Are you getting the most out of your team? Are you looking to enhance motivation and morale? Try giving your team more rest.

It was on my first combat deployment as the Special Forces team’s assistant detachment commander when I realized that one of my most important duties was understanding when my team needed to rest.  We were living in an Afghan village, running missions day and night, and responsible for pulling guard on our compound. Fatigue leads to carelessness, carelessness leads to mistakes, and in combat mistakes can lead to serious injuries or worse.

When I look back at this moment, I am surprised that I didn’t realize this was one of my most important duties sooner. The Army had been training me to do this since I was first taught to lead a patrol. When walking through the woods learning to patrol, every time the group stops for a significant period of time the leader has a handful of tasks that focus on security but two tasks that are near the top of the list are – establish priorities of work and establish a rest plan.

Establishing priorities of work is something that all leaders think about constantly and comes natural to the position. What needs to be done, who should do it, and how are we going to pay for it. But do my people and organization need rest is a question that is easy to forget about. In the military it became an issue that drew the attention of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. Many of you will remember that the number of deployments soldiers did and how long they were  deployed has been consistent national news tied to veteran health. This is because establishing a rest plan for the military turned out to be more difficult than establishing priorities of work.

 Now that I have been in corporate American for a year I am seeing that establishing a rest plan is once again more difficult for leaders than priorities of work.  My current employer does a good job of work life balance but I know that isn’t commonplace. Technology has turned corporate America into an always on culture where people can work anywhere at any time.  There is a time to work hard and a time to put in long hours, but those times need to be balanced with a solid rest plan. I’m not talking about taking vacation days, because that is an employee taking care of themselves and unfortunately not all employees have the confidence to take time off even though they know they need it. In a recent ladders survey 52% of American workers did not use all their vacation time.

 What I am talking about it is proactive leadership. Think back to the last time you worked a series of long nights to get the budget in on time or deliver that big project. How would it feel if your manager walked up to you at the end and said, hey take tomorrow off? When a leader acknowledges hard work with a rest plan it does a couple things. First, it is a recognition of hard work which is important for all managers to share with their employees. Next, it is showing an interest in the health or your employee. Nothing matters more to someone than knowing that another human actually cares about them, really cares! Third, it guards against burnout, which is a topic for another article all together. In my combat example burnout could lead to catastrophic results, but it is similarly problematic in corporate America. Employees get sloppy, they rush through work, they lack urgency, and they do much of this simply because they feel overworked and need rest.

 Are you getting the most out of your team? Are you struggling with morale or motivation issues? Try proactively managing the amount of rest your team is getting.  The military not only empowers but demands their leaders manage their teams’ rest. This one simple tactic from the military could help improve moral, decrease mistakes, and improve manger - employee relations. Try it in your organization and let me know how it works!

Authored By: Orin Brown, Former Green Beret

Click Here to View Orin’s Bio.

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