“I am ready to throw up my hands. I have come up with eight ways to Sunday for our route technicians to do a better job on their service calls. I am ready to do a Flutie drop kick and just let them deal with it.” Russell was commiserating, hoping I would be sympathetic.

“Well, I think it’s a good idea,” I said.

“What do you mean?” replied Russell, still looking for sympathy.

“I mean, I think you should call your technicians together and let them deal with it. Look, the problem isn’t that your ideas are bad; the problem is they are your ideas. If you want your technicians to do a better job on service calls, the ideas have to come from them.

“One of the biggest mistakes young managers make is thinking that you have to solve all the problems of the world. You don’t. Spread the burden. You will be surprised at how your technicians will step up to the plate.” -TF

“Andrea, tell me, at work, do you think you receive too much appreciation?” We had been talking about motivation and her team. This question cracked her up.

“What, are you nuts? Nobody even notices me unless something is going wrong. My boss thanked me for something almost a year ago at the holiday dinner thing we have.”

“Andrea, one of the most powerful things you can do with your team is to give them honest and sincere appreciation, and do it frequently. When your boss thanked you last year, how did it make you feel?”

“It felt nice, nice to be noticed. But it wore off pretty quick. By the next Monday, it was business as usual,” Andrea replied.

“Your job, as a manager, is to create that environment constantly, so your team understands their contribution is important. This is something that you have to consciously think about. It does not happen automatically. You have to focus on it. Sincere appreciation is one of the most powerful things you can do to bring your team to higher levels of performance.” -TF

“Andrea, what is the critical factor between poor performance and superior performance?” We had been discussing her team issues about motivation.

Andrea pondered for a minute. “I guess it would be attitude.”

“Exactly, everyday, your team shows up with an attitude. That attitude is based on their experience the day before, the way they feel about their teammates, the way they feel about you, as their manager. It has to do with the way they feel about themselves. This attitude is a pure emotional choice. It has very little to do with logic.

“Each day, your team chooses their performance. That emotional choice determines their energy, enthusiasm and focus. It determines their cooperation and support of the team. Your job, as a manager, is to create an environment where that choice is a positive choice.

“Creating that environment is like creating Home Field Advantage for your team.”

That’s today’s question. What can you do, as a Manager, to create Home Field Advantage for your team? -TF

“I really have to find a way to motivate my team,” said Andrea. “Sometimes they are so slow, I just want to scream.”

“Andrea, have you ever heard of Home Field Advantage in sports?” I asked.

“Well, yes. I know it is important, especially in the playoffs.”

“So, what are the real differences for a home team? Is the field any different? Are the rules any different? Is the ball any different?”

“No.” Andrea thought for a minute, then continued. “The crowd, the cheering crowd. The home team usually has a crowd cheering for them.”

“Do you think people perform better when they have a cheering crowd around them?” I asked.

“Of course. It’s kind of like showing off for your Mom.”

“Andrea, here is the bad news. As a manager, you cannot motivate anyone to do anything. Your only play is to create an environment where your team’s performance is like showing off for your Mom.” -TF

“It felt a little strange. I am not normally a nosy person,” reported Nicholas. We had been working on the most basic communication skill, talking to one person.

“It’s not being nosy. It’s being a supervisor,” I replied. “Nicholas, you supervise four field technicians. On any given day, what is the biggest issue you have to deal with?”

“I don’t know. A difficult project?”

“No, that is the easy part of supervision. You love to help with difficult projects. The most difficult part of being a supervisor, often, is knowing whether your technicians are going to show up for work, whether they show up on time so you can get the crew started, and what kind of personal baggage they bring to the workplace that is going to influence their attitude.”

“You’re right, especially on Monday.” Nicholas lamented.

“As a supervisor, can you afford to be surprised? If you have a crew of four and two don’t show up for work, you just lost 50 percent of your workforce for the day. If you are the supervisor, you need to know your people well enough to anticipate. At the same time, you need to know what gets your guys jazzed up about things. What motivates them? What interests do they have? What does get them to work on time? What is important in their lives?

“As a supervisor, it is your job to get to know your people, their work habits, their reliability, things going on that will impact their performance on the job. It’s not being nosy. It’s being a supervisor.” -TF

Jessica was talking about her boss, Matthew. Matthew is one of those special people who, in the midst of a problem always seems to see a solution. In a meeting, where an idea may be shot down, Matthew reverses the energy. He says, “I know it is impossible, but if it weren’t impossible, how would we do it?”

What she finds interesting about Matthew is that when he walks in the room, she feels an uncanny ability to conquer any difficulties in her current project.

Stay away from naysayers, and surround yourself with people who are pathologically positive. In this time of national difficulty, we each have to find the energy to make things happen, to solve the problems around us. Find that person who gives you the uncanny ability to conquer difficulty. -TF

PS. I’m-OK.org continues to grow. On Wednesday around 4:30pm MSNBC.com posted a link on their site and our traffic immediately jumped. Lots of people are still looking for people. If you can help by volunteering some time to register evacuees on the site, all you need is an internet connection, a laptop and a sign that says, “I’m-OK.” We will be posting suggestions on the site that might be helpful. Groups of evacuees are landing in different places all over. Please help. For more on this incredible story, check out Tuesday’s post.

Simon moved quickly down the hallway. Morale was down. “I just don’t understand,” he said, “Our hotel managed a five star rating last year. I would think the staff would be proud of what they accomplished.”

“Show me around,” I insisted. “Let me look. I will tell you what I see.”

As we walked, I noticed the posh lobby and beautiful appointments of the hotel. It was truly wonderful. But then, I asked to see the work areas behind the forbidden doors that say Employees Only. That is where it hit me. The contrast was amazing; like we had been transported to a different place on earth. It was clean, but stark. Away from the warm glow in the guest areas, team members were bustling around bare cinder block walls lit by harsh fluorescents. The air was still and clammy. Team members, each, had their name scrawled on a piece of tape slapped on a gray metal locker.

It struck me that we treat our customers in color while we treat our team members in black and white.

Do the surroundings in your workplace have an impact on your productivity? Does beauty in the workplace have a positive impact? Look around your workplace. Are you treating your team members in color or black and white? -TF