Every team suffers from occasional dips in energy and motivation, which can affect team performance. There are many reasons why this occurs, and it can manifest itself in a number of different ways, whether it’s through a fall in productivity, high levels of staff turnover, a lack of buzz around the office or actual feedback from your team. If you suspect your team members are feeling low, the following suggestions will help you form an action plan for boosting morale and increasing performance.
It’s not always about more money…
Contrary to popular perception, almost all studies on employee motivation show that compensation is not the predominant reason why people leave their jobs for supposedly greener pastures. Rather, studies continually find that people are eager to grow and develop into their jobs, relishing new opportunities and responsibilities. Time and again, management literature points to the creation of an optimum working environment as the most effective way of boosting morale.
In trying to create this optimum environment, you should give careful consideration to the following points:
1. Appreciation
Exit interviews and employee questionnaires regularly show that people often leave an employer because they haven’t received the recognition they feel they deserve, or proper feedback on how they are doing.
Expressing appreciation is the first step in creating an atmosphere that will motivate people. Such expressions should be made to all team members doing their jobs well, and not just those with responsibility for the bigger, riskier pieces of work. It is important that individuals who are doing well are brought to the attention of the team/organisation and praised for their efforts.
Try to:
- Give a team member verbal praise on immediate completion of a successful project and share this achievement with the team.
- Be specific with any praise you give, referring to particular examples.
- Meet regularly with individuals to review what they’ve achieved.
- Be honest – if some aspects of the work are exemplary, whilst others could do with a little revising or fine-tuning, explain to the individual that you would like to talk this through with them.
- Remember, that although it is not possible for every organisation at all times, tangible rewards such as bonuses, extra holidays or work nights out are extremely effective ways of expressing appreciation.
- Meet regularly as a team to discuss what has been achieved.
- Celebrate team or organisational success: when a project is completed don’t rush on to the next one without first stopping to acknowledge both individual and team accomplishments.
2. Involvement
Another point that regularly crops up in employee questionnaires is the need to feel involved in their work and important to the success of their companies. Of course, it would be completely impractical to involve everyone in every decision, discussion or project that ever takes place, but allowing for greater team member contribution, especially around initiatives that will directly affect them, gives people a sense of inclusion and importance.
In the workplace, if people are rarely involved in the decision-making process, or they are not invited to contribute their thoughts and ideas, it’s all too easy to begin to feel like a non-entity, someone that does not matter. This can have serious consequences for creativity, innovation and productivity.
Try to:
- Involve team members in the decision-making process as much as is practical. This does not mean that team members have to start attending lots of meetings and discussion forums; it could be as simple as asking people to email you their thoughts and ideas on the topic up for discussion, or having an ideas sheet on the departmental notice-boards.
- Encourage team members to work on projects together to lessen feelings of detachment.
- Have an occasional work night out or an office get-together to allow people to have some experience of each other in a social context.
- Keep work-life balance in mind at the same time. Some people might not to want to mix work and social life together too often. Also, team morale will not benefit if team members are encouraged to become involved to the extent that their workloads go through the roof.
3. Management Concern
Another important factor that can boost morale when people feel that management is genuinely concerned about them as an individual. Any manager/organisation that disregards the feelings, aspirations or problems of individual team members, is never going to enjoy the benefits of a truly motivated workforce.
Although it is important to tread carefully when dealing with individual feelings and/or problems, people often appreciate help, even if this is just a simple show of understanding.
Try to:
- Always consider and treat team members as individuals. Find out what interests them, both at work and in their personal lives, what their expectations are for the job and how they gain satisfaction from the work they do.
- Ensure each individual is stretched and challenged in a way that promotes their growth and development. Set targets for your team members. These need to be both achievable and challenging, and are most effective when tailored specifically to each individual in a way that ensures they are stretched a little further each time. It’s a bit of a balancing act, though. Go too far and you’ll just create stress, leading to unhappy team members and lower productivity.
- Encourage them to share personal problems if you suspect there are issues affecting them. Remember, very few people can leave their personal lives at home as soon as they enter the workplace. If things aren’t working in their personal lives, they’re unlikely to perform at their best.
- Offer on-the-job coaching and training whenever possible.
- Actively demonstrate concern for health and safety.
- Let team members know that they are welcome to express to you any misgivings they may have about their workloads, the way the team is working together, the general state of things around the workplace, etc., and that you will address these concerns.
- Be alert to the mood of the team and how team relationships might influence this.
- Ensure the working environment is comfortable, pleasant, and conducive to effective working. This means checking the temperature, the space team members have to work in, noise levels around the workplace and general levels of cleanliness, décor, etc.
- Ensure that the room is brightly lit with plenty of natural sunlight. A lack of light can cause fatigue and can have a negative effect on team members’ moods. On the other hand, bright, natural light can boost energy levels, motivation and concentration. If this is not possible, place table and floor lamps around the room, as they give a much warmer and more natural light than strip lights.
4. Management Loyality
Of all the things a team leader needs and expects, loyalty is the most important. It is difficult to motivate people and lead them anywhere, if they are not loyal. At the same time, it is vital that a leader or manager is loyal to all those he/she is leading. True loyalty is one of the best ways of ensuring morale is high.
Try to:
- Put the welfare of team members first.
- Avoid down-sizing and lay-offs as much as in your power to do so.
- Offer support to team members when they are dealing with difficult customers, suppliers or clients.
- Understand that people do make honest mistakes and be supportive when this happens.
- Be true to your word – if you have said something to a team member, stick to it, and if unforeseen problems have occurred which mean you cannot do what you originally said, don’t just keep this information to yourself, inform the individual immediately of the situation.
5. Respect
As well as being appreciated and involved, individuals need to know that they are respected.
Try to:
- Recognise the contribution made by each individual person as well as the contribution made by different working groups as a whole.
- Trust people to cope with difficult pieces of work, but always be on hand to offer support if they need it.
- Court individual opinions on pieces of work and genuinely consider what is said – don’t immediately dismiss the advice just because an individual is young or lacks experience or seems to be a bit old-fashioned and conservative in their opinions.
- Consider the skills that each individual has. It may be that a team member has experience that you don’t know about, which could be really useful to a particular project or assignment. Find out what past experiences team members have had and the range of skills they possess. Once you have uncovered this information, try to assign pieces of work to their particular strengths.
6. Communication
Communication is the overall essential weapon for fighting flagging morale. Lack of communication, whether at the workplace or at home, is perhaps the main reason for deterioration in relationships and a slump in energy, motivation and morale. Communication is essential for keeping people informed of what is going on around them, preparing them for change, instructing them as to their responsibilities, making them aware of what is expected of them and letting them know they are appreciated.
Failure to communicate means a failure to do any of the above. A lack of communication causes morale to flag, and effective communication is one of the quickest ways to boost morale. This does not mean that a manager/leader can rely on a simple pep talk when they eventually notice a slump in the level of enthusiasm or energy. By this stage, it is really too late and much more drastic action will be required. Instead, you should always be communicating appreciation and respect.
Create an optimum working environment with communication at the core, and you will rarely have to worry about boosting morale.