Arianna Huffington has weighed in on The Great Resignation. She writes, “The Great Resignation is really a Great Re-evaluation. What people are resigning from is a culture of burnout and a broken definition of success.”

That sounds about right at the big picture level: Fundamental changes are needed in the way people work and live. But what if you’re a leader who is feeling burned out but you don’t want to resign or have your people resign? What do you do then?

That’s a great question, and I have some ideas for you. But first let me comment on a misconception about what works best to boost morale. A lot of time, we think morale boosters have to be grand gestures: team building retreats, awards, bonuses, promotions, and so on. While those can certainly play a role in boosting morale, I believe the everyday doses of appreciation, empathy and positivity can have the greatest impact over time.

Wouldn’t you love to know about some simple strategies to boost morale and reduce burnout, things you can do in staff meetings, 1:1s and other already scheduled contexts?

In a coaching session last week, my client and I talked about her goal of boosting morale on her team. They were down three team members but the workload remained constant. The Omicron wave of COVID was in full force, and her department supported a hospital system so they were directly impacted by the surge. She was afraid her people would leave their jobs, transfer to another department, or lose productivity. She couldn’t afford to lose any more team members.

I asked her what she was already doing to boost morale and here are a few things she told me:

Noticed and acknowledged people’s efforts, individually and collectively. Not only their efforts, but what they did specifically and the impact it had on their mission.
Made sure to stay present in the group chat even when she was pulled away to handle emergencies. She didn’t want her team to feel abandoned even though she had other priorities.
Encouraged team members who took the lead on implementing new processes to show their more reluctant peers how they did it. This contributed to positivity and productivity, two hallmarks of good team functioning.

Then I asked what small things could she do more of to boost morale. Here’s what she came up with:

Re-institute weekly 1:1s that had dropped off over the holidays.

Emphasize the value of continuous improvement even during crunch time, rather than holding the mindset of “let’s get through this surge and then we can improve.” Use the crunch time as an opportunity to become even more effective.
Increase the regularity of noticing and acknowledging people by making a note in her calendar to reflect on what she noticed. She wanted it to feel spontaneous but she also knew having a reminder would contribute to the regularity.
She also wanted to focus on a couple of themes for the acknowledgments. That is, what behavior did she want to encourage more of? We talked about “signs of caring” and “signs of openness to learning” as being two possibilities.
Oh, and a team retreat. As I said, there’s nothing wrong with doing those especially in concert with the small gestures described above.

I wish I could report on the success she’s had but it’s early days yet. I do know that she feels motivated by her commitment to boost morale on her team.

If you’re so burned out that the idea of doing any one of these things makes you want to crawl back to bed, give yourself some slack. Things really are tough and they have been for longer than many of us can stand. Start with a little self-care, something that motivates and renews you. These suggestions will be waiting for you when you’re ready to resume.

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