What are some ways to rejuvenate your team during the engagement lifecycle?

In my experience, setting clear attainable goals with small rewards for short time frames keeps focus and allows for changes in things that are not within the scope of the employer.

The organization you lead can best demonstrate a sense of direction with clearly defined and realistic goals. A simple run through the mill approach would be to determine if they are SMART goals : specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. With that said, I experience with organizations that have a strong culture built upon archaic traditions - these goals and objective are often predefined and have not evolved with time. These goals can be seen as dictatorial and may sometimes limit growth if not shared. The key to smart objectives is to ensure everyone in your organization takes ownership of your goals; And more importantly these goals need to be drawn from the passion in the vision and mission of your human resources.

Demonstrate the larger picture of the organisation and its vision and mission. Staff cannot be rejuvenated when they do not understand where the organisation is heading. Explain objectives and aims of the organisation. Explain and agree contributions expected of each team or individual member. Cater for both individual and group members needs. Listen and act upon their requests. Be open and mature in explaining any matter that you will be unable to solve. Respect all members of staff snd treat them in a as humane as possible. Commend satisfactory works and reward further for exceptional work performed.

TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More, and is key to achieve the Projects’ outcomes and degree of success. The Leader plans the Team for the projects to ensure the competency, capacity along its phases - it may start lean, ramp up at phases and taper down to the end. The org structure is clearly defined with hierarchy and roles, and inter-dependencies mapped, with flexibility to support tasks. At the outset, making the project scope and objectives clear and conveying the clients expectations is important. Setting the context and the importance of the project, and each of their roles motivates them. Regular communication and feedback loops will keep the teams aligned to the client and project goals, and to regulate as needed.

The top 2 ways to boost your team is by: 1. Focusing on clear communication and feedback that regularly provides feedback to your team and keeps them informed about the progress of the engagement, while providing constructive feedback on their work. 2. Delegating tasks and provide opportunities for your team members to take ownership of their work. Give them the freedom to make decisions and contribute their ideas. By empowering them and trusting their judgment, you can increase their engagement and motivation.

THANK them publicly and often. Say specifically what they did for the team and why it matters. How much feedback have you received that is about what you did wrong? Remember how it made you feel? Imagine that instead, it was specific thanks for what you did that was great. Motivating, right?

Regular feedback needs to be part of your consulting process. It motivates the team and ensures you have better team members in the future, including their career development. Growth and learning are the best motivators for top performers.

Key performance indicators and benchmarks are a good approach for recognizing and rewarding members of your team. The best way to guide the growth of individuals while maintaining focus on the goals & objectives is to assess performance on two dimensions: technical skills and interpersonal skills. If an individual is underperforming they might lack knowledge or the technical capacity to perform. On the other hand, it could also be a matter of interpersonal relationships that could affect their motivation to perform.

The criteria for recognizing and rewarding performance should be clear and transparent. The worst thing a leader can do is come across as being biased. Unfortunately, in my experience, not many leaders are able to be unbiased when recognizing and rewarding performance of their team members. Communication is critical. Engaging with team members and explaining to them the criteria and being transparent and unbiased is what a leader needs to strive for. I have seen leaders who take their employees' hard work and not even acknowledge their work. Instead they give credit to team members who play golf with them or haves drinks with them during evenings!

One good way to ensure this is to sit down with each team member and ask them which area they would like to work on in this assignment. Then allocate them to the work stream where they can maximize their learning and stay close to them to support them and mentor them.

A good team leader would sit down with the team collectively and individually to know their expectations and aspirations - short-term during the project engagement and long-term for their career. They also identify opportunities - skills to learn, methods and toolkits to practise can be gained during the engagement. The good leader and his team would be able to identify and acquire new skills, build on upskilling and cross-skills; and every member gains from the ‘return-of-experience’ (REX) or lessons learnt by Things gone Right/ Things gone Wrong (TGR/ TGW). Documenting this and using this to train others is a key aspect of a dynamic learning & development program, as well as boosting the skill levels and career graphs.

