When Your Team's Mojo Is A No Show
We will all have days when we don't feel our best. This is a note about days when our energy or motivation is low - as distinct from a situation where your physical or mental health means you aren't able to work. If you or a colleague are unwell, take the time to get the right advice and support.
That being said, if we were to rank how we feel each day against every other day I'm fairly confident that half the time we will be feeling at or below average for any number of reasons. I'm pretty sure that's how the maths works (even if I'm technically incorrect, you get my point - by definition we can't feel our best every day).
While that may sound demoralising, it doesn't need to be. It can be empowering.
Yes, our mojo is important to us and if we can do things to make it more likely to have feelings of being at our best or energised. It's important to also realise that waiting for our mojo to infuse us with motivation, energy and life force is a pretty risky strategy for a few reasons.
Firstly, it's not the most useful assumption (more on useful assumptions next week) to believe that mojo comes to us. If we hold the assumption that mysterious or mystical forces come to us on a whim, then we are likely to wait for it to arrive and also not do anything to help improve how we are feeling about ourselves and our work. It's more useful to assume that mojo is more often a by-product than a pre-requisite for good work.
That's the second point - progress is often motivating for us and our teams. Progress only occurs after we've started doing the work. Work that is at the edge of our capabilities is also the most likely to induce flow. Therefore doing the work can actually be a path for us to generate mojo.
The third way that a lack of mojo can be empowering might be slightly counterintuitive. It's the tough days that make the difference. It's doing the work when you don't feel like it that often separates high performance and average performance. Most individuals and teams are able to do good work when conditions are in their favour. Acknowledging that doing the work when we don't feel like it is both hard and rewarding is an investment in the team's performance.
Teams that find a way to work without mojo end up being those who are most likely to create the conditions where mojo appears more often and less mysteriously.
Here are some questions for you to reflect on this week:
How often are you and your team at their best?
Might you be able to embrace performing when you're not at your best?