Hello! Today, we’ll be diving into a somewhat touchy topic. We’ll define where the leadership line stops regarding guidance versus sympathy and why. It’s an important leadership tenet to understand because it can make your business- seriously. Grab some coffee (my wife has reminded me it’s Pumpkin Spice season), and let’s get into it!
The Reality of Sympathy vs Guidance
Our perspective on the world determines our morals and attitudes in our lives and business outlooks. In The Sales Leaders Gameplan, I share a sentiment that is frequently mentioned, “the morale of the team is down because of recent company changes, cuts in benefits, and employee layoffs.”
Yes, these are real issues that impact our staff and employees. I’ll never diminish the real emotions affecting our team and us. No good leader gleefully lays off people who have served in their company. But this is a necessary part of business at times for various reasons. The sentiment should not stop at “morale is low” but instead go on to address how to change the team’s perspective. Leaders cannot afford to focus solely on the hard but necessary changes and all the emotions raised because of it. Your people need you now more than ever; sympathy reaffirms that team morale should be negative. As the leader, it’s important that you channel that energy into changing your staff’s perspective.
When leaders face low employee morale, their job is to acknowledge the difficulty but also hold their team members accountable by teaching them to be grateful before they can be successful.
So, how can you go about doing this? Stick with me on this one and keep on reading to find out.
Guidance on Changing Perspectives
Changing your team’s perspective is an empathetic approach that validates their feelings, but sitting in it is not helpful or purposeful if the business is to succeed. You all still need your job, so giving your staff hope and understanding is important. Here are a few outlooks that offer guidance on changing perspectives (including yours).
- Staff – “The workload has increased due to the layoffs.” Your response:
- Highlight that each individual now has the opportunity to step up.
- Challenge them to own the job in a tone that reminds them this is the only way we will turn this around. Stress that it is their commitment and willingness that will guarantee the continued success of the business.
- Leader – “It’s so difficult to hit KPIs because of bad morale.” Your self-reflection:
- Realize that you are the ONLY person who can change it.
- Recognize morale is not a result of hard but necessary business practices. Morale is the result of the actions or lack of actions of you, the leader, and how you guide your team.
- Staff- “I don’t have it in me to push. I’m frustrated that I’ve lost my colleagues.” Your response:
- Remind them that they have the choice to stay and complain with only misery as the outcome. OR they, too, can leave for something else, with an understanding that this can happen in any business. But if they stay and be grateful to have still a job, they can move forward with a purpose.
A Word on Happiness
Yes, layoffs are difficult situations for teams to overcome. Again, the immediate after-effect does stir up negative emotions. But happiness cannot be found by standing still and wading in that negativity. Know this:
Stop searching for happiness. It is not a destination; rather, it is a state of being…Deep down, everybody truly wants to be happy; however, people are not happy because they are successful—they are successful because they are happy.
It’s a leader’s job to establish motivation and happiness. But remember that being happy does not mean being content. The thing about contentment is that it contributes to bad morale. In my book, I liken it to “quicksand; anybody can fall in it, and it will continue to pull people down until they are gone or until a leader challenges them and pulls them out.”
Adding to that, if you project unhappiness and tolerate contentment, then expect a content and unhappy team.How you move forward happily, positively, and with a purpose will set up your team for the win. You have it within you to lead your team to greatness, which means overcoming life’s bumps in the road.
