By Dominic Ashley-Timms and Laura Ashley-Timms
As we step into the Autumn months and put the summer behind us, re-engaging our teams during what is often the busiest time of year can be a struggle. While some will return to their desks feeling reinvigorated after a summer break, others will be suffering from post-holiday blues, as they quickly fall back into the oh-so-familiar cycle of disengagement and apathy.
Engaging employees is a global problem, with only 23% actively engaged according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 report. So, with Happiness at Work Week (23 Sept) in mind, what can leaders do to banish the post-summer burnout blues and motivate their people to do their best work?
1. Create achievable goals for the final quarter
For many organisations, the year’s final quarter is typically the busiest. After the slower pace of the summer month, leaders will need to re-energise staff and provide incentives to build motivation. Often, leaders set big goals that can seem out of reach for employees just out of the starting blocks, so one technique is to highlight exciting objectives and achievable milestones that together will lead to the bigger goal. Ask your team, “What would we need to achieve to get closer to our objective?” Obtaining frequent and smaller quick wins is a great way of boosting engagement and team cohesion, as is setting individual goals for employees.
2. Sustain the ‘return-to-the-office’ excitement
When a whole team is all back to work after summer vacations, bringing them together in an all-person virtual or physical catch-up can create a ‘buzz’ of excitement! Treat it as an opportunity to celebrate everything your team has achieved recently, particularly flagging things that others might have missed while they were away. Outline the upcoming goals mentioned above and use the meeting to fire everyone up for the final quarter.
3. Notice good work
Often, busy leaders can fall into the trap of only giving out constructive feedback when there is something an employee could do better. But something many forget to give is ‘appreciative feedback’. This involves noticing when someone has done something well and praising them visibly, demonstrating to the employee just how valued their work is but also showing others what kind of actions, outcomes and decision-making are valued in the team as a whole. The team member receiving the praise feels more confident, and positive behaviour is reinforced across the team as a whole, strengthening new habits in others.
Studies show that a lack of appreciation can double our risk of burning out, so acknowledging simple things like “I really liked the way you presented that complicated topic so succinctly – it helped us make an informed decision to move forward positively, thanks”, can spark motivation in an employee struggling to get back into work.
When offering appreciative feedback, try to provide it as soon after observing the positive action as possible. Be genuine and detailed, concentrating on the action or behaviour itself (objective) rather than on the person (subjective). Also, connect the behaviour to the positive outcome you observed, for example: “What stood out to me about your action was… and here’s the positive impact I noticed…”
4. Ask powerful questions
An employee comes to you with a problem they’ve faced since being back at work. As a leader, you feel that you should offer a solution that fixes the problem, but this command-and-control approach to management does nothing to develop the employee in front of you and simply puts more work back on your already full plate!
Instead, adopt an ‘enquiry-led approach’ which involves asking powerful questions to stimulate thinking. Doing so shifts the balance of the conversation and shows your belief in the employee’s ability to find the solution. We call this an Operational Coaching® style of managing others and it doesn’t just require the use of ‘open questions’. Rather, it’s all about asking questions which benefit the other persons’ thinking, so they can develop their own ability to find solutions by drawing on what they already know.
This new approach to management was recently proven effective in research conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) which found that managers who adopted an Operational Coaching style spent 70% more time coaching team members in the flow of work than before. Their capabilities also improved across all nine management competencies measured, contributing to a six-fold improvement in employee retention.
Becoming an enquiry-led leader builds your people’ confidence and resilience, and fosters trust within teams. This ultimately boosts the well-being of both employees and leaders, which is crucial when teams work at capacity and deadlines are near, especially during the Christmas run-up. Team members feel a sense of ownership and fulfilment (as well as lightening your workload as a leader) – which is crucial given that one of the top reasons for burnout is ‘insufficient autonomy’.
5. Be an active listener
The final key to building a happy and engaged workforce is active listening. It’s tempting as a leader to jump in and fill any space with your own directives, but active listening involves making the effort to be present in the moment, sensing how your team is feeling, what they are (and aren’t!) saying, their mood and how energised they seem. Showing that you’re willing to listen is key to building empathy and fostering trust, two essential components of an effective team.
Bringing together these five habits will revitalise your team and establish an environment in which people feel engaged, productive and ready to collaborate – crucially, they will feel able to do their best work. And who wouldn’t want to work in a place like that?
About the Authors
Dominic Ashley-Timms and Laura Ashley-Timms are the CEO and COO of performance consultancy Notion, creator of the multi-award-winning and internationally certified STAR® Manager programme used by managers in over 40 countries. They are also the co-authors of the new management bestseller The Answer is a Question.
