Your team’s morale is low. How can you improve employee engagement in Enterprise Software?

When team morale has dipped, it is important to focus on recognition to incentivize employee engagement and contribution. Many times, the criteria for positive recognition is a sales goal or KPI metrics but in some cases, these are long-tailed goals with highs and lows before the finish line. In these types of situations it is important to recognize and give positive feedback on the behaviors and habits that move the needle. Knowing that you are headed in the right direction makes all the difference.

Leaders must effectively communicate a compelling vision to maintain team enthusiasm and engagement. Regularly linking individual tasks to the overarching goals, soliciting feedback, and involving the team in decision-making processes are crucial. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and purpose. By demonstrating how each role contributes to the bigger picture and adapting the vision as needed, leaders can inspire action, cultivate a culture of innovation, and ensure alignment and motivation. Successful leadership hinges on embedding the vision into daily operations and embracing input from all team members.

The vision is important, but also the reason why the engagement of your employees is low. Go to the rooth of the problem and make sure you find a solution which is suitable for everybody. Be honest and also make sure that you admit mistakes you have done (if this is the case)

In my experience there are a few ways to improve engagement when it comes to Enterprise Software. The following are some areas I've seen work in my past: - Colleagues genuinely feel they have a voice in the process, how it is designed, what is important to capture and how the flow can be flexible. Think of an interview process, keep it loose. - Compensation based on clearly defined goals and achievements. Additionally, understanding Enterprise Software is complex, exercising flexibility in schedule and tasks, where appropriate, keeps morale higher. (IE unforeseen customization needed to bridge a gap, timeline extended, project team should not necessarily be penalized) - Consistent team check-ins and temperature checks. Listen to their needs

Show empathy while ensuring you understand the problem. Quick action can appear disingenuous. Collaboration on a solution can surface hidden challenges as well as unique solutions. Commit to resolution and share incremental progress.

I have found when team morale is low both team and individual recognition can be extremely helpful. This can be both publicly and privately where appropriate. Incentives are not always necessary or possible but there are some great tools such as hey taco that can help provide a transparent and rewarding (literally) tool.

If morale is low, the root cause is most likely in either purpose or culture. A culture issue is often harder to address than helping a team explore how their work can connect with personal purpose. You need to scratch beyond the surface to find out what it is that people are NOT saying, how they feel, observe how people treat each other, how they celebrate when things go well but even more importantly how they deal with failures. To create a foundation of trust you can ask the team questions like "what do we want to be known for" or "how do we want to work together" in order to define common values that you then, as a team, evaluate everything you do against, showing that how we achieve something is just as important as what we achieve.

Its Always try to catch someone doing something right. Morale not only for individuals but for the whole team uplifted and enhanced, by rewarding even on small things

There are multiple factor which works physiologically for employee & one of these is Recognition. Same as we declared result every quarter , we need also recognize the effort of employee who contributed to achieve it. Not necessary it is monetary reward , It can also be verbal, using appreciation email or certificate or coupons etc. It will charge employee & activate them to add more effort.

From my experience whenever team morale is low it normally is due to a breakdown in both communication and expectations from leadership. Specifically from a software developer standpoint, being harped on about KPIs and "hitting incentives" can be incredibly soul crushing and lead to chronic burnout. This issue is amplified when you have team members who tie a lot of their self worth to the work they deliver. You'd be surprised how far a few words of encouragement or moments of recognition will go. People like to feel appreciated and those that feel appreciated tend to produce better work and are less likely to add to a company's turnover.

An aspect that influences employee engagement is collaboration and learning. Working in matrixed enterprise software requires adaptation and innovation. Coordination and cooperation among different teams and stakeholders. You need to create a culture of collaboration and learning on your team. People can share ideas, knowledge and best practices and support each other in solving problems and overcoming challenges. You also need to provide opportunities and skills, tools and technologies, to grow professionally and personally. Learn from peers who have already aquired these skills.

Building enterprise software is not for the faint of heart as it takes a combination of multiple skills to deliver the desired piece of software. But the path from dev to production is full of set backs and frequent failures and that weighs on the team morale. The way I encourage the team is by providing them clear sense of purpose and leading them on a path with sign postings. What it means in practice is to let the team demo the end-to-end functionality (and NOT the individual user stories) which allows them to connect with the business. The business sees clear value and provides positive feedback by letting them know how this new functionality will enable the business to achieve more in less time. Such feedback rejuvenates team spirit.

