In today’s often chaotic and uncertain world, many leaders are searching for answers. How can they manage competing deadlines and demands for their time whilst delivering optimum results-often with diminishing resources?

The solution starts with taking control of your immediate operating environment and yourself. If you are one of those people who wants to harness the power of mindset, ensure their energy is focused on the right things, and your stakeholders are managed more effectively then read on…

The Circle of Influence and Control

Steven Covey first introduced us to the concept of Circle of Influence/Circle of Control on his seminal work “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”.
It consists of the model pictured here:

Let’s break it down.

Firstly, at its heart, we have the Circle of Control. This is what we know and what we think we have control over within our lives and work environment. It is important here to recognise that sometimes we have much more control over certain situations than we realise. It might even take some courage to release control especially in a work environment.

Secondly, there is the Circle of Influence, this is where when we adopt a proactive mindset and behaviours, we can significantly alter our work environment, productivity and most importantly, enhance our reputation as a leader. This circle can be much larger than we assume.

Finally, there is the Circle of Concern. Covey has a straightforward piece of advice for matters that fall into this circle. Stop wasting your energy and time on these as they serve no immediate purpose to helping you be effective as a leader. We would suggest that even though you are rightly concerned, you may have little influence on the situation.

We once worked with a leadership group for one of our UK Clients. From the off we had a group of people who did not want to be in the room. By lunchtime the atmosphere had thawed slightly but people were still grumbling about how the theory was fine but, they could do little to impact their lives as leaders.

Time to introduce Covey’s Model and ask people to write on post-its what was stopping them being effective as leaders. About an hour later we had 150 plus post-its.

When grouped into categories, this led to a really useful dialogue where everyone was asked to elaborate and really question how much they could influence and how much they could truly control.

By doing this exercise, people arrived at less than 5 things holding them back. For them as individuals, the biggest reason was FEAR.

These leaders had become paralysed by fear of the unknown and eventually convinced themselves that their fear was justified.

By the way, after this exercise, the elephant in the room was well and truly rumbled and we had a great programme with over 50 Leaders.

When we feel a lack of control over events and situations, that’s when stress hits. This can cause all manner of outcomes and prolonged stress is not good for our physical and mental selves.

When faced with these events, we should spend some time capturing what is within or outside of our control and ask ourselves the following questions:

So having considered the Circle of Control let’s look at the Circle of Influence.

Whilst there will be lots of tools out there to help us find new ways of influencing people, we think there are 2-3 key areas that all leaders need to focus on in terms of boosting their personal influence and in turn, influencing others to act.

They are:

• Personal Brand
• Stakeholder Management
• Growth Mindset

When was the last time you considered the following Question:

Do I have a Personal Brand amongst my key stakeholders and if so, what is it?

This isn’t about making a human become a product or service but really thinking about what we project as a brand and how that impacts on others. Sometimes others’ views of us might be misplaced, perception has become a reality for them. But it may be that they view us from a distance or interpret our actions rather than get the opportunity to know us as a real person.

Our personal brand consists of our Values, our Strengths, Our Proposition and what makes us unique. What we project will influence if our people decide to follow us, believe in our purpose, and most importantly, engage fully with what we ask them to do every day. It may even influence our careers when Senior Management must make decisions about Projects/ promotions and career assignments.

So, perhaps it’s time to uncover your brand. Is it helping you to influence or holding people back from connecting with You? What do you want those you come into contact with to say about You as a Leader?

Secondly, Stakeholder Management has a big part to play in how we can influence people.

There are many models out there that illustrate ways of doing this but try this simple method with your own stakeholders.

1. Make a list of all those people in your network, your work context and perhaps some of those people outside your own organisation that you would like to connect with
2. Identify those people who you have a good relationship with and why
3. Identify those people who you know but don’t have a good relationship with. Which of these would you like to get to know better?
4. Consider how you can deepen existing relationships and how you can connect with those more distant stakeholders
5. Finally, if you need any help with No4 – who can help you?

Of course, there can be lots of different motivators for growing your stakeholder network such as:

• Growing a business or developing new client revenue
• Seeking a Mentor to help you develop yourself as a Leader
• Becoming more noticed in the organisation-raising your profile
• Getting people on side- helping you to achieve your business goals and objectives

When you focus in on your brand and deepen/broaden your stakeholder network it can be a powerful strategy for growing your influence!

Finally, let’s consider “Growth Mindset” (Dweck 2006).

In her book Dweck talks about both Fixed and Growth Mindsets where:

• Fixed Mindset = Closed to new thinking and ideas, resistant to change, perhaps believing there is nothing new to learn
• Growth Mindset = Open to new learning, embracing change positively and believing learning is endless.

Imagine if everyone in the world had embraced the Global Pandemic (Covid-19) with a Fixed Mindset.

Would we have seen global collaboration on vaccine development, business resilience to ensure they stayed afloat and perhaps even central government intervention to keep many millions of people working in the UK alone?

