MOST LIKELY: Talk to each member of the team to learn their perception of how things are going and what challenges are faced. Listen intently with a goal of finding out how they really feel, rather than managing or convincing them to think otherwise.
Ask questions that help you gauge their personal morale, such as “How well do you think we are recognizing your contributions?”, “How appreciated do you feel here at work”, or “How close is this job to your ideal work?” The goal is to find out each person’s individual level of morale, because everyone’s morale contributes to the group morale.
THis should give you some idea of what specific things you need to work on to improve the morale level of each individual.
LEAST LIKELY: Blame individuals or the team and implement punitive or restrictive measures to force improvement. This does not work.
Look for a scapegoat or some magic bullet “motivational” action to apply to all equally.
Motivating employees to work more effectively means doing the harder work of learning what motivates them and providing that within the framework of your organization over a long enough period of time to create lasting change.
