Zane Safrit

Respect Everyone's Time

Ben Franklin got this one right, too.

The title for this post, as most of them are here, is a reminder for me, too.

Recognize the precious quality of time in your employees’ day and you recognize the precious quality of their strengths, dreams and desires as they deliver solutions all day, every day.

You build a culture of recognition leading to engaged employees when you recognize the time-constraints under which they work.

How can you expect engagement by your employees if you fail to recognize their most important resource?

If you need a meeting, make it useful. Be prepared. Start and end on time. Declare an agenda before the meeting. Ask if these meetings are helpful.

Champion policies that respect their dignity, maturity, abilities and time.

Incentivize correctly. Doing this insures they manage their priorities and resources to reach that correct goal. Doing the right things for the right reason.

Leave them alone. Be there when you are needed.

Keep a lookout for opportunities to thank them, specifically. But other than that, err on the side of leaving them alone.

Respect their time.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Simplify Their Day

Simplify their  day

Seems pretty simple.

Simple does not mean simplistic. Simple means focused, one-pointed, clear.

Simple means aligned goals: personal > team > department > organization.

Simplifying a day means:

• removing obstacles.

• serving as a buffer, a barrier, a firewall against, well, those distractions that creep into corporate life.

• eliminating useless meetings, useless metrics, useless reports.

• providing the best tools and resources and equipment.

• providing the best training possible, including that for new managers.

A simplified day is marked by a clear purpose, shared by the group members, pursued with a simple strategy implemented with simple tactics using the correct tools.

A simplified structure is marked with timely knowledge reaching the correct decision-makers.

A simplified organizational chart is filled with the strengths of its members featured on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Simplify their day.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Champion Your Employees on Social Media.

With social media, all day every day is prime-time. The public, your customers and prospects and future employees, can watch all day, any day and any time. Your power is what you offer them to see, read and hear.

Why not leverage the reach of social media to champion the exploits and achievements of all those around you who invest the better part of their waking hours building and delivering those experiences that social media shares so well?

That’s right. Use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, your company’s website..Pinterest, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn to recognize all the achievements of your brand evangelists...for the world to see.

Just. Use. One of them.

First off, your employees deserve that your recognition be shared publicly.

Second, it offers a person for your customers and prospects to connect with...personally.

Third, it shows you care. It shows the world you care enough to put in your own words how you care about your employees.

Fourth, it will cut through the clutter of cliche’s about ‘we care’ or ‘world-class customer service.’ (Especially if those cliches are backed with stock photos of happy, smiling, nameless models.)

Fifth, you position your brand as a leader showing your peers how to use social media in a personal and meaningful manner aligned with personal and corporate missions. Here's how Patrick O'Keefe* handled it on his Facebook page.

Consider the impact on Danielle Williams when Patrick recognized her to the world and his community members.

That's called leadership by example.

Thanks, Patrick.

* Patrick O'Keefe is founder of the iFroggy Network, author of Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run successful community Boards.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Repurpose Customer Testimonials for Multiple Audiences

Repurpose.

That's an odd word. It's the digital media's equivalent of serving leftovers:

Hey, they're still good, maybe better after a day or two. Don't waste 'em.

Don't. Don't waste a customer's testimonial by sharing it once and then tossing it. Somewhere.

A customer’s testimonial recognizes your employee and their achievements in delivering your brand’s promise, in delighting that customer, inspiring them to invest the time to communicate what their achievement meant to them. It recognizes their:

• strengths
• successes
• commitment
• passion
• creativity
• RESULTS

It's also voluntary, inspired by the employee's actions that  exceeded the customer's expectations. That makes it ... gold.

Like Thanksgiving leftover, you have several options on how to serve a customer's testimonial

• read it out loud at your next meeting.
• springboard into a discussion of how everyone's achievements generated that testimony.
• write a blog post, sharing the testimony and that story of how it's a team effort.
• send it to your boss or your board of directors.
• do all of the above and share it on social media.

Unlike Thanksgiving leftovers there's no shelf life. It's just as good next week, next meeting, as it was today when it arrived.

The important point? You have a feast of achievements to enjoy and share. It's your choice how you do that. After that, just enjoy the results.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Champion Your Disruptors

A few days ago I encouraged you to Champion the Gate-Keepers, the Routine-Makers. They provide the foundation, the operating efficiencies, that supply the positive cash-flow to fuel your growth, to move into new markets, fund your R&D, test new markets with new products.

