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Even managers with the best intentions can sometimes compromise team morale without realizing it. The art of team management involves balancing professional competence with genuine interpersonal connection. We consulted with 10 experienced industry professionals who shared the common pitfalls that can zap a team’s spirit as well as practical tips to help you avoid missteps and lead a motivated, high-performing group. Shift from micromanagement to autonomy One specific way managers unknowingly harm team morale is through micromanagement. We noticed a roughly 20% drop in employee satisfaction scores and a decline in on-time project delivery whenever team leads checked every minor detail. This oversight, even if well-intended, stifled creativity and made employees feel they weren’t trusted. To fix this, we shifted from daily “check-ins” to weekly milestone reviews, giving each person more autonomy while still ensuring accountability. Within a quarter, on-time project completion rose by around 15%, and employee satisfaction rebounded, helping us maintain our 100%+ year-over-year growth. The key is to provide clear objectives and supportbut step back enough that people feel ownership of their work. Harsha Abegunasekara, CEO, Metana Acknowledge challenges, avoid forced optimism When managers gloss over challenges with forced optimism, employees feel invalidated. They also begin to question the judgment of their leaders. Managers who do this are typically well-intentioned and want to keep morale high. But without confronting reality, innovation and progress come to a standstill. Restating the problem and inviting correction helps team members feel heard. For example, “I’m hearing you say that the process for returns is cumbersome because of the customer field, what do I have wrong about that?” Amanda Daering, CEO, Newance Implement the ‘priority pause’ for requests After coaching hundreds of managers through team dynamics, I’ve observed that one of the most damaging yet unconscious behaviors is what I call selective urgencytreating every task as equally critical and urgent, which inevitably burns out teams and dilutes genuine priorities. This often manifests when managers forward emails late at night with a simple, Please handle, or constantly interrupt focused work with quick requests that could wait. Instead, I teach leaders to implement what I call the Priority Pausetaking 60 seconds before any request to ask: Does this truly need immediate attention, and what’s the cost of interruption to my team? One VP I coached reduced team stress by up to 40% simply by batching non-urgent requests into a daily morning huddle rather than sending them sporadically throughout the day. When managers respect their team’s focus time and clearly differentiate between urgent and important tasks, morale naturally improves. Joshua Miller, master certified executive leadership coach, Joshua Miller Executive Coaching Ensure proper credit for team’s work One specific way managers unknowingly harm team morale is by failing to give proper credit to their team’s work. This often happens when managers are new to leading people or feel insecure in their role. In an effort to prove their own value or meet high expectations, they may focus on results and unintentionally overlook the importance of celebrating the people who made those results possible. While their intentions aren’t malicious, the impact can leave employees feeling invisible or undervalued. For example, I worked with a very results-focused manager. When presenting to leadership, they would share the outcomes without mentioning the individuals or teams who made those results possible. The team began to feel like the manager was taking all the credit, even though that wasn’t the intention. Frustration grew, and morale started to dip. Thankfully, a colleague provided honest feedback to the manager, explaining the impact and how this was being perceived. The manager was open to learning and worked with a coach to improve. Together, they devised strategies to ensure contributions were acknowledgedlike calling out team members by name during presentations and incorporating regular moments of recognition into team meetings. Over time, this shifted the dynamic. The team felt seen and appreciated, and morale improved significantly. The lesson is that employee recognition goes a long way in building trust and keeping morale high. Managers should also seek input from their teams about what kind of acknowledgment feels meaningful to them, whether it’s public recognition in meetings, a simple thank-you email, or sharing credit during leadership updates. Managers can create a more positive and engaged workplace culture by showing employees that their work matters. Etty Burk, president and founder, Leading With Difference Set clear expectations and track progress One specific way managers unknowingly harm team morale is by failing to set clear expectations and deliverables for each team member and not having a transparent system to track and measure their work. When a manager’s expectations are vague or inconsistent, employees can feel frustrated and uncertain about their contributions and value. This lack of clarity leads to disengagement, misaligned priorities, and a general decline in team cohesion. One thing we help our clients implement to help keep morale high is a team tracker using objectives and key results (OKRs) to outline specific goals and the measurable steps needed to achieve them. Weekly progress check-ins ensure everyone is aligned and provide an