Tiny Phrases, Tremendous Payback
Peter de Jager is a provocative Speaker,
Writer and Consultant. His primary focus in on how we manage change,
technology and the future. In addition to speaking at conferences
worldwide, he's also written monthly columns for Municipal World and
Computing Canada. His goal is always to question what we
think is so, and in so doing perhaps open up new opportunities. If you'd like permission to reprint any
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There’s a management ‘crisis’ gathering steam over the past few months. Time and time again, with increasing frequency, I’m listening in on management discussions about the same topic – how do we motivate and reward employees in a deepening recession that is removing resources and adding to already onerous workloads?
The reason for the increased interest in this topic is obvious. The constant doom and gloom in the media is beginning to wear us all down more than just a little bit, and the resulting ‘blahs’ are beginning to affect productivity. Even the most oblivious and complacent manager amongst us knows that this blue funk isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Finding some way to boost morale seems to be the order of the day. Providing of course, it doesn’t dip into the skinny purse too much.
While the proactive behavior demonstrated by management in their search for some
answers is admirable, the assumption that motivating staff requires a quest for some well hidden management secret is a part of the problem. You don’t need to spend a dime to motivate staff. It doesn’t require an afternoon at the bowling alleys, a day at the races, or an evening in the local pub, nor prizes, balloons nor cake. All it requires is a constant drip of recognition and a dash or two of praise.
Consider the following anecdote from Chip Levy, Principal of the Rochelle Organization Inc. based in Washington, D.C.
I remember one specific instance from my days at fundraisers. I had asked one of my directors to ask one of the Administrative Assistants to develop a set of tables for me to present membership statistics -- fussy, detail-oriented, non-sexy stuff, but critical for me in making a point to my editorial board. Sometime later the charts appeared in my in-box, they were exactly what I wanted, polished, well-designed and presented, clearly A+ work. I wasn't sure who had put them together, and rather than speak with my director, I just grabbed the report and walked out into the bullpen, held the charts in the air and asked in a fairly monotone voice, "Who did this?" After a brief silence, April, one of the three worker bees in the bullpen, tentatively raised her hand. "This is a terrific piece of work, April. It's exactly what I wanted, and better than I'd hoped for. Thank you very much for a great effort. Well done!" I just smiled a moment, then went back into my office.
My director told me weeks later that April never forgot the moment, that she was quietly beaming as I left, and that other folks in the office also patted her on the back for it. It took 15 seconds, cost no money, and energized April (and others) for weeks or more. What's not to like?
Here’s a quick management test for all of us… how many anecdotes like the one above do we have about our relationships with our staff? Our friends? Our Families? Ouch. That’s a brutal question. Fact is, if we were all the managers we’d like to be – a story like that would be so commonplace that it would not need retelling. I consider myself a good manager, but I wish I had more of that type of story that reflects more on my management ability than it does on the deserving nature of the staff member.
All of which begs the question, why is Chip’s story uncommon enough to be a worthy reminder? Why do we find it so difficult to give praise, or perhaps a more important question, why are we so reluctant to give praise?
To my horror one manager put it simply, “I don’t tell them they do good work, because then they’d know how important they are to me, and would ask for a raise!”
Another stated they reason even more simply, “If I praise them, then I can’t push them for even greater effort!”
Frankly, while the first one makes some short sighted sense, the second not only baffles me, but shows a total lack of understanding human nature. We are driven by our Ego and anything that feeds the Ego, motivates us to repeat the behavior that resulted in the Ego boost. We not only like being praised, we’re all too often starved for praise. Knowing that what we do is appreciated is all the reason we need to do it again.
The problem with all of this ‘advice’ is that a) we already, at some level, know this to be true, b) it all sounds too simple, and c) since it is a ‘free’ strategy – and since things are only worth what they cost? “Praise” can’t be that effective a strategy.
It’s “the curse of the simple solution” once again… the only viable solutions to our problems - must cost money… and the more they cost? The more effective they are.
All nonsense of course. Chip’s public praise of April’s work didn’t cost anyone anything, and I’ll bet that April remembers that praise to this day. I’ll also bet that the quality of every report she produces is still built upon, and supported by, that praise.
© 2010 Peter de Jager – Peter believes that Praise is the most valuable coin in the Management realm – it raises us from Pauper to Royalty. You can listen to, and register for, his presentations at webinars.technobility.com
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