Management News
Business Management and Employee Morale-Praise GoodWork by Greg Blencoe
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.” 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. 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. 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. 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. Greg Blencoe is the author of "The Ten Commandments for Managers." |
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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.