Help Your Team Refuel

A few strategies for helping your team refuel after a tough year.

Give them a break:

·      Give everyone a couple of extra days off (days can be staggered so you don’t have the whole team out at the same time, you can close for a couple of Fridays or you can add extra PTO days for folks to use as they wish).

·      Make Fridays ½ days for a month.

·      Encourage everyone to plan something in the next few months that they look forward to and that will allow them to relax. If possible, provide a small stipend/bonus to support the effort.

·      Give everyone a small thank you for all of their efforts this past year like a gift cards with handwritten notes.

Reconnect:

·      Host a fun Zoom activity that allows everyone to have enjoy each other and catch up on a human level. Rule: NO work talk. Activity ideas include online BINGO, a team Kahoot quiz, facilitated teambuilding session. 

·      Host your regular team meeting and tell everyone you are focusing on each other for the hour. Ask everyone to share one thing that’s going well for them personally, what they’re most proud of from this past year and to celebrate something about the colleague whose name is next in the alphabet.

·      Take a poll of your team to find out (on a scale of 1-10) how close they are to burn out, how optimistic they are about the next 6 months, (open-ended) what their biggest distraction is right now, how work can best support them, and what they’d love to accomplish this year. Hold a meeting to share and discuss. Listen. 

·      Discuss your newfound super-powers. What did you each not realize you were capable of as individuals this time last year that you made happen in the last 12 months (such as tutoring 4th grade math)? What are your newfound organizational super-powers?

Imagine a New Future:

·      Spend time imagining the possibilities as a team. If there were no limitations, what would you make happen together in the next 18 months? What are you capable of?

·      Envision the future you want to build to serve your mission. Be bold, think big, be creative. 

·      Explore how you can serve more and maximize your impact. What will it look like when you leverage your super-powers to move the needle farther than you ever have before?

If you want to think through how to refuel your team, contact me at katie@joyofleading.com. I can help.