Leadership Coaching: Get Your Team Out of a Rut

Leadership Coaching: Get Your Team Out Of A Rut
By Mike Krutza

Watch Out For Monotony

Is it becoming monotonous in your team? Same old same old where the noisy ones keep on talking and the quiet personnel keeping mum as usual? And it’s the same issues you have to deal with over and over. Drudgery could be setting in, and this dampens the mood of your people. Better keep in check at the energy and hope department of people in the workplace. If this is the case, your employees’ enthusiasm is likely to wane. “Nothing changes, so why bother”?, they are apt to think.

As a manager, do you care at all about your employees? At least about what they think or have to say. Otherwise, if your subordinates feel you are neglecting them, they wouldn’t be interested in contributing anything to the company.

Signs That Your Team Is Stuck In A Rut

Be wary because your team might be stuck in a rut. You wouldn’t want that to happen because your business needs to thrive in a competitive world. Getting stuck in a rut means your business is not as revved up as it used to be. It is waning and diminishing. Do something, or else your team will completely falter. How can you tell if your team is stuck in a rut? Here are signs to watch out for:

• You know there are gaps in your workplace, but your employees feel some kind of angst, and it’s difficult to really pin down

• When you talk about “flexibility”, your team cringes. They even hold back from the idea of changing where they usually sit in meetings.

• Your team has become complacent. They are under the notion that everything always works out fine. “We’re efficient, we’re one of the largest and we’ve adopted the best practices. What can possibly go wrong” is the prevailing mentality. Do you, as leaders, pay attention to the personal issues of your team? If not, then your team is blatantly stuck in a rut.

How To Get Your Team Moving

How can you get your team out of a rut?

If you feel the disconnect, speak up. Communicate your observations. Your team continues to move in the same path, but consider that this constant motion might not be healthy for your other employees and customers. As a leader, you have to know how to speak up and convey the right message. You need elegant courage to be able to do so. It could be time to see from a different perspective and apply a different approach. There will be varied responses, but you have to adjust.

Change as a process often requires struggle. Start by getting everybody to speak up. Be open to new ideas. Cultivate elegant courage in your leadership and your team. That’s the first step to getting out of a rut and reviving, breathing life anew into your business.

Mike Krutza specializes in executive coaching with individuals and teams. Visit Mike’s website here.