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This Employee Has to Go…Or do They? The Underlying Impact of an Unhealthy Employee Experience Culture

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When I worked full-time in organizational development, I supported over 100 teams get back on track in times of overwhelming change, interpersonal tension, and incivility. In every one of those teams, there was someone (or a number of people) who were pointed out as “the problem”: “If only they left everything would be fine!” Sometimes they did…but things didn’t change magically overnight. Often times they weren’t going anywhere, and yet we had success turning things around.

Not only is it rare that an individual, as disruptive as their behaviour may be, cause all the problems. That they alone are the root of the issue. Are things in life usually that simple? (And if it was, I think we’d only have a few books on our shelves versus the 100+!)

Sure, employees engaging in disruptive behaviour require feedback and expectation clarification. Sometimes they were surprised (never having received direct feedback), other times they were defensive, other times saddened. Regardless, change on their part, 9.9 times out of 10, didn’t lead to an overnight turnaround.

So what else is going on? What we found was that in every team we needed to do an intervention with, there was an underlying problem with the employee experience.

By pointing fingers, we don’t address what is going to most help. And frankly, what likely contributed to the unhealthy behaviour in the first place.

We are starting to move away from talking about the (often) top-down theories of employee engagement to understanding the employee experience, which is a more holistic, employee-centred way of understanding the way an individual experiences the organization from before they onboard to when they exit (here is a great article to dig in further.) Just like we’re moving away from talking about customer service to the customer experience, we’re realizing the same is true for staff and leaders.

Companies that shift away from looking at micro problems, finger pointing, and top-down culture creation, to that of understanding how talent truly is their competitive advantage, in turn, co-create the ideal employee experience that retains the best people, fuels healthy collaborative cultures, sparks innovation and continuous improvement and better self-manages standards of behaviour.

What are some of the signs of how well your company or team is doing in the employee experience department? Here are four visible signs:

1.Quit or commit

Take stock of your revolving door. Discover how many people are getting a “refund” on their employee experience by quitting. Check out the positive flip side, how many are committing? How many give discretionary effort, time and ideas voluntarily for the betterment of their team, customers, projects and the long-term future of the organization?

2.Play games or play by the rules

People who do not play by the rules are telling you, “You know what, I don’t buy into it around here.” Or, “I have given more than I have gotten back so now I’m taking something back for me.” There are also people who say, “I want to improve things around here.” When they feel and experience that their ideas matter, their voice is heard and they are valued, they naturally want to make things better.

3.Complaints versus Compliments

A complaint is merely a poorly worded request. So, if folks are complaining, what are they asking you for? What is your culture lacking? Sure, some folks lean on the negativity side regardless, but if the employee experience was truly positive, there would be little to complain about and certainly, they wouldn’t have a captive audience or co-conspirators! Other teams, you’ll notice compliments and recognition are aplenty; individuals notice healthy, positive, helpful behaviours and aren’t hesitant to acknowledge it when they see it.

4.Early retirement or Lifer

Sure, we talk a lot about how many times we switch jobs in our lifetime (anywhere between 7 and 15 depending on the study), and how unlikely it is we’re going to retire from the first organization we join. However, it’s not the end of career retirement we’re worried about here’s. It’s folks being, “on the job retired”; you know, those individuals come in and do only the bare minimum. In contrast to employee experience individuals who feel so much love for the company, they go above and beyond without being asked or expected to. When people feel valued, visible and their efforts appreciated, of course, they’re more likely to give their job more “life”. The kind of Lifer you want around doesn’t just put in the time but gives the best of him or herself.

BTW, want a cool infographic? Grab it free on my website here. What are the other signs the employee experience needs work? Post below!

Three Ways You Can Enjoy a Family-Centric Business

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I know many entrepreneurs, whether it was a side hustle or a full-time business, who started out excited, optimistic and energized about what their business could do for their life and that of their family. Family-centred entrepreneurs who had high hopes (as they should!) to bring in a good income, travel (combining work and pleasure) and improve their lifestyle. Yet, the reality I hear so often is that people are frustrated. Not only are they not seeing these things, they wonder why they embarked upon their business in the first place.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But I can certainly relate.