opportunity to celebrate wins or address roadblocks early. A shared dashboard that visualizes progress toward overarching goals can help team members see how their work contributes to the larger mission, giving them a greater sense of purpose and accountability. You can use a simple spreadsheet. The manager could create a project board for each key objective-planning, execution, and review. Each task is linked to the relevant team member and key results, with deadlines and progress updates. Weekly team meetings then focus on reviewing the board, discussing achievements, and refining strategies as needed. This approach ensures transparency and cultivates a fair and collaborative environment where every team member feels valued and essential to the organization’s success. That is how you start building a team that can do anything. Rhett Power, CEO and cofounder, Accountability Inc. Align feedback with role competencies One specific way managers unknowingly harm team morale is by failing to align their feedback with the competencies that drive success in a role. Whenfeedback is vague, overly critical, or disconnected from what truly matters, it can leave employees feeling undervalued and unclear about how to improve. For example, a manager might focus on a minor error without recognizing the critical thinking or problem-solving competencies an employee demonstrated in addressing a larger issue. This approach not only overlooks key contributions but also diminishes trust and motivation. To avoid this, managers should deliver feedback that is competency-based and actionable. Start by identifying the specific skills or behaviors tied to the role’s successsuch as communication, adaptability, or collaboration. Then, acknowledge where the employee excels and provide clear, constructive guidance on areas to develop. One of my clients, a manager in a fast-paced sales environment, found that conducting quarterly competency assessments with their team transformed their approach. By grounding feedback in data, they could celebrate progress while offering targeted strategies for improvement. This not only boosted morale but also created a culture of continuous growth and alignment with the team’s goals. When feedback is tied to competencies, employees feel supported in their professional development, which fosters trust, engagement, and higher morale. Linda Scorzo, CEO, Hiring Indicators Avoid inconsistent decision-making I used to watch managers harm team morale in my corporate days, and it bothered me deeply. It’s one of the reasons I studied coaching: I wanted to learn how to make a difference for both teams and the managers leading them. While there are many things a manager can do to unknowingly harm team morale (poor communication, favoritism, ignoring feedback, etc.), one that particularly pains me because it’s so easily addressed is inconsistent decision-making. Inconsistent decision-makingwhen decisions are made without transparency or consistencyundermines trust and fairness. The best leaders follow a predictable pattern with clear reasoning when making decisions so their team members know what to expect, can prioritize accordingly, and ultimately feel a sense of stability. Inconsistent decision-making is very costly to an organization, causing distrust, hindered performance, employee disengagement, and a negative impact on the business. I coach my clients to involve their teams in decision-making whenever possible, to be transparent about the reasoning behind decisions, and to ensure that the criteria used to make decisions are fair and clearly communicated. Emily Golden, CEO and strategic talent advisor, Golden Resources, LLC Foster active listening and engagement One of the most common yet often overlooked ways managers unintentionally harm team morale is through a lack of active listening and engagement with their team members. In my experience working with both FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, I’ve seen that when leaders fail to foster an environment where employees feel their voices are truly heard, it significantly undermines morale. This can manifest as a failure to ask for or acknowledge feedback, or, worse, dismissing concerns or suggestions as inconsequential. Over time, this not only diminishes trust but also leads to disengagement and a decline in overall performance. For instance, a client I worked with in the tech sector had an exceptional product development team, but employee turnover was high, and productivity was slipping. When I conducted one-on-one interviews, it became apparent that employees felt their input was routinely overlooked in meetings, and their concerns were rarely addressed. The team had valuable insights into improving workflows and reducing stress but had grown cynical because they felt like their voices weren’t genuinely being considered. To reverse this, I recommended implementing structured “feedback loops” during regular team meetings and one-on-one discussions. This would not only offer employees a forum to share their concerns but also demonstrate that leadership was actively seeking to understand their perspectives. Importantly, it was emphasized that these feedback sessions would lead to tangible changesmanagers would be expected to follow up on the issues raised. This simple yet powerful strategy helped the leadership team recalibrate their communication, leading to increased employee engagement, improved morale, and a noticeable decline in turnover. James Rose, strategic organizational psychologist, Cognitive Direction Stop moving the goalpost Constantly moving the goalpost