If you are a manager or team leader, you must be familiar with having to deal with a depleted team. It could be taxing for you as managers cope with burnout and demotivation too. It can be frustrating to handle yourself as well as your team and improve team effectiveness.

It might also be disheartening to see your team members lose motivation and their earlier enthusiasm for their work. This is especially if you used to be a strong team with self-driven individuals.

Fortunately, there are ways to reenergize a depleted team and get them back on track using professional leadership coaching. Let us look at some examples I noticed during my time as a full-time digital marketer. I had a strong team leader who was great at motivating the team when we were down.

There was this one time when we lost a client at the final stage of a project, and they left without paying us. We were disheartened as our efforts went unnoticed and one mistake made the client forget our ninety-nine contributions!

Here’s what my manager did to get things back on track! These four simple steps  made a massive difference to our lives.

Diversifying the team’s skills

One way to reenergize a depleted team is to diversify their skills. This was a simple yet vital strategy for getting us back in the groove. By providing opportunities for team members to learn new skills and take on new roles, you can help them feel more engaged and motivated.

It will keep your team engaged and encourage members to take on new challenges and responsibilities. This can also help to prevent burnout, as team members will be able to rotate through different tasks and stay invested in the job. They can demonstrate business acumen in more ways than one while discovering their potential.

For example, if your team is working on a project that requires a specific set of skills, consider providing training or workshops to help team members develop those skills. This can be a great way to help team members feel more confident and competent in their work, which can help to boost morale and motivation.

Making the team work on themselves

In addition to diversifying skills, it’s equally important to make the team focus on working on themselves. Even if the team moves out of your business and joins a new company, they can use these life skills. It will promote loyalty and ensure that your team sticks around longer. This means providing support and resources for team members to develop personally and professionally.

For example, you could offer training or workshops on topics like time management, communication, or stress management. These types of resources can help team members improve their skills and abilities, which can in turn affect how they collaborate with the rest of the team.

Here’s a short story of what happened at my workplace. One of my colleagues was very poor at collaborating with the team. But he was one of the best workers we had when he worked individually. To enhance his communication skills, our team leader offered to mentor him every week.

My colleague was honored to get such attention and agreed at once! But every week at the appointed time, my team lead would attend workshops alone. He ensured that my colleague noticed that he was improving himself, but never invited him to join the sessions. Every time my colleague asked him if they could attend a workshop, my team leader would say, “Oh, I am already done for today. I will call you tomorrow!”

At last, my colleague couldn’t control his frustration anymore and expressed his grievances through a series of questions before all of us. My manager simply smiled and said, “If I have to work with you to ensure both of us improve, but I never communicate, then how can we grow? This is what you have also been doing with the team. You are bringing in consistent efforts and I can see tremendous improvement. But why are you withholding this growth from the rest of the team? Communicate with them and give them also a chance to grow.”

In this instance, my colleague was neither given the resources he needed nor any expert guidance. His eyes were simply opened with a strong message delivered at the perfect time. And it made all the difference as he actively began to push himself to collaborate with us. Our team grew stronger with each other’s support, and it helped us emerge from the depleted phase by building effective teams.

Giving us opportunities to network with our peers

Another way to support personal and professional development is to provide opportunities for team members to network and connect with others in their field. This could include attending conferences or workshops, joining professional organizations, or simply connecting with other professionals through social media or online forums.

It will help your team build strong connections with the resources they need. By providing these opportunities, you can help team members build a unique network of support, which can help to keep them motivated and engaged in their work. My team lead kept bringing in coaches to train us about networking. We learned the purpose of LinkedIn and how it can bridge the gap between us and our prospects.

This was especially useful for our sales team, as they could meet several prospects online unintentionally. It ultimately helped us grow the business as everyone brought in new sources from different backgrounds. We were confident and a new motivation sprung up as we knew we had people we could rely on.

Recognizing and rewarding us for our efforts

Rewarding your team members for their contributions and accomplishments is an important way to show appreciation and boost morale. You can try building effective teams by rewarding the whole team for an individual’s success. It will help boost morale and craft a WE mindset.

This can include basic acts like giving public recognition for a job well done, awarding bonuses or other incentives for exceptional performance, or offering additional training or development opportunities as a reward.

By recognizing and rewarding team members, you can indicate that their hard work and dedication are valued. If your team feels noticed and acknowledged, they will feel motivated to work more. At the same time, noticing their team members getting rewards for their contributions would inspire the team to work and receive the same.

My team leader energized us with the most basic strategies. He gave us the freedom to explore and build a network for ourselves. He gave us the space to realize our potential and improve ourselves. Most importantly, he ensured that we stayed in touch and supported each other to demonstrate business acumen.

We didn’t just emerge out of the depleted phase – we came out of it as a team! And it made us stronger as we had handled it together and we had become a family. The best way you can reenergize your team is to show them that the power is within them. They don’t need any external stimulation to grow and bounce back — it is within them, and they just need to ignite it!

If you are facing issues in getting the most out of teamwork and collaboration, you can speak to us. You would be amazed by how a professional coach can help with team effectiveness coaching to make a team the best versions of themselves.