In my first year of business, I had a mandate of being a family-centered entrepreneur. However, my lack of boundaries (a carryover from when I worked full-time) seeped into my entrepreneurship habits. I worked too many hours, sacrificed sleep, would forego fitness for a client request; I even accepted a speaking engagement in another province on my daughter’s 10th birthday. Sure, I had to make my business work (I had no Plan B), but the whole reason for making the change was to be more available to my family. What I was doing wasn’t working. Only I could change that.

It would be easy to think that I would have to make a trade-off. Earn less money to have more time. More family time or time for exercise. Grow small and steady and keep my ambitions at bay.

What I found, however, was that you can fall back in love with your business without sacrificing the things you want and need – a good income, a good lifestyle, a happy family. It starts with believing, from a place of abundance, that you deserve success of your own design, and that it can happen.

The alternative is that you feel resentful, exhausted, deflated. That you have no white space in your brain or time in your calendar for creativity and creation. That you let your health be sacrificed leading to problems on the short and long-term. That you feel you can never win, no matter how hard you try.

You can win. Your family can win. Let’s ensure your biz is working for YOU. (And BTW if you are reading this and you don’t have your biz open yet, no problem. I don’t want you to go through the mistakes I made…here’s the recipe to start as you mean to go on!)

Here are my top three tips on becoming and staying a family-centred entrepreneur without sacrificing profits, passion, and people-relationships:

Get clear on your priorities

When you have a request from a client, there has to be an order of priority in which you use to evaluate if that is the right client and the right engagement to accept. This includes anyone who has a side hustle in the gig economy of which we know by 2020 50% of us will be there. Here’s mine in order of what’s most important:

  1. Is it a family friendly fit?
  2. Does it fit with my expertise and passion?
  3. Does it pay what I’m worth? TIP: Click here for more on this topic.
  4. Do I like the client/company (is there an alignment in values)?
  5. Do I have capacity?
  6. Does this open the door to other opportunities?

If the answer is “no” to the first one, it’s unlikely I’ll proceed. To test it, I’ll go through the rest to be sure.

For example, I had the opportunity to spend a month and a half doing some pretty exciting international speaking and coaching work that would allow me to grow as an entrepreneur and exponentially grow my network. However, over a month away from my family, at a reduced fee, and it overlaps with a few client engagements (meaning I’d have to break my loyalty to them); by evaluating it against my priorities, it was an easy “no”. If I had tried to fill my schedule, add an exciting international twist to my biz and gain bragging rights for being on this tour, I might have said “yes”. See why it’s so important to know your priorities? It helps you when tempting opportunities and diversions arise that may be great, however, they aren’t necessarily great for you or great at that time given your current priorities.

Be open about being a family-centric entrepreneur

You want to attract clients and businesses that also prioritize lifestyle and family; by sharing that you are a family-centred entrepreneur, they may actually be more likely to want to work with you! Sometimes we worry they won’t; a scarcity mentality convinces us that we are lucky to have any work so don’t be too demanding. However, you will likely find what I’ve found, that they will respect you more for taking time to ensure client fit, that you are selective, and that you are making a conscious choice to work with them; by them knowing that you see that they are the right client, it sense an entirely different message than “I will work with anybody, doing anything.” Of course, it’s a two-way street, they have to pick you too. But why be in the running for something you don’t want anyway?

Being a family-centric entrepreneur is about being clear about what you hope your business does for you, because when you’re clear on that then you attract those opportunities. If you want to be able to travel more, if you want to be able to do creative things, if you want your family to be brought into the business more, those opportunities will become available to you.

Recently, I brought my daughter to a speaking engagement in another province. I worried at first the client would find my request, ‘unprofessional,’ but in actual fact, they thought it was a great idea! This professional association was mostly female with their demographic rapidly changing to an entrepreneurial model. It was perfect timing to have the keynote speaker share a visual message to the membership that they too could find ways to get the family involved in supporting their businesses! For us, it allowed my daughter to experience the direct benefit of my job, making her less likely to be resentful the next time I needed to travel for work, and my son is excited for when it’s his turn!

