Planners’ Picks:
A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning
No fooling; team building is the key to success in any organization. Here are resources around engagement, motivation, and appreciation of teams.
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Use Art to Reignite Your Team’s Motivation and Creativity
As remote working drags on for many, it may be time to re-energize employees who are feeling bored or uninspired. Techniques from five artistic disciplines can propel your team’s creative thinking and break up the monotony of remote working. Visualizing and drawing outcomes to business problems can help you separate what’s important from the details. Taking inspiration from improv helps you see problems from new perspectives. Moving around physically releases endorphins and helps you feel relaxed. Poetry helps you access different parts of your brain. And finally, music can help you connect with others. These techniques aren’t just fun for fun’s sake — they allow employees to channel thoughts and pent-up emotions into something constructive.
https://hbr.org/2021/03/use-art-to-reignite-your-teams-motivation
9 Ways Leaders Can Increase Productivity, Customer Satisfaction, And Employee Engagement
Amy Blaschka has long believed that people power business and that as leaders, we need to value relationships over transactions. And after more than a year of living and working in a prolonged state of uncertainty due to the pandemic, those leaders who care for their people and teams are not only appreciated by them; they’re helping them and their organizations thrive.
But in the fine art of caring leadership, what makes one a master? Heather Younger, the founder of Employee Fanatix, an employee engagement, leadership development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm, sought to find out.
In her soon-to-be-released book, The Art of Caring Leadership: How Leading With Heart Uplifts Teams and Organizations, Younger shares why people will go the extra mile for leaders who show they are genuinely concerned not only with what employees can do but also with who they are and can become.
Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDx
Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Amy Edmondson, an organizational behavioral scientist at Harvard was the first person to introduce the construct of “team psychological safety”. In her popular Ted Talk (11m 26s), she offers three things individuals can do to foster team psychological safety:
- Frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem. When dealing with uncertainty, we need to hear everyone’s voices and thoughts.
- Acknowledge your own fallibility (the tendency to make mistakes or be wrong). Say simple things like, “I may miss things, I need to hear from you.”
- Model curiosity and ask lots of questions. These behaviors create a necessity for voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8
Linkedin Learning: Building High-Performance Teams
High-performing teams are critical to maintaining an organization’s competitive advantage. These teams consistently show high levels of collaboration and innovation and outperform their peers. In this course, leadership-training expert Mike Figliuolo shows you how to create and lead the teams that get more done for their organizations. Learn about the seven elements of a high-performance team, and the techniques necessary to set direction, gather and deploy the right resources, prioritize work, motivate employees, and help team members develop their individual strengths.
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/building-high-performance-teams/celebrating-success?u=56745513
5 Simple Yet Powerful Steps to Show Your Employees You Care About Them
Now more than ever, leaders play a pivotal role in connecting, calming, and inspiring their teams. Even as you and your organization are challenged during this time of uncertainty and change, employees also have a lot on their minds, and often a mix of emotions about themselves, their families, and their work situation. A little empathy and thoughtful communication can go a long way to help employees know you care.
8 Ways to Encourage a Healthy Work-Life Balance for Your Remote Employees
Maybe you had an office where your business operated before Covid-19. Now things have changed, things are being run from home and you need to find a way to encourage work-life balance for your remote employees.
With the uncertainty of all the current events happening in the world right now, your workers already feel stressed. On top of that, they’re having to adapt to new software and systems, like Zoom team meetings, to stay in touch and keep the ball rolling. It’s no wonder your employees can’t quite get their footing.
You aren’t alone! There are steps you can take to get through this without bringing everyone back into the office. Some companies have already solved these problems. We’ve outlined their solutions and will share them with you, so you can learn how to encourage a work-life balance in your organization.
https://bench-builders.com/managing-complexity/work-life-balance-remote-employees/
Upcoming Events:
4/6 Group Management Consultation with LifeMatters
Come ask your burning supervisor questions, and hear what others are asking. Each discussion will be different, based on the questions brought to the session. Maybe you have questions about managing interpersonal conflict, addressing performance, supporting the emotional well-being of employees, how to support yourself while you are managing others’ needs or other topics. Even if you don’t have specific questions you can come and gain information from the conversation. Join one or multiple sessions.
Tuesday, 4/6/21, 11am-12pm
Thursday, 6/3/21, 1-2pm
All sessions are virtual. A link will be emailed to you one day before the session.
Register Now for Showcase 2021 (Virtual) April 8
Registration is now open for Showcase 2021, hosted by the Office of Strategic Consulting, on Thursday, April 8. Showcase is a free annual event highlighting innovations and improvements on campus. This year’s event is all-virtual, and it will include all the features of the traditional in-person event: a poster exhibition, breakout sessions, poster flash talks, a keynote presentation, and an opportunity to network with colleagues. The deadline to register is April 7 at 5 p.m. For more information, visit showcase.wisc.edu.
Student Employee Appreciation Week: April 12-16
The second full week in April is National Student Employment Week. We invite you to celebrate and recognize the talented student employees in your unit and/or division during this time. To help in recognizing your students we have created a “toolkit” full of ideas of unique ways you can communicate appreciation to your student employees. This includes email templates, virtual gathering ideas, and unique ways to give individual and team shout-outs. Please feel free to utilize these resources and share them with others in your circles. Thank you for recognizing your student employees!
Questions about Student Employee Appreciation Week? Contact our team at student.employment@finaid.wisc.edu.
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>>> “Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.” – Stephen R. Covey