Make Their Day Blog

Greetings, Make Their Day readers. My name is Alex Lamb. When my good friend Cindy invited me to contribute a guest post to her blog, I was both honored and delighted, but it took me a moment to figure out what message I wanted to share. My expertise is not in employee recognition, per se, but in improv theater and its implications in economics, psychology, and the study of leadership. After some thought, I decided that the idea I’d like to share is this: the employee recognition in your company can be revolutionized by understanding the role of cleaner fish in marine ecosystems.

Fish, Altruism, and Vampire Bats
At first glance, this might seem like a rather bold claim. After all, what do cleaner fish have to do with employees, let alone the recognizing of them? You might have seen cleaner fish on science documentaries from time to time. They’re the little fish that spend their lives swimming around in the mouths of larger fish, picking away the bits between their teeth, and miraculously not been gulped up. Am I implying that employees are little fish and that the secret of recognition is choosing not to swallow them? Not exactly.

Cleaner fish stay alive because of an evolutionary principle called reciprocal altruism. The large fish benefit from having their teeth cleaned. The cleaner fish benefit from getting a free meal and some measure of protection. Everyone wins and so the relationship is stable enough to persist for generations. The same patterns of cooperation can be seen in alligators and clover birds, between squirrels and songbirds, and even among vampire bats. However, nowhere in nature is reciprocal altruism, or reciprocity for short, so complex or nuanced as among human beings.

Influence and Christmas
In his book Influence, Robert Cialdini shares the story of a scientific study that reveals the power of reciprocity clearly. In this experiment, student volunteers carried out simple tests working in a pair with another student selected to be their partner. What the volunteers didn’t know was that in every case, that partner was an actor. Somewhere during the course of each session, the actor would briefly leave the room. In about half of those cases, he’d return with a can of coke for himself, and another for the volunteer. Then the test would proceed as normal. At the end of the session, the actor would ask the volunteer if he wanted to pledge a contribution for a charity event that the actor claimed to be taking part in that weekend. The rate of contribution in those cases where the coke was offered hugely exceeded that of the cases where it was not. In other words, when I do something for you, you feel gently compelled to do something for me, whether you like it or not.

The effects of reciprocity go way deeper than this, though. Human beings don’t just pay attention to the gifts they receive. They pay attention to all the subtle stuff that comes with them. Consider Christmas, or any other gift giving holiday. What makes these occasions both powerful and occasionally awkward isn’t what we get so much as what we see on each other’s faces when those transactions take place. This idea is magnificently captured in the song ‘Present Face’ by Garfunkel and Oates. In a nutshell, the first part of reciprocating to a gift isn’t the gift you give back, it’s how you receive the one you were just handed.

Gifts in the Workplace
Recognizing others brilliantly depends on realizing that every statement that one of your employees makes is a gift. By this I mean every remark in a meeting, every question, no matter how difficult, and even every email. Sometimes it’s hard to see things that way, but keeping this idea in mind will help you far more than you might expect.

Why? Because the reaction you give someone when you receive a gift is a message, and that message says ‘I’m responding in the way that you expected’. The brain loves getting messages like this. This is because your brain works by constantly trying to guess what will happen next. It’s a predicting machine.

Every time you talk to someone, your brain is automatically trying to anticipate their next word, or what expression they’ll pull. When the brain is able to get more guesses right than wrong, it rewards itself. It starts to automatically trust that other person. So when we make sure that each statement that one of our team members makes is getting reflected in our expression and choice of words, they feel like their actions had a predictable, measurable outcome. In other words, they feel noticed.

The Clegg Effect
This isn’t to say that reciprocity means automatically accepting everything everyone tells you as if it’s a new pair of skis on Christmas day. However, what it does mean is that making sure that your team members feel heard before you contribute information of your own makes a huge difference. For a great example of this principle in action, I recommend the first ever British Prime Ministerial debate, which happened earlier this year. You can find it here.

In the course of ninety minutes, this debate temporarily turned the politics of an entire nation on its head. A big part of what made that possible was the delivery style of one party’s leader, Nick Clegg, and his grasp of the reciprocity principle. Of course, there’s plenty more going on here besides, but as the video reveals, Nick Clegg has a powerful grasp of how to respond to audience questions, make them feel included, and incorporate their material into his own vision.

Lead like a Cleaner Fish, Not Like a Shark
In conclusion, then, by treating each employee effort we encounter like a piece of food glued to teeth of a much larger fish–a fish that deserves our respect–we guarantee our survival and our effectiveness as leaders. As leaders, we need to aspire to listen and react with intuitive grace and confidence, and to make our responses naturally reflect the expectations of others. This might sound like a tall order, but fortunately there’s a highly developed toolkit for developing such responses that’s easy and fun to use. That toolkit, in case you hadn’t guessed, is improv theater.

