“The happier your people are, the better they are at what they do.”
Despite being one of the oldest business clichés out there, the previous saying also remains a universal truth that many company managers want to achieve. Good morale tends to have a domino effect, and when the manager’s morale is boosted, everyone else will become more productive. However, in terms of sales boosting, everybody is required to be enthusiastic regardless of whether or not the manager is also joyful, which is another sad but universal truth employees are aware of.
At any rate, morale and trust building throughout a workforce can be achievable through employee coaching. However, it’s the kind of activity that must be done right in order to work; owners and managers alike should invest real commitment to this program in order to entice their workers to meet them halfway.
As a side note, the results of morale boosting can serve as morale boosters themselves to business executives and supervisors too, so the importance of keeping your employees happy should not be underestimated.
Morale and Trust Building Dos and Don’ts
The wisdom of consciously stimulating morale can easily be seen by the way profits flood whenever your employees feel satisfied and invigorated by their work. Good morale is easy to achieve when everyone is doing all right and everything is going well with your work at large. However, once your employees start making mistakes, your concern for their wellbeing immediately drops to keep the company’s bottom line in order. Even though people do make mistakes, these taxing incidents can start a chain reaction of negativity that could impact worker morale as well as your positive cash flow.
During trying times like expensive mistakes and employee carelessness, it’s understandable for the manager ‒ whose whole job relies on adherence to corporate procedure and sales volume ‒ to berate his errant employees, yell out his demands for better performance, and slam his fist on his desk for good measure. Then again, this impulse will probably just worsen the situation and give your employees the impression that you are not the perfect boss to work with, and they’re better off going to greener and better pastures. You don’t want to fix a mistake with a mistake; we’re not asking you to coddle incompetence either, but there’s a better way to address gaffes without turning your working environment into a hostile one.
Assessing the Importance of Effective Morale and Trust Building
If you really want your employees to build their trust in you as a boss or maintain a high morale, then anger isn’t the solution. Outbursts can and will happen, but abusiveness and a workplace run by fear will just result in lower productivity and fewer people willing to work in your company in the long run.
Words that are said tend to have a life of their own, such that it could totally destroy the selfesteem of your workers. Don’t make employees feel like working is a chore for them; competent and effective managers know how to inspire people to work for them without the need for intimidation or threats. Yes, workers do tend to try extra hard in response to the fear you’ve instilled in them by blowing up and berating them for their incompetence, but they’ll only do so until the proverbial storm passes. This is a short term solution that will have a long term negative effect.
Profiles are an effective way to boost morale and build trust
Using profiles and assessment to identify the behaviors and motivators of your employees will give you incredible insights and a clear direction to help you provide the ideal situation. These profiles will help you enhance communication, discover strengths and areas for improvement, build better teams, and help you understand what each person is motivated by. Once you have this assessment for each employee you can seek to provide the environment where motivation occurs… and thereby boosting morale and building a trusting workforce.
Sometimes it seems almost impossible to sustain that sort of motivation on people, especially when they have the option to leave. Granted, in today’s economy, employees tend to be more loyal, but this is forced loyalty that hampers the true, quality potential of your workforce. You definitely don’t want resentful workers working for you. Your employees are the lifeblood of your company, so diplomacy, tact, prudence, and the careful weighing of your words is a must in order to bolster performance and correct mistakes. By being fair but firm, you’ll be able to build the trust and boost the morale of your entire workforce. Utilizing the proper profile and assessments will go a long way in shortening the learning curve and helping you build a highly productive workforce.
Written for us by our associate Gary Sorrell, Sorrell Associates, LLC.
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