How to understand the root causes (and how to improve them).

Ask yourself: Is it clear what expectations there are for their role?

• You can try asking the employees how they believe success would look like in the role and thereby learn if there is a mismatch in expectations. Also, make sure to communicate your expectations/what you imagine a successful result may look like.

Ask yourself: Which parameters equal success in their role?

• Ensure to elaborate other success parameters than the high-level company or department goal, so it feels easier and more realistic to be successful in the role.

Ask yourself: Do the employees have sufficient, measurable goals? And do we check in on these regularly?

• Make sure to schedule regular (quarterly) development and feedback 1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and set goals as to what they should deliver. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal skills, and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template for this purpose. In these conversations, you build a clear plan for the next three months and what actions need to be taken by whom to succeed with the plan.

Ask yourself: Could tasks be allocated differently according to strengths and talents of the team members?

• It could be an idea to look into the task allocation process of the team. To do this the best way, be aware of the employee’s talents and strengths. You can use the well-being conversation card to become more aware of this. Here, it would be a great advantage to actively work with the Zoios’ Personality Archetypes framework to ensure, that both you and the employees know which tasks are a better fit than others.

Ask yourself: Do we sufficiently consider strengths and talents in our recruitment to ensure job fit?

• We recommend using Zoios’ Personality Archetypes already during the recruitment process. This will help ensure that the role and responsibilities match the employee’s talents and strengths, and it will also help you to create the right development plan early on in their employment.

Ask yourself: Do we have a structure for checking in on tasks regularly?

• Make sure to check in frequently with your employees on (weekly) task 1:1’s or on team level to align expectations and help them prioritize. See the Leadership Playbook for inspiration on how to facilitate task check-ins.

Ask yourself: Is this a matter of workload?

• In this case, investigate if some of the workload could be spread across other team members to make prioritization easier for each employee.

Ask yourself: Do I provide them with sufficient feedback?

• Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they know it has value. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this in the development and feedback talk. You can find inspiration on how to facilitate these 1:1 conversations and what questions to ask your employees in our 1:1 guide for development and feedback conversations in the Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: How do I provide feedback to the employees?

• More important than how often you do it is how you do it. Make sure to have a go-to method for providing feedback to each other where you remember to practice constructive criticism and praise. If your employees receive feedback in a negative way or don’t receive praise, they will most definitely not feel like they are contributing.

Ask yourself: Does our culture encourage and value feedback?

• Long-term it could be of great value to make sure that your culture prioritizes feedback and recognition so the employees know - and feel - when they are successful. Aim to create a culture, where it is a natural part of your everyday life to book each other in for feedback sessions. Communicate to the team that feedback is a gift and ask them how they want to work with feedback moving forward so they are encouraged to give it to each other instead of leaving it only to you.

Ask yourself: Do I ask for the employees’ input when making decisions that affect their work?

• If you have expertise within the area of the team’s work, it may be easy for you to solve high-level problems, set up processes, and make decisions on behalf of the team. However, the employees may feel like their opinions, skills, or knowledge are not taken into account. Make sure to involve them in your thoughts and ask for their input - then try to take the input into account and be transparent on why you make the decisions the way you do.

Ask yourself: Do I delegate work that might as well be done by the employees themselves?

• Showing your employees trust and giving them autonomy to solve problems, set up processes, and make decisions around their work may be what they need to feel like they contribute. When delegating work, see it as a win-win as you also get more time to handle other important leadership tasks.

Ask yourself: Do I give the employees sufficient responsibility and freedom to do things in their way?

• Consider if you are showing them trust to try doing things in different ways to challenge themselves, letting them learn from their mistakes and successes from it.

Ask yourself: Do I understand, recognize, and act on the employees’ development wishes?

• Make sure to schedule regular (eg. quarterly) development- and feedback 1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and set goals as to what they should deliver. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal skills, and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in the Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you should develop a clear plan for the next three months and determine the necessary actions and responsible parties for achieving success.

Ask yourself: Could tasks be allocated differently according to the strengths and talents of the team members?

• It could be an idea to look into the task allocation processes of the team. To do this the best way, be aware of the employees’ talents and strengths by using the well-being conversation cards for the drivers Contribution and Mindful on your 1:1’s. Here, it would be a great advantage to actively work with the Zoios Personality Archetypes framework to ensure, that both you and the employees know which tasks are a better fit than others.

