How to lead and keep your team motivated – some tips

This is a challenging time for marketers and business owners like me to lead – we were never trained for this sort of thing, nor worked through anything as dramatic. It’s when the durability of one’s company culture is put to the test.

The key as a leader is to find the right balance between empathy, transparency, positivity, and realism. With my co-founders and my amazing leadership team, we have tried our best to keep our team intact and strong enough to withstand this pandemic. It has not only affected how we work, but our overall business, and there are no immediate signs of flipping back to the old ways soon.

Like I said, it starts at the top – actions from the leaders must be proven and exemplified for the next generation of leaders to feel motivated and follow suit. I provide almost daily emails to the team to let them know how FUSE is doing from a professional standpoint, and weave in specifics about their emotional health because this is an unnerving time for anyone to cope with. I try to make it personal in parts avec a dash of humour to demonstrate I'm also struggling with what we're going through. This will (hopefully) keep morale high. For example, I have shared with my team a fictitious character I created called “Phil” – the person from FUSE who works at my house with my husband and I, who takes the blame for a whole host of minor misdemeanors (did someone say loud chewing? It was Phil!).

Another tip I tell my team is to always accept video calls. Firstly, we see each other’s face every day in the office, so seeing faces on video helps people feel a bit closer to a typical day. Secondly, it allows communications between people to have depth. Visual cues and expressions help with unspoken communication and that’s incredibly important.

I’ve also been encouraging the team to over-communicate. Even if you think you're communicating enough, you probably aren't. I’ve become way more comfortable with Microsoft Teams and learned the value of inserting a unique background during Zoom video calls. I encourage my team daily to keep pushing the boundaries of how we collaborate, connect and communicate across all channels.

The founders and I maintain constant contact with Worldwide Partners, a global network of more than 70 independent and diversified market services agencies, to communicate and compare what other independent agencies around the world are doing. We shared a ton of ideas on how to protect our businesses, our teams and support our clients. I was comforted to realize FUSE got in front of this in good time and was validated that many of the actions we’re taking are the right ones. Us independent agencies are not alone in this fight, and marketers can take comfort in this fact.

I admit that the first week of work from home was kind of novel. The team and I were getting our systems in place and it started like a bit of an adventure. PJs all day! Wine at noon (okay… not that early)! Working next to your spouse! Woo!

Then week two came along and that called for getting into a groove and finding a new work rhythm, while keeping up the same productivity you had in office. If you’re like me, moving into week four is feeling more unsettling because the COVID news is still going strong and there’s no clarity to when things will return to normal (whatever normal means). For marketers, this is daunting. We are a group of smart, ambitious, creative people who like to know the start, middle and end of things – like a good project plan. However, the COVID-19 project plan is severely open-ended.

All I can remind marketers to do is stay healthy, keep connected, and call anyone if you need support. The lessons you will learn here will carry you to all parts of your lives – professionally and personally. I’m pleasantly pleased with how well our team is doing. The toughest of times has made the good come out in all of us. We are being incredibly supportive of each other and working hard to keep our clients and FUSE healthy. I know for me; I’ll never take for granted an in-person meeting that could’ve been an email again ;)

Stephen was the recipient of CMA’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award and served as Chair of the Board of Directors in 2015.