Do I really have to compliment my employees all the time? That's why they get paychecks.

In my last post, I shared the Hartman Performance Diamond as a model to think about the four key enablers to effective employee performance. Those were 1-Expectation Clarity, 2-System for Success, 3-Competence, and 4-Motivation.

When I conduct assessments to uncover why team members are not performing well, the most frequent breakdown I find is Expectation Clarity, which I recently covered here . The next most frequent breakdown I see is in the area of Motivation.

How can you make sure your people are getting what they need in the motivation department? To help, I like to use Chapman and White’s Languages of Appreciation, which I’ll cover here and Herzberg’s Two-Factor Motivation-Hygiene Theory, which I’ll share in a future post.

Motivation can be tricky, because what motivates one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. People get their job-joy in a variety of ways. Some folks get satisfaction out of a job well done. Some enjoy being part of something exciting and bigger than themselves.  Some enjoy the challenge of their work. Some are motivated by their relationships with team members or customers.

On top of some combination of those, most people need to feel appreciated in order to bring the best of themselves to the job.  In the organization assessments I mentioned, the leaders may appreciate their employees but are not expressing that appreciation in a way that resonates for the employees. Sometimes when sharing my findings with a leader, he or she scoffs at the idea of having to do anything special to show appreciation. I often hear something like, “Isn’t that what the paycheck is for?”. The short answer is no. The paycheck is necessary but not sufficient for most employees to dig deep and give their all at work.

Gary Chapman and Paul White’s The 5 Languages of Appreciation at Work, teaches us that there are 5 different ways people might prefer to have appreciation demonstrated.

1) Words of affirmation: Such as, “Hey John, you crushed it in that Sales presentation. Way to go!”

2) Gifts of service: For example, you might do his evening cleaning duties or run an errand for him.

3) Quality time: This could include spending time with the employee to understand his or her interests or taking the time to provide mentoring.

4) Tangible gifts: For example, a bonus, gift card, chocolate or tickets to a movie she’s been talking about wanting to see.

5) Appropriate touch: Such as, a high-five, pat on the back, or maybe a hug. Be careful with this one and make sure that it is APPROPRIATE for your work environment and comfortable for that employee. Someone may like touch but not a hug from you.

Homework: When do you feel most appreciated? Is it when a customer praises you or a co-worker brings your favorite homemade brownies? Maybe it’s something else.  

What are the things that seem natural for you to do to show your appreciation for your employees? Do you do the same thing for everyone or tailor the approach to the person’s preferences? Consider asking each employee privately about the sorts of things that have happened in any workplace that truly made him/her feel appreciated. Then, customize your approach to demonstrate appreciation in the way that is most powerful for each employee.

Uh, Thanks for Vacuuming the Broom Closet…. Not! – Tips for Managing Employee Expectations and Motivation

Sometimes employees believe that they are taking initiative and being helpful by doing a little ‘something extra’. Their initiative and intentions are great! However, if the extra thing is something that doesn’t make any difference to you or your business, the employee can feel unappreciated when no one causes a fuss.

If an employee isn’t performing in the way they should - you may ask yourself if they know what is expected. Employers think this should be obvious or common sense. Unfortunately, common sense isn’t common. That is unless your employees grew up in the same neighborhood as you, were born in the same year, in the same birth order, with the same parents as role models, etc., etc..

In my coaching and consulting work, I often help leaders who struggle to address employee performance issues.

In order to account for the multiple variables involved, I’ve developed the Hartman Performance Diamond.  It is a model that pulls together the key aspects of employee performance management into one simple graphic, allowing you to examine the reasons behind performance issues and develop appropriate approaches to solving the issues.

We start things at the top with the ‘Expectation Clarity’ smaller diamond within the larger diamond. The first thing you want to verify is that you’ve been clear about your expectations. Bottom line: just because you said it didn’t mean it clicked. Maybe you gave your employee instructions or gave a demonstration. Or worse, the expectations were buried in page 52 of the Employee Handbook given on Day 1. How do you know he truly understood?  Maybe he didn’t have the context to process it. Or perhaps he heard from a co-worker “ah, we don’t do it that way”…..etc.  

He might have been led astray by some other factor.  Thus misdirecting his initiative and leading to potential upset that he is working so hard and not getting recognized for his efforts, which can in turn lead to further issues with motivation.   

Solution: You need to set expectations about everything from dress code, job duties, how to track hours worked, how to request time off, how to treat co-workers and what’s okay and not okay to discuss with customers.  Those expectations can be made even clearer if you paint the picture of how each expectation impacts the business success.   Then, ask the employee to explain his understanding so you can make sure your message was clear. Often, fully discussing expectations is all that is needed to improve employee performance.

Want the complete picture? Check out this video to learn about the entire Hartman Performance Diamond.

Lower the Cake Dome

We all have ‘that person’.  You know, the one who can instantly make us anxious and wish we were anywhere else, doing anything else, but having to interact with him (or her). Interestingly, you may like or even love this person. Or, maybe not.  Regardless, he has the uncanny ability to set off an unpleasant emotional response (aka, push the hell out of your buttons).

This mere fact alone might be reason enough to distance yourself from this person at all times.  What happens though, when you can’t; when ‘that person’ is a colleague, employee, customer or God-forbid, a family member?

Who knew grandma’s heirloom, would prove so beneficial to your emotional well-being?!?

Enter the Cake Dome: a simple, rounded, clear glass force-field of sorts protecting what is inside from what is out, and what is outside from what is in.  This handy piece of visual imagery, developed by my friend and colleague, Dana Meyer, can not only help you manage your interaction with style and grace in the moment, but aid you in recognizing your hot button topics for even more preparation and grace for future interactions.

Visual imagery can be an amazingly powerful tool that can play a pivotal part in memory (Yates, 1996), motivation (McMahon, 1973) and high level creative problem solving (Arp, 2005).  As applied to our scenario, visual imagery becomes a tool that allows us the space for self-reflection and the mind-set for re-direction.   It can be a major challenge to identify what triggers us within a given scenario or interaction.  In her article “5 Steps for Managing Your Emotional Triggers,” Marcia Reynolds, Psy D, presents practical methods for uncovering how to identify your trigger points.

Once we know what pushes our buttons, we can better handle the situations, people, and issues presented to us. The Cake Dome gives us a way to protect ourselves from the emotional energy within a situation or encounter, allowing us the ability to react in a more calm and rational way.

Now you may be wondering, when and how do you “cake dome” someone? When you see this person’s name appear as an incoming caller, you see him walking towards you, or you know you’ll be seeing him, mentaly brace yourself and imagine enclosing ‘this person’ in the cake dome.

This concept allows you to see and hear what the other person is doing. However, your experience is as a social scientist or observer, rather than an active participant - getting emotionally drawn in. As comments, tone or gestures are coming from the other person towards you, imagine that they are splatting inside the walls of the cake dome and therefore not touching you on the other side of the glass. Label the splat. Look for patterns. Get curious. If a person says the sky is green, it may seem strange and wrong, but will likely not spark an emotional reaction from you. So noticing those things that do spark an emotional reaction can be instructive for our personal development, as they are likely pouring salt in the wound of an insecurity, fear or unmet need. Perhaps this irritation was intended by the other person; I have found that it was typically not. Regardless, you have the ability to manage your self-talk related to that interaction and thus, manage your reaction.

My personal experience with cake doming is that after several interactions, imagery it isn’t necessary anymore. I still notice the tone, gestures, comments and behaviors. However they have no emotional impact on me. So, next time you’re faced with ‘that person,’ protect your emotions and cake dome him!