Ask yourself: Do I as a leader provide the needed feedback?

• Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they are aware of their progress. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or in the development and feedback 1:1’s.
• The short-term low-hanging fruit: Book a 30-minute meeting with each of your employees to tell them (and be very specific!) how they have improved and developed during the past six months. Make it very clear to them where they were six months ago and where they are now in comparison.

Ask yourself: Does our culture encourage and value feedback?

• Long-term it could also be of great value to make sure that your culture prioritizes feedback and recognition so the employees know - and feel - when they are progressing. Communicate to the team that feedback is a gift and ask them how they want to work with feedback moving forward so they are encouraged to give it to each other instead of leaving it to you.

Ask yourself: Do the employees have sufficient, measurable goals? And do we check in on these regularly?

• Make sure to schedule regular (eg. quarterly) development and feedback 1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and set goals as to what they should deliver. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal- , and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in our Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you build a clear plan for the next three months and what actions need to be taken by whom to succeed with the plan. You then evaluate what has happened since the last development talk and enhance progress and learnings.

Ask yourself: Did I make sure to prioritize making individual development plans for the employees?

• If you have overall team goals, that is great. But to make sure your employees develop in the right direction - and that they feel like their development is important to you as a company - it is important to take the time to make individual development plans. The development and feedback conversation is also a nice way of aligning expectations about the future.

Ask yourself: Are our development plans tangible? And do we remember to check in on them regularly?

• We recommend scheduling regular (quarterly) development and feedback 1:1’s with the employees. Try to make it as measurable as possible to enable the employee to see their development. We recommend focusing on development in terms of career, personal skills, and professional skills - you can use our Development Plan template in our Leadership Playbook for this purpose. In these conversations, you build a clear plan for the next three months and what actions need to be taken by whom to succeed with the plan.

Ask yourself: Do I provide them with sufficient feedback?

• Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they know it has value. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or the development and feedback talk or in the monthly well-being conversations, where you can focus on the well-being conversation cards for Contribution, Support, and Recognition.

Ask yourself: How well do we do at knowledge sharing?

• Perhaps some of the employees possess skills and knowledge that some of the others could learn a lot from. Set up a workshop, a mentorship program or a structure to make sure this knowledge sharing is facilitated.

Ask yourself: Do we need someone externally to give feedback or educate the employees within a certain expertise?

• You can ask the employees for specific wishes for learning within an area or from a certain person with the expertise. Make sure to be transparent about not being able to grant all wishes as well.
• If it is not possible due to budgets/resources, brainstorm with the employees or other leaders in your organization in which way you or the other employees can provide the needed professional sparring.

Ask yourself: Do I create a safe space for making mistakes?

• To develop and think out of the box requires that you sometimes take the leap and risk of failure. Therefore, it is crucial to know that you are supported in trying new things with the risk of failing, without being shamed or blamed. If this is something you could generally be better at in your team, we recommend your work with the psychological safety in your team - you can find more inspiration for this in our chapter on Psychological Safety in our Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: Do I help the employees prioritize the time for improvements?

• Letting the employees know that you support them in finding out new and better ways to do their tasks, will give them the needed autonomy to develop their skills on their own. This will also work on a team level so the employees can brainstorm together and learn from each other.

Ask yourself: Do we appreciate and value thinking outside of the box in our culture?

• Some things may need to follow definite rules - but there are many benefits to letting employees spend time thinking outside the box. This way, they can feel like their development is prioritized, and they might even find out better ways of working. One way of doing this is to remember always to evaluate meetings and processes, e.g. by asking the question “What works well and what doesn’t work well the way we do it today?”

Ask yourself: In our team, is it safe to speak up or show vulnerability?

• There can of course be several reasons for an individual to feel like this, but generally speaking, it is a sign that the team culture is lacking psychological safety, and you have an important role in changing that. Psychological safety can be a somewhat big area to both understand and manage. Therefore, we advise you to read our chapter on Psychological Safety in our Leadership Playbook, where you can find inspiration on how to work with this.

Ask yourself: Is this a general need for the group of employees?

