Lifting Employee Productivity Through Encouragement and Praise

I’m a Green Bay Packers fan, so I’m very very happy this week (for those of you who don’t follow American Football, they just won the Super Bowl).  Win or lose, I’m a proud Packers fan, or a Cheesehead as we are sometimes called.  I grew up in Wisconsin, my Dad grew up 30 minutes out of Green Bay.  I was called “Packer” before I was born and they knew what to name me.  And, some of my Dad’s ashes were spread over the 50 yard line at Lambeau Field, where the Packers play, when he passed away in 1999.

So I’m a proud Packers fan.    

But Monday morning Sydney time, when the Packers met the Steelers at the new Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, I couldn’t help but admire Mike Tomlin, Head Coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Because Mike perfectly demonstrated one of the hallmarks of an inspirational leader.

The Steelers played a good game.  Their defense was almost flawless.  They played as a well oiled team.  And watching Mike Tomlin, the youngest Head Coach (hired at just 34 years old, now 38) to both coach and win a Super Bowl told me all I needed to know about how that team works.  

As busy as Mike was on the field that day he took the time to interact with and acknowledge even the most insignificant of those on his team.  Bench players who didn’t have a hope of getting into the game, support staff that are normally invisible in the background, even the guys getting water for the team.  Mike had a smile, a pat and what looked like a few encouraging words.   

Although incredibly focused, he didn’t walk anywhere without acknowledging those around him.  

And you could see the team respond.  On and off the field.

When his players made a few bonehead plays (like turning over the ball 4 times through interceptions or fumbles) he didn’t get in their face and yell as I’ve seen so many other coaches do.  Although I couldn’t hear his words, it looked like he simply debriefed them as to what had gone wrong and then encouraged them to do better the next time.

According to the Gallup Organisation’s research of over 80,000 managers, this is the exact behaviour of a leader who inspires top performing teams.  They found that you can raise productivity levels of a team by up to 19% by addressing “problem” behaviour immediately.  But you can actually raise productivity by a whopping 71% through using praise.  That’s right.  The carrot is far more effective than the stick.

Gallup and now Marcus Buckingham on his own, have both done a great deal of research in this area and they have proven time and time again that encouraging people to play to their strengths and praising them for doing a good job is far more effective than focusing on what the employee needs to improve upon.  

And not only is this the most effective way to get the best out of your staff, they will also be more engaged and happier in their job.  And happy employees equate to stable employees, potentially saving your company millions of dollars over time and you many sleepless nights.

I’ve had personal experience with this.

I ride a motorbike.  Well to be fair, it’s a little 150 cc scooter, but I think I’m pretty bad A$$!  I tell you this because, getting a motorbike license in Sydney is a very rigorous process and my experience demonstrates well the difference between focusing on what you do wrong versus praise.  

It was pouring rain the first time I did my test and I was really really nervous.  My instructor was particularly gruff and made me feel stupid.  I wasn’t a very confident rider back then and by the time I took my test I was almost shaking.  I fell off the bike during the quick stop part of the practical.  It turns out that they frown on you actually falling off of the bike during the test, so needless to say I did not pass. 
In fact, 5 out of the 7 people in my group failed.

Fast forward a few months to my retake.  Guess what?  It was raining again!!!  But what happened served to remind me of the power of positive reinforcement.  This instructor was just the opposite of the first one I had.  He made me feel like I was the best rider he’d ever seen.  Consciously I KNEW this not to be true, but unconsciously I was almost giddy by the time I took the practical.  There was no way I could fail.  I knew it.
And all 9 of our group passed this time.   

So the next time you pass one of your staff in the hallway, take time to notice and acknowledge them.  Let them know they matter.

But more than that, find out what your employee’s strengths are and encourage them play to those strengths.  And praise them for a job well done.
See how much better they perform, how much better you sleep and how much your company saves by retaining instead of turning over your staff.

And guess what?  Despite all of the recent publicity about “Tiger Moms” it works for kids too!

Would you like find out about other strategies to attract and retain your critical staff?  Join me Thursday (Wednesday in the US) for my free webinar.

Interested in a very cost effective way to teach your staff how to manage their careers better (providing them with the #1 thing they look for in a company according to a recent survey by Mercer and the ACCA - career development)?  Contact me about my Career Coaching Mastermind Group - live and virtual sessions held publicly or at your company’s offices for 6 or more people.

Top 10 tips to rocking the interview and hiring the right person! (For the interviewer)

Okay, I’m going to make a bold statement here.  Love it or hate it, interviewing applicants for roles is something most people are just no good at.  But it’s not your fault!

