How to re-engage your team

What will it take to re-engage your team as we're emerging into the new world of work? Are they, like  so many people, questioning what they want from work and whether they are getting it in your team? Do you know? Or are you asking the question of yourself? If you are, you may recognize that it isn't a simple yes / no question. If it were, we wouldn't be talking and writing about it. We'd just have a think, make a decision, and move on. You don't usually absolutely love every single aspect of your work life, nor do you loathe everything. There are things that just work for you, and others that you wish were different. The question becomes: how much closer can you get to your ideal work environment? In other words, what changes can you make happen to make your environment work better for you? And once you've answered that, how will the things you don't love but you can't change affect you as you go about your work?

For many people these questions arise anew now they are asked - or told - to return to the office for all or part of the time. We are pushed out of our now-normal routine and forced into a new one. We don't usually seek change, it is easier to keep going as we are. Inertia isn't just a force in the physical world. It is an energy-saving mechanism that serves us well in familiar environments. When an external decision  disrupts our routine we come off snooze. Since change is now unavoidable, we want to be in control of the change, ensure it will be good for us. 

People who joined in the last two years may not even have experience working in this company's office environment. They have never met their colleagues and are unfamiliar with the physical office space. They have to figure out the commute. But there is change for those who have been around for longer, too: they have new colleagues, lost some others, and they, too, have to work out all over how they fit the school run or day care or their daily run in with the commute and work.

All this newness can be exciting and threatening at the same time, even if not necessarily in equal measure. Some will see opportunity whereas others will crave more reassurance. As a leader you can help everyone on your team find their place in the new constellation and re-engage - once you are reasonably settled yourself. You cannot be worrying about your own engagement. You cannot fake this, you have to lead with conviction. Work on yourself first. To what extent do you feel like your work is meaningful and you belong in your company? Where do you see opportunity for you and your team? What scope are you comfortable giving your team to work out new rules of engagement together? What are you hesitant about? I can help you think this through, so you can show up with the energy and conviction to bring your team on board with you.

Once you have anchored your own engagement there's a few things you can do for your team:

Give the team clarity about what set rules there are, such as those imposed by company policy or laws and regulations. Your HR team can help with that. Make clear what room there is for discretion, and what the guiding principles are to agree ways of working that are consistent for everyone.

Help the team members find a new routine that works for them personally. You know my mantra: don't guess, ask them what they need. If there is no way you can give them what they're asking for, tell them, explain why, and work on viable alternatives with them. Think through which conversations you have in private, one to one, and which you have together as a team. Connect people to resources available in the company that can address practical questions.

It may be tempting to skip this step and only work at the level of the team. Don't. Look every person on your team in the eye - whether in-person or virtual - and ask them how you can set them up for success. Make them feel they matter to you as a person. And respect people's boundaries. All you can do is offer the space for them and hold it for them. Some people may take longer to build the confidence to step into that space.

Get the team to reconfirm how they will work together, within the room for discretion you've set earlier. Is everyone clear on everyone's roles and responsibilities? How will you share information with each other? What are expectations for in-person or remote presence and for working hours? What tools are in place to keep information flowing across time zones?

Moderate the team to avoid the opportunity seekers picking off the greatest spoils before the more hesitant team members have gotten themselves into gear. You'll learn in your one-to-one conversations where each person is at in terms of readiness to engage and what their hopes and concerns are. Help the team come together by regulating the pace. Keep them together. Up to a point, of course. There will come a point when you have critical mass in your boat. It'll make sense to pick up the pace then. You don't want a straggler to hold the whole team up. But that's a luxury problem, at this point.

Practice what you preach. Apply the agreed rules of engagement in your own way of working: if it is acceptable to attend the team meeting remotely or in person, make sure you switch up your own presence so nobody feels like there is a right choice they should be making. Design your hybrid meetings to give everyone as much equal footing as you can. If you say you want people to keep their evenings free, don't be showing off your own late evening work.

I can help you work up a road map for re-engaging your team. Get in touch!