• If yes, you can have a team discussion about the (maybe unspoken) culture of remote work in the team. Some may have expectations or preferences that others (or you) are unaware of. Also, make sure to communicate that it is completely fine to have individual needs - as well as practical reasons for having more remote work.
• If just a few employees are missing more office time together, talk to them on 1:1s to find out what their needs are. If most of the team prefer to have more work at home, try and find a solution - maybe where the social butterflies can make sure to spend more time at the office. Sometimes it can be due to unspoken norms of the group that people don’t show up, even though some have the need, because they don’t anticipate others to want to come in to the office.

Ask yourself: Do we have a policy for remote work?

• If so - consider how this looks like and if there should be any improvements to this regarding to the needs of your employees. If you do not have a policy about remote work, consider if this would could be a solution.

Ask yourself: Do we prioritize resources for planning inclusive social events?

• Make sure to prioritize and plan more social events. Maybe someone in the team would be great at (and have fun with) coordinating this - and who would then have the responsibility to plan something that is inclusive to all? Evaluate afterwards and find out who should plan the next event and when.
• Not everyone will have the need to attend these events, and that is all good - communicate this to avoid conflicts in the team. Note that if these employees struggle with the social driver - it is not because of this root cause anyways.

Ask yourself: What kind of social events do we plan and are these for everyone?

• Make sure to plan social events that vary so everybody has an opportunity to want to participate - also those that are not the wildest party animals. Teambuilding exercises, padel training or yoga class could be some examples of other social events.

Ask yourself: Do the employees get chances to make deeper social relationships at work?

• First of all, make sure to encourage a culture where it is socially acceptable to take time for 1:1s / walk’n’talks with your colleagues. Encourage the employees to do this frequently.

Ask yourself: Do we need more time for team-building exercises where we get to know each other better?

• Experiencing each other outside of their comfort zone, challenging each other, and collaborating to solve non-work-related tasks can be very beneficial to the interpersonal dynamics of the team - helping them get closer to each other and become more confidential.

Ask yourself: Do we need to work with trust in general in the team?

• In order for the employees to build deeper social relationships and have meaningful conversations, psychological safety is a prerequisite. As it can be a somewhat big area to both understand and manage, you can find our chapter on Psychological Safety in our Leadership Playbook with more information on the subject and inspiration on how to work with this.

Ask yourself: Is there a need for more (cross-)collaboration?

• Some employees may be missing more collaboration with others. Be curious - together with them - how that could look like. This may be the case, if you see lower levels of Support.

Ask yourself: Are we good enough at asking each other for help?

• It could be that some employees feel alone in their tasks and that they’re solely responsible for succeeding, which may be stressful for them. They may not be good at asking for help, or they don’t feel like they can do so. This may be the case, if you see lower levels of Mindful or Support. Make sure to communicate that it is important to ask for help - and even better, do it yourself.

Ask yourself: Do the employees feel like we are on an exciting journey together?

• If you have good, well-defined role descriptions and individual goals, the unintentional consequence could be that employees miss the feeling of working towards the same mission. This may be the case, if you see lower levels of Optimism or Contribution. We recommend you connect their results and successes to the overall team goals as well as the company journey, so they feel like they are contributing to something bigger.

Ask yourself: Am I showing enough interest in the employees’ tasks and challenges?

• Even if you do believe so yourself, ask the employees directly if they need anything from you to handle their obstacles and to succeed.
• If you are aware that this is something where you have a potential for development, you can start practicing it - e.g. by setting goals or reminders to ask at least one of your employees a day. It might be weird in the beginning - but practice makes it easier to become a habit. Also, be transparent with the employees and let them know that this is something you are practicing as part of your own development as a manager. This will both make you feel human just like them, enhance psychological safety, as well as let them know that this is not a way of trying to micromanage them all of a sudden.

Ask yourself: Am I too busy with meetings to be present with my employees?

• As a leader, make sure you are available for your employees - and that they also experience that. You could try to block time in your calendar when you cannot be booked for other meetings, where you will work close to your employees. Let them know that they can always come to you, especially during this time.

Ask yourself: Am I not physically close enough to them?

• If you are not working in close proximity to the employees, make sure to swing by them and say hi once in a while. If you have a lot of remote work, make sure to prioritize morning check-ins or other team meetings, so they feel like you are approachable and prioritize them. As a manager, your most important role is to ensure that your employees success.

