Teamwork and motivation days are like little devils who sit on the HR manager’s shoulders with the message “Needed! Need to organize. The team needs a motivational kick and it’s urgent.” In this article, we introduce what is team’s emotional bank account and how to take care of it.
Today’s situation in the world has put on a test people’s personal and team spirit. It is relatively difficult to maintain a unified team when colleagues meet once a week or even less. Some can meet in the office, but there are teams who have not physically met for over a year, just over the web. Managers are like little witches, who all the time demand from the employees, but it is really hard to give something back that actually would matter to the team. All the COVID-19 restrictions and fears on everything set limits. But how does this all affect the work environment and team?
Emotional bank account – full or empty?
Most people know writer Stephen R. Covey and his book The 7 Habits of a Highly Effective People. In the book, the author talks in detail about what is an emotional bank account, how to fill it, and what activities reduce and what increase the “currency” in the account.
Contributions to an emotional bank account include understanding the employee, noticing small things, and keeping your promises. The more contributions you have made to the account in advance, the more cooperative the employees will be during difficult times and changes. During the COVID-19 time, it has been really challenging to make big and emotional contributions.
Emotional bank account measures how much trust you have built up among your employees and colleagues.
If you, as a Manager, have promised in a job interview or it is already in the work culture that teams will have motivational team days and events at least 1-2 times a year (or even more); we will pay attention to small detail in the office, then today’s situation really does not support it at all. Current employees have been got used to all these benefits in the past. Long stay in the home office has brought people’s emotional bank account almost to zero or even negative. Such an employee is certainly not a driving force in the team.
Should we organize still a team event or should we wait for it all to pass?
Covid-19 has been with us almost for 2 years now. It is time to learn how to live with it and find ways to take care of your team.
Motivational days, praise and pat on the shoulder for doing a good job, some day events with the team, charity events, sharing common jokes at the lunch table, competitions between colleagues, etc. These acitivities strenghten the united team feeling. Each activity makes a proper deposit to the employee’s emotional bank account. When was the last time your team did a team event?
We see that more than ever it is important to recognize your employees and organize united activities. At some point, we all need to put the pen on the table, leave all worries in the office, and spend great time together.
“During the last recession, events were quickly dashed because there were simply no funds,” said Leho Luukas, founder and manager at Frank Events. Leho has worked in event management field past 15 years and seen different economic situations. “This time the situation is quite different – there are number of companies that have the funds for events in their budget, but due to the Covid-19 situation managers and people are afraid to organize a larger company event. More and more managers agree that a team event is needed. They see working motivation falling and it is more and more difficult to get back on track because most of the team is working from home.”
We recommend holding different team events, but just to make sure that all people who are attending are well and done COVID-19 test. It is important to restore cooperation and trust between the team members and managers.
How to make secure deposits to an emotional bank account?
It is safe to surround yourself with the people you see almost daily – family, colleagues, and close friends. Therefore, fun team trips, hikes, and adventure games with the team are well-recommended activities. Especially when it comes to an outdoor event. And even while organizing a larger corporate party make sure everyone gets tested before the event and try to get a venue that has a really good ventilation system or people can be scattered.
When the situation becomes critical again, there is always the opportunity to conduct fun team events using technological solutions. There are many ways for it and each virtual, hybrid and in-person event and customer needs and expectations are different.
Frank Events has been organizing events since 2007. During this time, major conferences, seminars, Christmas days, galas, parties, summer, winter and team motivation events have been organized. We are happy to have over 100 companies as our customers and who see us as their strategic partner organizing team events, marketing events, product launches, seminars, and other important events.
For more information write us info@frankevents.ee