone knows what’s theirs to carry (and what’s not), the team can keep moving confidently and efficiently.

Summer doesn’t have to be a season of drift. With some foresight and planning, it can be a season of focus, clarity, and meaningful progress for your leadership team.

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What small moves can your team make now to stay sharp while the rest of the world slows down?

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Here’s to having a ton of fun at home and work this summer.,

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-Shaun and Joe

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In today's fast-paced business environment, creating a healthy and high-performing organization is more challenging than ever. That's where At the Heart of Work comes in - a practical guide that introduces the 6 Levers Framework, designed to help leaders like you align people and systems effectively.

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Whether you're leading a small team or an entire organization, the insights from this book will equip you to build a resilient, purpose-driven workplace where teams thrive.

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Leading Together

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Leading Together is for senior leadership teams who want to become more cohesive and high performing. In each newsletter, 6 Levers co-founders Shaun Lee and Joe Olwig break down real-world case studies and share insights from their work with executive teams across industries. You’ll hear the patterns behind what makes leadership teams thrive—and what holds them back. Most importantly, every newsletter shares practical applications you can apply with your team.

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