Communicate! It doesn’t matter if it’s about rewarding, warning, setting goals etc just keep communicating and make sure it’s two way. All teams and projects have highs and lows so keep talking to one another and understand what challenges and successes there are.

Make it very regular/periodic, and try out many ways - as not everyone reacts/responds to the same method. Be as transparent as possible, ... do not shy away from handling difficult situations early. Ask for help with participation.

Communicate! It doesn’t matter if it’s about rewarding, warning, setting goals etc just keep communicating and make sure it’s two way. All teams and projects have highs and lows so keep talking to one another and understand what challenges and successes there are.

Promoting collaboration by leading by example involves demonstrating the values and behaviors you want to see in your team. Engage actively in collaborative efforts. Work alongside your team, contributing ideas and effort equally. This shows that collaboration is not just encouraged but practiced at all levels. Consistently exhibit collaborative behavior. Leadership consistency helps in building a stable and collaborative team culture. Establish goals that require teamwork to achieve. This underscores the importance of collaboration for success. Demonstrate constructive conflict resolution. Show how differing opinions can be an opportunity for collaboration and growth, rather than a source of division.

Delegate tasks and provide opportunities for your team members to take ownership of their work. Give them the freedom to make decisions and contribute their ideas. By empowering them and trusting their judgment, you can increase their engagement and motivation.

Delegation should be tailored to each individual's working style for optimal effectiveness. While some team members thrive with clear, detailed directions, others perform best when given only the objectives, allowing them autonomy in their approach. It's important not to make assumptions about these preferences. Instead, engage in open dialogue with team members to understand their needs and working styles. This personalized approach to delegation not only enhances individual performance but also fosters a sense of respect and understanding within the team.

Always be a servant. Always be a frontrunner. Humble. Allocate responsibility as it is absorbed by their nature and sense of honor and level of engagement.

Empowerment, delegation and resilience are the key for any leader to rejuvenate their team. It goes without saying that setting clear expectations, and the due diligence (delegation) are required to achieve the desired goals.

Fun and social activities are key to create a team spirit that goes beyond the task at hand. Work can be very intense, and building a high performing team will repay your efforts when less expected.

The team is fundamental in the organization and the ways to keep them committed are not unique in terms of actions but in terms of philosophy: They must feel important within the organization, that they are listened to in their opinions, that they are taken into account in the important aspects of your job

Rejuvenating a team during the engagement lifecycle involves fostering a positive work environment. Introduce regular breaks or team-building activities to alleviate stress and boost morale. Celebrate milestones, acknowledging and rewarding collective achievements. Encourage open communication, actively seeking and addressing team concerns. Rotate responsibilities to keep tasks engaging and provide learning opportunities. Invest in professional development, enabling team members to enhance their skills and stay motivated. Foster a culture of recognition, highlighting individual contributions.

It’s important to balance intrinsic and extrinsic factors that can help teams rejuvenate during an engagement cycle. An energy audit at regular intervals will help create intentional and meaningful interjections during a project. The team mix, their personal motivational drives, calibration process of shared purpose, communication are some of the key factors that can help in designing an effective way of refurbishing the collective energy. What one should avoid doing is adding this part of the lifecycle as a roster of things to do.

Why focus on the engagement lifecycle? Keeping people and teams informed, engaged and motivated is critical for success in all stages of any initiative.

Regularly meetings to allow the team to step back and see what went well, what did’t and what can be improved - a start-stop-continue exercise involving all the project team. Sure, the tendencies are to look at what needs to be done and put all atention to this- however, save some time and acknowledge what has been done and achieved up to that point. Recognise and celebrate this.

Term limits - mandatory for your top positions - including Board members. Individual(s) in the same position for many years is not healthy for the organization. If the organization is important - folks being required to "term" will assist in other ways, - or take on other duties, or wait a few years and come back after a lay off of a few years, or whatever guidelines the organization sets. New members in positions is good for development and sustainability of the organization.