Vicki Anderson

“Isn’t consequences the same thing as punishment?” someone asked me recently. “Not really,” I answered.

This association of words often keeps supervisors from following up on their employees’ unacceptable performance. You see, we associate “consequences” with “what happens when you mess up.” Consequences are issued to unruly children and teenagers who make poor behavior choices in order to help them learn appropriate behaviors. However, the same concept can be used with adults. Punishment, on the other hand, has an emotional component that is supposed to make you feel bad for what you did.

Consequences are actually what happen as a result of your actions. Consequences can be positive or negative. For example, when a salesman signs a new customer, he might receive a bonus, which is a pleasant consequence. On the other hand, an employee who makes a careless safety error may receive a reprimand, which is an unpleasant consequence.

The problem lies in inconsistent consequences. If consequences only happen when someone does something wrong, they feel like punishment to the person receiving it. If you want to see consistent results from your people, then you have to use consistent consequences. Make sure that people hear lots of good news from you when they are performing well. Don’t be a recognition miser and don’t wait for the super achievement to give recognition. Reward consistent positive results and efforts toward behavior improvement. People want to know that what they do pleases you. You have a lot of power to inspire achievement if you will use it.

Be also free with natural consequences if you see incorrect behavior. This is difficult for many supervisors so they wait too long before giving consequences. Thus it gets escalated to disciplinary action quickly. Instead, give people useful information that will help them get back on the correct path immediately while there is no emotion attached to it. Just as you quickly pull your hand back from a hot pan when cooking, employees ought to know where the limits are by your quick reaction to near misses, not crises. Discuss lessons learned and apply the “what happened, why did it happen, and how can we keep this from happening again” approach. In this way, natural consequences are follow-up actions in response to incorrect or unacceptable behavior. The purpose is not to make the employee feel bad, but help them be successful the next time.

A recent article by The Conference Board reported that only 45% of people were satisfied with their jobs vs. 61.1% in 1987. http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=3820 They also reported that 22% of the people surveyed said that they didn’t expect to be in their current job in a year.

I don’t think this is very surprising given all the changes in employment and the economy in the last year. I also don’t think it is just that people are scared for their jobs. When major layoffs and economy downturns happen it is natural for people hunker down and look out for themselves. It is more difficult to think about what you contribute to the team and how you are making a difference wherever you are if you are only focused on yourself.

I think being a successful part of the world is considering what contribution you make. Job satisfaction is not only being paid what you think you are worth, but it is feeling like it matters whether you do your job or not. And that doesn’t mean whether you get in trouble for doing it or not. Take a look at any job from garbage pickup person to waiter to lab technician to manager to ceo. If that person does not see the importance in their job and is not surrounded by others who value what they do, they are less likely to take an interest and feel satisfied.

And who has the power to help people see their work as worthwhile? It is management, coworkers, and the employes themselves. If you don’t like what you are doing, ask yourself why it needs to be done and what would happen if you didn’t do it. If you have coworkers who serve you by getting you what you need to do your job, let them know you appreciate their effort and what difference it makes to you being able to do your job. If you are a manager, don’t be a recognition miser. Be generous with appreciation and discuss what value employees bring to you and your customers by the way they work. And don’t forget to let your boss know if he or she is doing a good job. They are often the least recognized and it flows downhill from there!

My favorite saying is “The grass is always greener where you water it.” What are you doing to help your grass grow greener?

The holidays are a great time to role model what you say you believe. If your organization says it is about serving others or valuing people, take a look at what you are doing to actually live those principles. What are you doing to serve your employees, your customers, and your community? If you say you value people, how are you treating them this holiday? Are you being Mr. Scrooge or Bob Cratchett?

Being a leader who believes in the power and value of people doesn’t get measured in the size of the bonus you give at Christmas. It is measured in the way people are treated every day, but at this time of year people tend to take stock in how you behave. Hopefully you have been living most every day of this year in a way that it is unnecessary for the three ghosts to visit you on Christmas Eve. Here are a few tips for being a generous leader:

1. Share power where it is needed. If you give someone a task to do, make sure they have the authority to get it done.
2. Give credit where credit is due. Encourage people to contribrute ideas by giving them credit when they do. You will ultimately look good for having such bright employees.
3. Empower people to put ideas to work. When people see what needs to be done and you give them permission to do it, they tend to look for more.
4. Build self-esteem of others by identifying what they do right so they can do more of it. Put them in positions where they can succeed. You will be rewarded many times over with employees who are motivated to do more.

Be generous with praise and a miser with criticism, but make sure both are specific and timely about what the person is doing right or wrong. Be generous in management by walking around. Your biggest job is helping people be successful. If they are successful, you will be successful. Here’s hoping your new year will bring you success as a leader.

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.