How to Energize Your Overwhelmed Team? Team Rhythm Techniques for Modern Leaders

Eleven ways to lead your team from overwhelmed to inspired. Unlock Team Success with Rhythm: Proven Strategies for Inspired Leadership

Discover actionable team rhythm strategies from Iris Clermont’s “Team Rhythm” to transform overwhelmed teams into inspired, high-performing groups. Learn practical leadership techniques, rhythmic activities, and proven methods to boost team engagement, trust, and productivity-perfect for today’s diverse and remote workplaces. Start building a harmonious, motivated team now!

Ready to lead your team from burnout to brilliance? Keep reading to uncover 11 innovative, rhythm-based leadership techniques that will energize your team and drive lasting results!

Recommendation

Executive coach Iris Clermont urges readers to join together in foot-stomping, hand-clapping, and finger-snapping in rhythm. She’s full of ideas, so be prepared: you won’t know what to expect next. Clermont recommends opening your mind; later, she recommends opening your nose, ears, and senses to become more alert to stimuli around you – advice you aren’t likely to find in any other business book. However, Clermont is innovative as well as sometimes idiosyncratic, and her book is well organized. Each chapter begins with a rhythmic assignment, a cadence to use in clapping or stomping together. In league with such music-based tools and techniques, Clermont presents solid, well-grounded leadership and team enhancement recommendations.

Take-Aways

• Use the “team rhythm” approach to energize your team.
• Team members must listen to each other.
• Team members should share a vision and strategy.
• Team members should realize that everyone makes mistakes.
• To minimize conflict, team members must be aware of the tone of their conversations.
• The musicians in a jazz band trust one another to stay with the beat. That holds lessons for teams.
• Start with the easiest commitments and work up from there.
• “Feedforward” to share ideas that spur growth.
• Teams with far-flung members can be as effective as co-located teams.
• Diverse teams share richer, more varied perspectives.
• Team development requires members to accept challenges with enthusiasm.

Summary

Use the “team rhythm” approach to energize your team.

Changes of any sort – organizational, cultural, technical – can burden or overwhelm employee teams. Change can send some members into self-destructive modes of negative reactions and behaviors. Now, leaders can offer an antidote to team members who fall prey to this self-defeating, regressive mindset: the energizing and empowering team rhythm strategy.

The basic team rhythm concept is based on a “xylophone model” with 11 keys or aspects: listen, define a vision, be present, rely on expert decision-making, expedite conflict resolution, build trust, commit to your team, incorporate virtual work, appreciate diversity, take breaks outdoors, and use the “feedforward” feedback process.

“Music is part of our everyday life. We speak in a certain rhythm and melody to enhance our communication. We walk, talk, and act in rhythm. Everything we give and take in a team is part of this rhythm.”

“Rhythm” captures the kinetic aspect of this team-empowerment concept. It calls for beat-driven, participatory breaks or “accents” in your work processes, though you don’t need musical talent or a background in music to put it to work. The team-rhythm program involves having your team share quick, easy, empowering physical activities or “accents,” including “clapping, stomping, finger-snapping,” and “chest-clapping,” all in unison.

If an emphasis on rhythm and music sounds esoteric when applied to your company’s work teams, consider how a band practices. First, each musician must be highly “self-focused.” The piano player works hard, the trumpet player practices producing the correct notes and cadence, the drummer endeavors to establish the right beat, and so on. However, for enjoyable music to result from their individual efforts, the musicians must come together and play well enough to synchronize their sound.

Band members must be aware of and attentive to each person’s music and pay attention to how the notes come together. The musicians must share the same “melody,” and “chords,” the same rhythm. Otherwise, instead of creating sweet music, the band will produce irritating dissonance.

Team members must listen to each other.

