Boosting morale and finding joy in library work can be challenging, especially around the busyness of the holidays. With a lot going on personally and professionally, morale ebbs and flows. Your official job title doesn’t matter. As leaders, we can take small steps daily to improve morale and set a positive tone. How can you reach more staff? Be creative and consistent. What resonates for one team member might not spark joy for another. Using multiple strategies and regular opportunities increases your likelihood of engaging more staff. Even more, it lets people choose opportunities that resonate. Here are some options we’ve employed.
Be Creative
Chances are, one or more creative minds exist on your team. Boost library morale by engaging that creativity. Whether adding creative flair to your workspace or finding new ideas for team building, think outside the box. Here are some starting points:
Have a cheer team.
Identify the staff most excited about planning events, bringing the team together, or celebrating small wins. Then, give them responsibility. Provide any guidance regarding, budgets, times, or other relevant details. Give it time, and finally, see what they dream up. Our cheer team coordinates potlucks and snack days, passive activities, and team celebrations like birthdays. Participation is optional, but each month includes at least one option.
Personalize your space.
Whether you’re including a few family photos, your favorite panda collection, or a small plant, personal touches help make your space yours. Moreover, they allow your colleagues to get to know you, too. My desk generally features a cross-stitch project I’ve worked on and a rotating series of travel photos, which are great conversation starters. Be mindful to keep things tasteful and professional. Shared spaces, especially, must remain accessible for multiple users. Still, even something as small as decorating a locker expresses your personality and interests to others and opens conversational doors.
Doodle.
Do you doodle during meetings, conference calls, or brainstorming sessions? What if those doodles inspired or entertained others? We use a schedule whiteboard that identifies staff at service points throughout the day. Last year, we started adding small doodles between staff names for extra fun. We generally theme the doodles to the season, staff interests, or something happening in our building. Staff input and requests add extra fun.
Share the Good (and the Less Good)
Libraries are full of impactful moments, but overlooking the good is easy when things are busy. Why not leverage your good by encouraging widespread sharing from your team? Emphasizing good things, even when small, makes a difference. It can help reset the mood, reenergize the work, or remind an individual of things that bring joy. All of those are simple ways to boost library morale. Here are some options:
Share a good thing in each meeting.
Sometimes, our team meetings get intense. We discuss difficult programming decisions. We work through issues on the public floor. We hold each other accountable. Often, we have conflicting viewpoints, and we must work through them productively and respectfully. My boss instituted sharing something good at the end of each meeting to reset the conversation and end positively, no matter how challenging the preceding discussions. Our building also collects and shares impact stories monthly. These little moments help us see the value of everyday interactions and our community reach.
Show up when and where needed.
Life happens, whether it’s an illness, family emergency, last-minute meeting, vacation, or something else. That may create gaps in service point coverage, backed-up workflows, or overwhelmed staff. Show up for people when they need support. Taking an hour on the desk as a supervisor, helping someone out on a project, or even just shelving a cart, showing up amid things helps. Your willingness to be part of the work improves morale and breaks down barriers between roles. Challenge staff to think less about staff roles and typical division of labor and more about what the library and community need at that moment.
Prioritize feedback and accountability.
Share information and updates with everyone – in staff meetings, building-wide emails, small group meetings, and huddles. Create a culture where feedback flows both ways, with leadership sharing updates with staff and staff sharing information or questions from day-to-day interactions with leadership. We have morning huddles once most staff arrive for the day, quickly sharing information. We share updates about schedules, the day’s programs, or announcements from emails that staff haven’t seen yet. Some buildings repeat this in the evening for staff working later shifts. For regularly occurring meetings, look for dates and times that work for most team members and intentionally loop in those who are absent.
Make Time for Fun
It’s not always fun and games working in the library. However, we can intentionally make time for joy and connection throughout the day. Consider little opportunities that encourage staff to take a break, reset, and engage with each other. What better way to boost morale in your library? These little moments of good can help reset the tone of the day. Here are a few activities we’ve used:
Have passive staff activities.
Our workspace includes shared tables for collaborative work, which make ideal sights for passive activities. This area often features puzzles or simple self-paced activities, like origami instructions. After the popularity of puzzles and sticker boards, we also explored virtual options accessible from any computer. These quick brain breaks lead to more conversation, connection, and pauses after challenging situations.
Encourage breaks.
As a team, we’ve established consistency and accountability for breaks. While it’s not a perfect system, and we all have days when breaks don’t happen, we are more mindful of each other and providing that support. Can you check with a colleague to see if their break occurred? Often, we cover service points for each other to ensure everyone has an opportunity for that reset.
Schedule some fun.
Whether scheduling lunch with a colleague or including time for team-building in monthly meetings, make time for something fun. Scheduling fun on your calendar breaks up the daily monotony or provides something positive on stressful days. It can also help improve your intentionality in connecting with different team members. Whether it’s a potluck or a design contest with craft sticks, put something on the calendar.
Joy is an intentional choice. These little steps may not seem like much. However, little steps often add up to measurable impacts. Need more inspiration? Check out some of these joy-based posts:
- Spreading Book Joy All November Long
- Planting Seeds of Joy at #alaac23
- Finding Joy: Library as Space for Playful Learning and Creativity #PLA2022
How do you choose joy and boost morale in your library?
All images courtesy of the author. This post addresses ALSC Core Competency #6: Administrative and Management Skills and #7: Professionalism and Professional Development.
Jaime Eastman is a senior Public Services Librarian and Early Learning Coordinator at the Harrington Library, one of the Plano (Texas) Public Library locations. She’s currently serving as a member of the ALSC Board of Directors. Jaime is also working on at least two ambitious cross stitch projects, dreaming of future travel plans, and reading far too many books at once. As a child, she wanted to grow up to be an author. Writing for the blog and publishing with Children and Libraries feel like a good start, and she regrets nothing about her adult decision to be a librarian doing storytimes who didn’t have to grow up too much.
Awnali Mills
I make 3D gold cardstock stars on the Cricut, add a hanging ribbon to the top, and write on the back something great that a staff member did during the month. Then I read them at staff meetings and hand out the star to that staff member. Not all staff members get one each month, so they’re something special. I also take care not to leave anyone out for too long, which helps me focus on looking for the good that staff members are doing.
I also cut white cardstock stars and cleared wall space. Staff get to recognize other staff’s accomplishments on the stars and pin them to the wall. I take them off before each staff meeting, read them aloud, and hand them out so the wall doesn’t get too cluttered.
Having their great patron interactions, service, and creativity noticed and celebrated, not only by “the boss”, but by their fellow staff has really helped morale.