Translate that to your everyday life as a leader. What would concern you with a fixed mindset, how would that affect your Personal Brand and most importantly, what might go beyond your control?

Having a Growth Mindset is fundamental to effective leadership today. Gone are the days of heroic leaders with all the answers- perceived or real. Today’s turbulent, dynamic environment demands that we look to our people to harness their Strengths, Thinking Power and ability to think differently from us. We cannot do this from our ivory tower.

For them to respond effectively we need to create “Psychological Safety”. (Edmondson 2019). Edmondson describes this as Leaders creating an environment where people feel safe to innovate, be creative, challenge and speak out. When we create these conditions we enable Growth, we enable people to influence more and we help them to feel safe raising their concerns.

In our Case Study Example earlier how many of those leaders came to work every day beaten down by what they thought was beyond their control.

It was only when we created the psychologically safe environment for them to speak up and think through the Circle of Influence and Control that they built the strategies and courage to deal with them.

Questions to take away:

1. What is holding you back in your Circle of Concern and Influence?
2. Is your Personal Brand working for you or against you as a Leader? Why is that?
3. Are you really leveraging your stakeholder network?
4. Do you have a Fixed or Growth Mindset?
5. How are you creating Psychological Safety for your people? Or are you creating the conditions which hold them back from realising their full potential?

Love to know more? Then tune into our Interactive Webinar on 24.11.22 at 9.30am to hear Samantha Amit and Liz Needham working with other Senior Leaders discussing how not just to survive in the Post-Pandemic Era but thrive! To register:

To discover how the Team at Co-Creation can support you and your organisation to develop any of the topics in this insight, please get in touch with us via phone: 0161 969 2512, or email: info@co-creation.group

They started to look at people development and how this was best structured and delivered to people to help them learn and progress their careers. It was a seminal moment in that it shifted the emphasis from that of formal learning, done at a distance from the job to harnessing informal learning and emphasising the role of the manager as a learning enabler (Coach/Mentor).

This was also the catalyst for change in proactive L and D functions- often meaning reduced spend, less formal learning sponsored by the business and the promotion of more online learning resources.

Lombardo et al named their theory “The 70:20:10 Rule”.

They broke this down to propose an effective use of resources/time spent on learning and the methodology for delivering/realising the learning outcomes as follows:

10% Coursework and Formal Training

20% Coaching/Mentoring instigated by the Line Manager

70% Learning through experience/challenging assignments

This resulted in new concepts being introduced such as developing Line Manager Coaching Skills and Personal Development Planning. The message was all about giving learners flexibility to learn via a variety of mediums, a greater focus on learning on the job and empowering learners to search out new learning resources.

Nothing much has changed in this application over the past two decades except perhaps the increasing use of self-directed learning via online resources.

How should we be approaching this as we begin to emerge from lockdowns, furlough and the ravages of the pandemic?

How can we re-evaluate how we apply this model in trying to onboard new people, re-board existing staff from furlough and attract new Talent into our organisation?

Let’s take each element of the model in turn and apply it to learning in the Post-COVID Era.

Firstly, Coursework and Formal Training

Much of this has moved online over the past year or so. Whilst this has meant a boost to efficiency and certainly some people don’t miss the travel involved in attending learning, it has also meant that we have missed out on areas like collaboration, teamwork, innovation and socialisation.

Many of these areas are rooted in the need for us to connect as humans, in order to build Trust and therefore feel comfortable to suggest ideas, innovate and offer support and help to each other.

Think about on boarding people-how will this operate if you move to a full or part hybrid working model? Whilst it can be efficient to ensure they have the knowledge to carry out their role how can you enable them to feel they belong, are part of something and ultimately want to stay?

Many of our clients are working with this challenge and are setting up collaboration groups, converting offices to social hubs and assigning mentors/buddies to each new starter to help them feel part of the culture. To effectively onboard people and help them fully engage, online modules or zoom training is only part of the solution.

Secondly, the Manager as a Coach/Mentor

Anyone in a leadership or management role now will be experiencing a fundamental shift in the expectations of their followers. Work and Life have become increasingly intertwined- with people often expecting their leader to solve life problems or at the very least demonstrate compassion, empathy and understanding.

We predict this will be the biggest issue for leaders to deal with on a personal basis and then find a way to be more impactful for their teams as we navigate 2020 and beyond.

Giving people time, listening with empathy and then helping them find a way to navigate new challenges and opportunities through Coaching and Mentoring will be critical skills for leaders to adopt. For some leaders this will be challenging- having to have conversations using a range of softer skills- when perhaps they are more comfortable with feeling in control of situations, working with logic and being rational.

Finally – Learning through Experience/Challenging Assignments

This requires many of the skills mentioned above for leaders to develop. They also need to create a culture where learning, reflection and self-awareness are valued. To realise the learning from this time fully leaders need to create:

1. Opportunities for individuals and teams to collaborate and reflect on learnings from day-to-day work.
2. Opportunities for people to discover and deploy their Strengths as well as working on their potential performance blockers.
3. The view that all work can be a learning environment not just about ticking boxes and task completion.