Family Shareholders

If you an incorporated official corporation, consider ways in which you can build shareholders into your business. Obtain some advice from your accountant, but what I’ve done is ensured the ‘Minute Book,’ of the corporation reflects that my nuclear family members are all shareholders. This means I can pay them for work they do in my business (e.g., shipping orders, putting handout packages together and editing videos.) Check out my friend, Tim Packer, a talented artist, who now has his son doing videos and social media full-time!)

Even if your family isn’t on the payroll, they likely give you business advice, support and help as needed, so you may choose to cover business meals and travel (we have included that we will have up to two Shareholder Meetings at a location inside or outside Canada in our corporation’s Minute Book to make it official and above board.) It gives us a reason to get away from our house, from the office, and take stock on important things like: what’s working and what’s not, what should be the priority projects for the year, review last year’s financials and project the upcoming year, and evaluate how well the business is working for everyone. Just don’t forget to record who you met with, what the meeting was about, and, if it’s a big expense, evaluate your profits against the expense to see if you can justify it! Again, I’m not giving you accounting advice as that’s not in my scope of practice; I’m just sharing what I’ve done.

This is what I do in my business to stay family-centred. Not only does it make my family less resentful of my business, they’re thrilled that my business is growing and successful. I love my business so much more because I’m not fighting against two worlds. You can be a family and lifestyle centred entrepreneur too (maybe you already are!) It’s not one or the other. It’s not career/business or family/lifestyle, it’s a both/and. Enjoy the best of both worlds. And that doesn’t mean it’s perfect all the time. If you strike the right balance 90% of the time you’re doing great! And the result: you’re satisfied and your business thrives.

Want to chat about how you can start or evolve your business to be more family-centred? Jump into my calendar for a 15-minute chat!

Three Ways to Create a Healthy Workplace Ecosystem

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A number of years ago we were looking for a cottage. We met a great realtor who was excited to be able to help us find our first leisure property. Every time he’d get out of the car, he would do a very interesting but strange thing; he would go right down to the water, take a look around, and within 30 seconds say either, “You can’t buy this place” or “Let’s go inside for a look around.”

We made the assumption that he was rather obsessed with the waterfront. After about the third day of us looking, we said, “Out of curiosity, why do we have to base our judgement on the waterfront?” He shared, “It’s not actually the water. I’m looking to see if there’s any frogs in it because you see, frogs have such sensitive, delicate skin that they can’t survive in an unhealthy body of water and ecosystem.”

What he was explaining to us was that the evidence of frogs was more accurate than any water testing and health records; he could tell, simply by the habitat, if it was hospitable or not.

The same applies to any work environment. People make an impression about your workplace within a minute of setting foot in it. When it comes to clients, new staff, potential partners, they’re looking for how healthy your workplace is, and if they want to do business with you (or if they have no choice, if they can expect a good experience or a less pleasant one). You may be so immersed in it that you can’t tell. You may also feel powerless to change it if it’s not as healthy as it could be. In this blog, we’ll show you what you can do about it, no matter what role you have on the team.

Here are a couple of things you can think about to ensure your team has a healthy ecosystem. Perhaps you’re reading this blog because you’re in a position of deciding if you want to remain in that ecosystem or not. All the more reason to see what can be done about it before you jump ship.

Signs of a healthy ecosystem (anyone can initiate):

1.Celebrate each other

As much as we think people have thick skin, everybody needs to feel acknowledged, appreciated and valued (rather than just told what is needed, how to improve and what to do differently). On the surface, someone may seem tough as nails. But within all of us is the need to do meaningful work and feel valued for it. This is at every level – coaching clients in the c-suite to business owners to folks just starting their career – they share their deepest regrets, their pains, their frustrations, plans they’re not sure about, not feeling valued – and it impacts their energy and productivity. We need to celebrate each other – in small and large ways – on an ongoing basis. When people are working so hard, they need to feel that their greatness (their talents, passions and virtues) are being cultivated, appreciated, tapped into, utilized and valued.

