【中英双语】在辞职潮中激励团队

How to Motivate Your Team When People Keep Quitting

by Rebecca Zucker  and  Dina Denham Smith

Maintaining good morale and engagement is part and parcel of strong leadership. When you have turnover on your team, it is especially imperative that you take measures to keep your team positive and motivated. Research has shown that, due to social contagion, when a coworker quits, it can spread to affect other employees' quitting behavior. That is, when one person leaves your team, it increases the likelihood that others will do the same.

维持好的士气与专注度是强大领导力的一部分。受社交传播影响，员工辞职的行为可能会扩散，并影响其他员工的辞职行为。也就是说，当有员工离开团队时，其他成员离开的可能性就会增加。面对团队出现的人员流失，管理者采取措施，保证团队的积极性和动力是异常必要的。

Given this, here are six strategies to keep your team motivated when someone quits:

以下六个策略可以帮助管理者在员工辞职时“稳定军心”：

Create terra firma.

打造确定性

The human brain was not built for the amount of uncertainty we are facing at work and in our lives, write social psychologist Heidi Grant and the Chief Learning Officer for EY Americas Tal Goldhamer. With ever-changing shifts in the business landscape, customer and employee expectations, work arrangements, and an unclear end to the pandemic, it can feel like the ground is continually shifting underneath our feet. This uncertainty produces a threat state in the brain, which can result in decreased motivation, cooperation, self-control, and overall well-being. Turnover on your team only adds to this threat state.

社会心理学家、EY Americas Tal Goldhamer首席学习官海蒂·格兰特（Heidi Grant）写道，人类的大脑其实并不足以应对工作和生活中的大量变化。商业局势、客户和员工期许、工作安排的不断变化，以及疫情结束之日遥遥无期，让生活中充满了不确定性。这种不确定性让大脑如惊弓之鸟，可能会导致员工动力、合作能力、自我控制，以及整体状态的下降，而团队的流失只会加剧这种状态。

To counter this, create certainty for your team wherever you can. If you have no plans to leave the company, make that clear. You might say, “Just so you know, I don't have any plans to leave. I will be here for you.”

应对这种局面，要尽可能地为团队成员创造确定性。如果你没有离开公司的计划，就明确说出来，“大家都知道，我并不打算离开公司。我会一直陪着大家。”

Or, if your team is looking for clarity on the company's strategic direction and you have questions about it as well, instead of saying something like “I'm sure we'll find out soon,” provide process certainty by informing your team of your plan to seek the answer and a specific date by when you'll get back to them. This will help create more solid ground and a sense of stability for your team members.

如果团队需要明确的公司策略，而你也不确定，那么你应该告知团队自己寻找答案的计划，以及何时能找到答案，并以此提供明确流程，这将有助于为您的团队成员创造更坚实的基础和稳定感。

Solicit feedback to assess individual and collective capacity.

征求反馈意见，评估个人和集体能力

Check in with your team members regularly to understand what work they currently have on their plates. This will give you a sense of both how you might rebalance some of the work amongst team members and what the team's collective capacity is at any given time. If your team is close to (or over) capacity and something needs to give, invite the team to help problem solve and re-prioritize. People are motivated when they have a say in creating team goals and in what they can and can't take on — and, they may have some great ideas that you might not think of on your own.

定期与团队成员沟通，了解他们正在做的工作，可以方便你了解如何重新平衡团队成员间的工作，以及随时评估团队的整体能力。如果团队在接近或超负荷工作，且需要帮助，那么管理者可以邀请其他团队协助，并调整优先事项。当员工能够参与创建团队目标，以及决定所从事工作的内容时，他们会变得干劲十足，而且他们可能会提出令人惊喜的好主意。

Your team members' ongoing feedback may also provide opportunities to help them to free up capacity by better understanding what they might delegate to others, or stop doing all together, so they can free up time for higher-value work. Their feedback will also increase your visibility into their workload, which may require you to adjust your expectations about what can realistically be accomplished. It will also help you build a stronger case to your boss for additional resources for your team, given the team's goals.

