MORALE

MORALE

One Man’s Perspective

By

Tom Molloy

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Introduction. <>

In 1997 I was a federal employee working in Germany. One evening I was watching the news on Armed Forces TV. The opening of a new recreational facility at a military facility in Europe was being reported. An officer made a brief speech and stressed how much this facility would contribute to the morale of the soldiers.

Coincidentally, I had just finished reading several thought provoking articles on the subject of morale, gaining an insight into the nature and complexity of this phenomenon. I don’t want to make too much of the officer’s postulation of a cause and effect relationship between the recreational facility and solider morale. His statement was probably more wishful thinking than an attempt at a well reasoned argument for the construction of the facility. Nevertheless, the idea that showering soldiers or employees with goodies will raise their morale is prevalent. In fact, you can’t bribe people to have high morale. Morale can’t be bought. Leaders are much more likely to raise unit morale by setting high standards and ensuring that their employees have the means to meet them.

All leaders want their units to have high morale, but based on discussions with many leaders over many years, it became evident to me that most leaders don’t really understand the nature of morale. They are not quite sure what to do to raise morale in their own units. Pay raises? Improved fringe benefits? Better Christmas parties? Incentive awards? More flexible working hours? Although employees will gladly accept whatever goodies the boss wishes to dispense, goodies themselves do not necessarily ensure high morale.

What is morale?

Morale is “attitude towards work.” We define morale as high or low. Members of a unit with high morale

-- Consider themselves winners and resent the presence of losers in their ranks. <>
-- Censure any member who brings discredit on the unit.
-- Are among the best in the world at what they do and they know it.
-- Express admiration for their leaders. <>
-- Brag about the accomplishments of colleagues. <>
-- Have a very low rate of absenteeism. <>
-- Require virtually no supervision. <>
-- Cooperate with one another. <>
-- Do their jobs even when the boss isn’t looking. <>
-- Display a relaxed camaraderie.
-- Make suggestions for improvement. <>
-- Voluntarily come early and stay late.

ASPECTS OF MORALE

Morale and happiness are not the same.

Supervisors often confuse the concepts of morale and happiness. Morale and happiness are two different things. Some happy employees have poor morale and some have high morale. Some unhappy employees have high morale and some have low morale. Years ago I worked with a woman who appeared to be one of the happiest people I had ever met. She was always cheerful and went out of her way to help everyone. For example, one day I mentioned to her that I had to stop by the IRS office on the way home to pick up a form. After lunch she handed me the form. She had taken her lunch hour to get me the form. In her leisure time she did volunteer work in the community. <>

Then one day I became her supervisor and discovered that happiness didn’t translate into a good attitude towards work. She was a project officer and her project was languishing. I discovered that this woman was happiest when she did no work. Her morale (attitude towards work) was terrible. Moreover, the morale of the employees in her project was also terrible. Her lack of leadership had created a cauldron of boiling resentment. One of the key deficiencies in her leadership was a refusal to deal with two employees who produced poor product. They were like two parasites sapping the strength of the unit.

I also had a woman project officer whose personal life was a shambles. She had just undergone a punishing divorce and was involved in a vicious custody battle for her children. Happy she was not. Yet, her attitude towards work was excellent. She took solace in staying busy and was enormously productive. The employees in her project had high morale. She set very high standards for them. They had achieved unit cohesion. They knew they were producing excellent material. They knew they were an elite group. Each and every member of the unit pulled his/her weight. They could rely on one another and their leader.

Elitism is the cornerstone of unit morale. <>

Elite units tend to have high morale because members take pride in their membership. They develop camaraderie, cohesiveness and loyalty to one another and their leaders. In the early 80s I spent a lot of time changing planes at the Atlanta airport. I had numerous conversations with graduates of army, air force, and marine basic training. There was an almost tangible difference between the attitude of the marines and that of the members of the other two services. In a nutshell, marines radiated self-assurance. They clearly felt that they had undergone a warrior’s rite of passage and had gained entry into an elite group. In general, members of the other two services were just glad basic training was over. Quite a few actually complained that basic training wasn’t hard enough. <>As far as, I know in that early stage in their careers, the soldiers in all three services receive equivalent pay and benefits, but the difference in morale was almost tangible.

Units have to earn high morale.