Do you celebrate and value your staff, peers, boss, partners?

2.Ensure every voice is heard

When you listen to an environment with a lot of frogs, they croak in the night. My son loved to catch pollywogs when he was younger, bringing them home to my parent’s pond and watching them grow. Perhaps to my mother’s chagrin, as they would be so loud, croaking all night long, keeping her awake. But you knew they were there!

Do you know what your talent has to say? Do you hear lots of ideas? Do you hear people chatting with each other, interacting on a social level, getting to know each other as people? Are they connecting, sharing and contributing their best ideas to important projects, pitches, clients and problems? Or is there silence? In a meeting, around the office, meeting with you, if you hear little to nothing, that’s a good indicator that there’s some toxicity present such as mistrust, disengagement, or inter-team tension. This can’t be ignored.

Do you ensure every voice is heard?

3.Growth

When a healthy ecosystem exists in nature, the population of its inhabitants grows. Do you have people who want to come and work with your team? Is there a lineup of people waiting to get in, and therefore, do you have a stack of resumes waiting for the first vacancy? Are people inquiring about your organization to become your client, partner or next hire?

There’s a number of organizations I’ve worked with, that never have to post a job advertisement because as soon as somebody leaves, through natural attrition, they are the best recruiters for that team, that organization, and know who to recommend. Do you have people who want to grow and be part of that team, and are the people who are already there, growing and nurturing as well? Or are they stale and stagnant and there is just no appreciation or acknowledgement for the importance of growth within the team?

I hope this has given you a perspective on the importance of focusing on healthy team ecosystems. If you feel that this is valuable, subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can continue to get your dose of Greatness Magnified, for your work, family and for your life.

Five ways to retain top talent during fast-paced growth

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How do you keep up recognition of your top talent even when your business is growing at an exponential pace?

This is a question I have been asked by hundreds of individuals, leaders and business owners over the last few months. The assumption being: we don’t have time for recognition during growth cycles.

But I would question the assumption underlying the question.

Recognition needs to be front and centre all the MORE when your team, organization or industry are growing and the pace is exceedingly busy. This is when you need your best people the most, and it’s also one of the times you’re most at risk of losing them.

When your focus is not on recognition, it can lead to your most needed and valued people feeling like just a cog in the wheel of growth. They may feel like giving up and burning out. They may begin to wonder, “could the grass be greener on the other side?” The fallout: intention to leave.

Ironically, simple acts of recognition can help to insulate against fatigue and keep people motivated to do their best even during those exceedingly busy times. When your organization or industry is in a period of exponential growth, taking on more and more, that is exactly when you need your top talent the most, focused, implementing and performing. You cannot afford to lose your best people any time, and certainly not when you’re growing.

But leaders think they have no time. They cannot fit it in and certainly, can’t afford to not do it. And, the fallout (e.g., recruitment) is way more time consuming than simple acts of acknowledgement.

Recognition can help insulate against burnout and fatigue and provide an opportunity to see how scalable your recognition efforts are. Consider:

  • How committed are you to making sure that your best people know they’re appreciated and valued?
  • What is your people philosophy on the long-term?
  • What do you want your people to be saying about the organization on the other side of your current growth cycle?

It’s a great opportunity to ensure your vision for the future keeps your people at the forefront. And here are some ways to ensure recognition now helps retain them so they stay with you later.

  1. Provide the unexpected

When your best people go the extra mile, do something unexpected, surprising and personally meaningful. For example, you have a core team working late for a few weeks, sacrificing a lot. The surprise recognition gesture: send dinner home to their families.

Think about it. They miss dinner with their families. Someone has to pick up the slack at home. Many people don’t like cooking (or certainly the dishes that follow). When your top people go home to smiles versus upset kids and spouses, they’re less frustrated about the extra time. And the cost is pretty low in the grand scheme of things.

Dinner sent home sends a message to the employee that you recognize and appreciate the extra effort and commitment. It sends a message to the family that you understand the sacrifice they’re making and appreciate them too. It also sends a message throughout the company that even though sometimes you have to ask people to work longer hours, it doesn’t mean you expect people to be married to the job; when you have to take time away from family, that will be acknowledged versus expected.