is a surefire way to drain team morale. While fresh ideas may seem exciting and innovative to managers, they can unintentionally undermine the hard work and dedication employees have already invested in previous initiatives. For instance, imagine a marketing team tasked with developing a six-month campaign, only for leadership to scrap it midway because a new trend seems more appealing. The team is left with incomplete work, wasted efforts, and the lingering disappointment of never seeing the fruits of their labor. This pattern can erode trust in leadership and create a culture where employees hesitate to invest in future projects. To prevent this, leaders should establish clear goals upfront and stick to them barring extraordinary circumstances. If changes are unavoidable, communicate openly about the reasons behind the shift, acknowledging the team’s previous work and ensuring their efforts are not dismissed. To maintain morale, offer closure on abandoned projects, such as highlighting lessons learned or incorporating completed components into new initiatives. Additionally, celebrate small wins and milestones within ongoing projects so employees feel a sense of accomplishment, even if the larger vision evolves. By balancing innovation with stability and recognition, managers can maintain enthusiasm and trust within their teams. Cynthia Hayes, chief operating officer, Tarkenton Develop emotional intelligence and self-awareness One specific way managers unknowingly harm team morale is by lacking emotional intelligenceparticularly self-awareness of their blind spots. In high-stress situations, this often manifests as reactive, impulsive behavior that disregards the emotional impact on the team. Without realizing it, managers who react rather than respond create an atmosphere of psychological unsafety. Team members become hesitant to speak up, contribute new ideas, or engage fully because they are focused on self-protection. Over time, this guardedness leads to disengagement, reduced collaboration, and diminished morale. A manager’s emotional state is contagious. When leaders are unaware of how their reactivity influences the room, it sets a tone where employees feel they must walk on eggshells. In this environment, creativity and productivity suffer because people cannot bring their authentic selves to the table. Trust erodes, and with it, the team’s ability to innovate and solve problems cohesively. This dynamic can be avoied by managers prioritizing the development of their emotional intelligence (EQ), starting with self-awareness. Managers must actively seek feedback from trusted peers, mentors, or even their team to uncover blind spots that might hinder their leadership effectiveness. Additionally, investing in practices such as mindfulness, emotional regulation through neurofeedback modalities, and executive coaching can help leaders build the capacity to pause and evaluate their responses during high-pressure moments. A critical shift occurs when managers learn to pause before reacting, allowing space to consider the broader impact of their words and actions. This intentionality signals to the team that their contributionsand emotional well-beingare valued. It fosters a psychologically safe environment where vulnerability is met with empathy, and team members feel empowered to take risks without fear of retaliation or judgment. Leaders who model emotional intelligence set a precedent for the entire organization. When a leader demonstrates humility, empathy, and emotional regulation, it cascades throughout the team, strengthening morale, boosting engagement, and creating a culture where people feel seen and supported. Natalie Jobity, leadership elevation strategist, keynote speaker, best-selling author, The Unveiled Way
Category:
E-Commerce
AI will undoubtedly become a bigger presence in your working life over the next few years. In fact, it likely already is, even without you knowing it. According to a recent study by Gallup, nearly all Americans (99%, in fact) use products that involve artificial intelligence features, but (64%) dont even realize it.Our current level of AI use may seem subtle and harmlessthink virtual assistants, navigation apps, or weather-forecasting websites. But the speed of new technology is fast and the promises it holds for transforming our work are too tempting for many companies to pass up. Like it or not, no matter your industry, AI is likely going to be your new coworker.So how can we adapt to work with AI, rather than training it to replace us? On the most recent episode of The New Way We Work, I spoke to Nigel Vaz, the CEO of Publicis Sapient, a consultancy focused on digital transformation.Vaz has been helping companies adapt to new technology for decades and sees both parallels and significant differences between our current AI transition and the dot-com boom of the 1990s. How this time is different Vaz points out that when the internet first started to change businesses, many leaders were skeptical that it would have a big impact. E-commerce sales accounted for such a small percent of sales, for example, and it took 20 years for the shift to fully take place. Now, he says, leaders remember how transformational the internet was and are more eager to embrace the changes that AI will bring. The difference this time around is everybody’s interested in ‘What is AI? How is AI going to manifest? What does it mean for my business?’ he says. But there is a recognition that it could be a significant driver. He also notes that the speed of change is much faster now than it was before.We are really asking organizations and people to evolve the way they work on an exponential basis, he says. How employees and leaders can adapt The technological transformation is the easy part, Vaz says. It’s the people transformation alongside the technological transformation. That’s the hard part.So how can employees and leaders adapt to the speed of techs advancements? Vaz says that the average person can (and should) tune out all of the discussions around chip development and instead focus on the applications themselves and what problems they help solveand what data they are trained on. He advises that companies should look at their needs and see if general AI tools can help or if they need customized tools. Learn, unlearn, and relearn So what about employees who are afraid of losing their jobs to AI? Vaz says that the nature of work is ever evolving and its not the ability to perform tasks that makes an employee valuable; its their ability to learn. If you obsess about what you know, you are always fundamentally going to be less valuable to an organization. I think what you have to obsess about is your ability to learn, he says. He uses the expression learn, unlearn, and relearn. The single biggest gift an organization can give you, and you can give yourself, is this mindset that what we value is your ability to adapt and to learn and to evolve as things are evolving, he says.Listen to the full episode for more on how companies and employees should prepare for AI changes, how they should be vetting new tech, and where tech is going in the future.You can listen and subscribe to The New Way We Work on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages ofInc.andFast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you cansign up to get it yourselfevery Monday morning. Last June, global architecture and design firm Gensler named Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein as co-CEOs, succeeding Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins, who jointly led the company for nearly 20 years. Though some U.S. companies, including Netflix, Zola, and Warby Parker, have two chief executive officers, the dual-CEO arrangement remains rare. In a recent joint interview, Brink and Goldstein explained how co-leadership permeates the entire organizationmost of Genslers offices and its regions are led by pairsand the way the model helps nurture managerial talent and train future managers to collaborate. They also shared insights into how they make their long-distance partnership work (Goldstein is based in Washington, D.C., and Brink is in Los Angeles), and why the co-CEO model isnt for every company. Edited excerpts follow: Modern CEO: Lets start by talking about the co-CEO relationship. You are the second set of co-CEOs at Gensler. Jordan Goldstein: The company started in 1965 and Art Gensler, who founded it, led it for a number of years. The prior CEOs, who actually were mentors to both of us, have now stepped into global chair roles. Elizabeth Brink: The co-leadership model is pretty deep in the organization. JG: We have about 300 co-leaders. My introduction to co roles started at the office level. I was a co-office leader starting in 2008. Elizabeths been here 20 years, so weve known each other for 20 years in the organization. I did the co-office director role, then we each did co-regional roles, then moved into [the co-CEO] roles. My background is definitely heavy in design and design-oriented technology. My experiences in the firm have been focused on design on a global scale, practicing in different locations around the world, working with different cultures, different climates. EB: My background has been more on strategy and pushing our design strategy into areas that we have not been, connecting business and design, and also a little bit on the urban strategy side of things. Its a really nice balance. I think we are both also people-oriented leaders, and one of the areas where we really overlap is an incredible focus on mentorship. And thats part of why we work so well as a duo togetherbecause of that kind of commitment. MC: You were elevated to the co-CEO roles simultaneously. But co-leads are not always assigned at the same time, right? JG: Right. For instance, when I was leading the Washington, D.C., office, it was me and another person, and we worked together growing our architectural practice in the D.C. metropolitan area. We did that for a number of years, and then my business partner said, You know what? I really want to get back to just designing every day. He stepped back into that everyday work, and then we brought in another individual who was much more oriented around particular industries. She joined me for a couple of years, and then I rotated out. EB: The organization is pretty matrixed, too. Were always looking at what the needs are within each market, within each office, within each region, and who are the best people to be partnering together to create that balance? But our situation was a little bit different because of the scale [of the roles]. MC: Tell me about how that succession process worked. In your situation, when did it become clear that you were going to be each others co-CEOs? EB: We were on our own leadership exploration journeys; we were both getting opportunities across the firm. I had stepped in on building a lot of our work around our people and culture. Jordan had been a really strong design leader. Both of us had been members of the board. And both of us had stepped into some key task force development over the last couple of years. Thats where we really started developing our connection, and