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Horses like to win races. It makes them feel good. They respond well to encouragement and praise. The winning trainer knows his or her first task is to make sure the horse feels like a winner. Star performances are produced by stars. Do they feel like stars right now? Wihtout that belief, no horse can run its hardest and no business can achieve its full potential. You Have the Power Here is a stricking thought for any business leader: "Studies on employees have shown that the greatest influence on job satisfaction is the supervisor." Bob Nelson In fact, this thought is a little bit scary when you come right down to it. It makes me wonder whether I'm having a positive or a negative influence at any specific moment. Can You Find Something Nice to Say About Everyone Business leaders might want to take a page out of the Miami Hurricanes' playbook. This University of Miami football team has an annual award dinner at which it gives out a Most Valuable Player award...and 16 other awards too. The coaches use the opportunity to recognize almost every player instead of just focusing on one or two standouts. They do this by giving out awards to very specific things so that each award recognizes a real contribution of importance to the team. There are awards for commitment, work ethic, and even an "unsung hero" awards. For a footbal team to function well, everyone needs to be operating at a high level of commitment. The idea of recognizing everyone with a wide range of appropriate rewards is only fair, and it avoids tehe common problem of awards demotivating those who don't win. Encouraging the Troops Jin Amos, former Marine captain and now president and CEO of Mail Boxes Etc., spends a lot of time recognizing and rewarding his employees, and believes this is part of the reason his firm has very low turnover and very dedicated staff. For instance he sometimes types letters of appreciation and mails them to his employees' homes along with a gift certificate for a local restaurant. Amos sometimes notifies local papers about notable things employees do, and also holds monthly "Eagle Renewal" employee meeting to applaud promotions, introduce new employees, gives a monthly Eagle award to an employee, and announces the peer-nominated Soar Award for going beyond the call of duty. That's a lot of celebration compared to most companies, who might do something of the sort once a year at best. Amos explains, "In the military you recognize and reward with medals, awards, and letters of recommendation, and these things carry over well into the civilian world." (Incentive, January 2002) Give Positive Feedback Before Success, Not After Almost all the recognition and reward schemes used in businesses are for a job well done. But heck, if the employee already did the job well, how much leadership is needed now? More important by far are the many employees who are in the middle of a tough task, and the many other employees who are doing something at least a little better than before, even if it isn't a great job yet. Your leadership can make a bigger difference if you refocus your recognition efforts on work processes and improvement efforts rather than the end results. One way to make this subtle but powerful shift from recoginzing sucessful end results to recognizing progress along the way is to shift your approach to recognition. Emphasize informal, frequent feedback to your people over fancy, occasional awards. Try saying things like "I appreciate the effort," "go for it.""that's a clear improvement", or "we may have a lot to do still but we're making progress." It is a healthy habit to recognize progress toward a desired end result. It allows us to provide leadership along the way. When we hang out at the finish line and clap when the employees stagger over it we aren't being leaders, we're being spectators. Practice Saying Thank You How often do you thank employees for their effort? How often do you tell them you appreciate what they've done? Interestingly. most managers say they offer their thanks routinely. But most employees say they rarely if ever hear a sincere thank-you. What gives? Evidently, in spite of our best intentions, we don't always get the message across that we appreciate the good work, patience, initiative, ideas, effort, and many other contributions our people make. My hunch is that most leaders simply find it difficult to express their feelings fully and clearly in this area. Do you? Here's a simple test: how many ways can you think of in the next 30 seconds to say "thank you" to your employees? One way to expand your "thank-you range" as a leader is to write a list of all the things you want your people to be. Now, once you have your list of desirable employee attributes, come up with a recognition statement for each. In other words, practice thanking them for being careful, caring, supporting to each other, persistent in solving a problem, creative in finding ways to make do without having to buy expensive new parts, or whatever. Get specific with your thanks. Thanking an employee for helping out with a problem is easy. Thanking another one for working hard is also natural and easy. When you work from your list of desired traits, you'll find many natural opportunities to recognize them in your people and to offer your thanks. Any leader who thinks showing appreciation for employees is as simple as repeating the two-word phrase "thank you" over and over is not communicating his or her appreciation as effectively as possible. Tell Them You Appreciate Them Employees who feel that their contribution is not valued often look for work elsewhere, and hurl accusations and pursue grievances at higher than average rates. Recognize Sustained Effort NASA recognizes employees who repeatedly show exceptional effort and whose attitude is consistently positive over time with a special award called the Silver Snoopy Award. As the award administrator explains, "most awards in most organizations are for single achievements yet we need sustained achievement!" Candy or Praise? In another blow for traditional "jelly-bean motivation" approaches, a researcher at Sonoma State University in California compared performances of people who were either given cansy when they did well on a test or verbal encouragement. The encouragement helped boost performance next time, the reward didn't. Specifically, the encouragement produced increased self-esteem and also better work performances. However, the verbal feedback had to focus on the task at hand to be fully effective. If managers say something like "keep up the good work and you'll probably make supervisor next year" they have just added a complicating factor—performance anxiety and the fear that the manager is linking one's future somewhat arbitrarily to a specific task. So give encouragement—but keep it about the task at hand. Spirit Booster At a residential ward of a veteran's hospital, one of the nurses started the practice of sharing a joke with everyone on the daily group meeting. The practice became something like a ritual, with staff and patients insisting on a new jole every day. Now employees scour joke books and collect good jokes they hear from others to make sure theyre is always something new to use for their daily joke. Birthday Parties I was shocked to see a statisti saying that employee birthdays are only celebrated with a gift or party in less than a fifth of businesses. It's a simple thing for each employee's direct supervisor or manager to organize a little party and offer some refreshments and a birthsday wish. They might even give a small present on the company's dime. Consideration is a leadership essential after all, and it seems a small thing to give by celebrating a birthday. Think of it as taking care of the child within us all! Who's in Charge of the Entertainment Phelps County Banl in Rolla, MO, gives work teams the task of deciding what to do with a company-sponsored hour-long break once a week. They have a budget and freedom to come up with anything that tickles their fancy as long as it is safe and doesn't offend anyone. Remind People of Their Strengths Whenever you encounter a situation in which it is appropriate to point out or probe for an individual's relevant strengths or compentencies, you could take advantage of it to remind people of specific skills or abilities or past success with statements or questions that remind them to focus on and apply their strengths. Some examples: - That's a tough challenge. It's a good thing you have a lot of experience with these kinds of problems. - Is there some way for you to take advantage of your knowledge of the .......................................... system when you tackle that project? - You always seem to be good at getting cooperation on these sorts of things. Is that a good strategy for this project? Reward Employees with a Great Work Environment According to David Russo, vice president of human resources at SAS Institute, "Recognition can come from more than just a name on a plaque. It can come throught the environment you give your employees. The environment is in itself part of the reward employees get for working here." That includes nicely designed and maintained office space and a great many family-friendly benefits, like on-site child-care—one of the most popular rewards among SAS employees with children. Don't Forget the Lowly T-Shirt! It's easy and inexpensive to have T-shirts silk-screened with custom-designed art and message to commemorate any special event. Some companies create T-shirts for events like a fun run or community service day. Others create T-shirts emblazoned with the names of project teams. Or how about a "survivor" shirt with a clip-art picture of a deserted island for those specials employees who worked extra hours to put on a special event, handle a seasonal rush, or deal with a major initiative like a move into a new facility? Check your phone directory for a local printer. Many have artists on staff who'll help you with a design for a minor fee. 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