Page 83 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

To Boost Morale, Alter the Environment 63

whole person and his or her responsibility to be accountable for
seeking and taking advantage of continuous learning opportuni-
ties. It then becomes the manager’s job to facilitate his or her

workers’ success and guide them toward those opportunities
when possible.

Taking a Holistic and Whole-Person Approach

No longer can organizations and their leaders afford to com-
partmentalize their employees’ lives. Drawing an invisible line
that suggests a worker leave his or her personal and emotional

life at the door when reporting for work ignores every aspect of
humanness. That line from yesteryear’s management rules is
now outdated and blurred.
We know that it is impossible for an employee to close off
parts of his or her personal life when coming to work. Why?

Because that kind of behavior goes against human nature. The
holistic approach to managing inspires positive employee
morale by recognizing that one dimension of a person’s life is
affected by all the other dimensions and that the professional
and personal lives of employees are closely connected. That’s

what I mean by the term “whole person.”
Managers who are willing to take a more holistic and
whole-person approach to creating a high morale workplace
are often better able to appreciate and utilize their worker’s
human qualities.

To be able to inspire and lead others to perform at higher
levels, you will first have to plug into your employees’ human
side, affirm them, and help them to meet their desires and
needs on all levels. This is what makes the whole-person

approach to managing and training both holistic and soulful.

What’s Good for the Soul Is Good for
the Work Environment

In their book, The Soul at Work (New York: Simon & Schuster,
2000), Roger Lewin and Birute Regine write of the powerful
ways that managers are learning to respect the soul of the