Our topic of the month for July has centred around effective leadership, clear communication and using the CPQQRT (Context, Purpose, Quality, Quantity, Timing and Resources) tool when delegating and assigning projects, tasks, or activities to your team.

Whether it’s the mid-year slump, the exhaustion of getting through the end of the financial year, or the long-term stress and uncertainty of COVID-19; people appear fatigued and as a result, it seems employees are losing focus or motivation in achieving their work deliverables.

Here are three key tips to help your team to refocus and at the same time provide them with much-needed support and a motivation boost.

1. Review, redefine and provide clarity on what the current priority work is.

As businesses continue to pivot and adapt to new operating environments and a changing workplace, it’s only natural that people may find it hard to adjust to the constant changes, feeling a little confused or disillusioned about what work is important and what is not.

Take the opportunity either at your upcoming Performance Development Review, next 1:1 meeting or team meeting to discuss the priority work for each of your employees. Help provide the context and purpose as to why this work is important to provide much-needed clarity so they can pitch their work at the right level, to the right audience and deliver you the right outcome.

2. Identify what ‘success looks like’ and involve your employees in the process.

Whilst you probably already know what you are wanting produced when assigning a task to one of your team members, don’t assume they know what you’re thinking and what that looks like in a deliverable. Employees aren’t mind readers!

Take a few minutes to have a two-way conversation with your employees to provide much-needed clarity and allow them the opportunity to ask questions and contribute to what the deliverable will look like. Your employee will feel more empowered when completing the task, have a sense of greater ownership, and feel like their thoughts and opinions are valued by you.

Leaders who use a more ‘direct and control’ leadership and communication style often find that their employees turn into ‘tick and flick’ mode.  This results in employees producing deliverables without using much initiative or effort. From the employee’s perspective, they have delivered you an outcome, even if the quality is less than expected. The result usually sees the leader doing more work than they had planned, delayed deliverables, and a mound of frustration for both the leader and employee!

3. Acknowledge, recognise, and appreciate.

To some leaders saying thank you to your employees for doing the work, they are paid to do might seem like overkill! Why would you thank your employees for just doing their job? People realise that the work they complete ‘whilst at work’ is what they are paid for. The reality though is most employees get their motivation and energy from feeling valued and appreciated.

Involving your team in the planning and decision-making process, seeking their feedback and ideas on what will be delivered, and valuing their contribution will go a long way. It might just get them thinking outside the square, delivering outcomes and results greater than planned and motivated to take on more challenges.

Action:

Have a quick think about the quality of work that is being delivered by your team. Is it meeting the standard you are after? Are you constantly having to redirect, rework, or complete tasks yourself? If this is the case then it might be time to reset expectations, change tact and provide greater clarity for your employees around what success looks like.

Maybe it’s even as simple as just saying thanks and recognising the effort the employee has put into delivering you a quality result. Either way, it’s a new financial year so it’s time to take a breath, reset, focus on what’s important, motivate, energise, and repeat.

Need support?

If you need support or ideas about how to implement this approach in your workplace, don’t hesitate to contact the team at BespokeHR. We’d be more than happy to help!