Have you ever said something nice to someone or given a gift and have been surprised by their lack of reaction? Have you ever thought about how you like to be appreciated? There are many different ways to show appreciation and it turns out we don’t all like to be appreciated the same way, just like we don’t all like the same type of food. Why Show Appreciation at Work? When people don’t feel valued, bad things happen. They get discouraged and don’t work as hard, they feel used, they complain and they certainly don’t keep it to themselves. These actions, when addressed, often spread toxicity through a workplace or team. 79% of people who quit their jobs cite lack of appreciation from their managers as the primary reason for leaving. Employee’s appreciation affects your bottom-line. Not only does appreciation increase moral and performance but also is decrease turnover and increase customer satisfaction. Are The Messages Being Sent But Not Received? Managers are often shocked when many of their employees say they have not been shown any appreciation for their work in the past year. Even when managers can account for times they showed appreciation, some employees still say they never felt appreciated. The messages were being sent from the manager but they were not getting through to the employee in a way they needed to feel appreciated. Taking an employee out to a sporting event when they hate sports and have kids at home they would rather spend time with, or recognizing an employee publicly at a large companywide event may be extremely embarrassing, or using the same...
I will never forget the time a client on a month long mountaineering expedition I was leading looked at me on the first day and said, “Aren’t you a little young to be leading us?” A little caught off guard, I replied, “How old should I be?” He was clearly skeptical of my experience and leadership abilities on that first day. Four days later, after I set up his rappel system on a knife-edge ridge in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State, he was pretty happy I was there to show him what to do as he was shaking in his boots. Once we got into the mountains I could have used my position as his instructor to gain influence over him but I decided to let my expertise speak for itself. Gaining Influence I am often asked “how can I influence others when my position offers me little formal leadership”. My quick answer is “The same way as if you had a formal title”. As a leader, you hold a certain amount of influence over a group of people. There are 5 main types of influencers or “power” as Tom Kendrick highlights in his book Results Without Authority. Power Of Position Power To Coerce Power To Reward Power Of Expertise Power Of Personality Influencing others through your position and coercion come with a position of formal authority but are the least preferred methods of any quality leader. Too often, people feel they need to lead from a position with a fancy title. They say things like ‘if I was in XYZ position it would be so much...
Last week, I presented at a project management conference on leading a safety culture, a culture where near misses are seen as a significant learning opportunity and not as potential disasters that are swept under the rug for fear of reprisal or job loss. A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or damage – but had the potential to do so. It is safe to say that of the dozens of the minor and major incidents I was involved in over 15 years of leading expeditions, most, if not all, were successfully resolved due to past learning from documented near miss situations, everything from arranging and paying for an Indian military helicopter to perform a dramatic rescue at 12000 feet in the Himalayas, to managing challenging river crossings in the Yukon to encountering grizzly bears deep in the back country of Alaska. Fortunately, most organizations I worked with had progressive cultures around documenting and learning from near misses. Unfortunately, not all organizations are like this. Recently, I have been speaking with some project managers who work in a culture of fear of disciplinary action for being involved with a near miss incident. This fear has caused them to not want to report near misses and minor incidents. Alternatively, I know of several organizations that have rephrased the term ‘near miss’ to ‘good catch’. I know it is only semantics but in an area that usually conjures up fear, semantics can be important. One company not only expected to report ‘good catches’ on potentially dangerous situations but also have their employees report “good catches’ of...
Of all the things that can boost inner work life, the most important is making progress in meaningful work, when a job gives them the opportunity to experience achievement. Workplace Motivation Tips from Shoveling Snow This is another post under the topic of Managing Underperformers in the lead up to my upcoming webinar and course under the same topic. Perplexing to many, I have always enjoyed shoveling snow. Besides the bonus of fresh air and exercise that comes with shoveling a driveway, I was mostly motivated by seeing continuous progress in meaningful work. Fortunately, progress is easy to see when shoveling (when it has stopped snowing) and sure it may not be the most meaningful work but the driveway does need to be cleared to get the car in and out and my family will be happy to have a clear driveway. That’s meaning enough for me…. When I have the time to do a good job. As a leader, if you are struggling with unmotivated team members, take a close look at not just their roles and responsibilities but the actual work they do day in, day out. Are they able to see the actual progress in their work and how it is contributing to the project or team goal? Perhaps they are unaware of the impact their progress has on the team. When we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough. These big wins are great, but they are relatively rare. If the progress of someone’s work is not clear to them, you...
Staying Above the Water Line (Note to parents: this works with kids as well) As a leader, have you had a team member or employee you found hard to praise or compliment because they were pretty average in their performance or were even struggling, or perhaps you butted heads with them? It is natural to pick out all the bad things your team members are doing, when your main focus is staying above the water line. You have eyes like a hawk and are quick to react to actions that could cause the team to drop below the water line. You are the captain and you don’t want the ship to sink. Mistakes are Obvious to You The little mistakes that may go unnoticed by most people become glaringly obvious to you. Such as when you organize an event and you receive all kinds of praise from participants on a job well done and in your head all you can think about is the 10 things that didn’t go as planned and the moments when team members didn’t perform their tasks exactly as expected. Perhaps you find that over the past while, every interaction with a team member seems to have a negative tone because you feel like you have to constantly tell them what they are not doing right or what needs to be different next time. “catch them doing something right” If you have ever found yourself in this position as a leader, I suggest you take on the approach of trying what I call “catch them doing something right”. Instead of having your blinder on and...