Cash is only one part. You need people in which to invest that cash. You need disruptors. They're the ones:

• asking why’s-the-emperor-in-his-jammies kinda questions.
• seeing a different way and being bold enough to try it.
• asking why, why not and what if.
• asking what’s in it for us, why should we believe, why should we care.
• what, so what, now what.
• asking if not us, then who? If not here, then where? If not now, then when?

Reminder: Money is a very important reward. Recognition by peers, co-workers, managers and leaders is the most important.

Recognize the disruptors. Recognize them for their key role insuring the growth of everyone around them.

Look at the two groups in this way. The accomplishments of one inspire the other. You have to have both in order to not only survive, but thrive.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Recognize the Night Shift

Recognize the unsung, unseen, unheard heroes of the “night shift.”

The night shift is any shift, any team, any area of your company who toils in ignominy. Unrecognized. Unheralded. (Okay, for some companies and cultures that's everyone ... but for the purposes of this post let's assume it's a small percentage.) They are the unmentionables. And yet, without their achievements the company would cease.

Feels good.

Who likes to be ignored or unrecognized? And, who likes being part of a group constantly overlooked?

But there’s more than a group-hug, feel-good, benefit to recognizing everyone. When you create a plan that allows everyone’s successes to be recognized then you create the mass mobilization of employee attention on the topic.

What does that mean? Mass mobilization of employee attention on the topic. Well, it means momentum. It means a quickened pace. It means creating a culture of learning as Gary Harpst, author of Six Disciplines for Excellence: Building Small Businesses that Learn, Lead and Last, discussed. That, Gary notes, is the source for creating a culture of leaders. (You can listen here to my interview of Gary.)

You can’t have mass mobilization of employee attention, a culture of recognition, a culture of learning and leaders, where you ignore a team, a division, a group...an entire shift.

Recognize the night-shift. Start a mass mobilization recognizing the efforts and successes of everyone!

Hat tip to Eric Anderson, a former boss and mentor.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Champion the Gate-Keepers, the Routine-Makers

Buzzword bingo in business today is populated with words like these ... change, innovation and disruption. Rightfully so, to some extent, as every facet of our life faces unprecedented pressures from global competition, economic and social upheavals, the rapid access to information and technology, the increasing pace of technological change. On and on.

We see books, webinars, coaches and programs to teaching us how to celebrate the disruptors and out-of-the-box thinkers, innovators and game-changers, how to guide their creativity into productive, executable, profitable results.

But, as our attention pendulum swings in favor of this newest, shiniest, thing, we risk ignoring those who make innovation and disruption possible. These are the Gate-keepers, the Routine-makers.

With their often silent efficiency in executing the mundane tasks of every business they form the foundation upon which you can experiment. That foundation generates the cash-flows that allow you to invest in ideas, innovations, risks, skunk works, disruptions, and blue ocean strategies. Their efficient routines, boring and restrictive to some, allow others to experiment. Without their success, you have no diving board from which to leap into a new market or consider a new idea.

Recognize their efficient rules and routines.

Recognize their successes.

Show how new ideas and innovations and solutions are built upon and made possible by this strong foundation of routines and the efficiency to which they are kept.

It’s easy to overlook them. But without them, you have nothing to stand on. Be sure to recognize that, them and their achievements. Then you can venture far from shore knowing they’ve got your back, they’re waiting for you with a solid routine and steady cash-flows

Recognize Your Gatekeepers, Your Routine-Makers.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Recognize Specifics

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

This is so obvious I wonder why, as CEO, I needed four or five years of saying Thank you to those around me before I understood that my Thank you would have more meaning if I invested a few moments in thanking each person for the specifics of why and how they mattered so much.

Growing up in the South the manners of saying Please and Thank you and addressing adults as Mr. and Miss or Mrs. were well-entrenched by the time I was five.

Too often with good habits we forget their meaning or we sleep-walk through their practice. So it was with saying Thank you. My habit, my knee jerk response, of saying Thank you was nice, charming. That made it all about me.

My first steps to include them in my thanks were almost as painful as a child’s first steps on a concrete sidewalk. Seeing their awkwardness at my feeble attempts, bruising my ego, and sitting in my office stewing over my good intent and my bad execution highlighted those first steps.

