Kurt, one of our readers from Belgium responded to our post Appreciation Feels Goofy.
In our country, we’re not educated to give positive feedback, not even at school. And it’s so much easier to see faults than to see strengths. Hopefully the next generation of managers gets their people to smile in a more natural embedded way. Out of experience, I know I perform better when people give me positive feedback rather than being a bully.
I don’t believe appreciation is taught in any country, at least not as a subject in school. Yet, positive reinforcement is one of the most powerful management tools.
What gets reinforced, gets repeated.
In my class, I often ask, “Who, here, has been getting too much appreciation from their boss at work.” It draws stifled laughter.
Rule number one. The appreciation must be honest and sincere. Honest and sincere appreciation contains two parts.
The first part is to tell the team member specifically what you observed (as a strength, a desirable behavior, a positive attitude). The second part (the sincere part) is the tell the team member why. Why was your observation remarkable?
That’s it,
A specific what.
A remarkable why.
A team member shows up for work early. It sounds like this:
I see you arrived ten minutes early for work today. It’s important to be on time. I just wanted you to know that I noticed.
What gets reinforced, gets repeated. -TF
Dear Tom:
Catherine and I are now in Chaing Mai, northern Thailand… and it’s right out of National Geographic.
your memo above is “right on”. Every month, at our Team meeting, I read all the nice emails and letters received over the past month from our customers. Providing a pat on the back by recognizing good behaviors only reinforces the good behavior and inspires team mates to do the same 🙂
hugs
Bk
Dear Tom.
I am right now helping a friend of mine, who own a very small company with 5 employees. During the years there was neither the time nor the oppotunity to be engaged in his business.
Reinforcement, as you now write about, is one fo the main keys in releasing the potential in team-members. We have now been working for almost 2 months with the company.
This is my conclusion in a small enterprise:
Given no, or little appreciation, the commitment and energy slowly fades with the employees. Trying to bring it back is not a miracle that you can accomplish in a week or two. It takes time to rebuild trust and commitment. After 1-2 months, the trust in “reinforcement” gradually build up, and then you start to see the big improvement.
So my small comment to your recent topic is: do not get sad if your new reniforcement “tools” does not work immidiatley. The people has to trust that you are not just “playing” them. When they trust you, this way to activate and bringt forth energy is almost “magic”.
In my frinds company we now see positive effects like – increased engagement in the performance of the company, we have more order and routines work better, and everyone is more commited in cleaning their work-places (small but important improvement). The turnover has started to develop (since beeing more at ease and more commited – also reflects in the interaction with customers), and the general atmposphere is much nicer in the daily work.
All the best from Sweden // Timo
Timo, real world application is the backbone of this blog. Thank you for the insights in your comment. I am always pleased to see participation from outside the US. It demonstrates the universal struggle to engage groups of people (companies) in productive work.