The first in a series about the subtle ways leaders unintentionally kill morale in their workforce, the impact on organizational success and specifics around what can be done about it.
Mark* rose into leadership quickly. As a Senior Vice President, he leads four critical core-business teams. His teams get results and seem to work well together. For all intents and purposes, everything seemed well managed and effective. In fact, it wasn’t at all clear that there was even an issue until year five of his time in the position.
I was retained for general leadership coaching and asked a fairly standard question during our first meeting:
“Okay Mark, apart from the bottom line, what’s keeping you up at night?”
“Attrition and Consistent Delivery.”
His confusion and frustration were evident. He was learning the hard way that team efficiency and cohesion directly impact the bottom line. Attrition in his division was twice the rate of the next highest division and the trends on project delivery reflected this. His budget was impacted as projects were increasingly delayed by team disruption and costs accumulated for onboarding and training. And the consistency of delivery (in schedule, budget and, increasingly, quality) was inconsistent as the team dynamic shifted with each change, which meant he was required to manage delivery at a very micro level. But for Mark, none of this was his main concern. He’s a “man of the people” style leader. He understands that great teams are built on relationships and trust, and he actually cares about workforce morale. He genuinely believes in the company and knows his people are his most important asset. He had actively been working to make sure they knew that.
“I’ve hosted team building sessions for them…recognized birthdays… recognized team success…conducted surveys and implemented many of the workplace changes they’ve asked for…promoted team members as rapidly as I’m able and ensured that bonuses were met every year. The rest of their benefits are dictated by corporate, but I am extremely flexible with them about their schedules and how much time they are required to be in the office. I’m not sure what more I can do, frankly.”
The truth is that Mark’s situation is not unique. I’ve seen it in many of my client teams, all with well-meaning leaders. Team morale is often a very challenging issue for very technical-minded leaders to address. It frequently gets side-lined until the impact on delivery is so painful that it must be addressed. Most leaders I work with rose to the position they are in based on their technical skills and knowledge. Managing morale is seen as a "soft skill" and soft skills are often dismissed initially, not because they don't care, but because they have no idea what to do about it. The thought that you must accommodate everyone’s needs in the workplace is daunting and it’s just not practical to manage to so much ambiguity. So they throw money at the issue and get frustrated when that doesn't work.
And the workforce is not much help. A workforce with low morale is not accustomed to thinking about what would make things better and often have no idea what is even possible. Even when they are aware of individual issues, they generally don’t feel comfortable bringing them up. Sometimes leadership has made it clear (often inadvertently) that they have done all they intend to do. But this was not the situation with Mark's teams. They genuinely like Mark and can see that he's constantly demonstrating that culture is important to him. He tells them he appreciates them and they don’t want to “make a big deal out of nothing.” So, they tell him that everything is great and become quietly dispirited over time. No one ever left Mark's team angry; they were leaving for “better opportunities.” Mark found this mind-boggling given the numerous opportunities opening up every day in the company.
I never got the opportunity to interview any of the people who were leaving the company for another, but over the next few months I learned enough about the culture to make a pretty good guess as to why they actually left. The issues were nothing new to me. His team members were likely not leaving for better opportunities or benefits or even pay. The “opportunity” they were seeking was the chance to be seen, to make a difference somewhere that valued them individually, to work in an organization rooted in trust. Sadly, the odds that they ended up in another similar environment are greater than the odds that they found their work paradise. This issue permeates our corporate culture.
Much of my clients have risen to their current leadership position based on their ability to reduce ambiguity on very technical projects. Then they are thrust into positions where the most valuable asset is the ability to manage people, which is a drastically different skillset. This is initially viewed as a resource management challenge...putting the right skillsets on the right teams at the right time. By the time they come to realize that there is more to managing people, they are well into their executive careers and this is a lousy time to have to admit that you don't know how to manage morale.
But honestly, how could we expect anything different? People are unpredictable and reducing ambiguity in a workforce takes an entirely different set of competencies. This is hugely frustrating for the executive who is expected to magically acquire this skillset somehow in addition to maintaining the technical knowledge that got them there.
In addition to the information I get every day in my practice, I read books, magazines and online publications regularly to ensure I am incorporating the most current strategies into my work. If there is valuable, actionable information out there on how these leaders are meant to maintain the morale of their culture, I haven’t seen it. I have, of course, seen many articles about what leaders are doing badly that dramatically impacts morale, but the accompanying information does not offer what I consider to be actionable solutions. Outlined in the broadest of terms, these very important topics tend to appear more actionable than they actually are. So, even if a leader is actively searching for advice, independent research on the subject of morale in the workforce is overwhelmingly more likely to surface more questions in the implementation than actual solutions.
Leaders, your takeaway from this is that even people entirely focused on writing articles for national publications on this subject are delivering advice that fails to deliver anything more than a few glib overview paragraphs on what you should be doing to make a difference where you are. There are a few very dense books that cover the topic more meaningfully, but parsing out what the most valuable activities are for your situation would be quite the undertaking. Meaning: It is unreasonable to assume that you could make any meaningful change in the delivery of your duties as a leader with the advice that is easily available to the public…at least none that I have seen.
