"Nothing
else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed,
sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free--and worth a
fortune."13
Sam
Walton
Founder
and former CEO, Wal-Mart
Managers
should not underestimate the power that praise has on employee
morale.
When
employees are complimented, they get a warm, fuzzy, magical
feeling inside. In addition, the manager's job becomes easier
because positive reinforcement of actions gets those actions
repeated. Employees will begin to seek out more ways to earn
praise by working harder and more
productively.
WHY
PRAISE MATTERS
To
illustrate how important it is for people to receive
recognition, think about all of the keepsakes of success that
we retain to remind ourselves of the good feeling of praise.
For example, a good friend of mine, Dean, died a few years ago
from cancer. A few months later, Dean's Dad invited me to come
to his house to select something to remember him by. In his
closet, Dean had fifteen or twenty trophies that he had earned
throughout his life. Several of them seemed to be quite old so
I looked at all of the dates. The oldest one was from 1970. He
had kept that trophy for thirty years, because it made him
feel like a winner.
Some employees don't go above and beyond the call of
duty even when they know it will help the company, because
they think nobody will recognize their efforts. Their attitude
is, "Even if I do this, nobody is going to notice anyway. So
what's the point?" Even though your workload is likely heavy,
do your best to stay informed about all of the good things
that your employees are doing and look for opportunities to
praise them. You don't want to just give feedback to employees
when they do something wrong. That is an easy trap to fall
into.
Here is an example of an employee who thought he wasn't
doing a good job because he was never
praised:
Ken Robbins is a mechanical engineer for an engineering
firm in Houston. His best friend at work is one of the top
civil engineers in the company. Ken went out to lunch one day
with a civil engineer who reported directly to his best
friend. Ken's friend had always raved to him about how good
this employee was. But during lunch, the employee confided in
Ken that he was really worried that his manager wasn't happy
with his performance. Ken burst out, "Are you kidding me? He
talks my ear off bragging about you." The employee was
thrilled to hear that, but surprised because he had never been
told that he had been doing a good job.
Later that day, Ken went back and told his friend about
this. His friend said, "I'm not sure why he would think I
wasn't happy with his performance. After all, I have never
gotten on him for anything since he has been here." Ken
replied, "Yeah, but you never told him he was doing a good job
either. Whether it's right or wrong, it sounds like he didn't
get any feedback and just assumed the worst. But you should
have never given him the chance to make that
assumption."
HOW
TO PRAISE
Most
managers are in a position where they have very little time
and no money to commit to a formal recognition program. But
you don't even have to go that far to be effective. You can
still praise employees in many different simple ways even if
you are really busy and have no money to distribute. This can
include: giving them a phone call; sending an e-mail with a
carbon copy to a high-level manager; telling them face to
face; writing them a note and putting it on their computer;
sneaking a letter in with their paycheck; leaving them a voice
mail, or passing along a customer satisfaction card that
compliments the employee. Also, you can let employees know if
another manager or employee says something nice about their
work. These people will probably not feel as comfortable
saying that directly to the employee. But you can brighten
their day if you discreetly pass along the kind words to
them.
Managers should realize that the praise is the gift and
a certificate or plaque is only the wrapping. The gift is what
is important. A note telling an employee that they did a good
job only takes a few minutes to write, but the positive impact
is still the same. Plus, it can have a lasting effect because
employees will be able to look at the note or printed e-mail
whenever they want. In addition, with an e-mail they can
forward it to their close friends and family and say "Hey,
look what my boss sent me!" Praise can be priceless and it
doesn't have to cost a penny.
In addition, praise will have more of an impact if you
apply it to a specific action and give it close to when the
behavior took place. You want to let employees know exactly
what they did right as soon as possible. Then, employees will
connect the praise with the specific work they have done well.
This will reinforce the behavior which will increase the
chances that it will be repeated in the
future.
Consider the feedback options you have if one of your
employees turns in a monthly report two days early and makes
some design improvements to it:
Option
#1 - Say nothing.
Option
#2 - Say thank you to the employee three days
later.
Option
#3 - Thank the employee two days later for turning the report
in before the deadline and making the design
improvements.
Option
#4 - Thank the employee that day for turning in the report two
days early and coming up with two new color pie charts that
were included on page two and page four.