The best of experiential learning for leadership development, Leadership Skills for the Analytical Mind, is a joint venture between Cindy Ventrice and Alex Lamb. To learn more visit www.techeq.com.

In the last post I looked at two books on the subject of influence. One is focused heavily on how we are manipulated into doing what someone else wants. Not the most positive subject, but Influence still manages to offer a lesson on positive motivation. The other book, Sway, looks at what causes us to behave irrationally. It too offers good lessons for managers. If you missed the last post, check it out here.

The third book I want to discuss is Influencer by the authors of Crucial Conversations, Influencer comes at the subject of motivation from a much more positive perspective, that of creating positive change by changing behaviors.

To achieve the results we want, the authors suggest we start by identifying the very specific behaviors that we want changed. Once we know what behaviors we want to change we can provide motivation.

Influencer provides examples where the behavior of entire communities was changed in order to improve health (eradication of Guinea Worm), keep convicts from returning to jail (Delancy Street), and reduce avoidable deaths in hospitals. The authors look at firmly entrenched behaviors and what motivators will get us to change those behaviors.

This book, like the previous two, holds some lessons for those of us that want to be a positive source of workplace motivation. (for the first three extrinsic motivators see the previous post).

Extrinsic motivator #4:  Peer Pressure. We all remember peer pressure from our school days, but we tend to forget that it is an influence in the workplace as well. It is the reason why you don’t have to turn everyone to your way of thinking. To achieve change you need to influence those whose opinions are most respected, the opinion leaders. Part two of peer pressure is to design a workplace with social support for the right behavior. This might be the pizza party for everyone when 51 percent of the department achieves a goal, with the promise of a bigger event when 75 percent achieve. The stakes aren’t high but there should be a little friendly pressure (and support) from those already achieving on those who have yet to get there.

Extrinsic motivator #5:  Change the Environment The old Western Electric experiments proved that if you change the environment people are more productive (Hawthorne Effect). Change things back the way they were and people are once again more productive. They showed that it was the attention itself that was motivating, not the environmental changes. When the attention was gone, the change itself made no difference.

When the authors of Influencer talk about changing the environment, they aren’t referring to the short term bump in productivity of the Hawthorne Effect. They want us to look at our environment to see how it influences behaviors we want to change, and ask ourselves if modifications to tools, aesthetics, or any other physical factor, would induce behavioral change without additional effort. For a manager, it might be a staff member’s uncomfortable chair that keeps them looking for excuses to get up and wander. Or maybe the first come first serve vacation sign-up chart  is causing animosity among coworkers and reducing cooperation.

Extrinsic motivator #6:  Design Rewards Obviously I think this one is right on target. Rewards help people to move in the desired direction by providing something to work towards. Rewards don’t have to be money or even anything costly. Recognition is as effective a reward as you have at your disposal. If you still have doubts, see this story of one manager’s experience.

Extrinsic motivator #7:  Demand Accountability The mirror of rewards is accountability. Rewarding good behavior just doesn’t have the same impact if you ignore bad behavior. Years ago I taught a Coping with Burnout course. We discussed what had led participants to feel burned out. I quickly realized that most of the participants had once been top performers. What really “burned them up” was  seeing how little others could get away with accomplishing, without recourse. Lack of accountability undermined their sense of value.

External motivators - I have covered three books that demonstrate that we can affect the behavior of those who work with us. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic of influence and motivating others.

Copyright Cindy Ventrice

The past few weeks I’ve read three books: Influence The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Caldini, Influencer The Power to Change Anything by the authors of Crucial Conversations, and Sway The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Braeman.

Why these three books? First, I wanted to learn more about what outside influences affect our behavior. What exactly are the extrinsic motivators that cause people to do what they do? Second, I wanted to see how we can apply this information to what managers can do to create a more motivating work environment.

Sway and Influence both come at the topic from the perspective of unwanted external motivators. Influencer looks at intentional use of external  motivators to affect positive change. Today I will explore Sway and Influence. Next post, Influencer.

Sway looks at what motivates us to behave in an irrational manner, doing things that, when we stand back and observe, just don’t seem to make sense. The authors build a strong case for a and is very interesting in helping us to avoid the triggers that produce irrational behavior. You could tie each motivator they discuss back  to the workplace. It would be worthwhile to explore the impact of each. For the purpose of this article, I want to focus on two triggers that really resonated.

