Page 175 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

Engendering Hope, Trust, Faith, and Belief ... 155

fast-moving, competitive companies with consistently high
employee morale.

The Importance of Faith
We all know people who lack faith. They may lack faith in
themselves, their leaders, their families and friends, or their

jobs. Their lack of faith undermines their ability to perform at
their best and maintain positive work morale. Work becomes
just a paycheck. When employees lose faith, managers lose the
best that they can get from their people.

Men and women everywhere are seeking something that
they can believe in and hold on to in their lives in general and in
their jobs. More than ever before, employees want and need
better reasons to go to work each day. There are deep inner
needs, more than ever before, that they’re trying to fill.

Managers have the daunting task of finding creative ways to
help them fill their needs whenever possible.
So, what do employees want to have faith in? For starters,
they want to have faith in knowing that their ideas and sugges-
tions are good. They want to believe and have faith that the

time they spend at work is worth it and part of something
greater. They want to have faith in their managers and know
that they can trust their word. They also want to have faith in
the products and services they provide and the customers who
buy those products and services.

But there’s an even larger issue at stake here—passion.
Because when people lose their faith, they often lose their pas-
sion and drive along with it. And that can sap employee morale
and motivation.

Faith in ourselves lights the flame within that ultimately sus-
tains us through the toughest of times, renews our vitality and
energy when we need them most, and makes us more powerful,
self-assured, and at peace with our direction. This is why it is
important for managers to encourage and build faith among

their employees. Faith strengthens us by feeding passion to the
brain as well as to the heart.