I want to share a few simple tasks for improving your team’s motivation and foster creative thinking. Even while in quarantine. 

The exceptional situation has changed the way we work now and in the future. Remote work has its advantages, but also its challenges. More than anything it calls for good leadership skills: teams need to keep up their motivation, and innovation and new thinking need to be encouraged. We call this entrepreneurial leadership.

Passion, sense of ownership, creativity and finding new perspectives are common characteristics of entrepreneurs. Take these four exercises and share them with your team to sharpen your entrepreneurial mindset.

Sharpen the passion

One of the most prominent characteristics of entrepreneurs is the passion for what they do. When working remotely it’s more important than ever to keep your team motivated and passionate! Together you can recall the link between your personal and the team's purposes. 

Task: Organize a joint virtual lunch with your team. Name the meeting “My passion for work”. Start with these questions: 

1. What do you want to accomplish with your careers (your personal missions/visions)?
2. How does your current position relate to that?
3. Why do you want to work in the role and the industry you are currently in?
4. Which of your tasks bring you the most happiness? 

Strengthen the ownership

Taking responsibility for one’s job is one of the main cornerstones in the entrepreneurial mindset because in small companies all actions matter. Show your team that everyone’s efforts are important, and that they link with the overall goals also in larger organizations.

Task: Reflect over your teammates roles and responsibilities

1. Write down your team members’ names and main tasks in a circle. 
2. In the middle, type in the goals for your team, and how they relate to the company’s big goals. 
3. Next to every team member, write down what would happen if they don’t do their tasks, i.e. why their input is important for reaching the goals. 
4. Discuss this with your team and show them why every single one of them is important.

Find new perspectives

Entrepreneurs have to be multi-talents. They have a passion for the core of their business, but they also need to handle everything from sales to finance. Seeing the business and its challenges from different perspectives helps them to think in new ways and find creative solutions. Large companies have many great experts, but they often work in their own silos and do not share their knowledge too often.

Task: Organize an online coffee break with someone from an entirely different business function and organizational level than you. It might be a programmer from your technical or IT-department, a marketing or sales assistant, or a customer service representative. Discuss what your typical day at the office looks like and share your views of the company’s vision.

Think more creatively

Entrepreneurs are experts at questioning why things are done a certain way, and at coming up with new creative solutions on how to do those things more efficiently. 

Task: Select a task you perform weekly or even daily in your work. 

1. Why do you do it that way? 
2. What is the goal of the action? 
3. Could you reach that goal another way? 
   

The more creative your solution is, the better! And no one said it has to be a realistic one, think as far outside your box as you can! Remember to also share this task with your team and discuss your creative solutions together.

These exercises should give you some fresh perspective on your daily work, and I hope you can develop at least some of them into habits and build on your entrepreneurial mindset. 

If you want to practice your entrepreneurial thinking even more by mentoring the entrepreneurs of a real startup for a year, check out our EEX journey program. The next one kicks off in August 2020! If you got questions, I'm happy to tell you more!

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Best,

Fanny Törnqvist

Contact me on Linkedin or via email: fanny.tornqvist@eexglobal.com

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