Improve Team Morale With These 15 Easy Methods

Maintaining Employee Morale During The Recession

~ This is a guest post by author Barry Shore, Ph.D from Global Project Strategy.

Companies caught in the grip of this severe recession face many difficult challenges: one of which being how to avoid deteriorating employee morale.

While on the surface one would expect that employees who remain would be grateful that their jobs have been spared, evidence from this and other recessions suggests that they feel overworked, threatened, and vulnerable. In most cases morale really does begin to suffer.

Morale affects performance, and during a recession organizations are threatened with a double-edged sword. At the same time that their business is contracting, employee morale threatens to make matters even worse.

Lower morale can translate into “recession fatigue.” This is a situation where the company experiences a series of problems that include a decline in productivity, deteriorating customer service, increased sick days, falling sales, higher costs, and lower profits.

Indeed, the only way to escape these problems is to stop doing what most companies do. Instead, companies must be proactive in addressing employee morale. Without a proactive strategy “recession fatigue” will take its toll.

How does morale deteriorate?

In most companies morale starts to deteriorate when management becomes aware that the financial crises has become their crisis as well. They instinctively pare down the workforce while at the same time reducing as many other costs as possible.

Unfortunately, these are the very changes that are almost sure to send shockwaves through any organization.

But, as is often true during an organizational crisis, communication between management and the workforce suffers. Rather than hearing about the crisis firsthand from management, the informal grapevine takes over, often raising anxiety to new and exaggerated heights. Employees become angry, detached and eventually resigned to the possibility that they my lose their job.

In many cases, the less information that management provides to the workforce … those terminated as well as those left behind … the greater is the shockwave.

Managing Those Who are Left Behind

These downsizings are tragic enough for those who lose their jobs, but those who stay also suffer as management expects them to pick up the slack, do more with fewer resources, and work longer hours.

Restructuring the organization and paring down the workforce, should not be the first and last step as the organization hunkers down to survive the recession. The second step, which is equally as important, is to manage the transition for those left behind. Unless properly managed, morale is almost certain to suffer. And unless management is proactive in addressing this issue, the organization will be in a weaker competitive position once markets turn around.

Four Leadership Principles

There are four leadership principles that, if followed, may help managers navigate through the transition in an honest and ethical way. They may help to minimize “recession fatigue” and to establish a healthier organizational environment for those left behind.

1. When tough steps need to be taken, management should openly discuss the challenges they face with employees. It will be uncomfortable, especially for those who are conflict avoidant, but employees will respect the honesty.

2. The frequency of communication with the workforce must increase. Communication reduces anxiety and can stabilize, if not improve, morale. Don’t delegate this responsibility to lower levels. Top management must do it.

3. Maintaining the morale of those who remain must become a top priority. It is important to recognize that they are suffering from a “Post Downsizing Stress Syndrome.”

4. Resist the temptation to take a hard line on those employees who remain. In his book, “Good to Great,” Collins identifies the five characteristics of effective leadership. They include: personal humility, professional will, diligence, and ambition for the company not themselves. Professional will and diligence is not enough to get through this crises. Equally important are personal humility and ethical behavior. They are not only essential in dealing with people who are caught in the middle, but can ensure a more motivated, productive, and committed workforce once the recession is over and jobs become more available.

Depending on the culture of the organization, some of these principles may be very difficult to execute, but ignoring the plight of those who are still employed may be an inappropriate response that could jeopardize the long run prospects of the organization.

How To Build A Responsibility-Driven Culture

By Emmett C. Murphy, Written for Leadership Expert.

