Managers are fond of looking for ways to boost morale. It seems, however, that they never get around to finding out why they have a problem in the first place.

That means that they’re trying to go to Step 2 without first completing Step 1. Step 1 is always to find out why the problem exists in the first place.

 

Why is morale low?

Morale seldom disintegrates overnight. It takes something really massive for that to happen. In most cases, it’s caused by a slow erosion of trust.

You’ll find that people had certain expectations. They got in the habit of making excuses to themselves for why things didn’t turn out as they expected. The first time you let them down, they put it down to some anomaly. The second time to an unusual circumstance. The third time to something that was out of your control.

Each time, however, they lost a little more hope, all the while waiting for you to change; for you to live up to the expectations that they had. Eventually, however, they realised that you were the problem. And when it became clear to them that things were not going to change, that’s when they lost hope, and morale became an issue.

So now you’re faced with a morale problem. What do you do?

 

Own the problem

The first thing you must do is own the problem.

That means that you recognise that, unless you’re the new kid on the block, you’re the cause, at least in part. It’s no good trying to pass the blame to someone else. As the saying goes, you’re either part of the solution, or part of the problem.

Right now, you are part or all of the problem in search of a solution.

Now it doesn’t matter if you think the expectations that people had were legitimate. Despite claims to the contrary, no one is anything like as rational as he or she claims to be. That means that the cause of the low morale doesn’t have to make logical sense.

Low morale is the outward expression of negative emotions.

If you feel bad about something for long enough, then your morale will suffer; and if you had pinned your hopes on a particular outcome or on the ability of someone to bring about that outcome, then when things fail to turn out that way, your morale will suffer.

That’s human nature.

 

Give them a reason to hope

The second thing is to give those with low morale a reason to hope. The problem is that they have no hope. They don’t believe that anything they do will change the outcome. They feel powerless to do anything. Those who are able will abandon ship - your ship.

You’ll be left with the less capable who also happen to feel hopeless.

So you have to produce results that will rekindle that hope. Remember that low morale is the result of a long process of disappointment. You have to not only remove the disappointment, but also get them to feel that things will only get better from now on.

Granted, it’s much easier to say what needs to be done than to do it, but that doesn’t absolve you of that responsibility.

 

Listen

The third way is to listen.

And that’s much more than simply deciding not to interrupt people, or not looking at your phone when they’re talking to you, or facing them instead of your computer when they come into your office. If you have a morale problem, then you need to get people together in a non-threatening space and let them vent. Call it a town hall, if you wish.

Better still, meet with them in smaller groups of no more than a dozen or so at a time. Sit in a circle, and ask them what you can do to make things better. Take notes. Discuss the issues, and make doubly sure that you don’t make excuses. No one cares.

When morale is low, no one cares any more.

They only want things to get better; a lot better.

 

Regular communication

The fourth thing you must do is to maintain regular communication.

There’s no sense in going to extraordinary lengths to listen to people, to get their thoughts, and to discuss what’s on their minds if that’s the last time they ever get the chance to do it.

Keep people informed about progress on the things that they raised. Get together again in three or four months’ time, if possible. If you have a really large organisation, then you may need to delegate this sort of thing down to some managerial level. And that’s fine.

You want your employees to work together anyway. They’ll stand a much better chance of doing so if they discuss their group problems together, too. You also need to build in time to meet one-on-one.

Some people won’t be willing to say what’s on their mind in front of others.

That’s because it’s entirely possible that one or more of the causes of the low morale is that certain people aren’t being supervised effectively. You need to know that.

A private meeting may be the only way that you’ll find out.

 

Create opportunities to grow

The fifth way is to give people opportunities to become more valuable to the company and the industry.

This area is huge. It covers a lot of things. Employees today have to manage their own careers. Some like it, but many don’t.

So even though the idea that they would work in the same place for an entire career or even as much as 10 years seems unlikely, that doesn’t mean that they can’t wait to move to the other side of the country, or the world.

Anything that you can do to help them to become more valuable to you so that they can stay will appeal to them. Take as much time as you need to think about how to accomplish this.

One of the causes of low morale is feeling trapped.

You can’t move up because there’s no place to go. Or it’s a family business, and no one except family members are “allowed” to move up. Or you can’t leave because there are no jobs, or your age is against you, or your kids are at a critical time in their lives, and you don’t want to move them.

People want to grow.

And growth doesn’t end at age 50 or 60, or older than that. Not long ago, Amy Craton, age 94, earned a Bachelor’s degree in America, and she isn’t the only one in her 90s to do it, either.

So there are just five ways to boost morale. There are undoubtedly more, but these are probably the most important.

 

For later

If you search on the phrase, “ways to boost morale”, then you’ll get a lot of results. Among them will be many suggestions that are along the lines of remembering birthdays, buying gifts, taking the gang out for company-sponsored events, etc.

These are all good things to do when morale is already good.

It’s what you do to keep it that way. It shows that you care. It won’t, however, pull you out of a hole.

If you try this stuff when morale is low, people will feel that you’re trying to buy their love. Even the Beatles knew you can’t do that.

Same thing is true of added benefits, unless that’s part of the grievance. If certain benefits or bonuses were promised, and then withdrawn or withheld, then you need to deliver on them.  But people will only feel that they’re getting what they should have had in the first place.

It may increase hope . . . a little.

You have to recognise that.

Before you start thinking about all the niceties, make sure that you’re excelling in the fundamentals. Concentrate on those first five things.

And then when everything is tickety-boom, you can add in the rest.

 

 

If you feel morale is low and want to improve things – contact me here