Your team is feeling the strain of a culture shift. How do you prevent burnout and keep morale high?

Have time to stay connected, without agenda, a space where you can share where you are at and what is going on. Use games, a coffee together, music or anything that resonates with your crowd. If you need to start, start anywhere, experiment but start today. How about one minute of silence before a meeting? Time for a personal check-in, a lessons learnt, a thought of the day, appreciation for what works and anything that opens up the door called learning from each other. More insights and recommendations can only be shared personally and specifically to a context.

Culture change involves questioning behaviors, values and possibly beliefs. It makes us extremely vulnerable. The risk of burnouts increases. As a leader, establish a safe space where your team can share their concerns without fear of being judged. Listen and accept their honest feelings - this feeling of been seen and heard is what creates psychological safety and willingness to collaborate. Practice conversational flexibility around (your and team) boundaries - they are containers for our values. Invite genuine dialogue: what values are negotiable, which aren't? Can theybe resolved by simple reframing? Severe risk of compromising own core values is an accelerating factor of burnouts. Ensure your team that their voice matters.

Spend time preparing yourself for these engagement sessions. Reflect on the types of challenges and concerns that the change will evoke. Plan for how you will address these issues if they are raised. Consider getting some coaching beforehand to create a psychologically safe forum for people to raise concerns and disagree. Too often, I see clients trying to convince people that change is good. Some people will take time to get on board, a few may never accept change (Roger's Adoption Curve). If the plan is solid, your people will get there, at the start they need to be heard and then reassured that the leadership team will address their issues and concerns.

You have to always be open and straightforward, they are your team after all and you will be going through the change with them. Buckle up it will be a bumpy and long ride!

Flexible scheduling can be a priviledge but also a threat. If your team is relatively young, they may need your guidance as to when/where their physical presence is critical, as opposed to when their work in an off-line mode can be comfortably delivered. Too much flexibility can create a chaos. Too much flexibility can create sense of isolation and lack of support. As a leader, your role is to provide the structure so much needed in the un-structured times of culture change.

If you tend to expect more output, without altering resourcing, helping people prioritise is critical. If your people are feeling the weight of change, it won't support adoption so adjust targets and expectations to reflect the added workload.

Na minha experiência, a flexibilidade no agendamento é crucial durante períodos de mudan?a. Ajustar horários, permitir trabalho remoto e oferecer pausas mais longas n?o só reduz o estresse, mas também promove um ambiente de trabalho mais equilibrado e produtivo. Essas a??es demonstram que o bem-estar da equipe é valorizado, o que aumenta o moral e fortalece a lealdade. Em tempos de transi??o cultural, esse suporte é essencial para manter a motiva??o e evitar o esgotamento, garantindo uma adapta??o mais suave e eficaz.

Celebrate people first and milestones second. It is vital to find the change champions in your teams and give them a platform to share why the change is beneficial. Their voices often carry more weight during change than leaders' as they are on the frontline. Recognising these people publically for their contributions and efforts will support adoption in the team.

Na minha experiência, reconhecer os esfor?os da equipe é fundamental para manter o moral elevado durante mudan?as culturais. Seja através de elogios verbais ou recompensas, esse reconhecimento valoriza as conquistas e refor?a os aspectos positivos da transi??o. Celebrar marcos e realiza??es n?o só motiva a equipe a continuar avan?ando, mas também cria um sentimento de orgulho e pertencimento. Em momentos de incerteza, esse refor?o positivo é essencial para manter todos alinhados e comprometidos com o sucesso da mudan?a.

We humans are driven by rewards and recognition (whether we want to admit that or not). This is what we remember. Rewards direct the attention. Wherever our attention goes, we do more of that. Recognition enforces the desired behaviour. When celebrating milestones of your team, apply the growth mindset. Be careful of over-indexing on achievements. Look for the learnings, instead. Reframe "failures" as learnings. Recognize learnings. Appreciate all the efforts, regardless of their immediate results. Create the sense of inclusion, connectedness and team bonding - highlight the "together" narrative. (Note: failing together also creates team bonding).

Professional development in the times of culture change works better when its content is strongly aligned to the strategic direction. The accurate choice of content and provider, should secure your team members access to the practical knowledge around skills that will be necessary in the future. If this “requirement” criteria is not there, it may turn out to be a lip service or a sunk cost that creates more barriers (say, around accessibility) than growth opportunities and outcomes.

This is especially important in times of shifts, and personally I believe this is an outside job. These efforts are made much more impactful when external support is brought out, clear of bias. When there is support in personal and professional development, this creates a safety net for leaders to explore and process helping prevent burnout and engaging them to step into their leadership in a more expansive way.

Instead of implementing a lot of 'good ideas for wellbeing', ask people what they need. Some would prefer to go home an hour earlier or arrive later, than spend time at the gym or doing mindfulness during work hours. I advise my clients to walk the walls more often and do brief, informal check-ins with their teams to listen deeply and hear how they are coping. This is often more effective and appreciated than gym memberships.

Wellness programming is crucial even beyond workplace strain. When there is any sort of strain, there is a massive increase in overall stress. The American Institute of Stress reports that workplace stress costs U.S. businesses up to $300 billion annually. The best way to cut these costs and support the workforce is wellness programming. Our favorite way to support businesses with our Wellbeing Agency is providing a full day retreat experience for the companies, to create a truly powerful pause and regulation of everyone's nervous system.

Wellness programs are part of efforts to bring resilience to work. However, they are not solely going to establish that resilience among all individuals in your organisation. Rather, they create an environment where self-care is considered an important factor to strengthen team effectiveness and connectedness, and where people feel that their health matters. I agree with what wise people say "One cannot yoga-out their way out of burnout". Lack of physical exercise is not a root-cause of a burnout.

An ear and hand goes a long way. The only way to succeed is to continue to support the people in the process. Ensuring there is scheduled check in times and monthly wellness programming, is one way to provide support. Another is having resources to therapy and coaches to continue to support the personal and professional development. Remembering that to be able to thrive in any aspect of life you need continued support, not simply in a heat of a moment.

As a leader, your role is to provide the structure so much needed in the un-structured times of culture change. Stay alert to any cues of team members' uncertainty or unclarity of actions behind the strategic direction. Ensure your team members that you all are in this change together, and your mutual support will help you all to navigate the transition and make you stronger - together.