Fundamentally- our people have learnt a lot about themselves, their work and how to overcome challenges in the past year. How can we capture the learning from this, ensure we don’t slip backwards into old habits and really harness the joy of getting rid of processes and procedures that just don’t work anymore!

At Co-Creation we help Individuals, Teams and Organisations to:

• Build Cultures that harness the Strengths of everyone to solve new problems with creativity, collaboration and an open mind to the value of learning-using our Strengthscope ™ Products
• Consider their Mindset and how it is impacting their performance- using tools such as Engage ™ to develop Openness to Change, Confidence in their People and enabling them to perform at their best
• Build leadership capability to navigate the Post COVID-Era- getting rid of old habits and creating new capability for The Leadership Revolution!

It’s time to re-think 70:20:10, equip your leaders to deliver on it and energise your workforce!

Are you seeking support with leading your teams through the post-COVID era? Call Co-Creation on +44 7876 024555 to speak with a member of our specialist team or email us for further guidance on how to manage change using a strengths-based approach on  info@co-creation.group

He proposed that as a human race we had witnessed many scandals, challenges to what we were educated in and media reporting that had been framed to hide the truth.

Some might argue that with the dawn of Trumpism, Corporate Scandals and Political Events then establishing the Truth has become even more difficult. The distortion of Truth with terminology such as “fake news” has become even more prevalent in some circles.

Taking this further then, we are all much more challenged in terms of Who and What to Trust. John Blakey in his book “The Trusted Executive” (2020 Second Edition) highlighted Trust as the No1 Factor that CEOs are being judged on by Investors, Consumers and Public Opinion.

Finally, we have seen the acceleration of Focus on the areas of Truth and Trust as Global pandemic of 2020 unfolded with the “tectonic plates” of world order starting to shift substantially.

In 2020/21 we are seeing:

1. BP downsize its efforts on oil exploration and begin restructuring their business to achieve the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050
2. Shell buying the largest network of electric charging points in the UK
3. Unilever insisting that all of their suppliers pay a minimum wage
4. Social upheaval and protest around BLM, Anti Vaxxers and the Sarah Everard case in the UK
5. Investors looking more closely at Executive Pay, Environmental Activities and Executive Morals

This creates huge challenges for us, as leaders. Whether we lead an organisation at the most Senior Level or lead a team at the sharp end of a business/organisation then society demands more from us.

So what do I believe needs to happen? 

Much of what is occurring has begun at Senior Levels in Politics, Business, Academia and Investment Funds. They are driving the change and demanding from each other.

So, organisations need to start looking at Purpose, Culture and what they contribute to their People and The Environment, whilst maintaining a profitable operation.

For people to embrace these changes fully they need to feel Psychologically safe.

In her book “The Fearless Organisation” Carol Edmondson explored this concept and how it is manifested in a number of case studies she has outlined in the book. She gives examples of what good looks like as well as examples of how when Psychological safety has been missing.

There is a clear business advantage for organisations to ensure everyone feels psychologically safe. Here are the key principles which underline what Carol proposes:

• People having the freedom to contribute ideas and suggestions
• An organisational respect for Diversity and Inclusion
• Permission to speak up to raise concerns, anxieties, issues, without fear
• Harnessing diverse, multi-talented, distributed workforces equipped to face the unique challenge presented during and post the COVID-Era

Of course, much if this cannot be achieved overnight and it relies on actions, clear boundaries, and role- modelling at the senior level for people to trust the intent. Its also about helping people connect emotionally and helping them to feel psychologically safe.

The Fundamental Ingredient…

.. Is TRUST!

In 2000, Charles Green et al published their work “The Trusted Adviser”. Central to that publication was something called the “Trust Equation”

Looking through the key components they outlined:

• Credibility– having the depth and breadth of knowledge to look and sound as if you know what you are talking about
• Reliability– Doing what you say you are going to do
• Intimacy– getting to know the other party or person. What are their needs and wants? How do you connect with them, adjusting your approach and communication style?

In my work with leaders globally, I often talk about this equation and it always leads to a discussion about self-interest. This is when an individual puts themselves or their needs above those of others. Perhaps they not being transparent, offering the best terms or seeking personal advantage rather than striving for the best outcome for all stakeholders.

When an individual operates from apposition of self-interest, they put at risk Credibility and Reliability and most importantly the chance of being Trusted.

So, in shaping organisations and cultures to respond to the changing demands of all stakeholders and ensuring there is a culture of Psychological safety leaders need to operate to build Trust and be Trusted. Without this people will not be prepared to engage and the tangible commercial benefits of a psychologically safe culture will be put at risk or just not be delivered

In my view, The Leadership Revolution – is about Culture, how Executive Leaders respond to the changing world order and if people feel genuinely safe to challenge, innovate, call out bad practice and work to their Strengths.

