What to do when you’re sick and tired of your team

Tell the truth: Is there anybody you see all the time that you don’t occasionally get tired of?

If you work with the same team for months or years, it’s likely that, every so often, you’re going to feel a sinking sensation of deja vu when listening to them or trying to get them pumped up for the next task.

Put some new spark in the relationship

So how can you combat this feeling of the same-ol’ same-ol’ when it strikes? Here are three suggestions:

• Recognize who you’re bored with. Chances are, it’s not really your team that’s boring you. It’s you! In other words, you’re in a rut and you see that reflected back in their faces. Own that feeling. It’s key to a solution.
• Focus on individuals. Maybe you see your people mostly in groups – at meetings, for instance. It’s easy to lose sight of individuals in the gray mass of the team, and at the end of the day it’s people who are interesting. Refresh that interest by writing down a couple of outstanding things about each person, and a couple of things they could do better. Tell them about the former and work with them on the latter.
• Redefine/reassign work. Sometimes when you’re tired of your team, it’s because you’ve seen them do the same work in much the same way for a long time. If you can do so without compromising essential tasks, rejig people’s assignments – with their agreement, of course. The change will rejuvenate them, and you, too.

Adapted from www.hrcapitalist.com