How to Know If You are Instilling Hope or Fear in Your Team?

Every day as a leader you are either instilling hope or fear within your team. That might sound dramatic, but the reality is true. Fear breeds procrastination, anxiety, a lack of creativity, a hoarding of ideas, and office gossip just to name a few of the negative effects. Hope on the other hand gives a sense of meaning and purpose, fosters ideas, and natural employee engagement within a team.Your daily actions tell the story. So, here’s a list a hope-filled actions that will keep your team engaged.

1. Cadence in Consistent Communication
   ‍A cadence in consistent communication is one of the secret sauces to building on-going trust in teams and building a strong foundation.Uncertainty in teams creates an undertone of fear, as employees would feel in the dark about many aspects of the business not just what is happening within the team.
   
   ‍Tip: Create consistent routines and rhythms of communication to cascade throughout the team and to help set expectations.

2. Cut Out Cliques and Chatter
   ‍Nothing instills fear faster in a team than office gossip, unhealthy venting sessions, and cliques of small groups within a team.As leader your goal should be to unite, engage, and make sure you are not enabling unhealthy connection points among the team.
   
   ‍Tip: Be diligent to watch for these negative rumblings within a team and have the courage to address it and stop it before it gets toxic.  

3. Cross-Department Connections
   ‍Silos are unfortunately all too common among teams these days as it can be hard to know how to best encourage cross-department communication.It’s figuring out how often and what specific talking points to focus on to ensure every team has the information they need to do their best work. Also it's key to make sure that no team or leader feels isolated or overworked.
   
   ‍Tip: Take an inventory on the cross-department interactions among your team. Note if there are any gaps or bottlenecks that could be improved on by increasing connection points with each other. Remember your daily actions tell the story and either ignite fear or hope - both are contagious.