What Drives Your Performers To Fully Engage?

Do you know... or do you just think you know? Some interesting research compiled by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Their results found 4 key things that caused individuals to give their best effort at work. They were:

• Reviewing and guiding
• Feedback, praise and recognition
• Autonomy and empowerment
• Level of interest the manager shows in the employees as individuals

Now you know. How are you doing?

Planned or Spontaneous Praise

It seems that planned praise, especially when it is an agenda item, is so much easier to execute. But, is it the most effective? Storing up recognition for the "right moment" or for when you have a scheduled meeting to take care of it can remove the opportunity to catch someone off guard and truly express your feelings of gratitude.

Don't wait for the awards banquet, don't wait for the annual review, don't wait until you are at your daughter's wedding. Take the time now to say, "Thank you, I appreciate all that you do and have noticed your fine work you have done." Write a note, stop them in the hall or pick up the phone and make a quick call. There probably is someone on your mind right now that you know you should acknowledge - don't wait, don't hesitate, tell them now. This moment in time might be when THEY need to hear your appreciation the most.

Learning from Failure

What do you do when you fail at something? What do you do when you make a mistake or that things don't turn out the way they should?

Let's look back at the circus metaphor. You are an artist in the circus, you have a bad night and your performance doesn't go well. You could blame the ringmaster because he didn't create the build up to your performance that he should have. You could blame the crowd because they are not the refined (or maybe unrefined) individuals that they should be to truly enjoy your craft. You could also have the attitude of, "You win some, you lose some." Or, you could do something different.

The best performers are constantly saying to themselves, "How can I learn from the past and what can I do to create a better performance as a result." If something goes wrong and you don't get the standing ovation that you want, you should take ownership and fix it. There is the old adage that you can learn from history or be doomed to repeat it. What are you going to do to learn from your failures so that you don't repeat them and improve instead? Develop strength, persistence, knowledge, self confidence and courage. These characteristics will lead you to success even though you will meet setbacks along the way.

An Absurd Reward

Dr. Robert Maurer wrote a powerful book entitled, One Small Step Can Change Your Life. The primary focus of the book is to offer insights on how individuals and organizations should place an intense focus on achieving small goals-not just trying to make major wholesale changes. Large goals can seem overwhelming and defeating while taking small steps is more manageable and also easier to quickly reward.

In his book he references Toyota’s "employee suggestion" program. According to Maurer, Toyota receives over 1.5 million suggestions each year from employees and holds an annual program to award the person who provided the single best suggestion. Their reward? A pen. No, not a gold-plated or diamond studded writing instrument-just a pen. Why on earth would people be willing to share their ideas to win a pen? Maybe it's not about the pen-maybe it's the fact that these same employees know that Toyota really believes in their ability to see what needs to happen in the organization for improvement. Maybe they have actually seen some of their suggestions implemented in some area of the company. They trust that the time spent sending in their suggestion is worth the effort.

The "nugget" for organizations is to remember that when managers, supervisors and other leaders within the organization let others know their input is needed and valued, employees will often respond with ideas that can really work-if the workable ideas are put into practice. And rewarding them in some small is merely icing on the cake-or should we say ink in the pen. 1.5 million suggestions can't be wrong.

Get Thee a Saddle

I recently came across this Yiddish Proverb:

If one man calleth thee a donkey, pay him no mind. If two men calleth thee a donkey, get thee a saddle.

I love it! I learned this same lesson from a boss that I admire. He is a great believer in getting feedback from friends, colleagues and customers. He would always tell me to "look for patterns" in feedback. If he started to see a pattern, he would make a change in our product. But, if the feedback was only mentioned by one person, he would ignore it, even if he agreed with the thought.

Feedback and continuous improvement are important concepts that we should incorporate in our businesses and personal lives. It is not an easy thing to do and can be expensive and/or painful. But the benefits of correctly looking for positive ways to be better or improve will pay off in the long run.