How To Move Teams from Survival Mode to Growth Mode

Burnout isn’t new, but there is a much larger population of the workforce who now can truly empathize. Some employers seem to think we’re past that point now, as return-to-office (RTO) plans are enforced.

The contrast of life in full pause mode made it more real to me just how much time I had spent in transit and getting ready for outings for myself and my kids – and I’ve worked from home for 16 years!

It was a welcomed reprieve for us at first. For us, though, springtime means that my husband’s grueling 10-14 x 7 work schedule starts allowing us to spend little pockets of time with him. By March we are craving family time. I was also so grateful to keep my oldest child from breaching the tween-to-teen barrier, where she would go from loving spending time with us to having her life revolve around her friends.

At some point, some earlier and some later than others, the majority of us missed our busy lives to some degree. At varying thresholds of risk and comfort, we integrated more activities back into our lives and onto our schedules, as did our kids. I’ve been reframing for my kids the “unfair” challenge of having to choose between, for instance, a school social and a softball game by pointing out that there was a time we had no conflicts because we had zero options.

The pace started out slow at first, but welcomed, and then, I felt completely slammed by all the things going back to normal. Frankly, I didn’t feel ready for that pace again. There was anxiety about returning to crowds. There was frustration in how to reconcile wanting very badly to be out in the world and among my friends and family and yet still feeling like there was a lot to potentially lose if doing so exposed me or my loved ones to illness (any illness).

Many of my clients, high achievers that they are, were challenged keeping their teams focused on business objectives in the midst of adjusting to the changes of pace, both in the beginning when work and school stopped, then when the burden of managing online learning for their kids was added to the pressure to adopt new technologies and policies to work remotely, and then as it felt like playing perpetual catch up as absenteeism from illness and quarantine short-staffed many teams.

The pre-pandemic pace was already unsustainable for many people. Not only that, it had been in direct opposition to what science has now proven are practices that optimize efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, creativity, and engagement. It didn’t make sense before, and it makes even less sense now.

There is a widespread sentiment among professionals that they are being gaslighted and being asked to deny what is very real to them – limits on time, limits on energy, limits on how much they can care about a company’s mission when priorities at the present moment include staving off anxiety and depression, affording all the things we are now asked to do and the additional expense of everything we need, and keeping ourselves and our families healthy physically and emotionally. This survival mode, what has been dubbed recently as “quiet quitting” (and I despise this moniker), is preventing professionals from the front line up to the C-suite from adding anything new to their plates. In fact, I have had more prospective clients lately, even executives, say they wanted to step backward with less pay and trade it for more time.

When I have or hear conversations about RTO plans, I hear people guessing that the orders have less to do with actual work and more to do with image or commercial real estate. Yes, some people need to be in an office with people to thrive, but does that mean the people who are thriving at home need to return to the office for their sake? Does the perception of people being in the office lead to better business outcomes? Is this all a scheme to make sure that commercial real estate doesn’t suffer too much and spur further economic impacts?

RTO plans are not making sense to people for whom remote working was, well, working. So many are guessing as to the true motivations because there is a void of transparent, trustworthy, forthright explanations.

Can you recognize this in your team? If you read this article based on the title, then you must recognize some of the signs that members of your team are still in survival mode. This can really stifle progress and innovation. It’s felt at all levels and in all realms. Perhaps you have even turned down an opportunity, whether personal or professional, because you feel the squeeze on your bandwidth. If you are carrying the weight of pulling your team across finish lines in a void of ambition and motivation, then you know how they feel.

The question, as the title poses, is how do you get yourself and your team past survival mode and into growth mode?

It’s simple, but it’s not easy - invest time in finding out what each team member’s priorities and values are. If you, like your team, are saying to yourself – I don’t have the time for that – again, you know how they feel. Start with you – relieve your own bandwidth and then model for your team and teach them how to do it for themselves.

Often the biggest key to time management is energy management. Most of us spend too much of our time by choice, though usually subconsciously out of habit, on activities that rob us of energy.

Does something come to mind for you? Death scrolling social media? Ingesting toxic news? Talking with people who fill our lives with drama and drain us of joy?

Spend a few days logging what you do and how it makes you feel. Do you do enough things that add energy? Do you do too much that robs you of energy? Increase your awareness of your daily and weekly energy cycles, when you naturally feel you have high energy vs. when your reserves are low.

Make a list of things that rob your energy and things that replenish your energy. 

Edit your life to maximize times of high energy, include more things that give your energy a boost, and expose yourself as little as possible to those things that rob you of energy. Some you may not be able to completely eliminate, but you may be able to impose limits. This may require establishing and enforcing boundaries with people in your life, and this comes with its own front-end burden, but once the boundaries are clear and reinforced, there is a compounding effect on your energy, mood, outlook, and outcomes!

This edit may also require you to advocate for yourself with your boss. Doing this for yourself before your team may make the team feel as though you are only concerned for yourself. Keep transparent lines of communication open with your team and share this journey with them. As you increase your energy and eliminate energy-sucking activities, fill the time in with your team members. Be intentional from the get-go that you will pave an easier road to advocate for what they need to expand their bandwidth and take on new challenges. You may not be able to accommodate everything that they need, but by demonstrating that you empathize, that you are willing to make changes in your own life and habits, and that you authentically care about their burdens and are willing to go to bat for them, you widen the threshold from survival to growth mode and make it easier to pass through, should they choose to. They just might be able to let go of some resentment and cynicism, which also sucks energy, and re-embrace organizational missions.

If you want help identifying energy patterns, breaking or starting new habits, enforcing boundaries, or advocating for yourself or your team, schedule a free coaching consultation today.