Where to even begin with the idea of morale. We have all heard the quote; “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Well, what if you don’t? That’s a discussion in itself.
What I would like to focus on in this post is a little more specific. What happens when you work with someone who doesn’t love what they do? And even more to the point, the person who makes it clear that they don’t even enjoy sharing your work space with you.
I am a firm believer that attitudes are contagious and that there is a lot of truth to the idea that it only takes one apple to spoil the entire box.
“Happy employees are more for quality and outcome. They create an atmosphere that reduces conflict and turnover, which makes customers satisfied and happy.” – Abe Bakhsheshy, Director of Customer Service, University of Utah Hospital
I have posted several times on the concept of how our environment impacts our world. I suggest that company morale is no different. So there are two sides of the coin here – one, you can have a strong enough environment that will squeeze out that bad apple or two, that bad apple will ruin the entire box.
Now I often preach that you should not show up with a problem without a solution. So here it is … if you can’t save the rest of the box, you better eliminate the rotten apple before they all go bad.
I know that sounds a little harsh, but sometimes there is simply no saving the apple. That being said, there are many times when you can. I know this is pretty simplistic, but think about the “rotten” apples you have seen in your life. Some are only bad in one area and even though we could cut the bad part out and save most of it, we (at least some of us – my wife is the master of saving every last bit of any fruit or vegetable for the juicer) throw the whole thing away.
So can it be saved? That’s the question that has to be asked. Sometimes all you need to do is remove a little bit and the rest of the box is saved. The challenge is how much has to be removed to get rid of the bad part and will there be enough left to make it worth keeping.
OK, enough about apples. The bottom line is that it only takes a little bit of negativity to bring down the whole team and someone has to decide when the overall morale of the organization is being impacted by the actions of one or a few people.
There is a lot to be said about chemistry and the working dynamic of any group of people. I mentioned earlier that I believe that attitudes are contagious. This works both ways. I have often been accused (and rightfully so) of seeing the good in someone as a reason to overlook some of the bad. Sometimes the negative is simply too much to overcome.
I believe that any team holds the power to influence their environment and can steer negativity in a more positive direction. The one thing that has to be present for this to work is the willingness for the negative person to change. A team is as strong as it’s weakest link – right?
Well, the fact is that no matter how strong your chain is, there will always be a “weakest link.” Your job as a member of that team is to keep your link strong and you do this by maintaining a good attitude and doing your part to keep morale high.
My encouragement to you today is to identify that weak link, if you don’t already know what it is, and rather that try and replace it, figure our how to make it stronger.
Very rarely does the entire chain get replace so your team will only be as strong as you collectively make it. I guess I do have a question … “How strong is your chain?”
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Barry Smith 7/22/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
