10 Ways to Support Your Team

We are living in a moment of real danger. Lives and businesses will be lost.

Your business may not survive without the hard work and determination of your talented team members.

Perhaps the cycle of support should start with you. Before requesting their best effort, first demonstrate your full support to them.

How can you help your team members to stay physically and mentally well, in order to rise to this challenge?

How can you help them to be productive while coping with personal stress and working remotely from colleagues?

10 Ways To Support Your Team

• Review Your Leadership Style
• Be a Human Not a Superhero
• Engage the Team
• Define the Direction Together
• Define the House Rules Together

10 Ways To Support Your Team

• Support Mental Health
• Support Physical Health
• Encourage Mutual Support
• Manage the Anxiety
• Consider Your Options

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1. Review your leadership style

Review Your Leadership Style*

• What kind of a leader are you? Dictator or collaborator; multiplier or diminisher?*
• Ask someone else - find a way to get honest feedback from someone in your team and be prepared to listen and act.
• What kind of a leader do you want to be and what will serve your business best right now?

2. Be a Human Not a Superhero

Human v Superhero

• Some leaders believe they should be invulnerable, especially in a time of crisis, but this is a mistake. Leaders who share vulnerabilities with their teams actually gain respect, not lose it.
• Explaining your fears and your failings, allows team members to do the same. You create safety and trust.

3. Engage the Team Through Collaboration

Engagement & Collaboration

• One simple way to increase engagement and collaboration is to ask team members for their input.
• Having asked, you must listen carefully to their response.
• Being involved in a decision means we are more likely to support it, even if we don't agree with it.

4. Define the Direction of Travel Together

Define the Direction Together*

• These are exceptional times and we all need a clear vision.
• Work with the team to define a razor sharp goal that everyone understands and is working towards. Conflicting goals reduce productivity.
• Celebrate every ounce of progress towards it. Seeing progress creates motivation.*

5. Define the House Rules Together

Define the House Rules Together

• Review your expectations of home working; then ask the team what is reasonable.
• Be flexible, different people will work better at different times of day. Be tollerant about interruptions.
• Trust that people will do what is right.

6. Support Physical Health

Support Physical Health*

• Refer team members to the four pillars of good health - sleep, exercise, nutrition and recuperation.
• Encourage frequent breaks.
• Encourage team members to go outside and have a walking meeting with a colleague on the phone.
• Focus on the immune system. Our most important defense.

7. Support Mental Health

Support Mental Health*

• Long term, chronic stress reduces our immunity. Finding ways to reduce it could literally save someone's life.
• Encourage team members to see stress differently. How we view it, changes it's impact on us.
• Understand people's preferences. The introverts will be happy at home. The extroverts will feel as if you have cut off their air supply.

8. Encourage Team Members to Support Each Other

Encourage Support

• Ask team members to share their challenges.
• Work as a team to find solutions.
• Create an atmosphere of trust, so that you can respond quickly to problems.

9. Manage the Anxiety

Manage the Anxiety

• Team members will need to express their anxiety. Make space for this while reducing the impact on productivity. Define a specific time each day when everyone can vent. When the time is up, move back to focussing on progress until the next slot.
• Encourage everyone to make one gratitude statement a day. Revisit them at the end of the week.

10. Consider Your Options

Consider Your Options

• This crisis presents an opportunity to lead in a new way. How will you lead your team through this phase?
• Will you decide to put supporting employees at the heart of what you are trying to achieve?
• Do you have time and ideas for how to do this, or do you need help?

Contact us to talk about how we can help you to support your team through this crisis.

Call on 0203 667 1502
Email us at info@getgoingcoaching.co.uk

Our mission is to help groups of team members thrive in life
and at work.

Our approach is based on scientific principles from positive psychology and on years of customer service and personal development experience.

Isobel Colson ♦ Get Going Coaching

About Get Going Coaching

We believe that most people have the potential to be happier and more productive at work, that one way to achieve this is by improving communication and understanding. If you value your employees, are working towards employee engagement or are simply trying to resolve a teamwork issue, let’s talk. Happier, healthier and motivated employees have a direct impact on the bottom line.

We do this by connecting individuals with their purpose and helping them to work towards it, no matter how big or small