Once upon a time, we considered fall to be the start of busy season. Nowadays, however, pumpkin spice lattes and mild temperatures have turned autumn into one of the most popular seasons — including for special events. Fall has become almost just as busy as spring and summer in the way of work, pushing the off-season reprieve to the distant wintry months.
When you and your team are putting in nine months of peak season work a year, it’s natural to start to feel a slump around the fall. After all, you’ve been slogging through six months of work with limited time to rest and reenergize.
Fortunately, there are plenty of strategies leadership can use to revitalize a team’s morale and help to push through the final stretch.
Be flexible with your staff
We all have days where we need to check out early and catch the nearest happy hour. Or perhaps your team needs sleep and would appreciate a later start time on Mondays after busy event weekends. Treat your employees like the human beings they are outside of the office — understand when they simply need a break to unwind and reset.
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If the situation calls for it, you may want to consider hiring extra help to support your staff. You may not be in a place to take on a new employee, but it could be worth looking into bringing in an intern or contracting out some of the work. Your people are your most valuable assets, so take care of them and they will come back motivated season after season.
Simplify, simplify, simplify
On the topic of seeking help to support your team, it may not come in the form of labor — it might be technology that comes to save the day. There are countless apps and programs that can help to streamline your company’s day-to-day processes, saving your employees valuable time they can spend elsewhere. If posting to social media is a headache, get an app to lets you pre-schedule posts and track analytics easily.
Of course, the perfect app(s) will vary based on a company’s needs, so take the pulse of your team and understand their biggest obstacles. Do you need a project management software like Basecamp to simplify delegation? Is Slack the answer to all of your internal communication challenges? Will Dropbox fix the ongoing problem of missing files? Only you can determine what works best for your team.
Celebrate the team’s successes
A company culture that is always work, work, work is one that will quickly lead everyone in your organization to burnout. Find ways to weave in fun and excitement throughout the workweek. Take the group out to lunch to celebrate someone’s birthday. Bring in sweet treats to recap the weekend’s hectic events. Plan for a day-long retreat when your team meets their sales goals.
You don’t need to reward every little thing, but make sure you are dedicating enough time to your staff and their achievements. Help them to brush off the cobwebs and remind them about their passion for their job.
Fall is a beautiful time for events, so don’t let burnout take over and turn the season sour. Stick to the grind, bring positivity to the table, and rest assured that winter is coming.