A strong emphasis on collaboration and learning is central to success in the dynamic field of enterprise software. We will actively work to break down silos and encourage cross-team collaboration. Piloting initiatives such as knowledge-sharing sessions and hackathons can foster innovation and drive creative problem-solving. Investing in professional development programs will also be a priority, ensuring our team has the necessary skills and knowledge to excel. By fostering a collaborative and growth-oriented environment, we can unlock the full potential of our team and achieve exceptional results.

A team culture based on collaboration and continuous learning cannot be achieved by leads who do not serve as a role model. How to achieve collaboration within the team? Motivate them to work together on shared topic, slice & dice the topic and distribute the work. Pick up a topic responsibility as a lead but rely on the team results. Accept the results but ask the team what could be better next time. As for the collaboration with other teams, communities are the places where you can raise team knowledge and support whenever it is required. To make this possible you require the right tools for the purpose (e.g.Microsoft Teams for collaboration). This investments are worth it, especially if a tool is used that saves time for team activities.

Collaboration and learning are key for keeping employees engaged, especially in fast-paced fields like enterprise software. Creating a team culture where everyone shares ideas and supports each other makes solving problems easier and helps everyone grow. It's important to give your team chances to learn new skills and technologies. This not only helps them personally but also improves the team's work. By focusing on learning and working together, your team will do better and be happier.

In my view while there is no 'i' in teams but ultimately there are individuals who form the team. Each one of them needs nurturing, mentoring. If we take care of their well being and work life balance, they will be much more productive. A small gesture can go a long way...

Work life balance is definitely important & when employee see that organization promote not only work but also their contribution towards there well being, employee feel good & see organization as 2nd home and always focus to deliver more for it.

This is key for any behavioural change. We can make a change from a place of low motivation and low energy. So if you ask employees to change how they work, for this to be successful they need to show up with high energy. Now who’s responsibility it is to make sure employees show up with high energy …. That in an entire other debate!

Zero tolerance for mobbing, regular interruptions, discrimination or unethical behavior! But this should be the basis for everyone in a conversation everywhere. Functional relationships between people can only work long term if personal set boundaries are respected. Time pressure is observed on daily basis but to force people to deliver more than they want will not work for long relationships and team boundaries. Based on the current situation as a team you should know the delivery speed and jointly improve step by step. I disagree that a lead can influence on someone's luck perception. We are all responsible ourself for our emotions. Do not try to change the others, change yourself!

My strongest piece of advice to future leaders is to build trusted relationships. I have found that one of the biggest drivers of morale is trust and transparency in leadership. As a leader you may not have all of the answers but you can build an effective and motivated team through empathy and trust

Leaders walking the talk can be truly inspirational esp when the chips are down This could start with some turnaround real life events, presenting data points which establish connect and give desired outcomes or simply owning up the situation by accepting a mistake with assurance to makeup lost ground/trust

There will certainly be distractions and situations which can affect morale of team/employees. Some important points to keep the team motivated are: 1. Be transparent and open in communication by spelling out the vision/goals and guide the team on how those goals can be achieved. 2. Need to understand from the team what are the factors that are hampering their daily tasks and what are the fears/concerns which affects their motivation level and address them in best possible way. 3. Making aware about the achievements, direction, future plans of the company and make the employees aware how individual growth & company growth are linked and how their contribution matters for the company to grow and in turn will help team/employees grow.

In my experience, if one allows and enables people to do the right thing, they will. And if one makes it difficult to do the right thing with convoluted process and red tape, expect the opposite.

I always try to remember the three basic psychological needs that all team members have: 1. Autonomy - being the master of your own destiny 2. Relatedness - being part of a greater whole (belonging) 3. Competence - being capable of meeting and exceeding the expectation Anything we can do, as leaders, to foster these three things will help people be more satisfied in their careers.

Ask the question: Why? More often that not, you may be surprised at the answer. When you understand the issue, then you can address it and support the person even better.

Demonstrate that you a human person and that you are there by their side, and that you understand we all have families to care for. Trust the team and let them help you to achieve the vision. Give some control back to them.

I specialize in using The Predictive Index to build teams that excel. It works using people data and then aligning to the goal of the team,