I think others saw how well we work together and what we could really bring to the table as a duo. JG: I was really focused on a design career, but as I got into larger, complex projects globally, I really enjoyed the leadership aspect of that. It was 10 years ago when the CEO team [at the time] asked: Would you be interested in this type of path? EB: One of the things thats been so beneficial about both of us having these non-linear career journeys is the depth of relationships that we have stepping into this role. Were leaning on people who have been peers, who have been mentors to us, who weve mentored. MC: Do you share direct reports, or do you divide and conquer? JG: The way we approached it was, for the beginning of our tenure together, we were all in on all [reports] so we could really get the lay of the land and feel where there was natural chemistry within the organization. [A few weeks ago] we mapped it out and said, All right, given what weve experienced, lets talk through it. And we just divided it up. And were now letting people know shes first position on this, and Im first position on that. That doesnt mean we wont both be on the calls or both be in a meeting. EB: What it allows us to do iswhen there are challenges, when there are issuesone of us can go really deep. Its been very beneficial to have spent that time together because we start to understand how we each think about the tricky problems. I know which parts of a problem Jordans going to want to know about. And the reverse: He knows what parts are going to be really important for me to understand. And we text all the time. MC: It seems like trust is such an important part of what makes this co-leadership model work at the regional levels, at the office levels, and crucially at the CEO level. JG: I think its like trust combined with almost like an iterative dialogue. EB: I will say, to put out the vulnerable part of this, too, over the last year-and-a-half as weve been stepping into things, we both made mistakes. Weve had times where I should have read you in on that. Or said, Oops, I misread that situation. But I think where the trust is coming in is in the openness with one another and [acknowledging]: I made a mistake on that one. The trust lies in both of our intentions and both of our ambitions to do whats right for this organization. MC: Have you had co-leaders at the office or regional level where the pairing didnt work out? JG: Yes, and those are obviously delicate conversations because the people can still be valuable to the organization. We just have to help them see a new perspective on how they can contribute, where their value add is, and how that offers career growth opportunities for them. The interesting thing for us is that when the co isnt working, its not just something you see in th pairing, you see it in the office. It translates to other aspects of business. EB: When it works, it really can expand and elevate peoples opportunities to make an impact. But when it doesnt, weve learned to not let that fester. The more you just hope for it to go away, the less it goes away and the more it impacts other people. MC: Would you recommend co-leadership to other organizations? And if a company is thinking about either starting out with co-leadership or adopting co-leadership, what advice would you give them? JG: There are some industries where its probably a tough fit. We actually get questions from clients [about the model]. It has to be something that can stand up on the pillars of a strategy that is embedded in the organization. The thing we havent really talked about is that the co model also enables a level of exploration, for pushing innovation in a way that you know surprises people when we talk about it. When I was an office leader, we talked about [developing] a venture capital mindset, to encourage different thinking. If one person was trying to grow the business and delegated [different thinking], thats very different than if its owned by these two leaders, and they can touch it in different ways. We ended up creating these innovation funds, which were granted based on peoples ideas, which ended up going firmwide. EB: I think the co-leadership model has enabled really rapid growth, innovation, and iteration. I dont know that its something to put onto an established organization. But I think, particularly for a creative entrepreneurial organization that is looking to grow or provide a platform for [professional] growth for a really talented team of people, its a great model. JG: When I was visiting Elizabeth recently, I spoke at USCs [University of Southern Californias] business school, and the students were fascinated by the co-CEO model. You could just see the wheels turning because the students never thought about [the CEO role] that way. It was always the CEO as the singular visionaryand thats not this model. EB: Ego has to be put aside. JG: Absolutely. EB: If you come in with ego, it doesnt work. Does your company divvy up leadership roles? Are you a co-CEO or co-leader in your organization? How do you divide duties, and what are the skills and practices you employ to make the partnership work? Send your comments to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id like to share some of your insights in an upcoming newsletter dedicated to co-leadership. Read and watch: co-leadership at work Inside Netflixs unusual co-CEO arrangementand why it works Zola co-CEO Rachel Jarrett says you need this skill for a good partnership Is it time to consider co-CEOs?
Category:
E-Commerce
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