Of all the things that can boost team morale, the number one is progress (and the feeling it generates).
This may sound like Management 101, but too often it is forgotten or just ignored.
A sense of progress requires deliberate intent by a leader, not platitudes. 

Imagine working and feeling like you never actually progress or achieve anything, and every day feels the same. Does that sound odd? For too many workers this is the norm. Progress is powerful. It fuels motivation, builds confidence, and keeps people engaged long after the initial excitement of starting something new. Yet, in too many workplaces, progress stalls because leaders fail to make progress visible, meaningful, and energising. 

“Without continual growth and progress, words such as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning”
– Benjamin Franklin

Work undertaken by psychologists (Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, in The Progress Principle), found that the single biggest driver of motivation, creativity, and engagement at work is the feeling of making meaningful progress. Not praise. Not pay. But progress. When people can see and feel that their effort is moving the needle, even slightly, they become more committed and enthusiastic. In contrast, when work feels stagnant (when days pass with no sign of advancement or impact) motivation drains away. People disengage not because they lack capability, but because they lose sight of why their effort matters. Leaders play a critical role in shaping this sense of progress. They either amplify it or crush it.

A leader’s energy always precedes them. Leaders fall into one of two categories: Energy Givers or Energy Takers. Energy Givers inspire momentum. They focus on solutions, celebrate small wins, provide clarity, and communicate optimism and confidence. Their presence uplifts the team. Energy Takers drain the collective team spirit. They focus on problems without offering direction, micromanage instead of empowering, and critique without celebrating effort. They walk into a room and leave it heavier than when they arrived. Your energy precedes you. Before a word is spoken, your attitude, body language, and facial expressions sets the tone. Leaders who understand this wield an invisible but powerful form of influence.

Progress must be visible and felt. No matter at what point of a performance metric you are starting from, as a leader it is key to inspire a sense of hope, progress and achievement. Progress is felt through three things: clarity, connection, and celebration.

1. Clarity: People need to know what they’re working toward, how success is defined, and what good looks like. Ambiguity kills motivation. Clear, measurable goals turn effort into direction.
2. Connection: Teams feel progress when they see how their individual work contributes to something larger. Leaders must constantly connect the dots between daily tasks and broader purpose.
3. Celebration: Recognition of progress (both large and small wins) turns a moment into momentum. When leaders pause to acknowledge steps forward, they reinforce that progress is happening. Just like climbing a mountain. You need to get to base camp 1 before you get to camp 2, and ultimately the summit.

Progress doesn’t happen by accident. It’s designed, cultivated, and led. The following are key techniques leaders can apply to foster a sense of progress and keep their teams moving forward:

Set clear, achievable goals. Clarity is the antidote to confusion. Break large objectives into smaller, visible milestones that people can track and celebrate. This creates a rhythm of success. A practical tool for this is the 3x3x3 Framework. Three goals to achieve, three actions to undertake, three measures of success. It keeps focus sharp, accountability clear, and progress measurable. When everyone knows what they’re working toward, progress becomes tangible.

Setting goals is the first step of turning the invisible into the visible

Make progress visible. Out of sight, out of mind. Use visual scoreboards, dashboards, and team updates to make progress clear so staff can see trend lines. People are more engaged when they can see how far they’ve come. When people can see real-time progress, ownership increases. 

People play differently when someone is keeping score.

Create autonomy and ownership. Progress feels stronger when people own it. Micromanagement kills momentum because it strips people of the satisfaction of achievement. Encourage autonomy by defining the what and why but let your team shape the how. Give them space to experiment, take risks, and learn. This sense of control transforms compliance into commitment. 

Control leads to compliance. Autonomy leads to engagement

Encourage learning over perfection. Progress is rarely linear. Great leaders normalise failure as part of growth. They reframe setbacks as lessons, not losses. Use reflective questions like, what worked well? What did we learn? What will we do differently next time? By embedding learning into every project, you create a culture that sees movement, forward or sideways, as valuable progress.

Learning never exhausts the mind
– Leonardo da Vinci

Celebrate momentum, not just milestones. Too many leaders wait until the end of a project to celebrate. The best leaders celebrate the steps along the way. A quick “shout-out” in a team meeting, a handwritten note, or public recognition of effort can recharge a team’s motivation. Remember, people don’t just want to feel valued when it’s done, they want to feel valued while they’re doing it.

Normalise celebrating and recognising the small wins along the way.
This is what fuels belief and enables big results

Protect your team’s energy. Progress requires energy. As a leader, part of your job is to protect it. That means filtering out unnecessary noise, shielding your team from chaos, and ensuring workloads are realistic. If everything is urgent, nothing is important. Create breathing space. Focus the team on what truly matters. A rested, focused team will always outperform a busy, burnt-out one.

Every team runs on energy. And everyone contributes to it

Be present and predictable. People find progress when they trust their leader. That trust comes from predictable behaviour, leaders who are consistent in their mood, decisions, and responses. Unpredictable leaders create anxiety. Consistent leaders create stability, and stability creates progress. Be the calm in the storm, not the storm itself.

A leaders number one role is to create the right team climate through their presence (mindset, behaviours, and actions)

Leadership Lesson

Your energy precedes you.
Progress isn’t just about systems and strategies, it’s about energy.
A leader’s energy is contagious.
Walk into a room flat, and you flatten others.
Walk in with focus, positivity, and intent, and you lift the room before you even speak.
People remember how a leader makes them feel far more than what that leader says.

Facta Non-Verba – Deeds Not Words