Susan Drumm says managers can boost morale on dull projects by assigning tasks that match each person's strengths. Give Jess the presentation because she likes facilitating. Put Chris in charge of training new hires. Tell them you chose these roles deliberately for them.
Chapters
Morale and productivity go up. Add motivating aspects to less exciting projects. So not every project can be a dream project. But once you know what energizes and motivates your team, you can tuck in some of those fun tasks into each project. So if you know that Jess loves facilitating or presenting, make sure she leads. Sharing the findings of a less than super fun project to the client. Or if you know that Chris thrives when he's leading newer team members, put him in charge of a project managing the new hires for that somewhat boring project. And when you do this, when you add these energizing, motivating tasks to someone's plate, make sure they know that you did that on purpose. It can be as easy as saying, Jess, I know you mentioned that you really like facilitating, so I thought maybe you could present to the client. When our team knows we're listening to their needs and trying to meet them, morale and productivity go up.