Quarterly Themes: Creating alignment and Boosting Team Morale

As we have been working in a pandemic for more than a year, there is one thing that all the leaders I have spoken with have agreed upon: we and our teams are exhausted. I am a big believer in optimism, but I am an equally large proponent of addressing what Admiral James Stockdale calls the “brutal facts of your current reality,” and, in this moment, addressing the brutal facts means recognizing that team morale and alignment may be suffering. 

One powerful way to re-inspire your team and bring energy (and fun!) back into your workplace is to announce a quarterly theme that you and your team can rally behind. Quarterly themes are generally created by gathering a representative from each department and/or your leadership team for a quick 45 minute meeting.

In the meeting, you and your team should consider where your company is at, upcoming priorities and future goals. The most important thing to remember while creating this team is that it should create a “win x4;” a win for the company, a win for customers, a win for the employees, and a win for the community. By ensuring that your theme is one that will motivate your employees and create value for customers and community, you will effectively be drawing in a crowd of individuals who will support your work. 

As an example, this quarter we at PFD have decided that our quarterly theme would be “Paddle!” We wanted to capture the idea that in order to catch a great wave of change, you have to put in significant effort to ensure that the wave does not pass you by. As a company, we have several key thrusts in the works, which led us to choose a theme that will remind us to keep paddling so that we can catch a wave that will generate enormous benefits for our team and community. 

Q3 2021 Theme: Paddle! The Key Thrusts have been generalized so as not to give away our strategy.

If you would like more inspiration on potential themes for our company, check out some of our past themes:

Q2 2020 Theme: “Our Finest Hour”. For this theme, we were in the height of uncertainty with the pandemic, and we were searching for empowerment in our team. We found inspiration from another period of history marked with fear and uncertainty, WWII, and specifically Winston’ Churchill’s “This Was Their Finest Hour” speech. It was because of this speech that we decided to rise to the challenge - making that quarter “Our Finest Hour” - and finding creative ways to positively impact 1,000 lives. If you would like to read more about this theme, check out this blog post here.

Q1 2021 Theme: And… Action! For this quarter, we wanted to inspire our team to be very action-oriented, so to accomplish this end, we had our team track their use and adoption of our new project-management software. By ensuring the team used the project management software, they had a clear means to track progress on their projects, thus inspiring action. There also was a celebratory component, as we also had our team members submit photos of the different things they were doing - both within work and outside of work - to commemorate all that been done during the quarter.

Q3 2020 Theme: Partner Pinball (names removed this blog post). For this theme, we wanted our team members to engage with key partners throughout the quarter to help facilitate a strong launch to a project. A star was added next to the name of each partner engaged, to make sure we kept the focus on partners present and at the forefront. The relationships we have with CEOs and other leaders are critical to our success, so we wanted to focus on treating those partners well for the duration of the quarter.

If you would like more help creating your quarterly theme, I recommend this 9-minute video: Developing a Theme for Your Team.

Capturing the Momentum of the Economic Recovery: Accelerate Your Growth in the Second Half of 2021

If you are a business leader, you are likely still experiencing the lingering effects and stress of the global pandemic. You might be facing supply shortages, a reduced pipeline, and staffing shortages, as well as lingering doubts from the challenges you have endured from the last year. This being said, you also likely know that the economy is recovering – spending is increasing, unemployment is dropping, and by the end of the year, the gross domestic product is even projected to reach, at least temporarily, the path that was projected for it had the pandemic never happened.

 Now, as a leader of your company, you might be in a rather challenging position. For over a year, you had to firefight – dealing with an unpredictable market in a time of international uncertainty, while also taking care of the people you employ and in your community. Now, to scale your business and capitalize on the economic recovery, you must switch mentalities – from surviving to thriving. While this might sound challenging, we have three tips on actions you can take to put yourself in the right headspace for growth in the second half of 2021.

Align to a Mission

First, to get out of your head, we recommend that you focus on something that is bigger than yourself.  At PFD, we are deeply passionate about the profound importance of having a vision and mission for your life and company, how they can clarify your thinking, and get you out of daily firefighting. By creating or reconnecting with a mission and vision for your company and your life, you can become inspired again – aligning toward where you would like to be long-term, and taking steps to get there. This can be an effective way to fight against burnout and reignite passion. If you would like to learn more about creating an effective vision and purpose for your company, check out the blog post here.

Get the Right People

Getting the right people into your organization can be the greatest opportunity and the greatest challenge that you face. On one hand, with unemployment decreasing, the market is getting more competitive to find great talent, but on the other, having the right people in the right roles will be transformational for your organization. Often, to get the right people, you have to be creative. To create a creative sourcing plan, take fifteen minutes to consider the questions below to identify potential sources of talent that fit your company culture:

1. Who do you need to talk to at your local Universities or Community Colleges?

2. Are there nonprofits aligned with your mission whose board you need to be on?

3. Are there major community events that you need to chair or be on the planning committee for?

4. Are there other well-run organizations whose leaders you need to partner with?

5. Who are the five most influential people in your industry that you should talk to?

6. Who are the five most influential people in your community that you should talk to?

7. Who do you need to buy lunch?

Focus on what you can control

Finally, while there is a lot about our businesses that are not directly in our control, like supply chains and sales pipelines, we suggest that you focus on what you can control. It is a simple concept - easier said than done. We have found that there are two things senior teams can do that will set you up for growth in the latter half of 2021.

1. Cultivate Operational Excellence

   If your pipeline is slow at the moment, perhaps you can use this season where you are less busy to cultivate operational excellence in your organization. Perhaps this means you roll out a new project management software, or any other software you have been avoiding putting into your organization because of the length of time it will take to install. Perhaps you update employee manuals, get the team into an online dashboard, or cultivate a coaching rhythm that allows you to coach your team candidly and consistently for success. Whatever the case, use this time to intentionally work on your operations so that you and your team have the capacity for growth later in the year.

2. Conduct Senior Leader Planning Sessions

   Having the right people in the right roles on your team is critical for success. These are the people, if they are A Players, that will come up with creative solutions for challenges and help reignite passion among your other senior team members. Having the right people in these key roles, and actively communicating with these people via senior leader planning sessions, will take pressure off you as the CEO and lead to better outcomes overall.

With the economic recovery already happening, right now is when we need to invest time and energy to transforming our mindset and business to scale. If you would like to inquire about senior planning sessions, please contact us here.