Low morale is caused by the boss's incompetence in handling issues with his workers.

There should be an effort coming from the boss to do something before a worker can make the situation worse. Yes, when shove comes to push, you know what I mean. Worker is just human and too sensitive about your treatment or mistreatment to him/her.

Then, an unhappy worker loses morale. He then tends to feel useless, hopeless and you know what which could send messages to others that something was wrong with the boss's leadership.

Authoritarian kind of direct and control system never does anyone any good. Even the boss himself should not be comfortable with that. Just following orders sans asking feedback or what never be a good way to getting people buckled down to work without giving them a feeling of being used and abused for someone's advantage.

When teamwork is absent and delegation is a foreign thing, chances are, workers tend to feel not a part of the success of accomplishing a task. And this one feeling is nothing but a symptom of not being a good leader.

Each worker must feel important instrument to getting work done sans giving him/her a feeling of being treated as doormat. Respect their individuality, ability and the like sans making them feel like machines in the workplace.

The more incompetent a boss has on aspect of leading people towards goal/s, chances are, the more the workers feel low morale. And this one is a sad thing for a boss to realize that despite his own desire to accomplish things, he became his worker's enemy.

What are then, ways to bring back high moral among workers and bring back their Duchenne, or simply their genuine, smiles:

1. Recognize their worth as a person and as a worker with individuality, etc.

2. Observe empathy and sympathy all of the times.

3. Do not be a control freak.

4. Delegate work and observe complete trust.

5. Be fair and honest to everyone.

6. Always hold responsible for your workers' mistakes; whether caused by you or them.

7. Respect their feelings.

8. Always avoid getting too close or personal with them. There should be a gap where respecting one's privacy is observed.

9. Inspire them to develop their potentials.

10. Do not play favorites.

11. Stand by your principles though using soft skills.

You may add more of these things and ensure that maintaining high morale among your workers are best indicators that you are doing great as their leader and being look up to as their inspirations.

The author is a mentor of teachers in elementary grades in the Philippines. Aside from being a grade school teacher, he is also contributing articles to magazines just to make good use of his spare time. He has joined writing contest in the past, but until now, he is dreaming of bagging an award! This is why, he is now trying his luck in this endeavor--blogging-- to find his niche and somewhere, somehow find a way of publishing a book.