Extrinsic motivator #1:  Labels. One of the most powerful concepts for managers to understand is how labels affect our perception.

Do we see an individuals current performance or do we see what we expect to see?

One example the authors provide is from sports. It seems draft pick number, the order in which players are selected to join a professional team, affects players playing time even years later. The primary factor in determining how much playing time an individual receives was not how well they play now, but how valuable they were rated before joining the league.

Think about how this plays out in the workplace. Once  a manager labels an employee a poor performer that manager is much less likely to see good performance. He looks for the behavior and results that confirm his perception and ignores conflicting evidence. Couple this phenomena together with employees who tend to live up or down to expectations and you have a recipe that makes improvement pretty tough.

Extrinsic motivator #2:  Compensation. Remember, this book is about irrational behavior, so the focus is on when compensation reduces performance. Weird huh?

The authors point out that when people are already motivated intrinsically, maybe they are doing something for the good of the community, compensation can actually decrease motivation. The authors provide examples from a number of experiments that show incentives can motivate someone not to act or to perform poorly. It seems that extrinsic motivators can squelch intrinsic motivators. To put it another way our mercenary tendencies can override the altruistic ones.

I don’t bring this up because I think we need to stop paying people, but because we need to look at what motivators are in play in any given situation and take care not to override the intrinsic with the extrinsic. This idea of conflicting motivators has very interesting implications for incentive programs and might explain why some incentive programs backfire.

The second book, Influence covers some of the same ground as Sway, dives deeper into the research, and takes a significantly more negative approach to the topic. In reading this book it sometimes  was hard to get past the feeling that the book should have been called Manipulation. I had to keep reminding myself that influence is, in and of itself, neutral and can be used for either good or evil.

Here is the extrinsic motivator from Influence that I found particularly relevant to my work in  employee recognition.

Extrinsic motivator #3:  Gifts. The desire to reciprocate is a strong intrinsic motivator triggered by the act of giving a gift (an extrinsic motivator). Caldini points out that reciprocation is used  to compel us to buy or donate. Companies give free samples and, at some level, we feel an obligation to make a purchase. Charities give an unwanted gift and the statistics show we feel obligated to donate.

The need to reciprocate when we are given a gift is  a powerful motivator. The need to reciprocate may partially explain why recognition improves performance. Recognition, whether in the form of praise or award, is a gift. When we receive the gift we want to give something back. I know there is far more to why recognition improves performance than simply wanting to give back, but it is part of why praise motivates us to work even harder.

Labels, compensation, and reciprocation, three motivators that the authors explore for the negative repercussions. Managers need to understand how these triggers work to avoid unintended consequences and reinforce good performance.

Next post, we’ll look at Influencer and explore a different perspective on extrinsic motivators.

We often hear that believable recognition is specific recognition. Specifics certainly help in demonstrating that you really “see” the recipient, but is that really the key to making recognition believable?

The foundation of effective recognition is respect. With respect, employees tend to see recognition in the everyday acts of managers and supervisors. Give them difficult customers to help and they know you trust their capabilities. Same thing when you ask them to take their vacations at a different time than you do. They see the recognition potential in your actions if you have a respectful relationship. But is it enough to overcome slightly vague recognition? A note from a reader gives us some insight into this. She received the weekly tip, Put It In Writing:

People generally love thank you notes and written words of appreciation. They love them so much, in fact, that they hang on to them for weeks, months, or sometimes years! It takes you a few minutes longer to create a note than it does to just tell someone how much you appreciate their contribution. The effort is worth your while.

In response to this tip, the reader sent me the following message:

I have notes of appreciation or recognition that I received years ago. Some are as simple as a post it note that says “Great Job!!!” that I know really came from the person’s heart.

I have saved notes both from my supervisors and the people I supervise. I don’t usually save the notes if I know they aren’t from the heart….if they are just a superficial nice thing to say.

I read this and thought, “great job” isn’t very specific. Yet here is a reader to hung on to the note because it was meaningful. This made me wonder (and ask):

What tips you off that a “great job” is from the heart or not?

She wrote back:

Good question. I think that their other behavior supports the recognition. That they aren’t just saying it to check it off their to-do list. Also, when they look me in the eye when they talk to me, a written note is more likely to have more meaning. Also, supervisors don’t always have to agree with me or my ideas, but when they at least take time to listen and consider my input it goes a long way in feeling heard. If I feel heard, I have an easier time believing what they say or write is genuine -if I am important enough to listen to, they probably really care if they take the time to write a note.

The reader refers to other behavior: looks me in the eye. listen and consider my ideas, these behaviors sound like respect to me. The lesson? Work on the respectful relationship first, you can get eloquent with your message later. Your returns will be greater.

