Episode 61 | From Strong Start to Finish: Keeping Momentum at Work

Hello, hello, you're listening to the Better Workday Podcast with me, Niamh Moynihan.

I was watching a match recently where one of the teams was 2-0 up at half time and by the time the match had finished, that same team had lost 3-2. And it got me thinking about why when things get off to really strong start, do we sometimes mess it up? Because it's not just in sport, it's in our work and probably many other areas of our lives as well. So today, I just want to talk about that.

Now what causes us to fail after a successful start? Now, when I was looking at this topic, I came across a few different ideas for what might be causing this in the workplace, both at team and at individual level. And I want to start with the team because, you know, most people that I work with and it might be yourself as well, we work as part of a team. Even if, like me, you own your own business, you're probably relying on other people, contractors, maybe some employees.

partners to get stuff done. If you're an employee in an organization and even if you are not officially part of any team, you're probably still dotted line into others and working with project teams and other people to get stuff done. So it makes sense for me to start there because I always say work is better when we work together.

And so I want to share a few ideas of what might happen at team level. And the first is this idea of perhaps one or two people not pulling their weight within a team. And we usually see this in very high performing teams, teams that are doing really, really well. And now this could be sales, could be marketing, operations, manufacturing, doesn't matter. But, know, it's a really high performing team and suddenly things start to slip. And sometimes it's because if you could imagine a group of people and everything is going really well,

One or two of them might think, well, obviously everyone else is doing a really, really good job and they've got it covered so I can take my foot off the pedal. And why they are taking their foot off the pedal is another question. And we talk about that at an individual level in a minute. But, you know, for their own reasons, they say surely I can pull back a bit because everyone else seems to have this covered. The only problem with that is if two people take their foot off the pedal at the same time,

the team starts moving backwards instead of moving forwards. And so that's something which I think people need to be very careful of, especially in larger teams where there's not as much visibility. Because the other thing that can happen within teams is that if you have a lack of clarity around your personal responsibility, so if we're not clear over who has to do what, it's very easy for people to think someone else is doing it. OK. And that's why I think I mentioned this before, I definitely have

And this idea of using a tool like even a RACI template, which is used in project management, but using it for your team to help everyone clearly understand who's responsible for different pieces of work, who ultimately owns different pieces of work, who do they have to consult with or who do they have to be consultants for in terms of working with other teams and departments in the company and who they have to keep informed when things are happening. again, that template is so simple, but it's really, powerful.

in terms of bringing clarity to a group and making sure that, you know, there's no confusion there or no gray space, which might cause us to fall behind. And so what I'll do is I have a very simple spreadsheet template for that that you can grab. I'll put the link to that in the show notes, which you can access after this. And then the other thing with Teams, if it's not, you know, around the work itself, it could be to do with the conversations that people can have. And this idea of psychological safety has come up time and time again, every time I look into this.

And it's funny because if you know me now, like if you've been following this podcast for a while, or if we've worked together, you know that most of my work at the moment is with teams and with managers and leaders. And it's all around this idea of working better together. And one of the themes that has come up time and time again, is this idea of being able to have difficult conversations. And, you know, if you're not working in a psychologically safe environment, it's very hard for you to have a typical conversation.

You know, you might not feel like you can disagree with something if it's working well, especially if it's working well. You can't maybe bring forward a new idea or suggest that maybe it's not working anymore. And so this, you know, desire to keep everything happy and humming along and nobody upsetting each other actually means that you're not adapting to things. You're not being agile. You're not responding to what might be happening. And so what was successful for you to a point, it stops working.

