Understanding morale

- Think about a time when you shared with your boss that you were struggling with a task. Maybe you didn't have the skills to complete it, you were feeling discouraged or you didn't have enough time to get it done. Now think about how your supervisor or boss responded. Hopefully they were supportive and offered words of encouragement. That's because good managers understand that in order to improve performance employee morale has to be sustained. For employees or teams how they feel about their work influences their emotional and mental state when they're completing a specific project. If they feel positively towards the task and are excited to complete it they'll ultimately be more productive. Or if a poor performer has low morale or lacks excitement about their work, they're likely to be less productive. It's up to you as a manager to ensure that morale stays high amongst the members of your team. If you're unable or unwilling to deal with poor performing employees you'll likely notice the trickle down impact low morale can have. Instead stay proactive towards boosting morale by focusing closely on these key factors. First, the work. Employees today are looking for meaningful and fulfilling jobs. They want to work on things related to their personal interests what they're good at and what will make an impact. That means they'll prioritize what they're passionate about over money or other benefits when it comes to their work. Fulfilling this factor means you'll need to know your employees. Do what you can to set them on paths that matched their interests and commitments and be explicit about the ways in which you think a particular project may provide meaning or satisfaction for them. In addition, to helping employees find their niche, you should also be thinking about these basic factors that can boost or lower work morale. One, demands. Are you over or under-loading your employees? Number two, content. Is there never any variety in the kind of projects you ask your team to do? Are you putting them on tasks that don't use their skills or which don't have a meaningful context? Number three, control. Are you including your employees in discussions about how their work is done or how decisions are made? This goes, especially for times of change involve employees and change processes. Four, support. Are you regularly encouraging your team as well as ensuring they have all the resources they need to fulfill their obligations? Next, the workplace, whether your team is in an office, working remotely or a mixture of both, it's important that your team feels comfortable and like where they are working which hopefully is in a conducive environment. Factors that contribute to the work environment are lighting, ventilation, temperature, sanitation and cleanliness, interior, decoration, noise, and ergonomics. Your organization may have a human resources department that tackles ensuring employees have what they need but as a manager, a check-in from you is always a good place to start. And finally, the relationships at work. How people feel about their managers, coworkers and customers has a major effect on the employee experience. It's important that your team has the opportunity to bond around things outside of work to forge more meaningful relationships. A great way for you to aid in creating these relationships is to organize team or department outings. Set aside time each day for the team to catch up and to give opportunities for your team members to interact with customers. Creating a culture that constantly strives to have high morale is a win-win situation. You're a high performers stay happy and productive and your low performers have opportunities become more engaged with their work. The next time an employee isn't performing well try using these tactics to see if you can help them improve.