Home
>
Stress Management
>
Control Stress with High Morale

Control Stress with High Morale

When Army leaders fail to control battlefield stress, they lose as many soldiers to combat stress as they do to enemy bullets. Even when they are well trained, these soldiers are more likely to collapse in the face of great stress.

Units with high morale and esprit de corps, however, lose only 10% as many troops to stress. The training and preparation are important, but the high sense of teamwork makes all the difference.

This same sense of teamwork and belonging is important in the corporate environment. Where teamwork, morale, and esprit are good, the companies find improved productivity and increased profits. Employees are willing to sacrifice personal gain for the sake of the team.

Some of the bonding is so great that employees brand themselves the same way as the elite soldiers, wearing, wearing visible ID tags, logos, and apparel wherever they go.

Where morale and esprit are weak, employees refuse to wear these identifying symbols -- and productivity suffers as unmotivated employees pay more attention to personal gain than to the team effort.

If absenteeism, early departures, accidents and other problems make you think employees need a morale booster shot, you can try some of the following successful techniques.

1. Develop logo mugs, caps, shirts, or sweaters for everyone. You can do this annually to keep the items fresh, but you'll defeat your purpose if you buy cheap stuff.

2. Recognize team accomplishments with graduation certificates, plaques, mugs, and other items to brand teams and compliment individuals.

3. Povide logo items to special task force or problem solving team members upon completion of the project.

4. Sponsor special team nights out, in recognition of achievement or as an annual affair to encourage team bonding and relationships. People don't really have time for this type bonding on the job. Be sure to give corporate gifts at these events.

5. Establish athletic teams to compete with other departments. You pay the space expenses and equipment costs. Many corporate problems can be solved by getting team members to compete together.

6. Present special training for team members to enhance job performance and team relationships.

7. Send key team members for high-adventure training where physical excitement encourages bonding. Make sure everyone gets to participate in some way, even if they are in support of those taking part in the more adventurous outing.

8. Sponsor annual company picnics where teams compete in athletic events or participate in unique ways to provide food, entertainment for others in the organization.

9. Generate internal competition so departments compete for best overall improvement or fewest quality complaints. Be careful not to have internal teams competing for cash awards, e.g. annual bonuses, or you'll create a lot of negative stress and distrust that is hard to repair.

10. Leadership participation is important in each of these morale building team efforts. Leaders need to be a part of the competition and the adventure. They also need to personally award the logo items and compliment those teams that achieve.

Investment in team awards or recognition items is returned many times over through decreased stress, improved productivity, and decreased absenteeism. These efforts are even more important in hard times, so budget for morale building and esprit in good times and bad.

Get my free article on three kinds of workplace stress by sending blank email to 3kindsofstress@couragebuilders.com

Dale Collie - professional speaker, former US Army Ranger, CEO, and a Fast Company top 50 innovative leader. Author of "Winning Under Fire." (McGraw-Hill) 3kindsofstress@couragebuilders.com

Airbnb cleaning service Lake Forest ...

In The News:

Travel expert Katy Nastro says 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles vanished from her account after someone redeemed them without permission.

Google AI Overviews can't be permanently turned off, but adding -AI to your searches and using the built-in Web filter can help bypass AI summaries.

Attaxion researchers found 30 fake Texas campaign merchandise stores traced to just two sellers hawking gear for competing Republicans and Democrats.

GM plans to debut eyes-off driving in the Cadillac Escalade IQ by 2028, but safety testing reveals how long distracted drivers take to regain control.

Data brokers assign labels predicting your health, finances and religion based on browsing and purchases, then sell those profiles to businesses.

Elon Musk says he'll give one SpaceX share to every kid in America in 2027, but key details about eligibility and distribution remain unclear.

ClearSpace UK's robotic spacecraft with giant claws will chase down dead satellites at 17,000 mph, with a 2029 launch from Scotland planned.

A fake Social Security statement phishing email uses the SSA logo and a convincing layout, but the sender's domain instantly exposes the scam.

A clean credit report doesn't mean your identity is safe. Six ways criminals can steal from you without triggering a credit monitoring alert.

Carolyn Marvin, a 78-year-old retired professor, was arrested after blocking an Uber Eats delivery robot on a Philadelphia sidewalk for months.

The Midnight Mimosa malware campaign hides inside cheap Android phone firmware, giving attackers powerful access before owners even turn devices on.

The Fox News AI Newsletter covers the latest artificial intelligence technology advancements, including the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

Meta's Muse AI was built to manage tasks, but users are developing romantic AI relationships and even calling the AI companion their girlfriend.

A Minnesota murder suspect's notebook listed 11 people search websites, raising urgent questions about data broker opt-out and online privacy risks.

Google Universal Cart tracks price drops, surfaces promo codes and uses Google Wallet to match your best credit card rewards before checkout.

Safari's Notify Me feature and Google's price-tracking tools can monitor products and send alerts when prices drop on your iPhone or Android.

George Weiner built PACspam.org to trace who sends nonstop political fundraising texts after blocking numbers repeatedly failed to stop the messages.

A dedicated VPN IP address may reduce frustrating CAPTCHAs and bank login security checks by giving websites a consistent connection to recognize.

Apple Wallet in iOS 27 lets you create digital passes from physical cards using a photo or screenshot, but not every card in your wallet qualifies.

Anthropic's Claude AI submitted a fabricated eyewitness tip about an unsolved murder to a Philadelphia police website during automated testing.

P7 DarkSword iPhone spyware can steal saved passwords, photos, Apple Notes and cryptocurrency wallet data by checking for commands every 15 seconds.

Cybersecurity experts told Fox News Digital that a cyberattack on French supermarket freezers should warn the U.S. about critical infrastructure gaps.

The Oracle Health breach exposed medical records, Social Security numbers and diagnoses of nearly 20 million patients across multiple states.

The new Tesla Roadster drove upside down and launched into the air at SpaceX's Texas facility, but a 2028 production target remains unconfirmed.

Apple's iOS 27 lets you add keywords to iPhone photos, while Samsung Gallery tags and Google Photos search offer similar organization tools.

Control Stress with High Morale

Stress Management