Have you ever had a day or two when you just didn’t feel like working? Nothing seemed that exciting? Perhaps you were just going through the motions and felt like you were on autopilot. It happens to everyone at some point in time for a variety of reasons.
As a leader, it is important that you think about how this could be happening to people on your team. They can fall into a rut, just as easily as you can. Each team member may handle it a little different. Some it may be very obvious, others you might not be able to tell. Either way, you will want to try to help as much as possible. The goal of working together is to be happy and productive, right? Being stuck in a rut can start to chip away at that. Let’s see how we can avoid that!
Here are 3 simple ideas you can implement to inspire your team.
- Change it up. Remember when the cool teacher would take the class outside? You would do the same work, learn the same stuff, but it was so neat to be outside. What can you do to change it up like that at work? Can you have your standard meeting off-site this week? How about bringing in food? What about trying a new way to do the same old work? Changing it up will inspire your team to look at things in a different light and maybe find a solution that was eluding them.
- Have a brainstorming session. When was the last time you all sat down and talked about what you would like the team to accomplish this month, year, or maybe even in the next few years? Carve out a couple hours and just let the ideas flow. Let the team dream of the perfect widget they would like to create together as a team. The crazier the idea the better. Getting those creative juices flowing, will help inspire your team to accomplish their current tasks so they can work on some new ones.
- Take some time to clean house. Many times teams work and work and work, and don’t necessarily stop and make time for organizing their tools. Take a day to wear jeans and reorganize the office. Maybe it’s even time to rearrange the furniture. Old files cluttering up space? Throw them out. Finding it hard to find things? Reorganize. Doing it as a team is a great way to bond, communicate about why something is needed (or not), and decide where things should be. Your team will be inspired with a fresh workspace. Heck, even a fresh smell might be nice.
In my past leadership roles, I found it useful to do this with my teams every so often. Sometimes it was because as their leader, I needed to get out of a rut. Other times it was because I could tell we needed to do something. It always seemed to help get us all out of that rut.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes! Do you have any other ideas to inspire your team to get out of a rut? Please share below!
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I like these simple approaches Emilie. It does not take much to reinvigorate people when you look at things from their perspective.
Thank you! Trying to keep it simple these days.
Thanks Emilie, great advice. I find that is helps sometimes to take some quiet time out to get back in the flow.
Ooh, quiet time. That’s one I will add to the list. Thank you for sharing Kelly!