Keeping your team motivated in times of uncertainty

It’s important to appreciate that what people fear most is the unknown. Consequently, they will not be motivated if they’re feeling scared or suspicious about the current climate and what it could lead to. For this reason, keeping everyone informed is key. Let your staff know what you are doing and what plans you have in place. Discuss your plan B and communicate to your team how that plan will involve making sure everyone is aligned and knows what they’re doing and then engage them by getting their ideas and input. Forward thinking companies will also have plans C and D thought out, so inform everyone that these exist to show that you have planned how you will take more control and carry out damage limitation, should the need arise. Revisit this on a regular basis so that everyone feels reassured that you have everything under control.

It’s the management team’s duty to keep everyone focussed and encourage open communication. Additionally, organisations should be aware that younger members of staff who have joined the workforce since 2003 may not have ever worked through difficult markets and may therefore find themselves in an unfamiliar, and perhaps scary, situation. Mentoring and buddy schemes are a great way of overcoming these issues and can allow employees to share knowledge and experiences to hopefully diffuse any worries that may be present. Combine this with training and coaching to arm your staff with the skills they need to work effectively, if they don’t have the knowledge in place to succeed in their role, their motivation and confidence levels will remain low.

We asked some of our specialist trainers for their top tips too.

• Helen Harvey recommends making the working environment a more pleasant one and concentrating on making the workplace somewhere that people want to be. “Send the team weekly update emails on successes and publicly thank, acknowledge and praise people for a job well done. These things may sound small but they can have a big impact. In the same way, make sure your team feels valued – ask people for their input and give them your time, it doesn’t cost anything! It’s also important to make an effort when it comes to matters that aren’t work related – sending birthday cards, organising team outings and taking an interest in people’s lives outside of work can help both retention and team motivation.”
• Angela Cripps agrees that praise is important. “Give recognition loudly!” she advises. “Make sure everyone knows when someone’s done a good job, but especially make sure that the right person gets the recognition. And celebrate the minor victories as well as the major ones. It’s also important that if you ask someone to do something, you follow it up. There’s nothing more de-motivating than being asked to produce a piece of work or achieve a certain target, only for no-one to notice that it’s been done. All that goes through that person’s head is ‘What was the point? I won’t do that again’. Remember, it helps you too, as people do what you inspect… not what you expect!”
• Toby Buckle takes an alternative approach and says that it’s necessary to re-assess how you motivate yourself. He comments “There are two forms of motivation. One is getting away from the negative and the other is looking towards the positive. The key is finding out which works better for you. For example are you motivated by the fact working harder may help you keep your job or by the fact that you want a promotion? If one isn’t working, look to the other.”

Even when times are hard, lead by example; try to maintain an upbeat attitude – keeping morale high is one of the ‘vital signs’ of a healthy organisation.Your team will feel reassured and motivated to know that their company is investing time and effort in communicating with them and is confident and ready to deal with any potential problems. With clear and strong leadership in place, people will know that the senior management team is aware of any potential problems and is handling them effectively. All of this will combine to create a tight, dynamic and motivated team.

Posted by Fiona Lander