Engagement and interpersonal relationships form the core focus of my work with teams. I’m obsessed with dissolving barriers to workplace results and relationships. Morale is often a casualty of things gone wrong.
A workshop participant asked, ‘is there anything I should or should not do when it comes to encouraging positive workplace morale?’
Let’s look at an example to tease out the solution. Consider one of your workplace first day stories. Do you remember what it was like arriving in to a new workplace? What happened in your first interactions? Were they inspiring? Energising? Or cold and depressing?
In my experience, how you start is how you go on. And in this we discover the secrets of morale.
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Read MoreHave you ever started your work day by sitting in the car park crying, dreading to go in the office? I have. It is a dark and miserable feeling to steel oneself against the work day.
I'm reading the book Culture 101 by my friend, Penny Nesbitt. In it she describes the common experience of people driving to work Monday in tears. It’s the feeling of being trapped, stuck.
How does it get this way? How do workplaces become prisons?
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Read MoreToni Hoffman was a senior nurse at Bundaberg Base hospital. In 2006 she was awarded the Order of Australia medal and the Local Hero Award.
She went through hell. She was the whistleblower on the Jayant Patel case, a surgeon who was convicted of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. (These charges were later quashed and a retrial ordered. In 2015 he was finally barred from practising medicine in Australia. Her actions likely saved many lives and caused improvement in the hospital’s systems.) She was shunned by her peers, unsupported by the administration. Her health suffered.
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Read MoreIf you’ve ever worked somewhere with culture problems, you know the telltale signs of cracks: closed door conversations increase, hushed conversations that end abruptly when someone walks by, a few more staff departures, long lunches, early clock-offs at the end of the day, and a revolving door of staff bringing problem after problem to your attention. Then there’s the general vibe. People seem stressed out, bummed out, weighed down.
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Read More“The staff don’t think outside of their own departments. They don’t think strategically about what is best for the organisation, just for what is best for their group. They have a real turf mentality. I really want to break the silos and get them being more collaborative, entrepreneurial, innovative!”
Geoff grimaced. This was a key frustration for him and the leadership team since the major re-structure last year. He thought that with new leadership, new direction, and new organisation that the teams would gel and jump in to the future, gleefully holding hands. Likely he was not that naïve, just hopeful.
Here’s the thing:
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Read MoreAs a business owner who depends on the quality work of my team, I face the perennial question of, “How do I motivate and encourage my staff to do their best?” I try and do all the right things: I pay well, I offer encouragement, mentoring, and feedback, I focus on creating a fun and engaging culture that has at its heart our mission to show big thinkers with big hearts to make a big difference.
And yet even as a small team of three, we run the risk of falling in to the common reward/incentive traps that corrode culture lickity-split.
Let’s look at these common mistakes:
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Read MoreWant to influence? No authority? How to get what you want without alienating others.
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Read MoreAfter years of repeating the same resolution (‘this year I will truly get a Cameron Diaz body’) I’ve worked out it’s futile.
Resolutions don’t work because:
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Read MoreMost leaders I work with complain they find it tough to carve out time for strategic thinking. And now is the time to shape plans for the New Year.
These might be your nagging concerns:
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Read MoreCrossed arms. Sour faces. Seething silence. You are experiencing a mutiny and this is a defining moment in your leadership journey.
They don’t like the change. They disagree with you. And they aren’t budging.
What do you do?
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Read MoreElections highlight the conversation of change. Each candidate wants ‘change’ of some sort. They want to make their mark and make a difference.
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Read More“We’re stuck with a system where the CEO bulldozes bad decisions that costs us hours to fix up. I have a colleague who spent the best part of year, and about half a million dollars in lost productive time, cleaning up one of these messes that should never have been.”
That’s an enormous productivity loss. Can you spot the friction point?
Say ‘productivity’ and what springs to mind? Calendars? Task lists? Document management systems?
Yes, all these things are important. But so are these things, and they are often neglected:
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Read MoreYou know how it goes. Someone said or did something that has got you annoyed. Or upset. Or angry. Or bitter.
There’s great opportunity here, if we handle the feedback delivery well. The opportunity is to clear frustrations, clarify expectations, or mend relationships.
Many leaders miss the opportunity with the following feedback mistakes.
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Read MoreMost leaders reading those statistics think they are the exception. That their team is somehow better than the rest. After all, you’re the leader, you’re smart, and you put a lot of effort in to your work. You and your team are different, and there’s no way you’ll be one of those toxic places.
Here are the top 3 delusions leaders have when it comes to their team:
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