News & Views: Staying Up in a Down Economy

Guest Column by Kris Girrell, Senior Partner, Camden Consulting Group

You may have read a recent article calling for President Barack Obama to be the “executive cheerleader” in the challenging times ahead and wondered if you should become a “corporate cheerleader” alongside him.  Morale simply does not work like that.  It is somewhat like an internal combustion engine—while each of us has one in our car, tuning them often seems beyond our area of expertise. If you think it might be hard to jump-start a stalled morale, just think how difficult it is to be the impetus.  It is important, then, to learn what governs morale and ways we can influence it for both ourselves and our employees. 

Generally speaking, morale—one’s cumulative emotional state—is the result of three basic tendencies that we humans use to measure our experience of living:
 
1. Our expectations
2. Our influence (or voice in it)
3. Our movement through life

To understand our ability to rev up this engine, we need to look into these three functions a little more closely. 

Our expectations. 

Our minds have a curious habit of thinking and abstracting— it is what they are designed to do!  As a result, the human mind is always creating a list of expectations—projections, if you will—about how each circumstance will turn out.  For the most part, these expectations function below the radar and are mostly fulfilled by how the situation plays out. 

When our expectations are unmet or, worse yet, are outright violated, we become upset and dejected.  Some upsets are huge and debilitating (being left at the altar by your fiancé) while others are experienced as minor setbacks (rain on your wedding day).  In either case, we continually evaluate life through this lens of expectation. 

When looking at faulty morale, the first place to check is our expectations.  How had we been expecting things to be and what are we now seeing that differs from those expectations we had been holding?  You might have been expecting life to flow smoothly or simply that the sun would shine on your wedding day.  Getting a chance to talk about your expectations (both met and unmet) can be a freeing process, especially if you realize that some were not immediately attainable.

Here’s how to apply the same expectation rules to your workplace:

• Be there for your employees by taking more time than usual to listen to their concerns and frustrations
• To the extent possible, give them the advice and tools to mitigate these frustrations
• Help your employees re-set expectations by asking what is reasonable, yet optimistic, to expect out of the current situation
• Create a positive image of what can happen
• Start being more intentional about your new expectations

Our influence. 

The second tendency is whether we feel like we have any say in the way things should go for us.  We all have a need to be heard and when that sense of having a voice in things is lost, it can be quite disheartening. 

Certainly no one feels they had any input into how the economy capsized—and yet, there aren’t many out there who don’t have an opinion on what might be done to fix the situation.  When our lives are so radically affected by rising prices and major hits to our 401(k)s, or on our abilities to make ends meet, anyone can feel pulled down. 

In your workplace, there are several ways for you to empower your employees and give them a voice in overcoming adversity:

• Identify the issues and topics that they can or do have a say in
• Seek their advice regarding new and innovative ways to deal with work challenges or to save money
• Give them a voice in redesigning a work process
• Encourage an environment where staff can speak up and volunteer ideas

Movement. 

Everyone needs to feel like they are getting somewhere, or at the very least, that they are not stagnating.  Ranging from the little bit of upset we feel when being cut off in traffic to the deep funk of job loss, our reaction to having our movement stopped, shut down, thwarted or otherwise curtailed is often quite negative.  It is understandable, then, that changes in the economy can have the same effect of feeling confined.  This is not the expectation of movement, but the need for real growth and development itself. 

The good news here is that the down economy is rife with opportunities for growth and development.  Take a moment to reflect on your career.  Isn’t it true that your greatest skills were developed under duress?  As they say, heroes and generals are made on the battlefield—not at the beach.  If ever there is a time that calls for movement, it is one like we face today.  Focusing on developing the depth and breadth of your employees can have a very heartening effect.  The key here is to note where the greatest pressure is felt.  That is where the movement should begin.

There are several ways you can help employees to increase movement, such as:

• If staff development programs are cut, provide mentoring and peer learning opportunities
• Encourage employees to volunteer for new assignments or stretch their abilities
• Investigate free seminars or webinars for your staff to continue developing new skills
• Whenever possible, look to increase the scope of your employees’ jobs so they can grow and experience new challenges

For the internal combustion engine of morale, the right questions and tools can have it not only up and running, but also on turbo-charge.  Tackling these three functions of morale will pump more oxygen into your emotional engine.  While it doesn’t work to be a corporate cheerleader, you can be somewhat of a mechanic and do several things that can restart—and even rev up—your employees’ stalled out morale.

Kris Girrell is a senior partner at Camden Consulting Group, a leadership development and executive coaching firm headquartered in Boston.  He is a specialist in learning, assessment and career development and has over 30 years experience.  His clients range from presidents and executive teams to line managers. He was selected as a master trainer for Lominger Limited's VOICES and Career Architect, recognized as one of the leading assessment and feedback systems for career development.  He is the co-author of "Effective Personal and Career Decision Making."  He holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in psychology from Penn State University and has completed advanced graduate work toward a doctorate at the University of Maryland.

© Camden Consulting Group - reprinted with permission