Write: I solved that by writing an email, offering specific details as well as thanks for each one.Once I saw the affect, I made that practice a habit.

Practice: Then I expanded this practice to in-person recognitions. I wrote the specifics down first and practiced the words once or twice. That worked even better.

We both smiled, relaxed our shoulders, uncrossed our arms and leaned forward. Our conversations always expanded to include ideas and, yes, complaints and good moments and most importantly suggestions on what we could do better.  That makes for a very good day.

String a few of those together, back-to-back, and you have a good week.

String a few of those weeks together, back-to-back, and you have a good month.

You see where I'm going...String a few of these months together and you have a great quarter, a few quarters and you have a great year. It all starts with a simple step, affordable, scalable step.

Headsup: Some of us feel awkward with deserved praise, given or received. Making this a daily habit will help erase that awkwardness. You may also be in an environment where this type of recognition could 'unsettle' others, threatening their sense of control.

To that I say: Tough. They, we, need to be unsettled. But, you can speak that tough love in a language they'll love. Ask them, ask yourself:

Would you object if we reached our goals faster, if our employee turnover declined and our hiring costs declined too? Would you object if everyone showed more enthusiasm and offered more ideas and...discretionary effort...and those generated high close ratios and lower customer churns, grew our revenues faster and lowered our costs? Because that's what happens when you recognize people.

Recognize specifics. Thank them for specifics.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Make It Hard Fun

Have you ever heard anyone or any organization say they live by this rule:

I/We achieve more when the workday and colleagues' lives are made miserable by absurd policies, a strategy I don't know, out-of-date equipment, training - what's that, and a general lack of recognition.

(Okay, almost no one. Yet the data - 70% of employees are inspired to go through the motions, at best, and nothing more - begs to differ.)

Literalists will quibble about this idea of fun at work, saying It's a job not a play period. To that I say:

• Learning is fun. Where you find a culture of learners, you find a culture of leaders and achievers. That's pretty fun.

• Fun is exciting.Where you find an exciting place to work is where you find ... challenges being met, addressed and overcome.

• Fun is being recognized and being held accountable.

• Fun is learning from mistakes and then laughing together at them. Fun is when you share with others the story of your mistakes and what you learned from them.

That’s hard fun.

Seymour Papert, Ph.D., wrote this about hard fun.

It is expressed in many different ways, all of which all boil down to the conclusion that everyone likes hard challenging things to do. But they have to be the right things matched to the individual and to the culture of the times. These rapidly changing times challenge educators to find areas of work that are hard in the right way: they must connect with the kids and also with the areas of knowledge, skills and (don't let us forget) ethic adults will need for the future world.

Change educators to managers, kids to employees, adults to companies and it reads:

It is expressed in many different ways, all of which all boil down to the conclusion that everyone likes hard challenging things to do. But they have to be the right things matched to the individual and to the culture of the times. These rapidly changing times challenge managers to find areas of work that are hard in the right way: they must connect with the employees and also with the areas of knowledge, skills and (don't let us forget) ethic companies will need for the future world.

It reads well, don't you think?

A recent study at the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Structure summarized:

This study examined the link between workplace fun, employee satisfaction, and perceptions of customer service quality. Our results showed that employees who experienced fun in the workplace had greater satisfaction with their job and that the relationship between workplace fun and job satisfaction was greater for those who placed a high value on workplace fun. Additionally, we found that satisfied employees believed that their organization provided customer service that was reliable, responsive, and empathetic, and that employees were knowledgeable and able to instill confidence in customers.

There’s some softness in their terms like believe and work place fun and job satisfaction and a high value on workplace fun. It’s like saying those who value sunlight felt a greater satisfaction when the sun rose. But, still.

Fun brings more discretionary effort**. That arises when we’re free to move forward with less fear and more fun. Less fear and more enthusiasm. Less fear and more ideas...and more solutions. More solutions mean more revenues, fewer costs, more cash-flow, more cash.

Fun means success. Fun means sustainable.

For me, I’ve always made it fun where I worked. I have a strongly developed sense of humor, personally. Professionally, I’ve found keeping a sense of humor around keeps a sense of perspective, balance and purpose around, too.

Make it hard fun.

