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| GET THIS TRAINING PROGRAM AT 14 Vital Skills for Supervisors |
To inspire people, set their sights on a faraway goal that’s so exciting and potentially rewarding that they cannot help but covet it. Help them visualize what it’ll feel like to reach the mountaintop—to know that they gave every ounce of their effort to deliver superior performance.
Skip the long speeches when you’re trying to inspire employees. Instead, summarize a tantalizing goal and then ask lots of questions. That will turn your workers into true believers.
Try these techniques to engage them: Remind workers of their past triumphs. Ask them to reflect on what drove them to achieve successful outcomes in the past. Examples: “When you won the Jones account, what did you learn that you can apply to this challenge?”, “Remember your great work organizing our Hawaii convention? How about topping yourself by planning an even greater convention next year?”
Probe to identify your employees’ source(s) of inspiration. Ask them to tell you whom they admire as a mentor. Examples might include their parents, siblings, friends or teachers. Armed with this information, you can ask each employee how his or her most cherished role model would approach the situation at hand.
Align their interests with yours. Succinctly explain why the goal is important to you and your organization. Then give the employee a chance to chime in. Use this format: “Here’s why it matters to me. Why does it matter to you?” In terms of praising employees, ignore the conventional wisdom of dishing out daily doses of compliments to everyone you supervise.
It’s better to recognize superior effort or performance rather than try to praise everyone, everyday. Praise resonates more deeply when you express it just before and just after an employee takes on an assignment.
When you delegate a project, offer a brief expression of support (“Jim, you’re our expert on this, so I’m sure you’ll do a good job,” “Mary, with your work ethic and determination, I won’t have to worry about this getting done right”). And when the employee completes the assignment successfully, acknowledge the fine work (“Ray, your sophisticated analysis really helped us beat the competition,” “Jane, I appreciate you stepping in at the last minute and doing such fantastic work”).
Praise also carries more weight when it’s specific. Go beyond saying “Good job” and give details of what you admired most about the individual’s work. Examples: “Good job staying calm with that irate customer,” “Great work answering all of those phone lines when we were swamped this morning,” “I’m so pleased that you trained those temps so quickly to use our new software.”
Mix public and private praise. Save time in staff meetings to spotlight those employees who deserve kudos. Lead the group in a round of applause for your starring employees and ask them to stand and perhaps say a few words to the team. Their comments can prove just as inspiring as yours, especially if they thank their peers.
Saluting outstanding performance lifts everyone’s morale; even those workers who are not basking in applause will see that you value outstanding effort and they’ll push harder to excel in the future.
When you praise in private, maintain eye contact and avoid distractions. Speak with passion and sincere appreciation. And don’t follow praise by making a request; that can seem manipulative and undermine the goodwill you seek to establish.
At its best, praise serves as a management tool. If you want to induce certain behavior among your team, praise individuals already exhibiting it. To spur workers to propose ways that improve operations, praise the clerk who came up with a money-saving idea. To highlight the need for superior customer service, praise service reps who inconvenience themselves to satisfy a demanding client.
WARNING: Never praise out of obligation. If you sense an employee craves recognition, don’t feel you must find a way to compliment the person. Instead, dangle a challenge. If the employee accepts your challenge and delivers fine results, then your praise will truly matter. TIP: Nothing will inspire employees more than the opportunity to achieve personal goals that add meaning and excitement to their lives.
Listen carefully to your employees and help them identify personal work goals—magnificent obsessions—that fit within the goals of the organization or work unit. IT’S TRUE: In survey after survey, employees indicate that they value praise, recognition and a positive, high-morale workplace more than pay.
So, ask yourself, do you find it’s just as easy to recognize people for what they do right than to chastise them for what they do wrong. Think about this. You have reflexes, and they may be reflexes to be more negative than positive in order to feel more empowered with yourself.
