Motivating People in Uncertain Times - Part Seven

16. Notice up-ticks. A lot of managers manage by exception. That is, they watch mostly for down-ticks — deficiencies, errors, and other failures — and pounce on the situation to get it back under control, usually by pounding it into submission. But you can raise employee motivation and solve problems faster by watching for positive developments. Whenever you notice some small up-tick in performance — a small increase in throughput, improved quality, a slight improvement in sales — comment on it. Reinforce anybody who contributed to that up-tick, praising specific actions. This will not only raise motivation overall, it will encourage that person to increase that behavior. If you specifically reinforce every positive behavior you can find, the overall effect may well be a general upward trend for your company — even while your competitors are still trending down.

17. Keep a positive to negative feedback ratio of five to one. People tend to give more negative than positive reinforcement — typically three-to-one negative, according to our studies, and even worse in uncertain times. To motivate people, however, you need just the opposite: three-to-one positive, in normal times. And during economic uncertainty, five-to-one positive is desirable.

Try monitoring your own feedback patterns. On one side of a three-by-five card, mark a plus (for positive reinforcement); on the other side, a minus. For a week, keep a tally of every instance in which you provide feedback, positive or negative. You may be surprised to find your ratio somewhere around three-to-one on the negative side. Whatever it is, set yourself the weekly goal of changing your ratio by a factor of one — say, two-to-one negative the first week, one-to-one the following week, then two-to-one positive, and so on, until you have reached a five-to-one positive ratio. And that’s a good neighborhood.

18. Push problem-solving to the lowest appropriate level. An unsettled economic climate usually brings an increase in problems. Some of these will be easy to solve, some hard. The key to solving problems, and to increasing motivation, is to push them down to the people closest to the situation — people who know more than you do about how things work and how to fix them.

Assigning problem-solving to knowledgeable people engages and motivates them by giving them a stake in the outcome. The more they participate in formulating solutions, the more committed they are to making sure those solutions work. And the faster problems can be taken care of, the more confident and motivated everybody becomes.

About the Author

Tom Connellan is a business keynote speaker regularly used by leading firms such as GE, Neiman Marcus, Dell, FedEx and Marriott to strengthen customer loyalty and leadership practices. When looking for a keynote speaker, Tom probably belongs on your short list of possibilities.

 


Home Page  Clients  Client Comments  Bestselling Books  Preview Video  Tom's Flip Side
Chapters & Articles  Contact  Site Map  Articles  Article  Site  Privacy Policy  100% Guarantee
Motivational Speaker  Business Speaker  Customer Loyalty  Leadership  Change