LEADERS ALSO WANT TO HAVE FUN

In the business world, everytime we listen to the word FUN sounds quite irresponsible or non-hierarchical doesn’t it? Maybe people imagine that a “boss” who allows the team to have fun is kidding and is not taking the projects seriously or being a respected leader…

In times of concern about mental health in companies, with many cases os burnout and generalized stress, many new management models presuppose you can have fun while working and at the same time allow the team to be happy and enjoy what they do, which is quite a positive way to face the world where live today, with so many people suffering of mental health issues at work. According to the article about mental health at Harvard Health Publishing, taking life and work more lightly, without losing the quality of everything you do and smiling more during the day can even avoid cases of panic syndrome, depression and suicide. Forbes Magazine also says that burnout is silent crisis in global health due to the toxicity of work environment.

The classical techniques to motivate and engage people

It’s being said that the first step is to keep your team motivated to deliver over expectations. For that to happen it is extremely important that each person is clear about what’s expected from them… yes, I mean each one of them. For making that to happen, some basic rules of professional relationship are fundamental to get the respect of your team members.

To keep your team motivated you must:

·       Clear direction and expectation - every individual must know what they are supposed to deliver and why this is so important to the overall result.

·       Leader acknowledgement - its fundamental that a leader knows what their teams is busy doing, not to push or to micromanage, but to recognize, talk about and motivate all levels of your team.

·       Allocate right task to the right talent - everyone is different, and everyone has its own talents, so “the orchestrator” leader should know where to allocate each “instrument” to have the best result.

·        The journey matters - be careful about not being bias, because people have different ways to reach the end goal, and it can be seeing as better or worse than our own style, so it’s dangerous to force through similar ways of delivering.

 One terminology used is the Orchestrator! HBR magazine has published a great article in January 2007 about innovation and leadership about being an Orchestrator: Choosing the “Optimal Business Model for Innovation”. This article inspires a lot on the important role of a leader, making a comparison with an orchestra conductor which is the responsible for identifying different talents, choosing different instruments, keeping the path of time, and when playing together, reflect harmony and deliver expected result to its stakeholders.

Creating a channel of communication with each member of your team is also a differentiation because it’s fundamental for the team that their manager and their highest leader acknowledge what they do. The simple act of passing by their desk and asking about a specific task shows that they are a valuable member.

That takes it to another important point, the talent! Everyone has its own strengths and if that individual is part of the team is because its skills are in line with the job description. A leader needs to be able to identify it to allocate a proper expectation. Off course it is good to motivate people to go beyond and achieve more, but if you are doing it by pushing people into doing something they aren’t good at, the effect can be very dangerous and affect their mental health. It's not an easy formula, that why it is important that a leader identifys everyone limits, allocate tasks accordingly and orchestrate it across the entire team.

"The leader must identify everyone limits, allocate tasks accordingly and orchestrate it across the entire team."

One last point is that the journey matters, meaning that leaders should be careful of not expecting from others a level of perfection according to their view. It’s important to respect other people style and way of thinking, to avoid being bias when questioning the way things are done from one unique role model vision. That’s the beaty of diversity, the combination of differences that equals to a stronger result.

 How to perform in a more relaxed environment: motivation and goals

Let's not full ourselves, at the end of the day it's all about results and performance. How to achieve the best by maintaining a health environment between the leadership and the team, but also between the team. The work pressure is always on! All individuals suffer from that and no matter what the leader does, it’s natural to face some pressure either because the task is too difficult, beyond their skills, its new, deadline is too tight, or its simple something they don’t like doing. When that happens, the role of a leader turns into the coaching role, motivating people to do their best, to sweat and play at high energy and focus on the end goal.

“The role of a leader turns into the coaching role, motivating people to do their best, to sweat and play at high energy and focus on the end goal.”

Some characteristics of a coach are key to make people play together as a team, motivating each other. Also, it’s fundamental to observe if someone is negatively affecting the team spirit, in that case this should be stopped or treated.

To reach happiness at work, considering that expectations are clear, and resources are good to accomplish it, comes a very important step: manage the energy across the team. A leader should be sensible enough to identify highs and lows, as well as good spots of energy and balance it throughout the team. Feedback is also critical, to guide and follow team members towards an effective and health way of achieving expected results. In case of identifying extreme signals of suffering, a solution could be moving people to another project, putting them with high energy people to avoid those small threats between humans to damage the entire team environment.