And it reminds me of the title of a great book, actually, which is good for anyone who is moving into a more senior role. And the title of the book is What Got You Here Won't Get You There. It's just great. A slightly off topic now with a brilliant book. And I'll pop the links to that in the show notes as well. So if you're a manager, it's kind of worth you taking a look at your team and, you know, can you have those difficult conversations? even if it's not with the rest of the company, can you have them among yourselves? Do you welcome?

different points of view, do you welcome points of view which might be hard for people to swallow or might not be conventional? And are you going to allow people to make mistakes? So are you going to allow people to test something or try something or experiment with something just to test to see is that a better way to move forward? And if not, then, you know, I just feel like you're going to be very limited. So that's just a little bit on the team level. But of course, you know, every team is made up of people, individuals like me and you. And so I think it's important for us to take a look at, you know, what might cause us to

go backwards after we get off to a really strong start. And again, just a few ideas that I came across that really stood out to me here. And the first one, I suppose, is from my own experience and from my experience of working with teams across quite different sectors is the idea of us burning out. So, you know, perhaps one of reasons somebody takes a foot off the pedal is because they're exhausted. Like they have got so much going on that even though they had a strong start to the quarter or to the project or to whatever,

They're now wrecked. And so if they feel that the other people can kind of keep it going, they're going to rest because they have to. Right. You know, for whatever reason, they haven't been able to look after their well-being all along. And now they're forced to. so, you know, burnout obviously is one of the biggest causes that if you find yourself, you know, just going all in at the start, not taking rest, not taking your breaks, not taking your annual leave, working extra hours to get things moving forward. You know, in the

biggest bug-bearers of mine and I'm guilty of doing this myself now, although I've gotten a lot better thanks to of course me doing this work is this idea of I get a head start on tomorrow's work today. Like if you do that, let me remind you of the fact that when tomorrow comes, there will still be plenty of work to be done tomorrow. So this idea of us always trying to get ahead results in us actually fizzling out or burning out before we've finished. So that's definitely the first reason for me at an individual level. The second one.

It's really around our energy and switching, switching kind of modes or switching kind of energy levels through different pieces of work. I'm going to use the analogy of kind of problem solving here, if you want to be with me. So I used to work in the IT sector in lots of different operation roles. so, you know, a problem could be one of our customers call in and their servers are down. OK, so like it's a big problem. You know, there's big problems, right? They're all panicking.

And so there's a really high energy needed at the very start to solve that problem. So as an individual, you get really psyched up, really pumped up, you're full of adrenaline, ready to go and find out what is causing this. And that's exactly the kind of energy that you would want to bring at this stage. You know, you're like, I need to figure this out. I need to get this moving. I need to start diagnosing what's causing it. I need to find possible solutions. It's go, go, go. Other examples could be, you know, if you're launching a new product and if you're in the ideation stage, another example could be

know, the start of a sales quarter and you're targeting a new territory. Like all those early stage parts of the activity usually require like high energy, high focus, you know, go, go, go. But there's usually a bit of a tipping point then that we need to change our mode or change our focus, change our energy level. And going back to that kind of IT example, maybe, you know, we have found the root cause, we've picked a solution and now the solution needs to be implemented.

And at this stage, we need caution. We need to be at have attention to detail. We need to make sure we're doing it properly, that there's no mistakes, that we don't cause any other problems while we're fixing the problem. You know, when it gets to sales, it could be, you know, we've got all the leads, we've got all the opportunities, but now we need to send out the proposals to follow up on them, make sure that's the right information. We're talking about new product. It's about, you know, rigorously testing. Is there, you know, a viable market for that? Is it going to be built to the right spec and all of those things?

So, you know, I'm sure you can get from these examples that there's a point in time where you need to move from being high energy, creative, you know, all the ideas and all that to more diligent, more careful, more focused. And if you're still running on the high energy at a period of time that you need to be more steady handed, then you can make mistakes. Silly little mistakes. You're like, how did I do that? How did I slip that up? You know, how did I put the wrong details in the proposal?

