Appreciate to Motivate

Written by Ed Sykes


Appreciate to Motivate (Five Keys to Successful Team Building) Ed Sykes

Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, since said, "There are two things people want more than sex and money...recognition and praise." Time and time againrepparttar one motivating factor that is atrepparttar 119523 top of most employee lists is appreciation for a job well done. It is more requested thanrepparttar 119524 green stuff, money.

Why don’t more managers, owners, and employees give appreciation? Some people state they don’t know how to give it. Others don’t know what to give appreciate for inrepparttar 119525 work environment. Yet others say they are too busy to give appreciation.

I think is this isrepparttar 119526 biggest sin of managers, being too busy to give appreciation for a good job well done. Remember whatrepparttar 119527 old transmission commercials used to say, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." Well, that is what giving appreciation is about. You can invest in your employees now and "pay" them with sincere appreciation and achieve even better performance. Or you will "pay" later by seeing your team’s performance sink, corrective actions and coachings increase, and overall morale decrease.

The following are five tips to giving sincere appreciate that will motivate your team to soar to higher level and achieve more:

1. Be Specific In order to getrepparttar 119528 same behavior or action again you need to letrepparttar 119529 employee know exactly what action(s) you are appreciating. For example,repparttar 119530 typical attempt at appreciate sounds like this:

Manager: "Mike, you did a great job earlier today. Keep uprepparttar 119531 good work!"

Mike:"Thanks" (Mike is thinking what is he complimenting me on?)

The correct way:

Manager: "Mike you did a great job onrepparttar 119532 report earlier today. I can see you invested a lot of time onrepparttar 119533 report byrepparttar 119534 detail you put in it. I really appreciate you effort. Thank you."

Mike: "I appreciate you noticedrepparttar 119535 time a put intorepparttar 119536 report. Thanks!" (Mike is thinking thatrepparttar 119537 manager really did read it and appreciates his effort. I will be glad to do it again.)

As you can seerepparttar 119538 employee has a clear understanding of what actionrepparttar 119539 manager is showing appreciated for and he is motivated to take onrepparttar 119540 project again.

2. Be Timely Make sure you show appreciation as soon as possible torepparttar 119541 action you appreciate. The furtherrepparttar 119542 distant in time betweenrepparttar 119543 appreciation andrepparttar 119544 actionrepparttar 119545 less impact it will have to motivaterepparttar 119546 employee.

Manager: Mike,repparttar 119547 report you submitted six month ago was great. Keep uprepparttar 119548 good work. Thanks!"

Mike: "Thanks, I think. What report are you taking about?"

Always find time to show appreciate in a timely manner. Even if you need to drop something else take time to appreciate your employees.

3. Be Fair One ofrepparttar 119549 key concerns of students in my workshops is that when appreciation is shown, it doesn’t seem fair. The biggest villain of this isrepparttar 119550 dreaded "Employee ofrepparttar 119551 Month" board. Many times when you askrepparttar 119552 "Employee ofrepparttar 119553 Month" what did you do to earn it they say, "I don’t know." I have one action you must take when giving appreciation...be consistent!

* First, clearly staterepparttar 119554 rules for appreciation so that everyone understands how appreciate is earned.

* Second, be consistent when showing appreciation. If one employee does a favorable action and you show appreciation and another employee doesrepparttar 119555 same or similar action and you don’t show appreciation you have just sewnrepparttar 119556 seeds of bad morale and feelings of favoritism.

* Third, always be onrepparttar 119557 lookout for "finding something good" your employees do well. Once you achieve this mindset you will always findrepparttar 119558 good and increase morale and productivity within your team and organization.

Leadership Skills for Challenging Times

Written by Ed Sykes


Leadership Skills for Challenging Times By Ed Sykes ©2003

We consistently face new and ever growing challenges inrepparttar workplace such as reorganizing, downsizing, and “left out sizing.” We are faced withrepparttar 119522 question, “How do we lead in this storm of change?” It may seem difficult at times andrepparttar 119523 decisions we make define our short-term and long-term outcomes. I will share with you five leadership techniques guaranteed to keep you on track during these difficult times.

* Integrity. I put this first becauserepparttar 119524 lack of integrity will make or break you as a professional, as a leader, as a person inrepparttar 119525 long run. The lack of this will turn yesterday’s heroes in today’s villains. For example, “MCI wasrepparttar 119526 apple ofrepparttar 119527 business community’s eye. High revenues, high profits, and high growth; MCI was beatingrepparttar 119528 competition hands down. Then it was discovered that there were gross accounting irregularities that accounted forrepparttar 119529 astounding profits. You see, management made a decision, “Do I continue to sustain good growth and be able to look at myself inrepparttar 119530 mirror or do I cookrepparttar 119531 accounting books and spendrepparttar 119532 rest of my time covering up this integrity deficiency? The real shame ofrepparttar 119533 MCI situation was that AT&T, Sprint, and others inrepparttar 119534 industry had to cut costs and lay off thousands of employees to compete with MCI’s false numbers. The lack of integrity at MCI not only affectedrepparttar 119535 company but alsorepparttar 119536 livelihood of thousands andrepparttar 119537 industry as a whole. I was recently speaking with a recently retired City Council member who is well respected inrepparttar 119538 community. I asked her whatrepparttar 119539 secret was to her success while onrepparttar 119540 council? She mentioned that one of her political adversaries said to her, “While you were onrepparttar 119541 council, I didn’t likerepparttar 119542 way you voted, but I respectedrepparttar 119543 way you voted because you were consistent with your votes and hadrepparttar 119544 city’s best interest in mind.” Ask yourself what decisions that you make are right forrepparttar 119545 long term? Be consistent in your actions, whether it is with management, your team, or your family.

* Knowledge. With change happening faster and faster every moment, it is extremely important that you gainrepparttar 119546 knowledge to master these changes. You owe it not only to yourself, but to your team and management. As I always say, “It’s not havingrepparttar 119547 right answer, it’s that you haverepparttar 119548 right answer faster than before.” Many times during my teambuilding programs a student will say, “I didn’t know where to findrepparttar 119549 answer.” Then I will say, “That is an unacceptable answer.” Because part of being a leader is acquiringrepparttar 119550 skills to findrepparttar 119551 right answers. Withrepparttar 119552 Internet, classroom and online training, mentors, etc.,repparttar 119553 knowledge is at your fingertips. Challenge your team members to userepparttar 119554 same resources to acquirerepparttar 119555 knowledge to master their challenges. By acquiring this knowledge, you will be able to navigate your team throughrepparttar 119556 ocean of change and achieve your goals.

* Decisiveness. You have seen them. They wait for information, then more information before making a decision. Then they need more information to supportrepparttar 119557 information they already have. Then they need a committee to analyzerepparttar 119558 information. Then they wait forrepparttar 119559 perfect time to makerepparttar 119560 decision. Well, you know what I mean. Anyone you know? Makerepparttar 119561 decision! Good things happen when you take action; you grow, you adapt, and your team grows. There is no perfect time to make a decision. Leaders make decisions based on past experience, putting into actionrepparttar 119562 decision, and staying and adaptingrepparttar 119563 decision if needed. But makerepparttar 119564 decision. The worst quality you can show your team is indecision. What do you think your team sees when you can’t make a decision? Makerepparttar 119565 decision and go for it.

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