The synchronization required for team members to move ahead as a group and accomplish shared goals requires active listening. This is true in business, music, and life. To work well together, achieve important goals, and build harmony, team members need to understand one another and respect each other’s priorities. They must identify their shared goals and concur on the best ways to reach them. Achieving synchronization on a working team calls for asking probing questions, listening carefully to one another, and agreeing on productive answers.

“Speaking less and listening more will enable you as an empowering leader to understand and connect with others on a deeper level.”

Asking smart questions and really heeding the answers comes into play when you want to learn what matters to other people. To gain a better understanding of those around you, pose relevant questions about your shared objectives. Acting on the answers you receive will put you in a better position to move ahead together productively.

The useful questions that team members may want to discuss could include: What unknowns do we face together on this project? Are we considering all the necessary aspects of our plans? What should our team goals be? What criteria will define excellent team performance? And, to accomplish our objectives, do we need to involve anyone beyond the members of our team?

To enhance your questioning and listening skills, try to ask each individual team member at least three meaningful questions and listen intently to his or her answers. Develop questions that fit your personal style, so you will be comfortable asking them.

Team members should share a vision and strategy.

Teams focus better on their objectives when the members share a well-defined vision and strategy. A team without a clear picture of its goals is like a driver trying to navigate at night with a mud-splattered windshield. As a responsible team leader or member, make sure that everyone on the team shares the same vision, goals and strategic plan. For the team to make progress, everyone has to drive in the same direction.

“Investing in constant training to improve our emotional stability and leadership abilities will benefit us and the entire team.”

As a team develops, so should its individual members, as they do whatever they can to build their individual skills, strengths, and leadership potential. Team members can strive to attain leadership status while thriving as participants. Among other things, this requires being part of all team meetings and joining all group activities, especially on the larger organizational level. Team members who wish to become leaders should demonstrate calmness, coolness, deliberateness, and sound judgment.

Team members should realize that everyone makes mistakes.

When it comes to making decisions, do your best. However, everyone should realize that no person, team, or company is perfect. Mistakes will happen. Once your team accepts that fact, members can learn to regard mistakes as what they are: inadvertent but valuable learning opportunities and experiences.

“[You want] an environment where team members feel comfortable taking the initiative and making decisions independently without constantly relying on their leader.”

To avoid mistakes, you and your team need to amass the knowledge and experience necessary to make decisions based on your shared expertise. If you have an idea, think long and hard about it. Consider all the angles. Figure out how to iterate its results, improve upon them, experiment, and build your know-how, so you can execute your tested concept productively.

To minimize conflict, team members must be aware of the tone of their conversations.

Conflicts are inevitable in any organization and on any team. Superior communication can reduce the number and degree of conflicts. Disagreements will always arise, so being able to resolve conflicts expeditiously is important. When it comes to team conflict, remember, “the tone creates the music.”

“Even subtle changes in how we speak and interact can have a profound effect on preventing conflict. With a different way of communicating, we can either provoke a conflict and waste time, energy, and motivation or avoid conflict from the start.”

Thoughtfully adjusting the way team members speak to and interact with each other – including paying attention to their volume and tone of voice – has a substantial impact on whether a conflict will occur and how easy or difficult it will be to resolve.

The musicians in a jazz band trust one another to stay with the beat. That holds lessons for teams.

Without foundational trust, teams fall apart, often sooner rather than later. Since mutual trust is vitally important to all teams, how can leaders build trust among their team members? The harmonic team rhythm system – featuring synchronized hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and finger-snapping – provides fun activities for team members and helps them achieve a trusting bond.

“This exercise [a printed template for making a deliberate, rhythmic series of sounds] shows the effect of decision-making at the expert level. The team leader starts playing the rhythm, followed by the person with the most musical experience. What difference do you observe between the leader and the best musician presenting the rhythm? What similar patterns do you notice in your daily business, and what is your conclusion from your reflection?”

If the individual members of a band don’t trust each other to deliver the right notes at the right time with the right rhythm, their audience will get horrible noise, not beautiful music. Without trust, no team can achieve harmony. Mutual trust supports a group’s faith that every member can maintain the beat.