* I’m not comfortable with the model of companies and managers are adults and employees are the children. That being said...the mechanics of motivation and learning remain the same for adults or children. I’m pretty convinced that a major factor in our low employee engagement scores as a country arise from our institutions discouraging our natural skills of curiosity, communication, and collaboration.

** Discretionary effort: I love that term. It’s so objective and disengaged, yet it’s a key term in the employee engagement arena. But it defines the difference between a volunteer, a fan or advocate or champion or evangelist from what’s commonly understood as employee.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Make Meetings Meaningful for Them

Has anyone, in any business, ever said the following?

Wow, it was only because we spent so much time in meetings that made no sense that we are able to meet our goals, grow the company, reduce customer churn, raise conversion rates ...

Or how about this?

I feel my skills are best showcased while sitting, numb and despondent, at a meeting that continues to drone on and on, endlessly rehashing points made clear 45 minutes ago just like they were made clear last week in this same room while I sat in this same chair wasting yet another hour. 

Or just ...

Hot damn. Another meeting!

Meetings, like companies, too often lack organization or purpose. I want to suggest a research topic. Find the causal or casual relationship among meeting attendees and their understanding of their company’s strategy and purpose with their understanding of their meeting’s purpose. I hypothesize you will find a similar percentage between the two.

Meaningful meetings respect the time of all those who plan to attend. Their schedule, length, rules of engagement are aligned with the purpose and mission of the organization. They feature the strengths of attendees reinforcing their priorities and decisions to reach the clearly stated goals. Those are meaningful meetings...for them.

They’re short, too. No one makes meaning in meetings. Meaning is made in decisions and accomplishments, even failures as they provide a learning experience a meeting that can only be used to discuss afterwards.

Here are a few tips to make meetings meaningful:

Prepare an Agenda.

Distribute the Agenda. Distribute it to the attendees before the meeting with enough time for them to review and prepare.

Celebrate What You Want to See More of.

Start On Time. Starting on time shows everyone you respect their time. It reinforces punctuality as a good habit.

End on Time. Full stop.

Follow Up. Meetings remain meaningful after their end when you follow-up on the points, the decisions, the responsibilities included in that meeting.

These are basic points. Ask your group what steps will help make meetings meaningful for them. Their answers give them skin in the game. Implementing them gives them more. Explaining why you’re not implementing them keeps them engaged; you might learn their idea is worthy. That’s a good thing.

Make meetings meaningful for them.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Celebrate More of What You Want to See

Tom Peters had a great quote: Celebrate what you want to see more of.

Do it.

Celebrate what you want to see more of.

Use 'Recognize' if you're uncomfortable with 'Celebrate.' It still works:

Recognize what you want to see more of.

Who says you can’t? You, that’s who.

These celebrations don’t require a budget or a time. These celebrations can be discrete, tasteful, productive events. Consider them micro-celebrations which are perfect for personalizing and leveraging their impact. A kind note or word shared in private works. The same works when shared with your boss while they stand before you both. Here's an idea, what if you celebrated/recognized them to their spouse/partner/children at the next company picnic or party? Whew, I get chills thinking about how that would make that person feel, their family, you.

Grand celebrations and recognitions work, too; just keep in mind the person and their achievements.

Use a journal (Sure, a spreadsheet will work, too). I use Evernote. Collect the moments and achievements, big and small, you want to celebrate more of. Then, each day, walk the halls and celebrate it so everyone sees it. They'll see more of it, recognize it, look for it.

Schedule a calendar reminder, one that texts you so you don't forget.

Make it a daily habit. It’s contagious.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Communicate Why Their Accomplishments Matter for Everyone.

How do you create meaning?

• You say what matters

• You show what matters

• You share what matters.

Accomplishments in isolation are threads left on the floor. Who knows of their colors or textures? Sharing them is like weaving them to into a brilliant tapestry. In business it’s called ‘culture.’

The all-nighter by the IT department to save the servers and purge them of a virus, a worm, or the diligence in building a secure series of protocols goes unrecognized.

The creativity, persistence and diligence by the customer service department to save that valuable customer who then turns into a loyal and volunteer sales person for the company goes unrecognized.

The savings found by the eagle-eyed accountant or CFO that serves to fund an innovative project that then adds another 5-10% of revenues goes unappreciated and future innovations remain unfunded.

Explain why the servers always serving, never crashing, allows the creativity and diligence of customer service reps to be delivered in a timely manner which in turn saved that customer whose resulting word-of-mouth testimonials generated more referrals for sales who saw a rising conversion rate, higher commissions from higher sales generating higher revenues for the company.

