We can all agree that you and your team have been through a lot the past couple of years. It’s likely that your team is feeling disconnected, more anxious, and requiring more support from you than you might be able to extend. We’ve heard from a lot of employees that work seems less fun lately, more isolated, and even pretty lonely. If you’re a supervisor or part of a team and have noticed that things have shifted but don’t quite know how to help without adding one more thing to your own plate, or worry that bringing up the observation might lead to another dreaded ice breaker; then this blog is for you.

watering hole doesn’t seem to be a viable option or a helpful solution to check in on the team morale anymore.

Noticing that things have changed, but also not knowing how to help, can be stressful and takes up mental headspace and energy that you too might be low on in the first place.

With so much changing the past couple of years, I’m sure both personally and within the company, your employees might have values, interests, and feelings that have shifted from before the pandemic started.

One on one time can offer you valuable insight into how they are holding up, what’s changed for them, and what is most important to them.

Below you’ll find a few ways to bring more connection, support, and cultivate meaningful relationships with your team; by creating new habits and routines.

Do you want to know more about your team personally? Do you want to understand their workload? Do you want to hear what they predict to be a roadblock for the work they’ll have to accomplish soon?

Once you have a goal for why you want to check in and what you’d like to learn you find the process feels more meaningful and productive for your own time. Checking in with team members doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to do anything if they decide to share their concerns, gripes, or struggles with you. Providing a space for your team to communicate and share with someone that genuinely cares about them can be a healthy way to just allow them to feel heard, understood, or even that they’re not alone.

Checking in is also a great way to keep the pulse on what your team is thinking and feeling that might be interfering with productivity and overall goals. Finding ways to check in with your team can be a way to proactively avoid problems before they get out of hand or require more time to be resolved.

Making your check in’s become a consistent and predictable routine can be a great way to SHOW your team (and yourself) that you prioritize relationships over the workload.

Before you know it you’ll hear your employee’s noting things in conversation to you that they’re looking forward to sharing more with you during your next check in time.

Just reading a blog like this shows that you want to improve the culture of your team and your employees’ mental health. However, I’m sure you’re still apprehensive about actually starting to schedule check-in’s on your calendar and maybe feel nervous that taking time consistently to do so might not be realistic or attainable.

Below are a couple of simple ways to incorporate systematic, efficient, and meaningful ways to check in with your team AND ALSO support your own mental health that will keep you engaged and excited to maintain the process.

Get Moving

Check-ins don’t have to be time consuming or another meeting on your schedule to genuinely connect with your team.

Try putting a reminder for each day of the week on your own calendar to get out of the office and go for a walk.

According to a study done by Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute in 2016 they found that just 5 minutes of movement during your work day can improve your productivity, happiness, and energy levels.

You’ll be surprised that by just going for a walk, you’ll catch your team out and about, too, or sitting at their desk with the door open. Use your walk each day as a way to mindfully move your own body (your brain and your body will thank you!) and then strike up a quick check-in with whoever you run into on your walk or you’ve plucked from their desk to head outdoors with you. Have 2-3 questions in mind that you can use all week on each walk and see where it takes you.

Our favorite quick check-in questions is:

How are you really doing this week?

Emphasizing really lets someone know that you’re not just asking to hear, “Good, thanks. How are you?” and then move in your separate directions. Emphasizing really sends an invitation for them to open up and know that you’re available to really hear what’s going on.

Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage believes that, “The people who survive stress the best are the ones who actually increase their social investments in the middle of stress, which is the opposite of what most of us do.”.

If you’re worried that someone might respond in a way that you wouldn’t feel equipped to handle, be prepared to extend validation and know the resources available to everyone in your workplace.

Saying something like, “I hear you- I can relate. Things have been challenging lately.” Can send a message that you can empathize with your team member but doesn’t require you to take on any of their stressors. If you are worried for their mental load or all that they have on their plate, it’s always a nice reminder to share the local and internal resources your company might offer to help lighten the load and provide support. Many companies offer EAP’s (Employee Assistance Programs- typically contact HR to learn more about the free or reduced costs to 100% confidential mental health therapy services). Some really great companies offer wellness programs with local perks to stay active or get involved which can always be helpful to be reminded of when experiencing stress, or asking if they have anyone to talk to about the stress they shared and stating how therapy can be a great space for getting some insight and tools to feel more yourself again.

Some of our other favorite questions for checking in on staff would be: How is work feeling for you lately? What’s something that’s been inspiring or challenging for you this week? I love these questions! Sometimes it’s great to hear validation that things are going well in the office but other times it can shed light on where things might be feeling mundane, confusing, rushed, or not clear from staff members. Follow up with a question like, What would help improve things or would you be willing to try that suggestion you mentioned and follow up with me again? These follow up questions give ownership and autonomy to your employees to find a solution to the feelings they described and don’t require you to do anything additional but just continue to be supportive. Be prepared to actually hold a conversation. Knowing that your team might have an ACTUAL response and reply requires you to show up for that. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got an email back from a colleague saying it was great talking with you!

Send an Email of Gratitude

We send 40 emails a day on average! Dang, that’s a lot of emails, right!?!?

Make it a habit to send one email a day to include something you’re personally or professionally grateful for about your colleague.

The practice of both giving and receiving gratitude can improve our overall happiness and relationships. Sharing gratitude at work leads to increased motivation and productivity in the office, but can also create improved communication for the future. It makes employees feel safer and more connected in their work relationships.

Our brains can be inherently lazy so connecting a new habit to something we already do each day is a simple way to make the new habit stick. Try sending an email of gratitude to an employee as the first or last email you send each day, or have a reminder go off during a time when you normally check and send emails to help make it happen!

Sending an email of gratitude can be included in an email that you’re already sending. It doesn’t have to be anything extra or change the topic you already need to communicate.

Incorporating the practice of gratitude is a simple way to not only increase your own happiness but the happiness of who you send it to. Just remember to be specific with what you share. Sending a general “thank you for all you do” vs. sending the specifics of what someone did and the impact it had on you allows you to relish in how nice it actually felt, and it also provides your employee the opportunity to really feel appreciated and valued.

(Click here to listen to a recent podcast I was invited on to share the benefits of practicing gratitude.)

At Stronger we believe that it’s all connected: work life, home life, our emotional selves, intellectual selves, social selves, and physical selves. Work relationships are incredibly important to us and it’s more than just getting along or completing an obligatory team bonding exercise. If you’d like to bring back more emotional wellness and authentic connection to your office culture, be sure to reach out!

Our Employee Wellness Workshops can be the solution to get everyone back to an atmosphere that not only feels lighter but more enjoyable again! When you and your team feel emotionally supported, hitting the company goals gets a whole lot easier and thinking about work just feels less stressful!

Our Employee Wellness Workshops offer tailored content to meet the exact needs of your team. Providing insight to cultivate healthy habits, teaching simple ways to cope with stress, and better regulating one’s emotions to feel more balanced during the workday are a few of the topics we love to include. Each workshop also includes a personalized workbook to organize notes and concepts taught from the workshop.

Let’s connect! We can’t wait to support you and your team!

Send us a message today!