Tweet

Boosting Teams Morale

Written by: Dr. Fathi El-Nadi

Article Overview: Teams' energy wanes every now and then under the workload and the workplace internal and external environmental pressures. When this happens, the team-leader's top priority should be to boost the morale of the team before giving them any more work to do. The right amount of motivation needs to be injected in order to energize the team and bring the members to their original efficiency level again. If this is not done both productivity and quality are sure going to suffer.

Boosting Teams Morale

In order to make this happen, I have tried the following techniques with different types of teams and they worked:
Remember the good times. Encouraging team members to reminisce the 'good old days' when the organization was working at its best, and sharing the teams role in success stories is a tried sure way to change the team mood and make them think positive. They become energized, and their batteries are re-charged to stay on track to complete the last leg and win the race. No one wishes to be with a losing team, and the great feeling of building on past successes nurtures new success stories.
Build a vision for now. Based on what was powerful in the team's real past experience, you may provoke your team to think of a 'vision' or to 'restate' an existing vision but around 'togetherness'.
Assess On-going Performance. This is an effective technique to keep your team focused and on track. The team members can even come up with their own instruments to measure their own performance. If they hate meetings, for example, they can be encouraged to come up with a criteria to measure their performance and effectiveness in having and attending business meetings.
Share with them basic questions. The simplest mechanism to get your team involved and committed is to regularly share with them basic question to help sharpen the team' concentration: What's working well for us and the organization? What do we want to do differently, and why? Don't wait for something to go drastically wrong before using this mechanism. You only concentrate of the positive in order to sustain what's working than to get tied up in knots about what isn't; then you need to phrase problems as requests: "these are the things I would like us to do differently."; and finally, negotiate through the requests in order to get the best deal from you team on time, quality, and cost of doing their jobs.
Develop a self-directed work team (SDWT). No good team-leader would like to lead an immature team for a long period of time. Good leader foster a culture of team-spirit based on strong team norms and cohesiveness. Mature teams should be able to decide on how they are going to accomplish the tasks given to them without any supervision. She should also cooperate in solving work problems, and eliminating any conflicts that may hinder their achievements. Team leaders should find the time to think strategically, align required resources to enable their teams deliver, and take strategic business decisions.
Finally, team leaders are 'captains' who lead their to score and win, but they do not do this isolated from their own team. They make themselves visible, and they have a presence in playing field to orchestrate the team work and take any required decisions to bring them back to track on time to continue the race.

Related Articles
  The Joy of True Teamwork
  3 Ways to Improve Employee Morale and Productivity
  Hidden Costs and Benefits of Conflict Management
  Classes to Motivate and Manage a Team:
  Morale is King (and Queen) of the Workplace

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Boosting Confidence - Wow! There has been so much response, it's hard to know where to start responding... I goes to show that confidence is a hot topic! If you’ve ever heard of “Executive’s Disease”, you’ve heard that even the most successful people in business have moments where they feel stressed over something that needs to be done. It sounds so much nicer to call it stress, but stress is strongly linked to FEAR on some level or another. [u:16vd1x1j]We’re all human after all. [/u:16vd1x1j] (Perhaps this is why executives have much higher rates of heart disease. They appear to be 100% confident to everyone else, but they still feel it on some level inside.) Jude, thanks for sharing your journey to great confidence. I can relate to your dog story, by the way. I’m the person my neighbors and friends call when they have a pet problem. When I was working with the Pet Rescue Group, someone called me the Cat Whisperer! :0) I also believe that confidence is tied to self worth and competence. Boosting our self esteem and gaining confidence through experience really does help. The question is, what does a person do to boost her confidence when she comes up against those times where she’s facing big issues that are new to her? For example, if you were going to be on Oprah with millions of people watching you for the very first time, what would you tell yourself to chase away the butterflies that might set in? In a perfect world, we would all be walking around stress free and not have any doubts or fears. However, life is full of challenges, especially as entrepreneurs forging new paths. The key is in finding ways to really boost our courage to forge on when the going gets tricky and unfamiliar. Yes, I believe when we have a strong purpose behind what we do, it gives us confidence to move forward in spite of any misgivings or naysayers. When we add passion to that purpose, we seem unstoppable! It also boosts our confidence to surround ourselves with people who support us in our journey. Of course, we believe we can create a great life and business. They just give us the added benefit when they cheer us on. We are social creatures, after all. I can do well on my own, but I have a coach and am part of a mentor group because I find I accomplish even more with a strong support system. (Coaching isn’t about weakness, it’s about doing everything I can to reach my potential in the best possible way.) Support systems certainly help to keep the scales balanced when we find ourselves around people who don’t understand our vision. We need to lay down very strong boundaries for the people who are not supportive. That’s a whole other discussion. One of our weapons is keeping ourselves convinced of our plan and our purpose, even if someone else is threatened by our success (or plans for success). Sometimes, we can be tempted to make ourselves small around those we love so that it doesn’t cause discord. When we do that, we jeopardize our own integrity and undermine our confidence. This is your life to live and your business to run. It is you who must hold the reigns and you who must succeed at your own life. Let them succeed at their own life. Having said this, I think we must at least examine what they challenge us with to see if there is any truth in what they are saying. The key is in finding out the truth [u:16vd1x1j]before you let it in[/u:16vd1x1j]. Otherwise, something that is simply not true (and may be THEIR issue) could throw you off track. If it is true, you can make the necessary changes and perhaps avoid some huge pitfalls down the road. Beat mentioned the books, Approval Addiction and Battlefield of the Mind. I’ve read quite a bit of them and it’s little wonder they are best sellers because of their subject matter. I’ve heard many people comment on the titles themselves. There’s the old saying, “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t.” There’s even a scripture verse on it for those of you who’ve brought that aspect into this thread: “Everything is possible for him who believes.” (Mark 9:23) No wonder true success comes from the inside out. OK, it’s time to stop. I feel like I’ve written a book here! Warm regards, Tami


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Business Coach Explains To You How To Add Value

Starting a Business a Brave Move or a NoBrainer

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.