Why do managers create low morale as a product of their management and what can we do about it?

The answer to the initial question is easy.

We all know what managers do to the workforce that causes the workforce to feel the way they do about their jobs.

The managers never listen to the workforce, they never give the workforce any respect, they don't value the workforce and they spend their time "managing" by telling people what to do.

The much harder question is "What can we do about it?"

It is first necessary to understand the logic of why the manager creates low morale?

Low morale is not a situation that the manager wants.

The manager knows that low morale has a destructive effect on performance, he knows that discontent causes employees to leave and he knows how expensive it is to recruit and train replacements, yet he still behaves in the same way that produces the same environment for his workforce that causes these problems.

We can only assume that the manager, for whom morale is a problem, does not know how to manage people.

This may seem to be a criticism but in actual fact, of all the time spent training people to manage, almost the whole of that time is spent training them to manage inanimate things.

Inventory, Process, Law, Data, Statistics, Strategy, Planning, Legislation etc.

Very little, if any, time is spent teaching managers how to manage people.

If managers have never been taught how to manage people we can't criticise them for creating low morale when they try.

A popular tactic for people who don't know how to do something is to frighten other people so that their level of ability will not be questioned.

In this way the manager builds a defence to ensure that his behaviour cannot be criticised.

He deliberately makes people afraid to communicate with him to protect the illusion that he knows what he is doing.

His behaviour creates a defensive position behind which he sits and which distorts his view of reality in such a way that it reinforces his belief that he is a good manager.

His belief in himself, that he is a good manager, means that the morale problem must therefore be coming from somewhere else.

If we were able to show the Manager the real effect of what he does to the workforce then his perception of his role and his behaviour would change dramatically.

In order for the manager to understand the effect of what he does to the workforce it is necessary for him first to understand the way the workforce see themselves and how the way they see themselves differs from the way that the manager behaves towards them.

There is a huge disconnect between how people see themselves and the treatment they have to put up with at work.

There are 6 Billion people on this planet and It is safe to suggest that very few of them, when asked, Are you an individual? Would answer, No!

And yet this is how they are treated at work.

Nobody listens to their ideas, nobody values their opinions, and nobody gives them any recognition.

The manager may not perceive his behaviour in this way, because he thinks he is a good manager, but his is the behaviour that we exhibit towards worthless things.

It makes the workforce feel worthless to be treated this way.

It is impossible for the workforce to tolerate this behaviour from management because it conflicts with their own view of themselves. The workforce know that they are all valuable individuals.

The only way that the workforce can deal with managers who treat them in this way is to disengage and ignore their behaviour.

In the workplace this is seen as being Sullen, Uncommunicative, having a Poor Attitude, Low Morale or Apathy.

Knowing why the workforce feels this way allows us to understand that the "Low Morale" is not a function of the workforce, it is instead a function of the way that the workforce is treated by their manager.

To change the way that the workforce feels about what they do we have to change the environment that they work in.

Their working environment is created by the way their managers behave towards them.

To change the working environment we have to change the way that the managers behave towards the workforce.

To do that the managers have to be able to see the consequences of what they do.

But how can they do that?

If a good manager asks his workforce for their opinion of him he will receive their expressions of approval and be satisfied that he is doing a good job.

If a bad manager asks his workforce for their opinion then he too will receive their expressions of approval because as we all know, the best way to get a bad manager off your back is to agree with him.

The problem for the manager is how to find out if he is good, and adding value to the organisation, or if he is bad, interfering and preventing the workforce from performing tasks that they are perfectly capable of doing well on their own.

To get honest feedback we have to be able to look in the mirror.

The problem the manager faces is that his own behaviour distorts the reflection away from the true one towards the one that the workforce thinks he wants to see.

If a manager asks his workforce what they think of him the answer will be coloured by the fact that the manager is the person who decides wage increases, promotions and allocation of work.

The employee is going to find it very difficult to tell the boss something that the boss does not want to hear.

The responsibility therefore lies with the manager to create the environment in which the employees can provide a true reflection

This requires an understanding of what behaviour the Manager exhibits that stops the employee providing a true reflection and the discipline to once having identified this behaviour, to stop doing it.

What is the required answer to the question, Does my bum look big in this?

And what is the real answer.

The behaviour of the person asking the question determines the answer they get, not whether it is the right answer or not.

The behaviour of the manager towards his workforce determines whether the workforce tell him the truth or not.

The soft skills that enable the manager to behave in a way that allows him to hear the truth are the key skills for a manager.

While the manager remains unaware of these soft skills there is only a remote possibility of his discovering how to manage effectively.

Peter A Hunter
Author of "Breaking the Mould"
http://www.breakingthemould.co.uk

If you have ever experienced or learnt something which you then knew was instinctively right - you will never have forgotten it. Peter Hunter leant something years ago which, regrettably, most of us have still yet to learn. When we do - once we have understood the simplicity of his book 'Breaking the Mould' - it will transform our lives forever! ? Business Workout.