Where Are Women's Rights in the Workforce?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 specifically required equal treatment of individuals regardless of gender. This meant qualified women should be considered for hiring and promotion if they match the job requirements as well as a man.  The oldest and most accepted definition and/or synonym for the word sex is gender.

Recently, the "educated" members of the Supreme Court and Congress decided to redefine the word sex from the previously accepted gender to indicate terms of private intimacy preferences. In essence destroying the gender equality portion of the Civil Rights Act and replacing it with behavior-based concepts. What does this mean for the working woman now? 

• Since gender is not an issue, does it mean wages and job options will recede to pre-1963 when equal pay for equal work was enacted?
• Since sexual orientation is now the issue, does it mean that sexual harassment may increase over what it was in the 1980's and become even more prevalent in the future?
• Since gender equality is not important, will women lose their jobs and  be forced to return to pre-WWII stay-at-home status?
• Since gender is gone as an issue, what is next to lose -  women's right to vote which was gained back in 1920?

What has happened to business leaders saying workforce diversity is important for idea generation and problem solving?  Where are all the so-called feminists hiding that allowed this to happen? Is everyone so focused on face masks and other protest actions that what has already been gained is allowed to slowly die away? 

Obviously there are not enough women on the Supreme Court or in Congress to protect female rights. Will women's right continue to go backwards as Twitter video clams?   Perhaps it is not about gender, maybe it is an attempt to increase lawsuits against businesses?  Maybe the reasoning is business and personal values are not as important to economy as a backlogged legal system is...

Pray fro women's rights, not only in USA, but everywhere around the world.  Taliban rule will be 'a long slow death' for women,

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Nine Tips for Leading by Example

Managers and team leaders, who want certain qualities in their employees and teammates, must provide an example for their followers.  If examples are not provided, any rhetoric encouraging certain policies or attitudes will seem hypocritical to those observing management behaviors and company reward systems.  It is important to remember good examples can have great influence.

"Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It's about impact, influence and inspiration. Impact involves getting results, influence is about spreading the passion you have for your work, and you have to inspire team-mates and customers." 
- Robin Sharma

Below are 9 tips to help leaders provide an example to their followers.

1. Respect others by showing up on-time for meetings, whether you are the meeting planner or an attendee.  Do not make them wait for you.  Managing your time and acknowledging the importance of the time of others shows a mutual respect.
2. Listen actively by asking questions to increase understanding, engagement, and involvement.  Showing that you are listening encourages dialogue, problem solving, and mutual commitment.
3. Delegate appropriately by giving assignments to people who have the necessary talents and knowledge.  But be aware of people who want to gain skills and pair them up on tasks with a skilled persons willing to train them.
4. Build trust by taking joint responsibility for team failures rather than trying to assign blame.  Perhaps they did not understand your directions or assumptions were made about what was expected.  If you want them to be accountable, you must also be.
5. Take risks in your work and what you expect from your followers.  Reward their courageousness while acknowledging that current failure may lead to improvement and better problem solving in the future. Do not be afraid of change and teach others not to be as well.
6. Provide options for doing a job or resolving a problem rather than giving step-buy-step instructions.  Allow your team to find creative methods that solve their problems or get the job done well and quickly.
7. Be consistent in how you communicate and appreciate.  Use company rewards liberally to acknowledge team jobs well done.  Use punishment rarely, instead acknowledge what was done wrong and what type of improvement needs to occur.
8. Remove barriers and do not be a barrier to your employees and teams getting their work done.  Make sure your employees and teams know you are there to help them move forward and improve any situation that come up. 
9. Work hard and let your team see you doing it.  If you are unwilling to help out when the going gets tough, how can you expect your employees to do so.

For more ideas, review the following articles:

AMA - personal and team tips - Top 15 Things Leaders Need to Know to Inspire Results

INC interpersonal tips - 11 Remarkably Effective Ways to Lead by Example

Nine Motivational Ideas to Increase Employee Engagement

Below are nine ideas to increase both motivation and engagement in the workplace.  A few are simple employee relation concepts or team building processes.  Others require more communication effort or either human resources (HR) or upper management support.  

See if you can tell which ideas fall under motivation and which fall under engagement per the chart in infographic on the left.

1. Give your employees the opportunity to do what they do best!
2. Provide helpful tools and procedures to get quality work done efficiently.
3. Provide a better work-life balance and encourage personal well-being.
4. Recognize employee efforts, team achievements, and project milestones.
5. Improve job security and implement transparency at work.
6. Provide training and support for professional and personal development.
7. Let employees know they work for a company with a great reputation.
8. Get feedback from employees on what to do better.
9. Encourage personal interactions and relationships between co-workers.

