We can’t control everything. Sometimes, even when you do everything right, things don’t go your way.
Many leaders learn early that the organizations we work for don’t always show the same care with our employees that we do. And whether it’s layoffs, or no raises, or benefit cuts, or lower than expected bonuses, there are going to be times when things happen in the organization that are outside your control and crush the morale of your team.
Adding to the challenge, we don’t have the option to just let these things sit. We need our team to perform at a high level, we need them to be focused, and positive, and feeling motivated to show up to work everyday.
But it’s hard, and it’s not always clear how we should navigate these challenges. A recent Reddit poster reflected this anxiety perfectly: “How do I keep this team motivated? How do I rally them? How do I instill confidence in them?”
What are you supposed to do when team morale is low? How do you help your team after a round of layoffs? What happens when your team doesn’t feel like things are going their way?
Here’s the bad news: there isn’t a secret solution or fast fix to lift team morale. The issues that led to low morale are multifactorial and complicated. There aren’t going to be easy-bake solutions.
The good news is that you can be part of the solution. You should do as much as you can to support and understand your team so that you can build the little wins to help get things back to normal. Here’s what I recommend:
- Can you talk about the challenges the team is experiencing openly? The more transparent and honest people can be about how they feel, the faster healing can start. It’s healthy to share what troubles us. If your team can talk about it together, then you can talk about ways to move forward. If your company is really progressive, see if a senior leader will come and speak to your team and take questions in an informal setting. That will go a long way to rebuild trust.
- Is there a bad apple in the bunch? One sour person can spoil the entire group. It may be that you need to let someone go or move them to a different department to get your team out of the dumps. You don’t need one person poking at an open wound or preventing the healing process from starting.
- Is your team doing meaningful work? Has the catalyzing problem also changed the type of work your team is doing? People need to feel like they’re doing meaningful/ purposeful work. Ask your employees if they they leave most days feeling like they did meaningful work. How can you help your team find greater meaning in the work they’re doing? How does it help customers? How does it help the world?
- Did something happen related to pay or bonuses? While money isn’t a motivator in and of itself, it is a proxy for whether people feel valued at work. People tend to get distressed when company’s seemingly short them on financial perks/benefits for three reasons: a) they believe the company doesn’t value them and won’t invest in them, b) they believe the company is more concerned with profits than paying employees a fair wage, or c) they believe the company is in a bad financial position and unable to afford to pay workers. Is any of this true? If it’s not, tell your team! “The company values you, they are serious about paying you fairly, and we’re not in a tailspin”! Address these concerns with your team one-on-one so that you can understand the unique situation of each team member. Make sure they also understand that you value them and want to invest in them.
- Start with yourself! How do you feel? Leaders often talk about how to get their teams to do or feel something and don’t acknowledge that their own feelings and actions come first. If you truly believe in the company and it’s vision, it’ll be 90% easier to get your team to believe it too. If your morale is poor and you don’t feel motivated, you’ll never get your team there.
Consider these steps and what might work for your particular situation.
Two important footnotes. First, morale will improve little by little, not all at once. Emotional and mental health aren’t things you can flip a switch and change. The rebuilding of corporate leadership trust happens over months. I’d use six months as a benchmark for when you should expect things to be safely “better”. So you need to be prepared to actively work to keep morale high for that amount of time.
Second, don’t be a “hover-leader”. If you’re overly insecure about the state of the team morale, you’re going to make things worse, not better. You need to give people space to reflect and time to stop being angry/sad/confused before they’ll start to feel more motivated. You’re going for a Goldilocks-ian “just right” balance of involvement and personal space.
Whatever happens to work for your situation, remember that downswings may follow upswings, but upswings also follow downswings. Things won’t stay sour forever, so just keep doing your best and things will eventually turnaround.
Good luck out there,
Patrick