Motivating Employees _ Bringing Out the Best in Your People - Barry Silverstein [10]
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CASE FILE
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PERSONALIZING EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Roy Pelaez manages over 400 people who clean airplanes for service provider Aramark. He needed to improve morale and reduce theft among his workforce, which is largely made up of immigrants, so he decided to get involved with his employees on a personal level.
Pelaez found government-subsidized babysitters to help workers who were single mothers; secured the services of a teacher to tutor his employees in English; and arranged for someone from the IRS to give free tax advice.
He also offered good worker incentives, such as a day off with pay to any employee with six months of perfect attendance and to anyone who turned in a wallet or pocketbook found on an airplane.
The results were stunning: a 12 percent reduction in turnover, the return of 250 wallets, and an increase in company revenue.
SOURCE: “How to Lead Now” by John A. Byrne, Fast Company (August 2003).
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Outside the Box
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IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS
Complex recognition and rewards programs are not the only way to motivate your staff. Sometimes, it is the little things that count.
Recognizing an individual can be as simple as taking the time to stop by the person’s office to say thank you, leaving a handwritten note on the person’s chair, or giving the person a gift card as a token of your appreciation.
Great leaders make a habit of thinking of special, personal ways to recognize and motivate individuals.
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Being aware of your own nonverbal signals, and reading the body language of others, can help you be a more effective motivator.
Sending Your Message in Writing
The power of the written word can be your friend or your enemy when it comes to motivating employees. A big problem in business today is e-mail. Managers and employees have become so informal and blunt in e-mail communications that an e-mail can often be misinterpreted or incite a negative reaction.
Do not write e-mails to employees in haste or anger. If you need to, write something down on paper, just to work off steam, then edit it and rewrite it as an e-mail. Never use capital letters in an e-mail—unless you want to seem to be SHOUTING.
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“In motivating people, you’ve got to engage their minds and their hearts. It is good business to have an employee feel part of the entire effort…. I motivate people, I hope, by example.”
—Rupert Murdoch,
CEO of News Corporation
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Communicating in writing can work to your advantage, however, if you take the time to send a handwritten note or card complimenting or thanking an employee. This is a common and very effective technique that a number of business leaders use. It is perceived by the recipient as meaningful, both because you took the time to do it and because it is a very personal form of recognition.
MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS
Motivating individuals starts with four small yet important concepts.
First, really listen to an individual employee. Never patronize him or her. Instead, encourage the person’s input and act on it.
Second, understand an individual’s unique motivators. They will be different for everyone. Once you understand what they are, tailor your interactions with the individual accordingly.
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Behind the Numbers
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PUZZLING RESULTS
In a group of adults who had worked on ten identical puzzles, all performed equally well. Half of them, however, were told that they had done a good job, while the other half were told that they had done badly. What were the actual results of a second round of testing with ten new puzzles? The group of people who believed they had been successful the first time really did score better—and the second group actually scored worse.
SOURCE: In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. (HarperCollins, 1982).
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Third, give your people responsibility and decision-making power so that they can be effective