After reading this list, determine what you can do immediately.  Then set goals for bringing the other items into your organization. 

Monday Morning Leadership on Employee Performance and Meetings

I recently re-read an oldie-but-goody management book Monday Morning Leadership (on Amazon #ad) by David Cottrell.  I suggest if you want to read a good leadership book with quick and easy-to-apply tips, you get this one.  Keep it in your briefcase or backpack to read a chapter a day whenever you are waiting around for others.  In the meantime, below are a few highlights to consider.

Surprising issues from chapter #3, Escape from Management Land which many managers probably do not realize they have (and a few tips on how to improve) are:

• 30% of employees are super-stars (recognize, engage, reward, and motivate them to keep them)
• 50% of employees are in the middle (encourage super-stars to volunteer to mentor these people, and send them to training to get better or become more flexible)
• 20% are falling stars or failing stars (these are the people that should be de-hired)

In chapter #6 on time management, Do Less or Work Faster, Cottrell shares a similar chart to below on meetings as time wasters.  I found this chapter interesting as most of his tips were the same as (but worded slightly different) what I suggest in my books RARA,A Meeting Wizard’s Approach (available on Amazon #ad) and TAPP Steps in Time Management (available on Amazon #ad).  Hyperlinks in the adapted chart goes to a few tip articles from my meeting management book.  If you really want to know how to run an effective meeting, you need to get my book!

How we do our things
The things we do	Right Things Right Run a productive and necessary meeting.	Right Things Wrong Time-wasting in an important meeting.
	Wrong Things Right Facilitate a great meeting that was not necessary.	Wrong Things Wrong Waste everyone’s time at an unnecessary meeting.

 

For more quick tips from the book, visit the blog posts of my colleague with book excerpts:

• Are you stuck in the comfort zone rut? From chapter 8, Enter the Learning Zone 
• What do great leaders do? From chapter 5, Hire Tough

Two Types of Motivation: Extrinsic or Intrinsic

When we think about motivating employees in the corporate environment, Maslow's Hierarchy of 5 Needs is often used as a way to justify the types of recognition or rewards offered.  However, the best companies that are committed to motivating their employees to personally identify and reach a higher performance potential.  Why?  High potential employees are more effective and thus more valuable to the organization.  Employees who are motivated to increase their skills, improve their behaviors, and grow personally – are more flexible and can transfer what they learn to their jobs.

So what motivates people?  Take a look at two types of motivation - intrinsic verses extrinsic – to see what can be learned for recognition and rewards use in business.

·       Extrinsic motivation is caused by factors external to the employee and often unrelated to the task they may be performing. Most rewards programs are around an extrinsic offering (such as money and gifts), which the recipient may be able to use to meet needs 1, 2, or 4 in Maslow’s Hierarchy.  Motivation from external rewards is typically short-lived and requires further rewards to sustain desirable behaviors or attitudes.

·       Intrinsic motivation is related to internal desires to perform tasks or activities because they give the employee pleasure, develop a particular skill, or just feel right.  Examples of intrinsic on-the-job motivators might include:  opportunity to learn something new, work in a team, be on a high-profile project, or collaborate with an expert in an area of interest.  Consider needs 3, 4, or 5 in Maslow’s Hierarchy when trying to make recognition programs that are internally focused.

Recognition Badges and Training Gamification, are they valid for business?

Gamification is the new buzzword in the HRD world.  So what is gamification and how can it be applied?  I can see the value of gamification for training.  Afterall, we have been trying to make self-paced and on-line training more fun and engaging for the participant to increase their attention and learning for years.  We tried making it more game-like with some success.  Often the student/user was competing against themselves for a better score rather than trying to beat the current high-scorer.  However, most instructional design experts noticed the more successful learning occurred with real-world examples to help build job skills and problem solving mindsets.  So is gamification really relevant for other parts of business? 

What about using badges and social recognition as motivators instead of giving gifts and monetary awards?  Badges work similar to giving out honorary buttons, except they can be visible via intranets. Do these really make employees work harder or collaborate more?  Or do they instead force unnecessary competition and working for points to achieve awards?  I’ve seen non-monetary rewards work very well if the recognition was visible to the organization rather than just between manager and employee or two peers.  So I think badges might work well as long as many within the organization participate properly and management follows up on the badges received appropriately. 

