As a manager, you have an important responsibility to maintain the morale of your team. They want to feel seen, heard and appreciated.
But this isn’t always possible if you believe that your leadership role exempts you from serving your team — or if you can’t even maintain your own morale to begin with.
Forbes carries the following article on how a manager could effectively inspire their team, by asking members of Forbes Coaches Council for ideas.
1. Start With Yourself – Inspire others with your goals, progress and observations to allow yourself to join you on your journey.
2. Ditch The Open-Door Policy –Ditch the open-door policy and be intentional about reaching out to your team.
3. Get Curious – One of the most devasting experiences at work is to feel unseen and underappreciated.
4. Examine Your Leadership Style – Leadership styles have expiration dates. Make sure your leadership style is meaningful, relevant and timely.
5. Model Servant Leadership – Too often, managers maintain a hierarchical role in the company, but by stepping into a role where they are leading from the front and modeling servant leadership by putting their employees first, they can build bridges of connection and improve morale in the workplace.
6. Be Transparent – The leader should reveal what he/she is feeling in a personal way (preferably in live forums).
7. Create A Culture Of Mutual Respect – The best strategy a manager can implement to foster employee engagement and high morale is to communicate with their employees regularly that they are valued, respected and competent.
8. Engage In Individual Conversations – If people don’t feel valued, they won’t feel engaged. When struggling to connect with employees and maintain morale, it’s critical to spend time with staff to help them share your vision, know you care, and realize you want to value their opinion, expertise and insight.
9. Tune Into Emotions – Think of interaction as a dance. Emotion is the music of the dance. The fastest way to change the dance is the change the music.
10. Be Authentic – One of the best ways to connect with employees is for leaders to be their authentic selves in the workplace. When leaders demonstrate that they are “human”—that they aren’t perfect, that they have a “life” outside of work, that they experience emotion—it makes them more relatable. Such authenticity builds trust and loyalty with team members.
11. Listen And Speak To People’s Heart – Leaders are valued for their decision-making and problem-solving skills. These are important skills, however, they need to be reinforced and balanced by a deep commitment to listening intently, understanding and empathizing with employees.
12. Outsource Inspiration – Hosting a one-day retreat with a motivational or inspirational team builder can help build the morale of your team. If this is not a strength of the leader, hire a professional to facilitate the day and consider working with a coach to build your personal skill set so that you can maintain the morale.
