In fact, I have a great book for you to read, by a female consultant, Chris Turner, once a senior manager with Xerox who now consults to companies all over the world about how to build high-energy, effective teams. The empty leaders think work is work, play is play and ne'er the two should mix. And so their deadly seriousness undermines the very productivity they're trying to reinforce. Here are a few of Turner's ideas that you may want to consider to improve morale and make people glad to come to work most days. Competition kills innovation, risk-taking and creativity.
Collaboration is much more likely to get the desired result.
Your company's vision has to start with you, but for it to take hold and unify your people, you have to ask them to embellish it in their own words. In short, let them own it, too. The best way to make progress is to challenge your own assumptions. Ask the people below you what wrong-headed ideas they see you trying desperately to make work. The answers you get will be worth more than a whole flock of McKinsey consultants roosting in your company for a few months.