If you are thinking of adding either of these to your company programs, read 3 Social Learning Trends to Watch.  If you are using either badges or games in your business with success, please share your example in comments.

 

RACK for the Workplace

The other day my friend and I were in the drive-thru line at a Starbucks.  When we went to the window to pay we were told that the person in front of us just bought our coffee and gave us a card saying we were “RACKed”  (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.)  So what did we do?  Paid it forward and bought coffee for the person behind us of course!  What made this fun was it was anonymous; we were surprising someone with something unexpected that put a smile on their face. 

Having that happy experience gave me the idea that we can use some RACK for the workplace.  If you want you can shorten it to RAK for simply Random Acts of Kindness which works regardless of your beliefs or the holiday you celebrate.

Workplace stress has a way of escalating during the holidays.  Stress can be caused by end of the year deadlines, special projects, the push to meet profit goals, and increased customer demands.  In addition to the extra workload you may feel stressed about all the personal holiday tasks you need to do at home such as shopping for gifts, baking, and entertaining.   Your coworkers are probably feeling the same stress and may be a little harder to work with this time of year. 

What can you do to bring a smile to your coworkers and “make their day?”  We all know the song The Twelve Days of Christmas so why not The Twelve Days of RAK? 

1. Bring a tray of treats for the lunchroom
2. Leave Starbucks coffee or hot chocolate anonymously on coworkers’ desks
3. Leave candy canes on desks
4. Tape quarters to the lunchroom vending machines
5. For cold weather locations, clean off the snow/frost on the cars parked near yours
6. Start a book exchange with at least 10 books (can be already read)
7. Bring lunch back for a coworker who is working on a deadline and can’t leave
8. Attend a meeting for a coworker so they can leave early for a child’s event
9. Bring flowers (carnations are inexpensive) with small discount store vases for all the tables in the lunchroom
10. Leave lottery tickets on desks for coworkers
11. Start a coupon basket to leave coupons you do not need
12. Write notes of appreciation to coworkers

An interesting thing happens when you RAK someone, they start thinking of how they can RAK someone else.  If everyone is thinking of how they can make others happy it lightens the atmosphere at work and captures the spirit of the season.  What ideas will you add to my list of twelve?

Prevent Gift-giving OOPS, know what to give your clients for the holidays

For years now, around the holidays but a little early so readers can plan accordingly, I have been making suggestions about gifts that businesses could give to clients as a thank you for their business (or to give as motivational rewards to employees).  I make these suggestions because I know how difficult it can be to decide what to give other than a food basket (although I have occasionally recommended that as an easy-go-to for local customers).  Most of my suggestions were based on what I was given in the past and appreciated or NOT.  A few were based on good and bad gifts business associates have told me about.

So you can imagine I found it quite amusing when I read the business gift faux pas in Rules of the Hunt (on Amazon #ad).  One example was a firm that sent expensive bottles of Scotch to all their clients – one of which was Mormon and who sent the gift back to the sender.  Another example was a company that sent Christmas Hams to all their clients only to find out the owners of one of the client companies were Orthodox Jews.  What can you learn from these mistakes?  Do not send all your customers the same gift unless you know it is something that will benefit any organization.  Food and liqueur are often dubious gifts that should only be sent to  people you know very well and are sure will utilize what you send.  You do not want your gift to be passed on to a subordinate or tossed it in the trash – you want it remembered and your organization brought to mind each time it is picked-up.

So what are some gift suggestions for your customers?  What about ideas for your team?  Check out these older posts to find out:

• Finding Business Gifts Should Be Easy (both customer and team ideas)
• Buying Business Books as Recognition Gifts
• Team Rebuilding and Recognition for the Holidays or New Year
• Administrative Day Recognition Gift Ideas (think about client gatekeepers too)
• Giving Green for Recognition during Administrative Professionals Week
• Is Bosses Day Appreciation or a Reminder

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Value Your Loyal Customers

Customers want to feel appreciated.  Feeling appreciated creates loyalty. I am sure you can think of several examples of how businesses reward loyal customers.  For one example, I am currently on an American Airlines flight.  As a frequent flyer, I have priority access in the security screening line and boarding the plane, and was able to check my bag for free.

Large organizations such as American Airlines have well known reward programs. But what about smaller companies; what can they do to reward loyalty?  I recently had had two experiences that illustrate how organizations can be creative in their customer recognition programs.

