One Easy Morale Raising Strategies
I believe that not communicating is still communication.
Here is what I mean.
I was recently talking to a teacher who left her school mid-year. I asked if the pay was a factor? They shared that, “It’s was not about the money. It was just that no matter what I did, how long I had been there, I just never heard anything positive. If I make a mistake however, I heard about it immediately, but if I did my job the silence was overwhelming.”
Why is feeling appreciated so important in a work setting?
Because each of us wants to know that what we are doing matters.
Without a sense of being valued by supervisors and colleagues, workers start to feel like a machine or a commodity.
Steven Covey wrote, “Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival, to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.”
Here are some signs your employees do not feel appreciated:
- Workers appear discouraged.
- Employees become negative about their work, more complaining and gossiping.
- Tardiness (to work and meetings)
- More sick days
- Lack of connectedness
- Resignations
Here is one easy to implement strategy to raise morale.
It is to praise the behavior you will desire to see and you will get more of it.
When I was the Director of a charter middle school we had an expectation that there would be four positives to one (4:1) criticism comment ratio towards any student or staff member.
We believed in recognizing the behaviors we desired to see before telling people how they were not meeting our expectations.
Effective recognition can only occur when certain desired and defined behaviors are monitored, and rewarded when they occur.
These praise comments must be authentic and specific. Do not just say “good job”. Tell them specifically what they did a good job at.
For example, “Great job today giving your students think time when you asked questions. I know sitting in silence can be a challenge.”
It took practice and intentionality, but it worked. Especially when you know the person has been working to improve that skill.
Give it a try for this week. I guarantee you too will feel better looking for the positive rather than pointing out the negatives.
Your friend,
Dr. Tom
P.S. If this tip or strategy was helpful, let me know. I plan on sending a weekly raising morale strategy each and every Monday. You can join our email list by clicking here.
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