As most of us approach the end of the first fiscal quarter, what do your 1st quarter results look like? How are your sales, profit margins, customer satisfaction levels, and team morale? Wait-what? How can I even possibly try to measure my team’s morale?
Yes, financial and customer satisfaction reports are important and because they are specific and measurable, it is easy to pay close attention to them; but they are not the only thing you need to gauge and be aware of as an owner or manager. If you aren’t frequently taking the temperature of your individual team members and their morale, you are missing a huge opportunity to impact succession planning, avoid potential HR issues, and harness the motivation of your sales and production force. If you aren’t monitoring your team’s satisfaction you may be missing the impact you have on morale! Ouch-That one hurt a bit didn’t it!?!?
Have I convinced you yet that measuring morale is important? We’ve got 3 specific ways to gauge morale (this week we will share 1 of them):
Have focused conversations with individual team members that discuss 3 key points:
3-How has the individual received specific feedback in the past 6 months? (Ie. Have they participated in a coaching session, an evaluation meeting, or have they discussed a self-evaluation with a supervisor?)
Owner: That is excellent to hear you have received those resources and training. Have you thought about what you can do to make sure you are able to complete the WHIMIS Level 2 training, as it needs to be done inside your first 60 days in the role?
The difference between Example 1 and 2 is that after only 1 question the conversation feels like it is finished. The employee has little viable option but to disengage from the conversation and it doesn’t allow much opportunity for him/her to share additional information. The answer “Yes”, may be true according to the employee but what if they aren’t aware they are missing something? In Example 2 the employee is required to come up with SPECIFIC examples and information; based on what the owner hears, the owner can act accordingly.
Next week I will talk about the second way to gauge your team’s morale. Till then, start having focused conversations with the individuals on your team. If you don’t start asking the right the questions now, you won’t get the answers that show you opportunities to improve or grow your morale!-Dawn