Copyright Cindy Ventrice

When you don’t get any recognition for your work it can be difficult to give it. Think of recognition like food. You are starving (for recognition) and, if you are a manager, you are still  expected to “feed” others. When this happens you are likely to say something along the lines of what I recently heard come out of the mouth of a supervisor:

“Your design is really excellent! In fact, it looks a lot like one I sketched up over the weekend.”

I could almost see this “starving” supervisor reaching out, ready to hand a chunk of warm, crusty, butter-slathered bread to the employee. Then, at the last minute, she snatches it back  and shoves it into her own mouth.

While I understand the desire to feed yourself first, there are a couple of problems with this:

1) A stolen recognition “meal” isn’t all that satisfying. While recognizing yourself in front of others has a place, this isn’t it, and this supervisor isn’t going to feel any more valued.

2) The employee who was recognized by his supervisor for excellent work heard only that he wasn’t original. To top it off, his respect for his supervisor just went down a couple (more) notches.

So, what is the answer? That depends on who you are.

Managers & Supervisors

For managers and supervisors the answer is:

Give recognition freely. Give staff credit for great work, ignoring the part you played. Thank people for doing their jobs (no, a paycheck is not enough). Don’t expect an instant return.

Expect a long-term return on your efforts. Give credit and people will respect you more, cooperate more, take more initiative, and yes - occasionally recognize you as well.

Maintain the appropriate supervisor mindset. Know that, as a supervisor, your job is to supervise your people. Inherent in that fact is that when your employees’ work is good, you are doing good work. For you to acknowledge the part you played is redundant. Remember, the more they shine, the better it reflects on you.

Everyone Else

Do you know that middle managers and supervisors are the most under-recognized group out there? Give them a little praise and appreciation. You will be amazed at how much more likely they are to give provide you with more recognition when they aren’t starved themselves. Recognize your supervisor and  managers in other departments or groups. Privately give them the praise and appreciation they deserve. Everyone will be the beneficiary.

Copyright 2010 Cindy Ventrice

We are wrapping up a really tough year. We have experienced layoffs and budget cuts and are all struggling to do more with less.

Many people were laid off this year. Some are back to work, at least with temporary assignments. Others are still struggling to find work. It can be really demoralizing. If you know someone who has lost their job this first resolution is for you:

1) Stay connected. For those who have been out of work for awhile, it is easy to fall into a funk and withdraw. Help them out. Send an occasional email, take them to lunch, make a LinkedIn introduction, anything that let’s them know you are thinking about them.

For those who are employed, employment generally means a greater workload, less resources, less compensation and/or benefits. In some workplaces the atmosphere has become oppressive while in others, people have come together with a strong ‘can do’ spirit.  The atmosphere all depends on the attitudes and actions of absolutely every person who works there.

We all want to work in a great place. If you don’t, be the catalyst for positive change. Here are two simple workplace resolutions that will help turn your organization around:

1) Say thank you. These two simple words tell your colleagues that you appreciate them. You will soon see how appreciative they are as well.

2) Acknowledge your coworkers. Few of us work in a vacuum. Acknowledge the support and encouragement that others provide. Praise their contributions. Share the credit.

Two workplace resolutions (that work equally as well at home): praise and appreciation. Neither takes much time. You can keep it as simple as you like. Offer both and you will see smiles. People will be more cooperative and positive. Your workplace will be more enjoyable (and probably more productive as well!)

These are resolutions you can keep and you will make someone’s day over and over again. What would you add to the list?

Copyright 2009 Cindy Ventrice

Focusing on your employees’ strengths engages them, while focusing on their weaknesses disengages them. Are you surprised? Probably not, but now it is confirmed by Gallup, which says managers who focus on:

• Strengths - have 61 percent engagement among employees and 1 percent disengagement.

• Weaknesses - have 45 percent engagement and 22 percent  disengagement.

Even more amazing, managers who ignore their employees have only 2 percent engagement and 40 percent disengagement!  I know managers are busy, but imagine how much more time they would have if an additional 39 percent of employees were engaged.

For more on focusing on strengths see this post and for more on criticism this post.

My question to you is, if focusing on the positive produces the best results, why don’t more managers do this?

As Thanksgiving in the U.S. approaches I can think of no better time to reflect on the value of telling employees that they are valued.

Readers of Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works are aware that there are  four elements of meaningful recognition.  The acronym PORT stands for Praise, Opportunity, Respect, and Thanks or Appreciation.

Many of us say “Thank you” all the time. It is as much a habit as “Hi. How are you?” But habitual thanks aren’t the kind of appreciation I am thinking about. I am thinking about - the kind that is firmly grounded in gratitude.

