Morale and Motivation in the Workplace

Why do the simplest things seem so hard sometimes? The way to improve Morale is to ask your staff what they need in order to work more effectively. This is not asking "What do you need in your life?" or "Who drives you up a wall?" or "How can we make you glad to be alive?" Rather, it's asking "What tools, resources, clearer communications and expectations, rewards and workplace norms do you need that you are not getting now? How can we help you fulfil your part of this bargain to be effective, efficient, optimistic, and a good team player?"

Managers can do this on their own or get some help with the task. If you ask these questions yourself, the advantage is that you don't have to involve anybody else and risk having your office laundry hung out to dry. The disadvantage is you'll seldom get the whole truth that way.

Having a trusted colleague or external consultant ask these questions and prepare a summary for you will make the exercise much safer for your folks. They should do this without attribution -- that is, get you the information you need, but strip the comments of any identifiable content. This way, your staff will be more willing to give you really useful information.

Similarly motivation in the workplace when it works means there's seldom much need for disciplining people. It's unfortunate that military-style thinking is so common with people trying to lead, because the emphasis on strict discipline, crucial to success in combat, is often so disastrous to morale in civilian work teams.

Motivation is about joining with the people who report to you (knowing them, listening to them, and valuing them for their particular contributions and potential) so that they feel moved to join with you in meeting the challenges you're facing

And so it is. Whole people come to work each day, not just brains and Right arms. They bring with them their hopes, dreams, talents and hang-ups. The manager, who genuinely likes people, finds their foibles at least somewhat humorous, and who believes that there's a way to reach almost everybody, seldom has trouble with either discipline or motivation. It could be said, in fact, that the two are related this way: When your people start needing to be disciplined by you, it means you'd better upgrade your motivational skills.

People will be shocked that you're willing to hear both good and bad news, and even more surprised when you set out to do something about the suggestions they've made. That shock will turn into greater commitment to the job, a renewed interest in working together, more willingness to collaborate, and greater permission to be honest with you and each other. Now, if that isn't the definition of high morale, I don't know what is. So start listening, and get ready to do a little learning and changing yourself. That's the first step to better morale!