If your team is depleted, demotivated, and drained, you can deploy a few strategies to re-energize them.
Proactively initiate purpose-driven career conversations.
And make them routine. People want to know they’re on a path of growth and opportunity for a more significant impact. Include caring feedback on areas to improve so that your employees are ready to take on new opportunities when they arise.
Create team rituals that foster relationships and a sense of belonging.
When people feel deeply connected to their peers, it energizes work and makes it more fun. You might open team meetings with various prompts—for example, asking people to share something they’re grateful for that day or one word that describes how they’re feeling. The idea is that, over time, the team becomes a place of collective refuge and trust.
Swap productivity paranoia for helpful prioritization.
Finally, rather than worrying about whether or not people are working enough, spend time helping people prioritize what’s most important. Help them eliminate non-value-added activities and connect each person’s work to the organization’s most important priorities. This will help create a sense of positive productivity as people engage in purposeful work rather than work for work’s sake.