How to Save a Dying, Low-Morale Team
At a point in my career, I was the manager for a team at a global tech company.
I had originally joined the team as an individual contributing software engineer, and when I did, the team was at a size of 8. But when I joined, I didn’t know the team was in trouble. I soon discovered that poor senior management had basically driven many members of the team to unhappiness.
Low morale has its effects, and in the space of about five months, the team went from 8 to 4 people, which is about when I took over as the team’s manager. At that point, the difficult-to-work-with senior manager was gone, and so was the team’s previous direct manager.
It took about a month or two before I had to handle another resignation. The employee told me that “It’s not because of you. The damage had already been done from before, and I was already interviewing and had committed to a new company before you took the team over.” Ouch.
So now the team was down from 8 people to 3 (one of which worked remotely from Europe), including myself. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if we only owned one small software application without too many people depending on us. But that wasn’t the case. The reality was that the team owned 10+ different applications, three of which were business critical — meaning, if those apps had issues, then we would bottleneck all spending on our platform until a fix was issued.
Now, I’m going to tell you that this story has a happy ending, but let’s take a look at the landscape at this point:
- Team’s capacity was more than halved in a period of about 5 months
- Two layers of management who presided over the team left the company
- A new manager joined the team (me), who had little experience “formally” managing and hiring people, and “some” experience formerly working in software engineering
- The team owned business-critical applications that were important to the company
- Morale of all team members was low
Given that information, it’s pretty easy to fail, but fail we did not! By the time I left the company, the team was back up to 5, in a stable state, and morale was good. It took about 6 months to turn things around. Here are some tips on how we did it.
Get Organized and Prioritize
The existing product backlog for the team had items on it that were five years old and were labeled “important” and/or “bug.” So you have to ask, if something is important, or a bug, how could it exist in an uncompleted state for five years?
I ended up grooming the entire backlog as if it were Teacup Poodle at the National Dog Show (very thoroughly).
If you are understaffed, you’re going to be doing a lot, and you’ll save time by being organized. You cannot be lost at sea here. You need to be the captain with the compass.
Moreover, you need to prioritize the right things, not just the work, but also other elements of the team. When was the last time this team went on an outing? Take them out if no one can remember.
Don’t forget to prioritize morale.
Protect Your People, Earn Trust
In the case of this team, the remaining folks felt exposed and somewhat battered over the last year. They had frequently interfaced with a crass senior manager and they also had no layer between them and other direct requests. Now, it’s not that your team should feel inaccessible to the rest of the company, but they should feel like they are protected (and not only should they “feel” it, they actually should be protected).
And that is one of the most important first steps to gaining trust in low morale situations; you have to make people feel safe. After all, the folks who are still standing have seen the worst parts of the storm; they are probably tired of the turmoil and just want some sense of stability.
Get Your Hands Dirty, Earn Trust
Your team is working hard and struggling, and potentially working late because a critical application broke. Where are you? You are helping.
You earn trust, respect, and build camaraderie when you are actually in the trenches with your team. Misery loves company, and if you’re sharing the misery with your teammates, your teammates will love you.
Be Positive, Have Fun
In the face of all the negatives, you just generally have to be positive and keep things in perspective. “Yes, we are understaffed, but also, I’m going to get us some custom SWAG for the team.”
The only thing worse than a sinking ship is realizing that you’re on the sinking ship.
Be the band.
Be The Opposite of What Drove Your Team’s Low Morale
Recall that the previous senior manager was the source of driving a low morale amongst the group. What did that manager do that was so bad? Whatever it was, do not recreate it, and instead, do the opposite. Did that manager yell at the employees? Don’t ever yell at them. Did he or she micromanage everyone? Don’t micromanage.
Be their hero by becoming the antithesis of the villain.
Change the Narrative, and Provide Solutions
In a team meeting, you can say, “we need to hire because we are under capacity and need help.” But you do not end your thought there. Stopping there just contributes to shitty morale. Better would be: “We need to hire because we are under capacity. I have 5 phone screens lined up this week for new candidates; I’m excited. If any of you have connections who you believe would be a good fit for this team, feel free to refer them.”
The point is, you have a plan forward. You are being honest about the current state, but it’s not hopeless. People need to have hope. “The ship was sinking, but now we are actually floating again, and soon we will be full steam ahead with no icebergs in sight.”
Give Positive Feedback, Share Feedback Upward
Is your team kicking absolute ass despite all odds? Tell them that. Tell other teams that. Tell senior management that. Be your team’s lead cheerleader. Don’t let their hard, good work go unnoticed (unless they want it to be).
One of the things I did was institute quarterly recaps where I also invited a VP of engineering to attend. These recaps went over the overall wins from the team. Everyone felt good reflecting on a quarter’s positive work through a big-picture lens. No bullshit allowed here, just actual good work being recapped. Senior management appreciated it as well because they got insight into the team’s improvements and state since the last review.
Good Luck
If you’re ever caught in a low-team-morale situation as a manager, I hope the info above can help you. One thing you may discover is that turning a team around is incredibly rewarding and tiring business. You have to find positives on the darkest days, but also be fiercely practical. You may need a little bit of luck, too. And when things have finally stabilized, you’ll want a vacation, and you should take one.
When you come back, you can spend more time focusing on plans for the future, instead of the crisis of the past.
If you are interested in chatting about hackathons, product, Game of Thrones, or anything else, please feel free to connect with me! Thanks for reading.