At a minimum, you should have gone with option #2. But
option #4 is the best, because the praise given is the most
specific and closest to when the action took
place.
Also, although it is good to praise your employees,
managers should not overdo it. If you do, the value of the
praise will be diminished and your employees will probably
feel that you are trying to manipulate them. On the other
hand, never praising employees is not the best way to go
either. The answer lies somewhere in the middle of these two
extremes depending on the individual
employee.
In addition, all praise given to employees should be
genuine. Praising employees halfheartedly or insincerely when
it is not deserved can do more damage than giving no praise at
all. If you praise an employee who does not deserve it, then
you are just encouraging mediocre behavior to continue. Also,
it is a good idea to utilize different methods of praise so it
does not become mechanical.
Consider this analogy when analyzing the relationship
between praising employees and employee morale and motivation.
Imagine you have a plant and you don't ever feed it. How long
do you think the plant will live? Obviously, not very long.
The leaves will soon become brown and wilted. What about if
you put the right amount of water on the plant? Then, you will
give the plant the best chance to be healthy and live as long
as possible. The leaves will be green, firm, and vibrant. What
if you feed the plant too much water? This will hurt the
plant, because it only needs so much water to be healthy. The
point is that the plant is the morale and motivation of your
employees and the water is praise.
RECOGNIZE
ALL DESERVING EMPLOYEES
Many
reward systems are predicated on celebrating the feats of the
elite performers. No matter how deserving the recipient of the
award is, however, the other employees will likely feel
slighted because they are not being praised for their efforts.
Because people tend to compare themselves to one another, when
another employee is recognized and they are not, it is natural
for employees to wonder what is wrong with them.
There is a commercial that recently came out that has
two employees who work at a retail business that looks like
Wal-Mart or Target. They are talking to each other in
amazement about the star employee who hasn't ever called in
sick to work for several years. At the end of the commercial,
the star employee is named the employee of the month for the
tenth straight month and she celebrates to the chagrin of the
other two employees. Even though this was only supposed to be
funny, there is a lot of truth in it.
With praise, your goal should not be to only recognize
the top performer. Your goal should be to improve overall
productivity. And the productivity of your organization is not
based on one person doing well, so it doesn't make sense to
only praise the top employee. With any group of employees,
some are going to be better than others. But it is extremely
important to give praise to any employee when it is deserved.
Therefore, instead of only singling out the top performers,
managers should also recognize the efforts of the other
employees.
In a similar fashion, one of the traps some managers
fall into when it comes to praising employees is the Superman
syndrome. Superman can foil Lex Luther's evil plans, leap tall
buildings in a single bound, run as fast as high speed trains,
and still have time for Lois Lane. Many managers are fortunate
to have a Superman or Superwoman working for them. These
dynamite employees are deservedly lavished with praise. But
the reality is that not every employee is capable of being a
Superman or Superwoman. Some of your employees will show up
consistently every day and quietly get their work done with
minimal help just as they are expected. They are not going to
"Wow" you, but they also never give you any problems. These
employees are often easily overlooked, but they need praise,
too. You should remind yourself to show appreciation for what
they do, because their importance will become really obvious
if they are ever not there. This doesn't mean that you should
reward mediocrity. It just means to try to show appreciation
for the everyday things that employees are doing
well.
CELEBRATE
EMPLOYEE BIRTHDAYS
Although this is unrelated to
work performance, another way managers can recognize employees
is by celebrating their birthdays. All you have to do is get a
card for them that everybody else can sign. This will show
that you care about the employee as a person, because their
birthday is probably the most important day of the year for
them. In fact, how much a company celebrates birthdays is an
unusual but fairly accurate indicator of how much everybody
cares about each other. It is pretty sad that you can spend
just as much time with a group of people at work as you do
with your own family, but not celebrate each other's
birthdays. That makes the business a cold place to work.
However, if an employee doesn't want their birthday
celebrated, then you should honor their wishes. The best time
to find out if celebrating their birthday is a problem is by
asking them when they are first hired.
SUMMARY
Mark
Twain once said "I can live for two months on a good
compliment." Praise is an extremely powerful motivator because
it is nourishment for people's self-esteem, gives them a sense
of importance, and fulfills their intense hunger for
recognition.
