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How To Keep Your Momentum Post-Holiday Season

You’ve returned to work after your holiday reinvigorated, brimming with newfound clarity and vision. Everything makes sense; you know exactly where the business needs to go and you’re ready to buckle down, win new clients and blast last year’s numbers out of the door. But how do you transfer the same vision, enthusiasm and passion to your team?

First things first: catch up with your team

“When people buy into your vision, they will help to keep that momentum going, even when you’re not there watching.” – via Engage for Success

Unfortunately, no matter how brilliant your new ideas are, they won’t be translated to your team by osmosis! You need to touch base with them to share your energy, inspiration and vision. What can you do?

  • Re-visit the business’s quarterly plan. Discuss the business goals/objectives for the next quarter so everyone has an idea of the “big picture”.
  • Before you launch into any ideas you’ve had over the break, share the journey that led to your thinking and provide some context about where you’re coming from.
  • Make sure everyone in the team knows what their projects are for the next quarter, what metrics they’re accountable for and how their work ladders up to the bigger vision.

Tip: Remember to answer any questions or queries the team might have and keep an open mind if new suggestions are presented.

Reinforce the mission statement and values

After a long break, it’s often useful to bring everyone back to the same page. A great way to do this is by re-introducing them to the company mission statement and values. A few ideas on how to make it relevant on a more individual level for your team:

  • Link business activities or projects back to the company’s vision and values so everything has a clearly visible WHY behind it.
  • Induct new starters into the company mission and way of doing things. The induction is a great way for new starters to learn more about the company history and feel vested in its future. Feel free to really own the induction process and get creative with it! You might give new starters a little pack with videos, stories, the company history, and maybe even branded gear they can proudly wear.
  • Make sure the mission and values are visible so they stay top of mind – for example posters around the office, a desktop screensaver or post-it notes, notebooks and any other collateral with the values printed on them.

Set regular check-ins

As the regular routine and rhythm of work sets in, it’s easy to get lost in your projects and the daily grind. Setting a fixed time during the week where your team can come together to brainstorm or check-in on progress is a great way to hold everyone accountable, re-inspire your team on a regular basis, share learnings and grow together.

You might do this as a daily stand-up “round the table” type event, or a weekly catch-up, depending on the frequency that works for your business and projects.

Make sure to schedule or block out time in the calendar, preferably at the same time every week so it becomes a habit.

Provide incentives for the team

Help your staff understand what business success means to their careers and/or earning potential. Make sure your team know their personal growth targets and any associated benefits or incentives available to them if they reach them. It’s also important to recognise that different motivators will work for different people.

As a manager or team leader, try to collaborate with your team to help them define their personal growth plan so it's tailored to them.

Invest in improving team communication

One of the best things you can do is make sure it’s as easy as possible for your team to communicate openly. Do you have an open door policy at your workplace? If staff are facing a roadblock that will hinder momentum, do they feel comfortable enough to be able to discuss it openly?

Choose the right communication tools

There are a lot of apps and products out there designed to help teams work better together. Do your research, features, pros and cons, and choose the right one. Don’t leave it all up to email just because it’s cheap and easy!

Regularly hold anonymous surveys

Staff are more likely to open up when a survey is anonymous, so let them speak their mind with the use of a tool like Officevibe. We use it at Xero and since it was introduced mid 2016, the HR team have collected over 11,000 pieces of feedback across the global network, and implemented new initiatives to address the feedback.

In essence this kind of continual feedback provides a steady stream of the business’s thoughts/conscience at any one time and is an indicator of the mental/emotional health of your organisation!

Touch base with clients

Even if your business is looking particularly healthy and project pipeline pretty full, it’s a good idea to reconnect with past clients. Re-establish yourself in their minds. Have you launched a new service offering since you last worked with them? Done new work that is relevant to their business? You never know where a discussion might lead, and all you want to do is stay top of mind and open the door to opportunities.

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We hope these tips help you keep your momentum post-holiday season. We’ve also written a bunch of posts on keeping your new year’s resolutions - to your business success!

 

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Mallika Goel
Mallika Goel is the communications manager at WorkflowMax, fresh from the agency world. She brings with her four years of experience working with some of New Zealand’s largest brands as well as more boutique ones. She thinks life’s too short to do one thing, so she keeps herself busy pursuing her many interests: an obsessive love of writing/blogging, fitness, travelling and design.

Mallika Goel