In 2003 Lego lost $238 million due to overly complex designs, failed forays into new markets, and costly licensing ventures.  In 2004 they took previously untried steps to restore integrity and profits.  Lego engaged a group of devoted fans to help them redesign a lagging product—Mindstorms, the company’s customizable robotics kit.  This move broke with the creative team’s history of privacy and exclusiveness.  The “Mindstorms User Panel” wanted to be paid in Lego blocks.  They purchased their own tickets to Denmark for meetings.  They routinely replied to single-line queries from the company with multi-page emails.  They enabled the creation of wildly new and unconventional robots, such as toilet scrubber robots and bulldog robots.  After experiencing the pitfalls of insularity, Lego’s decision to partner with the customer was an act of humility.  It was also an act of responsibility.  Leaders who admit they have a lot to learn, that they make mistakes, and that they can’t run the company alone earn respect and engender responsible attitudes in others.  Three key practices of good leadership stem from humility—and inspire responsibility.

Partner with the Customer—Achieve a Shared Vision

Before Lego partnered with its customers, it was at risk of alienating them. Users had begun losing interest in products they considered too complex.  Leaders who do not believe in the partnership model often act out a predatory model, subordinating the customer’s interests; Lego was heading in that direction.  Instead Lego executives traveled to the world outside the organization to guide the customer to the center of organizational life.  This act overtly recognized the organization’s dependence on the outside world and helped build a stronger ethical relationship between customer and organization.  By “traveling outside” to gain new knowledge, Lego executives created a dynamic organizational model that embraced the “constant” of change and the need for continual adaptation.  By working in close back-and-forth contact with their customers, the leaders at Lego also found that partnering with customers meant achieving a consensus.  Rather than compromising or seeking to win, the customer-partner model describes a synergy that comes from achieving a shared vision.

Connect with the Frontlines—Learn From Those Who Know

Leaders who act with humility aim to achieve a shared vision with everyone in the organization.  They want to understand the perspectives of those at the frontlines and adapt to accommodate those perspectives.  Recently Brian Dunn, the chief executive of Best Buy, expressed his faith in following the frontlines—he had been a frontliner himself once.  As a teenager working at a grocery store he had interacted with customers on a daily basis.  His manager regularly asked him what he thought of new policies—for example, the store’s policy of having customers load their own groceries.  “I know it seems simple,” Dunn said in a recent interview with The New York Times, “but just that notion of learning from people who are actually doing the work, and the encouragement he gave me to tell him exactly what I thought really stayed with me.”  Leaders motivated by fear or arrogance remain aloof, removed from their employees.  Those motivated by humility remain physically present and personally connected; they fear ignorance more than they fear confronting mistakes or problems.  Humility drives responsibility:  when leaders focus on customer needs, they train others at the frontlines and elsewhere to move beyond self-interest too.

Understand Work Roles—Don’t Place Blame

Strong leaders respect the careers of others as much as they respect their own. Rather than assuming they know what’s going on in the workplace, leaders driven by humility make a practice of asking questions to understand what others do and what they need.  They practice active listening and seek out quiet environments to interact with others without distractions.  They empathize with their associates and ultimately empower them by reinforcing strengths and resources.  When problems arise, worksheets and scripts can help a leader chart an individual’s work life in a pragmatic and open-minded way.  The work-life map then serves as a tool for learning what changes need to be made.  When a leader finds misalignment in an individual’s work-life map, he or she practices humility by avoiding blame.  The goal of assessments is to transform problems into opportunities and to encourage others to take responsibility for their work, not to engage in a blaming game.

The most responsible leaders don’t let pride get in the way of progress.  They seek a purpose for leadership beyond self-interest, which helps them create partnerships—with customers, frontliners, and associates.  You might say that when Lego solicited its staunchest fans to help with product development, it pioneered one of its best designs yet.

Emmett Murphy, Ph.D., is Founder and President of Murphy Leadership (www.murphyleadership.com), a global leadership consultancy.  Murphy is the author of several books including Talent IQ.   He is currently at work on his new book, Entrepreneurial IQ.

Leadership Exercises

The success of every corporate organization largely relies on its team-members performances, right the way from lower order employees to highly regarded directors. FTSE 100 managers constantly undertake various leadership exercises to improve the performance of their organization. By using these leadership exercises, they can help craft the atmosphere of their organization.

By using the leadership exercises, the person can increase the productivity and quality of the company. He has several leadership qualities to manage the performance of any corporate organization.