Sharing them weaves them into a beautiful fabric, for everyone to enjoy, and see how they compliment, enhance the value of other threads, accomplishments, of those around them. Sharing these accomplishments empowers them to create their own understanding of their culture, independent of website and annual report platitudes. That’s engagement.

If you explain why their accomplishments matter...for everyone...then you create meaning for their work, recognition for their contributions, a fine fabric of conversations and relationships that...matter.

And their conversation threads can continue, revealing the meaningful web of tasks, relationships,projects and meetings, processes and innovations that result in a culture of achievements. Those conversations are your culture of recognition, up and running independently.

Explain how the savings found by the eagle-eye of the accountant or CFO funded the innovation that resulted in a new product/service/business model that generated x percent revenue growth and more cash-flows which allowed the company to invest in more dependable, faster, bigger servers that meant more customers could be made happy to generate happier prospects that closed faster, converted in shorter times, that further inspired the sales staff, that made the customer service people happier, that generated prompter payments that made the CFO have the time to look closer at finding more internal sources of revenues to innovate newer solutions to sustain the growth of the company.

Explain their accomplishments and why they matter, because they do. Too often we labor in isolation while our achievements touch everyone in our lives. And vice versa. The opportunities and resources we find at our fingertips are due to someone else’s labors and achievements.

Doing this will show how you recognize what they do matters and matters to everyone. Then they’ll understand and recognize those contributions on their own. That’s how you create a culture of recognition. That’s how you create a culture of engagement.

Belatedly, I took this step as CEO of a small company. I saw that even with our small group, everyone remained focused exclusively on their work, their goals, their accomplishments. I was asking, we needed, everyone to do more - to learn more, to change more. They responded well. But, the stress of change increased the need for recognizing not only one person’s accomplishment but the accomplishments of others, happening in the background that enabled the achievement we celebrated.

At every such victory dance, I reminded everyone that Sales was able to do x because IT did Y and Customer Service did Z and Finance did A. As time went on everyone moved to the front of that sentence. It was good. It’s one way we were able to maintain revenue growth and positive cash-flows while retail prices for our industry dropped by over 70%, for new and existing customers.

Tell them. Show them. Recognize them.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

There is No Better Spokesperson ...

There is no better spokesperson for a company, product, and brand than someone who is happy with his job and respected by his employer and peers. A happy employee will in turn, make customers happy.

- Fred Reichheld, Customer Loyalty Guru  author of The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth and the Net Promoter Score and System

Invest in Their Health

Would you buy a server and never perform regular system diagnostics or install updates?

Would you work in an office building where the floors were never swept and let’s not talk about those bathrooms?

Would you buy a car and never take it in for regular maintenance?

If you were a chemical engineer would you work in a plant that never ‘did turn around?’

So, why not invest in the health and upkeep of your most important asset: employees?

This isn’t about healthcare plans; I'm not endorsing or rejecting ObamaCare.

This is about investing in the health of those who invest the majority of their hours in the health of a company which provides income for them, their families and communities. It's an investment of  time to listen and care and learn. It requires the strength to be patient and wait, to fail and to change.

Nearly every company invests in slogans like: Our employees are our most important asset ... blah-de-blah-blah.

However, for some reason...too many companies, and too many of those same companies, look at their most important asset, their employees, as a disposable, dispensable asset whose maintenance they can ignore, whose repairs they choose to forego and whose redlines are exceeded...all day, every day.

These same companies will not only write but enforce policies to restrict the abuse and misuse for every asset except their most important asset: employees.

Then, when that asset is burnt out and unproductive...well, these same businesses will assign 100% of the liability on this most precious asset: the employee.

It’s why ROA, return on assets, has fallen by over 75% for public companies since the mid-60’s. - Edge Perspectives

It’s why only 30% of employees devote their emotional and intellectual resources to their job.

Recognizing your employees and their strengths, their challenges, their accomplishments and their need, not your Rules Committee or Employee Manual, to be the best and bring their best every day requires you recognize their health: emotional, physical, mental and spiritual if you define spiritual as the sum of all these parts. It continues with hiring the right people, choosing the right managers, aligning incentives and purpose and tasks. It continues with training and providing the right tools.

