It doesn't take much to go from "everyone's fine" to "everyone's crying at their desks."

It happens. Everything's going fine until it isn't. Maybe you had a team leader who left suddenly, or who was going through something outside of work and couldn't be there for the team. 

I once walked into a new role leading an existing team where everyone was so miserable that by the time I got to my third 1-1 meeting, as the person took their seat, I gently pushed a box of tissues on my desk over towards them, calmly asking "how's it going?" Almost everyone who walked into my office for my series of meet & greet 1-1 meetings that day burst into tears within the first five minutes.

Luckily, although the fix was not quick, my assurances that day gave the team hope. And once I demonstrated my reliability, credibility, and consistency, things did get much better. It turns out that this team's previous manager had been given the dubious nickname of "Scooter," unbeknownst to him, of course. He was simply unable to make time for the team, overwhelmed as he was with his own workload. The nickname came about when they realized every time they needed him, he conveniently "scooted" out of the building, leaving them to fend for themselves.

I can't lay this at one person's feet. It was clearly a culmination of forces that created this atmosphere, but the team was miserable. I worked hard those first few months to be there for the them, so things could stabilize. 

From there, we went on to greater things. Turnover decreased substantially. To bolster this, I partnered with a senior member of my team to create a comprehensive training program to allow new hires to onboard quickly and begin contributing meaningfully within 30 days as opposed to 90. Partnering with someone already performing the work was important to ensure I wasn't creating a program in a vacuum. And getting new hires up to speed faster improved morale across the board, since the existing team was overwhelmed and we desperately needed new hires to quickly be able to operate independently.

Importantly, the team had someone they could come to for help, support, and guidance consistently. No scooting.