At a recent leadership retreat, I was reminded that resolve is a key component to improving both personally and organizationally. Lasting change cannot occur without resolve. But when motivation wanes, how exactly can we encourage our employees (and ourselves) to be proactive and push forward with our goals?
Our lives and workplaces are filled with distractions, and motivation can only propel us for so long before we start to lose steam. While personal resolve might keep us committed to staying on course, willpower and determination are what ultimately lead to accomplishing our goals.
If the winter blues is affecting workplace morale, here are five ways to encourage your team to push through and be proactive.
Have a Clear Purpose
Knowing what you want is the foundation of lasting change, but if your purpose is unclear to your team, they’ll quickly lose focus and steam. Be proactive by clearly laying out your company values, goals, and procedures.
Even more importantly, emphasize your why. In other words, why, exactly, does the company do what it does, and why is it so important? Keep it simple and focus on your most important goal. That way, there’s no room for confusion and your team will have an easier time staying on track.
Be Honest With Yourself
By setting unrealistic or unattainable goals, you’re setting your team up for failure and almost guaranteeing they’ll lose motivation early on. While there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big, you’ll find your team is more motivated to be proactive (and, as a result, is more successful) when those big dreams are broken into smaller, more realistic goals.
Be honest with yourself when it comes to goal setting. What are your and your employees’ strengths, and how can you leverage them to address the change you seek? Once you have a set of honest, realistic goals, you can create a plan to achieve them.
Make a Plan
Even the most productive, hard-working people have off days, and there’s nothing wrong with admitting that to yourself. Likewise, it’s important that you understand that your employees will have those days, too.
Instead of expecting 100% perfection, make a plan to get back on track. Encourage your team to take breaks when necessary and be proactive in the ways that they can — even when motivation is low. Sometimes, all it takes is a short coffee break or a walk around the block to regain inspiration.
Make It Public
Making your intentions public is a great way to hold yourself accountable for your goals. Encourage your team to vocalize their professional goals, and hold consistent team meetings where you go over your intentions as a company. In both cases, it helps to lay out the steps you’re taking to realize those goals.
Most importantly, foster a supportive, judgment-free environment where your employees feel comfortable sharing their obstacles and failures. A workplace where people know they can fail is one where they feel more comfortable taking risks and are less likely to lose motivation or become stagnant.
Move Past Your Comfort Zone
We all have personal preferences and find comfort in our routines. Encourage your employees to be proactive by aiming outside of their comfort zones and approaching obstacles with different perspectives.
By creating a unified workplace where employees can bounce ideas off one another, you can prevent methods from becoming repetitive and nurture a revolving door of new ideas and approaches.
Resolve is the key ingredient in all personal and corporate change efforts. Wishing for your employees to be proactive is too passive to make a difference when motivation begins to wane. Instead, try fostering a workplace where employees feel comfortable making mistakes and taking risks to achieve their goals.
How do you encourage your team to be proactive? Let me know in the comments!