You may be losing them

You summon your team to a Zoom meeting (as usual). They Zoom in, but they turn off their cameras or videos (common practice). You have no idea whether they are watching K-drama on their phone or are doing online shopping, but you ramble on.

You realize that leading your team is as hard as during pre-COVID days, and now that everyone is confined to a piece of screen, it does not make things easier. Leading a team is no walk in the park.

You used to lead a dynamic team. Your team was delivering results and people from other teams wish they were in yours because they can see how inspired you and your team are. But somehow, things begin to change. You are still leading your team, but you have this feeling like you are losing passion and inspiration.

Perhaps it’s COVID, maybe it’s the challenge of working from home or maybe it’s something else. Your people are still with you for a while as they put up with you. But soon they will lose their motivation. Soon, results will no longer be excellent, and your good people may even leave because good people are passionate people, and they want to be led by motivated and passionate leaders. And if they do not have this, they will find someone else or work somewhere else so they can have it.

So how will you know you are losing your people or, more importantly, how will you know if you are losing yourself as a team leader? Here are the signs and symptoms:

1. Your level of passion is deteriorating.

As the famous lyrics of an old song goes: “You’ve lost that loving feeling...” While passion and inspiration waxes and wanes in every season, you notice the waning season becomes more frequent.

If the leader is not inspired, so is the team. The team’s passion is always determined by the passion and inspiration of the leader.

2. You have a fuzzy vision.

Vision requires clarity, and things seem unclear to you. You cannot seem to come up with answers to questions like:

What are we working on?

What are our priorities?

Why is our mission critical?

What difference is it making?

Your team cannot put their heart and passion into their work if their leader is fuzzy and unclear.

3. You no longer lead people; you are controlling them.

It is natural for people to shift into control mode if they feel that things or people are slipping away because they now substitute clarity with control. What happens now is that you begin to “manage” your people, whereas they prefer that you lead them.

Controlling things, work, systems, procedures, etc., is crucial to business. Without control there would be chaos, but people are not things. They do not want to be managed, they want to be led.

4. You no longer have new ideas.

You are clinging to the old ways of doing things when times and situations today are different. Your people can sense and know that there is nothing creative or new about the way you want them to do things, and they begin to wonder whether you are still attuned to the times or not. This makes them doubt your capability to lead. And if you cannot come up with plans for the future, your team knows there will be no future.

5. You are not showing your appreciation and gratitude.

You used to be encouraging and inspiring, but now your team feels like no matter how hard they work or how dedicated they are, you are never satisfied, and this is why you do not show your appreciation. This is an excellent way to lose your people.

What you must do is to revisit your mission and understand that your people are there waiting for you to lead them. Perhaps you are stressed, overworked, and you need rest. Perhaps you are overwhelmed by all the bad news, fake news, and conspiracy theories you are feeding your mind.

Maybe you need to get new and fresh ideas from industry leaders, as you have spent too much time binging on Netflix series, and have spent too little time studying and researching your industry developments.

Whatever it is, you need to be inspired to inspire your team. You are their leader, and that is what leaders do.

John Quincy Adams says: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” So be inspired and look for inspiration so you have something to pass on to your people.

(Francis Kong will hold his Level Up Leadership 2.0 Master Class Online on April 20, 21 and 22. For inquiries and reservations, contact April at +63928-559-1798 or and for more information, visit www.levelupleadership.ph).