Is your team chomping at the bit to tackle the challenges of a new year? Are they motivated and lively in meetings? Is it fun when you get to talk with your people every day? If the answer is yes, you’re a very lucky leader. If the answer is no, you’re not alone. Our clients and readers are reporting a general malaise that seems to have overcome a lot of folks. They just seem to have checked out.
What’s going on?
It’s easy to fall back on the idea that people are disengaged. Traditionally this means they don’t feel connected to their work and teammates, and aren’t inspired to do their best. But what if the real reason is more complicated than simply not being as engaged as we’d like?
What if they’re just mentally and spiritually exhausted?
Psychologists suggest that what we’re experiencing isn’t active disengagement so much as it is “motivation fatigue.” This is defined as “a state of depleted drive and exhaustion from prolonged mental or physical effort, characterized by a reduced willingness to exert energy, even for rewarding tasks, as the brain signals that continued effort isn't worth it.”
A lot of leaders attempt to keep their teams focused on the work at hand. “Ignore the news.” “Focus on what’s in your control.” “Your bonus was smaller than usual this year but don’t worry, the company (and your job) aren’t going anywhere. This is just a blip.” Maybe you’re insisting people come into the office more often because the energy level seems higher when everyone’s together.
While hard data is difficult to come by, it feels like a lot of people are overwhelmed and somewhat defeated by what’s going on in the world at the moment. Consensus is that the ramped up stress began with the Covid outbreak in 2020. A nonstop barrage of social media and journalism (regardless of where you stand politically) is doing nothing for anyone’s blood pressure. The uncertainty many companies are experiencing is real. To many people, it feels like their employers’ decisions are being delayed, plans that should have been in place by now just aren’t, and nobody really knows what’s going to happen in the business in the next six months. In many cases it’s true, and in a lot of instances it just feels like it. When it comes to human behavior, perception is every bit as forceful as the actual facts and numbers.
Here’s the problem: every one of these things may be true. It probably doesn’t matter. No matter how many team building exercises you plan, or how hard you try to get people to lighten up, or what fun icebreaker you’ve designed for the team call, people don’t seem to be responding.
In fact, you may be making things worse.
It may be (and your mileage will vary depending on your people) they need less forced fun and denial, and a little more calm and faith that someone (you) know what’s going on. Here are some things leaders can do if their team is struggling to give a hoot.
Choose predictability over novelty and excitement.
- Set clear priorities and schedule activities that support them.
- Try to have fewer surprises. Especially if it’s an activity or challenge that requires reserves of energy that may already be tapped.
Demonstrate fairness and a sense of calm.
- Set and maintain consistent standards
- Ensure decisions and rationale are transparent
Help them achieve clarity over inspiration
- Keep the team focused on what matters now. What needs to happen, needs to happen.
- What are the Need-to-haves, Good-to-haves, would-be-nice-to-haves, and what doesn’t matter?
Give them permission to be human
- If they are demonstrating competence without performative enthusiasm, don’t push. Check in but don’t insist on a happy face if people aren’t. And don’t make assumptions about what’s going on. Ask.
- Recognize that energy will ebb and flow. Stay focused on the results: output and the quality of the work are the important metrics.
As much as we leaders may want to “fix” their people, engagement, motivation and effort are intrinsic. Those things come from within people. We can’t make them engage, or care, or even smile if they don’t feel like it.
What we can do is create an environment where good things can happen. Optimism is an option, and should be actively pursued. And create a safe space, where people don’t have to maintain a constant mask of energetic bliss.
People will care if there are reasons to care. They just need to catch their breath, and be reminded of why it matters.
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