It’s hard to believe that these things matter, but they do! We are humans and unfortunately not all are smart enough to be able to neutralize feelings, beliefs, pre concepts, opinions or any other reaction that can become a roadblock when working with people that you didn’t choose. A key word should come into place and be ahead our own self: RESPECT. This little action can neutralize any negative perspective and it helps to acknowledge everyone’s differences and respect their virtue. But also, it is important to secure respect from others, acknowledging that your words and action will generate an impact and reaction from others. Expressing your view in a positive way, sharing efforts, being supportive and wise when communicating is quite key. Without entering the behavioural and dress coding areas, giving yourself respect at the work environment has many windows that should be managed wisely. Lastly, you’re not supposed to become best friend of all your colleagues, so enjoy the differences and observe how we all achieve results while playing under a different style.

 7 special tips to make the difference with your team:

1.     Have fun with the team: in the beginning of this article there was this contradicting mention about being fun equals to irresponsible or non-hierarchical, even damaging a leader’s image. So, now let me share my experience. I have a lot of fun working with my team and we always agreed upon a common agenda, with lots of flexibility tough, still a clear direction to follow. It’s important to lead by example, so being hard worker, joining key forums to give support and advise, yet respecting their space and decision-making, are very relevant way of managing and keep yourself involved.

2.     Show interest on everyone’s job: first, make sure you know everyone’s name and make sure you manage to spend some time with each of them. It doesn’t matter hierarchy, if direct or indirect reports, once is part of your team you must talk to them, show that you know what they do and recognizing their contribution to big projects.

3.     Direct coaching to talents: pic some people from your team to give direct coach, with an official agenda and a structured process. Keep a conversation about their career path and do try to follow their ambitions, even if you must lose the talent to another area of your organization.

4.     Celebrate every single achievement or occasion: celebrations bring lots of energy and do make an impact into team integration, so take any opportunity to create this positive environment, such as celebrating birthdays, inventing a Christmas parade and off course, recognizing achievement. Humans loves to have fun and having the opportunity to laugh and smile in an informal connection with teammates.

5.     Have coffee together: after covid the coffee area become busier, because people realized the importance of connecting and socializing, so use that on your behalf to activate the team and alleviate stress.

6.     Start the week with a positive catch up: stand ups meetings at the coffee area is a good way to start the week and set the path of what’s expected. Also allows people to share what there are busy doing, bring attention to their role and making others add value to every single member. In such informal way, even introspective get motivated to share and the impact is very positive because despites they work together, not everyone have the time to share what they are busy doing. This is a very effective action, because it increases collaboration, reduce duplication, and gives information to leaders to use during the week on individual conversations and follow ups.

7.     Be yourself and transparent: don’t be afraid to show who you are, your struggles, ideas, because your team feels your motivation and they know very well to read you. Your strengths will be a source of inspiration and mirroring, and your weaknesses can become reason for gossiping or mistrust, so provide open discussion and ask your team for help whenever you need.

 It's hard being a leader and being held accountable for positive and productive results. But taking everything professionally without losing lightness and respect for others and for yourself can be crucial to your success. It can be a small or big team, vertical or horizontal, direct or indirect reporting, your leadership style is revealed through any of these models. Your teammates, peers, employees, will be always observing you, so there is no chance for you to scape being judged. There is always someone that may argue about your style, simply because they are bias and not respectful to the differences. So, be secure about your beliefs and values, trust your gut and keep in mind that we are all humans, and your role is to build a positive legacy for those who had the opportunity to work with you, remembers you on their future endeavours... Good luck, and don’t forget to take it easy, breath, keep your peace of mind, trust your preparation, because even when waves are giant, a good surfer knows that in the way out they will ride it and have the most of fun. Surfer’s word, and you can trust me.

* Note: I was a professional body board surfer and I keep surfing as a long boarder. What has inspired me to write this article is a picture card that my team has put together for my birthday in 2021, writing that “the best surfer out there is the one having the most fun” … for a surfer this means a lot, because it shows that the best performers are those who really love what you do, and best competitors are the ones who manage to control their nerves and enjoy the ride without any fear. When your team acknowledge that it means that you’re impacting them as well.