SUBJECT: Building morale
APPLICATION: Techniques to battle low morale

Management Memo
By Thomas P. Sattler, Ed.D., and Julie E. Mullen, M.S.

Low morale at your facility can cause headaches, staff turnover, member resignations and, ultimately, lost dollars. Managers are wise to recognize and understand the warning signs of low morale so that they can battle it with morale-building artillery consider the following techniques from Cox and Hoover's book, Leadership When the Heat is On.

  1. Match responsibility to competence. This should seem fairly obvious you never want an aerobics instructor to substitute as a lifeguard without proof certification. Your staff, members and overall quality will suffer if people are not qualified for their position. While it is acceptable to challenge people to reach beyond their limits, be cautious about overloading them with responsibility. Without proper motivation, support and resources, even the most talented employees can sink instead of swim in these situations. By contrast, proper levels of responsibility for each employee foster feelings of accomplishment.
  2. Keep jobs interesting. Some jobs, by nature, have more mundane responsibilities than others. Try to enhance the interest of a job by consulting with staff members about more efficient methods of quality control, and by rotating boring tasks if possible. Also, provide recognition and feedback to let people know how important their role is to the organizations overall mission.
  3. Welcome new ideas. Resist the temptation to be content with the status quo. Don't feel threatened by change and new ideas. Employees will bury their creativity, and your organization will suffer. To enhance a job's interest, encourage your employees to brainstorm new ideas for programming, sales and marketing, and other important club activities.
  4. Recognize and affirm employees. There seems to he no such thing as too much positive feedback from a manager. Managers who fail to acknowledge the important contributions of individuals are missing a simple opportunity, to foster high morale and will end up losing staff members. Post certifications, awards and publicity, that your staff or facility receives. Feature staff members in the newsletter. Send letters occasionally to them at home to let them know how much you appreciate them. Demonstrate interest in them personally by taking one person to coffee or lunch every week or so. Give them a gift for their employment anniversary. Announce their successes in staff meetings or memos. The list can go on interminably. The point is to affirm your most valuable resource: your staff members.
  5. Foster team work. Extremely introverted and shy people do not tend to excel in the fitness industry. Hire outgoing folks who like to work with others. Hold regular meetings to gather people together and generate communication. When brainstorming new ideas, invite employees from different departments to provide input, then assign them to a task force to attack the issue. If appropriate at your facility, sponsor friendly competitions among teams of employees. Form athletic teams to compete in local leagues, host annual parties or organize trips to encourage people to get to know each other outside work. Enhance your presence in the community by having employee teams tackle a local project or volunteer effort.
  6. Take care of yourself. An effective leader is one who practices what he or she preaches, and serves as an admirable example for overall attitude and morale. Managers set the mood and tone, and establish the momentum for their facilities. Because their attitudes are infectious, if their hearts are not committed to the success of their organization, staff will notice and tend to adopt the same disposition. As a manager, be sure to set personal goals, recognize your achievements, take breaks and reward yourself for your hard work. Continually challenge yourself, get additional training and expand your knowledge base so that you are satisfied and better equipped to manage others.

Enhance the interest of a job by consulting with staff members about more efficient methods of quality control and by rotating boring tasks.

Thomas P. Sattler, Ed. D., professor of kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Julie E. Mullen, M.S., is a fitness/wellness specialist for the Chicago Federal fitness centers, which are sponsored by the Division of Federal Occupational Health of the Public Health Service.

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