Ask yourself: Do we have a structure for when and how often we do 1:1’s?

• If not, the employees may be missing a more structured initiative from you. Some leaders have a tendency (with all the best intentions) to let employees know they can just book in their leader if they want to talk - and it may be to fine for some employees. However, others may struggle to actually take the initiative although they (maybe unconsciously) need to talk to you. Beware, there are several types of 1:1’s (see our 1:1 guide in our Leadership Playbook), but you can experiment with your team with what works best for you and the individual employees.

Ask yourself: When we have our 1:1’s, do we have a structure for the talk?

• Make sure to have an agenda and maybe even prepare some questions in the meeting invitation. You can use our 1:1 framework as inspiration for this in our Leadership Playbook, depending on the type of 1:1. This is important because it is easy to fall into the “how are you doing?” - “Good, thanks”, which can feel superficial and even a waste of time. When you prepare some questions, it will help you help the employee talk about the things they need support on. This is of course very individual, just like the need for support is. But asking the right questions will help you navigate each conversation.

Ask yourself: How well do we do at knowledge sharing?

• Perhaps some of the employees possess skills and knowledge that some of the others could learn a lot from. Set up a workshop or a structure to make sure this knowledge sharing is facilitated.

Ask yourself: Do we need someone externally to give feedback or educate the employees within a certain expertise?

• You can ask the employees for specific wishes for learning within an area or from a certain person with the expertise. Make sure to be transparent about not being able to grant all wishes as well.
• If it is not possible due to budgets/resources, brainstorm with the employees or other leaders in your organization in which way your employees can provide the needed professional sparring.

Ask yourself: Are we good enough at asking each other for help?

• It could be that some employees feel alone in their tasks and that they’re solely responsible for succeeding, which may be stressful for them. They may not be good at asking for help, or they don’t feel like they can do so. This may be the case, if you see lower levels of Mindful or Social. Make sure to communicate that it is important to ask for help - and even better, do it yourself.

Ask yourself: Is there a need for more (cross-)collaboration?

• Some employees may be missing more collaboration with others. Be curious - together with them - how that could look like. This may be the case, if you see lower levels of Support.

Ask yourself: In our team, is it safe to show vulnerability?

• There can of course be several reasons for an individual to feel insecure about showing vulnerability, but generally speaking, psychological safety is a prerequisite to feel okay doing this. As it can be a somewhat big area to both understand and manage, you can find our chapter on Psychological Safety with more information on the subject and inspiration on how to work with this.

Ask yourself: Do I provide them with sufficient feedback?

• Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they know it has value. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or the development and feedback talk. You can find inspiration on how to facilitate these 1:1 conversations and what questions to ask your employees in our 1:1 guide for development and feedback conversations in our Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: How do I provide feedback to the employees?

• More important than how often you do it is how you do it. Make sure to have a go-to method for providing feedback to each other where you remember to practice constructive criticism and praise. If your employees receive feedback in a negative way or don’t receive praise, they will most definitely not feel recognized.

Ask yourself: Does our culture encourage and value feedback?

• Long-term it could also be of great value to make sure that your culture prioritizes feedback and recognition so the employees know - and feel - when they are successful. Aim to create a culture, where it is a natural part of your everyday life to book each other in for feedback sessions. Communicate to the team that feedback is a gift and ask them how they want to work with feedback moving forward so they are encouraged to give it to each other instead of leaving it only to you.

Ask yourself: Are tasks allocated fairly in terms of workload?

• Investigate if some of the workload could be spread across other team members to ease the burden on the individual employees. Beware that the sense of overload is very subjective, so we recommend you talk with each employee on a 1:1 to discuss what defines a suitable workload for them - you can find inspiration for questions in the well-being conversation card in our Leadership Playbook. Then, make sure to help them balance the workload.

Ask yourself: Is overload a general issue in the entire team?

• If this is the case, you need to recruit. If that is not an option, find out other ways to outsource tasks to somewhere else in the company. Until either of those happens, support your team with prioritizing tasks and offer your help with operational work until the workload is balanced again, although this solution is only short-term.

Ask yourself: Do I clearly communicate expectations?

