Leaders make others into heroes.
One of the most powerful things you can do as a leader is establish your customer/client and your team as the hero. Not you, them. Shift the center of focus to them. Pay attention to how the most effective ad campaigns and web sites work. The focus is on the customer/prospect/community member, not on the company itself.
Call them heroes.
Remind them that they’re doing important, heroic, world-changing work.
Write things like “If you’re reading this, you ARE the resistance.” (A ripoff from a Terminator movie, brilliantly done in a newsletter I subscribe to.) Remind people about the big picture of the challenge before them. Don’t minimize the struggle or dismiss it. Instead, encourage them that the problems they face are going to fall, because of who they are and how they live/work/act.
Please understand, you must be sincere in this, and believe it. People have a keen nose for b.s. You must believe in them even before they believe in themselves as capable of being heroic. See the potential in them, and call it out.
Give this some thought. What can you do today to help others see themselves as doing heroic, great, meaningful work that is worth all the sweat and frustration? What can you do next week to reinforce this idea?
If you will consistently share this idea, then they will adopt it as their identity. When the crisis moments come, as they assuredly will, they will be prepared to step up and slay the dragon.