How to Motivate Your Team & Keep Them Engaged When Everything’s Changing Fast

Morale doesn’t drop overnight. It fades when leaders stop engaging with the hearts of their people. Here’s how to rebuild trust and drive results through calm, consistency, and compassion.

There were always seasons in my career when everything seemed to change rapidly without any warning.

I was hired during a recession. Times were tough, and there were many instances both before and after that when things were difficult in the companies I worked for. Sometimes it was the economy that had shifted, budgets were tightening, and just massive changes were happening rapidly. People were scared.

You can feel it the moment you walk into an office, the silence between conversations, the tight smiles in meetings, the heaviness in the air. Oftentimes, I was brought in to help increase the engagement rates in organizations. I was often brought into departments and organizations to consult, recommend, and deliver training to help them navigate organizational changes, maintain team productivity and focus, increase sales, and enhance their leadership.

You may notice you or others start to go into survival mode. Projects pile up, and help has disappeared. As the workload grows during change, motivation can wane.

It's easier to get caught up in fear... to push harder, to demand more, to “get through it.” But here’s the truth: fear never fuels performance. It drains it. It leads to burnout. For you, as a leader, and for your team.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."- Maya Angelou

A Moment That Changed My View on Leadership and Culture

Years later, I was facilitating a leadership training at another organization that was also going through massive change. During the session, word spread that several respected colleagues were being laid off, including longtime team members who had helped build the culture everyone loved. You could see the shift instantly, eyes welling up, hands over faces, those quiet and shocked reactions from some who weren't sure how to process it.

We stopped the training. We didn’t plow through it; we didn’t try to “keep it professional.” We paused. We gave people time to process, to breathe, to sit with what they were feeling.

It's incredible what can happen when we lean into the human side, embracing compassion, care, sensitivity, and simply creating a space for others. Watching them in the training room show so much empathy, and what I witnessed after was incredible. They had truly created a culture of care, compassion and kindness. I was genuinely impressed that though it was a difficult change, the leaders responsible were incredibly empathetic and compassionate.

That was just one example of so many that taught me something I’ve carried into every program, every client session, every coaching call since: empathy isn’t soft; it’s a leadership strategy. You need to build trust and show compassion first. You do that by making others feel safe and demonstrating that you are trustworthy and do really care. I've had the privilege of meeting so many incredible leaders who have created followings of people. Their people would talk about them endlessly. About how they made them feel, and they demonstrated all three of the areas below!

💡 The 3 Shifts That Rebuild Morale & Create Engagement

• Clarity through Calm: When people are uncertain, what they crave most is consistency in your leadership and direction. As a leader, your calm energy sets the emotional tone for everyone else. Before you react, pause. Breathe. Get clear on what you do know, and communicate that with honesty. Calm doesn’t mean pretending everything’s fine; it means leading from the center instead of panic. It's holding it together and staying calm when your team is anxious.

• Consistency through Connection & Communication: When systems break and workloads spike, connection becomes the glue. Communication from leadership down is critical and not optional. Protect your team’s routines, including the quick check-ins, five-minute huddles, and small rituals that create safety and rhythm. Even short, intentional moments of presence can restore stability. Communicate changes and information frequently. Silence is the enemy of engagement. People will be left guessing.

• Compassion through Self-Awareness: This is where morale lives or dies. When leaders become overly focused on results and stop checking in with their team, toxicity can grow. Pay attention to the small cues: the quieter team member, the tension in the room, the employee who says “I’m fine” too fast. Compassion doesn’t mean lowering standards; it means understanding the human reality behind the performance. If someone appears checked out, check in with them. Everyone handles stress differently. Some, you will know, and they will be vocal. Some of your team may internalize it, talk about it with others, and then the "figuring it out" can turn into gossip or just turn sour. If you are on the receiving end of the gossip, blame, or negativity, you can politely not engage.

Morale doesn’t collapse overnight. It erodes when leaders stop engaging, stop noticing, and stop leading with awareness. When leaders lack self-awareness and become overly focused on stress and change, their teams are often overlooked. Your job isn’t to motivate through fear or force. It’s to model composure, clarity, and care, because when you do, your team mirrors it back. No matter how busy things are, you cannot afford not to check in with your team members. And this isn't just when things are changing, but checking in ALL the time.

What else would you add to the list?

If your team is navigating a lot and feeling stressed right now, you can click the link in the comments and sign up to receive my Stress Unlocked download. If you'd like to book a call to explore ways to help your team navigate uncertainty, change, stress, and more, you can schedule a call with me using the link in my bio.

Let's show up with compassion, empathy, and steadiness to help our teams thrive. These are not just tools for changing times, but tools for all times. They are just more important than ever now!