借助团队成员的持续反馈，你可以更好地了解他们希望将哪些工作转交出去，或希望停止做哪些事情，转而抽出时间做更有价值的工作，释放特定领域的潜力。反馈还会让你更好地了解工作量，当然，之后你可能需要因此调整对团队实际可完成工作量的预期。它还有助于你以团队目标为基础，更好地说服老板，为团队争取额外资源。

Enable autonomy.

提升自主选择权

Once you and your team have aligned on collective goals, allow your team members to decide how, when, and where they complete their work. In a recent study of 5,000 knowledge workers, 59% indicated that flexibility is more important to them than salary or other benefits. Along with certainty, autonomy is one of the five key drivers of threat and reward in the brain. When people feel in control and that they have a choice, they are more motivated and experience higher well-being. Conversely, a lack of autonomy can elicit a strong negative reaction that can diminish the ability to focus and collaborate.

和团队确认共同目标后，管理者需要允许团队自行决定如何、何时以及在何处完成工作。最近对5000名知识工作者的调查显示，59%的员工认为，灵活性比工资或其他福利更加重要。与确定性一样，自主权也可以给大脑带来威胁和奖励感。员工觉得自己有控制和选择权时会更有动力，状态也更好。

In addition to enabling flexible work arrangements, consider which decisions you can leave to your team members’ discretion. While some decisions may benefit from your guidance, others likely do not. For example, could you allow team members to choose some of the projects they work on, or with whom they work? Where you can provide your team members autonomy or choice, do so.

除了给予灵活的工作安排外，管理者还要考虑允许团队决策的范围。例如，你是否能够允许员工选择从事的项目或合作伙伴？并非所有决策都会受益于管理者的指导。不妨将员工可以自主决定的事情都交给他们。

Give your team permission to push back.

允许团队说“不”

Let your team members know it's OK to say “no” and question deadlines. Invite them to challenge your assumptions and tell you how much work something that “seems simple” will actually take to accomplish.

要让团队知道，他们可以拒绝或质疑交工日期。邀请他们挑战你的看法，告诉你那些“看起来简单”的事情实际上有多耗时耗力。

You will need to give explicit permission for them to do so and repeat this message over time. It can be easy for team leaders to lose sight of the power dynamic that can make it intimidating for some people to speak up, let alone push back. When people do speak up or push back, be sure to listen, acknowledge what you've heard, and engage in a two-way conversation (or negotiation) about what can and can't be done, deadlines, and how you can help remove the relevant obstacles for your team.

管理者要明确表明员工可以这样做，并不断重复这一信息。领导者很容易忽视的是员工在面对领导权时很难表达意见，更不用说提出拒绝。当员工表达观点或表示拒绝时，一定要倾听。坦然面对听到的意见，并围绕能做和不能做的事、截止日期，以及如何帮助团队消除障碍，与员工进行对话或协商。

Failing to grant this permission and create this psychological safety for your team will only cause them to keep quiet, allowing morale to decline and burnout to increase, which will ultimately lead to more team members leaving. In granting this permission, you can also openly recognize your common humanity with your team members — that we all have limitations and burnout serves no one — making it easier for others to let you know if they are feeling too stretched or overwhelmed.

管理者如果没有赋予团队这个权力，并营造心理安全感，就会造成团队沉默和士气下滑，并助长倦怠情绪，最终可能导致更多成员离开。允许员工说“不”后，管理者还可以公开承认自己和大家一样，都有自身局限性，也会受到倦怠情绪的不良影响。这样，当团队成员感到过度紧张或压力过大时，可以更顺利地与你沟通。

Shield your team.

保护自己的团队

While good leaders typically protect their teams from unrealistic or low priority requests, it’s more essential than ever when there are fewer people to bear the same workload. Engaging in ruthless prioritization, including quick triage of unnecessary or low-value work and pushing back against low-priority demands on behalf of your team, is paramount.

