Carrots, Sticks and Management: Speaking of BS and Motivation
Carrots, Sticks and Management: Speaking of BS and Motivation
He showed me several post cards from his former co-workers. One read, "The flogging will continue until morale improves." Another quoted Steven Wright, "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism."
I was reminded of a Fortune 500 vice president who brought me to a corporate management conference a few years back to deliver a presentation on the benefits of empowerment. It was very well received; the vice president himself was so inspired that he immediately leaped up and told all his minions that they'd better be empowered from that moment on, "Or believe me heads are going to roll." He added, in all seriousness, "Just make sure you clear everything with me first."
"He just empowered them to do nothing but claim to be empowered," one of the other speakers whispered to me.
"Not quite," I said. "He ordered them to claim to be empowered."
If you're managing people, try treating those you manage as partners not peons. As Booker T. Washington observed, "Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know you trust him."
"Management is simple," one award-winning manager claims. "I create incentives, small rewards, recognitions. I believe in my people, and I show them how much I believe in them. I get them to want to live up to my high opinion, and then I give them the freedom to do just that."
We all need to be appreciated. There's a joke about a guy who's stranded on a tiny desert island. One day he's walking on the beach and he stumbles across a woman, washed up just above the surf line. She's in bad shape and as he reaches her, she stops breathing. Quickly he administers mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After a few frightening seconds, she starts breathing again and opens her eyes.
"You saved my life," she insists gratefully.
She brushes the hair back from her face. That’s when he realizes that he's stranded on a desert island with the biggest box office star and the most gorgeous and most famous beauty of the day. To avoid litigation, we'll call her Tasmalia Thistlemore.
Time passes. The island is lush and warm, with plenty of fruit. They build a comfortable hut. It's like Eden. Tasmalia falls deeply in love with him, and making love becomes their major form of entertainment. Then one day, she notices he looks depressed. She asks him what could possibly be wrong in such an idyllic existence.
"Is there anything I can do?" she asks.
"Well, actually," he replies, "there is something."
"Anything, darling."
"Would you mind putting on my shirt?"
That puzzles her, but she says, "Of course not," and puts on the shirt.
"Now could you put on my pants?”
"Sure, if you think it will make you feel better."
"Good. Now put on my coat and draw a mustache on your face." She goes along with that too. Then he says, "Now, would you please start walking down the beach and head around the island?"
She starts out, and he sets off in the opposite direction. Fifteen minutes later they meet on the far side of the island.
He rushes up to her, grabs her by the shoulders and says, "Man, you will never believe who I'm sleeping with!"
We all need appreciation and recognition. Appreciate your people. Help them discover their self worth and their potential.
When Emery Air Freight started encouraging supervisors to use positive feedback—telling workers when they were doing a good job rather than stressing the negative—customer service improved and sales increased. After three years, the company estimated the new system had made them $3 million.
That's a lot of carrots.
Carrots Sticks and Management Speaking of BS and Motivation - To learn more about this author, visit B. Maher's Website.
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Every boss, every manager and every organization pays lip service to leading by empowerment and positive reinforcement. "They swear they believe in the carrot not the stick," one ex-manager told me of his former employer. "But a lot of people seem to be getting brutalized by that carrot." ("Brutalized" is actually my word; the phrase he used was considerably more graphic--and painful to imagine.)
He showed me several post cards from his former co-workers. One read, "The flogging will continue until morale improves." Another quoted Steven Wright, "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism."
I was reminded of a Fortune 500 vice president who brought me to a corporate management conference a few years back to deliver a presentation on the benefits of empowerment. It was very well received; the vice president himself was so inspired that he immediately leaped up and told all his minions that they'd better be empowered from that moment on, "Or believe me heads are going to roll." He added, in all seriousness, "Just make sure you clear everything with me first."
"He just empowered them to do nothing but claim to be empowered," one of the other speakers whispered to me.
"Not quite," I said. "He ordered them to claim to be empowered."
If you're managing people, try treating those you manage as partners not peons. As Booker T. Washington observed, "Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know you trust him."
"Management is simple," one award-winning manager claims. "I create incentives, small rewards, recognitions. I believe in my people, and I show them how much I believe in them. I get them to want to live up to my high opinion, and then I give them the freedom to do just that."
We all need to be appreciated. There's a joke about a guy who's stranded on a tiny desert island. One day he's walking on the beach and he stumbles across a woman, washed up just above the surf line. She's in bad shape and as he reaches her, she stops breathing. Quickly he administers mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. After a few frightening seconds, she starts breathing again and opens her eyes.
"You saved my life," she insists gratefully.
She brushes the hair back from her face. That’s when he realizes that he's stranded on a desert island with the biggest box office star and the most gorgeous and most famous beauty of the day. To avoid litigation, we'll call her Tasmalia Thistlemore.
Time passes. The island is lush and warm, with plenty of fruit. They build a comfortable hut. It's like Eden. Tasmalia falls deeply in love with him, and making love becomes their major form of entertainment. Then one day, she notices he looks depressed. She asks him what could possibly be wrong in such an idyllic existence.
"Is there anything I can do?" she asks.
"Well, actually," he replies, "there is something."
"Anything, darling."
"Would you mind putting on my shirt?"
That puzzles her, but she says, "Of course not," and puts on the shirt.
"Now could you put on my pants?”
"Sure, if you think it will make you feel better."
"Good. Now put on my coat and draw a mustache on your face." She goes along with that too. Then he says, "Now, would you please start walking down the beach and head around the island?"
She starts out, and he sets off in the opposite direction. Fifteen minutes later they meet on the far side of the island.
He rushes up to her, grabs her by the shoulders and says, "Man, you will never believe who I'm sleeping with!"
We all need appreciation and recognition. Appreciate your people. Help them discover their self worth and their potential.
When Emery Air Freight started encouraging supervisors to use positive feedback—telling workers when they were doing a good job rather than stressing the negative—customer service improved and sales increased. After three years, the company estimated the new system had made them $3 million.
That's a lot of carrots.
Carrots Sticks and Management Speaking of BS and Motivation - To learn more about this author, visit B. Maher's Website.
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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