  1. Have a milestone celebration!

As much as you may have this huge growth, stop and celebrate. It doesn’t have to be a long pause. The importance of that pause is remembering how far you’ve come since the last time you took a pause. It’s that sense of accomplishment, that hit of dopamine, that allows you to feel the sense of success. Otherwise, it just feels like there’s more to do, and you get overwhelmed; the path to burnout.

I spoke for a client at a milestone event, celebrating progress so far on a long, onerous project (where no wins were that visible yet) after a multi-company merger. The energy in the room and appreciation for taking the time to break bread together, hear a non-work motivational speech and get to know each other on a social level was appreciated by every person I spoke to. They all said, “They didn’t have to do this. But it matters that they did.”

I hope you’re doing shout-outs all the way along. That is not just for your leaders and the business owners, but it’s also for your colleagues as well. Peer-to-peer recognition is one of the easiest ways to keep recognition momentum going. When you have that, as you’re growing, it allows everybody to have an opportunity to keep that strong recognition culture afloat.

  1. Strategize using an employee think-tank

If you are finding that you’re growing so exponentially that you can barely keep on top of it, bring the employees together to strategize together. Ask things like:

  • What are we doing that’s working?
  • Is there anything that’s not efficient?
  • Is there anything we could be doing differently?

By asking for feedback (especially feedback that starts with an abundance mindset about what’s already working), you’re showing you value their feedback and they’re not just “worker bees”. Take the quick wins (even better encourage people most passionate about the quick wins to run with it) and put ideas into place right away. Keep that sense of ownership, that feeling of “I belong here despite the changes”, alive and well.

Something like this if not geared at being a complaints session. It’s not a passive “suggestion box” type of idea. Rather a strategy and opportunities generation session. What you’ll find is, there are things taking away good people’s time and attention that really aren’t important, and you can likely get much of that cleared away so they can stay focused on the most important work needed for growth.

  1. Strength discovery is critically important

There’s a free, really valuable tool called the VIA Signature Strength Survey, although maybe you have already done a strengths tool. Look at the results and map out their individual strengths. Consider if they are well aligned with the work being done. While you’re growing, the easiest, most efficient way to maximize people’s talents is to leverage the strengths and expertise they already have. When you’re trying to work outside of your strengths and push yourself, on top of having a huge volume of work and tight deadlines, it’s exhausting and not as rewarding. Map out the strengths and try as best as you can to match your growth strategy to how you already have strengths within the organization.

  1. Measuring matters

Finally, find a way to have those performance milestones. Are you measuring performance and progress as you’re growing? Are you still measuring the cultural variables that individuals feel most strongly about preserving? Are you measuring both process and outcome measures (usually we like to measure the final product – outcome – but that doesn’t keep people going, nor does it allow for quick course correction, when measured in isolation).

What you measure matters. As you’re measuring it, as you’re going through those milestones, I hope that you have some of those “people measures” as well. And pull them into the celebration!

I hope these tips have been helpful as you continue to embrace recognition. What other suggestions do you have?  Pop them in the comments below.

For other free resources to help you keep recognition strong in your culture, feel free to hop over to my website for the Cool Stuff page and download many helpful tools to use even when you’re growing.

Five Keys to Retaining Your Best Staff

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Recruiting your internal staff first is one of the most powerful recognition strategies right under our noses!

When we don’t provide our internal staff with the opportunity and treat them as the priority, then how can you expect them to feel valued and respected? Especially if they’ve been looking forward to these great assignments, stretch projects and promotions.  When suddenly, that new opportunity arrives and just like that they don’t get it and hope is dashed. Especially if they were never really taken seriously. It’s just so painful.

Here is what we know about how to best retain top talent by first looking seriously at our talent within.

  1. Make a decision: do we have a ‘first try to hire from within’ philosophy?

Sometimes people will tell me they cannot hire from within because there just isn’t the talent there. But do your people know that? If someone doesn’t know they’re not performing to the ability and the level that they could be to have access to an opportunity, that’s your first problem! And it needs fixing fast!