One of the integral parts of these leadership exercises is the teamwork consistently. Such ability to perform with groups increases the strength, productivity and quality of such organization. Such teamwork as a part of leadership exercises contain the skill of the leader to spot the positive points of his team members. Also apart from his teammates, he also gives importance to strengthen his organizing abilities. The leadership exercises also include the quality to tie up the skillful individuals into one unified entity. Also while uniting these skills and different human characters, the consent about the type of work, organization, ideology of the organization is one of the integral part. If the leadership exercises fail to satisfy their team members, the productivity will less and that makes crises in the organization.

So create an environment of mutual understanding is vital leadership exercise for making the environment fresh and undutiful. The true leader always gives emphasis to leading from the front. So leading the team with courage and confidence is the significant part of the leadership exercises. Such positive signs from the leader make the environment of the organization positive and optimistic. Also such leadership exercises also possess positive and attacking thinking which makes him and his teammates hungry for success. the encouragement, admiration and appreciation of the legendary qualities, dynamics of the team members is one of the type of the leadership exercises . These techniques are essential to increase the confidence among the team members.

While recruiting and appointing the eligible candidates, various leadership exercises are held by the corporate sectors, government sectors. The main aim of such leadership exercises is to familiar the trainee candidates with factual leadership tasks, responsibilities and problems regarding the leaderships.

In professional courses like MBA program, various internships of technical courses, civil services examinations; there is a provision to firstly conduct the leadership exercises for the selected, eligible responsible candidates of such course. So the main objective behind that leadership program is to develop the leadership qualities like teamwork, decision making in critical situation, developing the positive mindset, attacking attitude, etc. so these are the vital leadership exercises in the training program which makes the candidate well prepared for the actual situation in society while facing the crises.

In such leadership exercises, the inclusion of the leadership tips gives the candidate slight idea or experience about the adversity of exact problem. Such leadership tips contain the objectives of the leaders which are the vital part of the leadership exercises. These tips are making a plan to achieve the target, building a competent team to achieve that target, making the co-ordination between team members to achieve such targets.

Adapted from an Article Written By Muna wa Wanjiru – http://www.merpetsales.com/leadership/Leadership-Exercises.php

Leadership Development Training

Leadership Development Training is just one of the leadership development articles at Leadership Expert™. In this article, we will be taking a brief look at what leadership development training is, how much it costs, whether it’s a worthwhile investment, and whether there are any cheaper alternatives.

What Is Leadership Development Training?

Leadership Development “refers to any activity that enhances the quality of leadership within an individual or organization“. Therefore leadership development training is the formalisation of these activities into a structured plan to develop leadership in employees. Leadership training has taken centre stage in recent decades as managers across the world have turned their attention to nuturing and encouraging leadership skills in their staff. Modern day leaderhip development training is the manifestation of that attention.

Leadership development training includes activities such as seminars, leadership coaching, leadership classes, and other leadership services. More often than not, these are provided by external leadership training specialists. Even Fortune 500 companies seem to prefer to outsource their leadership development training rather than keep in-house dedicated staff.

How Much Does Leadership Development Training Cost?

Pricing varies wildly per employee depending on which type of training solution you adopt. One-on-one leadership coaching will cost between £100-£300 per hour, and hence will only be a cost effective leadership development training solution for senior management.

For middle management – small seminars of 5-10 participants are often used, that cost roughly the same (£100-£300 per hour) but naturally provide for a far greater number of employees to benefit from this same fixed cost.

The cheapest or ‘best value’ leadership development training for organisations are hired motivational leadership speakers who can literally speak to hundreds of your employees at once. Logistical problems aside, this solution is common in the USA due to its simplicity and low cost-per-employee. However the drawback with such events are that the package cannot be personally tailored to a specific job role, nevermind an individual person. And as such – these events can be largely ineffective in actually improving the real leadership skills of employees.

So as you can see, there is a very clear trade off between cost and quality of leadership development training. You quite simply get what you pay for.

