Improve You Business and Employee Morale with 5 Steps
You have worked hard to establish your company. Long hours mixed with blood, sweat and tears have been put in to establish the business. You carry the mantle of the founder with pride.
But as any good leader knows, a lead indicator of the strength of the company is the morale of the team. In order to improve the business’s chance of success, the leader should focus in part on how to improve employee morale.
So, what is the status of your employee’s morale in your business? Are you assuming that everyone is content and business couldn’t be better? Could you be doing more to improve employee morale in your business?
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Before you make a snap judgment, consider the following quick story:
Two construction workers are working on side-by-side on a construction site when they are approached by an old man curious about what was being built.
The old man asked the first employee, “What are you making?”
The first employee replied, “About $13.00 per hour.”
The old man proceeded to ask the same question of the second employee.
The second employee replied, “I am working on a really exciting project. The finished building will be a great addition to the community. I am proud to be a part of this project.”
Technically both employees are correct in their response. But who would you rather be employing as part of your company?
Employee Morale Improvement
You have worked hard to get the company to where it is at. You started the business from scratch, bootstrapping it from the ground up. You suffered many sleepless nights worrying about how you would make payroll and keep your vendors paid. The business is established and performing well.
Your greatest concern moving forward is how the company will function in your absence. Do you have control over the company or does the company control you? In part, the morale of the company is a lead indicator as to whether you as the leader can leave the helm for an extended period of time or if you have become a prisoner to the business.
When you improve employee morale, the benefits to the business are tremendous. Businesses typically see a reduction in employee turnover, improvements in quality, safety and increased profits. Increased morale also affords the leader the opportunity to step away from the business for extended periods.
There are many ways that a business owner or leader can improve employee morale. Here are 5 tools that you can implement to help improve employee morale.
5 Tools to Improve Employee Morale
- Get UP! Resist inertia. Don’t sit at your desk throughout the day. Get up and get in touch with your people. Visit them in their work environments, whether it is on a construction site or in the accounting office. Get to know their names, their work habits and their abilities. Avoid waiting for employees to come to you. People do not pursue those that they perceive to be in a leadership position over them. Don’t wait, seek them out first.
- Greet your employees with a Good Morning! And a SMILE! In some cases, you may be the first person that they get a chance to talk to in the morning. No one, not even someone who is not a morning person, wants to be greeted with a grunt and a shrug when they first arrive at the job or office. If you are a leader and you are not a morning person, get over it and find a smile for your team. You will help get their day started in the right direction.
- Treat Each Problem (and Mistake) as an Opportunity. Allow your team members to come to you with problems and mistakes. Do not make them fearful of sharing problems. This can create a culture where mistakes are covered up instead of called out into the open and addressed. Look at each problem as an opportunity, an opportunity to teach and help that team member grow. Encourage them to bring a solution to their problem with them to help empower them to solve their own problems.
- Praise Efforts and Celebrate Successes. Efforts must be acknowledged, even if they do not end in success. These are what coaches and leaders call teachable moments. Help your team members understand how they can improve the next time so that their efforts meet with a greater chance of success. And when success occurs, celebrate with them. Celebrating with them and giving them credit for their achievements helps them own their success as well as overcome future setbacks.
- Believe That What Your Company Does Matters. People have a tendency to undervalue their contribution to the world. Business owners and leaders are no different. They need to take stock in what they do and realize the value that it brings to the world. By taking pride and believing in what their company delivers the business owner will help build that same sense of pride in their employees. Pride is contagious and employees will soon begin to identify with the mission and purpose of the company.
When business owners and leader improve employee morale, there are numerous benefits not only for the
business but also for the employees as well. The business becomes more stable and is more capable of withstanding a changing and competitive environment. The business then provides a more stable environment for the employees to be able to grow. More successful employees’ leads to … you guessed it … better morale and more success for the company.
