While this sounds so common sense, it is amazing how many people work with very general instructions from their supervisors. Most people know how to do a job if they have been trained properly, but they rarely know why they do it or what the expected outcome is. Alternatively, many people are told the outcome, but not the process of how to get there.

Being a supervisor today means responsibility for more people than you can truly take care of. I find it typical for people to supervise 30+ people. Under these circumstances, it is even more important that each communication be useful to both parties. That means knowing which information the person needs—process or outcome, or both.

Communicating your expectations clearly takes more time at the beginning, but it saves more time along the way and achieves more positive results. When assigning a job to an employee, use your time efficiently by clearly stating the outcome you desire. The more complex the task, the more important this becomes. However, even simple tasks are often assigned with vague instructions such as, “Get me a copy of the XYZ report when you have time.” The employee doesn’t know whether that means drop everything and do it now, do it by the end of the day, or do it in the next couple days. People generally want to please their supervisors. Give them information to do that.

If you want to achieve consistent results from employees, you must be consistent in your reinforcement. This is the element that takes more time, but has such a big payoff.

When you see people taking actions you want, tell them so. This doesn’t have to be a flowery speech. It can be a simple, “You’re on the right track,” or “Thanks for getting on that project so quickly,” or “Looks like you’ve made that correction we talked about yesterday.” You can also leave a post-it note or send an email.

When people go off-track, get them back on the right path quickly by clarifying your instructions and the outcomes you stated earlier. Make sure they have the resources to get the job done—that means people, knowledge, and tools. Let them know the impact their error has on the product or process so they know why you are correcting them. Give them useful information that will help them succeed, such as “When you don’t get that part sanded smooth enough the first time, it means the next person has to stop and fix it before they can do their part of the process. This causes delays and extra work for others. Please make sure you sand the parts smoothly enough that the next person can fit their part on easily.”

Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz who had the power all along to go home if she chose, supervisors do not realize the power they hold in achieving the results they want. The majority of employees want to succeed, but they don’t know what the supervisor is looking for, so they try different things to get attention—sometimes the wrong things. You get consistently right behavior when you ask for what you want, define the details as necessary, and reinforce it when you see it.

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.

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?

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.

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.