Are you doing enough to recognise your employees? When was the last time you sat down and really thanked someone for their hard work and impact? Research suggest positive recognition is one of the top motivators for employees.
When people think about performance management, more often than not, they think about giving negative feedback – “having the tough conversations”. Now, don’t get me wrong – those conversations matter too – if an employee is not delivering work at the quality standard you need, delivering the wrong work, or their personal style is causing challenges for your clients or other team members, then as a leader, those are conversations you need to address. But this article isn’t about that – for that, read …. . This article is about getting the balance right.
I found this research fascinating – there is a real disconnect between what employers assume their employees value, and what they really want. Employers assume it’s all about the money and job security, but for employees it’s about the nature of the work and about being appreciated for their work.
Research into relationships—both personal (like marriages) as well as working relationships have found that what matters is getting the balance right. In fact a ratio of 5:1 positive feedback to critiques, is what matters. Just think about that – it means that when you see your child over the course of a day, or your spouse, or your employees – to strike the optimum balance of a positive relationship, you should be providing 5 times more praise than pointing out what they need to work on.
Why? What are the benefits of praise?
Well, positive recognition helps
How do you provide effective positive feedback?
For praising to be effective, if should have the features of other high quality feedback—it should be sincere, immediate, specific and identify the impact of the action. So what does this look like in practice?
This can be hard to get right – it’s not enough to just say, great job. You actually need to put some time and thought into it, and as a busy leader, it can be easy to let slip. In fact, even though I know this research well, I’ve taught it at New York University, and supported other clients on it, as I think about it now, I’m starting to wonder– am I doing this well enough myself? When we are busy ourselves, it can be easy to let slip. So here are some reminders for both of us…
Here’s an example of positive feedback that isn’t going to do the trick. “Great job!” Here’s something a little better – “Thank you so much for the initiative you took this week. I loved how you quickly worked out who we were going to need to meet in advance of the meeting, you checked in with me, but then you just got on with it. I heard a lot of positive feedback from others about the conversations you had, and I could see the change in people’s attitudes from feeling anxious about the meeting, to looking forward to it. Your work was critical to our success this week. Thank you!”
Catch people being good – for example, when they are presenting an interesting idea, doing a great job of influencing stakeholders, raising honest and important questions, or thoughtfully navigating a difficult situation.
All praise is good – but public praise is especially powerful. Remember –
Criticise in private and praise in public.
Is there anything else you can do to keep your employees motivated?
To keep employee motivation up, consider a range of different types of rewards. Many of us working in non-profit or government environments are a little more constrained around our ability to provide financial rewards to employees – so what other options are there?
The first thing to note is that unexpected rewards tend to be more valued. Social activities, establishing team activities and traditions can be an affordable form of rewards – think brown bag lunches in the park, celebrating life events, recognising work anniversaries, and making a big deal about departures and arrivals. If you’re anything like me – you may find that you want to do this, but struggle to find the time. If that’s the case – then create space for your team to step up and support and encourage these efforts. What’s important is that they happen.
Don’t underestimate the importance of time with senior leaders – not just direct bosses. Can you arrange for your team to meet with someone outside your organisation, or can you meet with someone who doesn’t report to you directly? Take a walk in the park, attend a conference or training together.
And while we’re talking employee motivation – don’t forget some of the other basics. People need role clarity. They need to be able to answer the question – what is expected of me? We all value autonomy – am I trusted enough to make decisions, is it clear what decisions I can and can’t not make? And all people thrive when they have appropriate development opportunities, ideally you want your team operating at the edge of their comfort zone, where they don’t feel out of control, but they are learning.
Additional reading:
Here are some links to other articles on this topic that I found interesting, I hope you do too!
Fostering Employee Motivation; The Power of Positive Reinforcement; 10 low cost employee incentive ideas
Sources for article above: Towers Perrin, survey of 90,000 employees, Clifton, D., Ralph, T. “How Full is your Bucket, Losada & Heaphy, Positivity/Negativity 2004, Office of Academics Executive, Gottman, J.M.; Levenson, R.W. (1999). “What predicts change in marital interaction over time? A study of alternative models.” Family Process, 38(2), pp. 143–58
