The Cost Of Poor Firm Morale
By Adam Radzik
Consultant to Professional Firms

Understanding the very expensive and pervasive impact of poor morale, company presidents, executives and managers have learned (often the hard way) that poor morale causes employees to work fewer hours, take more sick days, make more errors in their work, make inferior decisions, have more internal conflict and strife, lose more customers and gain fewer new customers. Companies with poor morale often experience sagging company profits and faltering company stability. When poor morale persists and becomes chronic, it weakens the business’s immune system so dramatically that even a relatively minor challenge can easily cause the company to tumble downhill into business oblivion.

Inexplicably, poor morale has not caused the alarm bell to ring at many professional firms. Below you will find a list of conditions that give rise to morale problems. As you peruse them, ask yourself whether your firm suffers from any of these maladies.

CAUSES OF POOR FIRM MORALE

1. Excessive control and intimidation
2. Unreasonable expectations
3. Chronic unresolved problems
4. Climate of fear
5. Poor organization, coordination, implementation and follow-up
6. Poor communication and/or lack of communication
7. Arbitrary decision making
8. Being treated in an unprofessional manner
9. Paucity of positive feedback
10. Unfair compensation practices.

Poor morale will, of course, have a very powerful impact on marketing. During a sales coaching session, a department head (let’s call him “George”) shared with me a recent marketing experience. George relayed that he had been busily engaged in attempting to persuade a good-sized prospect to give his work to George’s firm, when the prospect interrupted him and inquired: “Your group merged into this firm a few years ago, right? How does your group like being part of this firm and dealing with this firm?” George was taken by surprise, and though he said some positive things about his firm, he also confessed that in a variety of ways his group was disappointed, particularly with the internal communication process. George immediately regretted being so candid, because the prospect instantly became visibly turned off, but he defended his statements to me by saying that he was all bottled up with frustration and did not wish to lie to the prospect!

What can be done to remediate the problems of poor morale? An attitude survey should be conducted by an outside consulting firm that will maintain the confidentiality of individual responses while identifying patterns and trends. The most pressing concerns should be identified and dealt with first. Capable individuals who are interested in specific problems should be assigned to small task forces whose mission will be to fully digest the issues, make realistic recommendations and implement agreed-upon solutions.

A word of caution: it’s not a good idea to ask someone to share what irritates him or her about your behavior and then continue to exhibit the very same offensive behavior. In the context of poor morale, it would not be wise to administer an attitude survey and then fail to address the concerns that are raised by the respondents.

If you would like to learn more about conducting an
attitude survey at your firm, contact SIC today!

Three City Speaking Tour in October

Adam Radzik was contacted and requested to do a three-city speaking tour for the Legal Marketing Association. He has agreed to the request and will deliver two seminars per visit in the cities of Orlando, Birmingham and Nashville on October 19, 20 and 21, respectively, of 2005. The seminar audience will include top marketing professionals in the legal, accounting and banking fields. The subjects Mr. Radzik will speak on include “Secrets of the Super Sellers,” “Getting More Out of Your Clients,” “Getting More from Other Referrers,” “Improving Your Closing Ratio” and “Overcoming the Enemies of Sales.”

Should your travels take you to these cities during these dates and if you would like to attend any of these seminars given by the “Superstar of Consultants,” as he was recently described by a client, please contact SIC . Mr. Radzik speaks on over thirty-five marketing and management topics. These topics may be found on his Web site at www.salesimprovement.net.