Let’s assume, however, that this is not your issue. Does your organization value external people more than internals? Do they take outsiders’ perspective to be wiser, more valuable, and more respected? Or is institutional knowledge, fit with the culture, and “better the devil you know” fit more with your approach? If it’s the former, what evidence do you have that outside is in fact better?

The other piece is that it’s going to take a lot more to onboard somebody who doesn’t know your organization and get them up to speed compared to somebody who does. One of the greatest opportunity for recruiting our internal folks first is that you know them already.

  1. Shift your thinking: what ripple effect does our hiring philosophy have on engagement?

What message does your philosophy about hiring from within have on engagement? If people feel they’re likely to get passed over, why would they give their discretionary effort, ideas and improvements? Or at least, they’re less likely to.

Your philosophy will also approach how you think about investing in developing people. If you want to hire your own, you’re more likely to grow them. The law of reciprocity kicks in and they want to do more for you as they know they’ve been invested in. See the cycle?

You also need to understand where development needs to happen. This may come out of your job evaluation process and your performance appraisal process, of knowing what talent you need and where that growth needs to happen.  Are people ready for those opportunities? If not, help them prepare. It can also impact what sort of training you do and what coaching and mentorship needs to be available in order to ensure the readiness of the next group of leaders or folks who move into those lynchpin positions that are so challenging to recruit to.

The other opportunity is it allows potentially your employees to get involved in the process. To be able to put up their hand and say, “Yes, I would like an opportunity if it became available.” You don’t want to ask them if, in fact, you have every plan to give it to somebody externally.

I’ve heard from a lot of business owners and leaders that they’re concerned and hesitant about making this their process and policy. You may or may not be one of them. Perhaps you already have a process where internal applicants are given the opportunity before external, which is great. My question to you is, is it consistent?

  1. Upping the Preparation: Have you clarified your intent in your People Plan?

If you don’t have a People/Human Resources Plan, well, that’s where you need to start. But let’s assume you do. This is where you build in your philosophy and operationalize your strategy. This is where you can clarify how and why your recruitment practices flow the way they do. This is how you ensure continuity and consistency – from job postings to interviews to hiring decisions and beyond.

Do you have a process of being able to look at your existing talent pool and seeing what kind of development they’re going to need to be ready for those positions you anticipate will come available? Consider your turnover patterns – your past is the best predictor of your future – is there a way to leverage an internal recruiting approach to ensure you don’t have big gaps and anticipate the external recruitment you’ll need to do? And of course, build in what you already know about natural attrition, i.e. people retiring, moving, and contracts renewing.

  1. Spreading the Communication: Do all stakeholders know your philosophy?

If you have external or internal stakeholders with a vested interest in certain candidates, bring them in sooner rather than later. It could be your union colleagues, a shared management agreement with another organization or individuals identified through succession planning and so on. Make stakeholder consultation a part of your recruitment process; even staff positions you can have a colleague sit on the interview panel. As much as possible, make hiring decisions a shared process (yes the buck stops at one person, however, if others are involved at all levels then when decisions about going outside must be made there’s confidence it’s because it was necessary).

Of course, adjust your policies and your approach, not all of this has to happen overnight. However keep your people and related stakeholders informed about your intent to recruit from within first, that you value the talent already in the organization, and you want to know how to support people until such time the right opportunity comes along.

If you’ve found these suggestions helpful, why not share them? Let’s have more intentional discussions about our “recruit from within” philosophy. And of course, share any suggestions or comments below.

Three Hacks to Get Unstuck and Stay Motivated

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What happens when you’re feeling unmotivated? We all have days like that, and sometimes those days turn into weeks or months. Sometimes, it’s just the external environment that makes you unmotivated. Or it might be a rough patch in your personal life or professional career.

Lack of motivation and self-doubt can also seep in when we’re on a steep learning curve. Really any time we’re doing things outside of our comfort zone. We may get so unmotivated we just cannot take the next step. We get frustrated with ourselves and may even experience a lack of enjoyment; the struggle, the difficulty to keeping on keeping on, the plugging through it leaves us wondering – “is it just me?” We look around and see all these motivated people so happy and accomplishing great things. It deflates us further (for another VLOG, are those people quite so contented?)

