Refreshing Your Team’s Focus on Your Shared Vision : Part Three January 11, 2022 by Belinda EganBeing a strong and passionate virtual leader takes a veritable toolbox of well-developed skills, considering the many challenges it presents to you and your team. In a virtual setting, you’re missing out on important social cues, lines can sometimes become blurred between work and personal life, and it can be hard to show support and encouragement for your team without the ability to just “stop by their desk.” I’ve been exploring how you can be a standout, courageous virtual leader for the past few weeks. This article, part three of the five-part series, tackles what I call “returning to the drawing board” – remembering and focusing on the reason you lead and the reason your team works so hard for your organization. Part Three: Refreshing Your Team’s Focus on Your Shared Vision Since the beginning of 2020, we’ve all shared a collective burden: navigating a worldwide pandemic and all of the emotional baggage that comes with that. The world of work has evolved in such a way that it’s truly a whole new arena with an entirely new set of battles – in some ways, the polar opposite to the workplaces and challenges of the past. Many employees never returned to their careers after taking stock of their work/life balance, search for fulfillment, and overall quality of life. Others, like your team members, have adjusted as well as they can, learning new technologies and ways of socializing, adapting new work ethics from their homes, and putting their best foot forward despite constant novel experiences and the new beast called Virtual Burnout (refer to part two of this series for more on that!) Sometimes, we just need to get together, sit, and remind ourselves of our shared humanity and experience. And together, we can lift each other and keep pushing. We need to be reminded of the WHY… as in, what are we even doing here; what’s the purpose of our work? Keep reading to find out how you can empower, encourage, and recharge both yourself and your team in a virtual setting – like a giant reset button to kick off a new season of hard work, for a reason. Hold a refresher meeting on the current highest priority team tasks and assignments, and tie them into the vision and mission of your organization. You probably routinely touch base with your teams regarding priorities and tasks. The second point is the most important: remind your team how these tasks are working towards achieving your organization’s primary mission and vision. This serves two purposes: you and your team can quickly identify relevance and redundancy, and everyone is reminded of why they’re doing what they’re doing. Your team members can return to their tasks with a renewed understanding of how their role contributes to the big picture. Check-in on the team’s culture to ensure it aligns with the organization’s mission (and that everyone is still a good fit for the culture!) I’ve spoken previously about how a strong workplace culture can be a protective factor for employee retention. A culture of inclusivity, cooperation, creativity, and determination can make all the difference in the quality of work your team produces. Workplace culture can shift quickly with attitudes, changes, and adjustments. What can start as one grumbling teammate can become a culture based on mistrust, unhealthy competition, resentment, and cutting corners. Because a culture shift can happen quickly and quietly, it’s crucial for you as a leader to frequently check in to ensure that your team is still working well together and honoring the values and vision of the organization. A great “culture check” is to survey multiple employees, randomly and casually, about how they feel the team is working together. If you repeatedly hear about attitude issues, difficult employees, or bottlenecks coming from a certain department, you might not necessarily have an operations problem, but rather, a culture problem. If this is the case, it’s an excellent opportunity to bring your team together for some honest conversation about the state of things and see if you can’t adjust attitudes and inspire positive change for your team. Your team looks to you to be the guiding force behind their hard work, so the most beneficial thing you can do to refresh your team’s vision and WHY is to be really crystal clear about your goals and visions. After all, if you’re not 100% sure where you’re leading your team, there’s a big chance you’ll lead them off track at some point. For more on this, tune in to part four of this series: how to increase your self-awareness as a virtual leader. Belinda Egan PS. Sign up for my newsletter for more thought leadership strategies, research, and ongoing support for you and your team. Subscribe!