It illustrates what we all know can happen when we’re too challenged or stressed, with too many bids to do, impossible deadlines, constant stress to complete and win. We become distressed, anxious, exhausted, suffer burnout. And our performance falls.
But it also illustrates that if we have too little challenge, we can become bored, our motivation can suffer, and our performance can also suffer. In fact, if we feel we’re not doing enough or not developing because we’re not being challenged, that can lead to its own form of stress.
Our performance is actually at its best when there is some level of challenge and ‘stress’. Enough to engage us, and give a sense of achievement, but not so much (or as frequent or constant) that we get distressed.
You can also be busy, but bored and not challenged. If you’re just churning out the same bids time and again, if you’re not getting feedback, if you’ve got little or no control over the bids you’re doing or the solution, writing etc, and there’s no change or improvement in what you’re offering in your bids. Even ‘busy’ can lack challenge, be boring, and demotivate you.
There are things you can do as a manager of a bid team to reduce distress, whilst maximising performance of your team by giving them the ‘right’ level, and type of challenge. What they are, and which you use, depends on your circumstances.
As you become more senior in your organisation, your ‘job’ isn’t just to manage the internal workings of the bid function and bid team. Part of your responsibility (even if it isn’t in your official job description) is to represent, advocate for, support, and promote the role of bidding and the bid team in the organisation.
That includes challenging and influencing elements of the organisation’s culture which can lead to some of the stresses the bid team feel. For example:
- Challenging a ‘bid everything’ culture from sales or senior management. Can you find an evidence based approach to put in place a robust ‘bid/no bid’ process, and ensure it’s enforced?
- Working with management colleagues in sales, SME areas, finance, or senior management to make sure your team get the quality input and decisions for bids they need, when they need it.
- Turning any “blame the bid team for losses, but wins are expected (and others get the credit)” thinking towards a “celebrate the bid team for wins, lets all learn from losses” approach. Even a simple acknowledgement of a win, or effort, from top management can make a positive difference (does the CEO even know the bid team exists?).
- There might not be much you can do about customer procurement timetables, but can you forecast (and plan for) them better? Or could you choose what to bid at least partly based on customer procurement practices?
- How hard have you pushed for a budget for the team that fits with the volume of work faced?
You might not feel you have the ‘clout’ to achieve all, or any, of these changes. They might take time to deliver. You might not get everything you want. It might even be stressful for you to try. But as a manager and leader, simply accepting the ‘status quo’ isn’t something you should be content with. Keep pushing. If nothing else, your team will see that you’re proactively advocating for them, which will help.
As we’ve said above, your team can be busy but bored at the same time. Whether your team are working hard (more likely), or not so hard (less likely), giving them a sense of progress can turn a stressful situation into one that’s challenging but has some meaning. What are some of the ways you can do that?
- Create a longer term goal, or vision for the team beyond ‘win this bid’. If the team feel they’re working towards something, that this bid is part of, it can give them more context and motivation.
- Create a learning environment. This has different aspects. Make losing about learning, not failure. Set achievable improvement targets (and support people to bring ideas and implement those improvements). Even if you lose a bid, if the team feel they’re learning from it, and improving for the next bid, they’ll feel more positive, and less anxious. And make learning as much about individual development as about team development. Make sure each of your team feel they’re personally growing as well as being part of a team that’s improving. The 2022 Bid Solutions survey highlighted that 57% of respondents didn’t have a Personal Development Plan. Don’t let your team be part of that number.
- Celebrate successes (not just bid wins). If you’ve set a goal for the team (or individual within the team), create milestones along the way. And celebrate when those milestones are achieved.
We each have different levels of resilience, susceptibility to stress, and reactions to stressful conditions. And they can vary for an individual over time, depending on their circumstances and how those may change.
Different members of your team could suffer stress at different times, and in different ways. You need to be aware of how each individual in the team is coping (or not) with the challenges they’re facing. Even in circumstances where the team as a whole isn’t suffering, some members of the team could be.
Having approaches in place that help avoid stress becoming distress, spot the signs of stress early, and help mitigate them will mean you avoid your team suffering the worst impacts of stresses when or if they do emerge:
- Build team awareness of what to look for. Colleagues may spot issues before you do.
- Create a team environment where people feel happy to share. That means creating a psychologically safe environment. But it also means having a team happy and able to share the workload with each other and be flexible if needed.
- Have regular one- to- ones with each team member. But also ad hoc informal chats. Make it clear you want them to let you know if they’re feeling stressed and that isn’t a bad thing.
- Have support in place. Knowing is useful, but if you don’t do anything once you know, that isn’t helpful. Your organisation might have Occupational Health, or Mental Health support available. Or you might find it externally. Mental Health Awareness sessions for the team. Mental Health support for those who may need it. Extended leave, secondment into other areas for short periods, other practical steps can all support team members. And going back to our first point on advocating for the bid team; just because other parts of the organisation might not have these, it doesn’t mean you can’t push for them to be part of how the bid team is supported. Their work is different to other parts of the organisation. The support they have available should be different too if needed.
Stresses are increasing in bidding and bid teams. Some stress is actually a good thing. But as managers there are things we can do to avoid, recognise and reduce the excess stress our bid team members may feel. They include being a proactive advocate and change influence on the external causes of stress for the team; creating meaning and progress for our team members to help them develop and put the stresses of individual bids into context; and having practical steps in place for recognising stress in individuals and acting to mitigate it’s impacts on them.
Our module on Build a High Performance Bid Team includes how you can improve your team’s performance by focusing on the actions and approaches which maximise motivation, engagement, resilience and psychological safety within the team.
It’s just one of the modules on our Management and Leadership Skills for Bidders. For more information go to the home page on our site. At www.mybidcareer.co.uk
