It’s hard to imagine an employee articulating a conscious decision to disengage from his work. How do you think he’d start that conversation with his supervisor? “I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel like doing this job. So unless you intend to watch over me like a hawk, I’ll most likely be exerting minimal effort in my eight hours here today.”

There is a dangerous condition lurking in the employee ranks of countless organizations. Known as UVT, this condition erodes employee morale, damages the credibility of senior leadership and drives a thick wedge between front line staff and senior leadership.

You know that the right words at the right time can give employee morale a much-needed boost, while the wrong words leave morale in the dust. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to know which words are the right ones. Being an on-the-job encourager is easy; here are some guidelines that can be followed on a daily basis to bring boost morale and position you as an encouraging co-worker.

You know a disengaged worker when you see one: the receptionist balancing her checkbook, the nurse bad-mouthing a doctor to her patient, the manager who doesn’t take action to correct a customer complaint. It’s obvious that these characters would rather be anywhere else but at work, and are only doing their jobs because someone’s watching them. While these obviously disengaged types are easy to spot, do you know how much their disinterest is costing your organization?

Creating and sustaining a culture of service excellence requires that leaders have the skills to attract, engage and retain the best talent. Now there is a solution.

As you deliberately set out to create a culture of service excellence, you may find yourself encountering resistance.

Your employees’ ability and desire to change is vital to the success of your organization; they are the ones with the closest contact with your customers on a daily basis.


Change can be difficult and many people are opposed to any change that takes them out of their comfort zone. They have a stake in the status quo – it gives them a sense of security, and they take comfort in knowing the routine. If not managed well, they are likely to challenge any culture change as “just another administrative program” and feel as if they’re being minimized for preferring to do things the way they have always been done.
Hardwiring culture change into your organization must include hardwiring that change in your front line employees. They can make or break an organization’s culture. Engaging them in that culture starts with showing that you CARE.

As a new year is dawning, many people take the time to engage in self-reflection to determine how they can improve in the coming year. Now is a perfect time to determine if you are a morale encourager or a morale terminator. Reflect on ways that you can resolve to be the encourager throughout the new year.

Denial may be an easy behavior for employees to fall into when faced with change or hard facts in the workplace. It’s a tricky behavior, because by its very nature, denial leads employees to deny that they’re in denial. Sound like a crazy Catch-22 that you as a manager are powerless against? It’s not quite that bad; there are some eye-opening converations you can have with employees to help them see the light about their own denial.