Morale is a decisive component for any team to be successful because everything we do as a team is done by human beings. And people aren’t robots where they can simply be programmed, turned on, set to “maximum effort” and sent off to execute. Human beings, unlike robots, have emotions, beliefs, different motivations that drive them, egos, and morale. All of these components of humanity dictate how much effort and dedication any one person can put into the mission.
Throughout every mission, people are going to constantly be faced with the same basic choice: To do the right thing, otherwise known as the thing that is going to move the team closer to success, or the wrong thing, also known as the thing that will impede the team’s success. What the team needs is for as many of its members to be making the right choices as frequently as possible. That is what creates improvement and progress and, ultimately, what accomplishes the mission. And if the individuals on the team have high morale, they are much more likely to choose discipline, to choose sacrifice, and to choose a higher level of dedication that will help the team.
How Can You Improve Morale?
Morale can always be improved upon, whether it is at an all-time low or even at an all-time high. And the way that this can be accomplished lies within the Laws of Combat.
Cover and Move
In order for Morale to be improved, the team must have a culture of true teamwork. This means that individuals on the team must be putting the team before themselves. They have to know that if they are struggling, the team will be there to support them. And, they must always be willing to support other team members.
There is nothing that will destroy morale more than when a person feels like they are alone in their struggles and efforts. But, it is the camaraderie that comes from true teamwork that can create the highest morale even in the most dire of circumstances.
For example, the Greeks on the last day of the Battle of Thermopylae. There were less than 1,000 of them left alive, and they faced hordes of hundreds of thousands of Persians, who they also knew were flanking them from the rear. They knew with about 100% certainty that they wouldn’t live past the morning. However, their morale remained as high as it had ever been, and they fought heroically to the last man. The reason they did that was because they knew that every Greek to their left and their right was supporting them, and they wanted to do the same for their brothers.
Essentially, that camaraderie is relationships. At Echelon Front, we break down relationships into five components: trust, listening, respect, influence, and, likely, the most important and influential when it comes to morale is care.
The people on your team have to know that you care about them. There are many different ways to show this, but perhaps the most powerful is to take part in the team’s suffering. Do not remove yourself from the difficulty. Instead, share the burden with them. There were two kings at the Battle of Thermopylae: Xerxes, of Persia, and Leonidas of Sparta. Without it needing to be said, it is obvious which army had higher morale. While Xerxes sat up on a cliff watching the battle from his throne in the shade, far away from danger, Leonidas was on the front lines, going toe to toe with the enemy alongside his fellow Greeks. And, day after day, the Persians would retreat until, finally, the overwhelming weight of numbers defeated the Greeks. But, even so, the Greeks never retreated and never gave up.
So, if you want your people to have high morale, show them that you care.
Simple
To raise morale, you must consistently communicate with your team. This is especially true when things aren’t going well. Your people have to understand what’s going on, the reason for the problems, and what can be done to improve the situation.
Think about a situation that we have all been in before: sitting on a plane that should have departed 20 minutes ago, but with no word from the crew about why you are leaving late, and when you can expect to leave. If the lack of communication lasts for long enough, it can turn people against ever using that airline again.
On the other hand, consider how much better your morale and your feelings about the airline would be if they regularly communicated what was happening, what was being done to get you out of there, and an updated time of departure. While you might still be frustrated, you are likely more capable of coping with the situation. In other words, your morale would be higher.
Every team will face tough times at some point. But, what will turn a tough time even worse is the team not knowing what is happening, and not being able to identify the light at the end of the tunnel. In other words, if you have a team, things are bad, and you don’t say anything until something catastrophic happens, morale will tank. But, if you consistently update the team with your awareness of the situation, what’s causing it, what is being done, and how they can contribute, while the situation may still be bad, morale won’t be damaged nearly as much. It may even be improved.
Finally, it is absolutely vital to remember that you have to tell the truth. Lying or omitting the truth won’t solve problems, and it won’t improve morale in the long term.
Prioritize and Execute
In order for morale to be high, people must be able to see progress in some way. Even if it’s just a tiny bit of progress in one small thing, they have to be moving forward. And, in order to ensure that this happens, you have to make sure that they are staying focused on the correct priorities that will move the team forward.
The core component of this tool of Prioritize and Execute is detachment. At Echelon Front, we say that detachment is a superpower. We also say that detachment is contagious. How you conduct yourself in difficult times will set the example for how the team should behave and think. If, in difficult or stressful times, you let your emotions take over, act irrationally, and panic, then your team will as well. But, if you remain calm, stay detached, and make iterative decisions, the team will see that and follow suit.
The only way that you can see the decisions that need to be made and the actions that need to be taken to improve morale is to stay detached.
Decentralized Command
If there is one thing that human beings absolutely need in order to feel positive about their situation, it is control of their destiny. If the members of your team don’t feel like the actions they take and the decisions they make can affect their situation, then it is highly unlikely they will maintain high morale.
The Vietnam POWs in the Hanoi Hilton were in, arguably, one of the most difficult positions that any human being can be in. Locked in rooms by themselves and forcibly prevented from communicating with any of their brothers in arms. However, while they could have simply caved to questioning and given the Vietnamese all the information they could, it required copious amounts of torture before they would even give in a little bit. This is partly because while they seemingly had very little control over their lives, they found ways to make their actions matter. They found little ways that they could fight back and make a difference like the Tap Code, blinking in Morse Code when they were on camera, and sneaking little bites of food.
If you give your people Ownership of the mission, it will give them the control that humans desire, and when they have control, their morale will improve.
Lastly, the team must understand the why. They have to understand how all this suffering, effort, and sacrifice is going to benefit the mission. But, they also must understand how it will ultimately improve their lives and the lives of the people they care about.
The Spartans at Thermopylae knew for a fact that they were going to die before they ever marched to the battlefield. But they still fought tooth and nail every day because they knew that their sacrifice was going to buy time for the rest of Greece to mount a defense and save their families.
Conclusion
A strong morale is how your team will make it through challenging missions and situations. It is how they will bounce back when things go wrong. And, as a leader, in any position on the team, you have the ability to improve the morale of the people around you, and the entire team. The ability to do that lies within the Laws of Combat.
