4 Questions for Team Leaders as 2023 Ends

As 2023 draws to a close, you might find yourself in a whirlwind of year-end tasks, deadlines and holiday preparations. In the middle of all that, you might not have had the chance to take a step back and assess the broader picture of how your team is faring. But as we approach the new year, it's crucial to set aside time to reflect. Taking a pause to evaluate the collective journey of your team over the past year can provide invaluable insights on the path you should take going forward. Use these questions to help you take the pulse of your team and identify what they might need from you.

Image by Alexa from Pixabay

What does your team’s stress level look like? As a leader, it’s crucial to recognize the symptoms of burnout on your team and to address them quickly. The effects of long-term stress (which we’ve all been experiencing!) can show up in different ways. For example, you may have noticed that your team members don’t seem as focused as they used to, or that communication feels strained. If your team members are showing signs of burnout, affirm your commitment to their well-being and look for ways to address the situation. Do you need to adjust workloads, deadlines, or the pace of work? Do team members need more support to navigate any changes or uncertainty? 

How can you help team members manage their energy? To address stress and burnout, you can also ensure that team members have the resources they need to maintain balance and sustain high performance. Leaders play a pivotal role in fostering a supportive environment that encourages overall well-being. Encourage healthy habits like regular breaks, setting boundaries between work and personal time, and actually using vacation days. And don’t forget to lead by example: If you work around the clock or don’t take breaks or vacations, your team members will assume that’s what you expect of them (no matter what you say).

How clear is your team on what success looks like? Since the beginning of 2023, a lot may have changed in your organization. Priorities and expectations have shifted; new challenges and opportunities have emerged. You may assume that your team knows what’s most important now. But, in times of rapid change, sometimes key messages about priorities get lost in the busyness of our day-to-day work. So, take some time with your team before year-end to talk about priorities going into 2024. Connect the dots for your team members about how their roles fit in and affect those priorities. Make sure each team member knows the top areas where they should focus to have the biggest impact on the business and empower them to focus on those “big three.”

Is there a need to upskill your team? If you have observed performance issues in your team in 2023, ask yourself whether they have the skills and training necessary to succeed. Over the past few years, so many organizations have gone through resignations, layoffs and restructuring, leaving their employees grappling with new roles or evolving responsibilities. Beyond that, if staffing is lean and workloads are heavy, your newer team members may have received little to no onboarding. But even your seasoned employees may need additional training if they’re taking on different types of projects. We’ve definitely seen these struggles and created the New Lens® app to address them while making it easy to fit development into busy schedules and tight budgets.

This week, I challenge you to identify one area to focus on with your team in 2024, and one or two initial steps you will take. This small investment of time will yield big payoffs in the coming year.

12 Key Takeaways from the New Lens Micro Summit

What an amazing event we had last week! Of course, that's thanks to our wonderful speakers and to all of you, our engaged New Lens® Micro Summit: 4 Core Strategies for Success attendees. I’m still soaking in all the insights that were shared and am so grateful to each of you who joined us.

Reflecting on the summit, it's clear that each speaker brought a unique perspective, shedding light on critical areas of leadership, teamwork, networking, and resilience. I've taken a moment to recap a few of the takeaways that stood out to me. Whether you attended the summit or are catching up now, I believe these insights will resonate and offer actionable strategies for your own leadership journey. Let's dive in.

Michol Ecklund

Michol, Chief Sustainability Officer and General Counsel at Callon Petroleum, has navigated change throughout her career. So who better to speak on the topic “Focus on the Right Work: The Great Resignation Compounded Workloads”?

In her comments, Michol highlighted the emerging challenges post-pandemic where workers are increasingly unhappy, burnt out, and seeking new job opportunities, often attributed to amplified workloads from organizational restructuring. Here are some highlight from the advice she shared:

• Create space to connect in a genuine way. Remember, everyone has a life outside work. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with your team. “By checking in with others and sharing more about your own situation, I think you ultimately build deeper relationships,” Michol said. “You build even more motivated employees and even more committed employees that want to be part of your organization.”  

