Monte Ford, CIO of American Airlines in Fort Worth, Texas, has tackled more serious threats to the morale of his organization during his 14 months on the job than most CIOs expect to deal with in an entire career. In April 2001, Ford guided his organization though a merger with TWA in the largest airline integration in history. Last fall, the sale of Sabre to EDS meant that American Airlines lost almost 4,200 longtime contract employees. And after Sept. 11, Ford had to help his staff support the airline's IT needs as they and the company were rocked by grief and loss.
Through each challenge, Ford kept one idea in mind: The people on his staff are his single most valuable asset. To succeed as a leader and to keep his people's spirits up, he learned to adjust the way he viewed his employees.
"You have to treat your staff as though they're volunteers, not paid workers," Ford explains. "You have to do something every day that will make them want to come to work. IT people are smart; if you treat them badly, particularly during tough times, they'll remember. If you treat them well, they'll be loyal and stick around. If not, they'll leave for a better place as soon as they can."
As part of his philosophy, Ford has instituted a system of rewards and recognition. If someone has worked all weekend to finish a project or has done something good for the department, Ford personally applauds them. He and his managers also praise the staff on an individual and team basis once a week during staff meetings.
"Appreciate your staff as much and as often as possible," says the Wharton School's Klaus. "No matter how long they've been at the company, treat them like they're the best, the hottest stars in the place. Do whatever you can, even in small ways, through e-mails and meetings and one-on-ones, through small gifts or extra time off, to let them know you value them and the work they do."
For such efforts to be effective, they have to be genuine. While a keg party on Fridays or meetings with free lunches may seem like a quick way to make people feel appreciated and valued, if such activities don't fit into your IT culture, they can backfire, says Unifi's Holder.
"People don't stay for cheap tricks," he says. "They stay if the environment is supportive and challenging, the business is functional and there are positive working relationships."
[FONT=arial, geneva, helvetica, sans serif]The Morale of the Story[/FONT]
Bad morale is a very real, very serious problem that demands good leadership. The first step is to acknowledge the existence of a morale problem. If you make the effort to examine your management and communication skills and address a need for improvement, morale will go up and you'll find yourself with a loyal, resilient staff that won't bolt for the hills once the economy improves.
All I can say is that JA BETTER be paying attention or he is going to lose his 425million dollar investment!! test....test.....JA are you LISTENING!!!!:nuts:
Atlcrj, actually NO! You have to keep current flying or you can't move on, but with you being the "MO FO" I don't expect you to know THAT!! Yeah, what that means is that no matter how much the "MAJORITY" of this pilot group HATES coming to work, we do it for the "GREATER GOOD" that is,hopefully not to far down the road!!!
