Sales Morale 

 

 

The morale of the employees in an organization can make significant differences in customer satisfaction, productivity and employee retention.  Each year, private, public and governmental organizations spend millions of hard-earned revenue attempting to raise morale for the sake of harmony, retention and productivity.

 

The treatment of the people in your organization is a key factor in their overall morale. The concepts of Galatians 5: 22-23 can easily be applied as a template for any individual or company to insure continuous and long-term high morale levels.   

 

The Galatians concepts are listed below with a brief description.

 

1.     Love:  To practice a deep care and concern for others that says I place your welfare above mine.  From a gender perspective, men want respect and women prefer a deep care and concern about their welfare.  Practice these perspectives and people will go to war for you.

2.     Joy:  Not temporary happiness brought on by pleasant circumstances, but a profound, ever present joy, that says I am at peace.  It is non-judgmental and contagious by its very manner.  Exhibit joy as a leader and watch people wonder what you have and want some of it.

3.     Peace:  An aspect of joy that states the individual is calm and objective in all circumstances.  Panic and shortsightedness are not practiced, nor are they acceptable. Peace promotes approachability.

4.     Patience:  Allowing an issue or person to mature with evenhandedness.  Practicing patience does not mean tolerating slothfulness or being sloppy.  But, it does require insight and wisdom concerning what is reasonable and acceptable.

5.     Kindness:  The outer representation of the inner qualities of love, joy, peace and patience.  To treat others with respect and courtesy.   Common courtesy goes a long way towards maintaining smooth working relationships, even if it is time to reprimand or correct an individual.

6.     Goodness:  The outward manifestation of a set of high personal principles.  To be trustworthy, conscientious and consistent. Goodness promotes a trust in the leader that contributes to high morale.  

7.     Gentleness: Treating others with a level of understanding that matches their current understanding of the rules, guidelines and principles at operation in the company and its industry.  And even beyond that, practicing forgiveness.

8.     Faithfulness:  To adhere to Godly principles and the principles of operation in your organization without prompting or threat of penalty.  Trusting in those principles.  Your faithfulness should result in consistent treatment of all stakeholders in the organization.

9.     Self-Control:  An aspect of individual and organizational control that maintains integrity and realizes individual and corporate responsibility.  Adhering to a self-imposed set of standards consistent with treating others as you would wish to be treated.

 

Not only is morale a critical issue in your organization, but it is also the management’s responsibility.  If the nine steps listed above are being practiced, then several additional steps are very conducive to morale enhancement.  The level of job empowerment, personal participation and respect that clearly communicates to the employee that they are vital to the well-being of the organization are key issues to the employee. 

 

A significant level of personal motivation can be derived from having strong leaders in the organization. A condensed list of these leadership practices are included here.

 

•        Promotes participative decision making

•        Listens well

•        Develops and sticks to core values

•        Excellent communicator

•        Has empathy

•        Faces reality well

•        Has a vision for the future

 

Those employees who have reasonable incomes and viable benefit packages will be motivated by having a substantial say in their job functions; and will have a hope for the future by this empowerment.  If your associates lose hope for their future inside your organization, then look for low productivity, burn out symptoms and eventually their separation from the company.  Leadership also includes a close mentoring relationship with your associates that allow the leader to give regular thanks for the associates job efforts and results.

 

One important qualifier is the proper selection of people to match the job criteria.  Attempting to place an untrained person with a mismatched personality style for a specific job responsibility is a formula for low morale.  For example, asking a trained accountant with an introverted perspective to take on an outside sales responsibility is a poor choice.  Proper selection, mentoring and training are important aspects of the company’s responsibility to promote high morale. 

 

This management responsibility does not include attempting psychological care for dysfunctional people by the immediate manager.  But it will certainly include sufficient concern to refer these employees to professional caregivers.

 

During some previous research, I uncovered an excellent book on morale issues, which has a morale test for your group included.  The book is titled “Motivating and Rewarding Employees.”  New and Better Ways to Inspire Your People” by Alexander Hiam. 

 

Published by Adams Media Corp., 1999.   Hiam gives blanket permission to use his test provided on pages 43 to 46.

 

You may have noticed that this information does not recommend a tangible rewards program or continuous competition to keep morale at a high level.  Even money has proven to be a short-term motivator.  People truly do want to contribute and have control of their job functions.  Care, concern and empowerment.  Try these three key aspects of morale enhancement and watch your associates’ productivity rise!

 

Application: 

 

Is there an area of this list that you find personally or organizationally deficient?  Pick them out and systematically work to improve on these concerns.  Remember that radical change rarely happens quickly.