Keeping your team's morale high is a
recipe for success. But unfortunately, we've seen how low morale can harm your
business. When the morale is low, your teams struggle to get ideas through,
finish assignments and don't cooperate. Simply put, everyone minds their own
businesses and waits for their shift to end.
You must change this and inspire your
teams to get the most out of their abilities. A happy workforce is what every
business owner or team leader should strive for.
While it's easy to motivate your team
after a poor period, the real challenge is maintaining your team's morale high.
Luckily for you, we've got a few ideas that might help you do just that.
So with all that said, let's start.
We focus too much on getting a project
over the line. But projects can turn days into weeks of hard work. They could
involve doing hundreds of smaller tasks that each one deserves recognition. If
you're not used to the idea of celebrating small successes, now is the time to
start.
Instead of waiting for your teams to
finish the project, why not boost their morale by complimenting their hard work
after completing a task? Of course, a simple good job comes a long
way in doing that. But there's an obvious mistake to avoid in this scenario.
Don't hand out meaningless compliments every time your team finishes a task. Instead, make it so that each praise is earned. That way, your team will know not to expect a good job every time they submit an assignment. Don’t forget to congratulate your team members with their important events, you can do it with help of slack birthdaybot automatically.?
Another way to celebrate small successes
is to highlight an individual's hard work. So at the next team meeting, give
praise to those in your team who deserve it the most.
Another way to keep your team's morale
high is to communicate with them regularly. No one likes the idea of a
workplace where employees sit in their cubicles and the boss in their office.
But, sadly, this happens way too often, especially in certain industries.
So what you can do is change that. Make
it a habit to chat up with team members and discuss stuff. You could talk about
work-related things or something else entirely.
The reason you do this is to inspire and
motivate your teams. But to do that, you need to have excellent leadership and
social skills. You need to know how to communicate with your teams to get the
most out of their day. Don't just sit in your office and do nothing. Go out and
pat someone on the back, talk over coffee, or even take the team out for lunch.
The more work you put in the important social skills necessary to be a
friend, the more your employees will appreciate and respect you. They will want
to work for you, thus boosting their morale.
While celebrating small successes and
being a friend will positively affect your team's morale, by far the best way
to motivate your team is to do team bonding activities.
Team bonding can be anything so long as
everyone in your team is involved. It could be a trip, doing stuff at the park,
or anything else. Companies go to great lengths to nail their team bonding.
And for good reasons, bonding with coworkers improves team collaboration and morale, as well as affects teamwork in general. According to this report, 75% of employees
value teamwork and collaboration.
And there's no better way to improve
these skills than to do team bonding activities. Popular activities include
completing an escape-the-room challenge, trivia games, volunteering, etc.
The number one morale-beater is an
unhealthy work-life balance. Employees detest the idea of working all the time,
overtime. And for good reasons, as no one wants to spend their Saturdays at
work when they can relax at home.
But sometimes, deadlines force us to work
overtime and use the weekends to catch up on progress missed during the week.
Working overtime is bad for morale. Sure, your employees will cope with it once
or twice, but relations might turn sour if they have to do it all the time.
That's not to say they're not at fault,
as they still have a job to do. If teams don't finish their tasks in time, they
will have to work overtime.
But that's where you come in and solve
the problem. First, implement rules that promote a healthy work-life balance.
For example, no emails after 5 pm. Doing
this will have a positive effect on your teams and their morale. They don't
have to respond to emails after finishing their shift so they can use their
downtime for personal needs.
A healthy work-life balance is one of the
best ways to keep your team's morale high.
Low morale is the last thing you want
when managing your teams. Low morale ultimately impacts productivity. However,
teams with low morale can be insubordinate, disorganized, and argue with other
team members.
So keeping morale high should be a top
priority for any leader who wants to get the most out of their teams.
As you can imagine, there are plenty of
ways to do that. We hope this article will inspire you to develop ideas that
will keep morale high.