Energising Your Hybrid Team for Smarter Collaboration
In today’s era of turbulence and constraint, businesses need teams that can innovate quickly to drive growth. Yet many teams are struggling. Ongoing disruptions like hybrid work, layoffs, and economic uncertainty have left employees feeling drained and fragmented. Turning this around falls to leaders, who must actively cultivate their teams’ energy for effective collaboration.
My research shows that in hybrid environments, motivating collaboration requires customised approaches based on why team energy is low. Leaders must channel scattered efforts, generate momentum in depleted groups, or multiply strengths in siloed teams.
Channeling Energy Some teams lack focus, not drive. With employees pulled in too many directions by constant virtual meetings and ever-expanding priorities, their energy splits across competing demands. Collaboration suffers when no one can devote their full attention.
Leaders must channel individuals’ energies into collective aims in these unfocused teams. Reframe competing tasks within broader strategic goals to help people see the bigger picture amid chaos. Commit to a focused set of priorities, then stick to them instead of introducing new distractions.
Make overcommitment transparent with open communication about workloads and competing pulls. But take care not to celebrate busyness, which can worsen the problem. The objective is to funnel attention to what matters most. With guidance, team members themselves can spot overlaps and work together to align efforts. A leader who directs brainpower toward a common purpose makes all the difference.
Generating Energy Other teams are genuinely depleted, their reserves drained by loss and change. Layoffs or exits of close coworkers take both practical and emotional tolls. Ongoing remote work can compound isolation, eroding the bonds that sustain energy. To reignite motivation, leaders must generate renewed purpose and progress. Avoid imposing your vision. Instead, coach team members to uncover larger meaning in their daily tasks. How do they contribute to customers or the community? Progress toward even small milestones also brings vital energy boosts.
Relationships and humanity are key. Treat people as whole individuals integral to success, not merely means to an end. Lead with compassion: ask how they are and listen deeply. A culture of care and dignity beats busyness metrics for restoring morale. With sensitive guidance, teams can rebuild the human connections and achievement that generate mutual inspiration.
Multiplying Energy In siloed groups, people underutilise each other’s diverse talents. Remote settings obscure individuals’ unique perspectives and strengths. With limited visibility, teams cannot combine their differences for maximum impact. Leaders who multiply energy seek out variety and harness complementary abilities to spark innovation. Begin by openly sharing your personality and experiences beyond the job to prompt reciprocation. Show interest in understanding team members’ complexity and encouraging their authentic contributions.
This starts by truly recognising others as more than their job titles. Multiplying energy means embracing experimentation and intellectual diversity to solve problems. Guiding exchanges of knowledge across disciplines and backgrounds can unlock game-changing ideas.
Make space for people to volunteer their expertise and passions when relevant to strategic goals. Blend individual strengths, not control, and watch satisfaction and results improve.
The Critical Role of Leaders Savvy leaders realise that cultivating team energy is paramount whether channelling, generating, or multiplying. They know that when employees feel motivated and collaborative, everything else follows – from smarter solutions to faster growth.
But inspiration rarely emerges on its own, especially amid ongoing uncertainty and change. It requires leaders who understand their teams’ unique needs. With sensitivity and strategic guidance, managers can reignite the collective spark to achieve shared success.
The Path Forward with Coaching Fostering team energy and collaboration requires sensitivity, strategic guidance, and customised solutions – abilities many managers struggle with, especially amid continued disruption. But leaders don’t have to go it alone.
Leveraging an expert team coach provides the objective insights and facilitation needed to reignite motivation. Coaches pinpoint why energy is low and how to reverse it. They prompt reflection, boost psychological safety, and steer communication. Coaches also create space for leaders to sharpen their own emotional intelligence and leadership skills. With one-on-one and group coaching, leaders gain the knowledge and confidence to channel focus, generate renewal, and multiply strengths. They learn to notice diversity, spur connections, and tailor approaches to meet their team’s needs.
Coaching paves the way for motivated, collaborative teams that weather uncertainty and thrive. Support your leaders and unlock your team’s potential with expert coaching tailored to your organisation’s needs. Make team energy a priority now, and you gain the collaboration, innovation and resilience to weather whatever lies ahead. By taking the lead to channel, generate, or multiply motivation, leaders can thrive in even the most trying times.
Further reading
This article explores how leaders can purposefully generate, harness, and sustain energy in their
organisations by focusing on physical, emotional, and psychological elements.
https://hbr.org/2021/05/increase-your-teams-energy
This article provides research-based strategies for leaders to energise their teams, including