We're heading into a challenging second half of the year..
The first half of the year was dominated by lockdown, health, supporting our community and the closure of businesses. In this coming second half, as lockdown eases but prolonged uncertainty remains, leaders need to help staff remain motivated now more than ever.
The reality is that many businesses made less money during lockdown and some without digital offerings or remote working options were fully closed. To mitigate the loss of income, they will have a continued focus on reducing costs.
Plus if we're heading into an economic downturn, the nature of many roles in service based companies (which includes most of my clients) will shift significantly to focus more on managing legal, financial and marketing risks triggered by the environment - instead of the areas we would usually have been focusing on such as growth, business development, innovation etc.
Some of your staff will be okay through this, either because they lack experience of what a downturn is like (like younger staff) - or because they're resilient and focussed or they enjoy this type of work.
But others will start to feel nervous about their job security and may not enjoy what you're now asking them to work on. In this context, one of the most important things a leader can do is to create hope.
A few ideas for creating hope in your team right now:
1) Provide clarity and structure where it's possible. Keep repeating what you do know
2) Avoid mindless optimism and false hope - you're trying to create something real here. Be authentic and find something, however small, that you genuinely feel hopeful about in the current environment.
3) Be aware that willpower doesn't last. Help people to manage periods of overwork and book in holidays to recharge.
4) Create an updated vision for the team - find a new future to be hopeful about and set new milestones so that people know you're making progress. A sense of purpose helps.
5) Have 1-1 conversations to get a current view on what motivates different members of your team - leverage this knowledge when setting new work.
These points will help you create a sense of hope and forward momentum for you and your team. Interested to hear what else you're doing to manage motivation in the second half of the year - hit reply and let me know.
P.S. Leaders will need to be able to create hope in order to bring staff with them through a challenging H2. Lots of ways to do this - try these 5 and let me know how you're getting on.
P.P.S. There's 2 ways you can currently work with me: 1) a 2 hour breakthrough NLP session or 2) a 4 session coaching programme over 2 months. All phone based. When you're ready, hit reply and we'll agree which approach best serves your goal.