Well being comes from one place only — a positive culture

In today’s competitive disruptive environment, organizations are still focusing on the bottom line and prioritizing sales goals. But some organizations realize that the work culture at any organization depends largely on the morale of employees working, there. So these companies are offering incentives like working from home to free food. However, do these incentives work? A Gallup poll showed that, even when workplaces offered benefits such as flexitime and work-from-home opportunities, engagement predicted well being above and beyond anything else. Employees prefer workplace well being to material benefits. Well being originates from one place only — a positive culture.

 It’s therefore important that you as a leader ensure that everyone working with you feels taken care of. Without a positive employee culture, there is no way the work environment could be healthy, which in turn could easily deteriorate the overall productivity and the chances of being successful for the company.

Here we have 3 pointers that you could take into account, as someone in a leadership position, to foster a happy company culture at your workplace…

1. Give Every Employee Their Due Credit

You know what goes a long way in boosting the morale of a person? Positive reinforcements and recognition where it’s due. To praise your employees and reward them for their good work, is what motivates them to continue giving their best performance day in and day out. And no one’s asking you to go over the top while rewarding your employees; maybe a pizza party, or putting the fact that you loved a person’s work in writing - these are just a couple of ways you could make them feel appreciated.

Also, more than anything, employees should be provided with opportunities to advance the professional ladder based on their performance. This will not only make them feel valued and motivate them to work harder, but also eventually reduce the frequency of your top employees looking for work elsewhere.

2. Don’t Undervalue the Power of Transparency

Transparency is a huge part of good leadership. As a manager, you have to be able to justify your decision, whether it’s a promotion or a punishment. If your team believes you have been unfair to them in any way, you need to have an explanation for your decision. It could be that an employee believes they were unfairly reprimanded, or that their peer was unjustifiably promoted - whatever the case be, you have to elaborate on what was wrong with their work, and why their peer deserved the promotion. Also you need to share how their work could be improved so that they too could move up the hierarchical ladder. 

Remember that even a small explanation, if reasonable, can prove very useful in making sure your employees understand not just your individual decisions, but also the bigger picture you have in mind for the business and everyone involved.

3. Make Creativity an Integral Part of Every Work Day

Creativity is much more important than just from the standpoint of the final outcome; that is, people generally want their employees to be creative because it brings uniqueness to the final product or result at the end of a process. But, having a sense of creativity plays a bigger role in how a workplace functions on a daily basis. It keeps the mind fresh, helps in everyone staying motivated, and thus coming up with unique ideas and sometimes newer ways to work on the same old ideas.

Some ways to go about boosting employee morale are, holding weekend trips, indulging in bonding activities and team-building games, and having get-togethers after work hours, amongst other things. Mixing a little innocent fun with work, allowing your employees to disengage a few times a day, keeps the work environment healthy and interesting. It also has a positive effect on the employee retention rates.

Summary: As a leader, it is your responsibility that your employees enjoy working at the office. A positive office culture is the perfect ground for a creative mind to sow the seeds for brilliant ideas. This will eventually grow into success stories that a company, as a whole, gets to reap. #BeTheStar

Comments: What are some of the ways that you’ve employed in order to keep your employees happy and motivated to work every day? I love learning from my readers. Please do share your thoughts!

Author: Coach Vikram is a Star maker! He creates that Star leader in you so that you develop powerful executive presence, stand out, and build market dominance! Leaders in Asia and Europe have moved into senior management roles and cracked million dollar deals using Vikram’s innovative model of executive presence which is designed around: Behaviors of Focus, Power, and Warmth. Visit him at www.CoachVikram.com