Surface-Level Positivity Isn’t Working. Here’s What To Try Instead To Inspire Your Team

In 1939, as the threat of German bombing loomed in London, the British Ministry of Information sought to galvanize its people. The carefully crafted government rallying cry — “Keep calm and carry on” — has gone on to be immortalized on everything from coffee mugs to t-shirts. During our current crisis, when the world again feels like it's turned upside-down, the catchphrase has been back in vogue.

But here's the thing: It's probably not helping.

As Covid enters its second year, employees are still stressed about the constant disruption and worried about health and safety. Here in Boston, even as vaccines begin to roll out, schools are open one day, closed the next, and everyone’s struggling with fluctuating stay-at-home orders. Cases continue to flare up, and it’s clear that the crisis isn’t anywhere near over.

In short, the time for feel-good aphorisms is long past. Everything is not fine. Just carrying on isn't cutting it. And all signs suggest that blind positivity is the wrong approach. 

But what’s the right approach? This isn’t an academic question for me. As the president of an AI and robotics company that automates fulfillment in retail and ecommerce, I think about how to sustain morale for my team all the time. Whether my employees are hustling in the robotics lab or drowning in Zoom calls at home, I know that finding a North Star in trying times is more important than ever. 

I recently had a chance to talk about this with Lisa McLeod, author of Leading With Noble Purpose, and came away with some lasting insights. Here are three critical ways to rally spirits and focus energy, while not resorting to toxic positivity with your team.  

Emphasize real-world impacts

When I first started working here, I’d mention our role in the supply chain, and people would get a little glassy-eyed. (Ouch!) But when the pandemic hit and all the hand sanitizer and toilet paper vanished from grocery store shelves, the supply chain changed from an abstract concept to a lived reality … and a critical one, at that.

This was a surprise even for some of our own employees. People who thought they were just doing fascinating work on robots suddenly realized that they were playing a pivotal role keeping workers safe in warehouses and ensuring people have groceries. In fact, our business was deemed an essential service, and this became a powerful motivator. 

Your company may not receive an official “essential” designation from the government; but the truth is, every successful business has a real customer impact in some way or another. You just need to figure out what that is. 

To find your impact, McLeod suggests teams share specific, concrete stories about how your products improve lives and businesses. I’ve seen this approach work myself, back when I worked at a company that built social media management tools. We decided to hold an employee storytelling contest to learn just how we were making a difference on the front lines. Among other things, we learned that the United Nations was using our dashboard to share the stories of education activist Malala Yousafzai. Turns out, we were more than just a social media scheduler: we were helping people spread important, timely messages.

Uncovering your customer impact isn’t just a feel-good experience. Studies show that, at work, we all have a desire to do a good job and have a real impact. Employees who find work meaningful are 69 percent less likely to quit, and have longer, more productive tenures.

Tell it like it (really) is

No one likes to deliver bad news. But playing dumb — and insisting on business as usual — can be far, far worse.

In a previous role, I once found myself flying around the country in the midst of the dot-com bust, laying off colleagues. It was rough work, but made much harder by the fact that our CEO was still telling everyone things were just fine. His chipper attitude during a devastating time, and the gap between messaging and reality, crushed morale even further.

You might think you’re protecting your team when you withhold bad news, but studies show that 46 percent of employees would rather leave their job than work somewhere without transparent communication. Transparency statistically improves engagement and morale, lowers stress, and boosts performance. As McLeod notes, “People aren’t stupid. They know when things are going badly.” Respect your team’s intelligence, and they’ll respect you right back.

Take the initial chaos of Covid. In the background of our company Zoom calls during those early days, dogs were barking and kids were screaming. There was no point in pretending it was business as usual, and we made that clear. This honesty allowed everyone to stop worrying about keeping up appearances and, instead, focus on adjusting to a new reality. 

Is it hard to say “things aren’t good”? Of course. But addressing the elephant in the room is critical for your team’s mental health. Brain imaging studies show that putting feelings into words reduces intensity of negative emotions, while suppressing feelings can cause internal and psychological distress. So rip off the Band-Aid and share how things are really going. 

Dig deep for your team’s “noble purpose”

In the spirit of honesty: I’m a real numbers person. Establishing and hitting KPIs has been in my DNA since business school. But I know that just chasing metrics isn’t enough inspiration for many people.

It was while I was working at an email marketing firm, of all places, when this hit home. Our days were spent looking at open-rates, conversions, customer acquisition costs, leads and the countless data points that rule modern marketing. But what actually got me and my colleagues out of bed in the morning was something far more elemental: the realization that our technology was helping small businesses and the ordinary people who ran them.  

Employees who feel like their work has clear purpose are more likely to thrive; they’re motivated and passionate about their work. Purpose-led brands see their valuations surge and outperform the market by 42 percent. Indeed, history is filled with examples of small, under-resourced teams — Ben and Jerry’s, Dyson, and even Apple — who beat formidable competitors because the smaller team believed in their noble cause.  

So how do you find that purpose? McLeod advocates for conversation and open dialogue. Ask your team: How does our solution make a difference to the world? Why do people need that right now? How can we play a positive role in a challenging situation? 

The answer is likely already there in your core business offering, but crystallizing it together will make that purpose all the more powerful. The crisis has made this only more salient. It’s impossible to miss now how interconnected our world is. And it’s never been more important to define why our role matters. 

Ultimately, you probably won’t remember whether you reached your revenue goal or missed it by a few percentage points. You’ll remember the why that got you there. 

Critically, for all of these points, finding genuine motivation isn’t a top-down practice. It’s about sourcing this inspiration from your team, rather than imposing it from on-high. Meaning comes from the ground up. Find it in the good times, and it’ll see you through the not-so-good ones, too.

This post was originally featured in Business Insider. Stay up to date with my latest by following me here and on Twitter.