1)     We have owned a time share in Mexico for many years with Occidental.  They notified us by mail that 2012 was our anniversary year and this entitled us to a few special perks during our trip this year.  What really impressed me however was the phone call I received a few weeks before our trip telling us they were giving us customized T-Shirts in honor of our anniversary year and wanted to purchase the correct size.  You may be thinking that T-Shirts are such a small gesture (and of course advertise their company!) but the fact they took the time to call to speak personally to us to make sure the size was correct really impressed me. They did not just rely on a mass electronic communication or a “one size fits all” approach.  I felt valued; I meant something to this company.

2)    The second story is about a local restaurant, the oldest in our town.  This is the type of casual neighborhood place where the menu never changes, the servers wear jeans and have been there forever and the hostess gives candy to “good children who eat all their food.”  They appreciate their loyal customers by greeting them as returning family and remembering their favorite food and beverages. The atmosphere resembles the theme song from the old television series Cheers “Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.”  We already felt valued but last week they asked if they could use our first names in a new advertisement they were creating as two of their regular customers.  Of course we knew that the advertisement will benefit the restaurant but we were still grinning and feeling special because we were asked to be a part of it.  It was like we belonged to the family.

The feeling of belonging can be very powerful.  In 1943 Abraham Maslow studied motivation and included belonging in his five levels.  Companies tap into this sense of belonging in their reward programs and the use of social media.

What can you do to make your customers feel like they belong and are valued?  What will link your customers so closely to your organization that they would not think about doing business elsewhere?  The answer lies in the type of business and customers you have and they size of your organization.  It will be different for everyone.  A good start is by recognizing your customers by name, and showing that you are very glad they are doing business with you.  

Administrative Day recognition gift ideas for April.

Administrative Professionals' Day (formerly known as Secretary's Day) is April 25, 2012, are you prepared with the right gift?  When selecting a gift for your adminstrative people, consider what they like, need, and want.  People will always buy what they need if it fits within their budget.  However, some needed items may be seen as only a useful luxury - often professionals will try to get by without them.  What people want are things they desire and find interesting but may or may not be utilitarian in nature.  Which leaves what they like, this requires getting to know someone in order to understand their nature and hobbies in order to select something they might like. Consider the following personal and professional gifting ideas:

A useful gift for an administrative professional will be something that makes their job easier or gives them a better feeling about their job.  This can be personalized stationery or office supplies that they don’t normally purchase.  It can be equipment they would like in order to personally be more effective.  It could be a time management tool to make scheduling, planning, and note-taking easier.  It should be something for their desk or work area that is for their specific use and not for everyone in the department. 

Although training should not be seen as a way to reward people, it is a way to acknowledge that a person wants to grow professionally.  Allow the individual to take a special training course they feel is needed to improve the way they do business.  Encourage individuals to be part of local professional groups and learn from people doing similar work.  Paying for the membership fee is an excellent way to help employees get started with local associations.  IAAP is a great organization for administrative professionals and there are many groups that are specific to different professional areas that may also provide growth opportunities.  Books that help with professional development are also a great business gift, but be sure it is on a topic the individual has expressed an interest in or in an area where a need for improvement gas been noticed.

A gift of recognition or appreciation is enjoyed by most professionals.  This can be as simple as a worded mug, flowers or plant for the desk, a specific award, getting tickets to a special event, or being taken to lunch.  It can also be a reward of a half day or whole day of paid-time off. 

A gift that keeps giving is something decorative for the work area.  This could be a plant in a basket or unique pot, a frame to put a family photo in, coordinated desk accessories, a cute or funny poster, and more.  Be both creative and practical when selecting something for the work area.  But be considerate of what the receiving individual might enjoy and won’t be embarrassed by. 

A personalized gift that meets individual preferences and desires is also a wonderful way of recognizing and rewarding someone.  This requires knowing their interest and hobbies outside of work.  If they are athletic, they might like a nice refillable drink bottle, small bag for toting equipment or clothing, or some small item that fits with their specific sport.  If they enjoy gardening, they may enjoy some new hand tools, multiple packets of seeds, or a flowing plant or shrub they can add to their garden.  Find out what they like by listening to them when they talk about outside activities and later make notes that can be used for future gift purchase ideas.

Gift baskets are often appreciated for recognition and holiday events.  These can be bought already assembled or exercise some creativity and create a unique one.  All the above suggestions can be used to provide ideas for small items to place inside a gift basket.  When picking a basket to place everything in, consider something that can be use in the office for toting office items or at home for personal hobbies.  Or get a canvas tote reusable ecology-related bag from a local office supply or grocery store and fill it up.  The reusable tote can then be used for anything.

See also gift ideas post Giving Green for Recognition during Administrative Professionals Week fore more ideas. 
 

