Happy Teams are Productive Teams

Productivity transcends the individual and often involves teams, departments, and entire companies.  With the small explosion of books, such as the “Fish!” series, that promote having fun at work, employers and supervisors are searching for ways to make working for them enjoyable, fun, or rewarding.  Happy employees are productive employees.  They use fewer sick days, are on time, look for other ways to contribute to the organization, give their best, and contribute to the positive climate of the place.  Here are a few ways to boost morale under your watch:

• Greet your subordinates and welcome them in the mornings
• Listen to your employees when they need an ear
• Listen for employee accomplishments outside the department and share them with other employees
• Follow through with what you say you will do
• Send a positive email a day to a subordinate and copy his/her direct supervisor – be specific
• Write one thank you card per day to those whose efforts really stood out — be specific
• Use the 4:1 rule – for every criticism or correction, seek out four accomplishments or situations in which you can praise the same subordinate
• Praise good performance publicly
• Have a positive sharing time at the beginning of meetings
• Make an effort to see employees that you normally don’t see — I use a checklist for the purpose of making sure I contact each employee
• Celebrate milestones and small successes
• Celebrate birthdays
• Create and distribute a positive newsletter within the department — use it to recognize good performance
• Assign mentors or buddies to new employees
• Make it a point to spend more time with new employees
• Praise in a timely fashion
• Be creative in your praise — do different things
• Create your own Academy Awards for your department to be awarded
• Have a picnic
• Implement a Recognition Team
• Sing to your staff

Here are twelve more ideas from the Center for Creative Leadership.  What other ways that you make working for you enjoyable?

Comments

[N.]

In my experience I have found that if you are in the same room with someone, the communication and overall mood is better than having separate offices. Just having someone around can allow for more creativity (and more fun) in your tasks.

[ryan king]

A lot of those tips sound like things that any decent human being should do, not just people trying to manage a team.

[Bert]

Ryan--

How true! But it's amazing how the context of the workplace makes us forget these all too easily. I often come across managers who have the why-should-I-reward-them-for-doing-what-they-are-supposed-to-be-doing syndrome. I guess some of us need to simply be reminded and the others just need a good shaking. :)