High morale can’t be bestowed on a unit or its members. A leader must set the stage so that unit members can become the best at what they do. By implication, this means that those who are not among the best can’t remain as unit members. When a leader stands before a mediocre unit and pronounces them an elite group, he isn’t fooling anyone. Unit members know unit deficiencies. Such pronouncements by leaders engender cynicism, the antithesis of morale. The leader must set high standards and relentlessly enforce them. The unit must adopt a culture of excellence.

The unit must rid itself of employees who don’t meet standards.

Unit leaders must ensure that poorly performing employees do not remain in the unit. Unless a weak employee has some decisively and clearly remediable problem, the unit leader must protect the culture of excellence and rid the unit of the employee. Particularly in soft skills jobs, poorly performing employees tend not to improve. I don’t think I ever saw a truly bad instructor become a good one, although I have seen good ones become better ones. In a number of instances, I have seen compassionate supervisors spend a great deal of time coaching bad instructors without achieving results.

Money and goodies can’t buy morale.

Give people enough money or goodies and they will do ALMOST anything. There is no doubt that money motivates people to do things. While money may motivate people to do something, it doesn’t raise morale. If someone were to pay me a million dollars a year to shovel shit out of animal cages at the zoo, I would do it, but my attitude wouldn’t be very good. Generally, soldiers in elite military units receive a few extra dollars every month. But if you spend any time with elite units, you know that money is a minor factor in their morale. Poorly paid soldiers who have high morale are willing to die if necessary. High paid mercenaries tend to be less willing to die. They often avoid a real fight. People may work hard to earn money, but they can have lousy morale.

Good leadership (not just good management) is essential for high morale.

Unit members must have confidence in their leaders. The leaders must be leaders, not just by virtue of their rank, but by earning the respect and admiration of unit members. A poor leader can quickly destroy unit morale. If the adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” applies to a leader, replace the leader. Familiarity should breed admiration. A good leader who inherits a unit with poor morale can take a long time to raise morale. Employees in units with low morale tend to be cynical. Cynicism is a comfortable cocoon and it is difficult to dislodge employees from it. The environment in the cocoon is risk-free. Employees sit in the cocoon and take pot shots at management. If you don’t trust anyone, you will not suffer any more disappointment.

Leaders of units with high morale are vulnerable. Perversely, leaders of units with high morale are very vulnerable. Peers and superiors envy them. Unit members also tend to be envied. Envy is a vicious enemy. Insecure bosses feel threatened by subordinate supervisors receiving too much praise. High ranking US military officers, renowned as paper pushers, not warriors, have expressed their envy by urging the elimination of the Marine Corps and Special Forces. I personally suffered from the envy engendered by building an elite unit. My boss was openly hostile. Finally, after giving me an outstanding appraisal, he assigned me to a non-supervisory staff job at the same grade level, but with few responsibilities.

Leaders have to keep lines of communication open with unit members. This is a truism. Yet, so many bosses are “too busy” to maintain a dialogue with their subordinates. One wonders why so few people in leadership positions actually do keep open the lines of communication.

During my almost 40-year career as a federal employee, I evaluated many English language training programs (ELTPs) around the world and spent about three and half years at overseas locations evaluating technical training. High morale was not the norm. I encountered hordes of disgruntled employees. They clamored to tell me what was wrong. Some had reached such a state of frustration that they were no longer trying to improve their unit; they were trying to get revenge on their bosses. By far the most common complaint was that management didn’t listen to employees.

This complaint was usually easy to verify because many of the suggestions I made to improve the ELTPs came from the instructors and first-line supervisors. When senior management complimented me on my perspicacity, I took perverse delight in disclosing that these “brilliant” suggestions emanated from their own employees. With few exceptions, this disclosure evoked no apparent response from senior managers. One big exception occurred in a Central European Country when I was briefing my findings to a Deputy Minister of Defense and his ELTP staff. He reacted by angrily rebuking his staff. He pointed out how ludicrous it was to pay big bucks to a foreign consultant to act as medium for transmitting information from employees to managers. He ordered all of his ELTP managers to spend a minimum of 30 minutes during the next month to solicit suggestions from each employee. He said he wanted a summary of each session signed by the supervisor and the employee. The ELTP chief was to initial each summary.

CONCLUSION

<>The ideas presented in this article are not by any means the last word on morale. One can view morale form many different perspectives. I just hope that he reader finds some of these insights beneficial.