Everyone Is a Morning Person, Right?

By Gregg Gregory

Theresa is the type of person who is up by 5:00 AM working out in her home gym by 5:30. She showers, has the kid’s lunches packed and is at the office working by 7:00 every day. By all accounts Theresa is a morning person.

Theresa scheduled an important team meeting for Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM. She felt this was best since this way they could get the meeting done before the office opened at 9:00 and everyone was enthralled in their work. She got a memo out to everyone about a week in advance letting them know of the upcoming meeting along with a short agenda.

Wednesday morning came and everyone was there - at least physically anyway. You see while Theresa is a morning person along with a couple of others, Jason and Sheila are midday people and Rob, Dave and a couple of others are definite night owls.

What are the challenges facing Theresa Wednesday morning? Now there are some organizations that need to have meetings like this. One example is UPS and their drivers. They need to leave the distribution center early so an early morning meeting is when they are all together. Think about your team and what are the types of people on your team?

Morning people: They are early risers and have strong energy almost immediately. They usually do not need an alarm clock to get up. They may have one as a safety net but usually wake up before the alarm goes off. They may like coffee but do not need caffeine to get going in the morning. These folks usually begin to tire and fade by 3 PM and while they are still quite capable of working they are definitely moving significantly slower than they were early that morning.

Midday people: While these employees get up reasonably early they would prefer to sleep in a little. They are usually right on time, maybe a little early just not moving at 100% just yet. They take some time to “warm up” and do so gradually. They are usually functioning at 100% by midmorning. Their energy last a little longer than the morning person and they begin to fade by the end of the day. At least as far as the mind is concerned.

Night people: These are those who not only use the alarm clock they may have several of them set in different places in the room and live by the snooze button. While they may need to be up by 7 AM they start the clock sequence as early as 5:30 and stumble out of bed by 7:15. Coffee or some form of caffeine is a necessity for them to function. Do not even try to talk to them about anything significant until at least Noon. On the other hand they are functioning at 100% well into the evening. Well after the morning and midday people have shut down.

• What about the person who has energy early in the day fades in the early afternoon and then gets a second wind late in the day? These people are those who go for caffeine midafternoon. Typically this is a person who is sleep deprived or has a young child at home.

• What difference does it make? We are there to work and we should be working when at work right? With sharp rise in gas prices the cost of commuting is rising and more people are choosing to work remotely. When they are working remotely do you really care when they get the work done so long as the work is getting done?

• Technology has afforded us the opportunity to work remotely and we should all do it right? No—there are many positions that cannot work remotely and others that can from time to time. The challenge is how do you lead a team where several do work remotely? How do you have team meetings? Can you really have a team in the traditional sense?

The answer is yes. It takes some additional time and effort on the leader of the team - at least in the upfront stages. Two simple steps are all that needs to be done to set the team in the right direction here:

• Learn the body clocks of everyone on the team. In some cases you may need to just ask them.

• Ask them what their preferences are as to days of the week to hold meetings. This is critical if you have remote workers.

One thing needs to be made clear up front - there is no guarantee that this will always be the case and that some adjustments will be necessary by everyone on the team. It is equally important that you gain buy in from everyone as you move forward.

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