Invest in their health.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Forgive and [Learn]

Have you heard of The Golden Rule? It’s common English phrasing is:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The Golden Rule, aka the ethic of reciprocity, is found in all cultures who created a lasting impact on our progress. What better rule to create a lasting culture, a culture of recognition and engagement, a cash-flow positive culture?

Employee recognition isn’t all cookies and milk, handing out awards in the newly minted tradition of Every child deserves a trophy. You’re recognizing employees for their contributions; some will be mistakes. Some might be the same mistake arising from a lesson left unclear. Who knows who’s left unclear from that first iteration until the mistake appears again?

How you, as a leader, recognize their mistakes determines whether you inspire engagement or continue the trend of more disengagement.

If you’ve shared your failures, then you’ve led by example. By sharing your mistakes you’ve offered, empowered them with, the opportunity to forgive and learn with you. This is a habit they will develop and use not only with you but with each other.

You honored The Golden Rule, the ethic of reciprocity.

Some people say Forgive and Forget. In today's business world we might consider changing that to say Forgive and Learn.

Forgive each other. Learn from each other.

A culture of learners is a culture of leaders. Gary Harpst, author of The Six Disciplines for Excellence, described that for me in a conversation we shared. You can listen to our conversation here.

Forgive and learn. Forgive and learn and find your leaders. They’re all around. You just have to let them know it’s ok to step up, even if they stumble on that first step; even if you stumble on that first step.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Engines, Full Reverse! Do It Now

Sometimes when I read the sad news of employee disengagement (sad, but too often valid) and choices for managers and the lack of training for those managers and how only a small percentage of employees can identify their company’s strategy on a multiple choice test I’m reminded of Albert Einstein's quote:

Insanity - Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Yet, companies do that. They do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Okay, they do it faster or louder or with prettier colors or new slogans. They do it to their employees, from on high, with mandates and emails and policies created in private meetings or offsite strategy sessions. You’ve heard of trickle-down economics? Same theory. Engagement at the top, among the top, will somehow trickle down on everybody else. Yeah, it doesn’t work any better.

Now, Look around you. What are you doing? Full STOP. Put those engines in full reverse. Do the opposite. Stop trickling on your employees’ heads. Invite them to participate. That’s right. Invite their opinions, feedbacks and ideas and criticisms. Engage with them, not each other in your echo-chamber.

No, not with a survey. That’s a poor excuse, a surrogate, for real engagement. Besides, if you don’t know what’s happening around you right now ... okay, no one’s perfect and no one has ‘real-time’ feedback ... a survey’s not going to tell you or it will only tell you what you want to know.

Are you having meetings about employee engagement without employees present? Stop. Then start inviting employees to meetings about them and their motivations and energy and ‘discretionary effort.’

Are those meetings filled with powerpoint presentations? Stop. Start talking and listening, like adults - okay maybe like children in a playground - to and with each other.

Are you not meeting with employees ... everyday? Stop. Start walking the halls and building a relationship with your employees. One day at a time, one conversation at a time.

Are ignoring a department, a shift, an employee? Stop. Go visit with them. Make the first meeting an unscripted meeting. Use real words, your words, not high-falutin’ business school buzzwords, yes, like employee engagement. Talk to them from your heart, why the business matters to you, your vision, how you started out, why you started out where do you want to be five years from now. Leave your assistants out. Don’t hand out employee manuals or your communication’s department missives.

Have you ignored their training? Stop. Start training them. They might end up staying with you.

Have you ignored their equipment upgrades? Stop. Buy them the best of something, today. Tell them why. Tell them how and why and when you'll do it again.

What have you got to lose? Doing what you’ve been doing is ... insane.

For Goodness Sakes, Give Them Family Time

When your company faces a crisis, you expect, even demand, employees drop every other commitment - immediately! - and focus on resolving that crisis. 



What happens when your employee’s family faces a similar challenge? Do you help, volunteer resources to assist them? Or do you ignore their needs? 



Would you be open to an equal understanding when that same employee faces a crisis at home, in their personal life? Would you allow them the time to resolve that crisis?



As I compare the two choices, I see unequal costs. The cost to the employee for not responding to the clarion call of the company is far greater than the company who fails to answer the needs of their employee and family. The employee faces the risk of losing 100% of their income, putting their family at risk in both situations. The company faces a small blip in their operations if one employee fails to respond to its needs. 