Team Rebuilding and Recognition for the Holidays or New Year

My most popular on-line team-building article is The Five Stages of Team Development (over 43K hits). Why do you think that is? I think it may be because most people are familiar with the first 4 as defined by Tuckman’s teamwork theory: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. However most do not realize that as he studied teams, he found many teams begin to slump sometime after the performing stage. This may be because they became complacent about their success, got too far away from the learning gained at the beginning, or no longer felt as valuable to the compnay as in an earlier stage. Tuckman called this phase Transforming for continuing teams and Adjourning for teams that needed to be discontinued. I also like Quick’s (author of Successful Team Building) term for stage 5 – Assimilating or Reforming.

Either way, the primary emphasize from the experts for phase 5 is to either show thanks to the disbanding team via a celebration or to use recognition to rejuvenate and motivate the continuous work team. (If you are not sure what the differenc is between a work team and temporay teams, see articles: 8 Considerations For 3 Types of Teams and Difference Between Self-Managed and Self-Directed Teams.) Company management and Human Resource departments need to be more aware of this 5th stage and the importance to making decisions about when team should be disbanded or when employee recognition efforts need to be enhnaved. Do not use budget cuts as a reason to dismiss reward and recongintion programs. Instead look for alternatives methods that can help a team grow but will not be too expensive. Find some ideas in these articles:

• 10 Ways Leadership Can Motivate Team Building and Performance
• Project Celebrations and Team Recognition are Important
• The 3 P’s of Reward and Recognition
• A Few Tips on How to Do a Team Building Activity
• 10 Ideas to Reward Teams and Members
• Evaluate Team Performance and Determine Training Needs
• 3 Ideas for Team Recognition Gifts or Gift Baskets 
• Power Totes for Team Roles and Rotation 
• 10 Ways Teams Can Motivate Team Building and Performance

Find a way soon to recognize the high achieving teams during the holidays. It can be a end-of-year celebration with small rewards and positive reinforcement. Or you may choose to make it a new year ceremony with recognition elements, role rotation to increase member flexibilty, and setting of new stretch goals using The 4 C’s of Team Goal Setting with each team.

Please note: I will have a team-building book coming to Amazon soon. The plan is to release it first as an e-book. Watch for it under my author name: Shirley Fine Lee. In the mean time, if you are looking for some books for Making Teams and Projects Effective, check out my recommendations by clicking that title within my Amazon Lists.

RELATED STATS:  In a Group Processes and Work Teams survey done by Lawler, Mohrman & Ledford of Fortune 1000 companies over a 10-year period (1987-1996), they discovered that the use of problem solving teams increased from 70% to 90%.  Also the use of self-managed teams in companies grew from only 27% to 78%. 

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PLEASE ANSWER question in poll at upper-right of blog to give your opinion of team use now.  You can return to the blog at anytime to see the current poll results before it closes.  Poll closes at end of year 2011.

Undercover Boss Dances thru Holiday Season

Ending our 2010 year of leadership lessons learned from Undercover Boss TV show which was informative and occasionally funny. Check out previous posts for education received by C-level management in other episodes. Read below for the more recent learning.

President and CEO of Johnny Rockets Restaurants, John Fuller, goes to work in a few key locations to find out what his people do. Even before his journey as cook and waiter began, he had acknowledged that employees with passion, energy, and creativity were directly related to the best customer experience. He wants his company to be a fun place to work where people want to stay employed there and customers want to return regularly to a place of food, fun, and staff song/dance. The boss understands the importance of appreciation and recognition to be given to great employees for jobs well done.


Henrik Slipsager, CEO of ABM Industries, gets his hands dirty when he becomes a low-level worker. Having been on enough airport shuttles to find his first job segment about a lack of speed in customer service funny, but I am not sure I'd have felt that way if on that shuttle. A least Henrick recognized his own failures and that training and attitude are important. A window washer or elevator attendee who is afraid of heights or a janitor that can not scrub properly? This boss must think "thank goodness someone is willing to do and is skilled at this job." It is for sure he was glad to have employees that take pride in what they do and so do the job well. Episode also reflected on 9/11 and employees affected as a result of that tragedy.


Did you watch nay of the shows? What did you learn? What did you share with others where you work? Let us know by adding comments for our blog readers to learn from as well.

Tune in next month to our next post and see how the undercover seasons ends and what new lessons we might learn. 

