Department Morale: What is it, it’s impact, and how do you build it up? Part 2

In last month’s BLOG, the definition of morale and how high or low morale impacts the organization was discussed. Also, I briefly identified some of the contributing factors that can improve or reduce morale. In this article I want to expand on those thoughts.

As a leader, morale starts with you. Are you dedicated? If not how can you expect you team members to be. If you are not excited about coming to work and doing a quality job neither will your team be. Do you feel connected to your department’s mission statement, or do you even feel at odds with it? Does your job no longer enliven you? Or … have you been running on auto pilot and need to reconnect with what you love about your job and the value you and your department provide? Whatever the reason or reasons, if you are not inspired and dedicated, you need to rekindle your passion if you want your team members to be inspired, motivated, and dedicated.

So, let’s go back to the original question, “Are you dedicated?

If you find that question difficult to answer, think about what emotions you trigger in others. You see you are- just like all supervisors and managers – like Pavlov’s bell. Remember Dr. Pavlov’s famous experiments where he rang a bell while presenting food to his dogs? After a while, just the sound of the bell would cause the dogs to salivate. They had unconsciously associated the sound of the bell with food, so that he didn’t even have to show them food for them to salivate. The sound of the bell would do it.

As a leader, you are like Pavlov’s bell to your team members. Not that they salivate when they see you (or at least I hope not), but because you trigger feelings in them whenever they see you or hear your voice on the phone. The feelings you trigger depend on the dominant emotional themes of your interactions. If the majority of your interactions with your staff members are focused on correcting, criticizing, bringing bad news, etc; then they will trigger negative emotions in your team members just by just showing up.

Have you ever had a boss like that? Moment you saw him or heard his voice on the phone, you felt defensive, angry, and maybe even resentful.

Conversely, leaders who frequently engage their team members in positive interactions automatically trigger a different emotional response in their team. Even though being a manager requires difficult conversations and interactions, these managers make sure that they offset these with positive interactions. They consciously recognize excellent work and effort, show appreciation, and show interest in their team member’s professional development. Because of this, they trigger empowerment emotions in their people. These emotions then fuel high productivity and fierce loyalty. So, to improve morale, look at the dominant emotional themes of your interactions and ask yourself whether or not they lead to motivate, inspire and high morale.