What traits, qualities and abilities should we be looking for in those who create our work cultures- the leaders and managers reporting into the Executive Leaders?

The demands on leaders and the expectations of their followers were starting to shift long before COVID.

With the entry of Gen Y and now Gen Z into the workforce they are shifting the dynamic on how they rate their leaders and their ability to lead.

Gone are the days when leaders could just control and lead with authority- they need a much broader skillset. In the 2000s Engagement, Inspiration and Empowerment were buzzwords in Leadership Development and OD. Leadership education started to focus on how leaders could harness intrinsic motivation, rather than just expecting people to show up and always do a great job.

COVID has accelerated the need to build that skill set substantially in a set of new and emerging skills. Some of which need to deal with the merging of home and social life into the work arena.

Carol Edmondson articulates the skills required to develop the “Psychologically Safe” culture as :

• Framing the work- being honest about the opportunities and the challenges
• Explaining the Purpose- going beyond the framed words in the office foyer to bringing the Purpose alive and communicating it
• Leading with situational humility
• Asking questions with proactive enquiry
• Having systems and structure that enable psychological safety
• Being more appreciative- even when things go wrong
• Destigmatising failure
• Sanctioning clear violations

I think these behaviours, skills and actions will be essential to lead people through COVID and create a new world order in terms of inspiring, motivating and attracting followers.

Let the Revolution Begin!

We will be exploring this at Co-Creation’s next interactive virtual event – “The Leadership Revolution” April 22^nd 10.30-11.30am – click here to register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvc-2vqDwtHtdsYYvLepzqj62tJk-ikwsK

At Co-Creation we are passionate about helping our customers create positive environments to help their people succeed and thrive in high performing organisations. If you want to know more about how then contact us on  info@co-creation.group

2020 has brought a new dynamic in leadership – COVID-19.

Leaders globally are facing the new reality each day of getting through the COVID Era whilst trying to navigate a path to a viable future state as a business. Day to day pressures such as cashflow, consumer behaviours and lock down restrictions mean they are fighting to survive and at the same time looking to develop sustainable business models for the future which is very much VUCA!

VUCA, Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity was coined in the 1990s by the American Military as they fought new wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. To help meet this threat they developed a whole new way of conducting warfare in response to unprecedented tactics by their enemy.

Of course, it isn’t just leaders who are struggling to engage with this new reality. Followers (People) are impacted too. Research is identifying a number of challenges for Followers:

• Challenges to motivation levels as they struggle to cope with daily demands and identify with past future goals
• Family life complexity with rules around lockdown, children away from school and working from home
• Anticipation of fractured workplaces, split by events such as furlough, childcare issues, time off work to shield and ignorance of social distancing rules

I’m sure you could think of several more!

Now is the time for Leaders to step up and start leading again, whilst drawing on their reserves of Resilience, being authentic and perhaps ignoring some of their own needs. (Not advised for long periods – you are only human)

You may have seen one of my earlier blogs with the COVID -19 Leadership Model – in case you missed it, here it is:

C – Communication

O – Opportunity

V – Visibility

I – Innovation

D – Downtime

The key principles that underpin the model are:

• Communicate frequently, authentically and with honesty
• Look for opportunities to improve your process, systems, and capability of your people
• Be Visible – your people need to see you, even in a virtual world
• Innovate – to be more efficient, generate new business opportunities and get rid of worn out processes that hold you back
• Make sure you factor in down time – even if you only have 20 minutes to spare in the day!

In our activity since then, listening to clients, coaching leaders and taking on board thought leadership from around the world we have identified lots more in terms of great ideas, tips and hints to help you navigate the COVID-Era as a leader.

In summary we have captured these as:

LISTEN!

LEARN!

LIVE IT!

Let’s take a look at these in a bit more detail:

LISTEN!

Leaders all over the world are looking for answers. They want to create certainty, to get people back on track and ensure their organisation can survive. Of course, in the VUCA world this can be really challenging- perhaps for some impossible. So make more time to listen to your people. It will have three key benefits:

• People will feel valued
• They will come up with ideas that you had not thought of
• You will get a real sense of the organisational mindset and take actions to address this based on what you are hearing not what you are assuming

LEARN!

Having listened then you can take away ideas, reflections and the real mood of the people to begin implementing ideas, structuring communication and taking your organisation forward.

In addition to this take time to look at other organisations, thought leaders, events in other economies. What can you learn from them? What mistakes have they made that you can avoid?

Finally:

LIVE IT!

Having endured lockdown both personally and professionally what will you LOCK IN to your leadership style, what will be become permanent in terms of ways of working?

Don’t just be that person in a crisis – to be truly authentic you need to LIVE IT!

Our next complimentary webinar – COVID to CLARITY  takes place on Monday 7^th Sept, 2:00 – 3:00pm (BST) to register please follow the link https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpcO2prjouGt21kMjHcTTb0ibuEe5lw6Fz

Do you need support in developing your Leadership strategy? Contact Co-Creation on +44 7876 024555 or email info@co-creation.group, our specialist consultants would be delighted to help.