Start with the easiest commitments and work up from there.

To succeed, teams need wise, realistic, and practiced leaders and members. They understand that the most reliable way for teams to move ahead is by tackling their easiest goals first and saving tougher journeys for later when their members have gained capability and experience in functioning as a cohesive unit.

“Trust and commitment are vital in any organization, but especially in international companies where various teams and departments collaborate and depend on each other’s results.”

Teams that routinely put points on the board demonstrate a level of commitment most easily achieved when early successes spur members to appreciate each other and keep collaborating and reaching for their goals. Success breeds success. Win the easiest challenges early on, so you’ll be ready to conquer tougher challenges later.

“Feedforward” to share ideas that spur growth.

Leadership author Marshall Goldsmith introduced the feedforward concept. Feeding forward calls on leaders and team members to look ahead, try to see what is coming up, and stay receptive to new ideas and different perspectives, that is, to impel advice and information forward throughout the team. Remaining open to new input leads to improved team results and helps members pinpoint where they can act more productively.

“It is essential to see and appreciate each individual contribution, however much it may jar with ‘the way things are done,’ not least because it provides strong motivation for every team member to be innovative.”

Feeding forward calls on team members to stretch, try new approaches, develop themselves, and remain open to pending changes and new ideas. Responsive teams are better equipped to move out of their comfort zones and into exciting, new vistas that offer greater opportunities.

Teams with far-flung members can be as effective as co-located teams.

Thanks to technology, team members no longer need to operate out of the same physical space. Virtual teams made up of members in different locations – even in different nations – can be as effective as teams whose members share the same office.

“Ensure that everyone has equal listening and speaking time, regardless of whether they’re in the room or attending remotely.”

Individual team members can share the same rhythm, even if they’re thousands of miles apart. Often, younger remote team members can’t imagine a better way to work or co-exist, and older members with open minds can adapt and come to appreciate the new world of long-distance collegiality.

Diverse teams share richer, more varied perspectives.

The best teams celebrate their members’ differences and special qualities. This makes sense organizationally since combining the unique perspectives of diverse personalities results in “innovation and creativity.” Diversity ultimately means acceptance. Responsible team members accept everyone on their team. Achieving positivity, productivity, and team spirit requires giving up on pointing fingers and blaming others. Team members should respect one another and honor the boundaries they set for themselves and for each other. As you and your diverse team partners come together, consider developing, promulgating, and promoting an inspiring “team manifesto.” This document outlines the path you and your teammates intend to follow together. A team manifesto helps members keep moving steadily ahead without ever losing sight of their shared objectives.

“As a celebration of the completion of your journey to Team Rhythm, tap and clap together as a team to a well-known song.”

Team members should not confine themselves to the work and team objectives that keep them busy at work. There’s more to life. The world is beautiful and being out in nature is rejuvenating. Team members should take a little time each day to get outdoors – to step out – and revel in the world’s natural beauty. You only go around once, so make sure your life includes more than days, years, and decades at your desk.

No matter what your business specializes in, your teams can learn a lot from other teams outside your unit or sector. Watch how they handle their work. Discover and learn from their special approaches.

Team development requires members to accept challenges with enthusiasm.

After all this, what is the ideal formula for team success? One clue is that team members must challenge themselves and each other. Robust challenges help bring out hard-earned alignment among team members, the kind of alignment teams and their members need to develop and grow. Teams that lack rhythmic alignment are usually ineffective, and that can thwart any team’s reason for being. The biggest flaw of nonproductive teams is a lack of teamwork. When your team finds its rhythm, it can gain momentum and deliver maximum results. Altogether now, clap your hands and stomp your feet.

About the Author

Business coach Iris Clermont is also the author of Team Magic: Eleven Magical Ways for Winning Teams. She launched her consultancy in 2008 and has worked mainly in the area of communications with corporate teams in 20 countries.