Try this exercise:

Make a list of ten people you work with, for, or report to you. For each person on your list write down what it is about him or her that you rely on. Is it a certain skill set? An attitude? A behavior? How do these traits make your life better/easier? Got it? Then you’ve got gratitude. You can turn this into meaningful appreciation by communicating it. Put it in a note card, on a bulletin board, in an email - the medium isn’t critical, but the message is!

I returned late last week from a long trip. The last leg of my journey was from Chicago to San Francisco. As I was boarding the plane, I noticed that Jerry Rice was sitting in first class talking on his cell phone. Now, I am not a football fan, but back when Jerry Rice and Joe Montana played in San Francisco I rarely missed a game. Seeing the two of them in action was like watching an intricate dance. It seemed more like art than sport.

In case you haven’t gathered, I am a Jerry Rice fan. So what did I do when I saw him seated on the aisle where I would need pass?

I ignored him.

I took my seat (much further back) and called my husband. When I got off the phone, a woman seated near me said, “Isn’t it great how no one acts as if they recognize him?”

Her question made me think - When is not recognizing someone as a good thing?

Clearly we all knew that gushing all over Mr. Rice would not be welcome. The man probably gets way more attention than he wants.

But how much recognition is too much? This is a question I get quite a lot. I used to tell supervisors that chances are pretty good that they haven’t exceeded anyone’s limit. Now I can say that if Jerry Rice isn’t on your team, you probably haven’t overdone it.

Seriously, there is a big difference between the recognition given by fans and that given by managers and coworkers. Fans recognize celebrities because they want to feel special themselves, to be able to say “I met Jerry Rice.” At work, it isn’t about us. We recognize to make the recipients feel valued. Can we really overdo that?

I am on my way back from the Motivation Show in Chicago, where I spoke about the current perception that, given the economy, recognition is too expensive.

From trips to donuts, anything that is intended to demonstrate that employees are valued has become a media favorite for demonstrating the wastefulness of organizations.

The topic of cost versus return isn’t new. What is new, this past year, is the media coverage of anything that could possibly be viewed as an employee perk and this includes recognition. It’s not just about Return On Investment right now; it’s about perception: taxpayer, shareholder, and employee perception. It is up to you to manage that perception

Imagine: You are the CEO of medium-sized company. Like nearly everyone else, your company has had a rough year. Your sales team finally landed a client that may just allow your company to turn it around. Employees have worked long hours to meet the client’s demanding specifications. The team has pulled off the impossible. You want to celebrate and show your appreciation with a nice gift for each person. Employees certainly deserve the recognition. Yet, just a few short months ago you laid off a quarter of your workforce, people have taken a cut in pay and benefits, and shareholders are far from recouping their losses. How would an event and gifts be perceived? Most likely, given the scenario, the nperception would be that you are wasteful.

You may be a manager facing a similar dilemma. Or you may be a program administrator who has to resolve this problem for the entire organization.

On one hand, you need to demonstrate that employees are valued. On the other hand, you have to show that you are frugal. How do you do both?

As you struggle to balance on this organizational tightrope, here are a few questions to think about:

1)     Can you demonstrate the correlation between great recognition and productivity increases? If you aren’t tracking the business results and behavior change that correlate to your programs, it will be tough to sell recognition.

2)     Have you communicated the ROI well? If you are benchmarking the changes that you are seeing, be proactive rather than defensive. If you are an administrator, convey, to both managers and senior leaders, the importance of the programs . Create a recognition strategy that outlines what improvements you anticipate from your programs. Communicate your results as soon as they become available. The same strategy holds true for managers. Be prepared to justify your spending. What are the results that recognition has achieved?

3)     Are your people making as much as they were before the downturn? If people have been asked to tighten their belts, you have two options: keep spending low so that they don’t feel you are wasting “their” money, or give rewards that will help their bottom-line. Cash incentives commensurate with the achievement are appropriate, so are gift cards for anything employees think of as a necessity. If you are a manager, you may not have a say in what rewards you offer, but if you do, think practical rather than luxury, if compensation is down.

4)     Have shareholders recovered their losses? This question is for administrators. Managers, you should be able to assume that administrators and senior leaders have this covered. Administrators, if profits are down keep reward spending minimal. Even with strong ROI, be cautious of awards that will be seen as extravagant. Move spending up as the health of your organization improves and you will have minimal pushback.

When in doubt put your attention on maintaining a respectful workplace, setting big goals, and focusing on success, Give appreciation instead of rewards and your recognition efforts will be successful.