Whitney Johnson: Mark the moment to motivate your team

Mark the moment to motivate your team

WHITNEY JOHNSON is CEO of Disruption Advisors, a leadership development company, and has 1.8 million followers on LinkedIn. You can reach her at: whitney@ thedisruptionavisors.com. LET’S FACE IT, it’s been a tough few years, and many expect 2023 will be no less challenging.

When we are in the middle of oppositional events, we can feel stuck, our energy so depleted in dealing with the day-to-day, we aren’t aware of how much we’ve grown. We don’t stop to celebrate the fact that we’ve started taking a two-minute walk between calls, that we closed a deal, or that we can now define cryptocurrency with 95% accuracy, because we didn’t meet the bigger goals into which those accomplishments fit.

Instead of noting our accomplishments, we treat most situations as win or lose, and we lost. But we didn’t lose, we made progress. We learned, and we grew, but we were too distracted by other concerns to notice; if we don’t look for and pay attention to growth, we can miss it.

How can we discern our progress, when it doesn’t happen in big leaps but in small, incremental steps? We learn to mark the moment.

In theater, marking the moment is defined as “a dramatic technique used to highlight a key moment in a scene.” It’s like using a spotlight to focus attention. In our non-theatrical, personal and career endeavors we might equate this to mindfulness—with a twist.

At Disruption Advisors, when we facilitate a leadership retreat—the purpose of which is always to inspire and unlock growth in people and their organizations—the first thing we do is invite individuals to share an achievement they want to celebrate. Studies have found that celebrating even very small milestones activates the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. It induces a state of calm and confidence. We feel more confident that we can accomplish whatever lies ahead.

Most of us, most of the time, relinquish opportunities to celebrate. We move on to the next task as quickly as possible. We act as though it is contrary to efficiency and productivity to relish, even briefly, reaching our objectives.

The opposite is true.

When we pause to celebrate, we remind ourselves and others that, although we may be at a launch point of one growth curve, or the bottom of what we call the S-curve of learning—a map that articulates the growth journey—we can also be in mastery, or the top phase of the S, on another growth curve.

The launch point is thrilling, but also slow and laborious. It can be intimidating or even downright terrifying, stimulating our sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system. We may want to give up on ourselves. We feel ourselves losing.

We counter this by identifying ways in which we are in mastery, even the little milestones we achieve along a bigger growth curve. We acknowledge that frequently, if not daily, we have summited a mountain. Perhaps it’s completing our five major tasks for the day or having a conversation with a team member where they feel seen. Maybe it’s completing an article (like this one), taking another step toward the launch of a new product, or wrapping a project. It doesn’t need to be an Everest-sized mountain to be worthy of a celebration, a pause to mark the moment.

Every day, every week, there are moments to mark. How do we do this as individuals or with our teams? This is the formula we use in our coaching work:

• Identify what we want to celebrate. What have we worked on or completed recently that was satisfying, and why? • Reflect on who helped us reach this point. Acknowledge them. Look for the non-obvious, non-banner support also. • Embrace the bit of sadness, or poignancy. Especially at the end of larger projects, we may mourn the end of a meaningful journey. • Ask, “Having accomplished this, what else might be possible?”

We can do this personally. We can do it professionally. We can do this with our team.

Don’t wait until the end of the year, or even of the quarter. Being mindful about what we’ve succeeded in doing gives us a flood of the feel-good neurochemical dopamine. It improves relationships and our general sense of well-being. It keeps us in the fight, despite the obstacles. Maintain motivation by spotlighting even small summits scaled, early and often.

When we mark the moment, we draw a symbolic line between what was and what will be. Like a child who measures themselves every year and puts a mark on the wall, it gives us the opportunity to celebrate how much we’ve grown, and the momentum to keep us moving forward.

When we mark the moment, we draw a symbolic line between what was and what will be.

CHAIRMAN & CEO: Mark Fallon

SPECIALTY: Environmental services, resiliency, sustainability, energy solutions, technical and data solutions, program management, and critical infrastructure

FOUNDED: 2017

1200 Brickyard Lane, Ste. 202 833.862.7846 APTIM.com

APTIM

ON THE RECORD:

APTIM is an industry leader with headquarters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and more than 4,000 teammates worldwide. APTIM specializes in environmental services, resiliency, sustainability, and energy solutions, as well as technical and data solutions, program management, and critical infrastructure. Our dedicated team has experience and expertise to provide integrated services and solutions to government agencies, commercial and industrial clients, and energy customers. APTIM commits to building a sustainable future for our communities and natural world and creating a more inclusive, equitable environment that celebrates diversity of our people.

OFF THE RECORD:

On December 15, APTIM celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters on The Water Campus in Baton Rouge, the international company’s hometown. With the office’s proximity to the Mississippi River, downtown Baton Rouge, and its new neighbors—who share APTIM’s priority of making the Gulf Coast more resilient—the move symbolizes APTIM’s growing relationship with the community and the state. The Water Campus is the country’s first major center dedicated to the study of coastal restoration and sustainability. A proud Louisiana company, APTIM has executed several projects that enhance the resilience of the state’s infrastructure, economic prosperity, and safety.