Episode 857 - Morale Is a Team Sport

0:04 Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving. This is the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast with your host, Paul Falavolito. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode 857. There's a phrase I hear from employees all the time that would really help boost morale. Maybe they're talking about buying lunch for everybody, maybe it's new uniforms, changing the schedule, having a party, giving people some kind of recognition, or buying new equipment, changing a policy, or doing something fun at work. And whenever I hear that phrase, I've started asking a question. What exactly do you mean by boost morale?

0:58 Because I think we've turned morale into this mysterious thing that leadership is somehow supposed to manufacture. Like there's a big morale machine in my office and every morning I'm supposed to walk in, turn the dial to high, and suddenly everybody loves their job. Good morning everybody, morale is at 87% today, free coffee in the break room, pizza at noon, everybody smile. So that's not how this works.

1:25 And I think we need to have a much more honest conversation about morale in the workplace and Leaders absolutely have a responsibility for morale. We influence the working environment. We influence communication. We influence whether people feel respected. We influence whether expectations are clear. We influence whether good work gets recognized and whether poor behavior gets addressed. Leadership matters tremendously.

1:56 I've spent a large portion of my career teaching that culture is shaped by what leaders tolerate, and that accountability builds trust. So yes, leaders own a significant piece of workplace morale. Employees own a piece of it too. And I think that second part gets forgotten. I cannot be the primary cheerleader responsible for putting every employee into a good mood before they begin their shift. That's an impossible leadership standard. Think about what people bring through the front door every morning. Someone didn't sleep well. Someone had an argument at home. Someone's worried about money. Someone's frustrated with a co-worker. Someone hates Mondays. Someone's tired. Someone is upset about an assignment. Someone walked into work already irritated about

2:48 something that happened yesterday. And then leadership is somehow expected to boost morale? How? Morale? is not an employee benefit. It's not something you order from Amazon and have delivered by Friday. Morale is an outcome. It's the result of the environment that we create together. That word together matters.

3:15 Here's the conversation I think organizations need to start having. The next time someone says, you know what would boost morale around here? Ask them this. What are you doing to boost morale? That question changes the entire conversation because now we're talking about ownership. If you walk into work every morning complaining, you affect morale. If you gossip about your coworkers, you affect morale. If the first thing you do when a new employee walks through the door is tell them everything you hate about the company, you affect morale.

3:51 And if somebody comes into work excited and you immediately say, give it six months, you'll hate it here too. congratulations, you were actively damaging morale. And then later that same employee might walk into a meeting and say, management needs to do something about morale. Seriously? You're part of management's morale problem. That's the piece nobody wants to talk about.

4:15 Every person in an organization is either contributing something positive to the workplace or taking something away from it. And leadership cannot continuously compensate for employees who are actively draining the environment. I could buy lunch every Friday. I could put brand new furniture in the break room. I could get everybody new uniforms. I could have a big Christmas party and hand out gift cards. And if five employees spend the entire day complaining about everything, morale will still be terrible because pizza... cannot defeat negativity. I don't care how good the pizza is. This is also why I think leaders need to stop responding to morale problems by immediately asking, what can we give people? Sometimes the answer

5:06 isn't giving. Sometimes the answer is listening. Sometimes it's fixing a legitimate operational problem. Sometimes employees are frustrated because equipment doesn't work. Schedules are constantly changing. Communication is terrible. workloads are unreasonable, or leadership has allowed a toxic employee to make everyone miserable. Those are all leadership problems. You have to fix them, take ownership of them. There are absolutely workplaces with terrible morale because leadership has failed. We need to be willing to admit that. The employee still has a role in what happens next because leadership can improve the environment. Leadership cannot control someone's attitude. That distinction is important.

5:54 I can create an environment where you have an opportunity to succeed. I can communicate with you. I can listen to you. I can give you the equipment you need. I can recognize good performance. I can hold people accountable. I can work to make the organization better. I cannot decide whether you're going to walk through the door determined to be miserable. That belongs to you. And maybe that's the conversation leaders need to start having with their teams.

6:21 Instead of saying, we need to boost morale, say, we need to improve the environment. And everybody in this room has a role in doing that. Now we can actually do something. Ask employees, what is hurting morale? And get specific because morale is low, tells me almost nothing. Why is it low? What exactly is happening? Is there a process frustrating people? Is communication breaking down? Are people feeling unrecognized?

6:50 Is one employee creating problems for everybody else? Are leaders being inconsistent? Is the workload unreasonable? Now we have something we can work with. And after we identify it, there needs to be another question. What part of this can you help improve? That's where shared responsibility begins. Maybe you can stop participating in the gossip. Maybe you can help the new employee instead of poisoning their opinion during the first week. Maybe you can clean up the station, the office, the kitchen, the truck, the shop, or the workspace without waiting for somebody to tell you. Maybe you can recognize a co-worker who did something well. Maybe you can bring a solution with your own complaint. Maybe you can decide

7:38 that every conversation doesn't need another negative comment added to it. Those things matter. The interesting thing about morale is that it spreads. Bad morale spreads incredibly fast. One person complains, another person joins in, someone else hears it, and by lunchtime a minor frustration has somehow become evidence that the entire organization is falling apart. Good morale can spread too.

8:09 People notice when co-workers help each other. They notice when somebody comes in ready to work. They notice when somebody handles a difficult day without making everyone else miserable. They notice when leaders listen and respond. They notice when employees take pride in where they work. That creates momentum. And this conversation connects directly to something we've discussed many times on this podcast. workplace culture, and employee engagement have been reoccurring leadership themes because the behavior of the people inside of an organization matters. Culture isn't something leadership announces. Morale isn't something leadership distributes. They're built through thousands of little interactions between people. That means every employee has more power

9:00 over workplace morale than they probably realize. You don't need a title. You don't need a budget. You don't need permission. You can improve the experience of the person working next to you today. And leaders, when someone comes to you and says, we need to boost morale, don't dismiss them. There may be something important underneath that statement. Ask questions.

9:24 What does better morale look like to you? What specifically is hurting morale right now? What should leadership do differently? And then ask the question that completes the conversation. What can you do differently? Because now morale becomes a shared responsibility. Leadership owns leadership. Employees own their behavior. And everybody owns the environment they help create. Imagine what would happen if every employee walked into work thinking, How can I make this place a little better today? That changes. things, not because everybody suddenly becomes artificially happy, not because the boss became the company cheerleader, because people started taking responsibility for the energy, attitude, effort, and behavior they bring into the workplace.

10:16 That's a much healthier definition of morale. Morale isn't everybody smiling all day. Morale is people believing that the work matters, that their contribution matters, that the people around them can be counted on, and that the organization is worth giving their effort to. Leaders can help build that. Employees can help build that. And employees can destroy it too. So the next time somebody says, you know what would really boost morale around here? Listen to the idea. Maybe it's a great one. And then ask one more question. What are you willing to do to help? Because morale was never just the leader's job alone. So leadership has tremendous influence over the workplace experience. Use that influence wisely. Listen

11:09 to your people. Fix legitimate problems. Recognize good work. Communicate clearly. and hold the line on standards. Then remind your team that they have influence too. Everybody who walks through the door contributes something to the culture. So bring something worth contributing. This has been the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.