• Balance your personal productivity with that of the team. You may be more productive working from home, but your team may be more productive if everyone spends more time at the office. Find an approach that considers both sets of needs.

• Get back to the basics to avoid burnout. Getting enough sleep is critical. It affects how you show up personally and professionally, your energy, and your ability to be productive.

Mark Benton

Mark, Vice President of HR Corporate Functions at McKesson, also talked about navigating the shift to hybrid work when tackling his topic, “Develop a High Performing Team: How Unprepared Leaders Impact the Workplace.” I so admire Mark's ability to surface important topics that need attention. 

One theme that stood out was the challenge of staying connected when working remotely. In this context, building trust and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses are vital for good leadership. Other highlights:

• Empathy is more important than ever in the world of hybrid work. Your team members want to know that you care about them as people, that you recognize what they are contributing and that you are willing to help them.

• Managers today have to help distributed teams stay connected. One way to do this: be very intentional about checking in with each other.

• Be more of an "ask person" than a "tell person". You can help your team members grow by asking coaching questions.

Hilda Galvan

Hilda, Partner-in-Charge at Jones Day Dallas, spoke on the topic “Build a Powerful Network: How Remote Work Affects Relationships & Productivity.” Hilda is gifted at cultivating relationships both professionally and in her community involvement, so I was thrilled that she could share her advice with us. 

She advised leaders not to favor in-office workers over remote ones and to communicate clearly. Building relationships, even when remote, is key to good leadership. A few key takeaways:

• To get people back to the office, talk about why it’s so important. For example, remind veteran team members how much they learned by being around colleagues who were senior to them. Today, they can do the same thing for younger employees. By broadening their perspective,

• Engaging with issues you care about will energize you and can help counteract any feelings of loneliness from remote work. Connecting with others who share your passion can also lead to meaningful relationships.

• Treat small pockets of time in your day as opportunities to maintain relationships. For example, call an old friend while you’re driving to a meeting across town.

Tina Bigalke

As Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at PepsiCo and someone with a wealth of leadership experience in business and HR, Tina was the perfect speaker to talk about the topic “Build Leadership Courage & Resilience: Strategies to Navigate Uncertainty”. 

She also gave us insight into how PepsiCo has been a training ground for so many Fortune 500 CEOs and shared PepsiCo’s holistic resilence model which has helped its staff navigate these challenging times.

Some key insights:

• Identify the capabilities and skills your organization will need for the future (not just for today) and assess your employees against those skills.

• Don’t be afraid to have honest conversations with employees about how they’re doing and their path forward in your organization. 

• Have a variety of development tools in place for employees, especially younger ones, who truly want to gain new skills.

More Micro Learning

A huge thanks to Michol, Mark, Hilda and Tina for packing so much valuable information into just a couple of hours. It was so important to us that this event fit into busy schedules and deliver a powerful payoff for just a short investment of time. That’s the same philosophy that drives Newberry Solutions’ award-winning New Lens® app. With “snack size” lessons combined with collaborative learning, New Lens makes leadership development affordable and scalable. I invite you to learn more and schedule a demo for your organization.

5 Reasons Team Members Underperform

It’s an issue every leader deals with at one time or another: You’re working to cultivate a high-performing team, but not everyone is delivering at the level you need them to. One way this has shown up recently is the phenomenon of “quiet quitting,” or doing only the bare minimum to get by.

The first step to address underperformance is determining why it’s happening. You can use the five questions below as a diagnostic tool to figure out what’s really at the root of their underperformance. 

Photo by Mizuno K.

1. Is Burnout Causing Underperformance?

Burnout was already a big problem before the pandemic. But over the past couple of years, the burnout crisis has gotten even worse. If a team member’s work isn’t measuring up, the first question you should consider as a leader is whether the employee is experiencing burnout. Besides declining work quality, other signs of burnout include fatigue and low energy, seeming “checked out” or saying negative or cynical things about their job. Can you identify what might be causing the employee’s burnout? For example, maybe they haven’t taken time off this year, or they’ve had more and more duties added to their plate. Whatever the cause, a burnt-out employee can’t become more effective until the two of you address their fatigue and stress. Check out my article “Five Ways to Reduce Burnout in Your Team” for more ideas.

