Vicki Anderson

I have just been reading The Carrot Principle by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. They have done research primarily in the healthcare industry, but they present some good statistics that support the philosophy that positive recognition of employees makes a difference in the engagement of employees. I have been proposing this from my readings for years, but here is some new research.

Organizations were divided into quartiles by the way their employees responded to the statement, “My organization recognizes excellence.” They found that organizations in the top quartile had a return on equity four times higher than the bottom quartile. The top quartile had a return on assets three times higher than the bottom quartile and six times higher operating margins.

They propose that recognition is an accelerator to your management. It is longer lasting and has more intrinsic motivational value than money. I am always saying money is a short term satisfier, it is not a motivator. Consider the last time you received a bonus of any amount. Did you take a picture and frame it or did you make a copy of the deposit slip and put it in an album? You probably don’t even remember what you did with it. However, what about a letter from you manager thanking you for your contribution on a project that specifically says what you did that is appreciated. THAT goes in the file. Don’t get me wrong–we all work for money. The authors say that managers typically don’t have enough power to give you a significant amount of money to be memorable and long lasting. However, there are so many things a manager can do just to appreciate and develop you that cost nothing or almost nothing. These can amount to quite a lot to your career over time. And you can’t put a price on the “feeling like I make a difference” feeling.

I guess summer has officially started now that Memorial Day is done. This means that we need to schedule work around summer vacations and often work shorthanded while people are off. This can be frustrating for all involved. It’s so frustrating, in fact, I know many people who end up foregoing their vacations entirely. In today’s search for work-life balance, it certainly seems out of place for some work environments to set goals so high that people don’t believe they can take vacations. While I definitely believe in being responsible about covering your workload when you are gone, it is also important for your supervisor to make it possible to leave.

I used to have a supervisor who would pile on the work just before I went on vacation, almost as a punishment for leaving. I would be working down to overtime to get as much done as I could before leaving with a heavy heart that I could not get it all done. Then I would feel guilty for days until I finally relaxed. What kind of leadership is that?

Although it can be difficult to cover for someone who is gone, studies have shown that restful vacations actually improve productivity when the employee returns to work. Employees who are so stressed because they hardly ever take off find it more difficult to be creative and flexible. I think the good leader is one who talks with their employees to find out what is going on, what might need covering, and who could help if necessary. This way, both are prepared for the vacation incidents that could occur and the employee taking the vacation can leave in clear conscience to enjoy the time away. And the real pay-off? How much is high morale worth?

I just finished reading Patrick Lencioni’s “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” and it lived up to my expectations. The fable format gave some good real life examples of how the three miseries are played out at work. To refresh, the miseries are 1) immeasurability–not being able to measure whether you have done a good job or not, 2) irrelevance–not understanding how your work affects or contributes to anyone else, and 3) anonymity–not being appreciated for who you are as a person.

Lencioni says that the three miseries are not caused by the job, but by the way you are treated by management. He pointed out how highly paid executives, sports figures, and celebrities can feel just as miserable in their high-paying jobs as those in a low-paying jobs if these three factors are ignored. In fact, he includes a variety of work examples at the end for illustration beyond the story.

I plan to incorporate these ideas where I can in my coaching and training with management as it reinforces what I have already been espousing, which is that the most important long-term motivators are about more than money. I welcome your thoughts on this.

I have been doing some work with Marcus Buckingham’s strengths philosophy and while I was very skeptical at first, it is making more sense to me the more I learn about it. It does seem logical that you will grow most in the areas where you have talent. Buckingham does not say not to work on your weaknesses, but to do so only to the point where they are not hindering your progress. I saw him at a seminar recently and asked him how the strenghts philosophy meshed with the need of many companies to do cross training for flexibility and continuous improvement. He said that Toyota does a lot of cross training and lean manufacturing but they do it judiciously considering the people in the roles and the needs of the work. All of the data he has shown backs up that if you put more effort into the things you do well, that you will excel faster and enjoy your job more. He said that too many people put off their passion to get a job they don’t care about thinking they will go back to it someday. Unfortunately, by the time they get around to it, the spark is no longer there and they have wasted a talent that could have been amazing.

Marcus Buckingham was on Oprah last Friday talking about his strengths-based work and the coaching he had done with several women. All gained insight to more enjoyment in their work and their lives. Some decided to change jobs or careers and some decided to make more of the job they had. Oprah has put together more information with Buckingham and they are making a free seminar available to anyone who is interested. You can go to www.Oprah.com for more information. If you have not been exposed to this approach to your work, check it out.