Undercover Boss Plays Games

Watching this season of Undercover Boss has been fun as well as informative. Many of the featured big companies are in the fun business – starting with hospitality, then transportation and entertainment in September, now it is games and sports in October. Read on for more leadership lessons learned you can use in your company too.

Don Fertman, the CDO at SUBWAY learns that speedy production is not sacrificed when providing friendly customer service during game day or any time at local shops. It is the people and the service that keep customers coming back. His workers showed him quality is in the details – from baking bread and cookies to assembling sandwiches per a standard process or custom made-to-order. I also liked the unique idea of a franchise in a Church as a way to provide jobs skills to a community.

CEO of Lucky Strike Lanes (which is a coast to coast business), Steven Foster has some funny scenes in their company episode. He believes his company represents fun and his employees should have fun doing their jobs. This boss understands “people make the difference!” His lesson to other leaders is to effectively use the talent you have and encourage creativity.

Todd Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs, finds he has great employees at Wrigley Field, but not all their needs are being met. He understands that recognition is important and implements a rewards program for employees along with their families. Plus he decides to provide the employees with better break facilities as he values their contribution as individuals and the diversity of people within the organization. He wants everyone to feel the organization is a family and asks for suggestions from everyone to improve the facilities, the organization, and their workplace.

If you missed an episode, remember you can watch it online by clicking the featured company name in paragraphs above and in previous posts. Visit previous posts by clicking links in first paragraph of this post. We would love to hear your comments on these posts and the shows too; however you need to understand the opinions shared here are an unofficial review as we do not have anything to do with network programming or show selection.

Productivity...What We Can Learn From the Olympics

Are you watching the Olympics? The accomplishments of these young athletes are always impressive. The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius." These three Latin words mean "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." Just when you think you have seen the best, someone breaks a record. You hear words such as amazing, incredible, and astounding. So what can we learn about productivity from the Olympics? Here are a few things we can consider:

Training: A person doesn't just wake up one morning and decide "I think I will compete in the Olympics." It takes training. It is estimated that world class athletics train an average of 23 hours a week. It takes constant updating of skills to improve your personal best. How many hours a year do your employees attend training? Is the training targeted specifically to improve skills? When you create your training plan each year, consider how you can assist each of your employees to be the best they can be. Training is critical to continuous improvement.

Feedback: Every sport has feedback and every sport is different. It may be how high you jump or how fast you skate but every athlete has a method to measure how well they are doing. They can compare their personal best and try to beat it or they can compare their results with other athletes. Do your employees know how well they are doing? Do they have a measurement method that gives them feedback on their personal best as well as how others are doing in similar positions? Do they learn how they are performing in time to correct problems or do they have to wait for their regularly scheduled review? I have a saying I use in my training classes, "nothing new on the performance review."

Reward and Recognition: At the end of every Olympic event, athletes are immediately recognized in a medal ceremony. They climb to the top of either the gold, silver, or bronze podiums and are rewarded in front of their peers. They don't have to wait six months or a year to learn how their performance is related to a bonus or a raise in salary or a higher performance review. How do you reward your employees? It may be unrealistic to provide daily monetary rewards or construct a three stage podium in your office but verbal and written recognition is certainly doable. It feels good to be recognized and they say that "success breeds success." Having been recognized once, it encourages people to try to achieve success again.

Ethical Conduct: The Olympics have a code of conduct. Although this is a competition and athletes all want to win, the code ensures that cheating to win does not occur. In the business environment where for-profit businesses compete for market share, ethics still should matter. It has become necessary to enact laws to require business to report accurate financial data but truly ethical businesses have always known that winning at business unethically is really a false sense of achievement.

The spirit of the Olympics can also occur in the workplace. We can take lessons this week and apply them in our daily lives. Your employees can consistently reach for their personal best and their performance can also be described as amazing, incredible, and astounding.

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Give Thanks to Employees on Thanksgiving

During Thanksgiving it is traditional to give thanks and gratitude for family, friends and the many other things in our lives. How about starting a new tradition and give thanks to your employees for all they do for you and your organization?

Some organizations recognize employees during Thanksgiving by having office parties or giving turkeys. Of course, it is usually not a good idea to give a frozen turkey the day before Thanksgiving…it will not defrost in time! What if your budget does not allow a tangible form of thank you…what do you do?

Many employees are starving, not for turkey, but for a sincere thank you. Employees are working harder than ever in an economy that has led to reduction in staff but may not have led to an equal amount of reduction in work. They are taking on more responsibility and working longer hours. Your employees may be thinking, "Does anyone notice what I am doing?" or "Are my extra efforts appreciated?"