2. Are You Setting Clear Expectations?

Another common reason why employees don’t succeed is that they don’t understand what success looks like. Have you given them a clear picture of how you define high performance? Help your team members understand what their top priorities are, how they should spend their time and energy and how they can work successfully with you.

3. Is There a Learning Curve?

An employee might be underperforming simply because they are new on the job and are still mastering everything it entails. This is especially true if the onboarding process at your company has suffered due to lean staffing, heavier workloads or hybrid work. Even veteran employees who are taking on new responsibilities might experience a learning curve.

4. Do Employees Lack Skills or Expertise?

Your employee might be underperforming because their strengths don’t align with their current project or the way that their job has evolved. As technology accelerates change, that’s understandable. Our careers today require ongoing training and learning. But there’s a gap between what employees want and what companies are offering. (You can read more about this in Newberry Solutions’ free white paper, “Leadership Development for a Changing World.”)

5. Is the Employee the Wrong Fit?

This is probably one of the most painful causes of underperformance, but also one of the most important to address. Sometimes an employee just isn’t aligned with what’s important to your team or organization. As a leader, you can help the employee understand your workplace culture and priorities and find ways they can adapt their style or approach. But for employees who can’t or don’t want to change, everyone might be happier with a parting of the ways.

This week, identify one of these areas to explore as you work with an underperforming employee. As you develop your team members, our award-winning app New Lens can be a valuable tool. New Lens can teach your team members how to manage their capacity, focus on the right work, align with you as their manager and build their skills in a way that works with their schedule. Schedule your free demo now.

5 Ways to Recognize and Appreciate Your Team Members

As 2020 winds down, you might already be planning for 2021. One of the most powerful goals you can set for next year is giving your team members more recognition and appreciation.

Making employees feel seen and valued improves engagement and retention. And it doesn’t require a lot of time or money.

Image by Bob Dmyt from Pixabay

Here are five ideas for recognizing and appreciating your team members. Which ones are you already doing? Which ones do you want to try in 2021?

1. Be Deliberate About Giving Regular Feedback

Especially if your team is working remotely, it's all too easy to skip feedback in favor of other priorities. If you're doing this, though, your employees are missing out on valuable information from you that could make or break their future success.

2. Get Specific in Your Positive Feedback

Saying "Great job!" after a meeting might give your employee a mental boost. But telling her exactly what she did well and the impact of her actions will help her build on what she's doing right. Here's an example: "You asked great questions during that meeting, which allowed the team to notice opportunities we might have otherwise missed."

3. Use Meetings to Share Successes

Start team meetings by asking people to share their recent successes or what’s been going well. This doesn’t take long, and it makes people feel good as they start noticing what they’re actually getting done. Your employees can emulate this practice in meetings with their own direct reports, which helps build a culture of recognition throughout your company. Besides boosting everyone’s energy, getting into this habit gives you more information and insight about what is working.

4. Give Your Team Members Visibility

There are many ways to accomplish this. Nominating your team members for your company's internal recognition or awards programs will boost morale and help make others aware of their great work. You could also recommend your team members for promotions or high-profile projects, share their successes with higher-level managers, invite them to present in front of audiences they don't typically get exposure to or introduce them to others inside or outside of the company who could mentor or guide them.

5. Take the Time to Check In

The gift of your time and attention is a form of recognition and appreciation as well. Have regular one-on-ones with your team members that aren't about projects. Instead, simply ask how they are doing and how you can support them. By relating to your team members in a warm and human way, you are showing how much you value and respect them.

For more ideas on guiding your employees through challenging times, pick up a copy of "Building a Strong Team" from my Leadership EDGE℠ series.