How many of us have been trained to interview?  Unless you are a recruiter, like I was for 15 years.  Yet hiring the right candidate is critical for team cohesiveness as well as, not to put too fine a point on it, the success or failure of you as a manager and sometimes of your company. 

One bad hire can ruin a small company, derail a department, push deadlines back and tarnish valuable relationships with customers or suppliers. Not to mention the considerable stress a wrong hire adds to your life!

I would be a rich woman if I had a cent for every time I debriefed a candidate after interviewing with one of my clients and heard, “oh they were really nice - we had a great chat!” 

Now, there is certainly a case to be made for those informal interview structures, as long as they have a purpose and you know what that purpose is.  But most of the time those same clients simply had those chats because that’s all they really knew how to do.  And in many cases they justified it to themselves by saying things like, “informal interviews get so much more information out of candidates” or “if I give someone enough rope...”

Don’t kid yourself, interviewing is a very precise process that takes preparation.  If you follow these tips you will get sufficient, reliable information to truly make great hiring decisions, ensuring that your goals are met, the company’s goals are met, the teams happy and you don’t leave work every day tearing out your hair.

1. Know what you’re looking for

• Most of the best placements I made over my recruitment career were “a love connection” rather than a “skill set fit”.  You can train skill set, you can’t train culture fit. 
• Hire for culture fit, but first spend some time really looking at what your department or company culture really is.  This takes some thought (and collaboration with your employees and potentially other departments).
• Develop a list of competencies or strengths (I vote for strengths) that fit within that culture.
• Know the difference between a competency (something you’re taught, like how to do a bank reconciliation) vs a strength (something that’s innate like the persistence to follow that bank reconciliation through to the last cent).

2. Be prepared!

• Prepare at least 5 questions in advance based on your list of competencies or strengths and pre-define acceptable answers.
• Use the same pre-prepared questions for each candidate so you can compare apples with apples.
• Spend 10 - 15 minutes minimum reviewing the candidate’s resume prior to the interview (i.e. do not grab it from the printer and read it in the hallway as you’re walking to the interview room).
• Prepare additional questions based on the candidate’s background. 

3. Be skeptical and look for red flags

• Statistics show that 25% of all applicants have major or minor embellishments on their resumes.  Look for them.
• Read their resume like a story
  • Do they have any gaps?
  • How stable has their job history been (too long in one role?  moved around a lot?)
  • Have they been promoted or given additional responsibilities in the companies they’ve previously worked in?
  • What are the cultures of the companies they’ve worked for previously?  Are they a small company candidate interviewing for a large company role or vice versa?  Are they used to more autonomy than you’re willing to give?  Or less?  Either could be a problem.
• Look for any red flags or problem areas.  Where might they not fit?  What will they need from me and can I deliver?  Is this job above or below their skillset and how would I manage that?
• Look for problem areas and have them address those areas to your satisfaction instead of what most interviewers do: try to make them fit because they really like them.

4. Don’t mistake liking someone personally for being a culture fit for your team

• Enough said

5. Ask questions that will illicit detailed, truthful information

• This is called “Behavioural Based” or “Competency Based” interviewing techniques.  If you don’t know how to do this get trained.  But basically you want to ask them for specific examples from their past where they (fill in the blank).  Don’t let them off the hook by letting them tell you what they WOULD do instead of what they DID do.  Unlike the share market, past performance IS indicative of future results. 

6. Reference check to verify answers (see “Be skeptical” above)

7. Let them ask questions - and then listen to what they asked and how they asked it

• You can find out as much or more information by what they ask you than by how they answer your questions.

8. Understand what drives potential applicants that will apply for your role and be able to articulate how your company meets those needs.

• Different generations want different things, understand generational differences.
• Accountants typically look for different things from an employer than a field sales person.

9. Make sure all people interviewing are reading from the same page

• Nothing can turn a candidate off more than getting different answers to the same question from different people.

10. When you find what you’re looking for offer it a job

• I’ve seen entire companies staff up with sub standard employees simply because their interview process, although designed to make sure they hired the very best, turned the best and brightest off because they moved to slowly or were too cumbersome in their processes.

The job market is turning again (especially in my home country of Australia) and we are still in the midst of a 30 year labour shortage first predicted by McKinsey Consulting in 1997.  It will once again become (if it hasn’t already where you live) a candidate’s market.  These interview tips will help you recruit the best and brightest, but there is no substitute for practice.  Many good recruiters will train individual managers as well as whole teams free of charge (after all, it’s in their best interest to do so).  If you are currently not working with an recruiter you trust or think is doing a good job then find yourself a good “Staff Retention Strategist”.  It just so happens I know a good one I could refer you too.  :)

Happy talent hunting!

For more strategies on attracting and retaining critical people please join me for my free webinar.