Is Our Company Morale Low?

Is Our Company Morale Low?  (…and Do We Need to Care?)

Let’s say, continuing from the title, that we do care. I’ve always thought that happy employees are productive employees.  So, it brings up another critical thought process, a.) How do you determine that the morale is high, low or somewhere in between, and B.) what exactly are we to do about it? To provide a little backstory, questions like these come up most often when there is a significant change in company policy, direction, planning for change and most prominently during employee evaluation periods. Such was the case of a mid-sized company that I encountered most recently.

As it turns out, there was a significant reduction in force of one of the departments of said company. People don’t like change. They especially don’t like change that directly impacts their own workload, it turns out. The suspicion of the HR Director was stated to be a very recent staff change for a particular person in that department who was speaking on behalf of the group. She reported that, “Me and many others think that the morale is very low right now.” I’m always dubious when a person, not in a management position, speaks on behalf of the group. So, it brings me back to the original premise, how do you know if your company morale is low?

To begin with, if you have no metrics, KPI’s or recorded data that weekly, monthly or annually measures company, department and individual productivity, throughput or operational efficiency, then you must rely on the voice of the people. Many have resorted to sending out surveys that are to be returned anonymously. But what questions should you ask? How can you prepare a survey that doesn’t “lead” the responder to provide a directed outcome or response? It seems that objectivity is difficult in this kind of situation. Typically, when a controversial topic is solicited for response, you tend to receive reactions from those that are very positive and/or very negative, seldom in between. It seems that objectivity is key.

Leadership meetings are often a good “tell” for determining how morale stacks up in your company. An astute leader, one that keeps an open dialogue with his team can usually detect a misstep in attitude and ambition. In as much as he/she relies on the communication and tenor of his staff, they too must be keen to changes or anomalies that may occur in their respective departments. All too often when an employee demonstrates behavior outside of the “norm”, an actively engaged leader will identify the concern, address it with direct reports and aim to solve/correct the issue. All too often, if not addressed in the early stages, the attitude of one can easily become the attitude of many based on their circle of influence. When a small concern is NOT identified and rectified in the early going, a “cancer”, if you will, is inevitable. The adage about “one bad apple” applies in this situation. Before the individual, team, department or the company suffers from “spoiling the whole bunch”, action most certainly should be taken.

Let’s argue that a morale issue has been identified and you as a manager, acting more like a leader recognizes that resolution is necessary. The last consideration pertains to you, not as a manager but as a person. Just as on a plane when instructed to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others with theirs, your ability to energize your team will depend on whether you can maintain the calmness, composure and energy to see the process through. Here are three potential actions areas to enhance your team’s morale, well-being and performance, especially during uncertain times.

Revitalize

Much like employees may go through periods of low productivity given life’s circumstances because of personal experiences, certain motivations may be required to regain enthusiasm. A revitalization with individuals and teams on such topics as:

• The team’s purpose in conjunction with the company’s purpose.
• Ask what matters to them, what they really care about.
• Ask to describe how what they do affects the team, the company.
• Invite people to say what they get from each other – what they appreciate working with each other.

Repair

The power of leadership exists to heal existing and past wounds, restore well-being and address human interaction rather than business problems. Take the failures and turn them into valuable lessons. To achieve this, vulnerability goes a long way. Be open, transparent, honest and self-critical, all in the interest of fostering an open dialogue and uniting the team.

• Take a look at recent struggles, breakdowns. Identify one or two that stand out in importance, or most recent and conduct an honest conversation.
• Ask each person to consider what they did, or failed to do, that in some way played a role in the breakdown.
• Listen, understand, forgive, recommit.

Refocus

 Help the team regain focus by aligning team members on key priorities. Communication can be an obstacle in most instances. Under-communicating is even more prevalent and tends to be a major cause of most team problems. Shying away from difficult conversations and being conflict avoidant are sure fire ways to ensure worse conflict in the future. Ask your team a few questions:

• What can we do better?
• What can we let go of?
• What is truly essential for achieving the work that we really believe matters?

Leadership has always been about understanding the process within a business or organization but more importantly it’s about understanding people. It has always been my contention that communication, or lack thereof, is more often the cause of contention. In this age of elevated “feelings” as a gauge of our demeanor, patience as a leader has never been more of a factor in dealing with morale. With social media and all its uses in expression that we want people to know how we feel. Use that notion to its benefit while directing your team to express their opinions while you control the contention that may arise. Staying on task while resolving the issues that may have led to a disruption in harmony can help you create a culture of cooperatio0n and synergy among team members.

Let me leave you with a quotation by Henry Ford; “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”.

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