How to Bring Stability to your Team

You might be feeling the ground shake under your team, so to speak. Perhaps someone is secretly thinking about leaving. Maybe another says they’re fully committed, but doesn’t do the work to get themselves on board with new initiatives. Others are enthusiastic, but wondering why some are dragging their feet.

This is normal. But it can feel unsettling. As the leader, you can’t tell everyone everything you know, but what you can do is make the ride as smooth as possible when there are inherent bumps in the road.

Here are three ways leaders can create stability in their teams.

1. Routine

If you have routines that are working with your team, keep them going. Whether your team meets every six weeks or every week, meet expectations around getting together. If there are other, perhaps asynchronous, routines, do what you can to make sure they stay happening smoothly

2. Focus

Your job is to keep the team’s focus on the work goals – not the drama, not the busy work. This doesn’t mean you ignore what needs to be addressed, but that you anchor the focus on the team’s reason for existing. Maybe it’s the first order of business at your regular meeting.

3. Connection

Healthy, authentic, calm connections between you and each team member and ideally between the team members themselves is key as well. We have blogged previously about the power of checking in and checking out rituals to foster connection. But also, texts and ad hoc phone calls (yes, I mean actual phone calls!) can help as well.

These three areas will help you maintain a sense of stability when things start to feel unsettled. You can’t prevent the changes, but you can give the team the foundational cohesion to process and integrate the changes.

Of course, these actions need to be atop the foundation of baseline trustworthy behavior on your part as the leader — in short: you do what you say you’ll do, you have what it takes to get the job done, and you have your team’s best interest at heart.