On the other hand, the costs of employee engagement or its lack from this and similar decisions of benign neglect from a majority of US companies have trickled down throughout our economy to exceed $370 billion per year.



If your company has inspired an average level of employee engagement then approximately 30% of your employees are engaged emotionally and intellectually with their work. 30%. On an individual basis, that means that 100% of your employees are engaged, emotionally and intellectually, for about 30% of their day or roughly 2.4 hours, assuming an 8-hour day. 



On that basis, you have built a company. 



What if you inspired, allowed, an extra 10 percentage points of engagement from your employees, boosting it to 40%. That’s a 10% boost in productivity. How much is that worth? Where would you see its results? Is an extra day off or an extra afternoon off worth seeing a boost in revenues or lower costs or higher cash-flows, lower training costs, lower employee turnover?



Maybe your HR person mentions your vacation ‘policy.’ Fine; that’s their job. However, do you want someone at work when at best their attention is divided? You’re already paying full dollar for a resource that on average is motivate to deliver 30% of its potential.



Consider the extra day an investment. The R on that I, the ROI, will spread naturally, by way of word-of-mouth. That’s the grapevine or the water-cooler conversations of the past. That will translate into lower hiring costs as your employees recruit from their networks and lower turnover costs as employees appreciate being recognized and respected. It will translate into higher productivity when your employees are able to focus at work without these unresolved distractions.

Maybe, 

this all sounds pollyanish and unrealistic. However, as CEO of a small company, I implemented this approach and generated these results. We had a restrictive vacation policy. By some standards it was generous: 2 weeks. However, life happens. We had an older workforce that was more responsible both at work and in their personal life. Their high degree of responsibility made us want them as employees. With greater responsibility comes more life, some of it outside the office. We had to recognize this and change our vacation policy to three weeks, right from the start. And, on occasion, we stretched that knowing the employee’s engagement with their work and colleagues would inspire them to offer a plan to insure fairness for all. 



Disclaimer: there were bumps along this journey. I missed some data, failed to recognize different perspectives, prioritizing it incorrectly as it turned out. Still, our open communication and our relationships helped us find a common ground and a better solution.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

Celebrate THEIR Birthday



Does your company have a policy about birthday celebrations? (Think about that for a second. You have a very small group of adults telling another group, one with greater numbers, when and where and how and even if they can smile and laugh and celebrate one another’s existence. Both groups go along with it. )

Don’t feel bad if you do. Most companies, after they reach a certain size feel the need to rein in spontaneity, exuberance, enthusiasm, camaraderie except under very strict conditions granted prior approval by someone. They squelch it with a smile on their face and a company policy that treats employee recognition like an employee code of conduct violation that earns a meeting with someone: your manager or HR and even a writeup. All birthdays in a calendar month are celebrated at one party, one cake, everyone’s forced to attend and smile at no one in particular. Everyone stands around for the right amount of time and then trudges back to their desk.

I worked at a company that had both, a non-policy policy and a policy policy. During the non-policy policy the company grew like wildfire. 2400% or something, enough to earn a spot on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies. Fences between departments were mended during these gatherings or just torn down, random conversations spurred ideas and solutions that would never find sponsorship in a meeting. Relationships formed and strengthened. There was laughter and recognition, the real kind, spontaneous and unstructured.

Then the policy was announced. Once a month, a group sing along, prior emails sent to attendees confirming their desire to be celebrated, one card - safe and predictable and meaningless. Three or four people stand in the middle, more awkward than fourth grade dance partners.

The random, spontaneous, interactions and conversations dwindled. The laughter and spontaneity died. Silos arose between departments. Adults became cogs. Oh, yeah, and revenue growth ... tipped over.

It’s not all to blame on the new policy. The policy change was one of many that moved us from an engaged and exciting culture to one of fiefdoms, from working for results to fighting for territory and influence.

I don’t care how big your company is ... let them celebrate their birthdays. You’re recognizing that person in a way that’s meaningful to them. You’re recognizing their peers in a way that’s meaningful to them. You're allowing, enabling, choose your buzzword, them to engage in a celebration of each other in a way that's meaningful to them. That's engagement. Employee engagement isn't always all about you.

Are you worried about too many birthday celebrations? I have a hard time with that one. I have a personal bias for birthday celebrations on birthdays. It’s a special day. It comes once a year. You should celebrate it.

