As everyone returns from their holidays and the workplace starts to look a little more like normal, everyone, including management, can sometimes suffer from a little bit of ‘return to work itis’. The first thing many staff do when returning from leave is to start planning their next holiday! So how can you make sure those grand plans and challenging goals you’ve set for the business will be met and achieved in the year ahead? In my mind, the best way to get everyone back on track and focused on the year ahead is by dragging them out of their normal day to day mindset and excite them with some leadership, direction, challenges and opportunity.
Here are my top tips for setting your team, and ultimately your business, up for a super start to a successful new year:
- Communicate with them: without your communication and leadership, your team ultimately lack direction. This time of year is an ideal opportunity to communicate with the team, whether 1 or 1000, the plans for the year ahead, the achievements and milestones you are wanting each individual, team, department or division to make and the obstacles they may face in getting there.
- Engage them in your vision: We all know that when your people are not engaged in the bigger picture and your overall vision, they are typically less inclined to do what it takes to achieve this goal. Engaging them in your vision means more than just communicating it to them. You really need to get their ‘buy in’ so they are committed to achieving the vision and are passionate about getting there. There are many ways to do this, but ultimately it’s about making sure you have the right people in place, with common values and a passion about what they do, combined with an interest in the business and industry they work within.
- Challenge them: Individuals love to be challenged, in one way or another. For some people it’s about challenging goals and targets, for others it’s about precision work and accuracy. Knowing your team well, at an individual level, really helps to make this possible. With challenges, many individuals love to see rewards, but this doesn’t always have to be financially driven – don’t be afraid to think outside the square.
- Give them opportunity: No matter what generation your people are associated with, they all want opportunity. Opportunity to progress, opportunity to learn, opportunity to gain benefits, opportunity to prove themselves or purely opportunity to do a better job. The sense of achieving and doing something that they are driven towards can be one of the greatest motivators, so knowing what your people want to achieve, and providing them with the opportunity to do this can be critical to overall success for both them individually and the organisation as a whole.
- Listen to what they want and where possible show them you are acting on it: Communicating and listening ironically often need to be treated separately. Listen to what your people want from their work, and where possible demonstrate that you have heard what they have to say, and are taking action towards helping them achieve this. It doesn’t have to be the end solution that they see, but rather that you have heard, listened and started taking steps towards making this happen is often just what they need to keep the motivation to move forward.
Of course, how all of this is discussed and delivered can vary. A Year Ahead Focus Meeting which everyone is involved in, a team lunch, or at an individual level. Whatever works best for you and your business, but don’t miss this opportunity to use this time of year to set you and your team up for success!
