**1. If you bring doubt first, that's the only thing they hear.**
A team member walks in with an idea: "I want to launch this new product." You- quick, clever, well-meaning- jump in with the 17 reasons it might not work. You think you're being helpful. You think you're stress-testing. What you've actually done is guaranteed that next time they have an idea, they keep it firmly in their head.
Cheerlead first, scrutinise second. "Tell me more- what's the dream version of this?" buys you more good ideas than "Have you thought about XYZ?" ever will.
**2. Have you watched the marathon?**
One of my favourite TikTok rabbit holes is watching people spot their loved ones in the crowd at the marathon. The runner is exhausted, broken, ready to give up- and then they see their person, screaming, holding a slightly inappropriate sign, and something lifts. They keep going.
Most of work isn't a marathon, but every now and again, someone in your team is on mile 22 and quietly thinking about quitting. Who in your team is on mile 22 right now? Are you on the kerb shouting their name, or are you watching from home?
**3. Back them, even when they're wrong.**
One of my team had a properly bad week. A real, genuine, self-described 'snotogram' of a mistake. When my boss messaged me about it, I could have rolled her under the bus- easy, immediate, my reputation intact. Instead I said nothing other than that I was the problem, that she'd been working incredibly hard, and not to blame her.
Obviously I'll talk to her about it, properly. But shoving the blame upwards would only have made her feel worse, and it wouldn't have changed a single thing about the outcome. Cheerleading doesn't mean pretending the mistake didn't happen- it means you don't compound it by abandoning her in front of people whose opinion she cares about.
**4. Tiny cheerleads make massive waves.**
Last week I wrote about caring too much, and the noise that comes with it. Someone I have never met replied to that email and told me to keep going. That they loved it. I don't know them, I will likely never meet them, and yet that one message has been pinging around my brain for days.
It cost them thirty seconds. It bought me a week of keeping going.
Who can you cheerlead this week? A Slack message before a meeting. A note to someone's boss that they don't know about. A "You handled that brilliantly", the moment after a difficult call. The effort is so low, and the impact so high.
**5. Cheerleading doesn't need pom poms.**
You don't need trumpets. You don't need acrobatics. You definitely don't need to be doing the splits in the office kitchen. Cheerleading is one quiet message, one shoutout, one specific bit of praise that lands.
My secret top tip- and this one is genuinely a hack- is to do it for someone you don't really like, when they've done something good. The subliminal psychology of having to say something genuinely nice about someone you find a bit annoying is properly fulfilling. You'll feel like a better person, they'll be confused and delighted, and you'll have spent exactly zero pounds doing it.