Getting your team in a winning mindset inevitably helps your bottom line as a company. Your team’s morale, or overall emotional enthusiasm and confidence, has a direct result on the impact and productivity possible.
All of this offers clear benefits for meeting and achieving the goals and visions that are set.
Here are 11 ways that you can boost team morale, without shedding dollars from the business bank account.
Keep an aligned team.
This is a relationship that Project OTY helps business leaders and their team members cultivate within our unique experience.
If your team doesn’t resonate across all people and departments, it’s hard to win big as a united front.
Make it a mission to hire based those who are excited about what you do and mission that you share.
For those among your team, check in with your team to understand how you can get everyone on the same page and understand their enthusiasm and confidence in what they’re working on.
In the event that a team member does not feel directly aligned, take time for 1:1 meetings or check-ins. Dedicate the time needed to clarify key points and make sure you are both on the same page for better progress.
Set clear goals and visions.
As mentioned, having strong team morale flows toward achieving goals and visions.
That being said, it’s important to have those goals and visions clearly set in the first place. Otherwise, your team can’t confidently jump into the task at hand.
They don’t know the final destination for their actions. As a result, your team might feel like their work is spaghetti being thrown at the wall, in the hope something sticks.
When you set goals, bring your team members into the fold to help carve a direction. Invite input and be sure that all members understand the direction.
Encourage changing up the scenery in lunch breaks.
Eating lunch at your desk and answering emails over your PB&J, doesn’t allow for creative ideas to flow.
The best ideas often come from spending time outside and avoiding all screens.
Encourage your team members to take walks throughout the day. Not only will you be more likely to catch some rays collectively, but you will also benefit from a surge of fresh energy and ideas after lunch.
Beyond walks, encourage team members to try new takeout options or restaurants during their lunchtime, as time permits.
Get group input on company activities.
In scheduling events for company activities, allow team members to share their creative input and vote.
This ensures that team members feel involved and are enthusiastic to join and take part.
A few ideas we like include hosting Jeopardy or trivia nights, hosting “Think About” Happy Hours, scavenger hunts, black light mini golf trips, or testing the team’s critical thinking in an escape room.
Encourage and enact feedback.
Allowing employees to leave feedback anonymously, can open a great channel for feedback in a way that makes everyone comfortable to share.
You can easily request feedback through very simple surveying tools like Google Forms or Survey Monkey.
Share a couple of questions for employees to reflect on how they feel, what changes they would like to see, and how they feel about overall company culture.
Be sure to share updates and changes with employees and show how their feedback is being received and used.
Plan for group volunteer opportunities.
Develop stronger ties in the community, do more good, and build team confidence along the way.
Get involved in charity runs like the Bubble Run or Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. You can also look into park and beach cleanups in your area.
Give ad hoc time off.
Reward team members who work hard with recognition and time off.
Giving them time off for the rest of the afternoon is a surprising and great way to reward an employee and allow them to recharge.
For people that are less likely to jump into 7am meetings, allow them to come in later in the day.
Exchange motivational quotes.
Motivational quotes have the ability to make us all sit, reflect and take action.
Share favorite motivational quotes in a shared team Google Doc, or add motivational quotes to email signatures for you and your team members.
Sign off on Fridays by send a mass email with a choice motivational quote for the week.
Encourage random acts of kindness.
A random act of kindness has the ability to start a butterfly effect of action.
In addition, one small act of kindness has the ability to change the trajectory of someone’s day.
Start the process by sharing a stack of post-it notes. An executive or team lead can initiate the process with a random act and a small card to pass along the future chain of people.
As employees receive the act, and the card is dropped off on their desk, they can note the random act of kindness extended to them on the sticky note. All sticky notes can go up on the wall for the team to see.
They can then pass the card and kindness along.
Sing about the unsung heroes.
Everyone in an organization deserves their time to shine, even if the role they play doesn’t reach the spotlight of team calls and company parties.
In your team, call out the work of those who help run the show behind the scenes. This includes the people signing off the payroll checks, those that manage the reception desk and office space, those that clean the bathrooms and those that help with catering events.
Everyone deserves their award and thanks from the team.
There are no small roles in the workplace.
Express gratitude.
Take time to say thank you. This applies to supervisors, teammates and employees across departments.
A simple task has the ability to go a long way to boost morale for a team. However, the workplace is often the last place that people openly express thanks and gratitude.
According to a survey of 2,000 Americans run by the John Templeton Foundation, people were found to be less likely to feel or express gratitude at work than anyplace else. Their jobs were often ranked last on lists of what they felt grateful for.
As such, it’s important to bring the practice of gratitude to the workplace.
Implement gratitude by writing it out in an email, jotting down some gratitude points on a sticky note, or sharing on a Zoom call. Encourage team members to implement in these small ways.
As a supervisor, make time during the weekly team call to go around the room (Zoom audience) and ask people about the top 1-2 items they’re grateful for. This can be encouraged from the work perspective or the individual’s personal life.
Conclusion
Building your team up helps you move forward with confidence and thrive.
Those that support their team members, are able to push forward with in-kind support.
If you want to build the morale of your team through supporting their learning and confidence training, Project OTY is your corporate leadership coach for future wins.
Check out our game-changing process here and see how we can help you.