Remember to BET on your employees and they will know the answers to these questions. BET is an acronym for:

· B - Behavior: The behaviors you want to recognize. Be as specific as possible so the employee knows you have actually witnessed the behavior.

· E - Effect: The effect the behavior had on you, the department, or the organization.

· T - Thank You: Saying a clear thank you, letting the employee know you appreciate the effort.

Here a few examples of BET:

· "George, I want you to know how much I appreciate your working the extra hours this week to complete the customer report. I am sure that this will lead to a better relationship with the customer, thank you again."

· "Shirley, thank you for your suggestion on how we can improve our return process. Your new process will save several hours a week and make us all more efficient. I welcome any further ideas you may have."

· "Carl, thank you for training the new employee this week. I know you made him feel comfortable and part of our team as well as decreased the time it usually takes to train someone new."

Notice that the examples are very specific. If you just say a general "thank you" to employees they may be thinking "what for?" By being specific and sincere you are not only letting your employees know that you value them, but that you have noticed their extra effort. By BETing on your employees you also reinforce the type of positive behavior you want in the workplace because they will be much more willing to continue the behavior if someone notices and says thank you.

Your employees will remember how they have been treated in good times and bad times. If you BET on your employees they will remember it when making a decision on whether to leave your organization when the economy improves.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Are Bonuses the Best Sales Motivation Reward?

I recently talked with a salesperson who was working towards a record sales quarter for the year. He explained that his manager had offered a bonus to the salesperson that made the most sales for the final quarter of this year. The bonus was more than the sales person usually made in a month of commissions. So the salesperson was drastically cutting prices in order to make a lot of sales in a shorter amount of time. He was willing to cut his commission some in order to get the sales and of the course the bonus.

I’ve heard similar stories in the past, as this is a typical sales management strategy when there seems to be a need to make a lot of sales in a short amount of time. The plan is to boost profits or possibly look better to upper management. However, is this the best motivational practice and does it really bring the desired rewards to the organization? Is giving a recognition bonus to one person and encouraging internal competition the best way to achieve the goal? Yes there may be more sales as a result, but are the smaller profits per sale adequate to meet company goals? If the salesperson is cutting their commission to near cost, is there really any profit once labor is paid? Is the spirit of teamwork or company loyalty compromised by such contests?

As I talked more with the salesperson, he explained his manager made this decision and offered this “most sales” contest based on the previous month, which had the lowest sales in the company history. However, this particular industry has a record of increased sales in the final quarter of every year due to the holiday season. The salesperson I talked to revealed that so far sales were up as usual for this quarter even though the overall numbers for new customers were still smaller than previous years. He assumed this was due to the current economy making a slower comeback than expected. Not only are the numbers going to be smaller due to the economy, if every salesperson is thinking the same as the one I talked with, then the reduced prices will also result in less dollars coming in for the sales the company does get.

I believe before starting any rewards program to motivate employees, management needs to review what it is they wish to accomplish and what will actually motivate the desired performance. To start with managers should review the 3 P’s of reward and recognition. Then once they have determined to proceed, managers need to ask these questions of each other before making the final decision and communicating the program to employees:

• What is the best way to do our reward and recognition program?
• What should the performance level be in order to get rewarded?
• How is this program expected to affect both profits and morale?
• Now that the program design seems ready, is this really the best method for our organizational goals?

Have you experienced any mismatches in company reward and recognition programs to the organizations goals? How did it affect the bottom line? What did or will your company do to change the process and programs to get more desirable results?

Giving Green for Recognition during Administrative Professionals Week

Green can mean different things in business today, as can reward and recognition. Rewards are a form of recognition and they can be monetary or take the form of gifts. Green can mean money or it can be an ecological or economical contribution. Since April 19-25, 2009 will be Administrative Professionals Week, with the main day for recognition on Wednesday, April 22 (formerly know as Secretary’s Day) consider that April 22 is also Earth Day this year and Arbor Day just happens to fall on the 24th. So why not recognize the special contribution your administrative staff gives you by offering green options or other alternative gift ideas?

For years flowers have been given to secretaries and clerks, which are always appreciated. However flowers may only last the week in which they are given. So the only remembrance maybe the empty vase or container they were in. Consider giving a nice houseplant or plant arrangement instead. This lasts for months as a cheery reminder of the recognition and appreciation on the desk or in the office area of the recipient. Also, plants also help reduce carbon monoxide and other pollutants in the area and refresh oxygen.