• Make sure to be completely transparent about expectations for the employees - and of course, make sure that they are fair. This will help the employees prioritize and also feel supported in making decisions that may not always be easy. Knowing you have their back based on what needs to be prioritized may give more peace with prioritizing and ease the sense of overload. Also, arrange frequent (e.g. weekly) task check-ins with the employees to make sure they know what is expected of them on each task.

Ask yourself: Do I ask them directly what their expectations are of themselves? And from me?

• Not only do you need to elaborate on your own expectations. A good expectation alignment involves both parties and maybe the employees have much higher expectations of their own performance than you do. Also, make sure to ask them what they expect from you so you can let them know what you can and cannot do to help them.

Ask yourself: Do I consider the employees’ wishes and talents when allocating tasks and projects?

• It is often the case that some employees have previously been doing a certain task well, and so they keep on getting the same or similar tasks because it may be easier. First of all, they might want to develop in other directions, and secondly, it could be that others in the team may be even more talented for the task (and also thrive with it). This can long-term be stressful for the employee if they do not feel like their talents are put into play. Therefore, we recommend you ask them on a (quarterly) development and feedback 1:1 which areas they would like to develop themselves within. You can use our Development Plan template in our Leadership Playbook for this purpose. Also, it would be a great advantage for you to have an insight into the talents of the team. We recommend testing for Zoios’ Personality Archetypes to help you create the right development plan early on in their employment.

Ask yourself: Do I mostly make decisions about tasks without asking for input from employees with expertise?

• You may feel like you are helping them by not involving them in decisions about their tasks, because you do not want to disturb them with “irrelevant” things. However, they may feel very relevant for the employees to know - even if may not seem so to you. Therefore, at least let them know when you are considering making decisions and ask them on their input. You cannot always take them into account and make sure to let them know that. But they might have points you did not consider yourself - as they are the experts. They will feel involved and like they have a say in the way they perform their tasks.

• First of all, make sure to be supportive by letting them vent their feelings and frustrations with you without feeling judged. Before going into action mode, just try to listen so they feel heard. Then, if they would like your input, you can guide them to some concrete next steps that they can take to handle the stakeholder.

Ask yourself: In these situations, do I ask the employees openly what they need from me and from their colleagues?

• If you do not have a culture where you ask for help, handling demanding stakeholders can be very difficult. You should be the forerunner for this by asking these two questions above. This will also make the employees aware of what they need to explicitly ask for from others to get the support they need.

Ask yourself: Do we need a tool to help employees deal with demanding stakeholders?

• Consider creating a template for aligning expectations with stakeholders so the relation and collaboration are easier to maintain in a sustainable way.

Ask yourself: Do the employees know when to set boundaries for the stakeholders?

• You need to advise them when to say “enough is enough”. No stakeholder should require endless things from the employee, but they may need to know that you support them in setting boundaries.

Ask yourself: Am I aware that it can be stressful to primarily perform tasks that are not a fit with your strengths?

• It is a normal misconception that stress is mostly due to overload. Many do not consider that doing draining tasks too much of the time can be very stressful to the employee. When they are drained of energy, it will long-term impact their stress levels as the tasks will take them longer time to complete. Therefore, you could consider doing one or more of the following::
  • Make sure to schedule regular (quarterly) development and feedback1:1’s with the employees to align expectations and get an insight into what they wish to do more of in their job. Find inspiration on how to facilitate these conversations and what questions to ask your employees in our 1:1 guide for development and feedback conversations on page xx.
  • Look into the task allocation process of the team. To do this the best way, be aware of the employees’ talents and strengths by using the well-being conversation cards for Mindful and Contribution in our Leadership Playbook in your 1:1s to become more aware of this. Here, it would be a great advantage to actively work with the Zoios’ Personality Archetypes framework to ensure, that both you and the employees know which tasks are a better fit than others.
  • Ensure a job fit by testing for Zoios’ Personality Archetypes already during the recruitment process. This will help ensure that the role and responsibilities match the employee’s talents and strengths, and it will also help avoid being drained by the tasks of the role.

Ask yourself: How many hours do the employees actually work, and is this more than agreed on?

• If yes, book the employee for a task check-in to help them prioritize what is most important. Also, we recommend you book them for a longer well-being 1:1 and use the well-being conversations cards for Work-life and/or Mindful to discuss what to do about the long working hours.

Ask yourself: What expectations do I have for the employees, and how many hours do these require to be fulfilled?

