Staff Morale

I want to increase staff morale and the attitude of "Yes We Can!", but am struggling to come up with some new ways instead of rehashing the old. I want to increase the face time my managers have with the corporate office and give them a better sense of being heard. I also want my managers not to fear the current economic climate and instead, approach it with the willingness to try new things. If the sales skills of 10 and 20 years ago no longer apply, I want them to try something new and bold. However, I think I am going to face a small margin of resistance, fear, and a defeatist mentality.

Is anyone else starting (or already initiated) a different type of program to reenergize their staff? Any suggestions? Any success?

Throw what you have at me, please.:silly:

Hi-
I work for a company that is named YES Communities. And it was developed with that YES we Can attitude in mind. I just started with them in December and came from working with 3rd party mangement companies (OH THE HORROR)!! So this idea that a company based their whole philosophy on the YES ATTITUDE, was a great change. All of their property signage starts with YES, No negative signs. They also have all of their promotional material with that same YES attitude and mentality plus a list of rules that every employee has taped to their desk to see everyday:
1. YES is a great place to work
2. YES I can help
3. YES The customer comes first
4. YES I listen to the customer
5. YES We have trust
6. YES I have a YES attitude
7. YES I can make a decision
8. YES I am a professional
9. YES It takes a team
10.YES I have a life

All of the employees think everyday on answering questions with that YES attitude, handling changes with that YES attitude, etc.
Although it is simple, this company philosophy has become an ingrained part of the team's outlook. I hope that this will give you ideas on your own team philosophy and help recharge their batteries...

Do a lot of researching on finding unusual, interesting stories about workers who thought "outside of the box" and had success. It'll take a little time, but it will be inspiration plus direction when you present it.

In a previous job, we had initiated an opportunity for each staff member to select an award/perk from a previously agreed upon listing, such as a round of golf; a day off; tickets to Colts and Pacers games; bicycles; gym memberships and the like.
Our goal was to create and imbue a sense of teamwork, while at the same time - competition with our member staff. It tended to work rather well, and the overhead was covered by the media budget at first, later we developed a line item specified as such. I suggest you think over ways to motivate from within as you understand your own unique staff, and what drives them.

Bob

What an awesome subject - pat yourself on the back for taking the time to think of others first.

My first word of advice is this - it takes a massive amount of time and energy to really engage people and in the same breath I would suggest, it makes all the difference in the world. But, get your mind right before you venture down this path as it will demand things from you that you could never imagine. Opening people up and getting to the core of what drives them is a compelling adventure and one that comes with a ton of reward and a ton of adversity. That is if you truly go all out with it.

I suggest you start with the classic: 7 habits of highly effective people by Covey. Purchase the book and the work book and really go about deeply studying the material yourself. Then teach it to your constituents. The act of learning the material and then teaching it will ultimately imbue it in your soul - it will naturally flow out of you in ways you will be surprised by.

Warning: this can get deep very quickly and you have to be prepared to take on the responsibility of creating a very safe learning and sharing environment.

The chief aim here is to aim the work inside - go to work on the character of people. The byproduct is exactly what you are looking for - Yes we can becomes a living breathing mantra and not just a statement.

At the end of the day people don't care about anything you put in front of them until they know how much you care about them as people first and employees second. They care when they know you care. Get in the hearts and souls of people and they will do anything in the world for you. Serve them first and they will serve you to the ends of the earth. Engage them and they will engage your end user.

This is powerful stuff and I applaud you in thinking about it.

I look forward to hearing about the adventure.

Very nice subject. It is refreshing to read everyone's posts. How sweet it is when we don't bury our head in the sand because of the doom and gloom that is on the media everyday. Positive energy from the leaders in a company is contagious. When the team's energy is positive... watch out world!

Thanks Mike and Jonathan! I second those posts whole-heartedly! We began the endeavor this morning by bringing in Kate Good, and I have to admit, though this is completely cheeseball, the smiles on peoples faces as they laughed their way through was contagious. :laugh: Between Kate and a new contest rolling out... I think we initiated a stronger sense of team today... can't wait to see how it goes and I will update accordingly! Plus... the corporate level made a point of getting behind their managers and assuming accountability WITH them. Makes all the difference... How does it go... "You don't get paid for what you do, you get paid for what your staff do."? Makes sense to me!

On top of the Covey books, I recommend the ENTIRE "Carrot" series. I own every single one of these books and I'll tell you, they are VERY helpful for setting up reward/incentive programs. Also are the 1001 ways to reward employees and 1001 ways to energize employees books. I can't remember the author's name, but they're on my book list on my blog if you want to pull them. Very good and very inspiring case studies.

And how awesome are you to be focusing on making it better, not just on making it profit? Love it, Tara. Keep the good heart rooted in what you're doing and you can't go wrong!

Okay, so I am looking at this issue from two fronts... I was a property manager and one of the things that I took very seriously and believe I did well with was maintaining a strong rapport and positive team mentality on my property. I think it is the cornerstone of any property's success. But what are companies doing from the top down... What are companies doing at a corporate level (i.e. policy, mission statement, events) to maintain the team mentality? How are they ensuring the narrowed gap between the "us vs. them" mentality that can exist between the field and the corporate level? As my position has changed, so has my need to look at things from a different perspective.

If staff morale is being affected by the current economy as it affects leasing, I would offer these thoughts:

1. Dr. Deming's business philosophy was instrumental for Japanese businesses (google "toyota" and "deming") after WWII and can be transformational for the property management business. Essentially, "workers" perform within systems derived from management. If one makes a list of the parts of the "system" that leasing staff have little or no impact on, it can seem endless: the mix of the property, the design of the units, the pricing scheme, the design of the property, the location of the property, the marketing plan for the property, the customer mix of the property, the application approvals of the property, the local economic conditions, the quality of competitors, the choice of capital improvements, and on and on.

2. Therefore, I emphasize to our leasing staff that they only can affect those aspects of the "system" that they have control over. It is at this juncture that we discuss getting back to the basics of leasing. How well are we following up on inquiries, what barriers are there to our ability to follow up on inquiries, are we performing well over the phone (name, number and appointment), etc.

3. Dr. Deming's famous 14 points for the transformation of management and the 7 deadly diseases can be found at deming.org and elsewhere online.

Rick Hevier
Richard Hevier
Richard S. Hevier
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