We will be looking at this topic through four lenses suggested by McGregor and Doshi (2015). They are:

• Commitment
• Morale
• Efficiency
• Development

Firstly, let’s look at Commitment, and how it may be tested both during the current pandemic and when we transition towards the “new reality” in our way of working.

The starting point for me is to remember that one person’s motivator is not the same as another’s. People and their personal motivators will be challenged and may be confused because of COVID-19.

Research is telling us that people are split into several camps in terms of their attitude to work:

• Wanting to return to work and find some structure
• Not wanting to be a commuter anymore
• A desire to work flexibly
• A disconnection with their work, it’s practices, culture, process and expectations
• Considering a different career path

So, trying to engender commitment in your people is going to require a lot of energy and time investment to align both organisational needs and employee motivators.

Why invest the time?

Because when people are more committed, they are more engaged in their work. Research tells us that engaged employees are:

• 17% more productive
• Likely to get up to 10% higher customer satisfaction ratings
• Likely to have up to 70% fewer safety incidents

(Gallup)

Secondly, let’s consider Morale in the workplace.

Let us consider one of the many definitions of morale:

“the attitude, satisfaction and overall outlook of employees during their association with an organization or a business. An employee that is satisfied and motivated at workplace usually tend to have a higher morale than their counterparts.( questionpro.com)

What connects both ends of my working life and what I understand by morale is that it is about a state of mind, rather than a competence, capability or skill, and it’s the employee who ultimately can take action to change their mindset but leaders need to encourage them and challenge negativity.

In the workplace our Mindset can be influenced by many factors including:

• Communication
• Leadership and Management actions
• Disruptive employees
• External Events
• Individual Wellbeing and Mental Health

Surprisingly all organisations have a cohort of employees who are actively disengaged with their work. Research tells us that up to 30-40% of employees are actively disengaged.

The third area proposed by McGregor and Doshi is Efficiency

If we are to address this perhaps it is really time to invest not just in the skills of leaders and managers but also their mindset about how they actively inspire their people and motivate them to look for opportunities.

At Co-Creation we help leaders and managers develop this approach using Strengths based techniques. This revolves around two core propositions:

1. Look at every employee and what they can achieve by identifying and working with their Strengths- what motivates and energises them-rather than restricting them to job titles and descriptions
2. As a Leader step away from the self-imposed expectation of having all the answers- engage the people you have-they could transform the problem into a solution

By working in this way employees will feel involved, valued, and see themselves as a stakeholder in your business performance.

Finally, let’s take a look at Team Development

As a Junior Manager in the 80’s, fired up and making lots of mistakes I was introduced to a book called “The One Minute Manager” (Blanchard/Johnson 1982). I recall many things from the book but the most profound was the phrase “Catch Your People doing something Right!”.

For some companies this will be a challenging mantra as the pressure of recession, company failures and potentially failing markets for their product forces leaders to focus on the short term.

Of course, there will also be those companies that have to re-engineer their product, service and proposition to stay relevant.

Want to know more about any of these topics and how we can help you measure the current mindset of your employees leading to robust actions to help you maximise your team’s performance? As part of our ongoing series, we are hosting a free webinar – “Motivation – Maximising My Team’s Performance” June 29^th, 10.30-11.30am join us via the link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0sduihpzkrGtYVjJkW4eg9wuEQ9RlIGOIK

Navigating challenges surrounding motivation is essential during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 continues to have a profound impact on our lives, from a personal and professional perspective. Despite the unprecedented nature of the events that are taking place, leaders must continue to motivate members of their team to sustain performance.

The Benefits of Employee Motivation

Motivational skills are essential for leaders because they have a direct influence on employee performance and the facilitation of company objectives. When a leader successfully motivates their team, this has multiple benefits, such as:

Heightened Commitment

When employees are motivated, they apply themselves, improving their effort when completing tasks. Therefore, this improves the overall quality of the work completed.

Improved Morale

Morale is essential for any aspiring company. Motivation inspires team spirit and optimism, prompting positive growth for an organisation.

Greater Efficiency

Ability and qualifications aren’t the only contributory factors for efficiency levels; when a leader inspires their team members and offers motivational support, this generates a desire for the employee to perform the task to the best of their ability.

Team Development

When a leader motivates a member of their team and the employee achieves targets or goals, they recognise the value of hard work. This can act as a strong source of motivation to work harder and pursue new skills that can also benefit the team as a whole. 

Why Adaptability is Essential When Motivating

According to the Chinese proverb: The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher.

While circumstances have changed, this doesn’t mean that leaders can’t successfully inspire and motivate their teams by adopting an adaptable approach.   

This is the time for leaders to consider the adverse state of affairs when trying to motivate their team and adopt a more personable, structural approach to keep teams engaged, boost morale and successfully achieve goals. 