• If your expectations are too high compared to the amount of hours available within your team, you need to either hire more people or adjust your expectations.

Ask yourself: Do I clearly communicate my expectations?

• Make sure to be completely transparent about expectations for the employees - going forward already in the recruitment process - and of course, make sure that these expectations are fair. This will help the employees prioritize and also feel supported in keeping up with the agreed working hours. Knowing you have their back based on what needs to be prioritized may give them more peace with going home without guilt.

Ask yourself: In our culture, is it true that we expect people to respond to emails outside working hours?

• If this is the case, you need to be very transparent about that - also during the recruitment process. You could have a team session about this subject of work-life to investigate the different needs and try to find a balance so everyone feels heard. If you wish to change this culture - be transparent about that and make sure to be the forerunner of the change yourself: Communicate that you do not expect anyone to answer outside of working hours - and most importantly, try to avoid doing it yourself.
• If this is not the case, communication is missing. Invite for a team session about this to make sure the employees get to share their views on it and find ways to support and remind each other about this. Communicate that you do not expect anyone to answer outside of working hours - and try to avoid sending emails yourself.

Ask yourself: Do I clearly communicate expectations?

• Make sure to be completely transparent about expectations for the employees - and of course, make sure that they are fair. This will help the employees prioritize and also feel supported in making decisions that may not always be easy. Knowing you have their back based on what needs to be prioritized may give them more peace with prioritizing and going home when the work day is over.

Ask yourself: Do I ask them directly what their expectations are of themselves? And from me?

• Not only do you need to elaborate on your own expectations - a good expectation alignment involves both parties and maybe the employees have much higher expectations of their own performance than you do. Also, make sure to ask them what they expect from you so you can let them know what you can and cannot do to help them.

Ask yourself: Do the employees and I disagree on what is expected from them?

• If they feel like your expectations of them are too high, maybe it is because you yourself are very ambitious and quick at solving tasks. This may not be the same case for your employees who have other talents, and therefore it may be stressful for them to feel like are not succeeding according to your expectations. Invite them for a 1:1 to discuss what work-life balance looks like for them, as it is very subjective in regards to what it means to the individual. You can find inspiration on questions to ask the employees in the well-being conversation cards for Contribution and Mindful in our Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: Do we have a policy for remote work?

• If yes, should something be changed according to the employees’ needs or explained more in-depth?
• If not, consider establishing some sort of guidelines for remote work that take into account that employees have different needs. We recommend having a talk with the employees about this to take their views into account before making a decision. Make up your mind about the levels of flexibility you want in your culture and communicate them clearly to avoid ambiguity.

Ask yourself: Could working hours be more flexible than 9-5?

• If the employees feel restricted to only work during “normal” office hours but would like to have a more flexible schedule, find out if it really is important which hours they are doing their work. They may need to be available to their colleagues during some hours of the day. However, consider if the rest of the hours could be spread out during the day to accommodate for private matters demanding more flexibility for the employees. Also, make sure to discuss it with the team so everyone is aligned on what is acceptable and what is not.

Ask yourself: In our team, do we generally have a culture where employees are afraid to set personal boundaries?

• It might be a sign that the team culture is lacking psychological safety, and you have an important role in changing that. Psychological safety can be a somewhat big area to both understand and manage. Therefore, we advise you to read our chapter on Psychological Safety in our Leadership Playbook where you can find inspiration on how to work with this.

Ask yourself: Do I as a leader provide a safe space for the employees to set boundaries for their working hours?

• If you sense that someone is working more than they may prefer, it is important to be proactive to avoid them burning out at some point. Invite them to a well-being 1:1 and find inspiration in the well-being conversation card for Mindful for relevant questions to ask them. Focus on listening to them and help them set boundaries by e.g. telling them your expectations and inviting them openly to say what they think about that. If they feel like they need to work extra to contribute, you can also include questions from the Contribution conversation card.

Ask yourself: What do I do at this point to ensure that my employees feel seen, heard, and recognized for their work?

• To implement the correct initiative for your employees to feel accurately recognized, getting their input on what would work best for them is essential. When you know the answer(s) to this, the solution is quite simple - do more of that. Beware that this is indeed very individual, so ask them on a well-being 1:1 how to recognize them sufficiently.

