The fate of your office could be lying in your hands, explore it! – Life of a boss.

It takes a little courage with an evolving economy, that leaves one no choice but spend more than what is within their means, to stay at a job they are passionate about and see it thriving amidst great challenges or crises

So many enterprises have had the privilege to have staff stick around amidst their down-the-drain days, this not only shows that the workers are not only hanging around for the money they receive, but for the team spirit and togetherness they have built at the job or even, the experience they are building there – this is the first ethical rule in career development and enhancement

But it never gets easy to build a career in a work place facing a crisis or that is struck with limited, less or no finances – this means there equally is, very little for one to upgrade oneself on personal and working basis – given the fact that one has draining basic necessities in both realms – revolving from medical needs, shelter, clothing for both work and home, feeding – which most cases will not for only one individual but for a family or other dependents one has in their lives

As a boss or leader of staff, the capability to spot and identify indicators of demotivation among the team you have built and act upon them, is quite a wise move to get your staff back on track before it gets too late to revive their energies towards work.

There quite many signs of a drained and demotivated team and among these include: Decreased productivity and creativity among staff; Change of attitudes towards work and workmates; absenteeism and constant lack of punctuality to work and execution of tasks; increased negative and demotivating talks among staff; less energy in task execution; less engagement and contribution towards decisions to get the company progressing; distantness with every aspect connected to the job; lack of self-efficacy, direction and focus at the job; constant stress and boredom while at work.

It is therefore up to leader to get staff to refocus and redirect themselves towards accomplishing tasks, which can get the team and company to progress – get staff motivated by seeking a two-way communication approach, get staff to get heard, be as approachable as you can be as a leader and hear out staff ideas, as lack of clarity is the most demotivating factor for a team – your team should always feel included and confident enough, to share with you as leader as it will give them the assurance that they are valued and capable/trusted.

When a work place is struck with a financial crisis and, or any other staff demotivating situation, many get demotivated and lack the ‘next’ move, therefore they contemplate on whether to get other jobs, quit and stay home or to stay and see if the situation improves, this is the chance for any boss/head of the workplace to convince their team to stick together, if they never want to go down the lane of building another new team from scratch.

Here are some simple and yet vital tips to get one’s staff to stick through any work crisis:

Office party – A mini-office drinks and snacks party would be a great start to getting you staff’s minds off the troubles they face at work; they get cheered, have time to chat away their issues and relieve their chests off the burdens they face on a daily at job or even in private lives.

Little appreciation – This can be in any form of way, a little noticeboard letter from the management or email or even a small brief meeting for staff to feel like their efforts and sacrifices are treasured and appreciated by their employers – this spreads a little happiness among the employees at the workplace

Little rewards – Staff can be motivated with little gifts for every accomplishment or progress they make at work, this can in forms of little tokens of money or motivational mugs, diaries, novels, water bottles, tea flasks among others with little scribbled personalized messages to the rewarded party, and or a promotion at work.

Encouragement – Words and acts of encouragement can give your staff a big push to living a great day at work

Games and sports office gala – Sports and other active indoor and outdoor games can be a great distraction for a demotivated team, treat your staff to active distractions as these – board games, staff football/netball matches, friendly competitions or trophy hunt games

Staff tours – Staff tours are a great distraction form the reality – tours around different memorable parts of the country such as game parks, waterfalls, hot springs among others

Staff self-motivation talks – As a boss, you should often encourage staff to have positive minds and self-motivation talks or activities to push them forward in situations – a self-motivated team is a great team to work with.

Communicate always – Always talk to your staff often, make sure that you catch up with their recent developments and give them updates about the moves done towards correcting the crisis at hand – give them some hope – avoid your communication sounding like a command or dictation as this could be a great demotivation factor to staff

Main Goal/target focus – When you get a feeling that your workers are starting to go down the distracted and demotivated lane, it is great that you give them a wakeup call from the reverie, change their attitude and get them to refocus on the company’s main goal/target, as this is the only way that their motivation can be build – when they see progress and achievements.

Staff welfare and best conditioned mindset comes with a price with utmost comfort and better treatment at work – this means that the employers have to find ways of motivating their staff in all kinds of ways – build a team/family than just having total strangers at a workplace.

Compiled and written by Mercy Scarlet Kigai.