These are all great ideas, thank you for the post. The only snag here is there are many 'needy' employees and one boss or a small leadership team. Why do we keep placing the responsibility on the employer to make nice-nice and I see no advice to the staff to get to know their employer and understand their goals and hopes. It must be a two way street and the burden must be on both parties to understand each other. Remember one of them can fire the other. There are just as many bosses who prefer new teams but can't find one. I hear all the time, 'good  people are hard to find, If I could find better people, I'd hire them on the spot'. In order to get production out, we sometimes have to do the best we can with the best we can find right now. Let's not pretend it's that easy out there for either side.