5 Ways To Keep Up Office Morale

Running a business comes with many challenges, and if you have other employees that work for you, keeping up morale can be one of them.

It's not always easy to make everyone happy, and in fact, isn't always best to give everyone what they want. But there are healthy ways to manage expectations while keeping performance high. Here are a few:

1. Recognize Burnout

If one of your employees shows signs of burnout, like showing up late frequently, doing sloppy work, or showing indifference, you may have an employee on the brink. For you, this means you'll have to revisit project sites, fix mistakes, and potentially fill a newly opened spot. All of those things cost money; a lot of it.

If you can spot burnout early, you can speak with the affected employee, figure out what's bothering them, and find ways to resolve the issues.

2. Set Team Goals

Setting goals as a team gives each member a sense of collective purpose. The goals can be fun and engaging, or be directly focused on key performance metrics like project completion times and customer satisfaction rates.

If you set goals as a team, make sure that each team member provides his or her own feedback and ideas. This ensures that each team member is involved, has bought into the idea, and is ready to work with everyone to achieve it. And, when the deadline comes up, strong members and yourself can help pick up the slack, motivate low performers, and achieve the goal together. Then when you all meet your goal together, make sure to celebrate together!

3. Invest Your Time In Training

Humans have an innate desire to overcome obstacles, no matter how big or small. From an early age, humans want to figure out how to fit square blocks into circular openings. And as we get older, we find growth and improvement in training, and the potential of improving your own living conditions.

Invest time into your employees by training them to assume more responsibility. This will make your employees feel better about themselves, feel trusted by you, and relieve some of the burdens you carry every day.

4. Reward High Performers

Meeting frequently as a team and recognizing high performers is a great way to build morale and recognize the employees that exceed expectations. Small awards, and even things like public praise, can boost morale and motivate others to do the same.

Be careful though, not to award the same person every time. It can be demoralizing to the other members of the group if you give the same award to the same person. If you notice this pattern, switch up the criteria for recognition. Perhaps instead of recognizing the highest performer, you recognize the most improved.

5. Get Your Hands Dirty

There are few things that earn team buy-in and trust than when a leader gets their own hands dirty, helps the team meet their goals, and meets their employees' eyeline. Managers that only give commands, and never contribute to the success of the team have a much harder time motivating employees, and should not be surprised if the team members start making decisions on their own.

If you want to build your team morale, you have to understand the motivations of your team members, meet their eye line, and work together toward a common goal.