What do you do, to support your best performers, when they hit a slump?

When someone you know hits a slump at work it is worrying. Professionals, by their very nature, want to do an effective and efficient job. They want to BE professional. When performance plateaus or there is a sense of feeling stuck, more than one person’s performance will be affected. Frustraions, spoken or otherwise, simmer. Even if not immediately reflected in the bottom line, sooner or later it shows up in the form of low morale and motivation across a group.

It is a slow contagion

The person, the human being who has hit the slump, is probably well aware of what is happening and feels frustrated. Who knows what other thoughts are whirling around in their head? Confidence drops. Capability starts being questioned (often wrongly). Confidence drops some more.

It is a grim cycle and one we have all seen

A conversation or two with the manager or an HR person may follow. Done skillfully, this may elicit the reasons but what happens next is critical. 

Performance Improvement Plans are not really ideal for a professional person. He or she is expected and expecting to work autonomously, to use not just skills and education but wit, intuition and creativity. If they are leading others, their energy and attitude is as much part of how they work as anything more easily measured.  

Their manager knows there is a problem too and wants to help. but they also know, in their heart of hearts that they are not the right person to be doing it, They have neither the time, expertise or energy. They also know that they best way to unlock the situtaion is to provide a safe and professional space for constructive reflection, outside of the normal working relationships.

Dedication, Discipline and Stamina

Think now about the person at the centre of this situation. Someone who has for years put dedication and discipline into all they do, right from the point they studied and studied to qualify, through to the early days of developing their experience in the wild. What must this feel like for them? They are working hard and no longer getting any sense of satisfaction. They worry about their abilities, feel tired and maybe even resentful that " it has come to this" after all their efforts. It is a grim place to be.

The difficulty is that all those years of dedication and discipline have given them stamina to keep going, to fight through the fatigue, to find a way to blast through or around the blocks. This becomes a default behaviour. Many times it is JUST what is needed. Without that stamina they would not have succeeded so far. 

A BIG BUT

But there will be times when it is the worst thing, both for them and those around them. Relying solely on stamina to get through is a short term strategy. Instead of stopping to reflect on what is happening, they just keep pouring more and more energy into just keeping going. Used long term - on it's own- this strategy leads to burnout.

At Sprout we think that experiencing situations like this is a necessary part of grouth. These stuck cycles can actually be a blessing in disguise because if approached differently, there is the opportunity to personally develop other skills and attitudes, as well as stamina.  This way puts the ZING back and people become self-supporting again.

Solution?

Timeouts to improve Performance and Wellbeing

Sprout provides Timeouts to improve Performance and Wellbeing. These can be of varying length from a long lunch time Breathing Space session, to a 1 day Seminar or a Retreat programme spread over several months.

All are highly personalised. As two skilled facilitators working together, we provide lots of quality attention and tailored support for each individual. 

We also offer 121 coaching. In most Sprout events you’ll benefit from the experience of working with a peer group who are also puzzling out their different situations..

We know our approach works.

At one recent event we asked a participant how she felt at the end of it. Her response? She smiled, sat back, threw her pencil down and said “Great, I knowexactly what I need to do now!”

The Timeout allowed her to look at all aspects of her life and in particular where her business fitted. Nothing material had changed but HOW she viewed it all did change. By refining some significant attitudes and approaches, new possibilities arose. 

These carefully designed Timeouts are a reward not a punishment.  

We know that people who attend will have fun and learn how to make time and space for their thoughts, to shift perspective, to gain new insight. For us Performance and Wellbeing are partners. People leave with practical tools and ideas that they can keep using and developing, to sustain them.The endless circling will stop. They will know how to refresh themselves and others too

We back this up with additional follow up coaching and resources to enhance the experience of the day and maintain progress.

Instead of being gradually subsumed by the slow contagion described at the beginning of this article people start to spread ripples of success and confidence. 

This is important for them and all those around them. 

Remember:

One refreshed person can re-invigorate a whole team. That is an investment worth making.

If this sounds interesting to you, and you would like to discuss it more you can contact us on

tel: 0161 327 2079

or email me at sarah@sprout.today

The details of our next event can also be found here http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/get-unstuck-get-on-with-it-a-one-day-practical-seminar-to-recharge-and-redirect-your-career-and-life-tickets-13388081111