Improve Your Team’s Morale:
Provide guidance and leadership not sympathy

By Nathan Jamail

Many times in business, much like in life, a person’s perspective determines one’s morale or attitude more so than any actual situation.  Many companies will make statements such as,  “the morale of the team is down because of recent company changes, cuts in benefits and employee layoffs.”  These issues are real and the impact it has on people is real as well.  Let’s not diminish real emotions tied to these issues that cause morale to be low, however to improve morale is to change the team’s perspective versus looking for a golden answer. 

An organization can spend all their time focusing on these changes and continue to experience negative emotions, or they can choose to change the perspective of their people (which do you think is more productive and advantageous?).  In some situations a company may hire a motivational speaker to speak to their group about a tragedy and the audience gets motivated and is eager to make the best of their personal situation.  Why is that?  What happened was a change of perspective.  The leaders job is to hold their team members accountable and this goes for morale as well.  One way to improve morale is to teach the team members to be grateful before they can be successful and to be happy-although not necessarily content.

A person must be grateful before they can be successful: Everybody can be grateful for what they have, but more often than not we forget to think about the good.   In one room a young couple is disappointed when they find out they are having a baby girl instead of a baby boy, where just across the street there is a young couple grateful for the six hours they have with their newborn baby before she passes away. 

In the business world it is no different.  One morning in Dallas TX a gentleman is upset and feels like he is not treated fairly because due to company financial struggles they remove company cars and increase the current work loads to make-up for those that were laid off.  Where in the same city a man and woman figure out where they are going to live because they just had to close their small business, file bankruptcy and can’t pay their bills.  It is all about perspective.  Smart parents around the world tell their children to be grateful for what they have, because there is someone out there that has it a lot worse (and by the way-those “someone’s” usually have a better perspective than others). 

It does not do any good to sympathize with employees when they are complaining about workload or removal of benefits and even pay cuts; in fact the bad morale is created when leaders and workers start to sympathize with each other on the struggles or unfairness of the job.  The intent of these leaders is to show compassion and empathy for their team members and therefore hopefully help them turn around their morale, but instead they end up confirming why the morale should be bad.  To improve morale the leader must change the team member’s perspective.  This is not a cold or insensitive approach, quite the contrary it is an empathetic approach that says the feelings the person is feeling are real, but may not be necessary, helpful or have a purpose. 

The leader’s job is to give the team member’s hope and understanding, not sympathy.  When a team complains about workload increase due to others being laid off or people leaving the company, the leader should discuss how the individual now has the opportunity to step up even more than before and challenge them to own the job.  Not in a cheesy “you can do it” cheer, but in a real tone, that says this is what it will take from the team; and each person has to decide if they are committed and willing.   Difficult times do not cause bad morale the lack of gratefulness does. 

Leaders need to take a look at their team and their situation and know they are the only ones who can change it.  Morale is a result of the actions or lack of actions of the leader and the team.   By taking this positive attitude on, the individuals win, the company can win again-which will come right back to the individuals in the long run.  Every decision is a choice.  One can stay and complain and be miserable, one can leave and hope for something better, or one can truly change their perspective, be grateful and move forward with a purpose

Stop searching for happiness it is not a destination; rather it is a state of being: A leader once said that if your goal is to be happy then you will never be happy.  I am sure that is a stolen quote from someone really smart, but the statement makes us think.  People say it all the time, “My goal is to be happy”, what are they really saying? Are they not happy now or is their goal to stay happy?  There is the old saying ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ and everybody has heard the ending, “yeah but it can buy the things that make a person happy”.  Deep down everybody truly wants to be happy even those life suckers we call “grumpy people”.  However people are not happy because they are successful-they are successful because they are happy (this is a concept “grumpy people” cannot grasp). 

A great leader must insist on all team members being happy, and if any body is not happy they should find a new place to work or hang out; a favorite saying, “get happy or get out”.  Clarification: happy does not mean content.   Life and business is game of competition with oneself; as people and as business leaders one must always strive to be better and improve.  When people stop trying to improve or learn they start to become bored and content (and actually unhappy).  Contentment is a major contributor to morale. 

Contentment is like quick sand; anybody can fall in it and it will continue to pull a person down until they are gone or until a leader comes, challenges them and pulls them out.  If an organization is having a morale issue look at the happiness and contentment of the team.   Just remember contentment is like bad breath; sometimes we can’t smell our own bad breath and we need someone to tell us, so we can change it.   Get in a happy state of being and challenge yourself and your team to never be content.

Who would have known a father’s advice given over 30 years ago would be so true.  In not so many words he said,’ you need to be grateful before you can be successful’.  It is easier to be grateful and successful in a happy state of being.  The past is history and the future is now!

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