When the week is long and find yourself struggling to stay focused, How do you keep your team enthusiastic and avoid the burnout?
We always leave time in our meetings to bond with silliness and personal stories. The laughter allows the team to relax. And we do lots of check-ins to ensure we are all doing ok and paddling in the same direction. Nothing worse than a bunch of ambitious rowers trying to move in different directions.
Thats awesome! Sounds like it would be fun and love that you all do check ins!
We always reserve 5-10 mins in company-wide standups or meetings to give shoutouts to each other. When you're stressed, you don't think about the things that went well. This way people are also recognized for the work they do that don't directly contribute the numbers. Once our team took turns and gave shoutouts to each other spontaneously, and it made us all realize how much we appreciated each other, it really made our entire day :)
Break up work into small but meaningful milestones -- it's encouraging to experience achievement and momentum as you clear those. My team also allows for a somewhat flexible schedule so that we work 9 hours Monday-Thursday and have half day Fridays -- this is a win/win because it can be extra hard to work up motivation on Fridays (so we're not wasting company time) and it gives us essentially a 3 day weekend every week to recharge.
I love this. I remember when I had half day Fridays and honestly it was the greatest. To be honest, I feel most people start to wind down on Fridays anyways, so it’s a great way to not only show your commitment to your employees but also not lose too many “working hours”. I also find that if there could be any happy hour events that don’t happen after working hours is also great. Let’s be real, most people don’t want to have to attend work functions outside of work hours. And as a company, you should also understand that providing “happy hours” for work, is also for the benefit of the company and not just the employees. So I think if there could be a time scheduled just to chat, but during work hours, is also great!
Positive reinforcement and giving teammates shout-outs/kudos. Start off meetings with some small talk/catch-up/quick temperature checks. I've also been hosting virtual games night about once per month (next one on October 29, so hopefully, I won't be the only person dressed up in a Halloween costume!) Personally, I also avoid booking meetings with anyone on Friday afternoons.