I’m hoping I can give you something more substantial to work with…
I’m not going to suggest that reading this blog series will miraculously complete your education on managing morale on your teams and turn them into the high-functioning, genuinely connected producers that you envision…that would minimize the work of people (like me) who help their clients every day to manage that ambiguity in unpredictable circumstances and environments. What I am proposing is a middle ground. I am going to attempt to break this monster of an issue down into discrete parts so that you are another step closer to understanding the importance of each factor in maintaining morale. I will also be adding in immediately applicable actions that you can take on as a start…just so you can concretize anything you might learn from the break-down. My goal is to offer you:
A few immediate actions you can apply that address “low hanging fruit,”
Some clarifying detail on the intention behind the vague advice offered online,
Some valuable information that will help you evaluate coaches and consultants that you are looking to retain to assist you in building a more resilient culture,
and maybe a little support to you in the acknowledgement of how challenging this area is and guidance on how to make “the people part” of your job a little less daunting.
This is not a "one-and-done" blog series…though it may certainly look that way in the set up. The intention for this series is that it will continue over time to cover much more than the initial five topics below. People are, after all, complex and every team and leadership dynamic is different. I will address additional challenges as they are surfaced in comments, in my email and in my daily sessions with clients. But we all need to start somewhere and I’m starting with some of the key issues I see regularly in my practice. Below is just a summary of what I will be covering in the initial set of articles on this topic. Be sure to follow the topic for more detail.
Better Communication
Communication in some fashion is on everyone’s top five list of what executives and leaders are doing wrong. This is a VERY BIG topic. There are entire degree programs and certification programs devoted to developing professionals that are capable of managing business communications. Books come out every day to guide people into how to do this better. And the advice from any of these sources will vary wildly from the next. What I know is that leaders want a summary of actionable high points emphasizing how to know when its being done well and featuring some quick wins that lean toward the highest return on the investment of their time. Bringing it into a manageable scope, I'll be breaking this huge topic into subsections to address:
Communication as a conversation – Why viewing communications as a 360-degree cycle, ensuring the loop is closed every time, is important and how to manage without losing all your time to it.
Customizing communications to stakeholder audience – The importance of “right-sizing” information – the elements that are important in every communication and why generic report-outs are corrosive to morale.
What people in organizations really mean when they are asking for MORE COMMUNICATION - how to give them what they want and need…instead of what they asked for, why just communicating more is not necessarily the right move and how to manage expectations on communication.
The importance of intra-team and inter-team communication – with a focus on making sure the right people are getting the right information at the right time in the most efficient way possible.
I will likely be returning to this particular topic repeatedly as it is a very large topic with lots to cover in a meaningful way.
Acknowledging Performance
Whether it is unknowingly rewarding low performing employees, rewarding, or even encouraging, the wrong behaviors, or failing to acknowledge the right team members for their specific and targeted contributions, even leaders with the best intentions are getting this wrong. And the impacts of getting it wrong are brutal morale busters. In this article, we'll be looking at the impact of scenarios like this, why it’s important to you and your team that you get this one right and steps you can take right now to reduce your team risk in this area.
Celebrating Together
Celebrations are going to happen…building intention around how and what is celebrated is crucial. Generic celebrations of things like birthdays, coupled with lack of meaningful public acknowledgement of project milestones and completion will lead your workforce into a malaise of every day feeling like the same day…and that nothing they do makes a difference in the end. I will go over what to celebrate in order to mark progress in your environment and how to make sure that time spent is of the highest value to the team, the organization and to your overall goals.
Providing “Air Cover”
"That team was given enough rope to hang themselves.” No one wants to be this leader. However, I've rarely encountered a leader who knows what this looks like when it is done well. Lack of support felt by the entire team is deep and long-lasting. Are you demonstrating visible support and investment in the success of their project? This article will talk about what visible support from a leader actually looks like, how leaders are unintentionally failing to support their teams appropriately and steps you can take to ensure that you are being the leader your teams need you to be.
Requiring Accountability
This is one of those "everyone thinks they are already doing this" items. All leaders insist that they require accountability from their direct reports and teams. The challenge is that the detail on exactly what you are holding them accountable for is critical not only for successful delivery, but also in terms of public understanding of the integrity of your leadership. Consistency, perception of uniformity in expectations and ensuring you are holding the right people accountable for the right things are primary factors for ensuring you get this right. Because getting this wrong erodes organizational trust in your leadership and sends the message that accountability is negotiable at the highest levels. We’ll look at techniques for ensuring that you do not miss the mark on accountability and that you are leading by example in ensuring your actions are in alignment with your leadership position.
Over the next couple of weeks I will address these topics, in addition to whatever else comes up on my table during that time. Comment below or email me if there are other workforce morale issues you'd like to see me address. And let me know if you are doing something interesting in this area. I am always learning.
You ready for what's next?
*Individual’s name and all specifics related to the engagement have been significantly altered to ensure privacy and sanctity of confidentiality in the coaching arrangement.