Ask yourself: Is the compensation actually inadequate?

• If you are confident that the compensation is inadequate for one or some of your employees, it is essential to talk to them about what this means to them: What kind of compensation are they looking for instead? See our Leadership Playbook for inspiration on how to handle the 1:1 salary review.

Ask yourself: What do I do to align expectations on future compensation?

• Make sure to ask the employee at your salary reviews what kind of compensation they expect and how much they expect to increase in the future. Also, to let them know what is possible in the role they have. As a leader, you should be able to answer what it takes to achieve a higher compensation package.

Ask yourself: Do I know what would make my employees feel fairly compensated?

• There are other types of compensation than salary. Talk to your employees about what makes them feel appreciated and acknowledged for their effort. And consider compensating them in different ways - e.g., through acknowledgment and employee benefits.

Ask yourself: Do I provide them with sufficient feedback?

• Make sure to provide sufficient feedback for the employees on their work so that they know it has value. As the need for feedback is very subjective, we would recommend doing this 1:1 in either the task check-ins or the development and feedback talk. You can find inspiration on how to facilitate these 1:1 conversations and what questions to ask your employees in our 1:1 guide for development and feedback conversations in our Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: How do I provide feedback to the employees?

• More important than how often you do it is how you do it. Make sure to have a go-to method for providing feedback to each other where you remember to practice constructive criticism and praise. If your employees receive feedback in a negative way or don’t receive praise, they will most definitely not feel recognized.

Ask yourself: Does our culture encourage and value feedback?

• Long-term it could also be of great value to make sure that your culture prioritizes feedback and recognition so the employees know - and feel - when they are successful. Aim to create a culture, where it is a natural part of your everyday life to book each other in for feedback sessions. Communicate to the team that feedback is a gift and ask them how they want to work with feedback moving forward so they are encouraged to give it to each other instead of leaving it only to you.

Ask yourself: In what ways do I recognize the employees, and what could be other ways of doing this?

• To implement the correct initiative for your employees to feel accurately recognized, getting their input on what would work best for them is essential. Thus, we recommend scheduling 1:1s with your employees using the well-being card for Recognition for inspiration on questions to ask them about this (page xx).

Ask yourself: Could we be more aware of differences in this regard in our team?

• If you think you give each other a lot of recognition already, maybe you could learn something from talking about it on a team level, as there may be some who would prefer to have it delivered in other ways. We tend to recognize others the same way that we would like to be recognized ourselves, and although the intention is good, it does not always land the way we hope with the receiver. Going around the table and explaining how each employee prefers recognition could help the team understand each other better.

Ask yourself: How do our organizational practices and processes create space for recognition?

• Ensure the employees have good conditions for providing each other with feedback and recognition. If there is a lot of focus on individual processes and competition, this is even more important, and you should consider how to enhance the feeling of teamwork and collectivism.
• Schedule a psychological safety workshop focusing on recognition or a "recognition workshop" with three agenda bullets:
  • In which situations are we already good at recognizing each other?
  • How can we become better at recognizing each other in our everyday work?
  • Around-the-table recognition: "Tell your colleague one thing you like about working with them."

  A prerequisite for this to work is to have a high level of psychological safety. See our Leadership Playbook for inspiration on how to improve the psychological safety of your team.

Ask yourself: How do I cultivate a feedback and recognition culture?

• Remember that you, as a leader, set the example and lead the way. Thus, a good start would be to remember to recognize your team frequently and create a language and room for them to recognize each other too.

Ask yourself: Is it clear what their future and potential career development may look like in the company?

• You can try asking the employees how clear it is to them what their future and career development in the company looks like and thereby learn if you should spend some time talking with them. If so, book them for a walk and talk or similar - ask them why it isn’t clear, how you can make it clearer, and tell them why they should be calm. You can also consider involving a development plan in this conversation if such exists, or create one with the employee - see development and feedback 1:1 plan in our Leadership Playbook

Ask yourself: Is it clear what their role consists of and how they are contributing?

• Consider whether the expectations of their work, the boundaries of their role, and how they contribute to the overall company goals are clear enough by asking the employees about this. If it is not clear enough, book them for a 1:1 conversation to talk about this more thoroughly - you can use the well-being conversation card for Contribution from our Leadership Playbook.