In other words, when we’re feeling unmotivated, we see we’ve got a problem on our hands.

Or do we?

Consider this. Maybe it’s actually a cue to take a look at our life and see what expectations we have of ourselves, whether it be tasks, inflated hopes and high expectations.  Maybe it’s a chance to consider if we’re really happy and if our life and career is working as it should. Maybe it’s a chance to ask, “what can I let go of?” It’s also an opportunity to revisit what’s working, what’s worked in the past, and make shifts to fix a few things.

One of the greatest gifts of being unmotivated is that you get a chance to ask yourself, “How have I been on autopilot?”

For those of you who run your own businesses, keep your household going, are leaders or have an organization depending on you, you may feel an extra sense of responsibility to keep your motivation level high. Here are some suggestions that I use in my own life and share with my coaching clients when they find themselves unmotivated:

  1. Backtrack

Revisit the last time you were unmotivated. What helped you get back on track? You already have the answers within. You’ve done this already.

Four years ago, when we were going through a very serious family crisis, we had to make some pretty big decisions. I left my job to start my own business and the kids switched schools midway through the year as we moved to a new community. Circumstances and the monumental changes that were in front of us were exhausting, and many times, we were not motivated at all.

Looking back to that circumstance, understanding the steps we took to be able to figure out what that next path was, and to be brave enough to take it, makes it easier to follow those same steps now. In fact, I was so excited to do that, it got me so motivated to translate it into action, that I built a virtual program with all these steps called, “52 Weeks of Greatness: Satisfaction, Clarity, and Direction in Work and Life.” I work my own program because it worked in the past. What it reminds me is, if I could get through that difficult tie, I can get through other demotivating times. So, look at your own journey, about how you’ve been able to get motivated again because there’s gold in your experience.

  1. Practice a daily self-recognition ritual

When I first made the leap, I had no one telling me if I was on track or not. So, guess what I thought? I wasn’t on track! I had to start recognizing myself every day. Literally. I’d take a piece of paper (yes in the shape of a FROG) and acknowledge one thing a day that worked. At first, it was tough. Then it got easier and I’d think, “Oh I could write that down, and that thing, and that…”

How does this help with motivation? It celebrates your successes. It’s a concrete strategy or ritual that reinforces this too.

It’s like setting a goal. We’re more likely to do it when we make a decision and know exactly how to execute it in a simple way.  Then, when you achieve the goal (even if it’s a tiny one like writing an acknowledgement on a piece of paper), you get a dopamine hit, the juicy achievement chemical, that your brain loves which elevates your mood. Good mood increases motivation. See the cycle?

  1. Decide how you want to spend your time

Take a look at all the things that are taking up your time, particularly if you’re feeling overwhelmed; lack of motivation can come from being too busy and distracted – “where do I start?”

Ask yourself, “Is there something that I can put on hold or stop completely?” When I was feeling very overwhelmed, it almost paralyzed me from moving forward. What I noticed was that I had too many things on my plate for my business and that I was having to start making choices about family or work.

As a self-proclaimed family-first entrepreneur, I make choices every day about what to say yes and no to, which clients to work with, and even how far to travel for work based on fit with family and lifestyle. Leaving money on the table used to scare me (okay, it still sometimes does) but I am actually less motivated when I make more money but feel misaligned. What are your priorities? How can you use them to determine where you wish to spend your time and resources?

These are the top three things I suggest for you to get you back on track when you’re unmotivated. What additional tips do you have? Comment below.

Now, you may have read this not because you are the person who’s unmotivated. Maybe it’s somebody in your life. Maybe it’s somebody on your team, in your family, or a friend. Someone you know is a rock star yet they may not see it in themselves at the moment. Share this with them with a note you know this will pass and you hope these tips will help. And if it helps, I have three complimentary modules from the 52 Weeks of Greatness Program you, your friends and your colleagues are welcome to take (just click this link to take advantage of it)!

I hope you found this really helpful because:

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