For instance, in his podcast, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Virtual Team, Patrick Lencioni suggests that now is the time to be ‘human’ as a Leader; Lencioni focuses on this by saying that vulnerability is key for leaders to build trust.

Given the wide berth of negative stimuli from multiple sources, including television, radio and newspapers, there’s potential for members of a team to become fixated on the negatives, adopt a fixed mindset and follow the path of limitation.

Therefore, leaders have an essential role to play in establishing positivity, leading by example and motivating their team to ensure that they follow the path of possibility and develop a growth mindset. In doing so, this will act as a greater source of motivation and generate output.

To manage negativity and motivate team members, leaders need to identify potential sources of external pressures that could be present within their team and be ready to empathise.

Potential Negative Motivators

To motivate team members, leaders need to identify drivers of negativity that could be present within their team.

Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi identified three negative motivators that could have a detrimental impact on team motivation and overall performance. These include:

1. Emotional Pressure
2. Economic Pressure
3. Inertia

COVID-19 has prompted a rise in emotional and economic pressure, with many worrying about rent, mortgage payments and loved ones, while basic tasks such as food shopping carry a risk. It’s anticipated that Inertia amongst workers working remotely could increase, with people questioning the validity of work, given the overall circumstances.

However, there are positive motivators that can be implemented, in a bid to counteract the fixed mindset, in turn, boosting motivation within their team.

Positive Motivators

McGregor and Doshi identified three positive motivators that have the potential to improve motivation and enhance work performance.

Play

With arrangements currently in place whereby workers aren’t meeting their colleagues face-to-face, there’s a strong possibility that conversations, emails, telephone calls and video calls will be dominated solely by work tasks. 

Leaders need to strike a balance between work and play to ensure that their team remains motivated, as endorsed by Dr Heidi Edmundson, who adopted this mindset whilst working for the NHS.  

Despite the current circumstances, there are ways that leaders can follow suit innovatively to ensure that members of their team aren’t missing the joy of the office. For instance, many companies are hosting virtual quizzes for staff members to alleviate stress and enable them to catch up with peers.

Purpose

In his talk The Why, Simon Sinek stated, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”.

Team members know what their role is and how they do it, but in some instances, they may not know why it’s important.

Leaders must ensure that colleagues are aware of why they’re important and why their work is essential to ensure that they don’t lose sight of their role and purpose.

Potential

The work of McGregor and Doshi indicates that motivation amongst staff could decline if team members are unable to gain access to colleagues who can teach them and develop their skills.

Setting goals can act as a source of motivation for team members who may be prone to disengagement. High, yet attainable goals offer members of the team short and long-term focus and can act as a source of motivation to steer them to the path of possibility, as outlined in our earlier piece focusing on Resilience and Wellbeing.

Therefore, leaders need to consider whether development opportunities within their team have been compromised, and if so, why is this the case?

Measures should be put in place whereby team members can continue fulfilling their potential. For example, if staff have been furloughed, introducing training courses can develop valuable skills and indicate to team members that you value their role within the business during the post-COVID-19 era.

Furthermore, companies such as Tesco currently have 50,000 people sick or self-isolating due to coronavirus. Therefore, an influx of temporary staff has been employed, therefore, bringing a wide berth of unknown strengths into the company. In such instances, leaders should think innovatively to ensure that these untapped skillsets are being used within their workforce.

In five years, people will talk about their leader during COVID-19. How will you help them write the narrative by your actions today?

Do you need advice on how to motivate your team? Contact Co-Creation on +44 7876 024555 or email info@co-creation.group, our specialist consultants would be delighted to help.

During times of adversity, leaders are expected to offer guidance and navigate their team through challenging times, but given the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, how can we lead in a manner that will inspire hope, instil confidence and sustain productivity? Co-Creation’s COVID-19 Leadership Model has been designed to offer guidance on how to lead during this challenging period, focusing on five core areas: Communication, Opportunity, Visibility, Innovation and Downtime. Communication is a core trait for a leader; communicative efforts must be sustained during the current pandemic, to maintain client relations, manage staff morale and convey professional expectations. Current circumstances have presented leaders with an opportunity to remould their leadership edge and become the leader that they want to be. For instance, recent developments will prompt leaders to make changes to company practice, learn new skills, become more resilient and motivate their workforce. However, in doing so, they must maintain Visibility. With social distancing and self-isolation prohibiting companies from meeting in-person, there are alternatives such as video calls that can be used to liaise with clients and offer support for staff. Innovation is a key for companies wishing to maintain visibility and incorporating an innovative mindset can enable leaders and their colleagues to sustain progress, rather than regress during COVID-19. Current circumstances increase the existing challenges affiliated with being a leader, therefore, Downtime is pivotal to negate the likelihood of burnout and diminished work amongst a workforce.