How did I not check for that latest update before I apply the patch? How did I not check that particular competitor on a product launch? Small things, small things. And it could be because your adrenaline has kind of spilled over into the wrong phase of the work. If that sounds familiar to you, know that you're not alone. It happens to people all the time, again, in sport and in business. But what I would say to you is that's why it's really important to actually to take breaks from work, because even a five minute break can allow you to step back and, first of all,

you know, regain your focus, give yourself a breather, but then come back to task and approach it with, you know, the energy that you need now at this stage. And obviously, depending on the size of the task and the amount of energy you've been bringing to it, you might need a longer break than that. But definitely be mindful of what energy or what type of focus you're bringing to your work at the different stages, I think is really, really important. And especially if, you know, maybe like me, you're a really creative person, loves to solve a problem, loves to kind of get in there and find all the solutions.

then we do have to make sure that we implement and do our follow up and that requires a different version of you. So that's the second one. And then the third one, I think for me, know, honestly, is this idea of you just get bored, right? So if you've got a really strong start to your project or to the quarter and it's all a go to start and you feel like you've pretty much got it in the bag, you know, like the challenge is gone now because you know, you're very far ahead or you're well on track.

And so this task, which was once challenging, just gets a little boring. And so you kind of start maybe doing a bit less or skipping bits or, you know, focusing on the other exciting things. And again, that can cause you to lose all that ground you had gained. And that's why it's really, really important, I suppose, not always focus on the outcome as a measure of your progress or productivity on a weekly level, but also on how you work your process.

you know, on how well you are doing the task. The method to your success is as important as the result, because it's actually you looking to kind of improve your methodology, improve your approach, improve your skill that will keep you going, regardless of whether you're ahead or on track or behind. And it'll keep that motivation going and a more sustainable level. And again, you know, I would see this mostly in sales, to be fair, where if, you know, a salesperson is well ahead,

for the quarter by month two and then like it nosedives in month three. And it's just because the challenge was lost. So if that's you, again, I think recognition is a huge part of it. And then maybe taking a look at, you know, what other markers, metrics, challenges you can set for yourself that are beyond the outcome. But ultimately, what we want to do here is make sure that if you have a strong start to a piece of work, that you get to keep that and that you get to sustain that towards the end. And

If this episode is resonating with you, think there's a couple of things that you can do after you finish listening to this. I suppose the first thing you can do is maybe take a look at the different pieces you're working on at the moment and maybe check what phase they're in. Now, this will vary depending on your work, of course, but like, are they in the ideation phase? Are they in the implementation phase? You know, where are they? And, you know, based on that, are you bringing the right level of focus to it?

The second thing is, you know, are you OK? Like, do you have enough energy? Are you getting enough rest? You know, or are you running an empty and is there anything you can do about that? And then are you kind of procrastinating on a little bit because maybe it's got a boring view or maybe you've got stuck there. And if that's the case, what can you do to to get unstuck? Maybe it's to add in something new for yourself to focus on within that task or maybe it's even bringing somebody from the outside. And of course, if you're working among a team, God Almighty, please don't assume that.

you know, everyone else has got it covered. So again, you know, if there's stuff going on, have a conversation with your manager. If you are the manager, please do your best to create a team environment where people can come to you. And maybe even what you're going to do is maybe share this episode with your team, have a listen to it separately and then come together and have a chat around whether or not this applies to you individually or as a group. And if so, what ideas you come up with to be able to.

better manage it yourselves so that you don't lose the ground that we've already gained. And if you do have a conversation and if you do come up with a strategy or something that you're going to implement over the next couple of weeks, I would love to hear from you. So you can connect with me on LinkedIn, of course, or you can send me an email. The details are in the show notes. And again, I would love to hear from you. It would be absolutely great to hear any changes you're looking to implement based on this episode.

Okay, that's it for me this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague who you think would find helpful. And you can let me know that you found it helpful by leaving a rating, a review, a comment, and of course subscribing so that you don't miss the next episode if you haven't already subscribed. And of course, you can head over to a better workday.com for the show notes and for any other information that you might need. Okay, that's it for me. Until next time, stay well and have a better workday.