Today's quick thought is about morale.
I've been listening recently to Adrian Goldsworthy's excellent biography of Caesar, aptly titled Caesar.
Caesar was an excellent general. Tactically, he was creative, smart, and kept his soldiers very well disciplined. As a leader he exhibited a number of great traits, including the ability to make a good decision quickly and to know which battles to fight.
He also had the undying, unwavering commitment of his soldiers. So much so that they would break centuries of tradition to follow him into Rome, and to kill their fellow Romans during the civil war. The trusted Caesar, and because that trust was well placed, they had high morale.
Morale is one of those things that is difficult to measure but you know it when you feel it. And you certainly know it when it is gone. Though 'soft', nothing goes forward without high morale. And you will never get the most out of your staff or the people you lead without their morale being high. When morale is low, your efficiency plummets, your work quality suffers, and your vision and mission are jeopardized.
If you think that morale is unimportant and doesn't affect your bottom line, think again.
Morale, like trust, takes a lot of time to build up. And it takes very little time to melt away. It can also snowball, as one person with low morale can spread it around like a virus.
Raising morale takes understanding the people on your staff: how they behave, what motivates and drives them, and where their skills lie. And once you know that, it takes getting those people in the right places to leverage them. People are energized when they are in a place where their behaviors, motivations, and skills line up with their job.
And then high morale spreads, rapidly and contagiously.
We can help you improve the morale of your organization. Connect with us today.
That's your Tuesday Quick Thought.