If you want to make the recognition more personal (as in the 3 P’s of Rewards and Recognition), you will need to find out what the recipient wants or enjoys doing. For instance, is there something the person needs to make their job easier or more pleasant? This type of reward is for personal productivity and can be a book, specialized office supplies or equipment, or simply a nice desk accessory. To personalize it more, does the person have a hobby? If they like gardening then a plant still works but maybe give a shrub that is flowering for their office now that they could put in their garden after the blooms are gone to enjoy in future years. Do they like to cook or consider their self to be a foodie? If yes, then maybe they would appreciate some gourmet food item or cooking utensil – visit a gourmet shop and ask for green ideas or items that make kitchen chores faster and easier. If the individual’s family or friends outside of work is often spoken of, then consider giving tickets to a group or outdoor activity or maybe a very nice frame they can put a photo in. Another option is to offer them a special daycation they can take off work to enjoy alone or with others. Be sure to keep green in mind when selecting the gifts, green being both cost and good for the environment.

For ideas on what your office staff can do together for Earth Day, see last year’s post Greening the office with the 3 R’s.

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You’ve Cut as Much as You Can…Now What?

We’ve seen the staggering layoff statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on February 25, 2009 that there have been 25,712 mass layoffs from December 2007 to January 2009 for a total of 2,632,336 people impacted. This large number is hard to get your mind around. It seems lately that we all know someone who has either been impacted by a layoff or knows someone who has been.

How have the layoffs impacted organizations? In some companies, the layoffs were needed due to an overstaffing situation, in others, they may have lost business which resulted in a reduced workload. However, some companies might have already been operating with a lean staff so layoffs have created a situation where there is still a tremendous amount of work that a smaller team is trying to accomplish. The folks that are normally left after a layoff are your top performers but even your best people will eventually burn out if their workload continuously stays excessive.

After you have cut your headcount to the lowest you possibly can, now what? I believe the answer is innovation. It is time to think and do things differently. This is not just the job of senior leaders but of everyone in the organization. If everyone has the “we are all in the same boat” philosophy, you can capture the imagination and ideas of every member in the company. Involvement in the health of the company also increases employee engagement because people feel empowered to take action to improve their situation. Here are a few ideas:

• Encourage and Reward Ideas: Let every member of the organization know that your company welcomes creative ideas on improving productivity, quality, cost savings, profitability and/or customer service. Create formal processes to capture and reward ideas but be careful of how much bureaucracy you put in your process so it doesn’t discourage people from submitting ideas.
• Provide Process Analysis Tools: A flowchart is an excellent example of a process tool. By listing the steps in a process you may find that steps have been added that are no longer necessary or people are being involved that don’t need to be. Cutting steps or automating a piece of the process may reduce inefficiencies saving time and money. GE’s Work-Out program was intended to identify and eliminate unneeded processes and tasks that were left over from previous years and it is worth examining GE’s process to see how it could be used in your organization.
• Capitalize on Teamwork: An organization is made up of a diverse group of people with various strengths. If everyone uses their strengths to the fullest, companies receive a better outcome. There are those employees who always come up with creative ideas but have difficulty executing them. There are others who are terrific at taking a new idea and refining it until it works. Others will follow a plan and execute flawlessly. Capitalizing on teamwork encourages everyone to contribute to the innovation process by valuing their strengths and finding collaborative venues to work with others of opposite strengths.

Are corporate events appropriate in these economic times?

In December, many company employees took note of how the effect of the recession applied to them and their companies in the canceling or down-sizing of holiday parties. In the Business section of the Dallas Morning News, there was an article on how many local businesses of various sizes are still having company celebrations while cutting down on costs due to the current recession. The Star-Tribune of Minneapolis-St-Paul noted businesses there are cutting back on or canceling holiday events as well. 

Are you considering this option for your organization too? Do you still need a project celebration? Is a holiday or other annual department or corporate event preferred by your employees? What is the purpose of the gathering and will everyone understand if it is cancelled or expenditures for this purpose cut back upon? Should your event be for everyone no matter what their contribution or only those to be recognized for specific achievements? What are some alternatives you could offer as rewards and recognition other than a grand-scale night out or travel opportunity?

Remember when planning a recognition program that the 3 P’s of Rewards and Recognition are always important to its true success. The P’s mean rewards should be personal, proportional, and pleasurable. And recognition should be precise, principled, and prompt. Is an annual holiday or recognition event appropriate or should your organization being doing something more frequently? Please share with us what you do to provide celebrations and recognition in your organization as well as ideas for cutting costs on these activities for employee satisfaction.