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert

Examples Of Poor Leadership

History has presented us with plenty of examples of poor leadership. Some notable recent examples of poor leadership:

1. Richard Fuld – Allowed excessive risk taking and poor governance drive Lehman Brothers neatly into the ground.

2. Sir Allen Stanford – Showed a blatant disregard for integrity and commited fraud on a vast scale via his corporation Standford Financial Group. The SEC has recently described the scandal as a ‘Ponzi Scheme’

3. Rick Wagoner – Displayed a lack of strategic oversight while CEO at General Motors. The period of time he was at the helm – GM’s stock price plummeted by 90%. His strategies were simply not forward looking – and GM fell behind competition vastly in terms of cost cutting and product innovation. Rick was forced to stand down as CEO in return for receiving government aid in 2009.

Examples Of Poor Leadership Traits

Impatience. Leaders who don’t fully appreciate that good strategy takes time to implement, and that iniatives need room to develop and mature, invariably will frustrate and increase the stress of those beneath them. Constantly unrealistic demands will demoralise and sap away loyalty.

Aggression. There is no place for fear in the boardroom, and yet it still persists in badly led companies across the world. Women as well as men are perfectly capable of being aggressive torwards their collegues, and let me assure you that there is little else you could do that would cause a such a rapid loss of respect.

Insincerity. Insincerity is the underminer of all policy, all intiative, all strategy and all success in leadership. A word you speak without conviction might as well have not been spoken at all and may even cause damage. A leader might be able to bluff for a few months, but once they’re found out – the stack of cards will fall and your ‘greatest asset’ will be grabbing their pitck forks before you can say ‘lynch’.

Incompetence. Using the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie as an example – you do not have to be expert in your companies field to be able to lead a company brilliantly. Andrew famously praised his management team as knowing more about steel than he did – and this honest admission not only motivated his team, but reflected his own culture of respect.

At contrast to this however, is pretending to be an industry expert when you still have much to learn from the ‘Dumbies Guide to your industry’. Your secret will likely be discovered at the companies most critical time, and your employment prospects won’t look too peachy thereafter.

Simon Oates – Leadership Expert

The Pursuit Of Something Better – Review

If you’re looking for a review of “The Pursuit Of Something Better” then you’ve come to the right place. I’m currently reading an advance copy, and will be publishing LeadershipExpert’s official review within a week, so stay tuned!

Introduction

‘The Pursuit Of Something Better’ follows the story of  US Cellular – a regional telecoms company, through its journey to becoming home to one of the most vibrant and motivated cultures in the USA. As an underdog in the telecoms industry – US Cellular has to fight to survive in the modern world, but the employees fight for it, due to their extreme loyalty and pride.

On one day every year, the managers from across the organisation leave their positions to attend a conference that announces the results of something very dear to them – the annual employee satisfaction questionaire. Grass-root staff rise to the challenge and the company ticks over just fine without them. The atmosphere at the conference is likened to that of a concert – not an annual review. What on earth has happened at this company to drive such enthusiasm?

Well, you’ll have to buy the book yourself to find out!

Review

Review is coming soon!

Purchase

This title was released on the 15th of August 2009.

You can pre-order this book on Amazon UK here

If you’d like to read a review of this book on other blogs, you can visit here and here.

Managing Generation Y

‘Generation Y’ is the affectionate name given to the demographic cohort that was born between 1980 – 1995, although specific definitions do vary. This group hence forms today’s teenagers and twenty-somethings – a group highly sought after by large recruiters, and whom form the solid base of employees for many multinationals. The problem of how to lead this generation is a hot topic.

What Are Busineses Doing To Attract Generation Y?

As competition has increased among the large graduate recruiters to attract the best ‘Generation Y’ talent, they have been fighting among themselves to paint the best picture of their own workplace. Of course, promises have to be met, and so in painting their company in this brighter way, they have indirectly led to progressive changes in the workplace. These new changes to the working environment include:

1. More flexible working hours for a better work/life balance. (Example – ‘The Big Four‘)

2. Guaranteed acceptance onto management training programmes after preconditions have been met. (Example – Enterprise Rent a Car)

3. Extensive induction training.

4. The opportunity to rotate round departments and roles. (Example – Unilever, P&G and Johnson & Johnson)

5. Higher reliance upon internal promotions to fill vacancies.

It is clear that the recruiters believe that generation Y care less about salary and traditional benefits, and more about the pursuit of an interesting, fulfilling and and less stressful job than their parents. This trend definitely seems to be following the general shift away from Fordism factory workers, and towards independent, respected and empowered workers, that has been taking place in the last century.

