Management 101 - Employee Morale
As a manager it is far too easy to focus on "meeting the numbers" -- finishing up that critical presentation, making sure every engineer is delivering on their deadlines, overcoming the never ending stream of email or voicemail, confronting customer escalations, squeezing in that last meeting of the day, etc. Employee morale all too often becomes an after thought or simply not a thought at all with the weight of the "world" on our management shoulders. However in my experience sacrificing the investment in the morale of employees is a significant impediment to "meeting the numbers" and diminishes the perceived and real value of managers. Additionally bad morale has a tendency to spread even though only one person started with an issue.
Simply put, managers can't solve all the issues that can cause morale problems -- bad economic conditions, corporate layoffs, death in a family, etc. However we can and should do what we can within the areas that can be influenced, often times needing to be a bit creative. There are numerous ways to help morale -- say "Great job" on a job well done, wish somebody a Happy Birthday, comment on their blog/microblog, ask them how their family is doing, learn about what interests them beyond working, give them a day (or more) off in recognition of a major achievement, buy them lunch, publicly recognize their achievements, be flexible on hours of work or working from home, wander the halls (or call them up) to have informal chats, reduce the number of meetings, etc. The great thing is that for the most part these are zero cost efforts, can be done even if there isn't a morale issue, and are simply good management practices.
“The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy.” -- Dwight D Eisenhower.
Simply put, managers can't solve all the issues that can cause morale problems -- bad economic conditions, corporate layoffs, death in a family, etc. However we can and should do what we can within the areas that can be influenced, often times needing to be a bit creative. There are numerous ways to help morale -- say "Great job" on a job well done, wish somebody a Happy Birthday, comment on their blog/microblog, ask them how their family is doing, learn about what interests them beyond working, give them a day (or more) off in recognition of a major achievement, buy them lunch, publicly recognize their achievements, be flexible on hours of work or working from home, wander the halls (or call them up) to have informal chats, reduce the number of meetings, etc. The great thing is that for the most part these are zero cost efforts, can be done even if there isn't a morale issue, and are simply good management practices.
“The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy.” -- Dwight D Eisenhower.
