Ever lose sleep wondering what to do to improve employee morale?

Fact — at one time or another most managers find themselves lying in bed with their minds stressfully moving due to the difficult challenge of improving employee morale. After all, keeping employees motivated so they will continuously produce meaningful work is one of the most difficult jobs there is. Yet, as a leader it’s THE most important function you perform.

Many companies today say that they want to improve employee morale because they know it’s a key driver for their desired success. Yet, at the same time, they do not want to invest a lot of time or money into this area. Managers are told, “Get them motivated the best way you know how, and do it with the least amount of time and money too.” Or they are told, “Let them know, they should be happy to still have a job when so many others are unemployed today.”

Your organization or department can have big plans and big goals, but if your employees do not have high levels of harmony and motivation, you will never achieve optimal success. In this article, you are going to receive four powerful and proven strategies on how to improve employee morale all the time. Are you ready to M.E.E.T. and apply the strategies? Here they are:

1) Meet.
If you’re a manager who truly wants to improve morale and harmony within your department or team, Meet. Yes, Meet! Schedule a meeting of your team, and set the tone by letting everyone in attendance know your ultimate goals and objectives for this meeting.

It doesn’t matter if the morale is very low, in the middle or high, you should always Meet. You meet so you can get, learn and check the pulse of your team’s morale. Ask your team openly what’s good about work and life within the company or department? What’s not so good about work and life within the company or department?

2) Empower.

Let your team members know that this meeting is a meeting where everyone is to civilly and honestly share their feedback and suggestions on how “WE” can improve morale with the resources and relationships we currently have. How can “WE” create a more healthy, motivated and harmonious work environment for our team moving forward?

3) Encourage.

Encourage your team members to hold themselves accountable for their actions, interactions, words, service, and healthy attitudes moving forward. Encourage your team to embrace the new way of doing business moving forward; a new way that will be designed, agreed upon and put into practice by the team. Let them know ultimately “An Encouraged YOU Becomes An Empowered YOU!”

4) Transition.

Transition from the old foolish, smoke-and-mirrors way for improving employee morale and harmony; to a more genuine and honest way that will position and have team members – both as a group and as individuals – achieving optimal success with your team time-and-time again.

The old foolish, smoke-and-mirrors way involved a manager or company throwing promotional goodies, gimmicks and fluff company events at a low employee morale situation in an attempt to immediately boost morale. The more genuine and honest way is for a manager or company to take the time and spend the necessary money to Meet often effectively, so that everyone is involved in the contributions and buy-in of the new way of conducting team business. That’s how you improve employee morale and harmony TODAY!

If you truly want to improve employee morale, remember that promotional goodies, gimmicks, and fluff company events are not the answer. In order to reach and maintain high levels of morale – all the time – you are going to be required to Meet, Empower, Encourage, and Transition — all the time. It’s no better time than TODAY for both you and your employees to make a higher level of employee morale and harmony a reality, together.

About the Author: Ty Howard,
Mr. Untie the Knots®,
Freeing Maximal Business, Performance & Human Potential Daily!

Ty Howard is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize employee performance and success. He is the creator and lead facilitator of the trademarked Untie the Knots® Optimal Performance Process, and the author of Untie the Knots®: Improving Habits, Choices, People, Relationships, Performance and Results, as well as dozens of published articles on employee and organizational performance and development worldwide. For information on Ty Howard’s programs and services, or to request written reprint permission for this article, visit: http://capturinggreatness.com or call (443) 982-7582.