What can I do as a leader to increase work performance and morale?

Best advise I can give you, is you fake it until you make it. If you keep your performance high, you stay highly motivated it will cause a chain reaction and everyone else will follow. To be anymore specific than that, I would have to be in your position to understand why work performance and moral is low.

The number one thing I did to motivate my men was to get in there and suck right along with them. If we were pulling weeds, I pulled weeds along with them. If we were PMCSing vehicles, I was going through the TM with them. If we were on the range, I was there to coach them (and always tried to out-shoot them). If I was doing PT, even though I was awful at it, I kept pushing so they never saw me quit. If we were in the field, I made sure they were squared away before I took care of my own needs. I always told them what the standard was, showed them what the standard was, and then enforced that standard.

Above and beyond all that, I made myself a subject matter expert in any area they were likely to ask for guidance, and networked with all people I was likely to deal with so that I could go to them for help, guidance, and to get my soldiers' problems solved (friendliness and tact goes a long way here). When they came to me with a problem, I made sure I got it solved as quickly and efficiently as possible, even if it meant annoying the training room and S-1 every day until the issue was resolved (again, friendliness and tact goes a long way). They learned they could trust me, and that I could solve their problems, and more than once they told me they wished I had higher levels of leadership because I made their lives easier, rather than more difficult like higher leaders did. It takes time to earn their respect and trust. Once you do, they will open up to you and share with you, and you will learn what makes them tick and how to motivate them to do even what they don't want to do.

And yes, there is the occasional incorrigible case that you just have to build a packet on and bust them down or send them home. If you have one, don't do it out of hate, and build a packet that can stand up in court.

- look at the process
- what is the required output?
- remove obstacles
- remove non value added activities
- look at what errors are in the work and identify the root cause, mitigate root causes.
- bring in the people who actually do the activity, get their input on ensure all understand the common goal. Given what is wrong and what must be done, what can Be done to accomplish the mission. Allow them with your guidance to determine how they will do it. Now they have a vested interest in making it happen....buy in.
- motivate, provide direction and vision.
- Recognize those go above and beyond.
- motivate and counsel those who don't.
- AAR the activity, remember the lessons learned when you do this again.