What Are Businesses Are Doing To Lead Generation Y?

When it comes to leading ‘Generation Y’ – new leadership styles have evolved to compliment the new ‘people -orientated’ workplace. These have manifested into:

1. Annual reviews taking a more personal development focus, rather than productivity. Managers are trying to adopt more of a ‘coaching’ and ‘supportive’ role. Managers are told to encourage and train employees so that in the future they are able to take their place.

2. A more democratic and team-based way of working – where ‘on-the-job’ training is becoming more popular, and instructions on how to actually ‘get the work done’ is now coming from from experienced teammates more often than the manager.

Do These Methods Actually Work?

The evidence isn’t very clear on this issue. Despite all these new intiatives and opportunities that ‘Generation Y’s parents dreamed of, these young workers are extremely likely to leave a company they join after a short period of time (every 4-5 years on average), which is a far higher rate of turnover than their parents, the ‘baby boomers’.

I believe that this is happening for 2 main reasons. Firstly – only a fraction of companies are actually fulfilling the promises made to potential job candidates. The hype that recruiters drum up is unsustainable and almost impossible for companies to deliver on. This it doesn’t surprise me one bit to discover that graduates are continually drawn to the ‘greener’ grass on the other side of the hill.

Secondly, and this is linked with the first reason, managers are going about implementing these intiatives in a reluctant way and unsatisfactory way. Either managers are attaching too many ‘novelty’ intiatives to rudementary and meanial jobs – such that the employee feels like it’s all a show, or managers are only introducing leadership techniques as part of a ‘token’ effort.

For instance, I’m in disbelief at the number of times I’ve heard managers undermine their human resource counterparts with phrases such as “Now, I’ve been told by the people above to tell you that …”. This sort of attitude in implementing policies if effectively negatating any positive effect they were supposed to bring.

Therefore I would argue that, while it appears that ‘Generation Y’ workers are extremely unappreciative of the benefits and perks that exist today – these so-called perks only exist in policy and paper and aren’t created or supported with sincere intention from managers. In fact – this move towards pseudo-policy is alienating our Gen Y workers, and this may be able to explain why they are constantly on the move.

My Recommendation

Changes that companies have made to their leadership and human resource strategies have been well thought out, and do add good value to the role a company could offer a graduate. However I believe that to be able to lead Generation Y effectively, the focus must then be on educating and training managers to sincerely back these new efforts.

Leadership Services

Looking For Infomation On Leadership Services?

You’ve landed on the right page.

Leadership services come in many different flavours and vary in price to suit the budgets of different organisations. The 3 main types of leadership services are:

1. Leadership Coaching

2. Leadership Training

3. Leadership Classes

4. Leadership Development Consulting

What I’ll do is quickly run through each type, and provide a link to a page on Leadership Expert that describes more about the different leadership services.

1. Leadership Coaching

Leadership Coaching is one of the most expensive type of leadership service. Provided by individuals whom are usually qualified by experience, and not necessarily qualification; leadership coaching is aimed at senior management of medium to large businesses.

2. Leadership Training

Leadership Training is an ambiguous term. Is usually refers to corporate training provided to ‘batches’ of employees, particularly upon recruitment to a certain level of management. Leadership training still retains some of the one-on-one interaction that you’d gain from leadership coaching, except this leadership service can help up to 50 employees to develop their leadership skills at the same time. This slashes the cost-per employee dramatically.

3. Leadership Classes

‘Leadership classes‘ is usually used to describe courses that individuals enrol in outside of the course of their employment. These are undertaken usually with the view to improve performance or to improve their prospects for promotion. These classes are usually rather expensive, and hence is an undertaking that really demonstrates the individuals desire to succeed.

