Joy Powers wrote a great article called “10 Inexpensive Ways to Boost Employee Morale.” You can see the entire article here:
10 Inexpensive Ways to Boost Morale
I’ve spent most of my career working for, or speaking to, non-profit organizations. The problem with the leadership in most of these organizations is that they believe, incorrectly, that the employees’ commitment to the work is enough to sustain them. This is faulty thinking that will lead to burnout and dissent among staff.
It’s true that mission-driven employees will sacrifice a lot for the work that’s being done. However, since they are not typically working for the big bucks or the great benefits, leaders must find other ways to reward them so that they feel valued and motivated to keep doing the important work.
One could boil down everything in Joy Powers’ article to this concept: Understand your people. If you take the time to understand the needs or your employees in addition to what drives them and what they value, it’s relatively simple to create systems to honor, support, and reward them.
Of course, you could also boil it down to another simple concept: Do it Well. Make it Fun.
Just saying.