Caring Leader Improves Morale in His Company

I had the pleasure of working with the owner of a company (let’s call him Paul) who contacted me because he felt staff morale could be improved in his workplace. As we corresponded, it became clear that he was already doing a lot of the things that create a positive workplace culture and he was just looking for ways to further support his staff—his end goal being an even happier, motivated, and productive workplace.

It’s always gratifying to know that there are leaders out there who truly care about their employees and are constantly thinking of ways to make their lives better, all he needed was just a few tweaks to increase morale beyond the already healthy level it was at. Here’s what I noticed about Paul as we corresponded.

His Strengths

• Kindness and compassion.
• Employees felt valued.
• Generous pay and benefits.
• Flexible work hours.
• Trusting employees.
• Open lines of communication.
• Opportunities for training.
• Upward mobility.

Areas for Improvement

• Clearer communication and active listening skills.
• More personal, one-on-one positive reinforcement.

Paul did so many things well that it was only natural that he was always be looking for ways to improve. He didn’t have to make radical changes (even in his areas for improvement) because he was so tuned-in to the needs of his employees. We only had to make some small adjustments to improve his skills beyond the strong foundation he already had.

What We Worked on Improving

After corresponding for several months, I developed a plan for him to help improve communication, boost listening skills, and foster positive reinforcement in his workplace. This included showing him the steps involved in making sure both the sender and receiver are on the same page during interactions so there are fewer misunderstandings. The big eye-opener for him was simply learning that active listening could help him understand what was missing in his interactions and give him more information to act upon. Instead of taking action first and seeing how things worked out, he learned how to gather information and then decide what to do. As for positive reinforcement, I provided Paul a template for how he could practice positive reinforcement naturally in the workplace by catching people doing things well and praising them personally. Instead of praising people by doing nice things behind the scenes, we worked on praising people individually as well as modeling the behavior for others to replicate.

The Results

Over the next few months, Paul implemented the plan I provided him and said that it made a remarkable difference. People were talking more openly with each other and morale was noticeably better. It came to light that the reason people were slightly down was simply that they felt they weren’t recognized personally or that praise wasn’t forthcoming one-on-one (even though they generally thought the work environment was positive). It became apparent that all his staff needed was to hear praise out loud from him and each other, which led to people feeling truly valued. As far as communication was concerned, the glitch was that they weren’t always sure what was being asked of them and whether their input was being solicited. By having Paul listen to them and act based on their input, it made them feel valued and that what they had to say was being appreciated.

What are your thoughts? Share your story below. I look forward to hearing from you.