4. Leadership Development Consulting

Leadership Development Consulting is a specific branch of leadership services that have a wider scope than other leadership services. While leadership classes and training focus on the personal development of the participant, leadership development consulting is also delivered with the organisations challenges and problems in mind also. Leadership consultants are first briefed on the specific nature of a businesses problems. The consultant will then analyse both the leadership management, and the leadership culture of the company. The consultant will end by apply their own knowledge and techniques to the scenario, to provide a relevant and effective solution.

How Effective Are Leadership Services?

The effectiveness of leadership services are limited chiefly by the employees willingness to open up to new ideas, and to implement ones that they aren’t at first wholly comfortable with. Leadership services don’t necessarily offer ‘agreeable’ solutions – but tried and tested ones, and thus management must be willing to try out techniques that they have previously rejected.

Is There A Cheaper Way To Improve My Leadership Skills?

Of course there is. Like many things in life – if you look in the right places, you’ll always be able to find a great resource for a bargain. I often recommend ‘The Ultimate Leadership Guide‘ to people because it’s an inexpensive and effective way to boost your leadership skills in a short space of time. It only costs a fraction of the price of a single leadership class, so that’s my advice.

Leadership Culture

Leadership Culture – What is leadership culture, which type does your organisation have, and how can you improve it?

Edgar Schein (1985) defines Leadership culture in an organization as being comprised of three elements: Basic assumptions, value and artifacts – with basic assumptions being the most important and in-grained element, and artifacts being the most superficial and easy to change.

Basic Assumptions in Leadership Culture

Basic assumptions evolve in a company after an action is repeatedly performed. These basic assumptions become part of our perception of our collegues and processes, and are so pervasive, they touch upon thought processes such as;

1. What we pay attention to.

2. What things mean.

3. How we should react emotionally.

4. What actions we should take in reaction to day-to-day events.

If you’d like to see a demonstration of different assumptions in action, then I’d ask you to imagine the reaction a Bailiff would have to someone objecting to pay them, and compare this to the reaction a small industrial company would have to someone objecting to pay them. To the bailiff this would be an ordinary and unsurprising occurance – and they would feel little wrong in continuing to hassle the non-payer for money. On the other hand, a small industrial company would be concerned about maintaining good relationships with customers, and would approach the situation far more sympathetically. Neither reaction is neccessarily the universal ‘right’ way to handle this occurance, this is why different cultures form in the first place.

Values In Leadership Culture

Values are a less permenant form of leadership culture, and thus are more easily changed than assumptions.  Values reflect concensus in the organisation as to how things “ought to be done”. Examples of popular values are:

1. Equal opportunities for all employees regardless of age, race, religion or sexuality.

2. Employees should strive to produce high quality work.

3. Employees should always pursue challenges and opportunities for growth.

Values sound like ‘lip service’ items, but to take ‘pursuing challenges’ as an example – in professional services firms, it is genuinely frowned upon for a member of staff to attempt to stay in their comfort zone and not wish to be promoted further. Values are those beliefs that are commonly held across the company.

Artifacts In Leadership Culture

Artifacts are the most ‘obvious’ and present manifestations of a business’s culture. These include manifestations such as

1. Mission statements.

2. Procedures.

3. Methods of communication.

4. Technology used

5. Business strategy, such as level of customer service

Artifacts are proactively constructeded and sculpted, and hence can be controlled easily by management. If however, artifacts that have been over-managed can become incongruent with the employee’s actual culture – and their influence over organisational culture becomes minimal.

How Can A Leader Change The Leadership Culture?

What this theory demonstrates is that the basic assumptions in a company’s culture need to shift to improve the culture as a whole. This can only be changed through leading by example. This means you need to improve your own leadership skills and display them confidently. If you want to quickly improve your leadership skills then I suggest you check out a cheap product that other leadership professionals and I recommend to our clients: The Ultimate Leadership Guide.

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