Building Morale When Times Are Bad
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Kevin P. Coyne (kevin@kevincoynepartners.com) is Senior Teaching Professor at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University, and the founder of Kevin Coyne Partners, an executive counseling firm.
Many managers will soon face the challenge of retaining and motivating their best people in the midst of layoffs and downsizing. For them, this will be the leadership challenge of the next year.
Fortunately, good morale does not require people to be happy. The definition of good morale is that people’s emotions contribute to, rather than subtract from, the unit achieving its goals. Many of the best examples of high morale come from situations of great unhappiness and stress--such as heroic actions in war, etc. Thus, while it may be impossible to make people feel happy while their friends are being let go, that is not your job. Your job is to build your team’s focus and dedication.
This will happen when you help them see that four things still hold true:
1) Their unit’s work still contributes to making others’ lives better. People perform when they believe that they are part of something they can be proud of. That idea probably played a role in them joining your particular company to begin with.
With the company laying off people, that belief may have been damaged. You cannot fix their views of the company as a whole. But do not wait for the CEO to solve that problem. Shift the focus to something that you can control--the good that their unit does. You can help them see how that still contributes to people’s lives. How is the product their particular unit produces still important? When the bank branches they manage opens a new checking account for someone, doesn’t it still help that person better run his finances?
2) Their own ideas matter more now. In bad times, managers must feel that their personal ideas contribute right now to improving the unit for the future. This is the time to take time to listen, and act on their suggestions. If there are layoffs, then there is work to redistribute, and processes to change. That provides increased, not decreased opportunities for them to have positive impact. Listen, and give them positive credit, for solving the problems.
3) The misery will be temporary. Most companies who downsize are not in financial peril--they simply want to contain a forecasted drop in profits. Therefore, for most companies, this episode represents a one time cut back. If at all possible, find out when the period of downsizing will end, and communicate that to your team. Morale always stays higher when people know an end date.
4) Tomorrow will be brighter. For most companies, there is a brighter future beyond the current layoffs. Help people see this for the company, the unit, and them personally. I recently read about a company that was thinning its executive ranks across all levels by 50 percent. The Human Resource officer worried about motivating managers afterwards. He shouldn’t. After the misery of the initial layoffs, every manager’s responsibility would be twice the size as before. Bright people like the idea of more responsibility earlier. And, as long as the turnover rate remains the same afterwards as before, the probability of any one manager getting a promotion each year will be the same as before (because there will be half as many openings, but only half as many candidates). Good morale should return.
MORE ON BUILDING MORALE DURING TIMES OF CHANGE:
Toxic Emotions at Work and What You Can Do About Them (Paperback)
Lead Change -- Successfully, 3rd Edition (HBR Article Collection)
Preserving Employee Morale During Downsizing
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I think the thought expressed above are very generalistic. The most important issue in bad times is looking at person state of mind. Bad times need more of Pschological intervention in smoothing out the decisions and future morale building.
- Posted by Rahul Ingle
December 7, 2007 6:15 AM
Global competition has led to laying off employees. Downsizing is not a solution to improve profit and productivity. It is simply throws an threat to the rest to keep up with the standards.
- Posted by rand
December 12, 2007 5:31 PM
It's of high quality~
Are there any other subjects?
- Posted by Tracy
December 16, 2007 11:46 PM
The article is surely of great interest for someone who is in a leadership role but it should’ve been more vast. What other editorials do we have in same genre?
- Posted by Prashant
December 17, 2007 11:40 AM
Interesting point that good morale does not necessarily mean happy people. My experience confirms the idea that people will perform well if they feel their work is important. Professional employees today understand that downsizing/rightsizing/outsourcing is a fact of life they expect to happen. Long gone are the days when people lament for those who were released.
- Posted by Hank Scarangella
January 1, 2008 11:50 AM
Good points especially on the "temporary misery".
In most cases it's a forecast drop in profit. Management needs to keep in touch with people more often during this temporary misery .
Communication needs to be in positive tone that things can only get BETTER !
- Posted by Jamilah Haron
January 21, 2008 8:51 PM
Bad times are a test for leadership. It always begins at the top. If a leader sulks, so would others. Most get into blame game when bad times hit business. I have known of top chairs rushing to condemn the immediate reportee with one quarter's performance stagnating. Bad times are the times for people on top to own up myopia resulting into current situation and suggest solutions. Environment never starves of newer opportunities. One requires poise to concentrate and dig into it. Organizations have good and bad people. It is the good with history of performance who feel worse during such times and need support. Blasting them in such situations is a gross blunder. Where were the bosses before bad times set in ? They suddenly appear now and that too to disrupt rather than construct! Visibility and accessibility should be consistent. It is not as much the laying off, as much the risk of attrition during bad times. Good performers would not like to continue failing and may quit. To make them succeed is the challenge for leaders. Turarounds are always possible, "I can do it " spirit has to flow from top to bottom. " We care, we are all in this together and we would all transcend the phase successfully " is the message that must touch one and all in the company. The 'how' of transformation from bad to good must be convincing, and hence it requires involvment of all to frame a good plan. The plan has to take into account the reason and analysis of what went wrong. Trust in the ability of top management and reassured confident employees when team up together, surprise the world. SAIL is India's biggest steel company. It once incurred losses to the tune of Rs. 10 million every day. One CEO's resolve to change the picture made all the difference. Business abounds in such examples. There is no company, from GE to Coke, which have not seen ups and downs. For any organization to survive sustain and grow, the leadership must first sustain and grow. Success is a lousy teacher, it does not warn you of an impending failure or a bad situation. Murphy's law (things will go wrong in any situation if you give them a chance )may sound a pessimist, yet it is good in business to reflect upon it once in a while. Yet if things do go wrong, resilience in leadership correct the the morale and the situation.
President
Centaur Ph.
- Posted by AK Handa
January 22, 2008 12:47 AM
Great Article....I think all the points that were made were great especially the following concepts....
1)good morale does not require people to be happy.
2)People perform when they believe that they are part of something they can be proud of. That idea probably played a role in them joining your particular company to begin with.
3)Their own ideas matter more now
The other points saying that it will end within X days and tomorrow is brighter is a good one but no one will seriously trust you on that. People know that a leader is a "dealer" in "hope"...so i think no one is going to take it seriosly...but the earlier points were brilliant....
Pradeep Prabhu
- Posted by Pradeep Prabhu
July 30, 2008 10:57 AM