Stop Ghosting your team

Like any relationship, keeping your team happy takes work. If you’re not intentionally investing in them, they can feel like they’ve been ghosted. Even if you don’t have access to bonuses or promotions to give them, you can still make your team feel valued. Ask them how they want to be recognized and meet them there; give timely feedback; help them see a growth path; give them room to shine, and advocate for them when they’re not in the room.

Just like dating, you start out getting to know your team when you first join a company or make a new hire. You ask lots of questions, spend time with each other, and sometimes there will be bumps along the way, but you give one another grace. Sometimes it's not the right fit. Sometimes it's such a fantastic match that after a while, there's a promotion. As time goes on, y’all start to get into a groove and, like many relationships, you get comfortable. Comfort on its own isn't bad, but as a leader, it can slide into complacency, and that is bad. Complacent leadership makes people feel undervalued and resentful. Productivity drops. Morale drops. Sound familiar?

Whether you've had a boss or an ex who made you feel this way, here are ways to show up and make sure your team feels valued, even without a big budget.

Ask them how they like to be recognized.

It's not a reward for someone who hates attention if you ask them to stand up at an all-hands while everyone claps for them. It is a living nightmare, actually. Ask your team how they like to be recognized: privately, publicly, a big Slack announcement, etc. Making the recognition about them and for them is what makes it impactful.

Give them timely, specific feedback.

To make feedback land, it needs to be given in context of the action, and specific enough to act on. Most feedback training focuses on hard conversations, but this is also true for positive feedback. "Beth, I wanted to let you know that I really liked the way you just led that meeting. I appreciated the clarity of your design walk-through, which helped our stakeholders understand what we were trying to accomplish. Nice work!"

Let them shine.

Don't just give your team credit, let them represent their own work. I once had Director who consistently presented the team's designs to the C-suite by himself, then told the team they didn't have the skills to present to C-level. My philosophy is that you get those skills through practice. When that team transitioned to me, I brought each designer into the room to present their own work and get face time with leadership. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your team is to step aside and let their own light shine.

Help them plan a growth path.

In Radical Candor, Kim Scott outlines the difference between rock stars and superstars. Superstars are on an upward trajectory, always ready for a new challenge. Rock stars are talented, stable, dependable, and happy where they are. Helping each person figure out which they are, and what their path looks like, helps them find value in their day-to-day and know that you find value in them, too.

Advocate for them.

For those times when your team isn’t in the room, or someone else is standing in front of their light, you need to step in. Speak up for your individual team members. Speak up for your team. Speak up for UX. One of the core roles I learned from UX is that we represent the voices who aren't in the room, and as a leader, your job is to do that for your team.

You won't always be able to shower your team with money, as much as they may deserve it, but there are lots of ways you can keep your team engaged, loved, and feeling valued. Happy team, happy... manager memes?