COVID-19 Leadership Model

How to lead effectively during the Coronavirus pandemic

During times of adversity, leadership is considered an inspirational trait, particularly during instances such as COVID-19.

Therefore, the necessary measures must be implemented to facilitate peak performance within your team.

Co-Creation’s COVID-19 Leadership Model has been designed to offer guidance on how to lead effectively during this unfamiliar period.

Communication

Effective communication is essential when expressing ideas to a team and sharing valuable information with a wider audience.

Maintaining Communication with Your Team During COVID-19

Despite current restrictions imposed by social distancing and self-isolation, there are contingencies that leaders have put in place to sustain communication.

Video platforms have been invaluable for leaders and workers in maintaining communication; the estimated net worth of Zoom’s founder has increased by more than $4bn since the coronavirus crisis started, with many recognising the importance of continuing communication.

Moreover, with the effects of coronavirus on mental health falling under the microscope, communication between leaders and staff is paramount.

Research by The University of Sheffield revealed that 38% of study participants reported significant depression and 36% reported significant anxiety. This indicates that leaders must make themselves accessible and engage with their staff to boost morale, reduce anxiety and improve productivity.

Sharing Your Vision

While company targets are variable, certain goals will remain the same.

Communication plays a fundamental role in the completion of goals, and leaders must convey strategies to their team to complete tasks successfully.

Moreover, with the vast majority now working remotely, leaders must also reaffirm renewed expectations and principles. In many instances, new setups will mean that the team needs to operate differently.

During this period, a leader needs to maximise the potential of their team. Every employee will have areas whereby they can flourish and spotting opportunities can maximise output, mitigate risk and enhance the customer experience.

Opportunity

COVID-19 has presented a window of opportunity whereby senior figures can assess their style of leadership and remodel themselves as the leader that they want to be.

Many leaders will make changes to company practice, learn new skills, become more resilient and motivate their workforce.

Sparking Engagement Amongst Your Team 

While leaders are continually assessing their team and considering the tools at their disposal, COVID-19 presents an opportunity for leaders to engage with their team.

The pandemic has prompted leaders to consider what strengths can be identified through communicative methods including coaching, deep listening or interactive feedback.

In providing bespoke advice for members of their team, leaders can develop and train employees and prompt enhanced performance, whilst simultaneously refining their leadership edge.

Visibility

Social distancing and self-isolation have had an impact on how a business operates, with workers being told to work from home.

While leaders cannot lead in a conventional sense, there are alternative means in which they can stay visible within their respective sector.

Maintaining Visibility Via Video Conferencing

Businesses are feeling the effects of not being able to converse with their clients and colleagues in-person.

To combat these challenges, many are acknowledging the benefits of video conferencing and maintaining their overall visibility.

While some may not be accustomed to using technology and prefer to speak on the telephone, face-to-face communication is deemed as the more preferable option. 

Human communication consists of 93% body language and paralinguistic cues, while just 7% consists of words. Video conferencing allows people to interpret facial expressions and decipher subtleties and non-verbal signals conveyed during a video call, while telephone calls are purely auditory.

Moreover, face-to-face visibility offered when communicating via video call is often greater received by a client.

In a survey by Forbes, 84% of participants preferred face-to-face communication. Of those, 85% indicated that it builds more meaningful business relationships. Additionally, respondents also said that face-to-face meetings are best for persuasion (91%), leadership (87%), and engagement (86%).

How Can Leader Visibility Benefit Staff?

It’s essential for a leader to also stay visible for the benefit of their workers.

Despite the pandemic’s relative infancy, there’s been a resounding impact on mental health; 36% of Americans have indicated that coronavirus has had an impact on their mental wellbeing, while 31% of the population say they’re sleeping less because of coronavirus-related anxiety.

In remaining visible, leaders can play a pivotal role in providing support during the current circumstances. If workers’ morale is low, offering support and listening to any problems can be an invaluable source of assistance.

Innovation

A leader can innovate by making subtle amendments to how their team operates during times of change.

While COVID-19 has posed challenges, leaders have identified solutions that have reduced the overall impact on productivity, with the likes of Rolls Royce and Dyson combining their acumen to design and build thousands of ventilators to help those affected by the pandemic.

Sustaining Progress Creatively

An innovative mindset can be implemented to sustain progress within your company.

Having identified strengths amongst their team, leaders often attribute value to these traits and encourage members of their team to be innovative and think creatively, particularly during instances such as the COVID-19 pandemic whereby collaboration is needed.

It’s pivotal that a worker’s craft isn’t prohibited by their job title; staff at all levels must be encouraged to think creatively and be granted the licence to communicate viewpoints to facilitate both short and long-term goals.

COVID-19 has sparked creativity amongst SMEs and large-scale organisations; with the likes of Rolls Royce and Dyson combining their acumen to design and build thousands of ventilators to help those affected by the pandemic.

Downtime

Being a leader is enjoyable but it can be a demanding responsibility.

