Issue No. 36 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting reviews another book and a bucket. Remember—you don’t have to read every book. Delegate your reading to a different team member each week and ask for mini book reviews at your weekly staff meeting. To read my reviews of the last 35 books, send your team members to my Buckets Blog at www.JohnPearsonAssociates.com.
According to a 10-year study of more than 200,000 employees, a whopping 79 percent of people who quit their jobs “cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.” Another 65 percent of North Americans “report that they weren’t recognized the least bit in the previous year.” How tragic.
Your people might say the same. But you can fix it by buying and applying The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance. Authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton have written a gem—not a gimmick. This isn’t about employee-of-the-month plaques; it’s deeper—core values deeper.
Purpose-based recognition, say the authors, involves meaningful recognition (not cash) in four areas: goal-setting, communication, trust and accountability. Their research shows that inspired moments of recognition act as “accelerators” for creating more effective and more profitable companies.
Researchers asked employees what was the single greatest barrier to improving communication and trust with their managers. In almost every case, the first response was, “I never see her. She’s always in a meeting.” Sound familiar? Buy the book!
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1. On your own, write down the last time your supervisor gave you meaningful recognition. What was it for? How did it make you feel?
2. Inappropriate recognition might inflate egos or reward the wrong person, but what could be the upside here if purpose-based recognition were a core value?
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Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
A few years back, I created the annual “Meatloaf Award” and gave this dubious honor to the person who had the worst program idea for the annual conference. The management team nominated team members and then voted. No surprise—I received the award several times.
To encourage risk-taking at his company, one CEO hands out crisp $100 bills to anyone who admits to making a big mistake. He’s created a culture where failure is not fatal. Years ago, Tom Peters wrote about a company that fired a cannon to celebrate their colossal failures. Imagine.
Maybe because resources are scarce and there are few true R&D departments in nonprofits and smaller companies, leaders tend to play it safe, avoid risk and rarely tolerate costly missteps. That’s unfortunate. Maybe it’s time to loosen up, experiment more and encourage your team members to play “Ready! Fire! Aim!”
This week we’re hosting lifelong learners at our Management Buckets Workshop Experience (two days) and the Nonprofit Board Workshop (one day) at the scenic Blue Lantern Inn in Dana Point, Calif. This week we’ll have fun dipping into The Hoopla Bucket and the 19 other management buckets. We hope you can join us in the future.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
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1.The Hoopla Bucket. Tell us about one of your favorite on-the-job failures and what you learned from it.
2. Have we created an environment where failure is not just tolerated, but celebrated? What could we do in the next 90 days to encourage thoughtful and God-honoring risk-taking?
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