What is one surefire tip for helping your team refocus after a long summer?
The following answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
1. Project Sprints
If you can (metaphorically) lock your team in a room and give them one concrete project to work on, you can get them on track fast. You need something that they can finish within a relatively short period of time — a week works well — and the ability to minimize meetings and other demands on their time. – Thursday Bram, Hyper Modern Consulting
2. Spend Time With Each Other
Have a company vacation, dinner or night out. This helps everyone in the office remember what it’s like to socialize with one another and begins to put them back in the working mindset. At the beginning of the event I like to say something about the coming year to focus our team, but then usually just have fun without mentioning work again until the end of the night. – Simon Casuto, eLearning Mind
3. Ease Into It
It can be hard for our employees to ease back into a full work week after three months of summer Fridays, so we make sure that the fun summer atmosphere sticks around through the fall and winter. We have happy hours, events and parties peppered throughout the year that give employees something to look forward to even when they have to work Friday afternoons. –Jared Feldman, Mashwork
4. Have a Field Trip
When we need to infuse the team with energy, we get out of the office and into a novel learning environment. Whether it’s visiting one of our client’s campuses in order to better understand their needs or checking out a cool new exhibit at a local museum, the change of perspective and new information helps to generate fresh ideas and enthusiasm for our work once we get back to the office. – Martina Welke, Zealyst
5. Challenge Them
Challenge your team to do something great or innovate something new. Offer up a really cool prize or award and get their creative juices and competitive nature going. Everyone loves a little friendly competition. – Scott Levy, Fuel Online
6. Set Clear Goals and Transparent Plans
Get your team excited and focused by getting everyone involved in your plans for the upcoming months. We set goals and challenges for our team with fun rewards that everyone is involved in. – Basha Rubin, Priori Legal
7. Host a Fall Corporate Retreat
Each year our company hosts an annual fall retreat in a new relaxing environment. This gives our team time to rest, relax and reflect on how to become a bigger and stronger team. – Parker Powers, Millionaire Network
8. Set Goals
I set up aggressive September and fall revenue-driving goals that heavily reward the staff both in financial bonuses and fun team outings to ensure they come back to work super focused. –Michael Sinensky, Village Pourhouse
9. Plan a Strong New Roadmap
Step back a little to realize where you are as a company, and plan an aggressive roadmap together: new customers to reach and new products to ship. – Pablo Villalba, 8fit
10. Change Up the Status Quo
Let your team enjoy uniform-free Friday, institute a new-team building event after work, or offer telecommuting for some of your staff. These are all surefire ways to help get them refocused. –Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
11. Get Refreshed With a Few Days Off
Take a few days that are 100% off. That means no business email, no phone. Stepping away will leave you refreshed and excited to return. – Phil Dumontet, DASHED
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