Ten leadership tips for motivating your team when things are going badly

When the going gets tough, the motivation gets tougher.

So you have invested heavily in your team and brought together some of the best talent available. Customers and supporters are eagerly awaiting the start of a new adventure. You have done all you can, drawing on all your experience, to prepare everybody for the challenges ahead. You and they have tasted success before. Expectations are high, but you are confident they are realistic and can be managed. Nobody is expecting miracles, but a steady start is the least you had hoped for, and even that remains elusive.

Weeks have passed. No points on the board, no runs scored, nothing delivered. Heads have not completely dropped, but the dip in morale is palpable. The team looks a little ragged and the questions are starting. All eyes are on the leader to see what happens next.

So what will you do? How do you turn a group of highly skilled individuals into a motivated, high-performing team that can confidently start on the road to recovery?

Great leaders stand up to be counted at times like these. The honeymoon period is long gone and the cold light of day has arrived. It is time to get real. Here are ten rabbits you can pull from the hat of experience, with one thought kept up your sleeve throughout: always lead the way you would like to be led.

One: reinforce your values

Values are the things most of us struggle to live up to, but a leader must, especially in tough times. Get the team together and tell them what you value most, that you passionately believe they can achieve great things, and how confident you are that success is just around the corner. It will make one hell of a difference to them.

'Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.'

Michael Jordan

Two: act

From that moment on, walk the talk. Actions always speak louder than words. Having decided what needs doing first, do it. The world is awash with committees, steering groups, working parties and change councils. We do not need another talking shop. A leader who acts consistently and decisively will earn the team's backing every single time.

'Well done is better than well said.'

Benjamin Franklin

Three: listen

People do their best work in an environment of trust and support, free from fear or blame, and when they are listened to. Do they expect every suggestion to be acted upon? Of course not. They do expect their input to be considered, and to hear the reasons when it is not taken forward.

'There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak.'

Simon Sinek

Four: insist on feedback

Or at least encourage it. The leader does not have a monopoly on good ideas. The team works at the coalface and will often have the sharpest insight into where things are not working. Set up ways for everyone to speak their mind. Some will be comfortable in open group sessions; others will hate them. Cater for both.

'Feedback is the breakfast of champions.'

Ken Blanchard

Five: empower

A much overused and misunderstood word. Encourage people to make the decisions they are best placed or best informed to make. A leader cannot do everything or know everything, but can support the team and help solve the problems they have been unable to crack alone.

'As we look into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.'

Bill Gates

Six: share the load

A team usually blends youth and experience, and its senior members hold knowledge worth passing on. The more people leading the charge with the same message, each adding their own slant, the more effective the team becomes and the sooner higher performance arrives.

'The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.'

Queen Elizabeth II

Seven: encourage innovation

The last thing anyone wants to hear when things are going badly is 'we have always done it like this.' It is rarely helpful. Real progress has always come through experimentation. Everyone should expect the odd setback, but these are simply learning experiences to take on board. Try to avoid the word failure; say instead that things did not quite work out as expected.

'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.'

Thomas Edison

Eight: celebrate

This is the good news, and you can expect plenty of celebrations, because success rarely comes with a big bang. It is usually the result of small improvements, made little and often, that inch a team towards the big prize. Over time, a series of small changes adds up to serious progress. Be patient, stick to your guns, support your team, and stand back in astonishment as you celebrate your collective success.

'If you can dream it, you can do it.'

Walt Disney

Nine: keep your nerve

• Never criticise your team in public, not to your boss, the board or the media, nobody. Always talk about 'us' and 'we', never 'them' and 'they'
• Do not panic into wholesale changes. If things improve, you will never know what made the difference
• Never lose faith. It is not the setback that matters, it is how you bounce back. Stay positive and keep your enthusiasm, because it will inspire everyone around you

Ten: act now, do not wait until it happens

You would not want your pilot's first attempt at a 50mph gusting crosswind landing to be on your family holiday. So do not wait until times are bad to build your team's resilience, because by then it may be too late.

Immersive, facilitated business simulations for high-performing teams let a team rehearse pressure, setbacks and recovery together in a psychologically safe space, so the right habits are already in place when real adversity arrives. A simulation like Cohesion drops a team into exactly the kind of rough patch described here, and gives them the chance to practise leading each other out of it.

Prepare your team before the storm

Great leaders do not wait for a crisis to discover how their team handles one. The surest way to build that resilience in advance is to let people feel pressure, setbacks and recovery together, while the stakes are still safe.

That is exactly what our high-performing teams simulations are built to do: immersive, live and in-person, and facilitated by our experts. If you would like to explore how one could strengthen your team before things get tough, we would be glad to talk it through.