Have you been thinking about your career recently? If you’re like most people, you’ve given some thought to what the next year might bring: will you lose your job? Will you get promoted? Will you get a raise? Should you start looking for something else?
If you’ve been thinking this way, chances are your team members have been too. And if when you got back to the office you found messages from top management like ‘earnings are down’, ‘we need to increase sales’ or ‘we may have to streamline or restructure’, you will have your job cut when it comes to keeping your business. productive and motivated team. When people are distracted and stressed, they make mistakes, get into petty arguments, and generally can make office life hell. It is not something that shows you your best at management meetings.
So what can you do as your manager or team leader to help the situation? Here are 5 ways to keep your staff motivated during a recession:
1. Keep the lines of communication open
Nothing stresses people more than not knowing what is going on. People will think the worst at the slightest encouragement. Make sure your team can come to you and get your questions answered. Likewise, when you have information that is relevant to them, be sure to keep them posted. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that because someone was in the office when you were telling someone else that you were listening or even realized that what you were talking about was relevant to them. Have frank discussions and include everyone involved.
2. Be honest with them, well, as much as you can!
After number 1, you need to be as honest as possible with your team. Of course, this does not mean that you disclose confidential information or discuss confidential information inappropriately. Being honest with them means explaining why things happen. If priorities have changed, your team should know about it and, when they understand the reasons why, they are generally much more cooperative than you think. They may not like what they are asked to do, for example speed up a promotion, but if they understand why it is important, you will get a much higher level of acceptance from them.
3. Keep your upper lip stiff
It is your duty as a manager to act as a buffer between your team and the management level above you. To keep your team motivated and productive, you may need to protect them from any politics, panic, or pessimism, but more than that, you need to lead by example. Even when the going gets tough, you must remain calm, confident, and decisive; This is not a time to hesitate or procrastinate. When it comes to getting the job done, it’s business as usual.
4. Be more strategic
At times like these, you need to think ahead. Let your team take care of the minutiae and details. If you get bogged down in these, you will find yourself immersed in day-to-day activities and all inspiration or creativity has been taken from you. When times are tough, the entire organization relies on its managers to spot opportunities, improve processes, and find ways to get customers to buy again. You just won’t be able to do this if you’re running around like a headless chicken fighting fires.
5. Eliminate gossip at the root
Gossip has the potential to damage someone’s reputation or cause widespread office panic, particularly if people are gossiping about impending layoffs, so the moment you hear of any gossip, resolve it. The last thing you want is for your best staff member to go find another job because he thought, incorrectly, that they might be fired. I’m going to be serious here now, if you know these the office gossip, you gotta stop. Listen, by all means to find out what’s going on, but don’t start rumors or get caught up in spreading them.
All of this may seem very tiresome and exhausting when you return to the office, but the reality is that your team needs you now more than they ever have. They need you to be strong and guide them through this period of uncertainty.