And for the bean counters, the ones whose language is written and spoken with numbers, tell them you hired adults and adults know how to balance responsibilities with celebrations. Besides, if you’re hitting your KPIs then why shouldn’t you be celebrating the birthdays of those whose efforts and successes make that achievement possible.

Celebrate THEIR Birthdays as they want to celebrate their birthday and they’ll give you more reasons to celebrate every day.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.

"He Decided Early On to Take Care of His People ..."

    We’ve been in business for 85 years and my mom and dad started the business with a root beer stand. And one day the first month dad had four or five employees and one of them didn’t show up. And he had to do all the work that person was supposed to be doing. And then all of a sudden he came to the conclusion that if I don’t take real good care of my people, I’m going to be doing all the work. So he established right then and there back in 1928 a culture that said take good care of your people and they’ll take care of the customer and the customer will return. As an example, he decided early on to take care of his people. He hired a doctor to take care of their healthcare needs in the early 30s. And that was of course long before anybody talked about universal healthcare. - Bill Marriott, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board of Marriott International

Where would your business be if you had decided early on to take care of your people?

Where will it be tomorrow if you make that decision today?

Show Them the Door

The door to your office is like a tollbooth. There’s an entry fee and an exit fee. Those fees are time, engagement and results. Yours and theirs. A more quantitative-minded reader than this writer could describe these relationships with an elegant formula. I’m not going to embarrass myself by trying to amuse you with a silly effort.

How you manage your access and what price you both pay for that privilege is a key, maybe the key, to creating a culture of recognition, one marked with high levels of engagement and passion. Lurking just behind this challenge is the same elephant that sits in our internal living rooms. That elephant is how do we manage our selves.

This is one step I stumbled on, over and through, with such enthusiasm I scraped my knees and bloodied my nose. A rare double-double in failure learning opportunity.

 As an employee I’ve worked with managers who expected me to linger in their office, evenings and weekends...for no other reason it appeared, night after night, than they were tired and found no refuge in their own home. I can’t remember anything we accomplished during these times. By staying I became an enabler, both complicit and resentful, losing respect for them as I grew impatient at myself.

As a leader (Assistant Director, Country Manger and CEO) I’ve made the same error but for a different reason. I keptmy door wide open, encouraging employees to grow an umbilical cord, stoking the bonfires of my vanity as I rattled off one solution after another. By doing so, I also insured they would remain dependent on me reinforcing my own victim’s psychology of ‘why can’t anyone else solve these problems?’ Their resentment grows as I dole out one-and-done solutions. It nags at their self-esteem, chaining their learning and growth to my generosity and problem-solving skills.

Once I realized I was the problem, I changed the dynamic. I disrupted the process I created. That sounds good, right? Disruption, change, personal responsibility...all the good buzzwords.
Just like infinity can be found in a grain of sand, so can the truth of these buzzwords be found in how I executed this change. To save your time, I'll describe it is executed poorly in a manner best described as erratic, inconsistent, creating experiences that were confusing, frustrating.

• Why now? Why am I unwilling to help (their word) spoonfeed (my word) those who followed my encouragement and turned to me for help?
• Aren't our challenges and questions important?
• So, you're saying you don't have time to meet with us and hear the challenges we face?

Change is always easier when its our change for our reasons. When changes are foisted on us, we tend towards resentment especially if it's poorly conceived and communicated. Puh-POW!

Rather than leave you hanging with theoretical ponderables, I offer a recent solution. Stephen Lynch, COO for RESULTSdotcom described an effective technique to cut the umbilical cord: The GROW Method for Growing Your People. He writes:

As a leader, you want to encourage your people to think though the issues first, and make good decisions themselves. Alternatively, if it is a situation where they really do need your input or sign off, you want them to present (at least two) options along with their thoughtful recommendation as to what the right decision should be.

Show them the door. Recognize their strengths with a method that helps them to recognize their own strengths, owned and yet to be discovered. That adds value to their life, your day and the organization's resources to serve each other and all your stakeholders.

This was one of the 52 ways I included in my first book on Employee Engagement.

RECOGNIZE THEM: 52 Ways to Recognize Your Employees in Ways They Value . Here’s what some business experts are saying about the book.

On the sidebar of this site are links to free samples of the introduction and the first category of ways to recognize your employees.