Ask yourself: Do you communicate often enough about financials?

• If your employees feel uncertain about whether they will lose their job within a certain amount of time due to being part of a smaller company, market changes, or other financial struggles, it is a good idea to calm your employees by letting them know more details about the finances. People sometimes fear the worst, and in that case, transparency can really help. Make sure people actually understand the numbers you present - and that they feel safe asking questions they may feel are “stupid”.

Ask yourself: Is there a good reason for the employee to worry about this?

• If there is a chance the employee is right - that they might lose their job - then you should be as honest with them as you can, but say what concrete things you will do to avoid it happening.

Ask yourself: Do you create a safe space where the employees can freely share concerns, questions, and frustrations?

• Make sure to give the employees frequent opportunities to share their skepticism with the management and get their questions and concerns answered. This can be done by town halls or team meetings. A prerequisite for this to work out is to have a high level of psychological safety. See our Leadership Playbook for inspiration on how to improve the psychological safety of your team.

Ask yourself: How transparent are you about managerial decisions?

• The employees might be skeptical due to missing knowledge about managerial decisions and/or financials. Thus, it is a good idea to calm your employees by letting them know more details about the reasons for your decisions and why you use the financial resources the way you do.

Ask yourself: Is the strategic direction and the reasoning behind it clear enough for the employees?

• Consider inviting for a team session about the strategy where everyone can feel free to ask questions and share their thoughts. Take into account what they say and explain the WHY as well as you can. If some employees still have difficulties understanding or accepting it, invite them for a walk’n’talk or 1:1 to discuss further: Be curious about their point of view and remind yourself that what feels like “resistance” to you is actually an expression of their passion for the company and its future.

Ask yourself: Is there a space for the employees to share their challenges and dilemmas, and a clear plan for how to solve them?

• Make sure to arrange 1:1 conversations where the employees can openly share challenges and dilemmas with you. You can use the well-being card for Optimism in our Leadership Playbook for inspiration. Also, make a clear action plan with them on how to overcome the challenge or dilemma in the foreseeable future - or at least next steps from here, if the challenge is too big to solve here and now.

Ask yourself: Is there any action I need to take as a leader to help resolve the dilemmas or challenges they experience?

• Ask the employees how you can help them overcome the dilemmas or challenges they are facing. As a leader, it is your responsibility that the employees have the best possible circumstances to do their work and thrive while doing it. If they are somehow stuck and you can do something to help them out, then it is a good idea to prioritize this to show that you take them seriously. Even if you cannot help them on the concrete dilemma or challenge, make sure they know you will listen to their frustrations.

Ask yourself: How do I make sure to keep the employees’ hopes up?

• It is a good idea to continuously follow up on their dilemmas and challenges, how they progress from here, and how you, as a team and as a leader, will overcome these in the foreseeable future. If the challenges are temporary, remind them that these will only exist for a limited time.

Ask yourself: In our team, is it safe to speak up or show vulnerability?

• For your team to feel comfortable and optimistic, also in challenging times, you have an important role in ensuring that they are safe enough to have the more difficult conversations and speak up about concerns, mistakes, etc. Psychological safety can seem somewhat big and intangible to understand and manage. Therefore, we advise you to read our chapter on Psychological Safety, where you can find more information about the subject and inspiration on how to increase this in your team.

Ask yourself: Are we good enough at asking each other for help?

• It could be that some employees feel alone in their tasks and that they’re solely responsible for succeeding, which may be overwhelming for them. They may not be good at asking for help, or they don’t feel like they can do so. Make sure to communicate that it is important to ask for help - and even better, do it yourself.

Ask yourself: Is there a need for more (cross-)collaboration?

• Some employees may be missing more collaboration with others. Be curious - together with them - how that could look like.

Ask yourself: Do the employees feel like we are on an exciting journey together?

• If the employees miss the feeling of working towards the same mission, we recommend that you connect their results and successes to the overall team goals as well as the company journey, so they feel like they are contributing to something bigger - together. You can do this by arranging quarterly or semi-annual strategy workshops, where the employees help compile the missions for their department/part of the company.

Ask yourself: How do we celebrate our successes as a team?

• Make sure to gather the employees to celebrate your successes as a team along the way and to acknowledge each other’s efforts.