Therefore, it’s essential to recuperate, reflect, exercise and rest; when a leader becomes fatigued and ineffective, the output of a team can be compromised and overall productivity is hindered.

This view is endorsed by Dr Amanda Super’s webinar, that indicates self-compassion increases resilience and mental wellbeing, especially in times of difficulty.

 When leaders are taking time out, they should inform their team. Not only does this encourage your team to follow suit, but it also demonstrates vulnerability. While leaders are often strong-minded, they aren’t invincible and taking a break ensures that they can recharge their batteries and perform to their optimum potential.

Applying your leadership traits is essential during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Call Co-Creation on +44 7876 024555 or email info@co-creation.group for advice on how to coordinate your team effectively.

Introducing pertinent methodology befitting of your company’s circumstances can be the difference between your grand ambitions thriving or ending prematurely.

Therefore, the second leadership habit is of the utmost importance as you strive to rouse your team, inspire peak performances and spark engagement.

How to Spark Engagement

It’s important to introduce methods that will empower, inspire and motivate people throughout your company to engage with tasks, prompting them to work collaboratively, whilst taking accountability for their actions.

Focus on Strengths Within Your Team

While a team member may be performing in their designated role, sometimes team members aren’t fulfilling their potential; there are instances whereby they can be utilised more beneficially.

Put yourself in the shoes of an employee: When was the last time that you truly felt energised and absorbed within a role? Consider what your employer did that made the role particularly enjoyable and implement these methods within your practice.

Give your employees a voice and encourage them to identify and understand their strengths and feedback on how they can be a truly valuable member of the team. Providing your team with the chance to speak up enables them to communicate their strengths that may otherwise slip under the radar if they aren’t allowed to provide their input. After listening to your team and considering their suggestions, roles can then potentially be allocated.

If an employee is working in a role that they’re passionate about and plays into their strengths, they’ll devote more time and effort, engaging with their responsibilities on a greater level and offering the company with a greater return on investment.

Delegate Effectively

In business, time is of the essence. Therefore, it’s important to delegate tasks strategically amongst your team.

Clear, effective delegation amongst your team is imperative. This will dispel lapses in communication and help you to achieve your desired working outcomes.

The following process will enable you to delegate effectively and prioritise important matters within your schedule:

• Establish what your desired outcome is; it’s important to delegate outlining the outcome you’d like to achieve, rather than micromanaging and focusing on current circumstances;
• Ensure that the task is delegated to an appropriate person;
• Make it clear what your expectations are and check-in with their expectations;
• Ask individuals or groups why they consider the task to be important, to ensure you’re on the same wavelength;
• Request an action plan;
• Make it clear when to ask for help;
• Give a definitive timeframe for the task and confirm the deadline via email.

Provide Continual Feedback

Feedback is essential for any business; employees need to be told where they’re performing well and where improvements need to be made.

In providing measures of sales regularly, a company and its employees can identify what measures can be enforced to ensure that targets are fulfilled.

Moreover, developmental and positive feedback should be introduced by leaders to prompt new behaviours and improvements, or to ensure that high standards are maintained.

Case Study: How Does Michelle Spark Engagement Within Her Team?

After establishing and sharing her vision, Michelle is now at a stage whereby she has to spark engagement amongst her team. Beforehand, she has to consider three important queries: Who is on the team? What are their strengths? What tasks need to be completed to align with the vision that’s she has shared?

Michelle has to liaise with the senior management team to establish how they envision each person’s role, ensuring that objectives aren’t only completed, but accomplished to a level whereby each person within the team is offering concentrated value.

Within her vision, Michelle outlined ambitions for sales to increase by 5% by the end of the year. Therefore, focuses on the strengths of each team member to enhance the likelihood of the target being achieved and potentially surpassed. Michelle considers whether the existing sales team are equipped with sufficient resources and whether there’s an adequate workforce currently occupying the sales positions.

Michelle has to ascertain whether ample building blocks and foundations are in place that will enable the company to succeed. If Michelle identifies any staff members who can improve their output, she must offer developmental feedback in an attempt to encourage new habits within the team.

It’s important to ensure that a sales team comprises specialist salespeople, not employees without sales experience. Michelle, the senior management team and the sales manager needs to have the unwavering support and engagement of the sales team; if this isn’t the case, then this can thwart the facilitation of goals and prevent targets from being reached.

Additionally, a target has also been set whereby one new product has to be introduced for a clinical trial by July, with key considerations again considered to ensure that the practicalities are in place that will permit tasks to be assigned to people who are specialists within the relevant field.

During this process, Michelle considers which members of the product innovation team are best suited to take the product to trial

Having identified who will perform each role, the emphasis now shifts to how the talent will successfully implement their skillsets. We’ll concentrate on this topic in the next blog piece.

Are your employees disengaged? Do you need guidance on how to spark engagement and unlock potential throughout your workforce? Call Co-Creation on +44 7876 024555 to speak with a member of our specialist team or email us to find out how we can help you effectively interact with your workforce.