好的领导者通常会保护自己的团队，拒绝不切实际或不重要的要求，特别是在工作量不变，团队人员更少的情况下。在判断优先级时要果断，包括迅速对非必要或低价值工作进行分类，并代表团队拒绝不重要的要求，这点非常重要。

Also, give your team clear decision-making criteria as to what requests should be accommodated and empower them to say no to non-essential requests when needed. Be proactive in supporting your team members in fending off demands that your team can't realistically meet. It can be hard for members of your team to say “no,” especially to more senior or external stakeholders, and your involvement will show your team members that you have their back. Take the lead, if necessary, in delivering a well-reasoned “no” or a “not now” to the stakeholder making the request.

此外，管理者需要为团队提供明确的决策标准，包括应该接受哪些要求，并在必要情况下授权他们拒绝非必要要求。在支持员工拒绝无法完成的需求时，要有前瞻性。让团队成员说“不”并非易事，特别当对方资历更深，或是外部利益相关方的时候。而你的介入是在告诉员工，你会在背后支持他们。如有必要，在以充分的理由“回绝”对方或说“现在不行”时，站在前面。

Create connection.

建立良好的人际关系

Tackling big challenges together and knowing others have your back can build morale. Aim to foster a “we’re in it together” ethos where team members pitch in to help each other — which you can both role model and reward in others. Ultimately, this can create an esprit de corps or camaraderie that creates lasting friendships amongst team members that extend beyond the workplace. According to Gallup, work friendships increase both productivity and engagement.

与员工共同应对巨大挑战，并让员工知道自己会做他们的后盾，可以有效提升士气。同时要培养“同甘共苦”的意识，团队成员要尽力相互帮助。每个人都可以作为别人的榜样，也可以奖励他人。这样可以催生团队精神和同事间的情谊，让团队成员间形成超越职场的长久友谊。盖洛普称，工作友谊会提升生产力和专注度。

In addition, be sure to take the time to connect as a team on a more personal level, whether it's doing a personal check in at the beginning of staff meetings, celebrating a team member's birthday, hosting a team happy hour, or planning a fun team-building activity. Creating spaces where team members can connect on a personal level is one lever to prevent feelings of isolation that can contribute to burnout. Jennifer Moss shares in her book, The Burnout Epidemic, that “personal connection isn't just good for engagement and happiness at work; it's what makes us human.”

此外，管理者要花时间让团队成员间建立个人关系，可以在员工会议一开始与个人交谈，庆祝员工生日、小聚，或策划有趣的团建活动。营造员工间可以进行个人交流的空间的做法，可以预防孤立感，从而抵消倦怠情绪。詹妮弗·莫斯（Jennifer Moss）在《倦怠传染病》（The Burnout Epidemic）一书中指出，“个人关系不仅有利于工作的专注度和幸福感，也造就了我们本身。”

When teammates leave, it's an opportunity to recalibrate and solidify your foundation as a team to help maintain, or even improve, team members' individual and collective morale and performance. Taking the above actions can help mitigate further attrition and keep everyone motivated and engaged.

有团队成员离开时，我们应该利用这个机会重新调整并巩固团队基础，以帮助维持、甚至改善员工个人或集体的士气和表现。上述措施有助于规避进一步摩擦，并让所有人保持动力和专注度。

瑞贝卡·朱克是领导力发展公司Next Step Partners的高管教练和创始合伙人。她的客户包括亚马逊、高乐氏（Clorox）、美富律师事务所(Morrison Foerster)、詹姆斯·欧文基金会(James Irvine Foundation)、斯科尔基金会(Skoll Foundation)以及像DocuSign和多宝箱（Dropbox）等高增长技术公司。

迪娜·史密斯是高管教练，也是领导力发展公司Cognitas的老板。她的客户包括Adobe、吉利德（Gilead）、普华永道（PwC）、网飞（Netflix）以及多宝箱和Stripe等高增长科技公司。